Open The Gate
Breaking down Sacramento Real Estate: Our Favorite People, Places and Mindsets
Open The Gate
Ep 28- Danielle Martin- Simply Chic Staging, family and FOOD!!!
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Ever wondered how to juggle the joys of pregnancy with the logistics of running a golf tournament? Join us as Kaelee shares her personal journey through the second trimester, filled with excitement and laughter, while Dan navigates the quirky challenges of organizing his beloved Eggnog Open amid a seasonal shortage. Together, they bring relatable stories and insights into life's many adventures, setting the stage for an engaging discussion with our inspiring guest, Danielle Martin.
Danielle's entrepreneurial journey is nothing short of remarkable. From being a stay-at-home mom to rising as the CEO of Simply Chic, Staging, and Design, her story is a testament to resilience and creativity. She takes us through the hurdles she faced when starting her business during the COVID-19 pandemic, showcasing the power of perseverance and the importance of self-belief. With a focus on the real estate staging industry, Danielle shares her innovative strategies that have transformed traditional approaches, blending digital marketing prowess with a personal touch.
In a lighter yet insightful segment, we explore the dynamic world of home staging and the impact of social media on this evolving industry. Danielle discusses the creative challenges of staging, from managing inventory to selecting the perfect furniture pieces for high-end homes. We also touch on the vibrant culinary scene in Sacramento and how food serves as a love language, enriching personal connections. Together, we highlight the significance of teamwork, communication, and staying connected within the industry to foster growth and success.
Ready, ready, ready, let's do this.
Speaker 2Hi Kaylee, hi Dan.
Speaker 1How are you today?
Speaker 2I'm delightful. This rainy weather makes me happy.
Speaker 1Really. Yeah, it's a little chilly. I stayed in bed a little longer than I wanted to this morning.
Speaker 2Well, I came prepared in my glamorous sweatsuit.
Speaker 1So well, hey, you look fantastic. You look fantastic. What's the uh? What's the most up to date uh chronicles of being pregnant? The bump date, yeah.
Speaker 2Um well, I grow every day. That's crazy.
Speaker 1Physically, mentally, yeah, emotionally.
Speaker 2I actually emotionally, I feel like I'm shrinking. The more I grow physically, the like more emotionally immature I get Always darkest before the dawn. Yeah, no, Otherwise things are great. It's good Back in the gym, feeling good, just enjoying the middle of this shit sandwich of pregnancy before the third trimester knocks me out, knocks me down again.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, hopefully your third trimester is enjoyable.
Speaker 2I think it will be. I mean, there's going to be not great stuff, but it's all right. Yeah, hopefully your third trimester is enjoyable. I think it will be. I mean, there's going to be not great stuff, but it's all right. Yeah, I'm a happy person. How are you? Let's talk about you. How's your life chronicle so?
Speaker 1I'm fantastic Just plugging away at the business. The rain doesn't really help anything. I was supposed to have my 10th annual eggnog open golf tournament that I've hosted. This is the 10th year. It was supposed to be on Saturday. Fortunately we pulled the plug on Wednesday and rescheduled for the 28th.
Speaker 2So do you guys actually serve eggnog?
Speaker 1Oh yeah. Okay, yeah, bullet bourbon, bullet, bourbon and eggnog are um they start with like literally them on the bed of my truck, so there's like an avian flu going around right now and egg supplies are out everywhere, and I have been on the search.
Speaker 2I finally found an eggnog that I'm, like, obsessed with.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Now I can't find it anywhere. I've been looking in the stores and, like even yesterday, I was at Bel Air and they don't have any eggnog. I'm wondering if the avian flu egg shortage thing is affecting the eggnog.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean it's also. It's just prime Christmas party season two.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1So maybe that's got something to do with it. I actually need to go purchase a bunch.
Speaker 2Does Costco sell eggnog it?
Speaker 1started off with like a gallon. I think my tournament requires like seven or eight gallons.
Speaker 2Yeah, you need the like Gatorade size jugs of eggnog. Just serve it up. That's kind of exciting. I would go for the nog.
Speaker 1Yeah, absolutely it's. You know, and I mean it's just a great way to kind of kick off the day and get everything.
Speaker 2Wow, what a fun tournament. What do you do that for? How did you?
Speaker 1So it started. It started as an excuse to not have to do shit on.
Speaker 2Christmas Eve.
Speaker 1Solid Because, like I've always felt like Christmas Eve's that day where, like if you don't have to work, you just kind of sit around all day and wait for Christmas Eve night yeah. And you know like if you're hosting you get a bunch of honey do's and I was like back, you know, 10 years ago I was like well, I don't want all these honey do's. I was like I'm going to go play golf.
Speaker 2That no this is how you get out of it.
Speaker 1There's brilliance here. So it just evolved. The tournament evolved. There was four of us the first year and then I think there were eight of us the second, and then it doubled and doubled and then, I think at the peak we had 100 golfers. Wow, and that was a lot. That's impressive. That was a lot About four years ago. We added a charitable component to it. So now you pay your greens fees and then there's a tournament pot that everybody pays into and then basically there's a charitable pot that goes into as well. That's amazing. This year it's going to my son's Cooperstown team. We're raising money to help send them to Cooperstown Love that.
Speaker 1And then the volleyball team at Rockland. That's amazing. So we're giving back to those two organizations just through having some fun.
Speaker 2Hell yeah, count me in next year. I mean, I'm down, it's a great excuse.
Speaker 1I mean, it's a really great excuse to see a bunch of people in a fun environment before the holidays Because everyone's so busy. So we moved it from on year three. We moved it from Christmas Eve day to Saturday before Christmas Eve. And then this year I was like now it's just kind of like, okay, I look at the calendar and my calendar has gotten so crazy. My wife's like you're not moving our own, like our our shit to like have your golf tournament, I don't care how much money you raise.
Speaker 2She's like we will not build our charity only goes so far around the holidays.
Speaker 1Your life still revolves around our family schedule. So yeah, so life still revolves around our family schedule. So yeah, so enough about us.
Speaker 2We've got another really cool guest today.
Speaker 1We are excited for this. We are getting back into the real estate realm, but not with a real tour. So today's guest started out as a stay at home mom and then evolved into a marketing guru for a prominent real estate team here in the Sacramento area and then basically said nope, I don't want to do this anymore, I'm just going to be a boss and start my own business. So, without further ado, miss Danielle Martin, the owner and CEO of Simply Chic, staging and Design you nailed it.
Speaker 1Let's play her in. Yes, all right, danielle.
Speaker 2Welcome to Open the.
Speaker 4Gate.
Speaker 1Welcome to Open the Gate. Thank you for having me Our maiden voyage with our new backdrop for our B-roll Absolutely.
Speaker 2For the 47 seconds of clips that people get to see this backdrop, I'm so excited to see how it comes off.
Speaker 1Trisha's going to be mad that we didn't have it in place for her. She is Sorry, Trisha comes off.
Speaker 2Trisha's going to be mad that we didn't have it in place for her. She is Sorry, Trisha. You can come back for episode two.
Speaker 1Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, we were discussing with Trisha. She didn't tell us about the holes in the floor of the car that she drove cross-country. I was like man, that would have been kind of an interesting detail.
Speaker 4I love her story. It's movie-esque right there.
Speaker 2I love it. That's a Hollywood story.
Entrepreneurial Journey Through Adversity
Speaker 1Well, what's wild is too, because I kind of got to get to know Danielle really through the Tricia relationship as well, because we both do so much work with her. So that's actually. I mean, I'd known of her and who she was, but we never really got to know each other that well. And then now I play golf with Joe. Joe actually plays in the Eggnog Tournament. He's in the Eggnog Tournament. He was really disappointed about the rain. I bet I'm disappointed about the rain. I'm not even playing it, and I feel for you guys. I'll be honest, though I got so many texts on Saturday from guys just like thank God, we're not playing.
Speaker 2I mean it was like 40 mile an hour winds oh that'd be terrible.
Speaker 1Driving rain. It was miserable.
Speaker 4It would have been flooding yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, okay. So enough about that. Let's stop, stop. Let's stop diverging onto those. We digress everyone. I apologize, okay, so danielle moments you are really the first.
Speaker 2You are not really you are the first of your, I guess, industry, the sector of this industry here in staging, um, and I want to talk about that song a little bit, that intro song, just because we were hearing a little bit of your story in the background, and I think that song is a perfect representation of how you got from stay at home mom to marketing director to now a really prolific business owner of one of the best staging companies in the greater Sacramento Valley. I would say. So tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 4Well, I would say for about 10, I was a stay at home mom for I had a child at 17, got married, had kids really young and when I turned 30, I got a divorce and I hadn't worked. I had no college experience, I had no work experience and I answered an ad uh, to a Craigslist ad to be a marketing assistant for a lender Still still a great source, I mean.
Speaker 4I don't know that people use preds licks anymore. But um, and you know, I answered the ad. I kind of faked it along the way until I made it.
Speaker 2You fade it, you faked it. In the industry of real estate, we've never heard of that before.
Speaker 4And I. I found out that I was really good at like digital marketing and marketing and also, you know, sales going out, and I, uh, I worked for a lender and I actually brought business in for him. I went out and did all the mixers and all of the P car events. I did all of that for him and brought business into him and I did that and then um took some time off when I had my last child and took some time off when I had my last child and after that I worked with a really top-producing team. I did marketing for almost four years for that team. It was a great experience, but I was really unhappy and, after going back and forth with my boss about it, she decided to let me go.
Speaker 4Which was a great blessing in disguise it turns out, which I was really offended and upset, but I got over really quickly and it was kind of just. It was this driving force for me to cause. One of the things I had told her was I'm watching everybody win and I have no wins, I'm just I'm helping people win, and so it was. It was a driving force for me to say okay, I'm going to put everything I have into this, all my money, everything I have, everything I got. And so it pushed me along to get through in the beginning stages of starting a business from scratch, which is really tough, wow, without a business loan.
Speaker 1Yeah, Piggybacking on that too, like, you know, getting let go and I've been let go of a position before too and it's like you, almost like you. You know you're everybody has ego. So, like you're, like, oh my god, how could they, how could they possibly, how dare you right and that, and those immediate emotions, like they, they, you know you can't turn them off, like you can't avoid them. You feel them, they're there, um, and I think so many people either, you know, go hide in the corner and continue to feel sorry for themselves and sulk, or, you know, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you go find the next thing, or you go make the next thing happen. And that's really, that's really so many people's turning points. And you hear, so many successful businesses are founded by people who got let go. And it sounded like I think it's fair to say you, you were ready to be let go. And it sounded like I think it's fair to say you, you were ready to be let go.
Speaker 4Oh, I was ready. I what how the conversation had started was I started, we, we had this meeting and everybody was talking about their wins and all the agents on the team and I just had nothing to say, I had no win. And it started with that conversation and I just felt, you know, not satisfied, and I didn't. You know, I was a stay-at-home mom and I had a child at 17. I never got to go to college and do all these you know dreams and goals that I thought I was going to achieve, and so I just I was probably unhappy and she saw it and we started to have conversations and really I was going to try to do both and start a business and work for her.
Speaker 4But anyways, it all worked out and honestly, it was 2020 of February, so it's crazy Cause COVID happened and I had to start my business.
Speaker 1So that's when I that's when I moved, that's when I became a partner at Finley. It was in February.
Speaker 4February of 2020. Oh wow, we got the same like anniversary.
Speaker 1It was in February of 2020. Oh wow, yeah, we got the same like anniversary. Yeah, we felt some same emotions.
Staging and Business Growth
Speaker 4Which I think, looking back the challenges that I was faced with and like there's no, like no furniture stores were open and everything was taking like a month to get shipped and starting a business, I had to get really creative and I had to have. Like you know, it was hard but, I, think that it laid this foundation down for me that I could get through anything. If I could get through that, I could start a business during COVID.
Speaker 2Absolutely.
Speaker 2And there's a couple of things I kind of want to break down about what you said. First was the fact that you had been managing a marketing department, so I think, tell us how the experience there really paved the way for you to build a business digitally. Social media is a topic that we talk about a lot here. Right, it's relevant to a lot of people, but you do it very well, and so how did that benefit you in a growing business, starting your own business, and in a sector of the industry that we didn't really see or hear a lot about? I mean, everybody used to stage her, but up until the last couple of years, I mean, I personally haven't really seen them be so relevant in the digital space and kind of as a presence in our industry.
Speaker 4So when I was working for the real estate team, one of the things that I did was I coached agents on how to market themselves and how to grow their business and taught them all the social media tricks and I helped. I created 20 newsletters every month that went out digitally or printed and I just I helped agents learn how to market themselves. So I already had this like background and this passion for marketing and I've seen how it works. You know, when I worked for this agent, I helped grow her business, which now we're really good friends and she tells me all the time, like you were such a big part of growing my business and, um, I took all the things I learned and that I was teaching other people and I implemented them in my business. So one of the things that cause you said you know you don't see a lot with stagers. When.
Speaker 4I started this business. I started following stagers all over the country. No one was making videos of the homes they were staging and putting them to music Interesting. There was one person I found music Interesting. There was one person I found um, I still follow her and she's I believe she's she's in St Louis, but she was the only one. So that's what I started doing. I started taking the videos, figured out how to make them bright and light and adding the music which made them interesting. Yeah, everything's more interesting with music and I love music interesting. Yeah, everything's more interesting with music and I love music. I'm a huge music person. So it just it, it, it grew. I obviously had connections and already lots of relationships with agents all over and, um, that's just. I really focused on that and also, which is very important for agents, relationship building.
Speaker 2So the agents I stage for I have personal and very good business relationships with, yeah, and staging is so fun I mean, you don't have to be in real estate, but to see a home be designed, to have the vision of this isn't an empty space, and now this is what it would look like to live here is something that every single person loves to see, is something that every single person loves to see, and I think it's so captivating as an audience to watch that and to see it glam up from you know, empty to now like this beautiful design. So staging is not for everybody Not, I mean. I would say very few people have the eye. How did you educate yourself or like, were you always gifted to? Just kind of have that vision of this? Should go here putting the pieces together, because that's something that, like my mind, cannot comprehend. I cannot put a room together to save my life.
Speaker 4I'm, since I was my mother. It has great taste in design and our homes that we've had have always been decorated beautifully and my mom has great taste, so I learned it from my mom. And then, when I was a kid, I would repaint my room all the time. I would change my furniture out, I would constantly be decorating. I was probably like seven doing that, which was really exhausting for my mom, because I get tired of things like very quickly. So if I painted my room teal green, which I did, and you know, a year later I'm like I hate it, let's paint it pink, love that. So I or I, I had a passion for it, and so that made it easier.
Speaker 4Obviously, when I got into staging, I really didn't educate myself as much as I should have, which I wish I would have, cause I could have learned a lot of lessons prior to starting, which I just learned them along the way, and I just, you know, studied other stagers, watch how they did things, and I got better and better. The first house I staged it took me three days and that size house now takes me 45 minutes. Wow, what size house was that? Just for reference, like 1400 square feet.
Speaker 2Okay, okay, wow, that's a massive improvement.
Speaker 1What jumped out to me is that you jumped into this industry and a lot of times people will go and develop their career path or develop their own company from an industry that they have a lot of familiarity and a track record in. So it's amazing to me that you just said, oh, this is what I want to do. We had no experience, no idea even how the process worked outside of, like how realtors worked with a stager. That was your experience. I'm guessing that, like the learning curve on the physical side of implementing a staging business hiring people to actually laborers, to vehicles and all the things that go along with it, I mean the backend stuff of that side of the business can be just an absolute bear. How did you deal with that? To start off with?
Speaker 4Well, in the beginning I was hiring, I found another stager and he shared what movers he was working with. So they were the only people that worked with me and I would stage homes alone. I have no idea how I did that, because I'll tell you right now I've become the biggest baby. I had to stage a house last Friday by myself because my other stager her child, was sick, my husband was sick, I was. I was the biggest baby about it, but I actually did a really good job. It looked great and but you know, I've become really reliant on my team.
Speaker 4However, hiring the people has been the hardest. Finding good people, making sure that. You know it's hard with movers. A lot of moving companies hire movers who have a criminal background because they they they don't run background checks and I can't have that Like for me. I can't hire people like that. I want people I trust, I want to feel safe, I want with them if I'm alone with them, and I want people who are like represent me well, Right, If an agent stops by and you got to pay and you got to pay those people right.
Speaker 1And you can't. You can't pay them bottom dollar because, because it won't work, they won't, they won't be able to represent right, they won't be able to put forth representation that you want or expect or need, um. But if you pay them too much, then you're not going to be competitive and you're not going to get hired, you're not going to have a business right at all. So that balancing act is is probably wild. I know that we obviously we deal with it as well.
Speaker 2Finding people is always a massive, massive thing, and not to say that being a criminal is a strike against you. Okay, we believe in rehabilitation over here, but you're staging multi-million dollar properties right, this is not the type of environment where you can gamble on somebody who doesn't really care but is just working a job that they can get to come in and represent you and as a business. So I imagine it's pretty difficult to find people at that level who really care about what they're doing and are excited about moving furniture into a house.
Speaker 4It's very hard work. Yeah, so you know when people think of moving, how hard is when you move. Nobody wants to do it. You're like, I'm going to have a pizza party. No one shows up.
Speaker 1No one's showing up for beer and pizza to help you move anymore. That doesn't work anymore.
Speaker 2Better be a strong bourbon and eggnog.
Speaker 1right now there's also a stage in your life where, as a, you know as a, as a, as an adult, you cross that threshold. You're like I make enough money, or I should make it, or your friends are like you should make enough money to hire somebody to do this.
Speaker 2You know, we've all paid our dues.
Speaker 1Yeah, you're like. Hey, like you're my best friend. They're like no, I'm not. Not today.
Speaker 4And neither is my truck starting next week. We just moved my, my best friend. We just moved her, uh a few weeks ago and uh, three stories and I was like we're going to help you. But I'm like, but Joe and I are not going to help you, we're going to pay and have our people come help you.
Speaker 2It's our gift to you. That's a great gift.
Speaker 1That's awesome.
Speaker 2It was great, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1Is there? Is there? I mean now I'm just brainstorming, but is there a potential to to have a sister business? You know a movie? I mean you've got people, obviously, that are skilled in that, in that area. Is that something that's a potential?
Speaker 4Yes, we have. We have discussed it and we've talked there. There is a huge potential for it. I've had a lot of agents reach out to me on the weekends and say hey, my my, you know we're going to be staging for them. My clients are in a pickle, they need help. Can you, can your guys come help them move, but for me, my guys work their butts off Monday through Friday moving.
Speaker 4And we in the summertime we can stage up to seven to eight in five day period. We only do Monday through Friday because we like our weekends and that's our family time. And so you know, on top of the seven stages in five days there's removals, right, so we have to. So we're we schedule them in between that, so we could hit up like 12 houses in a week.
Speaker 2So that brings me to my next question, Cause I was just thinking about this. You said when you first got started, you spent everything you had to stage one house. What capacity. We're almost at the end of 2024. How many, how many homes have you staged this year?
Speaker 4Two. Well, I've staged 277. Wow, that's impressive. Yes, and then we have five on the books before the new year.
Speaker 2Okay, yeah, and I got you for the beginning of the year. That's right. January is going to be so huge, which?
Speaker 4I'm looking forward to, because we did so much volume in the summer, yeah, so now a lot of those homes are coming out, so we are full of furniture. We had to rent like seven storage units additional to our warehouse.
Speaker 2Okay, so I was that. Next question. You're just like a step ahead of me here. Your inventory to stage that many homes, what capacity? Like how many homes do you guys have the capacity to stage at one time? 50. Okay, so that's a boatload. I'm going to be very PC here.
Speaker 1You didn't say it's a shitload.
Speaker 2I know I don't know why I stopped myself there, I'm normally so loose-lipped with the curses here, but that's a lot of inventory and I imagine the overhead to kind of store all of that is also a huge cost people don't consider when getting into this business.
Speaker 4Yes. So you know, I'll have people call me and then we'll send them a quote and they'll say, well, my old stager only charges $1,200. And I'm like, well, I'm not leaving my house for that and the reason being so, I like to educate people and break it down to them and I'm like, okay, your stager that's offering that probably just has. It's usually one person working for them, just themselves, and they usually have like a husband or a you know a son that's helping them move furniture and they typically have smaller scale furniture and they have maybe one to two storage units, which for them they're making money. Yeah, but for us we have the capacity to stage larger luxury homes, which we do quite a bit of, and so when you have luxury homes, you can't have one to two storage units.
Speaker 1When you're doing high volume, like we're doing, you have to have the space, you have to have the team and the biggest challenges you have to have the quality of your own product that you're putting in there right, you have to have quality products and you have to.
Speaker 4The thing for us is you have to be very organized and the biggest challenge for us is space and, like, having the right team. Right now we have a great team I've added a few new people in and it's it's night and day when you have the right people and the wrong people, and so that's huge. But the overhead to have the right people to pay for the storages and the additional units, insurance, truck insurance, you know all the things you know we have to have, like, we have to have liability insurance. What if somebody trips and falls in a house? Right, so it's, it's a lot. Those are the things that I never thought of because I was never a business owner. I don't, I never had this experience.
Speaker 4So I've grown. It's pushed me to grow. I've I've had a business owner. I don't. I never had this experience, so I've grown. It's pushed me to grow. I've I've had meltdowns.
Speaker 2So yeah, you're earning your right of passage as a business owner.
Speaker 4I've got. I've had less meltdowns. I like this summer Summer's always really crazy. This summer I had way less meltdowns than the summer before because I've I've gotten stronger and I've gotten smarter and I'm learning to uh trending in the right direction, Right and you're and you're setting up your systems so you kind of have more support.
Staging and Business Partnerships
Speaker 2I mean as, when you get to the level that you're at, having a team and having the right support is the difference between having a successful business or a failing business. Yes, that's crucial. So I'm curious about the inventory, because this is another overhead that people don't really consider. How do you source your inventory? I imagine you're not going to retail stores but doing more of a wholesale channel for a lot of your stuff.
Speaker 2So this is kind of a two-part question how and where have you found channels to source your inventory? And also, because you stage so well, how often are people requesting to buy the pieces that you stage with?
Speaker 4that you're having to then replace. It happens. I have sold an entire house once, just the entire house once. It was really cute too it was this mid-century modern house, but I have sold whole living room sets. I have a house staged in Tahoe, in Zephyr Cove, and the goal is to sell everything in it. So, like the agent and I discussed that before the pieces I picked out, I had to make sure they weren't my favorite pieces, but they were very appropriate.
Speaker 1They could be somebody else's favorite.
Speaker 4Well, the sofa is very high end, but it's a leather sofa and it was perfect. It's a real leather sofa. So it's an Italian leather sofa and it was perfect, for it's a real leather sofa. So it it's. It's an italian leather sofa so it's perfect for a zephyr cove home right because you need that kind of furniture for that rustic vibe there.
Speaker 4But, um, yeah, we source through um wholesale and a couple of the vendors that we go through, but we also we have created a relationship with there's a company that stages all the model homes in all the way from Washington to, you know, all over California. Oh, wow.
Speaker 4And they don't open up to the public very often. But we created a good relationship with them where we call them up and we get to go there and we they know we're going to write a large check and we're going to buy a lot of stuff. So we usually come with a truck and we fill it up. Sometimes we fill up two trucks and that has been. That's great, because they're selling it for like 70% off. Oh, that's insane. And it's all usually luxury, high end.
Speaker 2Are they located here in California? They are? Oh, that's convenient.
Speaker 4They're in Sacramento. Okay, wow, extra convenient. I'll be honest, I'm not going to take credit. I would message them and they never responded and they kind of blew me off a lot, because I think one time I said, yeah, I'll take that, and then I got busy. He didn't show up. So it's my husband, he created the relationship and they they like him a lot. Well, we love spouses. For that, yes.
Speaker 2If I can't win, I know my spouse will.
Speaker 1Well, speaking of Joe, because Joe's in the business now but he wasn't at the start correct. I mean, he was kind of helping out behind the scenes, but now he's a component of it. Do you want to talk about developing that marriage, business partner, co-worker relationship?
Speaker 4Yeah, it's challenging, but I think we do a pretty good job at it. In the beginning, for the first two years, I was doing it alone. He was getting lots of calls like I need help with this, oh my gosh. And then he had started a company with a guy and had a partnership and after year two with us, we did, we crunched the numbers. We realized that if we were going to grow, I physically, mentally, I couldn't do it without someone I trusted and I just didn't know who, who I could trust to bring in. So it made sense for him to come with me.
Speaker 4Um, he left that company and he actually used a lot of the money in helping me invest into the company. He sat me down and he was like I believe in you. Like how big do you want it to be? And I was like I want it to be really big. He's like you do. I'm like I do. I didn't in the beginning, but I do. And so he's like okay, I believe in you, I'm taking my bet on you, I'll take the risk. That's amazing. He bought me my truck. He paid cash for it. Oh, that's incredible. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2He's a good husband husband of the year. So, no, I think it's important that we acknowledge those people that help us along the way. I don't know a single person that got where they were in a successful place without asking for help from someone, and it takes a lot of vulnerability and courage to say I need help, but without it we fail and it's just pride that kills us, because we need people to get somewhere.
Speaker 4We do.
Speaker 2But that's a that's a really incredible story.
Speaker 4I think that, for everything that Joe and I have been through, we have this background where, you know, we struggled in the beginning of our relationship. We've been together for 12 years and we have only been married for four. And because we struggled, you know, after we had our son and our son was diagnosed with autism and that was a challenge when he was young. And now we work together and our marriage is great.
Speaker 2That's impressive. I'm one of those people that's like I love my spouse, my wife, I love you, but I don't ever want to work with her Like I could not. So I think when it's when I see couples who are successfully working together, I mean that's a lot of time spent together and business adds this extra pressure and stress that I think it's really difficult for a lot of people to manage. You have to be great communicators. You have to be willing to compartmentalize, like hey, when business is happening or it's stressful over here, we don't bring that over here, and hats off to you.
Speaker 4I don't think a lot of people can do that. We are always working on it. That's one of the goals, is I wanted to have less of it. At like, there has to be a point where we shut it off because we are. We are always talking about it all the time. So sometimes I'm just like let's put the phones away, it's not talk about it, let's not answer calls, let's just be with our son and let's just not talk about work.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think and that's that's what we talk about it all the time on the on this show Um, it's, it's doable, but you're never not thinking about it. When you've got people whose livelihoods are responsible for the business, it becomes more than you and more than your personal needs. But that's where a great partnership can help, because you can carry the load for your partner when things are heavy, I've got to imagine. For you guys, though, that's tough, because you're the two, you're the you're, you're two of the two top pieces. So if you guys wanted to take a weekend off, I mean letting go of that. Letting go of that and having that next person in line who you can trust is is is massively important as well.
Speaker 4Yeah, you know we went to. We we never took a honeymoon because when we got married we were starting this business. Also, we got married in COVID, in our backyard. But we did take a big trip this year and we went to Hawaii and we really tried our best to unplug but we would get up at five. We're big early bird people, we get up early. So we got up at five every day our time and you know we were on FaceTime with our employees. We were telling them what to pick out. They were still staging homes and you know we were. There was a few times we had to call agents and just kind of talk things over. But when you own your own business you have to know that and be, okay with it?
Speaker 4Yeah, absolutely, I have to know that.
Speaker 2Spent my time in Hawaii doing the same thing. Up early taking care of business. It's just there's no time off. We get time away, but really the time off is few and far between. So do you have a job that's like one of your more for good or bad? Do you have a job top of mind that's like that job will stick with me forever?
Staging Impact on Home Sales
Speaker 4Yes, okay or bad. Do you have a job top of mind that's like that job will stick with me forever? Yes, okay, okay, you mean like, like a, like a staging job, staging job okay, let's hear it. Um well, is it memorable or is it just like?
Speaker 2one of my you tell us I mean, it could be either or do you want me to tell you something?
Speaker 4funny. Well, I prefer juicy, but funny works too. Well, this is a little bit funny and juicy. I had a stage. This is memorable. It was not my favorite. Okay, I had a stage. I staged a home and, as you know, homes get broken into yes, I think we have one today happen and a prostitute moved in.
Speaker 1Oh, she moved in the house.
Speaker 2Well, you just designed it so cute.
Speaker 4It was like perfect for business, you know, and uh, she, she, she changed some things up in the house. She put black lights and all the lamps and yeah, and they got her out and we came in and it's to say we threw all the bedding towels away she took my napkins, though she took my napkin, you probably didn't want those yeah, I'm gonna say what they were used for clean up you probably don't know, I don't even want to
Speaker 4speculate, I'm like weird, she didn't take the napkin rings, but she took the napkins. But I yeah it was. It was pretty funny. I mean, at the time I was like we saw the black light bulbs in the lamps. We were like, oh wow.
Speaker 2She, she was a professional.
Speaker 4She set in the mood. She was setting the mood, she knew what to do. She had some Johns in there and yeah, I mean okay this was juicy, it was not.
Speaker 1it was not exactly the kind of story, but it really was.
Speaker 2Thank you, you didn't let me down.
Speaker 4It was a good one, yeah, I mean it happens, it's like, but it's, it's not the worst. Those things are not the worst things that are happened in staging.
Speaker 2What would you say are?
Speaker 4I would say the worst thing that's happened was, um, I staged a luxury house the entire house this summer. A luxury house, the entire house this summer. And um, uh it was. It went pending very fast and the sellers were, you know, super excited and happy and the agent had told me, um, I said, can we remove staging today? And he said yes, and we had another luxury home up the street.
Speaker 4So it was perfect, that furniture can go, it would be. It was very specific, it was, it was like homes in a home in Los Lagos, so very specific type of furniture and decor. So it was perfect, we could take it from that house and a lot of the stuff could go into this other home. So we went, we started to remove the staging. We got half of it removed and we're moving it over and we were going to get the rest remaining the next day and we got a call from the seller and the seller was not aware we were removing the furniture and he was very upset and he called me and he's like you got to put it back. Oh, all the decor had been packed up, all the art had been removed off the walls, everything. It was 110 that whole week.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh, but the house was pending. And I what was the? What was the hangup, I guess. What's the?
Speaker 4well, the sellers. Here's the thing. Um, the agent was fine with it, he was comfortable with it. He said it's a solid deal, one contingency that they had not released, but it was going to be released within the next couple of days. But the sellers were just so upset and really wanted. They were like we signed the contract with you and so, because they signed the contract and they paid, we had to honor that. And there was just. It was a lesson for me. Now I always, when I remove staging, I always include the agent and the seller.
Speaker 1Dotting I's and crossing T's in this business is super important.
Speaker 4They don't. This is not stuff you learn from a staging course or from even a real estate course probably Right.
Speaker 1There's lessons that can only be learned in the school of hard knocks. For sure, cover your ass. Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2Well, that's the whole. We are a CYA state, so what advice would you give to industry professionals? I know staging is not something that every agent does. I'm sure there's a lot of agents out there that just don't see value in it or want to save costs either for themselves or their clients, but for you, I mean, you just mentioned, you know, luxury that went pending very quickly when we're in a market where typically luxury tends to sit. You know the six month market seems to be average for those multimillion dollar homes. So, in your experience, like, how does staging affect the sale in a positive way? What advice would you give to our industry professionals?
Speaker 4I would give you the suggestion to look at the um, the data. Look at, look at the numbers. There's uh, the real estate association. They give numbers and the staging association does every year.
Speaker 2There's a staging association. Oh yeah, oh, this is news. I'm part of it. Oh my gosh, it's called uh.
Speaker 1Kaylee wants to know if you're looking for a conference date. Wants to know if you're looking for a conference date.
Speaker 2Honestly, I really wants to go so bad.
Speaker 4They do have a conference and that we are going this year. We didn't go last year. It's hard, they have it in summer and we're so busy. It is in.
Speaker 2Vegas World Market Center. Yes, okay. That's what my wife is in furniture, as you know. And so that's where they do their furniture show, is it she? Should go. I'm wondering she should go Okay.
Speaker 4We'll talk later.
Speaker 2We'll talk offline about this, but yes, we need to connect.
Speaker 4So you're going this year, we are going to go this year, we'll probably myself and my husband will go, and um, one of our top stagers who's she does so much for our business, um, we'll probably have her come. We'll pay for her to come too. It's with staging. Here's the deal. I have agents who tell me my clients don't want to stage, they don't want to pay for it, and then two months goes by and they call me. I'm staging one the first week of January. It's been on the market for four months. It won't sell. So now the sellers are like we wish we would have listened. But I will say this we staged one a few weeks ago, sat on the market for 90 days. Super cute house in Sacramento. We staged. It sold in two weeks. We staged a luxury house that sat for a year and it sold in less than a month.
Speaker 4We've staged homes. I have so many examples. So when people reach out to me and they go, well, I just don't really know if I believe in it. I will send you this, these addresses. You can look them up and I will show you what the difference is. The thing is, is that even these small little houses that people think, oh, we don't need staging, you will get more money, and also it's just you. A home looks larger with furniture and then a large luxury home. People don't know what to do with all that space.
Real Estate Staging Technology Trends
Speaker 2Yeah, it's so, true it's. I mean to put it frankly, most people lack vision. They don't, they cannot go in. I mean, it takes again what I'm saying about staging. You know it takes a special person to be able to look at a space and say it would look beautiful like this.
Speaker 2And a buyer most certainly does not have that capacity most of the time. So when we're showing them empty spaces, you know that's all they're seeing four walls, a floor and a roof, and then the vision of living there is really absent, and that's what we're selling most of the time of. Like this is what it would look like to live here. So for me as an agent, I've pretty much always paid for my staging, just because I want to remove the objection from the sellers of like we don't want to pay for that. I don't even want that to be an objection. I want to prove that I'm going to sell your house fast and I'm going to get you the top dollar for it, and the only way that we can do that is to present it to buyers in a way that they're going to be really engaged and moved and excited about, which is typically not the way that you live in this house. Sorry, seller, even if you love your furniture.
Speaker 4That is when I do occupied staging consults. We come in and we're the bad guys and we talk to the sellers and we go, we take our pictures, take our notes and we go home and we make a big report for them and a to-do list. And that is the number one thing I say to them is how we live is not how we present ourselves for market and online. You have all this stuff on the walls and when you're looking at the pictures have you ever done that when you looked at a picture like a house on MLS and you see all their stuff and you're looking at it all, oh, yeah, yes, and you're like it's like one of my favorite games to play of like.
Speaker 1Let's look at the horrible pictures on MLS Can.
Speaker 4I just be honest, like when I like I saw one the other day and there were cereal boxes and and cookies on the counter and in my mind I'm like where was the agent? Why did they allow this Right?
Speaker 1Well, the agent was behind the iPhone.
Speaker 2Exactly the agent was the one snapping the picture. Oh, that's my iOS seven. That's my biggest pet peeve.
Speaker 4And the biggest pet peeve, and this is the advice I can give If you are going to have your clients pay for staging, you better get professional photos.
Speaker 2Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, you can't have one without the other.
Speaker 4It does a disservice.
Speaker 1Honestly, it is a disservice, Well, and I'll and I'll say this like as someone who's who's not a licensed realtor, and not like design savvy guy, like my biggest hangup with you know, marina and I have sold, I think, four houses to this point, and I mean the amount of money that it costs to sell a house.
Speaker 1You're just like as the seller. You're like, oh my god, every time I turn the page, it's another bill, it's another cost, another thing like that. So, like I love what kaylee said about you know, just immediately offsetting that cost and and that's, that's a, that's a pick and choose kind of thing, because now you're putting your money on the line and oh, by the way, we're in a, we're in a market where sellers are trying to negotiate commissions out of this thing left and right, and you're like, hold on, I'm actually paying for this component of the service with my commission or with my own money. Um, you know that's and that's a huge risk. It's a, it's a massive value add. Um, but I think for me as a seller, it's always like we've always been like man. It's like every freaking day there's a new cost or you know, and then the inspectors come through and you got to fix all this shit.
Speaker 4And you, the bad guys we are. Yeah, I'm a good guy. It's been kind of nice.
Speaker 1The last, the last couple of years, the last couple of years it's it's been more than insurance guys that have been the bad guys.
Speaker 2So get, we can get him back in or somebody else back in.
Speaker 1Because I mean, yeah, the insurance is it's getting worse. I mean they're the black knight right now, Like nobody likes seeing those guys.
Speaker 2Well, I mean what?
Speaker 1they're doing things.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean they're sending. Even homes that are currently covered are getting notices saying you need to replace your roof, even if there's nothing wrong with it. And then home warranty is saying, well, because there's nothing wrong with it, we can't cover that. So now homeowners are like great, do I change my insurance? Can I get covered anywhere else? Do I have to pay for this out of pocket? It's crazy.
Speaker 1Well, and really when we dug into that, like it's amazing because, just like you talked about like the backend cost of these things, like the insurance companies are dealing with the same things. They were not allowed to raise their premiums for so long. And now, with, with all the inflation, everything that goes on like and all the disasters they paid for.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I mean a claim. A claim that costs $10,000 10 years ago is probably a 15 to $20,000 claim today. So it's hard because we're we're we're playing catch up and when I I look at my insurance premiums, it's insane what they've done over the last four years as far as growth and going up. But anyways, another story for another day.
Speaker 2I know we digress again. Sorry guys, we're weaving. We're weaving Okay. So, let's talk about technology. We've kind of weaved in and out of this social media. Obviously, it's a huge platform for you. I don't know if there's any kind of back-end technology that stagers use. I mean, I didn't even know there was an association. So I feel like there's a lot I'm really uneducated about in this world. But is there any tech that you're currently excited about currently using? Tell us all about that.
Speaker 4Currently. To be transparent, I'm not impressed with any of the technology that's offered for staging, so we're trying to create our own kind of Ooh yeah, another pioneer.
Speaker 2That's all I can say.
Speaker 4Okay.
Speaker 1But I will. Are you speaking? Are you talking about, like the virtual staging, or no?
Inventory Management and Staging Challenges
Speaker 4I would never get into that. I don't believe in it, so I can't. I mean, we've asked. We've had people ask us well, could you do virtual staging? We don't offer that Because that house that I just staged, that sat for three months, was virtually staged and I have to say the virtual staging looked really, really good, but when you got to the house it didn't present that way.
Speaker 1I was going to say it's probably a letdown.
Speaker 4It was an older home.
Speaker 1You get super excited off the pictures online and you walk in you're like, where is it?
Speaker 4Yeah, so that was the problem and the agent she agreed after it sold. After two weeks she goes. It just needed to be staged. That's what it was. Yeah, but so we don't do virtual staging. I'm talking about back end, like back end of back end for us. I need something that's going to manage Back end for us. I need something that's going to manage Well, right now, I own all these sofas and furniture and so much stuff getting it into the inventory app, which it's hard. So this is our goal. We're working slowly, we're getting stuff put in, we're trying to moving forward. It will create better systems and it will really streamline things that that's technically like merchandising.
Speaker 1That's a whole industry in itself.
Speaker 4It's like, basically, you can pull up this app and I can see all my furniture from my sofa at home. I don't have to be physically in the warehouse and I can boop, boop, boop. This is what's in the inventory, this is what's out, and I can pick what I want and I can send that over to my team and they can get loaded up in the morning before I get there. We start super early in the summer because of the Sacramento heat, and so that is our goal. It's just like I said it's a lot of work getting it all put in?
Speaker 2Oh, I imagine. Yeah, I mean, it's the tedious minutiae that we as business owners hate but have to face. I'm having flashbacks from that moment in Clueless, when she's like going through her closet and it's pre-dressing her. Is there an aspect or component where maybe not now, but like maybe in the future that you can take your inventory and be standing in a space that you're trying to stage and like either virtually look and see what pieces might go best, or like do you understand what I'm trying to say?
Speaker 1Are we going to build AI into this?
Speaker 2Yes, I get what you're saying, where you could like, almost like, virtually, stage it before you actually physically, yeah, like get a feel for how it's going to look and know exactly what pieces you want to use.
Speaker 4I do think you could. But honestly, um, I've gotten pretty good 90% of the furniture I, I would say 95% of the furniture that I choose to go in a house. It works Like I, I, I can I've been doing it long enough where I can visually go. Okay, I know a 10 foot L shape sofa is going to go in this living room and I know that if it's a smaller house, I know we need to use one of our smaller sofas. You know, with two chairs and an eight by 10 rug will fit in here, or maybe it's a five by seven. I've gotten pretty good about it's, just it's. I think it's quicker just to just go. Well, let's take this, this, this and this, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2Well, and that's the human component that AI can never replace, right? It can know all of the sizes and measurements, but it can't. I don't know, and maybe it will one day, but like really it can't replicate feel. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4I like the creative process For sure, and I love that. Like you know, when you're choosing things it's not as easy as it sounds. It's like the hardest part of the job is when we're picking everything out at the warehouse and packing and loading that and making sure we can fit it all in so we don't have to do more than one load or rent another truck, and so that takes the longest. Once we get there, it's easy. Installing it is easy, but the creative process of making sure that you choose that rug and then the art has to tie into that rug and the color scheme has to be carried throughout, there's a lot of do you have?
Speaker 1like a? My brain is tired. Is it like a prerequisite to work for you guys? Like hat must be good at Tetris. Is that like? Is that like a job requirement?
Speaker 4Joe is very good at Tetris and he's gotten so good. When my sister bought a house in my middle sister bought a house in Nashville and she called me and was like do you guys want to go? And for four days and we'll just set the whole thing up, I'm like sure I'll start helping her order stuff. So I picked, helped her pick stuff out, and we ordered and we got there and we did a big, huge like we did a couple halls at HomeGoods and we rented like a. We didn't rent a U-Haul, we were I don't know what you're thinking. We rented like a SUV.
Speaker 4But Joe was doing it and she and her, my brother-in-law and sister, were like, how, how did he get this all in? I'm like they're like he's so good at this. I'm like he's got gotten really good, so he trains all of our guys. And now, like these young men, one of the guys that works for us, he's 20 years old. I've known him since he was three, his mom is one of my friends and he's gotten so good at it. And so now we we, we switch them off. We're like, okay, weston, you're in charge of making sure that everything can fit in that truck. Also, make sure everything's protected. I don't want my stuff scratched, so everything has to be wrapped, and blankets over blankets and blankets.
Speaker 4We have a lot of moving blankets. You never need to borrow them.
Speaker 2That's the industry.
Speaker 1It's like the gold rush the guy who made the most money was selling the shovels, Like I'm going to start selling moving blankets. Yes, yes, we were just joking about this. We had dinner with some friends on Saturday night and apparently you can't get hooks for. Christmas ornaments right now Nobody has them.
Speaker 2I was like, man, we've got to buy them. Give me all your old wire hangers that I got you, Dan Geez, I just found a bunch from the bottom of the box.
Speaker 4That's wild. That is weird.
Speaker 2Eggs, that's wild.
Speaker 1That is weird eggs hooks. I know what's happening. It's every year there's something. Well, I mean, we we talked a little bit about covid. I think one of the things that covid really taught industry was we were overproducing for so long if you look at everything. Everything is is somewhat in demand and not almost not readily accessible even to like.
Speaker 1I mean, I'm a shoe nut like like Joe, Joe and I are both shoe guys and, uh, I mean the chances of walking into a, a shoe store, and finding your size is is not is not great. Yeah, it's not great, but but that's. But that's also by design, right, right, like there's sure, because if you walk, if, if 10 of us could walk in and get those, like that's bad on the company because now they got that inventory sitting there waiting for us to come in, where it's so strategic, it's actually.
Speaker 2I was reading about it. There's a book that I love and I've reread several times. It's called the influence of psychology. They address marketing in one of it and they talk about how, specifically this time of year it's relevant. Toy companies would market to children and they would blast all of these commercials out about the toys, right. And so you have kids begging their parents I want this toy, I want this toy, I want this toy, gotta have it. And they would underproduce these toys leading up to Christmas. And then so parents go my kid, this is the one toy they want, and it's sold out everywhere. Well then, immediately following Christmas, they start production again and they load all the shelves up. Well, that kid hasn't forgotten that their favorite toy was the one they didn't get for Christmas. So now they're leading the spending into the new year.
Speaker 1Isn't there an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?
Speaker 2Is that?
Speaker 1Jingle All the Way? Yeah, it did. Is that Jingle All the Way Do? Oh, yeah, did I jingle all the way, did I?
Speaker 4jingle all the way. Remember the cabbage patch dolls? Oh yeah, I mean, I was an 80s kid. You know, I was a child. I was born in 78. So I was born in the like before the 80s. But the cabbage patch dolls, we wanted them so bad but they were selling out and people were like fighting for them. Oh yeah, it was nuts, nuts it's a doll.
Speaker 2It was furbies for us in the 90s it's still freaking furbies, it's still elmo, oh god, tickle me elmo, yeah, oh yeah there's always there, every, every season, seems to have that one.
Speaker 1Now, like for me, like my kids are a little older, so we were joking. Like my kids want way more expensive stuff yeah, they want like the tablets and the game, digital game, yeah so it's like so. So I'm actually not really in that that realm anymore. I don't know what the I don't know what this year's it toy is that all the kids want, but but it definitely like, I mean, that's a, that's almost, that's almost part of the christmas tradition as well.
Speaker 2Right, it's synonymous with black friday who are you willing to trample to make your kid happy?
Speaker 1but I will say like I don't, you know it's, it's nice, nice not seeing the crazy Walmart videos of people getting in fights.
Speaker 2I'm glad that we're putting that down for now.
Speaker 1Online shopping is has really changed a lot of things. There's another. There's a Netflix show you guys got to check out called Buy Now. It was a Netflix special.
Speaker 2Oh, I want to see that. Is it going to disgust me with the American consumerism?
Speaker 1I guess it's going to disgust me Worldwide, worldwide, worldwide consumerism, I felt that way about.
Speaker 4We went to target on Saturday to pick up some gingerbread houses. We had some friends over and just the like. One family had just two carts and just all the stuff and I I actually got a little anxiety being there. It's very crowded and I looked at Joe and I go. My heart hurts.
Speaker 4He goes, it's just anxiety, you're fine, and I was like I just all he goes. It's just anxiety, you're fine, and I was like I just all the spending and it's hard. Joe loves Christmas presents and he really goes overboard and I'm like you know, I'm I'm, I'm like you don't need to buy me all that stuff. He's like why I love it, it brings him joy. So I, he's a giver, I'm a, you know, I compromise and that's part of working together.
Speaker 1I'm cheap, I'm a giver, but I'm cheap, I'm the saver and he's the spender.
Speaker 4There's always one. If I have anything that's expensive, it's only because he bought it for me, because he's more of the spender.
Speaker 2Yeah, I, I love giving presents and I definitely, I definitely spend um.
Speaker 2This year. I was on a mission to spend on small business as much as possible and and my wife and I have been increasingly over the last couple of years trying to find things that we can give to our loved ones that are more experience-based rather than like product-based, which is challenging, you know, because it's not like you can. I found the perfect thing for my in-laws. I was like this would be amazing for them and like minimum tickets were like $1,300. And I'm like they will buy that themselves. I will tell them about, I will tell them that they should spend their own money on this amazing event that they can't miss. But yeah, it's really difficult. It is hard when you see how much we spend on stuff that will eventually get used maybe a couple of times and then, you know, falls into the giveaway pile.
Speaker 1It's just by Now is going to ruin your world.
Speaker 2Don't watch it. Actually, maybe I need to watch it because maybe I just need to reinforce all my rantings.
Speaker 1It'll give you some firepower, okay.
Speaker 2Let's talk a little bit about Sacramento.
Speaker 1I know we haven't even got to Sacramento, we haven't even got here.
Sacramento Culinary Scene and Sisterly Bonds
Speaker 2This is exciting because you're a foodie person. Yes, We've, we had a very, for those of you listening we were supposed to have baked goods. I had a full conversation via text prior to the show about food, and we did have grandiose plans of preparing a lot of food, but I'm glad that it didn't happen because you would have just heard me eating the whole episode.
Speaker 2So, um, but so I know that you, like, you've got some inside knowledge on some of the restaurants, some of the places to go. It doesn't just have to be Sacramento. We can look Placer County and this is like greater Sacramento Valley. Okay, tell us some of like your favorite spots in Sac.
Speaker 4Oh, okay. Well, my husband obviously loves Makuni and um, yes, and we and we've had some um, we have some friends that are good friends with Taro, so it, which is great Cause our son Wyatt, he loves Makuni so he's gotten to hang out with Taro a bunch of times. Joe's got to go golfing. We love supporting him and I love his story. So my husband's a big sushi guy I am not, but we love going there. Okay, we're actually taking our team there on Monday. Love that. But I would say my favorite restaurants here I love. Okay, I'm bougie about food, Bring it on, so I'm critical. I can be more critical. I would say one of my favorite go-to places is probably Chef's Table.
Speaker 1Okay, oh, yeah, yeah, and I, I, just for me, I.
Speaker 4I really love familiar area and everything like in my life. Like I like to go to the same grocery store I cause I know where everything is and I love going there because I know everybody that works there. I know what I like, I know that it's going to be good food, it's going to be great service. I love all the people that work there and it's just.
Speaker 2they change the menu up, and I love that. Yeah, it's an absolute, it is fantastic.
Speaker 4Fantastic and I love the new creations and that they cook with the seasons and there's different seasonal menu. I also love that. Um, my second favorite is Hawks. They have a seasonal menu as well. Hawks is delicious. If you go to Hawks, you have to get the gnocchi because they change the recipe each season, so there's like a butternut squash gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese for the fall and then they might have a more summery one with, like, maybe there's some corn, roasted corn, and I think they did a corn one this summer. Love that. We also like. Sometimes we like to go to Moscow, which is just like a brewery. Yeah, they have good food and they're owned by Hawks.
Speaker 1Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 4Yes, so yes, and doesn't Hawks the same owner own, ella, I believe, so I might be wrong.
Speaker 1No, that's, that's Sellens, sellens, sellens. You're right, that's Sellens, which I do love. Sellens too, I love.
Speaker 4Sellens? I don't have a. I live in Roseville. There's no Sellens. So, when I stage downtown, I hit up Sellens, and when I'm up in El Dorado Hills, I hit up that Sellens.
Speaker 2Have you been to any of the Sellens owned restaurants like Oboe or anything like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, obo, I love.
Speaker 4Ella, they make a really good gin and tonic. Oh which I get vodka instead of gin. I can't do gin, but their tonic is like house-made and it's so good, interesting.
Speaker 1For reference. In cocktails I mean the chef's table, old-fashioned is second to none.
Speaker 2I guess I cannot wait to have a cocktail.
Speaker 4Oh yes, second to none. I guess I cannot wait to have a cocktail, oh yes, and the chef's table makes a good jalapeno margarita the blackberry.
Speaker 4So I would say those restaurants are great. I love supporting For me living in Sacramento, my favorite thing is that. You know people are like oh, you live in Sacramento. I'm like you know what. It's great because it's a great location where we can go right up to Tahoe. My sister lives in Tahoe so I go there quite a bit. We can jet up to Tahoe in an hour and 45 minutes and we're there.
Speaker 4We've grown to love all the local restaurants there and we've gotten to know the owners because my sister lives there, she's local, we can go to the beach and Joe and I, every anniversary we we always go down to like Monterey or uh, uh, I can't think of it right now. What's that other town down there? Carmel.
Speaker 4Yes, we go to Napa, Cause my sister also has a house down there and so we go to Napa and we have all of our favorite spots. You can go to all these places in in in California. One of my sisters is living down at the beach right now. We can drive down there in six hours.
Speaker 2Your sisters sound really fun, my sisters are living it up.
Speaker 4We get on these group texts and they say what are you doing? And then I'm like I'm working. It's like 112 in the summer. And then one sister's like I'm golfing today and the other one's like oh, I'm at the beach right now. I just took the dogs for a walk. I'm like you guys, you're working towards it.
Speaker 1I want to be your sisters when I grow up.
Speaker 4My son says to me about my sister she's on a golf team in incline village and with this ladies group. And he says, mom, this summer we went golfing, all of us I, I drove the car, I didn't golf, um, and he said well, mom, why don't you join Auntie Coco's golf team? And I said uh, well, because you go to private school. So mommy has to grind and he goes. Oh, okay. And he goes well, when will you be able to join?
Speaker 2And I said when you turn 18, when you're flying into Sacramento you've maybe haven't been here before you're flying over all of these farm fields and you're like, where the hell am I going right now? But the really amazing part of that the results in our culinary scene is that we have so much fresh ingredients. I think we're really spoiled here as to how much produce, local livestock, everything that we get access to that provides such a phenomenal culinary experience, which has really exploded in the last 10 years here in Sacramento. And that's, I think, one of the reasons why they disgustingly changed our name from the city of trees to farm to Fort capital. Um, but I think it's really. You know people don't realize that when they come here and that you know that's the benefit. Like, yeah, all of these farm fields are providing direct fresh produce. Where you live in Los Angeles, that's all getting shipped to you, buddy.
Speaker 1So it's, it's, it's pretty wild, Even even like we travel, you know, to brazil and like, uh, my brother in law was just here from brazil and artichokes, you know, it's like it's um, it's, they don't even, they're just so different, it's a totally different thing.
Speaker 4They're artichokes in brazil.
Speaker 1They don't grow there, yeah you know, and it's like because they, they need cold, climate, cold.
Speaker 2yeah, they grow down in like s Cruz Even like so, like yeah, I mean the Middle East.
Speaker 1You can't, you know, ship the cost of shipping an artichoke to right. Middle East. It doesn't make it worthwhile, so it's funny but we take all these things for granted becauseapa's second to none in the world yeah, it's a world renowned.
Speaker 2Well, italy might disagree with that. Yeah, that's the conversation. We're another time?
Speaker 1yeah, we'll bring on. We'll bring on a sommelier for that conversation. Yeah, I know, certainly not me.
Passion for Food and Cooking
Speaker 2Yeah okay, this is one of my favorite questions. We don't really get to ask this all the time, but I love when we do. Do you have any unusual talents that we might not know about?
Speaker 4Oh gosh, I don't know if it's unusual, I would say the cooking.
Speaker 2Well, that is a great talent. You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to cook these days.
Speaker 4Yeah, I love to cook. I actually had a food blog for a little while and I love to cook. If I didn't, I don't know. I I thought about it and like, should I open a restaurant? But I grew up in a restaurant. My dad owned a business in Seattle and he had a restaurant. So I saw, I saw all the hardships, yeah, so I got a taste. I got. It's a rough business.
Speaker 2Talk about overhead. Talk about overhead, yeah.
Speaker 4I mean, and if you've seen the show Bear, have you seen Bear?
Speaker 1No, oh my God, it's so good you haven't watched the Bear.
Speaker 4No.
Speaker 2You have homework.
Speaker 1I lived it for a little while You've got homework, you've got homework.
Speaker 4Okay, You've got to see the Bear, but you know you see all the hardships but I do love. I love food, boring Like what is your signature dish?
Speaker 1Kaylee's coming over for dinner. What are you making?
Speaker 4Great question.
Speaker 2I make a really good lobster Pappardelle pasta. Yes, I, I okay, this will be postpartum.
Speaker 4No, she's fine, it's cooked. I identify to being Italian, even though I am Spanish and Mexican, because I feel like I can. I cook best. You just claim it, yeah.
Speaker 1I did.
Speaker 3I claimed it People say she identifies as Italian. Okay, you heard it here, folks.
Speaker 2Bring on the Italian passport, please. Yes.
Speaker 4I, just I I'm like I feel like I cook more Italian and people ask me they'll go, are you Italian?
Speaker 2I'm like yeah, basically Kind of by default, taste this dish and then you tell me I'm.
Speaker 4Mexican. They're like do you speak Spanish? No, my parents fluent Spanish, both of them. My dad speaks a couple languages they never taught us. Oh, what a travesty. I know so, but I do love. If I was, I would say like the lobster pasta I make, or I make an orchetti sausage pasta. That's really great. I love to cook and so you know.
Speaker 2I've had some of your dishes. I can say you're pretty phenomenal and that's high praise?
Speaker 4Yes, because you're a foodie and you're a very good cook. Thank you.
Speaker 2Well, I try, you know I. Should we have a cook off? No, I don't want to compete against you, I just want to eat with you.
Speaker 4I don't know, it's so much. Cooking for me is just like, it's like my love language when I love you and I care about you, I'm going to cook for you. I had my whole team over um at the day a couple of days for Thanksgiving, and we but we did it Italian themed, and so we did lasagna and then we did the lobster pasta and Joe makes this amazing chopped salad and he, he's a very good cook, and so thank God for that, because, like we said, when you work together, and your poor grocery bill.
Speaker 4Oh, oh. I don't want to know Cause it we're just. You know. He's like I'm like I really want steak tonight. Sounds good. He's like I'll be right back. I'm gonna go to the nugget comes back with the tomahawk and I'm like too. I mean, that'll get you like why do you have to do that? And then we're eating and I'm like it's so good this is why I understand yeah, yeah, yeah, he's totally forgive you.
Speaker 4But you know, like we talked about like earlier, you were saying you know how do you do it. You know, with both of you working in the, in the business and on the business in and on. But like I don't know if you've ever seen um I think Brene Brown is the one that talks about it where she says you know, you might come home to your spouse and say you know, I only can give like 30% today, like I can't give you my 100. And so we balance that off. And there's times where it's hot and summer and we're busy with our business and we're working and we get home and I've got nothing left. My brain is fried from all the creativity and I don't want to do anything but sit on my foot massager and have a glass of wine, and so he'll cook, so we like. But there's days where he's exhausted, so we just balance it out. And it's nice to have like somebody who loves to cook and can cook.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, but can cook. He can cook, pretty able to cook, well, yeah.
Speaker 4Thank you for feeding me.
Speaker 1Just another notch in Joe's belt. Joe's had just another notch in Joe's belt. Joe's had. Joe's had a pretty good Joe's had a pretty good run on this episode.
Speaker 4He has, I know. I mean he could have been here and stayed, but yeah, he was here earlier.
Speaker 2Yeah, he was. He missed all this.
Speaker 1He was getting a little nervous. He was getting a little squirmy. I know, I know how Joe was feeling.
Speaker 4I've he was bummed out of not attending the, but I will say that would not fly with me Him going out on Christmas Eve. He's got honey do list on Christmas Eve for sure.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, I would say who's going to make the prime rib.
Speaker 1We had to make. We had to make some modifications to make to allow it to grow for sure, for sure. Well, danielle, we are coming up on over an hour here and we want to be respectful for your time. We really appreciate you coming on. This has been a blast. Our last question we ask every single guest this question is if you could be anyone for a day, dead or alive, other than myself or Kaylee or yourself, who would it be and what would you do?
Speaker 4I would be Martha Stewart and I would get on that like little riding tractor she has and I would just ride through her garden and pick the vegetables and go in her amazing kitchen with all the sous chefs and the assistants and cook a big meal. I love Martha Stewart.
Speaker 1You were ready for this question. I love it. Oh my God, okay.
Speaker 4First of all, that was an easy question.
Speaker 2Based off the conversation we just had, that makes a lot of sense, she's the GOAT.
Speaker 4I love that. For you, she's the GOAT, and if you use the word GOAT, you shouldn't use it lightly, because she is good at all things.
Culinary Comedy Duo
Speaker 1Yeah, netflix keeps telling me that I would like the Martha Stewart thing she's a savage she is, she is Martha is ruthless, it looks like behind the scenes she, she is. She is ruthless. It looks like behind the scenes she's a self-made billionaire.
Speaker 4Yeah, and she can cook and decorate and make beautiful things and garden and she's classy.
Speaker 1And she was super cool with Snoop before. Snoop was like mainstream PG-13 Snoop.
Speaker 2I would say if you have not watched one of their cooking episodes together, do yourself a favor. Because ultimate comedy like they are. They're such a yin and yang. They compliment each other so well and it is pure entertainment. I watched the Olympics this year. 50% of the reason was because of Martha and Snoop Like. I wanted to know what they were doing yeah, Hearing Snoop, like be a commentator for sports was hilarious. And what great marketing too. Like anybody who may not traditionally be in the sports of the Olympics like that's now entertainment.
Speaker 1Yes, Bridging that gap was was really cool yeah.
Speaker 2Well, thank you so much for joining us today. This was an incredible and insightful conversation on a part of the industry that I don't think gets enough attention for what you guys do.
Speaker 4So thank you, I appreciate it Absolutely. Let's get out of here.
Speaker 2All right.
Speaker 4All right.
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