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Reality TV gig a great experience for local mom

Jen Pinch, manager of a natural pet food store in Cloverdale, competes for a big promotion in upcoming episode of Who's the Boss Canada.
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Jen Pinch

TV viewers in Cloverdale can cheer on a hometown hopeful in next week’s episode of Be the Boss Canada, a reality series airing on the W Network.

Jen Pinch is one of two employees from The Bone & Biscuit Co. going head-to-head on the April 10 show.

The pair undergo various challenges during a week-long job interview in hopes of landing a really big promotion with the company.

Pinch, a Langley mother of three and manager of The Bone & Biscuit Company at Cloverdale’s Brick Yard Station, competes against Ashley Beaumont from the Kelowna store of the natural pet food chain.

Challenges include baking muffins for dogs and talking up the benefits of natural pet food products to strangers.

When first contacted by the show’s producers last June, Pinch didn’t know they were asking her to be on a reality show. She thought she was being asked to take part in a documentary about small business.

“I didn’t know anything until I got there for the first day.”

She underwent an interview process, but the producers were keeping mum about the name of the actual show.

Pinch only realized something was up when a car pulled up that Monday morning in Kelowna. “Oh my god, there’s a camera right there,” she thought. “It was like being on The Bachelor.”

Pinch quickly put two and two together.

“I’d happened to see the show,” she explains.

The first challenge was working as a team with her Kelowna competitor, running a store, dealing with stock, and then giving a presentation before a test audience – literally heading out to the parking lot and roping in strangers, asking them to be on TV, a challenge that turned out to be easier than it might sound.

“It’s really easy to gather people when you have a TV camera.”

The contest didn’t merely require Pinch, 40, to outperform her competition - she also had to contend with working in front of an audience when things didn’t go as planned.

It was while demonstrating the inner workings of a dog’s digestive system using an eight-foot-tall test tube when things went awry. She ended up covered in slime from head to toe.

“All I could say is, ‘So much for those new shoes.’”

The days were long. Production ranged from four to 10 or 12 hours a day, for a week, but it was worth it.

“It was the best life experience I’ve ever had,” she said. “It was awesome.”

No one’s saying who won, but company CEO Lee Drescher was impressed with both women. “Not only did they have to complete difficult challenges but they also had the added element of working with four-legged friends who sometimes don’t cooperate.”

Pinch hasn’t seen the final cut of her debut; the first time will be when the episode airs at 8 p.m. next Thursday. A friend is hosting a viewing party.

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