iParenting.com: Mom of the Month

Stacy Denney

Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a mother who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a woman and a mother. Above all, the Mom of the Month is dedicated to her children. Rich or poor, famous or not, she shines as an example of what mothering is all about.

Meet November’s Mom of the Month, Stacy Denney. Even before becoming a mother herself, Denney was fascinated by pregnancy – so much so that she decided to make pregnant women her life’s work. She left a very successful career in advertising to open Barefoot and Pregnant, the first spa catering exclusively to expectant mothers, wrote the book Spa Mama: Pampering for the Mother-to-Be (Chronicle Books, 2005) and, most important of all, gave birth to her first child, Max, now 14 months old.

As a young girl, Denney didn’t seem to have the personality that would result in the successful executive and entrepreneur she was to become. Born in Austin, Texas, she was the middle of three girls. Her mom was a traditional stay-at-home mom and her dad was the traditional, career-focused man of the time. Denney describes herself as quiet and a real homebody.

“I had no intention of going off to college or really doing anything that would take me away from home,” says Denney. “I was happy just going along in life without putting forth much effort.”

While she never tried to do well in school, Denney always put her heart and soul into any job she had. She loved working, she says, she just never really put together the link between working hard at her education and how it could pay off later in the job market.

Denney doesn’t even know how her dad managed to talk her into going to college. “I had a cousin who was going to Florida State and she called me up one day and suggested I come down there and share an apartment with her while I worked and went to school,” says Denney. “Before I knew what was happening, my dad was driving me to Florida.”

Getting away from home was just the maturing influence Denney needed. She enrolled in classes at a local community college while working to pay her tuition. Somewhere along the way she discovered depths of ambition and drive that she hadn’t realized she had.

A Goal
Denney was still attending community college when she decided that she wanted to transfer to Florida State and major in advertising. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a high enough grade point average (GPA) to get into the advertising program, so she transferred as a political science major. At the same time, she was working as a waitress to pay her tuition.

One day a customer mentioned to her that his advertising agency was looking for a secretary. She went and applied for the job, thinking it could be a back door route into advertising, but it turned out they wanted someone full time, which she couldn’t do. However, in the course of the interview she found out that they had internships available in public relations and she jumped at the chance to take one.

Denney’s internship worked out so well that the company created a part-time public relations position for her when it was completed. Still, she wasn’t working in advertising, nor was she majoring in it, although it was her career goal. Becoming “officially” involved in advertising seemed just tantalizingly beyond her reach.

Things started to turn around for Denney when she was a junior. Because of her previous public relations experience, she was able to get into an advertising class and work on a student-run campaign. Impressed with her work, the dean of students used his influence to get her into advertising classes even though, technically, her GPA still didn’t qualify her. His only caveat was that she work to raise her GPA so she could qualify. Eventually, Denney did just that and graduated with a degree in adverting.

The Real World
After graduating from college, Denney worked for one summer at her old PR firm and then the self-described “homebody” went home to Texas. She ended up with a pretty typical advertising job working 18-hour days at a firm in Dallas. She loved her job, but didn’t care for living in Dallas. Then, during a visit to an old friend, she fell in love with San Francisco and determined she was going to move there. She was in the process of sending out résumés when her dad passed away.

After that, Denney says she felt directionless for a long time. She did follow through with her decision to move to San Francisco and worked at a series of successful jobs, but didn’t feel fulfilled until her future husband, Brad, encouraged her to strike out on her own. It was that subsequent experience of being self-employed, along with Brad’s continuing faith in her abilities, that encouraged her later when she came up with the idea of opening a spa for pregnant women.

“I still can’t believe he supported me in this crazy idea,” says Denney. “I was making good money and we were at a point where I could have gotten pregnant and just quit working and he could have easily supported us. Instead, we went severely into debt so I could start my own business.”

Two months after starting the business, which was an immediate success, Denney found herself her own best client when she became pregnant for the first time. “It was challenging being pregnant and running the business at the same time, but it was great because I could be in that place where I could really appreciate what I was doing for my clients,” says Denney.

Spa Mama
Denney’s clients appreciate her, too, and nothing makes her happier than seeing how relaxed the women are after a visit to Barefoot and Pregnant. Now that she’s been open two years, she’s seeing repeat customers: women who came to her during their first pregnancy and are revisiting during their second.

It was one of Denney’s clients who suggested that Denney would be a perfect person to write a book about home spa treatments. The client, who worked for Chronicle Books, put Denney in touch with the right editor, and Denney was soon a published author, something she’d never even dreamed of accomplishing.

Currently, Denney is enjoying Max’s babyhood, working on a second book about fitness in pregnancy and thinking about expanding both her family and her business. “I’m 38 now so this is my window for having my children right now,” says Denney. “And as much as I love my business, I’m definitely looking at ways to expand that won’t take me away from my family any more than necessary. I want to be there for my kids. That’s my most important role.”

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