Growing a Successful Business on Your Own Terms with Laura Horwath, Ferne Boutique

Oh, you guys, this week, you need to listen. I'm telling you, you've got to listen. This is so good. I am so pumped. This week, my friend Laura Horwath, who is the owner and founder of Fern Boutique with four locations around the Detroit area in Michigan, is here not only to tell us how she grew her brick and mortar locations, how she maximized community and chamber of commerce, and really just to become the queen of networking, in my opinion, but beyond that, today, she's going to share a personal story that I think all of us are going to be able to relate to. You know, in this business, it's not if something changes or if sales numbers dip, but it's when. And when life happens right along with it. How do we handle the ups and the downs of business? Laura's got such an incredible story, something that our team has been able to witness her walk through in the last several months. And I'm just so, so happy that she's able to share it with you today because I think it's going to hit home on a whole new level and. And really solidify this journey that I think many people in our industry are on right now of just trimming, trimming the fat, getting down to the bare bones of why we're in business, what we're focusing on, and how to define success on our own terms, not because we're just stuck on a hamster wheel. So please join me today to hear my friend Laura Horwath, the founder of Fern Boutique, share her journey. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts, and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. Hey, guys. Welcome back this week, Laura. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you.

Everyone needed our bloopers beforehand when I was like, does this thing work? Is it on? It appears to be working. We are.

We have a testing moment.

We are here. I'm so pumped that you're here. I feel like the more I've gotten to know you, you have this, like, sarcastic side that I just adore. I feel like we speak each other's language in sarcasm.

I agree. I agree. It's a trait that has just carried me with me through life. So, yeah, I think it's perfect.

I love it. I've loved getting to just know you and know your business on a different level in the last year. And I just think you've got so many superpowers. But I think what we'll talk about today and what we'll uncover today is just so much more of a human side that I know so many people really can relate to and need to hear right now. So I'm excited to get to that part of your story. But in case you. Those listening don't. Don't know you yet, they haven't met you in the hub, let's talk about your business because you've got some awesome things going on. Four locations in Michigan. How did you start and why did you start?

I actually was in a corporate role in sales. I just honestly was, like, at a young professionals conference. I don't know that I would attend that now because I don't know how old you have to be to go to it anyways. And I just, like, got this feeling. I don't know, it was like I should be doing X. Like, in my head, it was like, I should open a boutique. And my husband, I texted him and he was like, where are you? Like, what are you signing? Where? What are you doing? And I was like, no, no, no. Like, I'm not like, you know, I'm not Like, I haven't just, like, jumped into something. But it came to my head. It was a. I had been at this conference, and it was like, you're seeing all these people and just things started. Just thoughts started happening, you know, like, where are they shopping? That type of thing. At the time, we lived in a smaller town, about 35,000 people, and there just wasn't anything brick and mortar there. So that was my first thought, was like, this doesn't exist here. This is why this should be here. So it. Interestingly enough, it's always been for me, solving a problem for someone is, are people driving two hours to a mall? Are they shopping online and returning everything? Why aren't we doing, like, why aren't we fixing this problem? So from there, it just kind of, like, happened. I was. Things would start happening that kind of gave me signs that it made sense. I had walked out the door of my office and there was a for rent sign in a window. And I was like, oh, I should go see how much that that is. And again, my husband is like, chill. So I think it. It was a big, very large change for me to go from making a very good salary with a steady stable Income and everything to. Shifting that to, nope, never mind, I'm going to do this. And it's very risky. It never felt risky to me, though. It was always like, okay, it's. It's business. And. And if it doesn't work out, I mean, to me, it's like separating that emotion in that business is very, very hard. So, yeah, it was. It was a solved problem to solve for women. And it just kind of started out as organically, me just inserting myself in places, like, where I knew women would be. So I joined Junior League, and I just, like, started doing events and just. Just trying to really engage the community and tell people that we were here organically. It was not. I mean, I'll be honest, I had no money, so I wasn't like, ooh, I have all this money to spend. No, I had no money, couldn't get a loan, had no proven business track record. So it was just kind of like how I felt about things that I felt like, made sense I would do them right. And if they worked or didn't work, I was like, oh, I should measure these things. I should know this. I was. I was managing inventory in a spreadsheet. That was a bad idea. That went away real quick. I hired an accountant, and she was like, so. And I'm like, yeah, that's. This isn't going to happen. Like, no. No way. But I don't know, it just always was like, the stepping stone of growing and trying and failing is cool. I love it. Honestly, I fail daily. And I'm like, whatever you learn from that, don't do that again or do that again, but do it this way. Like, so that just. That's just kind of how it happened. But, yeah, we opened a store originally in Bay City, Michigan. We still have that location there now. Moved it to a bigger location a year later. It just quickly caught on. I think people realized it wasn't. It's like, we're selling clothes, but we're not. Like, they know that we sell clothes, but I think the relationships, the engagement, the. They know they can count on us. They know we're there for them. If they want to tell us their life story, if they want to bring us their dog or their baby to watch while they're in the fitting room, like, it's. This is just what we do. Like, we're just all the things. So there was a woman actually in one of my locations breastfeeding last week. And my manager was like, man, Fearne, is it like, it's. It like, this is we just. We accept everyone. And I'm like, that's right. Yep. So, yeah, it's. That's kind of carried us through, I think all of the, you know, there's always the low times, too. So.

Yeah, there's the highs and lows. What I love about that is I. I love the confidence you have in, like, I'm focusing first, not on the profit, but on the purpose. Like, I see a problem, I'm going to solve it. And I think that's really important. And it's easy to get lost, but you just have this, like, unwavering confidence. Like, if this works, great, let's do it. I don't have any money, but I mean, do or die. I could go get a job, like, if I have to. So let's go and let's test some things out. And I think that that says a lot about you as well, because it's easy. Like my husband always says, desperation is a stinky cologne. I think it's easy, like, especially in low times, to get really desperate, and then that just shows and it doesn't work. Yeah.

How did you think? It's just, it's. I look back and I can think of times where I'm like, man, you didn't think you were gonna make it and you did. So, like, don't be so concerned. Right. And so desperate. Because then you. Yeah. Like, you notice it. People notice it. It's cringy. Like, it's not good. So. Yes.

Yeah. Do you think that there. There's people right now who. I feel like this year's been different for them. You know, there's people that are still in their winning season, and we're rah, rah, let's freaking go. But there's people who are struggling for the first time. So someone who's been in business for a while, you've seen ups and downs. What's your advice to those who this is their first struggle season and they're not sure how to handle it?

I think it's. It's always gotta be about the long. Like the long term. Like, you. You're never gonna be. And it's the same with life in general. I mean, you're never gonna be in this terrible, negative place forever. It's just. I think it's. I. I see a lot of, like, we're closing where this. It's that and it's like, but did you plan on it if it was going to get ugly right to close? Did you. You know what I mean? Like, did you not save Money. Did you not think this would ever happen? I think it's. It's tough with also Covid being so all over the place, depending on where you live. And I think that that's just. We're so quick to go right to the. Well, you know, like, we're. We're not quick to be like, oh, well, this is happening. But I could also change XYZ and try xyz. It's just. It's that human thing that we. We get so wrapped up in, like, the negative Nancy Downer stuff, and it's. It's hard. It really is. I know I'm. I'm guilty of it myself. I'm a human, too. I. My husband will be like, no, stop. Like, stop talking. Like, stop. And I'm like, yep, that's it. You know, it. Like, he knows. Like, don't. You know, don't go there. Because if you manifest your negativity, it's coming. It is going just the way you manifest your positivity and talk about all the great things you're going to do and all this stuff and whatever in any aspect of your life. It's the same both ways. So it's hard to. It's hard to not go to that place. But I think, you know, I mean, if you've been open and you have customers and you have community and ideas and groups of people, like, I mean, for me, it's like, I have so many friends that we, like, get together and we just, like, talk about ideas. And it's so cool because people are like, oh, you should do this at Fern. Oh, they'll message me. You should do this at Fern. And I'm like, you literally are thinking about Fern. Thank you. You know, like, just genuinely, like, that's great. That's a good. The support system is a. Is a big part of it, for sure.

I love that. I love that. So really beginning with the end in mind first, like, not if it gets bad, but when, because this business will go up and it will come down, so you've got to be able to manage that. But I love, like, that you have surrounded yourself with the right people. Tell me more about, like, your superpower. So you went from the one location you grew. Now it's four. But I feel like one of the reasons you've been able to continue to grow is just you are a connector in your community. How can others learn from how you've grown in that way?

I think I've always thought about. For me, it's always been like, okay, how Do I meet people without being salesy and selling and talking about what I do? Because it's not about selling anything. It's about having a relationship. So if I'm at a networking event and I see a cute pair of shoes on someone, I'm going to be like, oh my God, your shoes are so cute. And then we're going to start talking about what we're having for breakfast and blah, blah, blah, and the weather and all the normal things. And then they're going to be like, so what do you do for a living? Because you've shown them that you're a nice, genuine person, that you just want to genuinely talk to people. Right. And make them feel good. It makes you feel good to make them feel good. It just kind of goes back and forth. I think that that's just kind of what I've always done is genuinely without selling anything because that's still selling it, right? It's just not aggressive and pushy and product focused. It's building relationships with people, reaching out to people and just being like, hey, you guys are. Your, your organization has the customer base that we serve. We do private events, we do SIP and shops, we do company outings. If the women at your company are interested in having a fun night out, let me know. And they're like, yeah, send your, send it to this email. And I'm like, this is how you do this, right? You just, you get that like by being genuine and just networking in such a less. Sorry to say it, but like car salesman way. Like it's. The people I know that I buy cars from have never tried to sell me a car in my life. Like that's how it works. And that's, I think that's what's gotten me within the communities, within just different groups and organizations. And I've been become friends with so many of these people and it's just, it's fun. And I think that when you're viewed as like that connector versus oh God, they're going to sell me something. I don't want to go. And you're like, I'm not going. If they're acting like that, I'm not going. Yeah.

Are you involved? Like, just connect the dots for me because I think there's a lot of people listening who, whether they're online or brick and mortar, I don't think it matters. But they have like a chamber of commerce in their town or a YP or whatever these organizations are. Can you name a couple of those? And also, how do you find the value in those organizations because it sounds like, I mean, you've become a master networker. I don't think everyone in the hub that I've talked to on this, I don't feel like everyone's connecting those dots that there's opportunity in those local organizations.

When I started, it was really inserting myself, like I said, in the business community. So the chambers of commerce, any of your sort of organizations that have networking or business type functions within them. There's, like I mentioned Junior League for Women. That is a very great way to connect with other women. There's Junior leagues across the US that I am no longer a member. But I mean, that is where you meet women that have the same philanthropic mindset as you. There's definitely young professionals groups. I think there's also a lot of cities have these sort of smaller networking, passing leads back and forth type groups as well. But as you're. When I was new, all I could think about and I never thought this way. If I build it, like, if I open a store, they're just going to come in the door. Like, no, they're not. They're not going to. That's never going to happen. Like, and it's been. It'll be eight years in August. And we've had the times of opening the store and the people coming in the door. Well, that's come and gone. I think whether you do a million dollars a month or $1 a month, nobody is like, I'm gonna drive around and see where I can walk into today. Like, that's just not a mindset anymore. It's. It's changed so much. So really making sure that I was able to get in places where I wanted people to know who we were. There's Main street associations in some states as well. So downtowns have. They can opt into a program called Main street association. And then that's like a directory for you. You pay like maybe 2 or 300 bucks a year. But they have events, a website. If you're in a community where people really like to support the local businesses and they're really all about that.

They.

That's a great place to be in like a Main street association or directory. Because you're getting that connection to other businesses, potentially collaborating with other businesses, and then you're. You're really getting almost marketed or promoted without spending, you know, breaking the bank if you don't have the funds when you start.

Yeah, I love that you said that. Because sometimes I think the misconception is if I join this association, they're going to market me. But that's not how it works. You have to market you. You just get to do it in their container. So before I started the Hub, I don't know if you knew this, but before I started the Hub, I was in economic development. And then we also ran our chamber of commerce and our small Business Development center out of our office. And we did it for the county in four cities. So this was like my life. And it was always the same. Like, the people who wanted to cancel were the people who were like, ah, you know, what are you doing for me? But really, like, we're facilitating and hosting all these events so that you can market you. So I love that that's what you're doing.

Yeah. I think it just, it kind of comes down to the marketing seems to be the last thing every business, small business owner thinks about. We have bills to pay, we have people to employ. We have to sell stuff, we have to buy stuff. We have all this stuff. And then if no one's coming in or buying it, it's like, oh, but there's that thing that helps all of that stuff happen. So, yeah, you kind of get. You got to like, think about marketing and sales in a different way other than just social media ads or a billboard or a TV commercial. It's. That is advertising. Advertising is not marketing. Marketing is not advertising. So those two things are, at this point, I think with the Internet boom and how it's been, I think it's getting lost. A lot of it's getting lost. And I had this conversation with, with my friend yesterday who's in business as well. And it's just like, we want to be in the community. We want to talk to people and tell them our store is right over here on this street. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to keep doing that because that long term loyal customer that's walking the door is like, oh, I see Laura at these events every week. I saw Laura last month at this thing and Laura goes to that. So it's. That's your inadvertent marketing that you don't feel like it's making you any money. But it's like definitely a marathon, not a sprint. That takes time.

If I could take you guys on a behind the scenes of what it takes to build a wholesale platform, I would totally do that. I think it needs to be an entire solo episode. What do you think, you guys? I have loved your feedback on building and shopping and optimizing hubventory.com. our very own wholesale platform built by the industry, for the industry, with all of the curated and vetted brands that boutique owners know, love, and trust. You guys, as we have grown Hub and Tory over the last six months together with you, we have loved building the features that you're looking for. So if you haven't yet shopped on hubventory.com now's your invitation to shop curated brands by following the brand, saving the products, just like Pinterest, saving products to boards so you can plan out your collections and maximize the investment that you're going to put into your inventory. Using our ROI calculators on projects or even building in budgets, which is now available on Hubventory. I encourage you to jump on the platform, take a tour, follow some brands, build a few boards, and start to shop today. This is just the beginning. Keep the feedback coming, keep the input coming, and keep telling your friends all about shopping wholesale on hubventory.com. that's so good. That's so good. So true. Let's shift gears a little bit because I feel like with four stores, right, you've got a lot on your plate. You've been hustling, you've been busy. But this year has been a big like, like a shift for you in a whole nother direction. There's. There's definitely been some downs this year of kind of a series of them that I just, I would love to hear from you on kind of how that's been and how you've taken the things that have happened this year in stride.

Yeah. So I decided to get a mammogram last fall for the first time. I have a family history of breast cancer. I just am one of those, oh, I don't have time to get a mammogram. I'm too busy working. So that changed real fast because I was like, oh, I'll get a mammogram. I was at the doctor. There's already a mammogram office right there. Get a mammogram. They're like, we'll call you. You're good. See ya. Okay, bye. Well, they call me and they're like, we found something. And I'm like, working in the store. And I'm like, what? So it was very like, stop in your dead, in your tracks. Like, what is happening? And they don't really.

You.

You just don't get enough information right away. Not because they don't have. They don't want to give it to you. They're not holding it from you. They just don't have the info, they find something. So you start this process. It's lengthy. You have to wait. I mean, the healthcare field, it's just. There's a lot happening. You're at when they can give you an appointment is when they can. So you start going through the motions, figuring out what's wrong, get a biopsy done, find out that there is benign, everything from the first biopsy. So, great news. I'm, like, so excited. It's November, December, last year, so I'm going into this new year. I'm like, all excited about 20, 23, and it's just like this whole, you know. And then January starts and I get a call that they tell me I have to have this removed because. No, I'm sorry. They want me to see a specialist and potentially have it removed. So I'm like, I thought we were done with this. Like, this is. I was like, in a good mood, ready to go. And then business started really slowing down. It's January. We're really trying to ramp up. Things are not ramping up. My dog starts getting sick, and I don't know what's happening. And so then all of this stuff at once is happening, and I'm just like, wow, okay. It's a slower year. I mean, it's gray in Michigan from, like, January to, like, July. So that doesn't help the vitamin. Lack of vitamin D doesn't help the sadness. It just makes it worse. So all of that just kind of happening at once. I see the specialist, she's like, it needs to come out. We have to test it again. And I'm like, why? So you're just like, not being in the medical field? I don't know. They are. They talk to you and you're just like a human that knows this much about what they're saying. So have to get surgery to get it out. My dog is very ill, and he passes away at the end of January. And it just was very unexpected. We didn't know what was going on. And so that happened. And then just all of it at once. I don't know. I started sitting down and, like, honestly sobbing a lot. Just sobbing. Because I'm like, I can't, like, physically. I don't know that I want to be in. I would be in public, like, literally. I was at the Sky Club sobbing my eyes out, like, going to Vegas. And people were probably like, should we call someone? Is she okay? But it was just, like, emotional, you know what I mean? I was so excited to go to the show and see all of my mastermind friends and everybody. It was just fun. And, like, I had this surgery a week later. I don't know. It was too much. So I started to try to think about why this is happening to me. Like, not in a woe is me way, but what are you learning here? What is. What are the lessons that this is telling you? Is it because you are. Someone said, oh, well, you. You can handle so much. And it's like, all I could think about was, I know that I can. I wouldn't have four stores. I wouldn't have all this stuff if I didn't. Wasn't able to. But it was more like, I don't need to. I just. I. I create this for myself. I'm the one. Not in a negative way. I'm not being like, whatever about myself, it just was. I'm the one doing this. I'm driving this bus, and it's time for the bus to slow down. The bus needs to, like, take a break, park, take a breath, drink a water, calm down, eat some lunch. Like, let's be human beings. Like, that's just where so many things came to me at the same time. And I could have just said, well, this is the way it is, and negative Nancy, but I didn't. I just thought, you know, I have a lot of good, positive things going on. What are they? I need to talk about them to myself, remind myself what they are, and tell myself I love myself and be positive about so much. Because if I refresh Shopify one more time and it's not what I want it to be, it's not gonna be better. It's gonna be the same. I'm gonna be upset and crying and, you know, emotional. So it's weird because my husband started a new job right when my dog died. And my husband has been home for three years during COVID and. And my dogs know that, and we don't have kids, so they're like our children. So it's like my dog died, and then my husband literally started a new job the next Monday. And it was like, that was almost oddly meant to be. I didn't want to lose him. But, like, if John is gone and I'm gone and no one's home, he's like, we. It wouldn't work. So it was like all this timing of things just kind of happened. I had surgery. Everything is tested and benign. I told myself every day it was going to be. So I manifested my own outcome of that. But, yeah, it just. I think we're all human and we get so wrapped up in things that we can't control and that are just outside of what matters. And everybody has their own what matters to me. And you just need to figure that out. And how do you want your business to be? And how do you want your life to be? Do you want to be? I mean, I've been running eight years, almost running, like, out of energy. I mean, I have so much. I don't know where it comes from. I really don't. But it doesn't mean I have to be at every beck and call of everything 24 7. And I think it just kind of, like, woke me up and was like, all right, it's time to make some changes. Like, you gotta make changes for yourself, for your family, for your business. I think it's just what this pandemic has done. Whether it's good or bad, everyone has their own opinion, but it's really just made us all more strategic, I think, in thinking about how we want our business to be and how we want it to go. I mean, it just isn't the way it was before. You have to be able to pivot or shift in the right times and understand why. So, yeah, I'm in such a better place. I was. Let me tell you, if you would have asked me that a month ago, I'd be like, I'm just gonna cry the whole time and talk to you. So.

I know. Well, seeing you in Vegas, I mean, I. We all knew it was heavy, but I'm so glad that you can sit here and share this story now because it's so timely. So to your point about the pandemic, Eric and I were just talking about this the other day. I feel like everybody's on edge. Everybody's like, either they are still up here and they're buzzing like. Like they're just on edge, waiting for, like, the. The shoe to drop, right? Because we've all had to operate at this frenzy. And now it's like, I watch so many friends and business owners and you coming down off of that, going, okay, I'm done, and here's the new me, and here's how I'm gonna operate going forward. Like, I don't want to be a part of this frenzy anymore. I define my own success. Success. I define what I want my business and my life to be. And it doesn't have to be what everyone else, you know, lived through and created during the pandemic. I can be totally different than that. So how do you see your. Your life and your business Changing going forward. Like, where do you go from here and how do things look different from here?

I think it's, you know, leases are starting to come up for me. We're starting to get to the point where lease is coming up and, you know, it's that pro and con. It's that what are we gonna do and what makes the most sense? And instead of Laura being the last one on the list that matters in the list of how do we make something what it is, It's I'm at the top now. I'm not going to just do something because I think people want me to, or this might work out because it's X here, there, whatever all the demographics are, whatever the reasons are, it's how many locations can I handle, how many do I want to have and what do I want it to be? Not can I just be everywhere and do everything and blah, blah, blah, and hopefully it will all work out? No, I mean, that's literally not even a plan. So that's like, we're done with that, like non planning. I'm a planner in so many ways, but I think I just got so caught up in like the growth and was expecting the continued growth so much and it just stopped. It literally halted. And it was like, wow. So I think it's. I need to remember that I matter what I want, matters how much I want to work, matters what I want to do, matters. Like, I've noticed so much about events and different strategic ways of doing popups or collaborations. Those are the things that people are excited about. I just don't know anymore. Is it about having multiple locations? And that's just what it's going to be. You have to give people a reason to want to follow you and engage with you and shop with you. If you don't have that reason and why you're different, that's why it's halting. Because they're going to places where they feel, you know, connected, a purpose, part of something, and it's hard to create that. Honestly, a lot of people are like, well, how do you know how to do that? I'm like, it just. It's just like in my stomach. I don't know. It just happens. I just. I feel good about something. I asked my team, like, what do you guys think about this? Do you guys think we should try this? Do you guys think we should do this event? And if they'll be like, no, that's overplayed. That's too much. You know, nobody wants to go to that anymore. But Just really trying to, like, be that balance of a human having a business employing people and just, like, feeling good about what we're doing and making sure that it's making people happy. Because that's what we say. And if we're not living through what we say, we're not a business. We're certainly not anything. So.

Yeah, yeah, I just hear you. Like, through your words, I just hear you continuing on this thread of purpose over profit. Like, every day you're waking up and it's the profit that's stressful. It's refreshing. You're shopping by. That's stressful. But when you're focused, right, right.

Throw that.

Throw that shit off the cliff. When you wake up and you're more focused on how do you make people happy, like you just said, man, that's where the joy's at and that's where the relationships and the followers in the community are at. If there's someone who's listening right now, Laura, that's like, God dang it, she's speaking my language. I'm stuck. I'm stuck and I'm burnt out. What advice would you give them?

I think, honestly, when I started my why, and everyone knows who Simon Sinek is, but that is so important. Like, why are you doing this? Because you might be like, I don't know and I don't want to do it anymore, like. Or you might be like, is my why different now? Is what I started with and what I thought different? Because for me, I think it was a different time. 2015 was really, honestly, a lot easier with, like, marketing, social media. Everything was. Everything just kind of was like, oh, I can post a photo and get 2000 likes and everybody's here buying it. That's how it's always going to be, right? No, I feel the stuckness too. In some ways. I think it's why are you doing what you're doing? Do you have customers? Do you have sales? Do you have people wanting what you're selling? Because that's the hard part is if you don't figuring that out and being able to change it and having the capital to shift and do something else. I think what I find, though, the most, honestly, calming, which is weird, is if I'm in the store working, like, by myself, like, I am working in the store. I talk to people and I listen to what they say and I write down with a pen. This lady came in and said she hated this. What? I don't care. Like, it doesn't offend me. I don't know, I don't get offended by a lot of things. Like, if you don't like what I'm selling, then you're just not going to buy anything and you're going to leave. It's like, I'm not going to force you, you know? So I think it's really like getting that feedback from customers and just talking to people. And if you're a brick and mortar, I mean, it is a lot easier, I think, in, you know, you see people every day, you talk to them every day. So really just like, figuring out, is it something that you're missing that they want, that you could be selling or that you could be doing, figuring out, doing surveys. I mean, nobody wants to hear negative things about themselves or their business, but sometimes ripping the band aid off and, like, genuinely understanding, wow, I'm missing the mark on X and I could be doing this better. Kind of gets you out of that stuck place. So. Yeah, but the why is so important. Because if your why was to start and make a million bucks and you're not, well, maybe your why is different. Maybe it needs to be a little different. I don't know. I think everybody also thinks, oh, Instagram, you have this many followers, you're just rolling in money and you're like, okay, that's not true for anybody.

It's not true for anybody.

Maybe Louis Vuitton, but that's been built over hundreds of years as well. So I think it's different.

So true. So if anyone has not, I want to just go back to finding that video you're talking about. Did you know that Delta's playing playing this on airplanes now? That Simon Sinek TED Talk.

Yes. TED Talks on there. And I've actually watched some that have been very like, I can't think of your sports person, too. The quarterback that, like, somehow. I mean, a miracle, like, totally. His leg was, like, demolished surgery all came back. Everything. I need to send him to you. And he played like a year and a half later. And I was like. And he's up on stage talking about his. And I'm like, of course, here we are again. I'm sobbing on a plane or somewhere in public. It's not a good look. If you see girls sobbing in public, it's me. But, yeah, like, just. I mean, it just makes you look at it and be like, man, I don't know. There's a lot more to this than just. I mean, I know I get, like, dramatic and whiny about things, but, wow, like, to have that happen to you. And be able to come back from that. But, yeah, I think it's like, what's your why? Or find your why. The Simon Sinek.

It's a TED Talk. And then he wrote a book. Start with why. It's in my audible right now. So I've gotten through, like, half of it. Story of my life with audible, actually. But it's really good, so definitely check that out. Laura, I have one last question for you, so I would love to know. To me, like, this is just such a pivotal story in your life, and I'm so thankful that you were able to share it with us today. But let's fast forward. Let's say 30 years down the road, right? Whatever happens with Fern, whatever you decide to do, maybe you and your husband decide to get a little place in the country with the dogs, like, whatever it is, and you're looking back at the last 30 plus years of your life and what you built and how you lived. What's the thing that you want people to remember most about your life and your journey?

I think that everything is always going to change, and you just have to be, like, open to it happening. I've always. If I've been on boards or been involved with any sort of, like, marketing groups, everybody's like, we can't change anything. And I'm like, okay, well, then nothing's going to change. And it's been years. I've. I've. Eight years ago, I was on a board. Nothing has changed in eight years. And I just. I'm. I know change is so hard for humans. And I think that you have to know it's going to happen. And it doesn't mean negative. It doesn't mean. But I think it's just. As humans, we all get really caught up in these great, happy, positive times, and we don't ever prepare ourselves to think about, if it's not like this, how am I gonna react? How is it gonna work? So I think just the change, you just have to know is there. I mean, for years, I would be like, my dog's never going to die. I would tell my dog to his face, he's never going to die. And my husband would say, stop. And I'm like, why are you saying that? And he's like, laura, he's an. I'm like, I don't know. And I couldn't. I couldn't handle it. And then it, like, it happened. And I was like, yeah, so we, like, change. We have to, like, understand that it's just. It's. There's reasons why things happen and it just teaches you how much to love, you know? Like I loved him so much, like beyond. So it's just like it was a good thing that I was able to have that time with him and see the positive in it. And yeah, so it's just, it's, I don't know when you work with people all day long and you just notice like the lack of that able to shift and change, you're like, man, you can't. It's hard to teach that. You'd almost have to like just teach yourself like within, you know, your own self part of like that journey of therapy.

Have a good therapist and good self reflection. But what I hear you say is something good comes from every bad situation if you choose to look for it. And change is. Change is so freaking hard. But I love that you said your purpose is to love. Whether it's your pets, your animals, your family, or most of all your customers in this business. So, so good. Laura, thanks so much for being on the show today. This was awesome. I am just so thankful to get to know you and just see your journey unfold. Thanks for sharing your story with us today.

Thank you.

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