The Power of Community and Collaboration with Anna Ledebuhr, Coulee Boutique

Hey, guys. This week on the podcast, I get to have a local friend join me. That doesn't happen very often, so I couldn't be more excited to invite my friend Anna, the founder of Kuli Boutique and a member of our Boutique Mastermind, to the show. Anna has done a tremendous job cultivating community over competition in her small town, and she's going to come today to tell us exactly how she's done that and how she's been really successful with Pink Friday. Now, I'm so lucky because my friends and I all get to board an awesome bus and go to Anna and many other local boutiques during Pink Friday. So we're going to talk about that experience, how she's made the most of it, and how you can work with other local entrepreneurs to cultivate that feeling of Pink Friday and community over competition all year round. I know you're going to love this one. So team up, get some notes, and let's listen to my friend Anna, the founder of Cooly Boutique. 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 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 to the podcast. This week, I feel like we could have done this one in person. I mean, it's not very often that I get a local to interview. Anna, this is so great that you're here. Thanks for joining me.

I know. I'm really, really grateful that you asked me to be on.

This is so good. I have had the pleasure of just getting to watch you grow your business from a close vantage point, not only just being local to you, but also watching you in the Mastermind. And you do some things that I think are so, so unique and so special to your community that I'm really excited to uncover those and share them with everybody today. So before we do, give me a little bit of backstory on your just entrepreneurial journey. Where did this come from? How did you decide to start a boutique? What's the roots?

So I feel like my story is not particularly groundbreaking by any means, but for a long time, I was a teacher. I taught middle school math in my community and I really loved what I did. I loved who I worked with, the students, all of that, but I was really getting tired. I was getting tired of bringing home a lot of work and having little kids. And so I was looking for a change. And so I'd applied for some different positions and realized through interviews and stuff like that that I didn't want to work for somebody else. And so that spurred the idea that I want to work for myself, I want to own a business. But I really had no idea what it was going to be. I didn't. I don't know. Boutique was not like on my radar. But in college I worked at the Buckle. I like clothes. I always. I don't consider myself a fashionista by any means, but I don't know, I just started finding some things boutique niche and was consuming all the, like YouTube podcast, all the content, reading books, and fell in love with just entrepreneurship in general. And then obviously boutique was like the route that I took. So I started a pop up in 2018. So I had a Shopify website from the very beginning, from day one when I launched, and then would do pop ups throughout the summ. And that quickly ground me to like just. That was very, very hard because I did still teach the very first year that I ran my boutique. I still was teaching and then running on the weekends to do pop ups. And that was not fun. So I thought, hey, what better thing to do than open a brick and mortar? You know, why not do that? So in November, that was about six months in. It's like the busiest time in Wisconsin, I think. I actually just shared this with a woman yesterday in my store. Um, she's part time in our small town and then part time in Orlando of all places. And I said, yeah, November. I was talking about Pink Friday and then talking about the day after. I'm like, it is the busiest weekend for our entire store. And she's like, what?

Why?

And then I just said deer hunting. And she. I had to explain all of that. But in Wisconsin it's like a cultural thing. But the opening weekend of deer hunting is such a big deal that the men go out hunting, the women come shopping. And so that was the first, honestly the first weekend that I was open in 2018. And it's just kind of been growth, steady growth ever since. I love that.

It's been fun to watch this growth. Talk to me about you started in a smaller location in that brick and mortar, and then you actually, you swap stores with somebody else right across the street. Talk to me about that journey.

Yeah. So my first brick and mortar was about 750 square feet and you know, it was like at the beginning, I look back at pictures and it felt so full. But I look at pictures now and I'm like, wow. All this, like, space on the wall, there's just. It just was so empty. But we quickly, like, just, I don't know, kind of used up literally all the space. So then I had rented an apartment down the street. Because I'm in a really small town, there's not a lot of retail space, and so nothing was available to move bigger. And so I had rented an apartment with a friend, and she ran a shop out of the front half. And in the back half, I had an office where we would do our live sales and then storage. But then I was literally hauling, you know, the big husky totes of clothes down the block or running a, you know, big. Not scooter, but a big wagon with clothes down the block so I could fill up the store each week. And it was just like, too much. And so then my landlord, so she had owned the building or owns the building that I was in, owned the building that I am in, currently offered to swap locations. So I went from 750 square feet to now I have a total of 3, 500 square feet, but about 1500 of that is actually this whole lower level which we have for live sale storage, office space. The building is like 140 years old. It's beautiful. It's really, you know, it comes with its quirks being old, but it's got a ton of history. So that's where I am now, and that's where I have been for about a year and a half.

I would love to hear you just talk about, like, since I've been in your store and I've seen it, it's so beautiful. It's really cool, this open concept, even if you want to describe it a little bit more. But something I feel like you've done really well is just how you've merchandise and how you've bought for your store. Like, it's not just an apparel store. Like, you have so much gift. You've got men's, you've got kind of all sorts of things. Talk to me about your buying strategy and filling up that store and your rebuy strategy, because that's a big investment, trying to build that space and do it, you know, kind of taking a risk, expanding into a lot of product lines that you probably didn't carry before. Talk to me about that process.

It was definitely different. So one thing I've always been really proud of is that I'VE always carried a lot of products from local makers business. You know, typically they're mostly women owned. And so I already had a lot of gift that way where it was like I have candles, I have local jewelry, I have a variety like leather handbags, that sort of thing. So I, I knew that I had that and I just wanted to expand on it. So Dallas was definitely a really good opportunity for me to do like home and gift at the same time as apparel and just dipping my toes in. And so it's been finding you know, fun hard. You're, you're, I don't want to say you're wasting money, but sometimes you'll find a brand that just doesn't connect. And honestly, men's has kind of been that like I had a couple of, I thought like good, solid, strong brands of clothing and the apparel for men, for me just didn't work. And it was taking up real estate in the store that was much better suited for my women's clothing. So we still have gift, you know, if somebody needs to come in and get a Father's day gift or a birthday or something like that, we have that. But yeah, our store, like since the very beginning it's always been a department store. So it's kind of got that old feel. Like the display windows, we have these huge display windows on either side. When you walk in the front door, it's got this really cool mezzanine that's like you said, kind of an open concept and so it's really neat. Like the other day I had people that were in, I don't know where they said they live now, maybe down by Madison, but they were visiting and she's like, oh wow. Like I haven't been in here since it was Casperg's, which was in the 70s. I mean like Casper's had been around for about 50 years, but it was like 70s to. Well no, it was maybe earlier than that but anyways till like early 2000. And so the fact that I have so many people that used to come and get their school, you know, their back to school clothes at my store and now they're coming back and being able to like full circle buy clothes again. Yeah, it's been really cool.

That is a really neat full circle experience. You the community that you're in. Just to illustrate also, you know, it's a really small community, but it's so beautiful. Like you've got this beautiful town square and it's become quite a destination. I feel like for people to come and shop and just do touristy things. Talk to me, because I know you're very involved with your local community. How have you really fostered even more activity by collaborating with others in your community?

Yeah. So last night, for example, I was at a meeting for. It's called the Downtown Galesville Business Alliance. So DGBA is what we're called, and we started that. Boy, I can't remember 2019. Because we saw we have a chamber of commerce, a local chamber of commerce, and they do a lot of great things in our community. But we wanted more to focus just on our downtown and really to highlight the things and, I don't know, events that we've been able to host right downtown, like you said, on this very adorable town square. And so, like, last night's meeting, we have a local pizza farm owner that was there. We have a gift shop owner, a salon owner. And so it's open to a variety of businesses. And everybody just has the goal of growing downtown and showcasing downtown. And so it's been really neat to hear perspectives of people who have been in business for 30, 40. There's one women, One woman, they just sold their business, but she's been in business for over 50 years. And so leaning on the knowledge of people that have gone before, like, you know, they maybe did things more old school back then, and Facebook is not like, not their jam, but that's what I'm there for. Right? So it's like, I. I run a certain portion of our. Of our page, but then they come in with like, hey, mailers have done really well for us in the past, or brochures. It's like, okay, well, like, let's try kind of all the different avenues and listen to everyone's voices. And, yeah, so, yeah, I've just been really, really involved in that particular group since day one. And then there's just a couple of not just, but other local organizations that are more collaborative of small businesses. I just think that's very important. It's grown. It's grown business for everyone. And so I think that's the ultimate goal.

That's so good. If someone was listening and they're like, hey, I want to start something like that in my community, or I'm really looking to spruce up maybe an existing organization like that in my community. What advice would you give to them in order to make, like, a collaboration like this or a group like this most successful? What's really worked for you guys?

I think being very humble, like, going in and recognizing that other people do have talents, not just Trying to like steamroll a group and, and to take over and say like, I know what's best. I think I did kind of not like in a bad way, but fell into that a little bit at the beginning where I was like, I'm just going to try to do all the things because I know how to do xyz. I had somebody kind of hold me back a little bit and say like, you don't have to do everything. And I was like, okay. That permission was really needed. And so once that happened, it was like, yeah, all these people do have great, like I said, just practical knowledge from being in their own businesses and industries. And so being very open minded is obviously helpful. And this is kind of old school too, but just like being in other people's businesses, so not walking in like, and I think I'm really fortunate but like, you know, I'm not walking into anyone's business and they think I'm like spying on them or I'm looking down on them. It's like, no, I'll walk in and we'll just like have a conversation. How are things going? Like, what could we do better in our group to, to serve you? So we've added some things. I mean last year we finally have like a mission, vision, values, core things for our like a brand. I mean as our organization, it's really become a brand. And so that's, yeah, all of those things have really been helpful.

That's so good. What about the events that you guys have hosted together? I know there's a number of collaborations you've had with events and really for me, one I've been involved with you guys is Pink Friday. Talk to me about how you guys plan events and really what's worked for you.

I mean part of it is so we meet once a month, we meet the first Wednesday of every month and we kind of look at what's ahead. So we, we were able to use January, February, you know, like the, not slower months, but the slower months where we're really not doing outdoor events to plan for the summer. So once a month in the summer we do what are called walkabouts in our town. And so that involves food trucks, musicians, local food vendors, and then also just vendors in general. It's a vendor event and businesses are open late. So typically a lot of people in our small town are open until like I'm only open until 5, 5:36 is maybe kind of late but that those nights were open until 7. But being able to again foster relationship post to the community These are free events we've, we've had. This last couple has been so cute. We had kids get involved. They learned how to make their own balloon animals. So they were selling balloon animals and one little girl was selling pictures. Like you could pay her 50 cents and she would draw you a picture. And it was just, I don't know, it's so neat. And then it just brings the parents in. And that's the other thing too is like we're trying to have things that are very family friendly, family oriented. So I think getting back to it, we plan that and then kind of behind the scenes, there's a group of four of us that are on a text chain. And just like, like today I have to make some graphics for upcoming events. And once those are done, somebody's going to post them to the website. And so just being able to try to streamline, we had somebody help us make a website. So all of that stuff has really been helpful. It's, it's been a major growth period. I mean, none of us know how to. We're running a non profit organization. Like, it's pretty cool.

Yeah.

But yeah, so like, I'm making a little graphic. Coming up. We have Apple affairs, our biggest event in town. And then we have Pink Friday, the holiday walkabout. We have trick or treating downtown with trunk or treat with businesses, and then Santa on the square. So I don't know, just trying to get the word out and letting families know that we have all of this stuff that we're offering because obviously putting all this work in you just the reward is seeing the town full and making people feel included.

I love that. Talk to me more about Pig Friday. Let's talk through kind of what we did last year because I know that's coming up and maybe that can give everyone some ideas of what to do in their own community. I can talk about the bus, but I would love to know how did you kind of organize everyone else in the community to rally around Pink Friday and opening deer season? Because that's equally as huge.

Yeah, well, so you guys have done a good job. Honestly. I was talking about this on one of our mastermind calls, but how there's a lot of people that are in our, maybe not my immediate community, but like the larger area of where we are that know about Pink Friday, they're hosting their own events. And so I think as more people are hosting, more people are asking them, like, what is Pink Friday? Why should I participate? Why do I want to go shop on that day? So, like Last night at our meeting, I talked about it and got to explain again what Pink Friday is and why it is. And so we, I just encourage other businesses, like staff extra on those days because like you guys brought a bus of women. Plus we had like in my own store, I mean, a photo op. I had somebody coming in doing permanent jewelry. We had a bakery pop up. So providing other small businesses an opportunity to take part in it if maybe they don't have like the permanent jewelry, she does have a brick and mortar. But. But if they don't have their own space somewhere to share their goods, you know, those other small businesses. So I think that's really helpful. I'm trying to think of what else, like, specifically for me, it was just sharing the word. A couple of other businesses I know did pop ups locally in our town. So I don't know, I think that's one thing we do really well is encouraging like startup businesses. Again, people, maybe they're working full time and this is something that they're starting on the side, but giving them a place to sell their goods and drawing a crowd so that it's not just a craft event where, you know, you sit and you hope people are going to walk through. Like, we definitely make it worth their while to maybe take a day off of work or whatever to come and share.

Yeah. You know what's funny? You know, one of my favorite purchases was on Pink Friday last year when I came to your town, someone in your town hosted a pop up and had. They had like a woman who did canning come in and she had canned goods. I had been looking for homemade salsa and you're going to die. This is like a Midwest thing. But be pickles.

Beat beet pickles.

Yes. And I was so excited to find this. She might have even had like lefse or other totally random things.

And I was like, yeah, this is.

The best, best part of Pink Friday. So what we did on our end, just for those of you who are listening, we rented a bus and just told kind of friends of friends, hey, bring a friend, tell a friend. Everybody chipped in a couple bucks to get on the bus. And then we worked with local boutique owners just to create a route. And you've got a coffee shop in your town. So we stopped at the coffee shop when we got to town and then went around to businesses, hopped back on the bus. Everyone kind of brought like a sack lunch and just like food and snacks along on the bus. And we went to like four or five more stores I think in different towns. And ended at the end of the day with, of course, you know, some cocktails and opportunities for kids to get picked up after school, but what a fun day for moms. And I think it's somebody that anyone or it's something anyone can organize in their local community as well. So we love participating with you on Pink Friday.

That was great. And do you remember the. The major panic, though, that day? You were in my store, and I was so grateful because it was like, you guys came early. We kind of opened, like, you know, 15 minutes early for your group, and the first person came up to purchase and Shopify was down. And it was like, yes. Oh, my gosh. Like, we prepared for this day. We did everything we could possibly do.

Okay.

Ashley Alderson is in my store. This is. This is okay. This is gonna be okay. And we. Yeah, we were gonna, like, start taking down people's credit card information. We had it all sort of figured out.

I think you were gonna start checking out through comment sold, or like, you had a whole nother plan as well by, like, writing things down. But it was happening in the Facebook group as well. So you and I were also reading the Boutique of Facebook group. Like, oh, no, this is a big day. Not a good time for Shopify to go down. For sure.

Not good. And it never goes down. You know, Like, I don't feel like I've hardly ever had a Shopify issue. And of course, of all days that day, Absolutely.

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I mean, I don't. It's hard to say the specific mindset shift, but I do really love to listen to business podcasts. I like to listen to how, like, other businesses got started. One of my favorite podcasts is called Business Movers, and they go through each season is like a different business. And right now they're talking about Lego. And anyways, just that these huge, huge businesses have had major catastrophes or things happen and they have to rally the troops. Like, they wouldn't still be the big business they were if they just rolled over and gave up. So part of it for me is being able to, like you said, be uncomfortable. Like, I. Being on this podcast is a big thing. Like, this is huge. This is also a podcast. I mean, I've listened to for years and years. I think I've probably gone through every single episode. And so being asked, I was like, holy cow, this is amazing. I'm really nervous, but I'm gonna do it. You know what I mean? And. And the other thing I think for myself personally, and this is just. I think being a former teacher, you're in front of kids and I taught middle school, and so, you know, anything goes well with any age, but with middle schoolers, they're just a different breed. But being able to just punt, you know what I mean? Like, not feeling like you have to have it all perfect and prepared. The done is better than perfect method is kind of my motto.

And.

And so that just comes off more authentic too, is not having this.

Yeah.

Script or facade or whatever. Like, if. If I see you in person, I might say something super awkward and stick my foot in my mouth. But that's just who I am. Like, I'm. I'm not the most polished person, but. But people, I think, gravitate towards that. I think they appreciate the realness. And so, yeah, I guess totally taking this back to your question, being willing to take big leaps and chances on myself. I feel like in five, five years in business, I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't do that and if I just stayed in my lane. But also didn't and didn't ask. People that are like, you know, they always say, find somebody that's doing what you do, but 10 steps ahead. And I think that that's been really helpful. And so, like, I'm maybe quiet in some of these bigger rooms, but I'm soaking it in and trying to figure out ways that I can, like, slowly incorporate things so that I'm not overwhelming myself all at once.

I love that. And completely genuine along the way. I just think that's awesome. Yeah. Something else that I noticed about you is, of course, you and I get a chance to run into each other outside of Boutique World because we're both moms and our kids are all the same age, and so we see each other at sporting events quite often. And I. I think, especially right now in our industry, I think we've come to, like, a really critical point of there's just a lot of burnout. Like, there's just a lot of boutique owners trying to do all the things. And I know for me, and I'm curious if this is true for you. The older the kids get, like, you know, our oldest are our eighth grade. Right. The older they get, I think the more you realize, like, your clock is ticking and you have this pressure to not only continue to perform as a business owner, but sometimes as a business owner, we think we have all kinds of time, but now we're realizing, oh, my gosh, I don't have as much time with my kids and with my family as I want. And so I think that's also work. A source of burnout is coming for people. So I'm curious for you, as a mom of three incredibly busy sports, all the things, how do you just set clear boundaries so that you can live in both aspects of your life and also have enough peace to just lay your head on the pillow at night and know that you're not lacking in one area or the other. Like, you've performed your best, best in both arenas and you're excited to do it again tomorrow.

So a couple of things. Number one, I will say a big boundary that I've set. I'm not great at boundaries, to be very honest, but one that I've said is it goes for me and my staff, but is we're really flexible with scheduling. It's. It makes headaches a lot of times just trying to get everybody, like, in the right places. But family is really important to myself and to my employees. So, you know, there's some cut and dry days. Like, you're gonna have to be here on a Black Friday, Pink Friday. Like, there's just shifts that have to be worked. But other than that, we're pretty flexible as far as giving people the time off. So that I feel like they're also flexible with me when I'm not there. That, that it's not like it's unfair. You know, everybody's kind of pulling their weight, work wise at home. I do have a hard time not shutting off, but I just love, I love business. I love collaborating. Like, had a meeting last night. I had a meeting Tuesday night. Tonight I'm doing something that's like, kind of personal, but kind of work. So with that, I feel like my husband has really picked up a ton of slack and I give him a lot of credit for that because he does a lot more of the running around with kids during the week and I try to be as available as I can on the weekends. So like Saturday football games or, you know, basketball tournaments. That's kind of. I really don't want to miss it. Like, unless we're absolutely short staffed. Like, of course I'll work at the store. But yeah, that's just very, very important to me is, is being there for like the, I don't say the bigger events, the, the games, the tournaments, the whatever, but when my kids see me in the stands, you know, they don't see me when they're at practice. And so thank goodness my husband is willing to, to shuffle kids all over the place that way. Yeah, I just think we have really flexible kids too. My husband grew up, his parents owned a family business for 40 years. So he was a kid of, you know, the parents that were working a lot. So I think he gets it as far as like my, my role in all of this. And so that's been, it's been wonderful. I mean, I really can't say too much about that other than Eric. My Eric. You have an Eric too. But isn't that crazy? It is, I know, but he, yeah, he's just been kind of a rock star. And so I appreciate that very much.

So good. And your team too. But your team being able to step in and take over things so you can also step away means that you've trained them well. So talk to me about like, systems processes, just ongoing training that has allowed your team to find success and to have you feel like you don't have to be there every step of the way as well.

I don't know. I've got good people and I feel like I'm really intuitive with hiring Like, I've never had to post. The only job position I ever posted for the store was a cleaning position and I ended up hiring it back end from somebody that I knew. Like, I just. People have either reached out to me looking for work and I feel like I'm a really good judge of character that way, or, or I've reached out to them and just said, like, hey, I'm looking for somebody to fill, you know, these hours. And, and it's, it's worked out. So as far as like getting people I feel. I don't even know, I feel like I'm super, super lucky and fortunate that way. But training, like, even that. So today, here I am on a call with you. I have two new employees training at the store. Because my third employee loves training. Like, she is phenomenal. She, when she first got hired and this was, I think, recommended to me. So she, but she did. It was. She has a notebook that like when she was first training, anytime there was a system or process, like a return, a return in common sold, a return in Shopify, you know, anything like that, she wrote it down step by step by step. So it's like literally this little bible that sits in the top shelf at the store. And so then other employees, if they're running into an issue, like we train them well, but you're still going to have that moment of panic, like, how do I do this? How do I, you know, ship this? It's right there. They just pull it out, they go to the page. It's organized. So I, you know, I give her a ton of credit because you know how everything is like the original business owner is up in your head and then all of a sudden, like, you're building the plane as you're flying it. You don't have time to, to go back and like, write it all out. She did that for me. And so that's been a really, really helpful tool.

So good. So good. All the, all the systems we build as we fly the plane.

Yeah, absolutely.

What do you think, looking back on your business in the. What's been the best advice that you've gotten along the way?

Best advice for like, business growth or just business in general?

In general. The seasons you've been in.

Boy, I mean, I think. And this is something I'm still working on, but just being able to delegate is so helpful because again, then you're not going to be the one that has to be doing all the things. So I'm definitely the bottleneck in certain areas. And, and so things are still, we're still working on that. But being able to let go of certain things has really helped me. And then it empowers my to to be involved in different ways in the business instead of just being a sales associate, you know what I mean? It's like taking their. I think of the Akrons and like thinking of people's like joy spots and their gifts and being able to give them a task that they are super good at and then I don't have to do and it frees me up to do XYZ other thing.

Yeah. How have you looked at that for yourself? Like, how have you evaluated what your joy spot is so that you can find joy along your journey? Vers just finding joy when you reach the next goal. So I think that's like an issue a lot of people are facing is prolonging the joy rather than looking forward in the moment.

I think it's hard because, like, one thing I actually, I'm. I've been connecting with somebody that I know. She lives in Orlando, so this would be like my first remote employee and she was going to enter product for me and we just haven't connected. Like, we had a couple calls set up where we talked, and then it was going to be like the. The one where I show her what I, you know, how to do it. And that never happened. And I look back and I'm like, you know, this is fall. This is when like everything comes in. It's the most. I mean, I actually am looking at a stack of invoices right now. But I don't hate entering product. And I know that's one thing's like, it's a, you know, how many $10 an hour job, like hire somebody to do it. But I, I don't hate it. And so part of me is okay doing things that maybe aren't particularly moving the needle, but I don't know. But you talk about evaluating. I've never really officially sat and like done the what I like to do and what I don' to do tasks or like write out every single thing that I do in a day and delegate. But it's more the opposite. Like, I come come in it from the back end. Like, what do I know they like to do that could help me and take it off my plate? So there's just been like a handful of things in the last month or, I don't know, maybe since summer that I've changed that have just freed me up and it's been good, you know, like, like, I don't Mind scheduling. I don't love it, but I don't mind it. Like, I graciously handed that over to an employee and she's finding it challenging for sure right now. But I think it's also, like, it's busy season, right? So we need more people on and people have more requests off because it's like holiday and stuff like that. But I don't know. So I do find that to still be a challenge because I enjoy, like, most aspects of my business, honestly, like, I will whistle. Well, I can't whistle, but I would whistle if I could. Taking the trash across the street. Like, I don't mind doing like the gross dirty jobs. Like, I don't know. I just. And that's maybe a thing that was advice when I was in education, but it was like, treat every single person the same, whether it's the custodian, your principal, your super. Like, it doesn't matter who they are and what walk of life they come from. So I see that with like, employees and customers, like, I don't know, just there's everybody is important. And so I think that's actually just been really important and valuable advice in my life in general.

Yeah, I love that. Well, Anna, this is so good. I feel like time's flying by just sharing ideas and man, so many good takeaways and hopefully everybody listening has got a page of notes and ideas as well. Man, as you think about your kids. And this is going to make me, like, think about my kids as you talk, but I mean, the clock's ticking, right? And you think about your life 30 years from now and your kids have kids and you're sitting on that front porch with grandbabies and you're looking back. What are the things you want them to remember most about the journey that you've been on, these businesses that you've built, the life that you've lived. What do you want them to remember most about you?

So I. I kind of think I'll piggyback it off of what I was just talking about, but that I treat all people with respect and kindness. You know, there are days, and this is something, I guess I is very, like, what do I want to say? Being very transparent. Like, they, you know how you bring home kind of the yuck. So I would say definitely, my kids and my husband probably get like the worst side of me. And so that's definitely something I'd like to change because you are like, I am. So try to be gregarious and helpful and all the things for all the people. So, but I just want them to see that, that I'm doing it for them. Right. So like I'm not necessarily building this business for them. It's not that I would expect any of them to take it over, but that it's so that they can do the things that they love. And so when they're older and they have grandkids or I have grandkids or whatever, that, that they were able to experience a lot of things in life that maybe, like if I was still teaching, unfortunately, I don't feel like I would be able to offer them some of the same opportunities and so that the sacrifices are worth it that they were able to. And it's not even like monetary. It's just being able to like do things as a family that weren't, weren't possible before, whether it be schedule wise or whatever. But it's for them.

I love that and all the lessons learned along the way having a family business. So good. Yes. Well, Anna, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for being a huge part of our community at the Hub and for the fun collaborations we get to do for Pink Friday. And I'm excited to sit at a basketball game with you soon.

Yeah, Easton versus Reed. We'll see it.

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