April 13, 2020 • 53 mins
FYI!!! Carla Marie is no longer the host of a morning show in Seattle but she is still supporting small businesses in every way possible. She’s even started her own small business with her radio cohost and best friend, Anthony. All of the links below will help you stay up to date!
Follow Carla Marie on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thecarlamarie/
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twitch.tv/carlamarieandanthony
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SideHustlersPodcast@gmail.com
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201-305-0894
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Side Hustlers podcast. I am your host
from my Heart Radio, Carlo Marie. The whole point of
this podcast was to talk to a new guest every
week who is following a passion outside of their day job,
and it's turned intoway more than that. Now we've got
this entire Side Hustlers community of small business owners, and obviously,
(00:20):
through the COVID nineteen crisis, small business owners have been
one of the hardest hit communities. So what I started
doing is bringing back some former side Hustlers onto the
podcast to talk about each week what they're doing differently
with their small business in hopes that a you'll support
them and be that we all can learn from them.
(00:44):
And holy crap, we're learning so much. We're learning how
resilient this community is. I mean, these people who have
created these small business owners, that's not where they stop.
I mean they have been reinventing the wheel and recreating
things with their business and it's kind of wild to see.
So two things. One I have been saying this for
the last few weeks and on Instagram at the Carla
(01:05):
Murray is that if you support any of these side
Hustlers through this time, anyone who's been on this podcast
literally ever, screenshot your order or invoice and message it
to me on Instagram and I will send you one
of our side hustler stickers. So please support them. If
you can't order, it's totally cool if you can follow
and like and share on Instagram and social media. That
(01:25):
always helps. This week's podcast is slightly different, so we
do have people from the past. We've got twins Susan
and Hannah, who are the owners of two Cranes, the
CBD company that I love and swear by, So we're
gonna talk to them about some amazing things that they're
doing right now. Then for the very first time, you're
going to hear from Michael. Michael is an awesome, awesome human.
(01:47):
He is a small business owner in the Gurneyville, California area.
He actually owns two businesses there and he's kind of
like the pr guru connector of that entire area. You're
gonna learned about what Michael is doing as a restaurant
owner whose restaurant is currently closed, so it's kind of
crazy to see how he's pivoted and how he's adjusted.
(02:08):
And then we're going to talk to one of my
best friends and one of my favorite people of all time,
Dina or Dina with the Pink Air, as you may
know her. Dina is a salon owner in New Jersey,
where I am originally from, where my family lives, and
Dina is still the main person who does my hair
on the other side of the country, but as a
salon that's closed, she has also pivoted what she's doing
(02:30):
and it's very impressive and I'm very proud of my friends.
So let's get into this week's episode of Side Hustlers
how to help a small business for a lot of people.
You know, why are you wait? Do you know what
you want to do? And this is what you want
to do? Do it. I'm a hustle hut do it.
I'm a hustle hut do it. I'm a hustle hul
(02:52):
Come on ask about me, yo yo. It's the side
Hustless podcast we call the Room. I've got my favorite
CBD sisters here on the podcast. If you remember from
last summer, we had Hannah and Susan from Two Cranes
on the podcast and now they are here with me
on zoom in separate places. Veil, Colorado Kirkland, Washington, which
(03:16):
is so close. So Hi ladies, Hi, Hi Carler, Marie.
We're happy to be back with you. I know, well
obviously CBD right now. I mean I've been making sure
I take my CBD all the time. I love Maya
tune the CBD that you guys have, because it's keeping
me calm through all of this. Have you guys been
noticing a lot of people scooping up the CBD because
(03:36):
they're going crazy a little bit? Yeah, there there was
a nut check definitely when all this stuff really hit hard,
just like the first the first beginning of when the
quarantine kind of hit the different states that we definitely
saw like a little bit of an uptick there and
now and now I think a lot of people are saying, oh,
you know, we don't know how long we're going to
(03:56):
be in this, and so people are are are kind
of cutting back on as much spending. Obviously with everything
that's going on. The you know, unemployment rate just continues
to go higher and higher in the millions. It's in
the millions, right, So this is definitely, you know, again,
we saw that uptick in the beginning because I think
(04:17):
people thought, hey, we're going to be in quarantine, maybe
for a couple of weeks or they know. So now
I think people are starting to be a little more
conscious of kind of how they're spending, and we've seen
it kind of mellow out. And it sucks because when
that does happen, if you do get laid off and
and all of that happens, the one thing you should
be worrying about is self care and taking care of
(04:37):
yourself mentally. But a lot of times that is an
investment and it's not the easiest. But I love what
you guys are doing. You're doing all different kinds of
sales coming up, You're doing a cool bogo, So I
want to get into all of that. But before we
do that, to cranes dot ceo is where people can
go to shop correct dot correct Yes, okay to great dot,
(04:57):
go to shop. I am a big fan of your tune, CBD.
I love it. I've have told many people about it.
But for people who may not have heard your episode
last summer, just explained to them what CBD oil is
because a lot of people think, oh, that's weed, I'm
going to get high, and it's not. I've had to
explain this. My mom a bunch of so well in brief,
(05:20):
a CBD, a cannabi dial um, CBD oil are specifically
it's hemp derived um. There is never want to drive
CBD or as this hemp drived and there are all
different kinds of CBDs out there are as this full spectrum,
which means that you have all the different compounds within
the hemp plant and it yields therapeutic benefits. So there's
lots of studies that are coming out saying that it's
(05:42):
very helpful for sleep, especially pain inflammation, so things to
comb out anti anxiety, anti anxiety. So it has those
benefits without bad side effects. And that's the greatest thing
about this plant is it works with your body. Just
to um kind of touch based on those side effects
that you know th HC is what makes you high,
(06:04):
and just to touch based on that for a quick second.
Uh So marijuana derives CBD, intend to have a higher
level of teach C because marijuana has a high level
of teach C in the plant, and hemp has a
high level of CBD naturally occurring in the plant, and
so that doesn't have those a psychotropic effects. You know,
it's not going to make you high. And that's the
(06:25):
difference in all the products that we have has a
tiny bit trace amount, non detectible trace amount, like you're
not you're not going to feel it and you're not
gonna fail drug tests exactly. It's underneath the point three
percent of a teach C the legal limit you know
of federally, so it can be shipped all across the country. Um,
(06:48):
it's legal across the states, and so as long as
the products are underneath that point three percent, it's completely
legal and shown that you're not going to get high
unless you in order to sit there and and gallons
and gallons and gallons of it. You may feel like
you need to, you don't, And I personally so it
just so. UM, anyone listening right now and didn't hear
(07:09):
the other episode or has never heard of the product before,
it's a dropper bottle, and I put mine right under
my tongue. I do it just like that. I've also
used it topically when I was training for my five
K I put it on um, some parts of my
body where I was having issues. I know. I think
it was you, Susan. You talked about putting it in
a t sometimes when you were on the podcast, there's
(07:30):
different things you can do, which is great. With the
liquid form, I think it's way better than any other
form of CBD out there. I love what you guys
have created, so I just want people to know that
there are other ways to use it. Well, I'm really
glad that you mentioned that, because ours is just purely
the hamp extract and organic ust A certified organic m
CT oil. And because of that, it's just very versatile
(07:53):
and it's very concentrated. And it's very concentrated, so you
can really put it in anything, whether it be an
edible or you know, topical. You can put it with
your creams. I like to put it directly on the
place of pain or like if you have you know,
at me from your mentoral cycle. I didn't know that.
I don't think you guys dropped that knowledge last time.
It's so good actually for pms, uh, you know, during cramps,
(08:16):
you know, putting it right now, yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
put it on your stomach, the back pain, lower back pain. Uh.
But because it's constant, there's a lot of products that
already have CBD in creams, et cetera and lotions, um,
but as that aren't full spectrum. They're actually isolate, so
(08:39):
you're not you're gonna either have to use a higher
amount of them. And it's also like it's very hard
to engage how much you're actually using, whereas in the
liquid form that's concentrated, you know, like exactly our dropper
bottles are calibrated. They're like, okay, well I've used ten
milligrams or twelve, well yeah, versus like and our and
our bottle. It's if it's a seven milligrams, that's exactly
(09:02):
how much CBDs in that bottle. People will sell full
spectrum extract and it's actually what they're selling is the
full extract, meaning it has all the good different cannabinoids
and from there from the thousand milligram full extra full
spectrum extract, maybe only maybe if it's a thousand milligrams,
only three hundred or four hundred milligrams of it is
(09:25):
actually CBD. So you know, looking for different products definitely
important to know if you're like what as far as
dosing goes, we formulate ours to the exact amount of
milligrams the CBD in the bottle versus the actual extract
that you're getting it from, and that's in its entirety,
So you really don't know like how much you're really
(09:45):
getting in that bottle if it could be, like I said,
four milligrams versus the thousand millions. I've tried all kinds,
and I see you're given the science. I just call
yours the good stuff. I'm like this one working. It's
great and it works, and it's a to label and
you guys know, I love the label and there's good
people behind it, and it's not it's the good stuff. Okay,
(10:06):
So let's talk about all of the sales we've got
going on. We because I'm now a part of the
company you guys have going on. So, so this episode
is posting Monday, the day after Easter. So the care
sales it's still going on or was that only yesterday? Yes,
it's gonna be going on until Tuesday for fourteen twelve
am p s T Time, so West West Coast time
(10:29):
on Sunday. Okay, so right now as this podcast is live,
it's fifteen percent off all orders on two Cranes dot co. Yes, okay,
until the end of day Tuesday, Okay, for fourteen Now
if people miss that, you've also got what is the
next sale you guys have coming up. Okay, So we
have what is called bogo, but it's by one gift
(10:51):
one by one, and really we're going to give it
up to our customers. Um, we're trusting customers, you know,
just to when they purchased a bottle to email us
at Hello at cranstot Co and the information will be
on the site. Um. But you know, gift one to
uh you know someone that you know that needs CBD,
(11:15):
especially in this time. I think that we all know
somebody that might need being it and so carry tak Yes,
my sisters was in her mind. Yeah, my sisters in
the middle of deciding if she needs to replan her wedding,
so she's kind of going crazy. But you can't gift
one to yourself, so it won't be doing buy one,
(11:36):
gift one to myself, pass it along, just someone who
knows who needs it. So that weekend buy one Gift
one weekend kicks off April sevent through the nineteenth. Correct, Okay,
and I know next weekend, Okay, perfect, next weekend depending
on when you're listening to this. If you're listening to
you missed out too bad, So I know you guys
always give back but this quarter you're giving back to
(11:58):
Feed America, which is amazing, and you're doing a special
weekend give back. So if people are shopping to Cranes
dot Co the weekend of April, what happens. So of
our proceeds from that weekend, five zero percent of our
proceeds are gonna go to Feeding America. Again, it's twenty
four through the feeding before the Feeding America. And you know,
(12:21):
for the whole quarter of sales, we already have a
percent that we've we've delegated that's going to go towards
Feeding America because they're an organization that needs the most
right I think, one that we feel that would really
help in this time. So for this quarter, we'll be
doing a percentage of our proceeds for the quarter. In addition,
for that weekend, fifty of those proceeds are gonna go
(12:45):
to towards that too. Awesome. Now, before all of this happened,
I know that you guys were planning a retreat. You
had even reached out to me for some info because
you were doing this really cool retreat, which is obviously
not happening right now. But you're letting that stop you.
You're gonna do a virtual retreat. Now, talk a little
bit about what that even means, and and then how
(13:05):
people can get the info when it's officially live and
how they can attend. Okay, so we uh, yeah, we
were so excited to do our Bliss Point Retreat was
actually supposed to be this weekend. Um it was the
tenth and so that was at the Red Alpine Lodge
here in Colorado. But yes, we are taking it virtual.
And the whole premise around the retreat was to provide
(13:28):
tools and strategies around anty burnout, stress, and anxiety sleep.
And so we're just taking that content bringing it virtually
along with um. Coming alongside with us is going to
be all the sponsors that were already involved, So you know,
to name a few, go macro Topo Design, Sweaty, Betty, Vita, Coco,
(13:48):
Um Stanley. We have just a number of of great,
great sponsors that are also going to be supporting the
virtual retreat, and so they will people who are participating
in this retreat will still get the like a lot
of the benefits that they would have gotten at the retreat,
but we're just going to do it virtually. We are
(14:09):
going to announce this on our website and through our
social media platforms. We are still working actually on the date,
but most likely it will be at the end of
April or beginning of May. And I wanted to mention
um that we whether the boss Point retreat is Susan
I and Madeline done. Madeline done is our retreat need
(14:31):
and she's fantastic, so um. She will be also talking
a lot and you might be seeing here a lot
more on the social social talking about it. So I'm excited.
People need this right now, especially all those people who
are complaining about being bored and I have nothing to do.
There is a lot to do, and this is a
great way to take care of yourself during this and
(14:51):
to really give back to yourself and calm out of
this better. You know, we have a really good opportunity
to do that, like to really have the time where
we're forced to reset and forced to step back and
slow down. Uh, which a lot of things in our
life I think causes the anxiety and causes a different
level of stress. Obviously, we have different factors coming into
(15:13):
play where you know, we're losing jobs, etcetera. There's different
things at play right now. But we also you know,
have this like space and time where we can reflect
and see how we can move forward in a better
mental state, a better health, you know, better listening to
our health and really slowing down to be able to
do that. So, I mean, we think it's really important
(15:37):
for us to continue, um continue this part of what
we wanted to provide as part of our wellness with
services basically. And yeah, you're going to see a lot
of cool things coming out of this. I think, you know,
for the creatively have the time to actually, like you're saying, uh,
to the reset your brain and start thinking out of
(15:58):
the box when you don't normally have the time or
space to do it. We're gonna see some cool things
coming out of this, and you guys do. And I'm
excited for the retreat and I want everyone to go
to to Cranes dot co to support Susan and Hannah
because I am fans of what you guys do. Your
CBD has helped me so much and I know a
lot of people need it right now, So go shop
(16:18):
right now if you're hearing this before the first sale ends,
and you've got the bogo to get back to a friend,
and then you've also got the weekend where you can
chop and give back to feeding America. Guys, thank you
so much for being here. I know you can. I
add one more thing. Do you follow us on Instagram?
You'll have a chance to win a bottle of the
seven millim T shirt. If d M U S just
(16:41):
put Carla Murray and the d M that you're listening
to Carla Murray and will you know you will will
be able to get you in to win one of
these bottles. And Instagram is two cranes. It's just at
two cranes. That's it, okay, So follow on Instagram, hit
the d M name, drop up me yes, and then
(17:02):
you'll enter for a chance to win a bottle. So
that's awesome. Thank you for doing that, guys, appreciate it. Yes,
thank you so much. We love I love your show,
everything about you and um what you do for the
community all together, we are always in just we're always
inspired by what you and Anthony both do and kind
of and how you guys connect community and like everything.
(17:26):
So we we want to thank you so much. You know,
just thank you guys, and you make it easy to
want to connect people and hopefully we can connect in
real life in person too, so thank you. Okay, follow
them to Cranes on Instagram and message them Carla Marie
and you could have the chance to win a bottle
of CBD. I'm telling you, I love their CBD and
(17:47):
I've tried a lot of it, but there's is amazing
and I also talk to them. I think I'm gonna
do an Instagram live with them coming up to talk
about why I love their CBD. So we'll do that soon. Um.
Follow them on Instagram before we hear from Michael, though, reminder,
if you support any of these small business owners right now,
I want you to screenshot your order and d m
me on Instagram at the Carla Marie and I will
(18:08):
get a side hustler sticker out to you soon, So
go do that. It's at the Carla Marie on Instagram. Okay.
Coming to me now is Michael Volpat from California. Hi. Michael, Hi, Okay,
so wonderful to see your beautiful face and yours as well.
So we know each other from when Anthony, my co
host from my morning show, and I got to go
to a Russian river area in California. We got to
(18:30):
stay at auto camp and you are kind of like
the connector of all things in Gurneyville, California, and you
helped us get around. You own your own business to
businesses there. You are a joy to be around. Everyone
in the whole town knows you. So I know as
a in a small town, a small business owner. This
is obviously hitting you hard right now. And we have
(18:52):
been meaning to get you on an episode of Side
Hustlers because you've got a million things going on and
I wanted to highlight you. So we're gonna do that
in the future. Right now, I want to talk about
what you're doing as a business owner during all of this.
So let's start with the restaurant you own, Big Bottom Market.
You've been closed. You didn't stay open. A lot of
restaurants are still open. Why did you decide to close
your restaurant? So my business partner, Kate, lives in New York. Donna,
(19:17):
who you met, Donna is actually stuck in Canada at
her mom's and so it's me and a lot goes
into making the menu at Big Bottom Market, and it
requires a lot of employees. And when we thought about first,
I was like take out delivery, we build a website,
we had a whole we had everything in place, and
(19:39):
we went to kid Live and I was like, I
just sunk, and I'm like, I can't. I don't know
that I can do this. I don't know that it's
I don't know that it makes economic sense number one,
and I don't know that it's safe. I had an
employee come in one day and just kind of quit
at me, not even really thinking about it. And this
was in the very beginning before its distancing was a
(20:01):
big thing. He's like, oh, my sister got sent home
from work because he had a really that cough, and that,
to me was the time to shut it down. I thought, okay,
so if she had a cough, you were who knows.
I just don't feel comfortable and safe putting anybody at risk.
And so it's smart, I mean, and it sucks though
(20:21):
bottom line for a business. And you are obviously doing
things now to help your business. And you wrote an
article for LinkedIn which I love the title, It's pivot
hustle Win. And that has been the point. It's the cutest.
It's been the point of this whole podcast that I've
been doing, where I've been having all these business owners on.
It's like, Okay, what are you doing now? Times are changing?
(20:41):
What are you doing? So? Since you shut down Big
Bottom Market, you started doing a cooking show which has
taken off on social media, and I loved it, and
that's the first thing I saw. I was like, wait,
I miss your cooking show. I want to watch it.
So what made you start doing a cooking show which
people can watch now? It's Big Underscore Bottom Underscore Market
on Instagram? Not on Instagram. You watch on Instagram TV.
(21:04):
But I go live on Facebook, so I'm on Facebook page.
I good live, but I want to go back, just
say something about the article. Go for it. Thank you
for pointing out that I spelled hustle wrong. I don't
know how that happened. I'm a pr person and it's
somewhat embarrassing. I just fixed it. Good. Thank you appreciated. Listen,
the title of this podcast is side Hustler, So I mean,
(21:25):
I see that word and I'm like, I haven't. I
can't believe I spelled it wrong. Hilarious, And there are
no rules at all in society right now, so it's okay,
like everyone's It was literally like the first day of
the shelter in place, and I was making my mom's
Marinara sauce and I had my phone sitting on I'm
(21:47):
pointing over here because my little stage sitting on the oven,
and I was like, what's this Facebook live thing? I've
never done this before. And I pressed the button and
I'm like, I guess I'm live Hi everyone, like I'm
making my mom's Marinara sauce. And I saw like one person,
two people, thirty people, forty people. All these people were
watching and I was like, oh my god, like this
(22:10):
is happening, this is real, and so I thought, well,
i'll do it tomorrow too. So the next day I
started making stuff and I started getting a lot of
feedback from people, and people resoundingly were like, this is
so amazing. So then I was like, well, maybe I
should do it for Big Bottom Market. And I started
(22:30):
doing it from the market and I got negative feedback. No, no, no,
stay in your kitchen. It's more authentic that way. And
I know from the market, like especially from the market,
like from the set up a stage in the market
and was standing there like you know, well, because it's
not relatable to all of us stuck at home, I
don't have a restaurant kitchen. I can go cooking. I've
(22:52):
got a little kitchen here, so yeah, that makes sense.
So yeah, So it just kind of started very organically
and it's been it's been amazing. So you've been doing
that daily or almost daily for the most part, right, Like,
you're doing something different every day every day. Today's cream
of refrigerator. I can't wait for that. So you said
you started noticing people then going to your Etsy store,
(23:15):
that where you have a lot of stuff from your
market you sell on their Do you have the biscuit
mix on there? Yeah, biscuit mix. Funny which side notebook
you're and obviously your cookbook, which is incredible. People need
to know your biscuit mix is one of Oprah's favorite things,
which is incredible, by the way. So that's on your
Etsy store. But you started noticing because you were doing
(23:36):
these Instagram lives people were buying from your Etsy store.
Which what were the orders, what are they used to be,
and what are they now? For Etsy, we had like
three a month and now we have five to ten
per day. So my job is to wake up in
the morning, go to the market, fulfill Etsy orders, come
up with something to cook, come home, prep for it,
do the show and yeah, it's it's a um, it's
(24:00):
a real interesting life now. But there are so many
business owners right now who are in the same position
as you, whether it's a restaurant or not shut down, close,
and they aren't thinking like you, and they may be
listening to this podcast. So then what is your advice
for a small business owner who is kind of just
stuck right now and trying to figure out what they
(24:21):
can do for their Okay, so I'm gonna just go
with the three very important words of that article, which
I think to find it all. Number one is pivot.
So you've got time on your hands. If you furloughed
your employees and you're sitting around worrying about the p
P P loan or like filing for s b A like,
(24:41):
do all of that. It's important, but it's time to
dig into so many things. So for us, and I'll
just use us in as an example, because this is
what we did. The first thing we did was we
looked at that market and said, how can we reduce
fixed expenses now? And so the first thing we did
(25:02):
was we eliminated unnecessary refrigeration. It might sound like odd
to some people, but if you own a restaurant refrigerator business,
and they're big. Move all of that food into one
refrigerator because your biggest expense from an electricity standpoint is refrigeration.
Turn off all the other refrigerators, clean them out, and
(25:25):
that will do you a lot. And so that was
our the first part of our pivot, so to speak.
The second part was where in our business is there
a revenue stream that doesn't require a connection with the
customer face to face, and that was online. We had
been doing, like I said, maybe three or four orders
on Etsy a month, and when I started the cooking
(25:47):
show are Et, the orders skyrocketed, and so we didn't
rest on our laurels, like, oh, there's skyrocketing just because
I'm doing the show. We got smart about Facebook advertising
and boosting, and when we started doing that, we started
seeing our sales go even higher. That's great. I think
one day we spent forty two cents on boosting a
(26:09):
post and we had two orders. For some people, that
doesn't sound like a lot, but for us, three or
four orders a month that go to five to ten
a day. You look at that across the board and
you do the math, and we're able to cover a
good portion of our fixed expense. And and that's more
people that now also know about your business. They ordered
(26:31):
the biscuit mix, they make it for other people, they
love it, and then it's word of mouth at that point,
all because of a forty two cent add in a
free Instagram video or Facebook video that you did. Like
it is so smart, so smart as a business owner
right now to hone in on those things that you
normally push off. Maybe that is social media, whatever it
may be. And it's take this time now to get
(26:52):
that stuff rolling. And it doesn't have to be perfect.
Nothing is perfect right now. Raw and real are what
people want. Like you said, they want you in your
kitchen because that's relatable. Everyone is getting scrappy and I
love it and I love that you're doing it. It's
so smart. So all all business owners should be like you.
And I know you said you do pr so you
(27:12):
help out businesses, not only your own locally. So what
have some other businesses been doing or what are they
struggling with the most or obviously you're tapped into their
So what can you you share from the other businesses
in Kerneyville. The one big challenge I think for a
lot of people that don't have a platform for e
commerce is the fixed expensive piece. And I really encourage
(27:36):
small businesses that are deemed essential. I just I want
to give a quick example. This morning, I woke up
and I went to my I went to the market
and I was going through some you know, our little
storage area, and I noticed that we have three rolls
of toilet I shouldn't say that the doors what we've
broken down. But then I was like, oh, maybe I'll
set up a little table and create an opportunity for
(27:59):
people to to get a free roll of toilet paper
forever retail ite and they buy again. I thought long
and hard about it. It was very hard. It was
like do I do? This is attack e? What do
I do? Do I make that decision? And again I
made the decision safety brand my time to not do it.
But and I say all of this because I think
(28:20):
that business owners really need to look at honestly, how
important is it to stay open? And are you reaping
the benefits of staying open paying the bills that you
need to pay by staying open? Like what are you
doing now? That makes sense from a business standpoint? And
if you do the numbers, And I'm a numbers guy,
(28:41):
because numbers never lie. If you do the numbers and
you see that you're not making money and that that
brand engagement that you're doing doesn't make sense in the
long run, then you need to stop, shut it down
and think about other ways to expand your customer base
or re engage with your customers. And that's where the
Cooking Show came in. The Cooking Show, which was totally
(29:03):
organic and unexpected, turned into something that I think, I
have a book. Isn't that another bucket? Another book? I
write every recipe down and I'm going to call that
book Cooking in Place, and it's not gonna be It's
gonna be days. I love it. It's like, this is
the time for every small business to run the numbers,
think creatively and expand your brain. You know well. And
(29:27):
you also have equality vines, which is a I've been there.
You can go in, you can do taste testing, which
I'm assuming people aren't testing obviously wines right now, as
essential as alcohol is, you can't go in and taste wines.
And that's a lot of what the area where you live,
that's a lot of businesses there. So how what are
you doing with the quality Vines right now, has anything changed?
(29:48):
Are you deliveries? How does that work? Yeah? So at
Quality Vines we are doing curbside pickup and we're also
going to start doing We've got to plan this. One
of our business partners there is Jumo burger Fell, who
is the name plaintiff in the marriage quality case. He
will start doing tastings online to help drive sales. We
all have upped our digital marketing spend at Equality Lines
(30:11):
and we've seen an increase in wine club memberships because
of that. So again it's you know, here's another business
that I'm a part of, and all of us as
business partners in that business have been floored at you
know wow. Now that we're focusing our energy and attention
on e commerce and online sales will be a important
(30:35):
and ongoing revenue stream for us when all of this ends. Yeah,
it's true. It's cool to be someone like Big Bottom Market,
and even in Quality Fines as well. I mean, because
of social media, you can hit someone in Montana and
you're in California and they may say, oh my god,
I'm buying this biscuit mix, and then when they're planning
their next trip, when they're finally allowed to travel again.
They may say, let's go to the Russian River area
(30:58):
and let's go to that restaurant we made their biscuit mix,
and and they'll come there. And it's just it's a
cool way to reach different people all across the country.
And you have no idea how it's going to work
in the long run, but it is going to make
it impacting the long last thing, impact sorry on your business,
and they may not come visit you, but they'll still
keep ordering the biscuit mix and your books and they'll
follow you. And You're right, it's so smart where you're
(31:21):
doing with your time right now. And I'm glad that
you're doing so well. It makes me happy. Yeah, thank
you so much. I mean, I'm at the end of
the day, I have to say, I'm having fun doing
this show. Every single day is fun. It's beyond engaging
with customers. I'm like my mother used to say to me,
you can entertain yourself in a paper bag. I'm just like,
(31:42):
I'm having a blast. Like I feel like you're kind
of the same way. No, I am. I am actually
enjoying quarantine too. I'm like, oh, I'll do this tutorial.
I'll do this, and it's things that I don't normally
get to do. But you're right, it is it is true,
and that we kind of take this time to do
something for yourself or your business, no matter what it is,
even if it's just you know what, if you want
(32:02):
to sit on your couch and do nothing and that's
what makes you happy, do it. But if you're a
business owner you've always wanted to do something specific, do
what Michael is doing right now because it's great. So
if people want to watch the cooking show, it's Big
Bottom Market on Facebook Live. What time do you do
it every day? I do it three o'clock Ppecific time
every day and then I follow up by uploading the
video to Instagram, TV smart cross platform. I love it. Okay,
(32:25):
So everyone can go check it out. They can also
go to Big Bottom Market dot com and then that'll
link over to your et scene. They can buy all
the stuff and be on the lookout for the future cookbook. Yeah,
I hope. So, I mean I've got a call with
my book age and on Tuesday to talk about it
and we'll see what happens. That's publishing industry is just
as stress as every other. So who knows. Yeah, I
love what's come of this, and I really hope that
(32:46):
this cooking and placebook happens. So everyone cross your figures. Well, Michael,
thank you for being here. I appreciate it. I really
loved it, and I can't wait when this is live.
Please I want to post the the MP four three
seven whatever and the wave file whatever it is so
that people can hear it, because I think this message
is an important one. If you ever have an opportunity
(33:08):
to visit the Gerneyville area, go so. Gurneyville is an
unincorporated town. That's how small it is. It is super small.
So when you go and you support Michael and his business,
you are supporting a very small town, which I love.
It's in the Russian River Valley area of Sonoma County.
Some of the best food I've ever had, the one
I've ever drank, some of the nicest people I've ever met.
(33:28):
So go support Michael. It's on Instagram. It's big, underscore
bottom underscore market. Now, before I get Dina on, it
is important to know that she and I have known
each other for I believe thirteen years at this point there,
it will probably be thirteen years around this May And
this is a fun story. So when I was waitressing,
I've just started waitressing. I was a terrible waitress, but
(33:50):
I just started waitressing at a Italian restaurant that was
opening in New Jersey. And the first day people were
so mean, so rude to all of us in the restaurant.
We weren't getting good tips. It was just a mess.
And then this dad and his daughter came in and
they were so nice to me. And at the end,
I said, just to let you know, you guys were
my first nice customers. And that dad and that daughter
(34:12):
or Dina and Dina's dad became a regular at the restaurant.
I would see him all the time. And that first
day Dina and I talked a little bit, like I
told her I want to be on the radio and
I'm gonna be hoping to intern one summer with Z One.
I knew all the stuff I wanted to do. And
Dina was like, well, I'm I'm going to school to
be a makeup and hair artist and I want to
have my own salon one day, my own makeup line.
(34:33):
And we were both like cool, like we'll get to
work together one day. And fast forward. Her dad always
would tell me all the things Dina was doing and
all the stuff that she was getting into with school,
and we stayed in touch, and then she opened a
salon not far from my apartment. After I had graduated
college and started working at and Elvis aurand in the
(34:54):
morning show in New York City, and I said I
needed a spray tan for jingle Ball, and Dina gave
me a spray tan, And at that moment, maybe because
she saw me naked, we became fast friends. And Dina
and I just it clicked, and she started doing my
hair and makeup for events. And then she met the
whole Elvis Duran show. She came in one day and
its spray t hands for the whole show. And now
(35:14):
like she does the hair and makeup of all of them,
all of their events. She's at the huge events in
New York City, and she has her own salaw and
she has her own makeup line. And here we are,
and it's kind of crazy that we've grown up in
this industry together. And I am so so proud of
what she's doing right now, and I'm so proud of
how she runs her business and takes care of her
employees and just is a good human. So let's say
(35:37):
hi to Dina with the Pink hair. Hey, Hey, okay,
so people may know you from my Instagram as Dino
with the Pink hair because Dina has the pink hair
and she does my hair anytime I've had crazy color
done makeup for most of my all of my events
on the East Coast, it's Dina doing my hair, chopping it,
all of it. Yeah, I do travel to get my
(35:58):
hair done, but most of the time it's or a
family event and it works out around the same thing.
So obviously, Dina owns the salon in Secaucus, New Jersey
called Dina's Kiss and Makeup. And during this time, Dina
has been doing something incredible to keep herself busy and
to keep her business flourishing, and I wanted to talk
to her about that. But before we get into what
you're doing, let's talk about the salon right now. Because
(36:20):
you've got a bunch of girls who work for you,
So what is happening with them right now? So, I mean,
my biggest concern, like, we didn't know when we were
going to have to shut down, if we were going
to have to shut down, how long it was going
to be obviously still all the same concerns that we
currently have. Um So, I have a staff of seven
and you know, luckily the government like kind of came
out with this program and pretty much like now from
(36:42):
what I've heard, like they're all pretty much getting taken
care of with unemployment. UM I know some of them
have already received funds, some are still waiting on them.
So that's honestly been a huge weight off of my
shoulders because you know, I kind of feel like you know,
salon mom in a sense like I have a team
to look out for. So knowing that they already got
unemployment or that they are getting it does make me
(37:04):
feel a lot better because I cannot afford to keep
paying people with no income of the scariest thing for
a business owner. Yeah, especially with salons. It's not like
you know, and I often say a T shirt company
as an example in this podcast, but you can't keep
doing hair and make up right now. It's just it's
not doing spray tans. You're not doing that right now.
It's not legal to do that right now, and you
(37:26):
can't without income on those services, you can't pay your employees.
So you, as a business owner, earned such a weird position,
so the girls are taken care of. So a few
like two and a half weeks ago, I guess you
started posting on Instagram that you're gonna be making candles
and I was like, cool, hobby, Dina like that looks
like And now I'm literally on a zoom call with
(37:48):
my mom and my sister separate houses, and Dina is
ringing their doorbell delivering their candle orders because it's insane
right now, So you started making these candles? Where did
this idea come from? Okay, so this goes back to
probably I want to stay around November, so you're gonna laugh.
My husband and I were watching Fight Club and you
(38:08):
know when they're like making like they're talking about soap
and they're using the lie chemical, so what is it? Like?
I could be wrong, but like Brad Pitt puts the
lie on Edward Norton in his hand like burns off.
So of course my husband said like, hey, should we
make soap? I'm like, you watched that scene and you
want to have lie in our house? Like no, So
I have to get to my husband. Anytime he's like
(38:30):
thinking about something or it's on his mind, like he
will start to research something. So he's looking up like
soap making videos because you know, he was interested in it.
He was like, that sounds cool. So he's watching these
videos and he's like, oh, you know, people who make
soap like often make like candles and bath bombs. I said,
all right, listen, I can't imagine myself making soap. I
feel like I would mess it all up. It's just
not my thing. But candles, I'm like, yeah, I like candles.
(38:52):
I know all my girlfriends like candles. I feel like
soap is not my market, so let's go for the
candle route. Well, and the good thing about candles is
like you get to ruin them by burning them, so
it's okay. If you messed them up, you just put
them on a waxwammer and you're fine. They still work
that way. So then we bought like basically a starter
kit just to try a couple of things like at home,
and we had just like a few I made, like
(39:15):
some really basic ones, and I actually sold them at
the salon. But I'm talking like I sold maybe ten
at the shop. Really basic jars um. I mean, the
fragrances were amazing, but we had to play around with
like I want them to be vegan, so I had
to use soy wax, but we got like I would say,
like probably three or four really good types of candles.
(39:37):
So that's like where it started. Okay, But the candles
that you started making during quarantine are not just like
your basic candles. You have to go to do his
instagram to see what I'm talking about. So it's Dina
with the pink hair, and you'll see her kitchen has
been transformed like a candle warehouse, but there are candles
in Like if you go to a restaurant, you order
(39:58):
and a cappuccino and it comes that nice tall glass.
That's exactly what Dina's candles look like. And I don't
just mean the glass. I mean she literally makes the
candles look like a cappuccino or an ice cream or something,
and they're so realistic and so cute, and they're like
the best gifts ever to give to someone. My family
is like completely stocked on every drink candle that you
(40:19):
have made. And I know I'm getting some students. I'm excited.
But where did that idea come from of making it
like a dessert drink? Yeah? Totally. So again, we started
with like basic so like basic jars, basic lids, really
simple fragrances like cinnamon bond, so on and so forth.
But I said to my husband, I was like, listen,
you you go on etsu type and candle. You've got
(40:39):
thirty thousand search results. He's the business e one and
then then like the more technical one and on the
artsy one. Right, So I was like, listen, if we
want to make this a thing and we want to
make it good, it has to be appealing. So we
have to not only make a candle that smells amazing,
but it's got to have an appeal to it. So
we do still have basic candles. We have like sea
salt and orchid green tea and lemon grass. Um. I
(41:00):
did one called All Dressed Up, which kind of smells like, uh,
really high end perfume that I have. But I was like,
let me play around with a few things. So the
first one I made that was like and it's so
funny because I had the original one that I made
and it's so ugly compared to the ones now. But
the first one was like birthday cake. That's the number
one candle. It's got sprinkles on the bottom, like like
(41:24):
just like rainbow sprinkles, really pretty and uh then like
whipped cream topping with more sprinkles on top. So it's
a really pretty candle on top of the Someone posted
on Instagram like they she posted that she got the
candle she goes too pretty to burn or yeah, but
just do it anyway. It was so funny. But I'm like,
(41:44):
you know what, Yeah, anyone can make a candle, and
we are selling a lot of the traditional candles, but
the pretty ones are I can't keep them in stock.
It's oh my god. I'm like, you showed me on
video chat with your kitchen looks like it looks absolutely
saying so it's been transformed into a candle warehouse. So
your husband is melting these candles with you, like making
(42:05):
them with you. Yeah, we had to get like, candle
making is not that I don't want to say it's
not easy because it's you for yourself, but to actually
make them like sell to people, there's a lot of
steps to it, and if you mess one step up,
it's I've had a few candle makers on the podcast
in the past. We've had Kim from Wax Crescent, We've
(42:27):
had Jennifer from Wax cabin candle coo. Like, I remember
Jennifer telling me that she is an Elvis Thran show
listener and Dina Dina does the hair and makeup of
everyone at Elvis Throan, like literally every single person, including Elvis.
And so Jennifer was listening to Elvis's show one day
and they had her call in for something, and she
called in and mentioned that she makes candles in her basement,
(42:49):
and someone from Anthropology heard her and put an order
for like a thousand candles or something, and that's how
her business took off. But she had to then go
into her basement within like five days and make it
hours and candles. So I'm someone who's making candles right now,
you know how insane that is. And she would be like,
I had like a vat of wax, and it's like
it's a lot for me. I'm used to selling makeup,
(43:12):
hair products and my services. This is so different it's
mind blowing. Like honestly, I thought I was like, Okay, yeah,
I'll put a few candles up for sale. People in
town are going to feel bad for me and an
order a few that. Honestly, that's what I was expecting
to have to be like, hey guys, local business owner
unemployed here by my candle No carl Marie. I had
(43:33):
in the last week d ms on Instagram over eighty
orders nine eight candles. Eighty orders. The candles have anywhere
from one to seven the orders are one to seven candles.
So how do you remember the price point on a
product you've never made before with orders coming in so fast. Well,
so back to when my husband and I were like
researching everything, we actually kind of found out like for
(43:57):
y candle, and like what it is, what the market
is generally charging, and you know what, Like, yeah, the
wax itself is cheap, the fragrant oil is expensive, but
containers are expensive, and the labor is wild, Like it's
to make those birthday cake candles. Oh my god, if
you got time, you got all the time in the world.
Just keep pumping these bad boys out. No, I'm trying,
(44:18):
but even to like the shipping equipment that I need
is insane with so to broke already to people. I
sent them replacements for free, and I changed how I
package them because that's also really hard. Soy wax is
super soft. You you like hit it with your thumb.
It crombles and the candle itself goes higher than the container,
(44:42):
so I had to concoct this crazy contraption to ship
it in. And I'm like literally saying a prayer every
time I said one else. Okay, so people right now,
if they're listening to this podcast kind of soon to
win it posts, they can follow you on Instagram Dina
with the pink hair, and they can d M you
to to get some pictures and do in order now
you're eventually going to do is posted to your website.
(45:02):
So if they're listening to a little later, they can
go to d k M Cosmetics dot com and see
the candles posted there. And as you know too, I
have my makeup line. All I've been waiting and waiting
for months. I have been working on this makeup line.
First all long, Well, you've had a makeup line forever.
This is like a new rebrand. Yes, I wanted everything
to be vegan, and I wanted to really nail down
the price point to like how I wanted it personally.
(45:24):
It showed up to my house yesterday. I'm like, could
this crazy coronavirus time be anymore wild? I never in
my life would have had time to like sit down
and work on the makeup line or like start a
candle company. So it really is the silver line. It
is kind of crazy when you look at that, and
that's what everyone who's been on this podcast in this
time has been saying, like, I'm using this time to
(45:46):
do the things I didn't think I'd get to do.
And that's one of the things, like, hey, you're spending
time with your husband and you're making candles like you
would have never been able to do this on a
regular week, And it's cool that you've basically started a
side hustle right now at that point. But your makeup line,
I have also been waiting for the new makeup line,
and you have done some Zoom makeup lessons, so if
(46:09):
people want to follow you Dina with the pink hair,
they can also get alerts when you're going to be
doing I know you and I want to do one
on Instagram Live. But if you do another Zoom makeup lesson,
like it was twenty five bucks and it was so
worth it that I have been doing my makeup every
morning just to sit in the same chair I'm sitting
in right now to do video chet No, and I'm like,
(46:30):
oh my god, I can't believe all this stuff I
learned from Dina, Like I'm an idiot, Like how have
I never learned this before? So like, even if you're
sitting on your ass right now and I'm not doing
anything in this quarantine, like you could learn a cool
way to do your makeup. You can learn your nails.
I posted an ail tutorial this week. Like you don't
have to start a whole side hustle like Dina is doing,
but you can you can do honestly, Like this is
(46:51):
the coolest time to stop and think, like not only
like side hustle, it doesn't have to be about money,
but like what am I doing with my life? What
do I want to do? Differently? Because like we're all
like going to be starting over after this. It's not
about going back to normal. We're never going to be
able to This is not back to like it's never
going to be back to normal. It's always going to
be like post COVID, when did we ever have to
(47:14):
probably going to be what two or three months in
our houses that we didn't leave, Like you can legit
go back to your job. You can not go back
to your job. You can do something totally different. You
can make stuff at home right now, or like get
on zoom, do social media things that you never had
time to do. Like there there are a lot of
opportunities right now. And I think I might have mentioned
this to you before. But like my salon, my first
(47:35):
salon burnt down, what three years ago now, yeah, yeah,
February February fourth was three years. I didn't have a
job for eight months, Like yeah, I was constructing the
new place and that was obviously like basically like having
a job, like all that going on. But when this happened,
I was like, oh my god, like wait, I've been
(47:56):
through this before. I'm gonna make it better. And I can't.
I can't sit do nothing, you know me, I can
do nothing. I would go insane when your salon was
on fire, on fire, when town and you didn't have
you had those eight months, did you do something other
than build your salon? Did you do anything productive during
that time, whether it's business or personal, that made you
(48:18):
they say hey, I need to do it again, or
did you not? And now you're looking back, going I
need to do what I didn't do that time. Honestly,
I think it's the ladder, because yes, I was building
the salon. But I have to be honest. Looking back,
I definitely think I fell into like a bit of
a depression. I was waking up later than normal. I
went from being really busy every day to like nothing,
(48:39):
and I had this complex. I kind of felt like
a loser and I let it get me down. And
like that's and I'm sure other people feel like that too,
Like our work fulfills our purpose in life, right, or
it should to a certain point. People don't have that anymore.
So I've been I've been here before. It's really easy
to feel like crap. And like even if, like I said,
(49:01):
if I wasn't so busy with the candles, like I
want to read more books, the candles were taking up
all my time can But like you know, during the fire,
I definitely felt down at the dumps about certain things.
I kept busy. I was seeing some clients on the side.
I was working out of another salon a little bit.
That was nice enough to have me. But yeah, God,
going from a hundred to zero, that'll play fine games
(49:21):
with you. I've been there when Uh Anthony and I
our morning show got taken off the air for a
two week period about oh my god, it's two years ago.
At this point, it was the same thing, Like you
feel like you said, Like, there's an other way to say,
like you feel like a loser, And that's such a
weird thing to say, but like, and it's so wrong
because you know that's life. Life happens exactly and you
(49:43):
don't know what to do with yourself, And it is
kind of like a life lesson in my job doesn't
define me, but if it does, and if you're going
to make it define you, make sure it's something worth
defining you, something you really do believe in. But ever
since that happened, I have done everything I can to
make sure that like I have another their purpose in
life other than that specific job. Maybe it is another job.
(50:04):
Maybe it is a specific thing that you do with
your friends or your family, whatever it is, something else
needs to fulfill you other than your job, even if
it is making candles, like it is a separate thing,
and you need to have more than one thing, because
when that thing gets taken away from you, it feels
like your whole world just flipped upside down. I've got
something else, it won't be as bad. And what got
me through that time a lot was actually this podcast,
(50:26):
and I was very grateful for that because if I didn't,
I wouldn't have had any sort of routine, any sort
of schedule. So I get what you're saying right now,
and I think that is a very important sentiment for
people to hear and listen to and light a fire
under their asses right now while we're in the middle
of this. Yeah, like now, if people want to reinvent
themselves or like change something, now really is the time
(50:46):
to do that. I haven't telling my husband like like, oh,
I want to paint all I want to paint again.
The candles are not letting me paint right now. I'm like, Wow,
if someone told them and that's what they want to do,
do it. Like there's so many I know Amazon, Like
I really I can't really get anything from Amazon right now.
The shipping is taking like four weeks, but there are
so many big companies that are still shipping that you can,
(51:11):
like if you need something, like you'll find a way
to get it, you know what I mean. Like luckily
the candle manufacturers are shipping, so that's helping me. But
like there's there's there's ways to work around these speed
bumps which are like no Amazon, you can't go out
and see people like you know, Zoom has been great.
I grove by my sister's house and said, hi today.
You gotta do little things like that. So so Dina
(51:34):
with the pink hair on Instagram. To follow Dina and
then I'll give you all the updates on makeup classes,
all the candles, and when the salon is back open.
If you're not from New Jersey and you're visiting New York,
New York, it's a very quick train ride to go
get your hair done by Dina. It's well worth it,
and or you can hop in an uber. Also, Dina
and I are going to do makeup live tutorial of
(51:55):
some sort on Instagram over the next week or two,
so follow for that, get your candles and support a
small business and one of my best friends. I love you,
love you more. Okay, you've heard from four amazing small
business owners, three businesses. You've got Susan and Hannah from
two Crane's. Follow them to Crane's Co on Instagram. You'll
(52:15):
keep up with all the sales and cool things they've
got coming up, and they're their virtual workshop. And then
you've got Michael, who is a sweetheart and if you
can ever support him in the California area, please do that.
But again, you can go to Big Underscore Bottom Underscore
Market to follow him on Instagram and you'll get to
see all those videos that he's been sharing from his kitchen,
(52:36):
which is super fun right now. And then you've got
my girl Dina, Dina with the pink hair. Love that
human almost more than anyone, So follow Dina, go by
her candles, can't wait for her makeup line to do
our Instagram Live. All of the links of everyone we've
talked to are in the description of this podcast. Don't forget.
If you support a small business that has been on
(52:56):
side Hustlers and you screenshot it and send it to
me on Instagram, I will send you aside Shutlers sticker.
So thank you for doing that, and please stay safe,
keep yourself sane, stay healthy, wash your damn hands, and
keep hustling. H
Welcome to the Side Hustlers podcast. I am your host
from my Heart Radio, Carlo Marie. The whole point of
this podcast was to talk to a new guest every
week who is following a passion outside of their day job,
and it's turned intoway more than that. Now we've got
this entire Side Hustlers community of small business owners, and obviously,
(00:20):
through the COVID nineteen crisis, small business owners have been
one of the hardest hit communities. So what I started
doing is bringing back some former side Hustlers onto the
podcast to talk about each week what they're doing differently
with their small business in hopes that a you'll support
them and be that we all can learn from them.
(00:44):
And holy crap, we're learning so much. We're learning how
resilient this community is. I mean, these people who have
created these small business owners, that's not where they stop.
I mean they have been reinventing the wheel and recreating
things with their business and it's kind of wild to see.
So two things. One I have been saying this for
the last few weeks and on Instagram at the Carla
(01:05):
Murray is that if you support any of these side
Hustlers through this time, anyone who's been on this podcast
literally ever, screenshot your order or invoice and message it
to me on Instagram and I will send you one
of our side hustler stickers. So please support them. If
you can't order, it's totally cool if you can follow
and like and share on Instagram and social media. That
(01:25):
always helps. This week's podcast is slightly different, so we
do have people from the past. We've got twins Susan
and Hannah, who are the owners of two Cranes, the
CBD company that I love and swear by, So we're
gonna talk to them about some amazing things that they're
doing right now. Then for the very first time, you're
going to hear from Michael. Michael is an awesome, awesome human.
(01:47):
He is a small business owner in the Gurneyville, California area.
He actually owns two businesses there and he's kind of
like the pr guru connector of that entire area. You're
gonna learned about what Michael is doing as a restaurant
owner whose restaurant is currently closed, so it's kind of
crazy to see how he's pivoted and how he's adjusted.
(02:08):
And then we're going to talk to one of my
best friends and one of my favorite people of all time,
Dina or Dina with the Pink Air, as you may
know her. Dina is a salon owner in New Jersey,
where I am originally from, where my family lives, and
Dina is still the main person who does my hair
on the other side of the country, but as a
salon that's closed, she has also pivoted what she's doing
(02:30):
and it's very impressive and I'm very proud of my friends.
So let's get into this week's episode of Side Hustlers
how to help a small business for a lot of people.
You know, why are you wait? Do you know what
you want to do? And this is what you want
to do? Do it. I'm a hustle hut do it.
I'm a hustle hut do it. I'm a hustle hul
(02:52):
Come on ask about me, yo yo. It's the side
Hustless podcast we call the Room. I've got my favorite
CBD sisters here on the podcast. If you remember from
last summer, we had Hannah and Susan from Two Cranes
on the podcast and now they are here with me
on zoom in separate places. Veil, Colorado Kirkland, Washington, which
(03:16):
is so close. So Hi ladies, Hi, Hi Carler, Marie.
We're happy to be back with you. I know, well
obviously CBD right now. I mean I've been making sure
I take my CBD all the time. I love Maya
tune the CBD that you guys have, because it's keeping
me calm through all of this. Have you guys been
noticing a lot of people scooping up the CBD because
(03:36):
they're going crazy a little bit? Yeah, there there was
a nut check definitely when all this stuff really hit hard,
just like the first the first beginning of when the
quarantine kind of hit the different states that we definitely
saw like a little bit of an uptick there and
now and now I think a lot of people are saying, oh,
you know, we don't know how long we're going to
(03:56):
be in this, and so people are are are kind
of cutting back on as much spending. Obviously with everything
that's going on. The you know, unemployment rate just continues
to go higher and higher in the millions. It's in
the millions, right, So this is definitely, you know, again,
we saw that uptick in the beginning because I think
(04:17):
people thought, hey, we're going to be in quarantine, maybe
for a couple of weeks or they know. So now
I think people are starting to be a little more
conscious of kind of how they're spending, and we've seen
it kind of mellow out. And it sucks because when
that does happen, if you do get laid off and
and all of that happens, the one thing you should
be worrying about is self care and taking care of
(04:37):
yourself mentally. But a lot of times that is an
investment and it's not the easiest. But I love what
you guys are doing. You're doing all different kinds of
sales coming up, You're doing a cool bogo, So I
want to get into all of that. But before we
do that, to cranes dot ceo is where people can
go to shop correct dot correct Yes, okay to great dot,
(04:57):
go to shop. I am a big fan of your tune, CBD.
I love it. I've have told many people about it.
But for people who may not have heard your episode
last summer, just explained to them what CBD oil is
because a lot of people think, oh, that's weed, I'm
going to get high, and it's not. I've had to
explain this. My mom a bunch of so well in brief,
(05:20):
a CBD, a cannabi dial um, CBD oil are specifically
it's hemp derived um. There is never want to drive
CBD or as this hemp drived and there are all
different kinds of CBDs out there are as this full spectrum,
which means that you have all the different compounds within
the hemp plant and it yields therapeutic benefits. So there's
lots of studies that are coming out saying that it's
(05:42):
very helpful for sleep, especially pain inflammation, so things to
comb out anti anxiety, anti anxiety. So it has those
benefits without bad side effects. And that's the greatest thing
about this plant is it works with your body. Just
to um kind of touch based on those side effects
that you know th HC is what makes you high,
(06:04):
and just to touch based on that for a quick second.
Uh So marijuana derives CBD, intend to have a higher
level of teach C because marijuana has a high level
of teach C in the plant, and hemp has a
high level of CBD naturally occurring in the plant, and
so that doesn't have those a psychotropic effects. You know,
it's not going to make you high. And that's the
(06:25):
difference in all the products that we have has a
tiny bit trace amount, non detectible trace amount, like you're
not you're not going to feel it and you're not
gonna fail drug tests exactly. It's underneath the point three
percent of a teach C the legal limit you know
of federally, so it can be shipped all across the country. Um,
(06:48):
it's legal across the states, and so as long as
the products are underneath that point three percent, it's completely
legal and shown that you're not going to get high
unless you in order to sit there and and gallons
and gallons and gallons of it. You may feel like
you need to, you don't, And I personally so it
just so. UM, anyone listening right now and didn't hear
(07:09):
the other episode or has never heard of the product before,
it's a dropper bottle, and I put mine right under
my tongue. I do it just like that. I've also
used it topically when I was training for my five
K I put it on um, some parts of my
body where I was having issues. I know. I think
it was you, Susan. You talked about putting it in
a t sometimes when you were on the podcast, there's
(07:30):
different things you can do, which is great. With the
liquid form, I think it's way better than any other
form of CBD out there. I love what you guys
have created, so I just want people to know that
there are other ways to use it. Well, I'm really
glad that you mentioned that, because ours is just purely
the hamp extract and organic ust A certified organic m
CT oil. And because of that, it's just very versatile
(07:53):
and it's very concentrated. And it's very concentrated, so you
can really put it in anything, whether it be an
edible or you know, topical. You can put it with
your creams. I like to put it directly on the
place of pain or like if you have you know,
at me from your mentoral cycle. I didn't know that.
I don't think you guys dropped that knowledge last time.
It's so good actually for pms, uh, you know, during cramps,
(08:16):
you know, putting it right now, yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
put it on your stomach, the back pain, lower back pain. Uh.
But because it's constant, there's a lot of products that
already have CBD in creams, et cetera and lotions, um,
but as that aren't full spectrum. They're actually isolate, so
(08:39):
you're not you're gonna either have to use a higher
amount of them. And it's also like it's very hard
to engage how much you're actually using, whereas in the
liquid form that's concentrated, you know, like exactly our dropper
bottles are calibrated. They're like, okay, well I've used ten
milligrams or twelve, well yeah, versus like and our and
our bottle. It's if it's a seven milligrams, that's exactly
(09:02):
how much CBDs in that bottle. People will sell full
spectrum extract and it's actually what they're selling is the
full extract, meaning it has all the good different cannabinoids
and from there from the thousand milligram full extra full
spectrum extract, maybe only maybe if it's a thousand milligrams,
only three hundred or four hundred milligrams of it is
(09:25):
actually CBD. So you know, looking for different products definitely
important to know if you're like what as far as
dosing goes, we formulate ours to the exact amount of
milligrams the CBD in the bottle versus the actual extract
that you're getting it from, and that's in its entirety,
So you really don't know like how much you're really
(09:45):
getting in that bottle if it could be, like I said,
four milligrams versus the thousand millions. I've tried all kinds,
and I see you're given the science. I just call
yours the good stuff. I'm like this one working. It's
great and it works, and it's a to label and
you guys know, I love the label and there's good
people behind it, and it's not it's the good stuff. Okay,
(10:06):
So let's talk about all of the sales we've got
going on. We because I'm now a part of the
company you guys have going on. So, so this episode
is posting Monday, the day after Easter. So the care
sales it's still going on or was that only yesterday? Yes,
it's gonna be going on until Tuesday for fourteen twelve
am p s T Time, so West West Coast time
(10:29):
on Sunday. Okay, so right now as this podcast is live,
it's fifteen percent off all orders on two Cranes dot co. Yes, okay,
until the end of day Tuesday, Okay, for fourteen Now
if people miss that, you've also got what is the
next sale you guys have coming up. Okay, So we
have what is called bogo, but it's by one gift
(10:51):
one by one, and really we're going to give it
up to our customers. Um, we're trusting customers, you know,
just to when they purchased a bottle to email us
at Hello at cranstot Co and the information will be
on the site. Um. But you know, gift one to
uh you know someone that you know that needs CBD,
(11:15):
especially in this time. I think that we all know
somebody that might need being it and so carry tak Yes,
my sisters was in her mind. Yeah, my sisters in
the middle of deciding if she needs to replan her wedding,
so she's kind of going crazy. But you can't gift
one to yourself, so it won't be doing buy one,
(11:36):
gift one to myself, pass it along, just someone who
knows who needs it. So that weekend buy one Gift
one weekend kicks off April sevent through the nineteenth. Correct, Okay,
and I know next weekend, Okay, perfect, next weekend depending
on when you're listening to this. If you're listening to
you missed out too bad, So I know you guys
always give back but this quarter you're giving back to
(11:58):
Feed America, which is amazing, and you're doing a special
weekend give back. So if people are shopping to Cranes
dot Co the weekend of April, what happens. So of
our proceeds from that weekend, five zero percent of our
proceeds are gonna go to Feeding America. Again, it's twenty
four through the feeding before the Feeding America. And you know,
(12:21):
for the whole quarter of sales, we already have a
percent that we've we've delegated that's going to go towards
Feeding America because they're an organization that needs the most
right I think, one that we feel that would really
help in this time. So for this quarter, we'll be
doing a percentage of our proceeds for the quarter. In addition,
for that weekend, fifty of those proceeds are gonna go
(12:45):
to towards that too. Awesome. Now, before all of this happened,
I know that you guys were planning a retreat. You
had even reached out to me for some info because
you were doing this really cool retreat, which is obviously
not happening right now. But you're letting that stop you.
You're gonna do a virtual retreat. Now, talk a little
bit about what that even means, and and then how
(13:05):
people can get the info when it's officially live and
how they can attend. Okay, so we uh, yeah, we
were so excited to do our Bliss Point Retreat was
actually supposed to be this weekend. Um it was the
tenth and so that was at the Red Alpine Lodge
here in Colorado. But yes, we are taking it virtual.
And the whole premise around the retreat was to provide
(13:28):
tools and strategies around anty burnout, stress, and anxiety sleep.
And so we're just taking that content bringing it virtually
along with um. Coming alongside with us is going to
be all the sponsors that were already involved, So you know,
to name a few, go macro Topo Design, Sweaty, Betty, Vita, Coco,
(13:48):
Um Stanley. We have just a number of of great,
great sponsors that are also going to be supporting the
virtual retreat, and so they will people who are participating
in this retreat will still get the like a lot
of the benefits that they would have gotten at the retreat,
but we're just going to do it virtually. We are
(14:09):
going to announce this on our website and through our
social media platforms. We are still working actually on the date,
but most likely it will be at the end of
April or beginning of May. And I wanted to mention
um that we whether the boss Point retreat is Susan
I and Madeline done. Madeline done is our retreat need
(14:31):
and she's fantastic, so um. She will be also talking
a lot and you might be seeing here a lot
more on the social social talking about it. So I'm excited.
People need this right now, especially all those people who
are complaining about being bored and I have nothing to do.
There is a lot to do, and this is a
great way to take care of yourself during this and
(14:51):
to really give back to yourself and calm out of
this better. You know, we have a really good opportunity
to do that, like to really have the time where
we're forced to reset and forced to step back and
slow down. Uh, which a lot of things in our
life I think causes the anxiety and causes a different
level of stress. Obviously, we have different factors coming into
(15:13):
play where you know, we're losing jobs, etcetera. There's different
things at play right now. But we also you know,
have this like space and time where we can reflect
and see how we can move forward in a better
mental state, a better health, you know, better listening to
our health and really slowing down to be able to
do that. So, I mean, we think it's really important
(15:37):
for us to continue, um continue this part of what
we wanted to provide as part of our wellness with
services basically. And yeah, you're going to see a lot
of cool things coming out of this. I think, you know,
for the creatively have the time to actually, like you're saying, uh,
to the reset your brain and start thinking out of
(15:58):
the box when you don't normally have the time or
space to do it. We're gonna see some cool things
coming out of this, and you guys do. And I'm
excited for the retreat and I want everyone to go
to to Cranes dot co to support Susan and Hannah
because I am fans of what you guys do. Your
CBD has helped me so much and I know a
lot of people need it right now, So go shop
(16:18):
right now if you're hearing this before the first sale ends,
and you've got the bogo to get back to a friend,
and then you've also got the weekend where you can
chop and give back to feeding America. Guys, thank you
so much for being here. I know you can. I
add one more thing. Do you follow us on Instagram?
You'll have a chance to win a bottle of the
seven millim T shirt. If d M U S just
(16:41):
put Carla Murray and the d M that you're listening
to Carla Murray and will you know you will will
be able to get you in to win one of
these bottles. And Instagram is two cranes. It's just at
two cranes. That's it, okay, So follow on Instagram, hit
the d M name, drop up me yes, and then
(17:02):
you'll enter for a chance to win a bottle. So
that's awesome. Thank you for doing that, guys, appreciate it. Yes,
thank you so much. We love I love your show,
everything about you and um what you do for the
community all together, we are always in just we're always
inspired by what you and Anthony both do and kind
of and how you guys connect community and like everything.
(17:26):
So we we want to thank you so much. You know,
just thank you guys, and you make it easy to
want to connect people and hopefully we can connect in
real life in person too, so thank you. Okay, follow
them to Cranes on Instagram and message them Carla Marie
and you could have the chance to win a bottle
of CBD. I'm telling you, I love their CBD and
(17:47):
I've tried a lot of it, but there's is amazing
and I also talk to them. I think I'm gonna
do an Instagram live with them coming up to talk
about why I love their CBD. So we'll do that soon. Um.
Follow them on Instagram before we hear from Michael, though, reminder,
if you support any of these small business owners right now,
I want you to screenshot your order and d m
me on Instagram at the Carla Marie and I will
(18:08):
get a side hustler sticker out to you soon, So
go do that. It's at the Carla Marie on Instagram. Okay.
Coming to me now is Michael Volpat from California. Hi. Michael, Hi, Okay,
so wonderful to see your beautiful face and yours as well.
So we know each other from when Anthony, my co
host from my morning show, and I got to go
to a Russian river area in California. We got to
(18:30):
stay at auto camp and you are kind of like
the connector of all things in Gurneyville, California, and you
helped us get around. You own your own business to
businesses there. You are a joy to be around. Everyone
in the whole town knows you. So I know as
a in a small town, a small business owner. This
is obviously hitting you hard right now. And we have
(18:52):
been meaning to get you on an episode of Side
Hustlers because you've got a million things going on and
I wanted to highlight you. So we're gonna do that
in the future. Right now, I want to talk about
what you're doing as a business owner during all of this.
So let's start with the restaurant you own, Big Bottom Market.
You've been closed. You didn't stay open. A lot of
restaurants are still open. Why did you decide to close
your restaurant? So my business partner, Kate, lives in New York. Donna,
(19:17):
who you met, Donna is actually stuck in Canada at
her mom's and so it's me and a lot goes
into making the menu at Big Bottom Market, and it
requires a lot of employees. And when we thought about first,
I was like take out delivery, we build a website,
we had a whole we had everything in place, and
(19:39):
we went to kid Live and I was like, I
just sunk, and I'm like, I can't. I don't know
that I can do this. I don't know that it's
I don't know that it makes economic sense number one,
and I don't know that it's safe. I had an
employee come in one day and just kind of quit
at me, not even really thinking about it. And this
was in the very beginning before its distancing was a
(20:01):
big thing. He's like, oh, my sister got sent home
from work because he had a really that cough, and that,
to me was the time to shut it down. I thought, okay,
so if she had a cough, you were who knows.
I just don't feel comfortable and safe putting anybody at risk.
And so it's smart, I mean, and it sucks though
(20:21):
bottom line for a business. And you are obviously doing
things now to help your business. And you wrote an
article for LinkedIn which I love the title, It's pivot
hustle Win. And that has been the point. It's the cutest.
It's been the point of this whole podcast that I've
been doing, where I've been having all these business owners on.
It's like, Okay, what are you doing now? Times are changing?
(20:41):
What are you doing? So? Since you shut down Big
Bottom Market, you started doing a cooking show which has
taken off on social media, and I loved it, and
that's the first thing I saw. I was like, wait,
I miss your cooking show. I want to watch it.
So what made you start doing a cooking show which
people can watch now? It's Big Underscore Bottom Underscore Market
on Instagram? Not on Instagram. You watch on Instagram TV.
(21:04):
But I go live on Facebook, so I'm on Facebook page.
I good live, but I want to go back, just
say something about the article. Go for it. Thank you
for pointing out that I spelled hustle wrong. I don't
know how that happened. I'm a pr person and it's
somewhat embarrassing. I just fixed it. Good. Thank you appreciated. Listen,
the title of this podcast is side Hustler, So I mean,
(21:25):
I see that word and I'm like, I haven't. I
can't believe I spelled it wrong. Hilarious, And there are
no rules at all in society right now, so it's okay,
like everyone's It was literally like the first day of
the shelter in place, and I was making my mom's
Marinara sauce and I had my phone sitting on I'm
(21:47):
pointing over here because my little stage sitting on the oven,
and I was like, what's this Facebook live thing? I've
never done this before. And I pressed the button and
I'm like, I guess I'm live Hi everyone, like I'm
making my mom's Marinara sauce. And I saw like one person,
two people, thirty people, forty people. All these people were
watching and I was like, oh my god, like this
(22:10):
is happening, this is real, and so I thought, well,
i'll do it tomorrow too. So the next day I
started making stuff and I started getting a lot of
feedback from people, and people resoundingly were like, this is
so amazing. So then I was like, well, maybe I
should do it for Big Bottom Market. And I started
(22:30):
doing it from the market and I got negative feedback. No, no, no,
stay in your kitchen. It's more authentic that way. And
I know from the market, like especially from the market,
like from the set up a stage in the market
and was standing there like you know, well, because it's
not relatable to all of us stuck at home, I
don't have a restaurant kitchen. I can go cooking. I've
(22:52):
got a little kitchen here, so yeah, that makes sense.
So yeah, So it just kind of started very organically
and it's been it's been amazing. So you've been doing
that daily or almost daily for the most part, right, Like,
you're doing something different every day every day. Today's cream
of refrigerator. I can't wait for that. So you said
you started noticing people then going to your Etsy store,
(23:15):
that where you have a lot of stuff from your
market you sell on their Do you have the biscuit
mix on there? Yeah, biscuit mix. Funny which side notebook
you're and obviously your cookbook, which is incredible. People need
to know your biscuit mix is one of Oprah's favorite things,
which is incredible, by the way. So that's on your
Etsy store. But you started noticing because you were doing
(23:36):
these Instagram lives people were buying from your Etsy store.
Which what were the orders, what are they used to be,
and what are they now? For Etsy, we had like
three a month and now we have five to ten
per day. So my job is to wake up in
the morning, go to the market, fulfill Etsy orders, come
up with something to cook, come home, prep for it,
do the show and yeah, it's it's a um, it's
(24:00):
a real interesting life now. But there are so many
business owners right now who are in the same position
as you, whether it's a restaurant or not shut down, close,
and they aren't thinking like you, and they may be
listening to this podcast. So then what is your advice
for a small business owner who is kind of just
stuck right now and trying to figure out what they
(24:21):
can do for their Okay, so I'm gonna just go
with the three very important words of that article, which
I think to find it all. Number one is pivot.
So you've got time on your hands. If you furloughed
your employees and you're sitting around worrying about the p
P P loan or like filing for s b A like,
(24:41):
do all of that. It's important, but it's time to
dig into so many things. So for us, and I'll
just use us in as an example, because this is
what we did. The first thing we did was we
looked at that market and said, how can we reduce
fixed expenses now? And so the first thing we did
(25:02):
was we eliminated unnecessary refrigeration. It might sound like odd
to some people, but if you own a restaurant refrigerator business,
and they're big. Move all of that food into one
refrigerator because your biggest expense from an electricity standpoint is refrigeration.
Turn off all the other refrigerators, clean them out, and
(25:25):
that will do you a lot. And so that was
our the first part of our pivot, so to speak.
The second part was where in our business is there
a revenue stream that doesn't require a connection with the
customer face to face, and that was online. We had
been doing, like I said, maybe three or four orders
on Etsy a month, and when I started the cooking
(25:47):
show are Et, the orders skyrocketed, and so we didn't
rest on our laurels, like, oh, there's skyrocketing just because
I'm doing the show. We got smart about Facebook advertising
and boosting, and when we started doing that, we started
seeing our sales go even higher. That's great. I think
one day we spent forty two cents on boosting a
(26:09):
post and we had two orders. For some people, that
doesn't sound like a lot, but for us, three or
four orders a month that go to five to ten
a day. You look at that across the board and
you do the math, and we're able to cover a
good portion of our fixed expense. And and that's more
people that now also know about your business. They ordered
(26:31):
the biscuit mix, they make it for other people, they
love it, and then it's word of mouth at that point,
all because of a forty two cent add in a
free Instagram video or Facebook video that you did. Like
it is so smart, so smart as a business owner
right now to hone in on those things that you
normally push off. Maybe that is social media, whatever it
may be. And it's take this time now to get
(26:52):
that stuff rolling. And it doesn't have to be perfect.
Nothing is perfect right now. Raw and real are what
people want. Like you said, they want you in your
kitchen because that's relatable. Everyone is getting scrappy and I
love it and I love that you're doing it. It's
so smart. So all all business owners should be like you.
And I know you said you do pr so you
(27:12):
help out businesses, not only your own locally. So what
have some other businesses been doing or what are they
struggling with the most or obviously you're tapped into their
So what can you you share from the other businesses
in Kerneyville. The one big challenge I think for a
lot of people that don't have a platform for e
commerce is the fixed expensive piece. And I really encourage
(27:36):
small businesses that are deemed essential. I just I want
to give a quick example. This morning, I woke up
and I went to my I went to the market
and I was going through some you know, our little
storage area, and I noticed that we have three rolls
of toilet I shouldn't say that the doors what we've
broken down. But then I was like, oh, maybe I'll
set up a little table and create an opportunity for
(27:59):
people to to get a free roll of toilet paper
forever retail ite and they buy again. I thought long
and hard about it. It was very hard. It was
like do I do? This is attack e? What do
I do? Do I make that decision? And again I
made the decision safety brand my time to not do it.
But and I say all of this because I think
(28:20):
that business owners really need to look at honestly, how
important is it to stay open? And are you reaping
the benefits of staying open paying the bills that you
need to pay by staying open? Like what are you
doing now? That makes sense from a business standpoint? And
if you do the numbers, And I'm a numbers guy,
(28:41):
because numbers never lie. If you do the numbers and
you see that you're not making money and that that
brand engagement that you're doing doesn't make sense in the
long run, then you need to stop, shut it down
and think about other ways to expand your customer base
or re engage with your customers. And that's where the
Cooking Show came in. The Cooking Show, which was totally
(29:03):
organic and unexpected, turned into something that I think, I
have a book. Isn't that another bucket? Another book? I
write every recipe down and I'm going to call that
book Cooking in Place, and it's not gonna be It's
gonna be days. I love it. It's like, this is
the time for every small business to run the numbers,
think creatively and expand your brain. You know well. And
(29:27):
you also have equality vines, which is a I've been there.
You can go in, you can do taste testing, which
I'm assuming people aren't testing obviously wines right now, as
essential as alcohol is, you can't go in and taste wines.
And that's a lot of what the area where you live,
that's a lot of businesses there. So how what are
you doing with the quality Vines right now, has anything changed?
(29:48):
Are you deliveries? How does that work? Yeah? So at
Quality Vines we are doing curbside pickup and we're also
going to start doing We've got to plan this. One
of our business partners there is Jumo burger Fell, who
is the name plaintiff in the marriage quality case. He
will start doing tastings online to help drive sales. We
all have upped our digital marketing spend at Equality Lines
(30:11):
and we've seen an increase in wine club memberships because
of that. So again it's you know, here's another business
that I'm a part of, and all of us as
business partners in that business have been floored at you
know wow. Now that we're focusing our energy and attention
on e commerce and online sales will be a important
(30:35):
and ongoing revenue stream for us when all of this ends. Yeah,
it's true. It's cool to be someone like Big Bottom Market,
and even in Quality Fines as well. I mean, because
of social media, you can hit someone in Montana and
you're in California and they may say, oh my god,
I'm buying this biscuit mix, and then when they're planning
their next trip, when they're finally allowed to travel again.
They may say, let's go to the Russian River area
(30:58):
and let's go to that restaurant we made their biscuit mix,
and and they'll come there. And it's just it's a
cool way to reach different people all across the country.
And you have no idea how it's going to work
in the long run, but it is going to make
it impacting the long last thing, impact sorry on your business,
and they may not come visit you, but they'll still
keep ordering the biscuit mix and your books and they'll
follow you. And You're right, it's so smart where you're
(31:21):
doing with your time right now. And I'm glad that
you're doing so well. It makes me happy. Yeah, thank
you so much. I mean, I'm at the end of
the day, I have to say, I'm having fun doing
this show. Every single day is fun. It's beyond engaging
with customers. I'm like my mother used to say to me,
you can entertain yourself in a paper bag. I'm just like,
(31:42):
I'm having a blast. Like I feel like you're kind
of the same way. No, I am. I am actually
enjoying quarantine too. I'm like, oh, I'll do this tutorial.
I'll do this, and it's things that I don't normally
get to do. But you're right, it is it is true,
and that we kind of take this time to do
something for yourself or your business, no matter what it is,
even if it's just you know what, if you want
(32:02):
to sit on your couch and do nothing and that's
what makes you happy, do it. But if you're a
business owner you've always wanted to do something specific, do
what Michael is doing right now because it's great. So
if people want to watch the cooking show, it's Big
Bottom Market on Facebook Live. What time do you do
it every day? I do it three o'clock Ppecific time
every day and then I follow up by uploading the
video to Instagram, TV smart cross platform. I love it. Okay,
(32:25):
So everyone can go check it out. They can also
go to Big Bottom Market dot com and then that'll
link over to your et scene. They can buy all
the stuff and be on the lookout for the future cookbook. Yeah,
I hope. So, I mean I've got a call with
my book age and on Tuesday to talk about it
and we'll see what happens. That's publishing industry is just
as stress as every other. So who knows. Yeah, I
love what's come of this, and I really hope that
(32:46):
this cooking and placebook happens. So everyone cross your figures. Well, Michael,
thank you for being here. I appreciate it. I really
loved it, and I can't wait when this is live.
Please I want to post the the MP four three
seven whatever and the wave file whatever it is so
that people can hear it, because I think this message
is an important one. If you ever have an opportunity
(33:08):
to visit the Gerneyville area, go so. Gurneyville is an
unincorporated town. That's how small it is. It is super small.
So when you go and you support Michael and his business,
you are supporting a very small town, which I love.
It's in the Russian River Valley area of Sonoma County.
Some of the best food I've ever had, the one
I've ever drank, some of the nicest people I've ever met.
(33:28):
So go support Michael. It's on Instagram. It's big, underscore
bottom underscore market. Now, before I get Dina on, it
is important to know that she and I have known
each other for I believe thirteen years at this point there,
it will probably be thirteen years around this May And
this is a fun story. So when I was waitressing,
I've just started waitressing. I was a terrible waitress, but
(33:50):
I just started waitressing at a Italian restaurant that was
opening in New Jersey. And the first day people were
so mean, so rude to all of us in the restaurant.
We weren't getting good tips. It was just a mess.
And then this dad and his daughter came in and
they were so nice to me. And at the end,
I said, just to let you know, you guys were
my first nice customers. And that dad and that daughter
(34:12):
or Dina and Dina's dad became a regular at the restaurant.
I would see him all the time. And that first
day Dina and I talked a little bit, like I
told her I want to be on the radio and
I'm gonna be hoping to intern one summer with Z One.
I knew all the stuff I wanted to do. And
Dina was like, well, I'm I'm going to school to
be a makeup and hair artist and I want to
have my own salon one day, my own makeup line.
(34:33):
And we were both like cool, like we'll get to
work together one day. And fast forward. Her dad always
would tell me all the things Dina was doing and
all the stuff that she was getting into with school,
and we stayed in touch, and then she opened a
salon not far from my apartment. After I had graduated
college and started working at and Elvis aurand in the
(34:54):
morning show in New York City, and I said I
needed a spray tan for jingle Ball, and Dina gave
me a spray tan, And at that moment, maybe because
she saw me naked, we became fast friends. And Dina
and I just it clicked, and she started doing my
hair and makeup for events. And then she met the
whole Elvis Duran show. She came in one day and
its spray t hands for the whole show. And now
(35:14):
like she does the hair and makeup of all of them,
all of their events. She's at the huge events in
New York City, and she has her own salaw and
she has her own makeup line. And here we are,
and it's kind of crazy that we've grown up in
this industry together. And I am so so proud of
what she's doing right now, and I'm so proud of
how she runs her business and takes care of her
employees and just is a good human. So let's say
(35:37):
hi to Dina with the Pink hair. Hey, Hey, okay,
so people may know you from my Instagram as Dino
with the Pink hair because Dina has the pink hair
and she does my hair anytime I've had crazy color
done makeup for most of my all of my events
on the East Coast, it's Dina doing my hair, chopping it,
all of it. Yeah, I do travel to get my
(35:58):
hair done, but most of the time it's or a
family event and it works out around the same thing.
So obviously, Dina owns the salon in Secaucus, New Jersey
called Dina's Kiss and Makeup. And during this time, Dina
has been doing something incredible to keep herself busy and
to keep her business flourishing, and I wanted to talk
to her about that. But before we get into what
you're doing, let's talk about the salon right now. Because
(36:20):
you've got a bunch of girls who work for you,
So what is happening with them right now? So, I mean,
my biggest concern, like, we didn't know when we were
going to have to shut down, if we were going
to have to shut down, how long it was going
to be obviously still all the same concerns that we
currently have. Um So, I have a staff of seven
and you know, luckily the government like kind of came
out with this program and pretty much like now from
(36:42):
what I've heard, like they're all pretty much getting taken
care of with unemployment. UM I know some of them
have already received funds, some are still waiting on them.
So that's honestly been a huge weight off of my
shoulders because you know, I kind of feel like you know,
salon mom in a sense like I have a team
to look out for. So knowing that they already got
unemployment or that they are getting it does make me
(37:04):
feel a lot better because I cannot afford to keep
paying people with no income of the scariest thing for
a business owner. Yeah, especially with salons. It's not like
you know, and I often say a T shirt company
as an example in this podcast, but you can't keep
doing hair and make up right now. It's just it's
not doing spray tans. You're not doing that right now.
It's not legal to do that right now, and you
(37:26):
can't without income on those services, you can't pay your employees.
So you, as a business owner, earned such a weird position,
so the girls are taken care of. So a few
like two and a half weeks ago, I guess you
started posting on Instagram that you're gonna be making candles
and I was like, cool, hobby, Dina like that looks
like And now I'm literally on a zoom call with
(37:48):
my mom and my sister separate houses, and Dina is
ringing their doorbell delivering their candle orders because it's insane
right now, So you started making these candles? Where did
this idea come from? Okay, so this goes back to
probably I want to stay around November, so you're gonna laugh.
My husband and I were watching Fight Club and you
(38:08):
know when they're like making like they're talking about soap
and they're using the lie chemical, so what is it? Like?
I could be wrong, but like Brad Pitt puts the
lie on Edward Norton in his hand like burns off.
So of course my husband said like, hey, should we
make soap? I'm like, you watched that scene and you
want to have lie in our house? Like no, So
I have to get to my husband. Anytime he's like
(38:30):
thinking about something or it's on his mind, like he
will start to research something. So he's looking up like
soap making videos because you know, he was interested in it.
He was like, that sounds cool. So he's watching these
videos and he's like, oh, you know, people who make
soap like often make like candles and bath bombs. I said,
all right, listen, I can't imagine myself making soap. I
feel like I would mess it all up. It's just
not my thing. But candles, I'm like, yeah, I like candles.
(38:52):
I know all my girlfriends like candles. I feel like
soap is not my market, so let's go for the
candle route. Well, and the good thing about candles is
like you get to ruin them by burning them, so
it's okay. If you messed them up, you just put
them on a waxwammer and you're fine. They still work
that way. So then we bought like basically a starter
kit just to try a couple of things like at home,
and we had just like a few I made, like
(39:15):
some really basic ones, and I actually sold them at
the salon. But I'm talking like I sold maybe ten
at the shop. Really basic jars um. I mean, the
fragrances were amazing, but we had to play around with
like I want them to be vegan, so I had
to use soy wax, but we got like I would say,
like probably three or four really good types of candles.
(39:37):
So that's like where it started. Okay, But the candles
that you started making during quarantine are not just like
your basic candles. You have to go to do his
instagram to see what I'm talking about. So it's Dina
with the pink hair, and you'll see her kitchen has
been transformed like a candle warehouse, but there are candles
in Like if you go to a restaurant, you order
(39:58):
and a cappuccino and it comes that nice tall glass.
That's exactly what Dina's candles look like. And I don't
just mean the glass. I mean she literally makes the
candles look like a cappuccino or an ice cream or something,
and they're so realistic and so cute, and they're like
the best gifts ever to give to someone. My family
is like completely stocked on every drink candle that you
(40:19):
have made. And I know I'm getting some students. I'm excited.
But where did that idea come from of making it
like a dessert drink? Yeah? Totally. So again, we started
with like basic so like basic jars, basic lids, really
simple fragrances like cinnamon bond, so on and so forth.
But I said to my husband, I was like, listen,
you you go on etsu type and candle. You've got
(40:39):
thirty thousand search results. He's the business e one and
then then like the more technical one and on the
artsy one. Right, So I was like, listen, if we
want to make this a thing and we want to
make it good, it has to be appealing. So we
have to not only make a candle that smells amazing,
but it's got to have an appeal to it. So
we do still have basic candles. We have like sea
salt and orchid green tea and lemon grass. Um. I
(41:00):
did one called All Dressed Up, which kind of smells like, uh,
really high end perfume that I have. But I was like,
let me play around with a few things. So the
first one I made that was like and it's so
funny because I had the original one that I made
and it's so ugly compared to the ones now. But
the first one was like birthday cake. That's the number
one candle. It's got sprinkles on the bottom, like like
(41:24):
just like rainbow sprinkles, really pretty and uh then like
whipped cream topping with more sprinkles on top. So it's
a really pretty candle on top of the Someone posted
on Instagram like they she posted that she got the
candle she goes too pretty to burn or yeah, but
just do it anyway. It was so funny. But I'm like,
(41:44):
you know what, Yeah, anyone can make a candle, and
we are selling a lot of the traditional candles, but
the pretty ones are I can't keep them in stock.
It's oh my god. I'm like, you showed me on
video chat with your kitchen looks like it looks absolutely
saying so it's been transformed into a candle warehouse. So
your husband is melting these candles with you, like making
(42:05):
them with you. Yeah, we had to get like, candle
making is not that I don't want to say it's
not easy because it's you for yourself, but to actually
make them like sell to people, there's a lot of
steps to it, and if you mess one step up,
it's I've had a few candle makers on the podcast
in the past. We've had Kim from Wax Crescent, We've
(42:27):
had Jennifer from Wax cabin candle coo. Like, I remember
Jennifer telling me that she is an Elvis Thran show
listener and Dina Dina does the hair and makeup of
everyone at Elvis Throan, like literally every single person, including Elvis.
And so Jennifer was listening to Elvis's show one day
and they had her call in for something, and she
called in and mentioned that she makes candles in her basement,
(42:49):
and someone from Anthropology heard her and put an order
for like a thousand candles or something, and that's how
her business took off. But she had to then go
into her basement within like five days and make it
hours and candles. So I'm someone who's making candles right now,
you know how insane that is. And she would be like,
I had like a vat of wax, and it's like
it's a lot for me. I'm used to selling makeup,
(43:12):
hair products and my services. This is so different it's
mind blowing. Like honestly, I thought I was like, Okay, yeah,
I'll put a few candles up for sale. People in
town are going to feel bad for me and an
order a few that. Honestly, that's what I was expecting
to have to be like, hey guys, local business owner
unemployed here by my candle No carl Marie. I had
(43:33):
in the last week d ms on Instagram over eighty
orders nine eight candles. Eighty orders. The candles have anywhere
from one to seven the orders are one to seven candles.
So how do you remember the price point on a
product you've never made before with orders coming in so fast. Well,
so back to when my husband and I were like
researching everything, we actually kind of found out like for
(43:57):
y candle, and like what it is, what the market
is generally charging, and you know what, Like, yeah, the
wax itself is cheap, the fragrant oil is expensive, but
containers are expensive, and the labor is wild, Like it's
to make those birthday cake candles. Oh my god, if
you got time, you got all the time in the world.
Just keep pumping these bad boys out. No, I'm trying,
(44:18):
but even to like the shipping equipment that I need
is insane with so to broke already to people. I
sent them replacements for free, and I changed how I
package them because that's also really hard. Soy wax is
super soft. You you like hit it with your thumb.
It crombles and the candle itself goes higher than the container,
(44:42):
so I had to concoct this crazy contraption to ship
it in. And I'm like literally saying a prayer every
time I said one else. Okay, so people right now,
if they're listening to this podcast kind of soon to
win it posts, they can follow you on Instagram Dina
with the pink hair, and they can d M you
to to get some pictures and do in order now
you're eventually going to do is posted to your website.
(45:02):
So if they're listening to a little later, they can
go to d k M Cosmetics dot com and see
the candles posted there. And as you know too, I
have my makeup line. All I've been waiting and waiting
for months. I have been working on this makeup line.
First all long, Well, you've had a makeup line forever.
This is like a new rebrand. Yes, I wanted everything
to be vegan, and I wanted to really nail down
the price point to like how I wanted it personally.
(45:24):
It showed up to my house yesterday. I'm like, could
this crazy coronavirus time be anymore wild? I never in
my life would have had time to like sit down
and work on the makeup line or like start a
candle company. So it really is the silver line. It
is kind of crazy when you look at that, and
that's what everyone who's been on this podcast in this
time has been saying, like, I'm using this time to
(45:46):
do the things I didn't think I'd get to do.
And that's one of the things, like, hey, you're spending
time with your husband and you're making candles like you
would have never been able to do this on a
regular week, And it's cool that you've basically started a
side hustle right now at that point. But your makeup line,
I have also been waiting for the new makeup line,
and you have done some Zoom makeup lessons, so if
(46:09):
people want to follow you Dina with the pink hair,
they can also get alerts when you're going to be
doing I know you and I want to do one
on Instagram Live. But if you do another Zoom makeup lesson,
like it was twenty five bucks and it was so
worth it that I have been doing my makeup every
morning just to sit in the same chair I'm sitting
in right now to do video chet No, and I'm like,
(46:30):
oh my god, I can't believe all this stuff I
learned from Dina, Like I'm an idiot, Like how have
I never learned this before? So like, even if you're
sitting on your ass right now and I'm not doing
anything in this quarantine, like you could learn a cool
way to do your makeup. You can learn your nails.
I posted an ail tutorial this week. Like you don't
have to start a whole side hustle like Dina is doing,
but you can you can do honestly, Like this is
(46:51):
the coolest time to stop and think, like not only
like side hustle, it doesn't have to be about money,
but like what am I doing with my life? What
do I want to do? Differently? Because like we're all
like going to be starting over after this. It's not
about going back to normal. We're never going to be
able to This is not back to like it's never
going to be back to normal. It's always going to
be like post COVID, when did we ever have to
(47:14):
probably going to be what two or three months in
our houses that we didn't leave, Like you can legit
go back to your job. You can not go back
to your job. You can do something totally different. You
can make stuff at home right now, or like get
on zoom, do social media things that you never had
time to do. Like there there are a lot of
opportunities right now. And I think I might have mentioned
this to you before. But like my salon, my first
(47:35):
salon burnt down, what three years ago now, yeah, yeah,
February February fourth was three years. I didn't have a
job for eight months, Like yeah, I was constructing the
new place and that was obviously like basically like having
a job, like all that going on. But when this happened,
I was like, oh my god, like wait, I've been
(47:56):
through this before. I'm gonna make it better. And I can't.
I can't sit do nothing, you know me, I can
do nothing. I would go insane when your salon was
on fire, on fire, when town and you didn't have
you had those eight months, did you do something other
than build your salon? Did you do anything productive during
that time, whether it's business or personal, that made you
(48:18):
they say hey, I need to do it again, or
did you not? And now you're looking back, going I
need to do what I didn't do that time. Honestly,
I think it's the ladder, because yes, I was building
the salon. But I have to be honest. Looking back,
I definitely think I fell into like a bit of
a depression. I was waking up later than normal. I
went from being really busy every day to like nothing,
(48:39):
and I had this complex. I kind of felt like
a loser and I let it get me down. And
like that's and I'm sure other people feel like that too,
Like our work fulfills our purpose in life, right, or
it should to a certain point. People don't have that anymore.
So I've been I've been here before. It's really easy
to feel like crap. And like even if, like I said,
(49:01):
if I wasn't so busy with the candles, like I
want to read more books, the candles were taking up
all my time can But like you know, during the fire,
I definitely felt down at the dumps about certain things.
I kept busy. I was seeing some clients on the side.
I was working out of another salon a little bit.
That was nice enough to have me. But yeah, God,
going from a hundred to zero, that'll play fine games
(49:21):
with you. I've been there when Uh Anthony and I
our morning show got taken off the air for a
two week period about oh my god, it's two years ago.
At this point, it was the same thing, Like you
feel like you said, Like, there's an other way to say,
like you feel like a loser, And that's such a
weird thing to say, but like, and it's so wrong
because you know that's life. Life happens exactly and you
(49:43):
don't know what to do with yourself, And it is
kind of like a life lesson in my job doesn't
define me, but if it does, and if you're going
to make it define you, make sure it's something worth
defining you, something you really do believe in. But ever
since that happened, I have done everything I can to
make sure that like I have another their purpose in
life other than that specific job. Maybe it is another job.
(50:04):
Maybe it is a specific thing that you do with
your friends or your family, whatever it is, something else
needs to fulfill you other than your job, even if
it is making candles, like it is a separate thing,
and you need to have more than one thing, because
when that thing gets taken away from you, it feels
like your whole world just flipped upside down. I've got
something else, it won't be as bad. And what got
me through that time a lot was actually this podcast,
(50:26):
and I was very grateful for that because if I didn't,
I wouldn't have had any sort of routine, any sort
of schedule. So I get what you're saying right now,
and I think that is a very important sentiment for
people to hear and listen to and light a fire
under their asses right now while we're in the middle
of this. Yeah, like now, if people want to reinvent
themselves or like change something, now really is the time
(50:46):
to do that. I haven't telling my husband like like, oh,
I want to paint all I want to paint again.
The candles are not letting me paint right now. I'm like, Wow,
if someone told them and that's what they want to do,
do it. Like there's so many I know Amazon, Like
I really I can't really get anything from Amazon right now.
The shipping is taking like four weeks, but there are
so many big companies that are still shipping that you can,
(51:11):
like if you need something, like you'll find a way
to get it, you know what I mean. Like luckily
the candle manufacturers are shipping, so that's helping me. But
like there's there's there's ways to work around these speed
bumps which are like no Amazon, you can't go out
and see people like you know, Zoom has been great.
I grove by my sister's house and said, hi today.
You gotta do little things like that. So so Dina
(51:34):
with the pink hair on Instagram. To follow Dina and
then I'll give you all the updates on makeup classes,
all the candles, and when the salon is back open.
If you're not from New Jersey and you're visiting New York,
New York, it's a very quick train ride to go
get your hair done by Dina. It's well worth it,
and or you can hop in an uber. Also, Dina
and I are going to do makeup live tutorial of
(51:55):
some sort on Instagram over the next week or two,
so follow for that, get your candles and support a
small business and one of my best friends. I love you,
love you more. Okay, you've heard from four amazing small
business owners, three businesses. You've got Susan and Hannah from
two Crane's. Follow them to Crane's Co on Instagram. You'll
(52:15):
keep up with all the sales and cool things they've
got coming up, and they're their virtual workshop. And then
you've got Michael, who is a sweetheart and if you
can ever support him in the California area, please do that.
But again, you can go to Big Underscore Bottom Underscore
Market to follow him on Instagram and you'll get to
see all those videos that he's been sharing from his kitchen,
(52:36):
which is super fun right now. And then you've got
my girl Dina, Dina with the pink hair. Love that
human almost more than anyone, So follow Dina, go by
her candles, can't wait for her makeup line to do
our Instagram Live. All of the links of everyone we've
talked to are in the description of this podcast. Don't forget.
If you support a small business that has been on
(52:56):
side Hustlers and you screenshot it and send it to
me on Instagram, I will send you aside Shutlers sticker.
So thank you for doing that, and please stay safe,
keep yourself sane, stay healthy, wash your damn hands, and
keep hustling. H
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