( ENSPIRE She Did That ) Mompreneur Kanika Helps Other Parents Face The Uncertainties Of Parenthood And Teaches Them How To Manage The Challenges
ENSPIRE Contributor: Devyn Petraglia
Kanika Chadda Gupta is a mompreneur, journalist, wife, and mother of three (twins +1). She’s the founder and CEO of Kronologie Agency, a full-service digital marketing firm specializing in branding and web design. She was working for CNN covering stories ranging from Mumbai terror attacks to the Oscars. Kanika’s mompreneurship is in full gear on the podcast she hosts “That’s Total MomSense,” where she covers parenting, lifestyle, and wellness and has had many guests on her show including Rebecca Minkoff, Kate Anderson, and Eve Rodsky. Born in Bombay India, she is a trained Indian classical dancer and has passed that along to her daughter. She enjoys teaching her children about their Indian heritage, traveling, and reading.
Kanika’s mompreneurship is an inspiration to us all by spreading her parenting advice with her podcast “That’s Total MomSense” to any struggling mothers. Her podcast “That’s Total MomSense” features interviews with experts, leaders, and everyday parents with extraordinary stories on topics like what to expect when you’re done expecting, rediscovering your identity after kids, teaching children to meditate, rekindling your marriage, and dividing the workload at home during the pandemic.
Kanika’s mompreneurship has helped parents face many challenges they never knew before. Each episode has tangible takeaways to help parents with more workable problem-solving skills, so they feel changed for the better. One story from her podcast by Nneka Symister, “Healing from child loss,” delves into the uncertainties of postpartum depression and the tragic truth behind miscarriages/stillbirths and how it affects many women. Many families also face the heartbreaking reality of infertility. Kanika’s mompreneurship, positivity, and knowledge help families deal with the challenges of raising children. She has become the exceptionally diverse female leader that this world needs right now.
ENSPIRE spoke with Kanika Chadda Gupta about her podcast and how she’s helping families in need of advice.
Can you tell us your daily routine with three kids?
My boy-girl twins are 4 years old, and my younger son is 3, so we have Irish triplets if you will. We want to instill in them what we call the 3 A’s – academics, arts, and athletics.
My husband and I split up tasks and do things in an assembly line to be thorough and efficient! After their morning routine, we say affirmations like, “I am kind. I am honest. I am strong. I am smart. I am athletic. I am confident. I am helpful. I am creative. I love everyone and everyone loves me. Today is a great day!” To get our bodies moving, we have the kids do pushups or jumping jacks (they write the number on a chalkboard in their room and keep adding to it. They’re in the thousands and counting!)
I drop the kids to Pre-K from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. We love the creative curriculum and the fact that the school directors, teachers, and staff are family. It’s our second home.
During this time, my husband and I get to work. He works as a Product Manager in the tech industry. I work as a full-time podcaster. Throughout the week, I record interviews, oversee post-production and social media promotion, meet with sponsors and work on audio/video ad campaigns, participate in panel discussions, and do press-like live television segments and interviews with magazines, like ENSPIRE. During my lunch hour, I go outside for a brisk walk, practice dance, or take a class at Orangetheory.
After pick up, I do what I call “Magical Mama” time with each child one-on-one. We can practice reading, tracing, math, brainteasers, color together, build with Legos, give each other back rubs, whatever they want. That way, each child knows that I want to make it a point to give them undivided attention.
Then we eat dinner, have bath time (assembly line again!), and read books. (We love 1000 books before kindergarten). After that, we give them all a hug and kiss good night and it’s lights out. If my husband and I need to put in more time to work, we log back in at night or early morning.
And around 2 am, our youngest often pitter-patters into our room to sleep with us which we welcome. They’re only this young for so long, right?!
Can you tell us more about the people you interview on your podcast? How do their stories help the parents listening?
That’s Total Mom Sense isn’t your typical parenting podcast. I interview global thought leaders, trailblazing entrepreneurs, and bestselling authors who happen to be parents to share their career success, their family dynamic, how parenting has changed them, and how they’ve used their superpower of intuition, which I call “mom sense” and “dad sense.”
Rather than mindless banter and commiserating, I want to empower parents and help them problem-solve because life as a parent is one optimization problem after the next. The pillars of my show are to be informative, engaging, and inclusive.
ADVICE FROM EXPERTS ON THE PODCAST:
- Beauty industry titan and serial entrepreneur Bobbi Brown (Founder, Jones Road, Evolution_18) was the PTA president for her sons and during a virtual commencement speech she delivered on iHeartRadio to the Class of 2020, she advises, “Get over it, get over yourself, and get out there.” Life is tough, but you’re more resilient than you think.
- Natalie Morales was always on the road as an army brat and later in her career as a broadcast journalist. She brought her family together with food, which she shares in her book, At Home With Natalie. When she feels overwhelmed, she takes time to breathe – “Inhale the present. Exhale the past.”
- Rebecca Minkoff, acclaimed designer, and author of Fearless, chooses to “be fearless and unapologetic” about what matters most in her life. If she has to breastfeed in a boardroom or backstage at New York Fashion Week, she will do it because that’s a priority to her family.
- Mallika Chopra shares how to teach children to meditate and to tap into their chakras, which she explains are like the colors of their feelings.
What was your journey getting to where you are now with the podcast?
My life is a testament to the Steve Jobs quote, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Though my career has been circuitous, the common denominator is storytelling.
My parents and I immigrated from India to the US when I was two years old. I grew up feeling inspired by women on television like Oprah, Connie Chung, and Lisa Ling. I decided to pursue my Masters in Broadcast Journalism, and shortly after was hired by CNN where I worked in Mumbai, India. As a television anchor and executive producer, I hosted a show called “E Tonight,” where I interviewed celebrities, reported live from fashion week, covered Slumdog Millionaire’s Oscars win, and met with survivors of the 26/11 terror attacks. Every day was an opportunity to tell a new story and find ways to appeal to what connects us as humans.
After a few years with the network, I moved back to the US where I led programming for a leading international television station. Later, I was given the opportunity to work as the Editor-in-Chief of an online retail company which led me to become an entrepreneur and launch my own digital marketing company. I believe it’s important to evolve with the times and know when to pivot.
Now, I am immersed in podcasting and am grateful that my foundation was established in traditional media and television. I understand the art of the interview and the most important people to me are my audience. How can I serve them? What questions do they want answered? How can I help them grow?
Lastly, I wouldn’t be where I am without my team. Everyone is highly talented and we stay in our lanes. I have a podcast editor, graphic designer, web developer, manager (Brinda Bhatt, Artistry Collective), publicist, and press team (ICON PR). I also lean on my mentors, Sarah Harden, Stephanie Dua, and Shannon Lee for guidance and advice.
What is a challenging story you’ve heard on your podcast that helped someone?
My dear friend Zarna Garg introduced me to Saranne Rothberg, the Founder of Comedy Cures. Saranne and I discovered we shared a far deeper connection that you couldn’t imagine. When I was covering the 26/11 terror attacks, the insurgents left a young boy named Moshe orphaned when they shot his parents, the rabbi, and his wife who ran the Jewish Hillel Nariman House. Saranne and her organization had made a children’s Torah, which they had gifted to Moshe after his parents’ tragic passing.
Saranne’s story is remarkable. She was in an abusive marriage and shortly after her divorce and becoming a single mom to her 5-year-old daughter, she was diagnosed with IV stage breast cancer. The doctors said she had a year to live. Instead of lamenting “Why me,” she rented every stand-up comedy VHS tape she could find and spent the wee hours of the night laughing. She realized laughter truly is the best medicine, and miraculously was cured and in remission. This was the impetus for Comedy Cures, a non-profit which organizes fundraisers and live and virtual comedy events for the terminally ill, homeless, and those in need.
I got so many messages about how this episode resonated with women who were diagnosed with breast cancer, and those who were fighting for their lives but had to keep going for their kids. It filled my heart to hear that my guests’ stories and personal experiences are helping people heal.
What is a success story you’ve had with the podcast?
Many of my world-renowned guests revealed they are loyal listeners of That’s Total Mom Sense, which is so humbling, including Kareena Kapoor Khan who is a Bollywood icon and author. It was a treat to have her on the show for my special Diwali episode.
In a recent interview with NBC Miami, anchor Jenn Herrera told me she relies on her “mom sense” all the time. It made me smile to think the buzz words I came up with resonate with my community. They totally get it. Our intuition is everything.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to host my own talk show and I am working on my book, which is a collection of stories for mothers and moms-to-be.
Have you ever experienced one of the topics expressed in your podcast?
In “The Birthing Series,” which launched in October for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, I featured experts including Latham Thomas, Nneka Symister, and Sara Lyon to educate about childbirth, infertility, child loss, and maternal health. 1 in 8 pregnancies ends in a miscarriage. I feel so many of us have a story and it’s only when we share with each other that we feel less alone.
Before I had my kids, I had suffered an ectopic pregnancy which literally broke me. Thankfully, I advocated for myself with the medical team I was seeing at the time and got the care I needed. I had to go through two rounds of methotrexate (a drug administered to cancer patients) and spent time recovering. The very next year, I gave birth to my twins. In fact, I had a vision board where I had a photo of one pink bootie and one blue bootie hoping to have a child, and when my husband and I saw the ultrasound, and were told that we were having a boy and girl, we were shocked and overjoyed. I believe miracles happen for a reason and make us appreciate the journey.
How has your podcast helped you and your family?
I am a forever student, and my podcast is like school. I am so grateful to my guests for opening their hearts and minds and sharing their personal experiences with me. We respect thought leaders for their career success, but we don’t know that they may have a differently wired child, or choose to adopt, or strike a rhythm with co-parenting. We all have our life lessons, and when we share them with others, we’re paying it forward. Furthermore, my idea of success lies in the legacy we leave. What are we doing to strengthen future generations and leave this world better than we found it?
I feel my family is a beneficiary because I’m learning through this process and am becoming a better person, wife, and mother for them. My kids are seeing that I am passionate about my life purpose and I want them to follow their calling too.
Overall, Kanika’s mompreneurship on her podcast helps so many families, and she’s an amazing female leader. Her words of encouragement have made families feel more positive and inspired. With her advice, families can feel better in their marriage and with raising their children. By interviewing experts and leaders on her podcast, people listening can trust what they’re hearing and feel comfortable making changes to their lifestyles.
Check out her website and listen to her podcast “That’s Total MomSense”
You can follow Kanika here:
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