Unpacked In Santa Cruz
"Unpacked in Santa Cruz" is a homegrown podcast hosted by Michael Howard that dives into the lives, stories, and salty moments of people who call this coastal community home—or have been shaped by it in some way. Whether it's a deep conversation with local surfers opening up about mental health, or a peek behind the curtain of someone who started a one-of-a-kind food spot right here in town, every episode brings something real.
You’ll hear from folks who found healing behind the lens, built businesses from scratch, or chased massive waves thanks to a lifetime spent around our local waters. These aren’t just interviews—they’re conversations that reflect the heart and soul of Santa Cruz. Raw, reflective, and rooted in community, Unpacked in Santa Cruz brings local voices to the surface.
Unpacked In Santa Cruz
Episode 56: Natalie Wegrich: The Journey From Childhood Dreams to Jewelry Entrepreneur
A quiet retail revolution is unfolding in Santa Cruz, and Natalie Wegrich of Toasted Jewelry stands at its forefront. From the mountains of Scotts Valley to the beaches of Pleasure Point, Natalie's entrepreneurial journey captures the essence of what makes our coastal community special—authenticity, craftsmanship, and an unapologetic pursuit of happiness.
With the tick-tick-tick of hammers in her workshop, Natalie and her team of eight women create affordable, high-quality jewelry that captures the beachy essence of Santa Cruz. Using gold-filled and sterling silver adorned with pearls, turquoise, and shells, Toasted Jewelry has grown from a YouTube-learned passion project into a thriving business with two retail locations. This expansion flies in the face of conventional wisdom about brick-and-mortar retail's demise, suggesting instead that something powerful happens when makers connect directly with their community.
The conversation delves into the transformation of 41st Avenue, where female entrepreneurs are creating a new business culture built on collaboration rather than competition. "There's truly enough to go around for everybody," Natalie shares, emphasizing the importance of staying in your lane while supporting those around you. Her perspective gained profound depth after facing breast cancer shortly after signing the lease for her first store—a challenge that crystallized her commitment to finding joy in each day and letting go of what doesn't matter.
Throughout the episode, Natalie's infectious optimism illuminates how personal values translate into business success. From bootstrapping every step of the way to creating a workplace where craftsmanship and happiness coexist, she exemplifies how authentic entrepreneurship can thrive even in challenging retail environments. Visit Toasted Jewelry on the westside or in Pleasure Point to experience firsthand how handcrafted pieces and genuine connection are creating a new kind of retail experience in Santa Cruz.
Welcome to the Unpacked in Santa Cruz podcast. I'm your host, Michael Howard, Natalie Wegrich. Here you are.
Speaker 2:What's up, guys?
Speaker 1:Okay, starting things off a little bit different, I'm going to say a word and I want to hear your first thoughts.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love it All right.
Speaker 1:Santa Cruz.
Speaker 2:Beach, beach, now boardwalk.
Speaker 1:What about the beach? What about the boardwalk?
Speaker 2:Hot dogs.
Speaker 1:Hot dogs. You like boardwalk hot dogs?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess I should have went the corn dog route, the corn dog route, but the spot by the bumper cars has the best corn dogs. Yeah, 1,000%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when was the first time you had one?
Speaker 2:Probably when I was a little girl, when my mom and dad would bring me to the boardwalk and my mom loved those freaking corn dogs and it was the first place we went to when we got there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny they used to have like it was 10 cent night, then 25 cent night.
Speaker 2:I remember Everything was you know that price. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, with the dollar night.
Speaker 2:Good times.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Pepsi can night.
Speaker 1:But the corn dogs were always more money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like shoot Corn dogs were always more money. Why can't these be 25 cents?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they actually, when I was younger, when I was a teenager and we went to those nights, they did have a 25 cent cord dog. It wasn't the same.
Speaker 2:No, they're like the chintzy little ones. It's kind of soggy, huh yeah, but you'll take what we could get you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what's your favorite beach?
Speaker 2:My favorite beach is Manresa and I dedicate that love to my husband, noah, because he loves Manresa and my mom actually always loved Manresa too, growing up. But I just love how it's always like peaceful chill you can have like your own little zone. You're not like crunched up on other people and like to be fair, I'm mostly stoned at the beach, so I like going to Manresa where I don't run into a bunch of people. Don't have to talk, don't want to talk.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's another word Entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:Ooh fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you imagine you would be one?
Speaker 2:Kinda yeah, I like in a way, I feel like I always, like I'm always been really independent and I've always loved to work and I've worked since I was 15. My first job was actually marinis at the beach boardwalk.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I don't know. There was just always something in my soul that I like had a feeling like I would have my own business one day. I didn't know what it would be, but I just knew, like, following my heart, it would like just unfold eventually. But it probably really got ignited when I was in college. I was a psychology major at UC Santa Barbara and I picked psychology because it was the most interesting thing to me in school. I knew I wanted to get a college education and a degree and I just always loved psychology classes. So I was like cool, let's do that.
Speaker 2:And then when I was there, they had this program called the TMP program Technology Management Program which kind of encapsulated business marketing, all that stuff sales. It encapsulated like business marketing, that all that stuff sales. And it was in those classes, particularly the entrepreneurship class, that I was like, oh my gosh, like I just like this feels good to me, like I feel like I love all of this, like it resonates with me, like I think it's also interesting, like it's kind of like a game you have to play and like you know, I loved that aspect. And so I ended up doing that program on top of my degree and just fell in love and I was like I want to do this, like I don't know what, and you know, jewelry was always something that I loved to make and do, so then, when I graduated, I was like I'm probably jumping the gun here a little bit but once I graduated I was like, oh, like, how do I combine these two to like create something and just like see if it works?
Speaker 1:Well, let's get into that story and we'll, we'll, we'll. Um venture in a in a normal way on the previous podcast. Um Venture in a normal way on the previous podcast. Why don't you tell the audience a little bit about yourself? Where are you from? Where did you grow up? What's your experience here? How did you get here?
Speaker 2:Cool, yeah, so I grew up well. I was born in Santa Clara and then kind of moved around a little bit when I was little my mom's a nurse, my dad's a mechanic and ended up moving to the Santa Cruz Mountains when I was going into sixth grade and went to Scotts Valley middle school and high school and then went to Cabrillo Um and then went to UC Santa Barbara after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so your experience growing up here, you know cause this is a different trajectory than than a lot of my previous interviews. You lived in Scotts Valley world and why don't you describe for the audience how different Scotts Valley is, which is? Five miles away part of Santa Cruz County. But you know, for those of us down here it's all Jesus, flower skirts and OxyContin up there. Oh my gosh, that is hilarious, it's such a weird because it's the most conservative space Dude and like it is.
Speaker 2:It's so interesting.
Speaker 1:As red as you get in Santa Cruz as far as politics go and and like. But just crazy paradox of all things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I was a mountain girl, I grew up in the forest and so, definitely growing up in Scotts Valley, I always, you know, I had a lot of great friends and stuff, but I always did kind of feel like I didn't completely fit in there. You know, like I just always kind of had more of like a free spirit, like I don't know different perspective on a lot of things.
Speaker 2:You didn't want to move to Bonny Doon, Not that free spirited but you know, like, and I also grew up with, you know, a nurse and a mechanic as parents and, um, I would say, like most of Scotts Valley is super wealthy and you know, growing up, like all I wanted was like a white Jetta to drive, you know, and like all those girls were getting white Jettas. And you know, now, looking back, I was way cooler because I was driving like beat up, old, like vintage BMWs that my dad rescued from his shop that people couldn't afford to fix anymore. But yeah, it was definitely a cool experience. Um, I don't, you know, we it was very, yeah, I guess, like you said, like conservative and money and honestly, like now that I'm getting older, like I would say, pretty narrow-minded in a lot of ways, like caring about things that like money and material things that personally, as I've gotten older, like still like don't get me wrong but like don't hold as much importance to it as other people might.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of drama, a lot of gossiping, a lot of like quote, unquote friends that you know weren't actually being good friends, like in the end, and you know yeah, I'm curious how old are you? I'm 32.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, no, I, I am oddly aware of the peer group. Did you go to Scotts Valley high also, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm oddly aware of the peer group because, I.
Speaker 2:I was at a church in scotts valley for a while okay, so yeah you know, I, I, I know you kind of understand what I'm saying here you know, there's just a thing, that that was a thing it was so um not itself I guess the best way to put it. That is a really good way to put it.
Speaker 1:It presents a particular way, but there's a bunch of other shit going on, and some of it really dark, I think, during those years, because that's just a little bit ahead of my oldest those kids had a lot of trouble coming with them.
Speaker 2:Totally yeah. And the paradox of the parents covering it up because they had the money to cover it up.
Speaker 1:What was that like? It's like the white picket fence, totally yeah. Yeah, I'm not trying to pick on any one region.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. It's chill, no traffic, it's sunny, it's clean and there is a lot of good people over there, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:But I think we're just talking about, like overall, generally speaking, the feel yeah yeah, yeah, I. I mean it was weird to watch. You know the. You know I'm a grown-ass adult at that point, with kids that are 12 yeah that's my oldest age, you know at that point yeah, how old are your children? Uh, they're all going up a digit this year, but 29, 27, 27 and 24.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know, watching that set of kids, you know, and again we'll, we'll know the names but we'll leave them out, you know, and and the things that were going on. You know I'm watched oversee the youth group. I was not the youth group leader but it was one of my areas of oversight and you know, I know the trouble that was going through our church. Crazy at the time was like you know the realty this is some next level shit that you know just was was.
Speaker 1:It was not cool like at all, like not, not. I'm not sure how there weren't a lot of kids in jail for a long time, like there was some stuff going on, yikes. You know lots of, lots of yeah, lots of big city stuff for such a small town.
Speaker 2:Right, and my head usually is always in the clouds mostly. So, like I, only you know, see a certain amount, but yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:So what was it like to move from Santa Clara to Scotts Valley, and that's a that's a pretty big shift also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was young, so I you know there was some moving around between that time which it's like do I leave this out or do I just go into it? But we my dad, when we were younger we had this like family group of friends that we were all really close with and they all wanted to move to Colorado. So we actually moved to Colorado for a few years and my mom did not like the snow, and all of her family's here in California, so she really wanted to move back, so we ended up ultimately moving back. So we actually moved to Los Gatos for a couple of years, which I honestly barely remember, and then really my memories of like growing up really start, I think, when we moved to the house in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and for all of our listeners, what? What makes Scotts Valley so unique is just pick a mountain town anywhere in the world and that's Scotts Valley. Only it's highly connected to Silicon Valley, and so what you have is a lot of executives, a lot of engineers that are choosing to live a mountain lifestyle in some way.
Speaker 2:Totally, especially nowadays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, and it's rugged, you know trees are coming down on your properties.
Speaker 2:It's not a there's like weeks we have without power. There's times our roads are blocked.
Speaker 1:You can't get out, but you know but it really harnesses this interesting energy, because when you think of tech, you don't think of mountain people and yet there's a lot of people that really, truly, you know, love that kind of space and yeah you know, pre-covid, it was one of the rare spots you could be. I mean bend, you know, I guess you could be in in also another type of Alpine town.
Speaker 2:Well, there is like something so special about living in the trees like a little fairy, you know it's very special, so I don't blame them. But yeah, whether they're like their neighbors or not that have been there for 30 years, I don't know yeah, yeah, and Scotts Valley you know it's it's changed, you know, in in lots of ways.
Speaker 1:You know it's changed. You know in lots of ways. You know, when I grew up here, it was just really truly the mountain people Like it felt like you were going 10,000 miles to get there.
Speaker 2:You're like where is this? It's a whole different world.
Speaker 1:You know, it's so weird because it's like it is so close to the beach but so far away, like it's completely removed from the rest of the county, like it's completely removed from the rest of the county, like it's its own entity.
Speaker 1:And then within that entity, you know, you get to Ben Lomond, you get to Felton, you get to Bonnie Dunes, where you just don't want to be, or didn't want to be back then, because that's where all the biker clubs were, all the meth, all the meth, all the camp helicopters were always flying over the mountains.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say, in high school, me and the girls loved coming to Santa Cruz, though Like any time we could. Once we started to drive oh my gosh, every day after school we could, we'd be over here.
Speaker 1:And back then our beaches were the Cove, blacks and 26th, because we liked to see people back then. Yeah, well, it's funny, you know, because I never hung out at blacks of the cove or or, or, you know, at santa maria, and my wife and I, you know, we have a new dog and we started going to santa maria beach and now, like, it's one of my favorite spots, like, but I've been here my whole life, surfed there a few times a year, but like, it was never my zone. Yeah, that was the midtown guys yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:That's where they start.
Speaker 1:You know they're their own crews and you know whatever else whatever surfing nonsense there, but uh, you know everything. Every little beach has its own own tale to tell yes, with its own group of of guys that kind of run the show down the story sitting in the back drinking Coors Light, watching over everything, and it just it makes it so unique. But you know Manresa, since we're talking about the beach.
Speaker 1:I have a particular affinity towards Manresa too, you know, because I think I was like 16, 17 when I first started driving down there myself and taking the time, just feeling like you're in the countryside but like coastal country, but the beach is so vast.
Speaker 2:So vast, so big.
Speaker 1:And if there's somebody next to you, all you have to do is walk 100 yards and you're with nobody. Yeah, and just that Feels like you're. You're with nobody, yeah, and just that.
Speaker 2:Feels like you're on another planet almost yeah Empty beach. Empty beach. You get like the little mist coming through. It's like it's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and of course you are Mrs Waggy now.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 1:You are Mrs Waggy, the nicest guy, no waggy in surfing. Yes, the nicest guy and and a guy who can surf any wave, so that's why he likes man risa 1000 oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:I have some funny stories about when he was teaching me to surf out there. Oh my god listen that needless to say, I don't do it anymore. At my size it's nearly impossible.
Speaker 1:You know, I've just always been a little bit too heavy for how slow and weird.
Speaker 2:that gets and there's so many, so many ways coming.
Speaker 1:I made the mistake my, my, my oldest son. He was six Right, and I swear the day was tiny. I was not trying to scare him but like it's scary, I forget how big it is in knee high water.
Speaker 2:That's what Noah was like. He's like it's small. I'm like no, it's not.
Speaker 1:There's just waves coming at you. I never forget I bottom a surfboard, bottom a wet, slick band. Oh, you want to surf? Good, we're going for it. Kid and just bawling. It's traumatizing. I didnable, and you know where it's coming from? Yeah, of course, pure bunny, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's where I thrive.
Speaker 1:So so you got married. What year?
Speaker 2:We got married, uh, two years ago. Okay, yeah, we eloped at Santa Barbara courthouse, which was gorgeous, and we did that because I mean, a, it's the most gorgeous courthouse ever. It's like Spanish style, it looks like Pablo Escobar's mansion, and then it's also just really special to me. I spent college in Santa Barbara and I love it. Who doesn't love Santa Barbara? Yeah, it was beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's on my list of escape zones if I decide to sell my place.
Speaker 2:I love that idea for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some of my best friends live down there. See, I get to stay at Hope Ranch though. Dude jealous I don't think I can swing hope ranch at this point you never know, that's a whole different, uh, whole different deal yeah but uh, you know. So my memories live there. You know it's, it's, you know we go, you know, stay there for a couple, three days, and we're with our friends just eat outside and they have a little avocado farm yeah, you know, with all the other billionaires, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:Like he calls himself the poor person, like I know how much he paid for his house and you know, at the time it was not that much. The story, the story of how he got there, is beautiful, but you know, the point being that I have been on multiple walks with billionaires. Back before billionaires didn't exist and it was so strange, like we'd just go on this walk and then he would tell me oh yeah, that's so-and-so, he's a massive movie producer from this and that, and I'm like really, who yeah, who yeah, and of course, that place has exploded even more.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but it was already out For good reason. It's absolutely stunning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you know that's the first planned community for wealthy people in California?
Speaker 2:What do you mean?
Speaker 1:They designated it for that.
Speaker 2:Really who.
Speaker 1:It lives in a hybrid right, so it's all residential ag.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's a tax shield place and then they have their own public school and and you know that that clubhouse, that that's when right, when you drive in, that's public also. But you have to live in hope ranch oh, okay, I see what you're putting. So it's like it's like yeah, no, this, this is one of those communities and well, I believe it whoever wants to farm can come here.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you know, you have your 10 000 square foot house and, yeah, your hacienda, and, and, your farm, and, and, and, so the farmers do come. And it was all avocados, you know, best avocados ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:My buddy. Still, I love this about him he, he, he'll pay for his expensive expenses on his farm, but then every piece of fruit he gives away after his expenses are covered. So you know, he's still maintaining the heart and the nature of Hope Ranch.
Speaker 2:That's how he should be, yeah.
Speaker 1:But I think Hope Ranch they had some really bad years of avocados, like where the mini avocados it was just bad growing years, and so they created a market of guacamole.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 1:So those of you who can, get guacamole in a container. You can thank Mexico for that, because they were growing bad guacamoles and then Santa Barbara had a batch of bad guacamoles. All of a sudden there's guacamole.
Speaker 2:The guacamole tea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stunning place.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know I'm hyper intrigued about this and we're going to slide into business here, You're the proprietor of Toasted Jewelry.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:And why don't you tell us a little bit about the store?
Speaker 2:Okay, I want to dive into this a little bit, yeah, okay, so I'll start from the beginning, but I'll make it snappy. I'll make it snappy. So I started Toasted Jewelry with my best friend, kiana, about eight years ago, when it was right after I graduated college, and we started all online and we worked together for about a year and then just life got, you know, busy for Keeks and so she, um decided to step away, which was really sad but understandable, and um, so I took it all on um alone and grew the business all online through social media for about five or six years and in that time I was just selling direct-to-consumer online and then had a bunch of retail accounts all over the country. And then I was able to open my first store on the west side of Santa Cruz two and a half years ago. And that was just so amazing.
Speaker 2:Opening up a storefront wasn't really ever like in my horizons. Like, leave it up to me to just like, wake up every day and see how it goes. You know, like and um. Then, just one day, I was like you know what? Like, why not? Like it sounds fun, like, let's just try it. And so open that store. And it really opened up my brain to so much. I had no idea how much better of a jeweler, businesswoman-like person it would make me. And it's just been this beautiful, blossoming experience. And then I'm lucky enough to have opened now my second store in Pleasure Point of Santa Cruz, which is right near you, michael, and yeah, that has been just a dream come true too. Oh, my goodness, like I you know, pleasure Point is like the dream of Santa Cruz. It's like.
Speaker 2:I just feel like Pleasure Point has always had the most beautiful aura about it. Like it's like sunny, happy, positive People are relaxed, like and just in good moods. They're here to shop, eat, drink, hang out with their family and friends and I have really seen that moving into the area 1000%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, when the boys bought this place in 2011 and they asked me to come, you know cause it was a mess. When they showed up and and uh, had a great anchor store Modern life was here at the time and a great Jill was just magic as far as furniture goes and her whole business model was amazing and she's a little bit older than I am and you know we we her and I had a lot of conversations about retail. We're both very common. We have a lot in common that way, and you know, retail was destroyed by Amazon.
Speaker 1:I got out of retail when Amazon happened you know, cause that was really the only place in hair you can, you know, make money with, with the shop, and so you know what Amazon did. What happened to the larger retail stores? You know, surfing's the easiest thing to look at you know became very popular. So you know you have these companies scaling so high that they really ignored their core customer.
Speaker 1:There's so much, so much, so much that happened all at once because people were scaling and and and you know, taking companies worth a hundred million dollars up to you know, four or $500 million. I don't think they were making more money, they were just bigger.
Speaker 2:Everything just got bigger.
Speaker 1:And I don't know that it got better.
Speaker 2:Lost the soul.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and, but you live in this space and this is part of the reason why I wanted to talk to you, because I knew that you were a direct consumer. First, I want to talk about both the history of this thing, what I'm seeing happening, Because brick and mortar- I think when you are direct consumer is now the next natural step 100%. And what I noticed happening and it was female entrepreneurs that are much older than you that began doing this that they started using stores as business cards Bless, you know well they.
Speaker 1:just it was like I don't really need need a store, but I need a place to do my thing right. Hold my stuff yeah you know they'll have designer like they're. Let's just say there's lots of designers who have retail stores that don't make any money at the store, but they have an office space, they have a storefront to show things yeah but their business is made elsewhere, from wealthy customers.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The business that you're in. What I've observed and you know this is something you wouldn't know, but, like White Rabbit, we were talking to you know who helps the makers. You know I, we were talking to makers thinking about starting a maker's mart in the shop that you just took over. Oh wow, and you know, you know, I was a dude, you know, so you know mostly females. Yeah, you know, and, like you know, are you serious. You know, I totally understand it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, but recognizing like oh, you know these. The next step is permanence. Yeah, in some strange way, because, whatever market cap there is on direct-to-consumer, there's also another customer that exists, here or wherever you're located, that has an affinity towards you, that wants more from you and wants contact with you on a regular basis. And so it was weird because I could see the transition coming.
Speaker 1:I was curious who, upon seeing the space, a few space was going to be like like, do you see the potential here? Like, like everything's about to grow, and so I do want to talk about this transition a little bit, because I think there there certainly are entrepreneurs that that listen to this or future entrepreneurs. There's some young people that are like, like how does? This all work.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know I'm close enough because you know I I do some uh uh due diligence for venture capital group and so you know I see a lot of young people had direct consumer products that are needing funding and so, like, everything just seems to be merging right now and that's you know. I can recognize it as an uneasy feeling like oh, there's just something new emerging and oddly I think it's retail I love hearing that which is like, but this is the worst time to open a retail store. Like the worst time.
Speaker 2:Well that's what they say, right they? Say whenever, when it feels wrong, it's the right time and any of us have been in retail.
Speaker 1:it's like you want to know when to get into retail At the bottom of the market, because everybody's spending the same money. Only you have it. It's true, only you have it. It's going to be that way, no matter what, so you? Don't want to be at peak Right Because they'll outspend you, yeah, and so you know. It's like, yeah, just wait until it just hits the fan and you're all in the same spot, but you have a burn rate going in. They don't.
Speaker 2:They're going out of business, you're going into business. So you get to pick up whoever's leaving. I mean, it's weird to move into the same neighborhood that Billabong moved out of at the same exact time Billabong Buell? I'm sure there's not gonna lie, that scared the shit out of me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's weird to watch that side of the block close, yeah, and, and that side of the box block's been closing since covid but it never really got the traction it needed to pay for the overhead that that sits in those yeah, spaces on the square footage side yeah. But all these metrics are complex, right? It's like you know, that's you know the same thing with these buildings, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They get to operate at 50% below the overhead. You know that is sitting across the street because just the nature of the space and how it's grown and opportunities is strange.
Speaker 2:It is, it's just a very strange thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I guess I I think you make a good point and I totally feel like we're totally about to see a huge shift in consumerism and where people are spending their money.
Speaker 2:And this doesn't really go for Santa Cruz, because I feel like Santa Cruz has always been such an amazing community that supports artists and small businesses and such, but I think people are.
Speaker 2:So the consumer is so burnt out on shitty products and these huge corporations who they once trusted, just coming out with crappy stuff like and like you said, like and particularly the surf companies, like they've just like blown up to a point of corporateness that is so unrelatable to the people who are spending their hard earned money on their products and that, like distance is affecting their business 1000%. And you know people who are just doing things that they love and like pushing it and you know, really like caring about their product and I think people who are just authentic and genuine to like what they're selling and are close to it. Still, I think people not even in like the small cool communities like us who just naturally do that, all cool communities like us who just naturally do that I think that that's going to spill over into, you know Silicon Valley and you know all the other small towns that just haven't really like gone there yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a. It's a strange friction here. I'm going to touch on two things. You know, the problem of Santa Cruz just as a whole was that it was blue collar, and so the idea of opening anything that really kind of costs more than the market there just really wasn't enough of a customer, because you're having to appeal to pretty vast tastes as pertains to that, there's not enough.
Speaker 2:Not a lot of funds.
Speaker 1:Well, there's not enough people with that one taste that you might have to offer in a retail atmosphere. You know, I grew up during a time where it was a fairly reasonable option to open a store and just make a living.
Speaker 1:You know, just go and have your little store and you had your house behind it or whatever else, and you just worked every day and you sold things to people that needed, things that you sold, and you know retail's changed a thousand times since then. But but you're in on this precipice of like you know somebody like me who would complain a little bit about the amount of money that's moving here, but the reality is is that and I think the second point I want to make you know, watch this with my own sons.
Speaker 1:They're far more concerned with quality than brand and and it's just part of the consumer identity, for, for I think people age you know, 35 and younger is they don't really care about brand. What they care about is is it going to last, does it do what it's meant to do, and and do I like it?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't have to have the right label on it.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:To demonstrate that thing.
Speaker 2:I mean, even these days, if it does have the label, it could still be a piece of crap.
Speaker 1:Well, this is the point, you know is that when you get into scaling you know which, you know the mantra has been grow, grow, grow. Well, you either put out good product or you grow. It's one of two things, you know. It's very hard to do both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's very few companies, maybe Apple, like maybe Maybe, yeah, maybe has been able to jump that chart. I mean, you ask anybody, though, and they're still frustrated with Apple and their products. You know what I mean so they got caught in the scaling trap once they really hit it. They just stole all of our souls one day and just fucking have them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they captured a unique moment, but there's very few brands that you can say are quality and have maintained that quality at scale. It's just you're either growing or you're deciding that you're putting out the best product at the best margin you can and doing it that way and, at least for me, that's what I'm seeing the consumer move towards you know that definitely you know, love or hate Trump fall in the hate Trump category. He does have a point that we don't need all this cheap shit.
Speaker 2:No, we don't.
Speaker 1:You know like it's making people angry. It's not helping us.
Speaker 2:It's unhealthy for our bodies and our souls. Like, yeah, our economy yeah. It's overpriced and it's cheap and it's bad yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that kind of volume doesn't really do anything for anybody.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:And it's just again. It's so strange to me because I have such a history. This is just your life, you know and this is what's normal to you. But again, I want to stay in this thread just a little bit longer. You know the risk, you know from going to direct to consumer because, look, I know these models well it is the safest spot to be working out of your garage.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, all money, no problems. It's a weird thing to watch.
Speaker 1:You know I've seen more than three millionaires made out of a garage. You know which is like it's just trippy and they're just jumping past all the hurdles. You know, from one to five, like one's the hardest one to get to annually jumping from one to five, you know, up to you know once. Once you get past you know five, 10, it becomes a very precarious zone you know, because you're you're having to start to properly scale, which means you have to borrow money.
Speaker 2:And that's the zone that I operate in on my venture capital work.
Speaker 1:You know it's very precarious and you know, with the young entrepreneurs and I'm getting you know all in their 20s which is like you're a millionaire already. But you don't know this. You know even though your parents are from finance.
Speaker 2:We're all just delusional, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You got to borrow money and you want to borrow money from the right people. And no, you don't wait to borrow money, you borrow it now, so you have a good banking partner. You know that's the goal is you have to have partnerships all the way through. Well, I made it this far on my own.
Speaker 1:I'm like you're lucky you know you caught a moment. Uh, you know, not that it wasn't work. Um, you know, in this transition, you know which, like how does it feel to be on the other end of what I'm talking about? Like you wouldn't necessarily know the histrionics of how the economy works.
Speaker 2:You're just in this zone I feel like I'm one of the idiots you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're talking about. Yeah, you're a little bit more amenable than the people that I talk to.
Speaker 2:No, no, I know.
Speaker 1:Because they have a little bit more success and a little bit more zero. It's mostly zeros under their belt, so they feel a little bit more validated. But money is money.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And nothing changes If you have a $20 million order coming and you have a million bucks. Guess what? You don't have the money. It doesn't matter whether it's all sold. It's got to ship and good luck. You have to write the check because the money's not coming for three months.
Speaker 2:Everything's expensive.
Speaker 1:Everything's expensive. It's all going to land. It's all going to get somewhere.
Speaker 2:It's so much more expensive than you think it is too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so much more expensive than you think it is. Yeah, yeah, and so it's mostly that trap, you know, of people really not understanding how impactful you know the zeros really are and the kind of partnerships you have to have.
Speaker 2:And the like, growth and everything.
Speaker 1:All of it. You know it just is. You know growth is a very scaling is one of the hardest spots. Scaling is one of the hardest spots and you know again from that. You know five to that five to 20 to 50 million dollar valuation, which you know sounds like a lot. It's not that the entrepreneur is making more money, because that's not really what happens. It's more like the valuation up to sell the company. What do you want to?
Speaker 1:do, do you want to be a CEO? Do you want to be an advisor? Which? Which spot do you want to be in? Because most innovators aren't horrible at the other stuff, you know, which is also trying to convince them like you. The learning curves too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Too much. You have to have partners right.
Speaker 1:But you're sitting in a really cool sweet spot, and here's what freaks me out a little bit, but I also love it. Two stores.
Speaker 2:Two stores. I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but yeah, I don't know. So the reason why I opened up this store over here is, well, one, because why not? And two, we got so much feedback on the West side. We got so much feedback on the west side, uh, so many customers coming from this side of town not easily being able to get over there. You know, like you know, we're no stranger to traffic around here these days, and every single time someone who's not on the west side would come in, you would hear it they're like you know, it's just so hard to get over here.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I have to get here by this time and I just like we heard that every single day. So I was like, okay, clearly we need to pivot and like get a location that's easier for people to get to, Otherwise they're just going to get burnt out and go somewhere else. You know, what I mean. So I feel like I made that move really quickly because of that, and you know I would. I would love to keep the West side open forever you know, but if that's not in the cards, that's okay.
Speaker 2:Um, but time will tell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so in your heart, you know, and, and you know, for any of you are thinking about being an entrepreneur, you know, and deciding to open stores and things like that. These are the kind of hard decisions you make about all of it.
Speaker 2:You just got to send it.
Speaker 1:I feel like you send it, but. But in your heart of hearts you know you want to land somewhere Totally, and so so you have a variable in there.
Speaker 2:Right, I want to stay in the West side, but I've also just like my personality, like I like don't give an F, like like honestly, like I, like I just you know I'm having fun here on earth and you know this is our playground, and like all of the money and stuff, like you know it'll come and you know it goes, and I don't know just having fun and like sending it. Like you know, like my um head jeweler, andrea, was driving by this building every day, um, and she was like the building would be sick, like it's the best area, and I was like I don't know, like we're not ready, like scary, uh. And then one day I was just like you know what Freaking hate, let's go look at it. And like don't leave it up to me to just look at something that I might be really excited about right Because literally I'm like, yep, let's fucking go.
Speaker 2:That's so good. But yeah, I think, just like having a bit of fearlessness is a good thing when you're doing your own thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being willing to make the mistake. Yeah, 1000% Like make the mistake, yeah, 1,000%.
Speaker 2:Like I've made so many mistakes, like I tried to do my own taxes for the first like three years of my business and that's probably Pay the $2,000.
Speaker 1:I'm still paying the price, you know.
Speaker 2:Fuck. But you know just sending it and you know having good faith and you know people like my product and my jewelry and that means the world, and as long as that keeps going on, we'll be all right.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, why don't you tell us about your jewelry, like, like, what goes into what you do, like, talk about the stuff that you have the highest affinity for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we make um, high quality gold filled and sterling silver jewelry primarily, and I picked those materials because they last forever, a really long time. They're really, they act like gold or platinum or whatnot, but they manage a very affordable price point for the consumer and for myself as the purchaser of all the materials. I have to keep things at a point because I'm not made of money, I didn't come from money. The whole business is bootstrapped. Every dollar I've made for the last eight years has gone back into the company still, has gone back into the company still.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, we like to use those materials and we like using pearls, turquoise, opals, and the girlies just love it, like the beachy girlies love it. We love using shells and you know I love creating pieces that just make people happy. You know I like using colors and things with a rainbowy like iridescence, and just when you look at it it shimmers in the sun and it makes you happy. And that's definitely what I've realized over the years, cause in the when I, before I opened my store, um, I was just doing markets pop-ups, saying, saying yes to everything I could, and girls just love shiny things and they love it when it's under $100 especially, and you know so we really try to keep it affordable and dude. The price of gold right now is actually insane. I've never seen it so high. So we have not raised our prices until like until recently. For that whole time we really try to keep it affordable and pretty and high quality for what you're getting.
Speaker 1:I have a new noise that comes into my shop and it actually makes me happy.
Speaker 2:Oh, the hammering.
Speaker 1:What makes me happy about it is when I peek over there I see the ladies working back at the table. Just that thing it's like it's real craftsmanship. Something's happening that. It's not that I haven't seen jewelry being made, because my wife did that when she was in high school. She made me a couple rings so cool. But there's a sweetness to the tick tick, tick, tick in the machines going and just this reality that there's not some poor Chinese kid.
Speaker 2:No, you know whatever 1,000%. There is such brownie points for wearing handmade jewelry and we truly love it. Like I love it like I can't. Like I learned how to make jewelry on YouTube when I was 19 and truly just haven't been able to stop. You know what I mean. Like I don't know. There's just something about it that makes me sparkle inside and it's that goes for all the girls who are with toasted right now too Like it just makes them sparkle inside and outside. You know, literally. So it's just, it's cute.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful. So how many, how many people do you employ?
Speaker 2:I have about eight girls right now.
Speaker 1:I have a head jeweler, Andrea, and then all the girls are involved in the jewelry making aspect in one way or another also, yeah, so I want to talk about female entrepreneurship. Yeah, you were part of a wave, of something that's happened, you know happening. You know we have Anna, we have Maddie.
Speaker 2:So cool.
Speaker 1:We have you, who has just moved in. You know it's. It's inspiring to me to see the thing that actually has been sitting in the underbelly for quite some time. You know there's a certain reality and you know, if you listen to my other podcasts, you know I'm talking about the flip side of of where men are really falling behind in in this part of it. But I really do want to take the time to celebrate. You know this reality of 41st avenue has changed bunch of girl boss bitches running this place.
Speaker 1:I love it you know, you know, having sons, I'm going to have my feelings about things. You know just my own fears about those things, but I love, like, love, love, love. What I'm seeing and it's not just that your girl bosses is that you're actually good bosses yeah you know it, it's good people. Yeah, it's just it's a joy to watch. You know, like this thing. Just it's no longer ruminating, it's, it's happening yeah and the more I look down the block, the more females I'm seeing.
Speaker 2:It's powerful.
Speaker 1:You know owning 41st Avenue and it's like, oh, this is really good. It's amazing and what you're providing to the community is really good and you know the approach. You know what it is you're actually doing like actually employing other females.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And letting them work at their craft. You know, this shit is fucking real, you know like people being able to live their dream out. You know, it's still work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. But, it's a dream.
Speaker 1:See, it's different and this is my point. You know we were working, you guys are living your life and it's really that's most of the joy that I'm watching. Is that like, oh, this is so good.
Speaker 2:It's so good and I will say that was a huge selling point for me. Moving into the 41st shop was Maddie at Pointside, all the girl Zen Island girls, like all of those boss girls who are just like such good people inside and out, like I really wanted to be next to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean Zen was a you know all kudos to the hunters.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, john and I are cut from a very similar cloth. So I, you know, I know their story Well. You know, I think, with the joy that I see emerging, you know, with your age group doing the same things, it's hard to live with a little bit of the perspective that you know, you think you have, you know, about watching the previous struggles of girls being girl bosses and what they were up against. This tone of like. This is all hard and it sucks, because it was hard and it did suck. But I look at a store like Zen, which it's pretty safe to say is the store that's doing best.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's been the best. It is the store that's doing best. Oh yeah, it's been the best.
Speaker 1:It is the best They've crushed it, the aspiration to continue to be the best, the drive that lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're awesome and I think they're so successful too, because they truly just know they're the bee's knees and they're so supportive of everyone around them yeah, always yeah, but knowing them and knowing it, knowing what was how they've used the energy from that fight, to be a blessing to people around them.
Speaker 1:It was very different than the tone that lived on the block before or lived in the culture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've seen it change a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah before, or lives lived in the culture. Yeah, you've seen it change a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so I mean it's inspiring to me mostly that you know it's not that our attitudes are wrong, it was what we experienced yeah, but the culture at the time at the same time, it's like it's really nice to see it change and be friendly yeah and be supportive. Yeah, you know, I notice it more with the older set are still crankier about things like parking and whatever else.
Speaker 1:Totally, and you're like the parking is not the problem, it's the attitude.
Speaker 2:People want to get to your store. They will.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1:But all these old arguments that we've always had on these streets that are impacted a little bit more because good things are here. You know the tone that we've had to operate in is changing.
Speaker 2:Well, that's amazing to hear.
Speaker 1:And that's good.
Speaker 2:That's really good. I love that.
Speaker 1:Like it really sticks out now. It's like someone has an attitude about it. It's like, well, maybe you need to look at your store and look at your attitude. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, there's truly enough to go around for everybody. You know what I mean, and that is one piece of advice I will give to girlies wanting to do their own thing Stay in your lane. Continue just focusing on your stuff and love on it and keep the blinders on. Just stay in your lane. There's enough to go around for everybody. Don't get hung up on all of the like, immature, like, yeah stuff. Like when I would do markets, people would be like, oh like, are you bummed that that jeweler is over there? Or whatever too. Like, is that competition? I'm like, like, I just laugh. I'm like no. Like, are you kidding me? Their stuff's beautiful? Like they have their own style, like we all have our own stuff. Well, you'd hope they have their own style, but, um, yeah, just do your thing yeah, I mean there's still a lesson to be learned from malls and yeah, you know what that's true, what?
Speaker 1:mall owners knew is that if people came with wallets in, you want to offer them everything, everything you can. It's not competition right everybody's there to do the same thing. And if you can, get everybody there, then you don't have to do the same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know you get to be yourself and offer up to your customer the thing that you are, and you will find your customer. And everything is about core customers. I mean you. You see my business. I got no sign.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't, but you got people coming in and out all day long.
Speaker 1:You know, and I could do more to promote. You know, whenever I hand out cards, there's more business. So you know, I've, I've been at it for 40 years, so I'm, I'm just an old hairdresser.
Speaker 1:But but you know the I mean the thing was always like get your core customer, because Because your core customer talks, core customer talks and they attract people like them and if you're attracted to them, that's who you want. You don't want the random, you know, coming in with all their questions yeah, are you good? Like no, I'm not good. That's why I can afford to have a storefront and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I suck, we have storefront and all that because I suck, we have the best customers. Yeah, toasted jewelry has the best customers and I don't know how we're so lucky, but I swear like I. Yeah, we attract the coolest, nicest, wholesome, authentic, most people it's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. Yeah, okay, so uh, last spot, let's go. I don't know if there's more questions in there, but what drives you? When you wake up in the morning, what's the thing? Or actually, when you go to sleep, what are you looking forward to the next day?
Speaker 2:Honestly, happiness. I love being happy and all you know I think when I'm happy I can lean into my most authentic self and that leads to an authentic business and authentic product. And yeah, I just really like being happy. It really bothers me to be upset Like. I don't like those feelings at all, and so anything that can make me bring joy and happiness is what motivates me.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I have two questions from there. What makes you upset?
Speaker 2:Taxes Swear to God. Those first three years I tried to do my own. Taxes have scarred me so hard, Like tax season and taxes trigger me.
Speaker 1:Like I want nothing to do with it. You're not quite recovered from April 15th. Right now, Not recovered.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes me upset. And then, okay, let's see what else makes me upset. It upsets me, I guess low-key, when, like along the same lines, it upsets me when I don't see people striving for their own happiness too, and if that spills over into their like day-to-day life. You know, it just makes me sad.
Speaker 1:So for you it's hard to see people.
Speaker 2:Not doing the best. That Not like I don't know, like it just makes me upset to see other people upset, I guess like I don't know Like it just makes me upset. To see other people upset, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think you're being judgmental. It makes you upset to see people sad.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And not like.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Not feeling like they can be their best version of themselves.
Speaker 2:Exactly Because I guess I just feel like life is precious. I guess I just feel like life is precious and we're only here for like a minuscule amount of time, like considering the universe and like galaxy, and you know, I just think, like what's the? You know, like what's? We're here, like there's trees, there's birds, there's rainbows, like this is awesome.
Speaker 1:Where do you think you got that perspective from? Like, if you look back in your history, like I think, when I look back there, I can see turning points of where, like you know, I'm just choosing this, even though it comes naturally.
Speaker 2:It's all about perspective. For sure. I think it's just honestly been innately in me. I feel like my whole life and then truly like meeting my husband Noah, like he is the epitome of joy and happiness and he has rubbed off on me a lot like in the past eight years since I've known him. So I give a lot of credit to him for that being who I am today, for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know I'm going to try to pull Noah in this guy ever.
Speaker 2:Well, you know it's hard, he's annoyingly happy to a lot of people.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about Noah, behind his back, in front of everybody.
Speaker 1:Let's go Just for a minute, you know, because no uh no, it was kind of second shift of something. I think nat was the first one, that of prominence, that really changed the temperature out in the water, just generally, just incredibly kind, grateful person. Whenever you surf with them, you're surfing, surfing better than everybody else, but you felt like you were the best surfer when you were with them. That was Nat's MO. I'll never forget seeing Noah I think he was like 16, and he boosted the biggest error I've ever seen in my life at Wind and Sea and I paddled out to him like what the fuck are you like?
Speaker 2:Michael's triggered. No, no, no, no, I was messing with him.
Speaker 1:I'm like you suck. And he, like it took him a second, but he started laughing. I'm like dude, I'm what was that? Like you know, like, oh my gosh, who are you? It was just like who are you? Yeah, and then time I've been out since then, I still try to get him on his heels, Love it Just to scare him a little bit.
Speaker 2:He loves when people talk shit.
Speaker 1:But mostly just because he's just so kind. Oh yeah, he really is.
Speaker 2:To his core.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just such a joy. He's inspiring because he's doing it and having fun. I've never seen him throw a tantrum no like all of us, at some point don't stick something, or you? Know, like we don't pull a move, you know like not, noah, he's like just smiling every single time. Well, miss that one. You, that one You're like okay.
Speaker 2:His perspective on life and just everything is just so inspiring, yeah, yeah, and he like knows deep in his core like true happiness, and like literally there's very few things like out in the world that could affect him in a negative way, like he truly is like that annoyingly happy every single day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and, and. You know, I have to say I've never been annoyed by it. You know which is, which is what makes it so great. You know, I used to get annoyed by people who are overly happy and you're like that's all put on.
Speaker 2:But yeah, but no, no, genuine self yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:So happiness for you. You know, like, like at your core. You know what are the things like when you close your eyes and you think these are my happiest things. What are those things? Noah, yeah how did you two meet?
Speaker 2:um. We met at Zelda's Okay, at a Noma Lakadoja concert.
Speaker 1:Of all the places Right, Zelda's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it and I mean this is going to probably take us into another topic, but I was actually diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago and ever since then, ever since recovery and everything, I think I've just like developed this really huge gratefulness for life. You know, like looking death in the eyes was like the craziest experience ever and like totally just like everything I thought I knew about, like the world or just like life itself. I'm like you know what, like I need to choose happiness and positivity, like every day, like this is what it's about. Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like life can get serious really quick and in a blink of an eye and yeah, so do you feel like death created a level of agency or the ability to see things for what they are and make choices around it? Totally yeah yeah, 100, yeah, yeah yeah, I mean, it's just a game changer, yeah the.
Speaker 2:The week after I signed my lease for my west side store, I got the news so that was crazy and I it was challenging it was, but I really do feel like opening up the store like gave me the biggest healthy distraction ever. It gave me something to like put positive energy into and make other people happy, which would in turn make me happy and, yeah, it was a beautiful chapter of my life yeah, I don't want to move past this too quick because I think it is very pertinent, you know, to how gratefulness builds in us.
Speaker 1:How did you, looking back, see that happen like? I mean, you strike me as a fairly happy, grateful person before that moment. But there's a apart from your words there, there's, there's a validity and something solid about what you're saying. And was that over the course of the last two years facing death that it really established more or or?
Speaker 2:I would say it drew the line in the sand harder. For sure, yeah, I feel like I've always you know, happiness has always been important and like enjoying my days every day and like looking at things in a good purse, in a good perception and way. But definitely, yeah, definitely it made the line in the sand harder because, like, why not? Yeah, like you know, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow. What are you going to do? Like look back on your day before and be like, oh, I was upset about the stupidest stuff.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, stuff doesn't matter, nobody cares, and nobody cares. Nobody cares. You know it's been my theme the last two and a half years as I've been working on myself and realizing, you know what I actually don't care and nobody actually cares Like I really don't care.
Speaker 2:I think there's power in being careless 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not to particular individuals, but just the reality that when we get trapped in our perspective, we think that people care about the same things we do and it's like, yeah, no, they don't. For the most part, everybody's just living their life, and the guy in front of you didn't cut you off on purpose.
Speaker 2:Right, didn't see you. It's not about you, it's not about you at all. Yeah, you actually don't matter, except when you matter. Yeah, I think definitely like remembering that, like like the way you think that you know, you think you're the most important to yourself, right, and you have to remember that's how everyone else feels too, like the only the main thing they care about is themselves. You know they really don't care that much about, you know, the guy cutting you off in the traffic or whatever.
Speaker 1:Or like the person cutting you in line, or you know whatever, like, yeah, just gotta let it roll off your back yeah, yeah, and that's it's becoming harder and harder to do, I think, because we get so much content and we don't know what to do about it. And you know, as an empath as I am and you know, see the starving children in Africa and think that there's something you can do about it. Well, if you don't do the one thing, little thing you can do, which is send money, then why are you even thinking about it?
Speaker 2:You know it's, it's and that's also like the effed up thing of the state we live in currently is like you send money but you're like where is this money even going? Like is it going to some CEO?
Speaker 1:that's like made this company that's sending money Like you know, like yeah, yeah, no, it's just a it's all so corrupted with so much good intent and we're just of ways you know it's like, yeah, make a difference, but decide to make a difference, decide to make a, decide to make a difference.
Speaker 2:And the easiest way to do that is right in front of you yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's something we we both share yeah and you know, make a difference where you can, elsewhere to give money to the people.
Speaker 1:You know they're doing the thing.
Speaker 2:See a water bottle on the street, pick it up and throw it in the trash. Every little thing of kindness and positivity you can contribute to our existence and culture is an amazing thing. It doesn't have to be anything huge, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, natalie, thank you so much for sitting with me. Thanks, michael. So I want to thank Santa.
Speaker 2:thank you so much for sitting with me. Thanks, Michael.
Speaker 1:So I want to thank Santa Cruz Vibes Magazine for hosting this, and also Pointside Beach Shack, this lovely little facility that Natalie finally got a tour of, even though she's just a couple steps away, shout out Pointside. Anyways, thank you all for listening. I hope you all have a good day.
Speaker 2:Bye y'all, bye, bye.