Meet Kathy Vogel | Founder, Enduring Olive

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kathy Vogel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kathy, how does your business help the community?
I created Enduring Olive as a resource/community for women over the age of 40. Many things change when women hit this special age of 40. While life settles in nicely because we’ve truly become who we are, have evolved in many ways, society views us differently. Those micro-aggressions and “isms” may not be intentional, but they exist. From my own experience and from those women around me my age and older, I’ve discovered that many women feel “put out to pasture”, ignored, shuttered, and disregarded as if we have nothing else to offer now that careers are established, children are raised, etc. But this is not the case. Women over 40 still matter, still have goals, still have something to offer and accomplish and that needs to be nurtured just as we nurture/encourage younger people to go and get what life has to offer. Enduring Olive is about our issues, concerns, dreams, goals, and life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Is anything ever easy? I’m grateful from the challenges I faced early on in my radio career. Being a teenager, being a female, put you in a box. Women has clearly defined roles in radio, and I was determined to not be defined. I fortunately was able to work with some incredible humans who saw my worth and value and allowed me to be me– and some caricature or pre-conceived notion of what a woman in radio should be. I was also mentored by a few people that encouraged me to branch out, to not be a one-trick pony. So I used my talents to create content, to tackle voice projects, to get involved in film and video. You have to plant your roots and let those branches grow! What I enjoy in my radio career at this point is the opportunity to mentor younger women in the business. You’ve got to leave things better than when you found them!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Northeast Ohio is a gem of a place to live. You can have big-city experiences, and vacation experiences all up and down the I-77 corridor. Up on the Northcoast, thrill-seekers will love Cedar Point. I’d switch gears and then take someone out for a fine meal at Pier W in Lakewood. It’s this small, intimate restaurant with 180-degrees worth of windows. The restaurant juts out over Lake Erie, so the food and views are amazing! In Akron. we’d pop into a show at the historic Akron Civic Theatre, then grab a bite at Luigi’s– a long-standing Italian restaurant that stays open into the middle of the night and is known for its pizza and salads with cheese. Then, we’d spend a few days chillin’ at the Portage Lakes, which is a lake community with interconnected waterways, great eateries on the water, and a laid-back vibe where it’s like being on vacation ever day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My parents deserve so much of the credit for where I am in life. They always encouraged me. They always surrounded me with positivity and the idea that I can achieve what I set out to do. They balanced that with real-life lessons to keep me focused and hard-working. As an Asian woman I was never taught to believe that my gender or race are deterrents– for me or anyone else.

Website: www.hausofv.com, www.crackwisemag.com, www.enduringolive.com

Instagram: @hausofv, @crackwisemag, @enduringolive

Linkedin: kathyvogel

Twitter: @kathyvogel

Facebook: @kathyvogelofficial