Shana Morgan is the owner of Morgan's Monograms, a custom embroidery service and storefront in La Mesa, California. The path of entrepreneurship is not laid with roses, and Shana’s narrative is a testament to the thorns encountered along the way—betrayal, financial upheaval, and natural disasters. With its rich history of craftsmanship, the embroidery industry has been revolutionized by technological advancements and the digital age. Shana provides a front-row seat to the meticulous dance of balancing customer satisfaction with the necessity of evolving and keeping pace with a global market. Prepare to be inspired as we share insights, laughter, and lessons from the front lines of small business ownership and the relentless drive that fuels an entrepreneur's journey.
Learn more about Shana Morgan in a recent San Diego News article.
Learn more about Morgan's Monograms.
Shana Morgan is the owner of Morgan's Monograms, a custom embroidery service and storefront in La Mesa, California. The path of entrepreneurship is not laid with roses, and Shana’s narrative is a testament to the thorns encountered along the way—betrayal, financial upheaval, and natural disasters. With its rich history of craftsmanship, the embroidery industry has been revolutionized by technological advancements and the digital age. Shana provides a front-row seat to the meticulous dance of balancing customer satisfaction with the necessity of evolving and keeping pace with a global market. Prepare to be inspired as we share insights, laughter, and lessons from the front lines of small business ownership and the relentless drive that fuels an entrepreneur's journey.
Learn more about Shana Morgan in a recent San Diego News article.
Learn more about Morgan's Monograms.
But I think a lot of people do think that I like just have this super pampered, luxurious life and I I tell people all the time like I would trade places with you any day just to be able to clock out like I can't, even when I'm on vacation. There's never been a vacation I've taken that I do zero work, never, ever zero work, never, ever.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Superintendent's Hangout, where we discuss topics in education, charter schools, life in general, and not necessarily in that order. I'm your host, dr Sharetta. Come on in and hang out. In this episode, I was privileged to sit down for a conversation with Shanna Morgan, owner of Morgan's Monograms. You can find them at morgansmonogramscom. They're located in La Mesa, california. Reading from their website, morgan's Monograms is a leader in customized embroidery services, opened in 1983, and little asterisks on that.
Speaker 2:Shanna and I talk about the significance of 1983, which is the first year that she drew income, and it's reported on her social security statements. So you have to listen to the episode to hear the joke behind that. Morgan's was already poised at the top of the embroidery industry, with cutting edge technology, which we continue to provide in every project we work on today. So this is a business that's been around for 41 years, but it hasn't all been easy, it hasn't all been lucrative, it hasn't all been without stress, without crises, without turbulence, without turnover.
Speaker 2:Shanna and I cover a wide range of topics, from the importance of young people working, staying busy, having a passion, the importance of young people working, staying busy, having a passion. We talk about the way that she believes she needs to treat all of the employees at Morgan's Monograms, what it means when a longtime employee moves, the realities of trying to be competitive in a market where so much of the work is now done remotely overseas, and much, much more. Shanna gives some really good down-to-earth advice on how to start and run a business and, most importantly, talks about the fact that if you own your own business, you work seven days a week and you never clock out. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Welcome, shanna. Thank you so much for coming in, uh and hanging out for a little bit today well, thank you for having me I'd like it if we could start with your origin story.
Speaker 2:I've known you a long time. We were kind of reminiscing and trying to count the years. It's probably 18. It's a long time from my early days as principal and figuring out who we're going to get uniforms from, but you go way back before that. Even so, tell us about your upbringing and what your path has been and what brings you to this present moment.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, let's see, let's start. I'm a third generation San Diego native.
Speaker 2:Very rare, by the way, to find those Very rare.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my son's a fourth. So my grandmother was born in Chula Vista. My dad was born at Mercy Hospital, I was born at Kaiser, so my mom didn't move here until she was about three. But my grandmother worked at San Diego state. My grandfather was a Marine. My other grandfather was a um COO of Convair, which was this huge you know airplane thing, so he was a really big deal. And um, my grandmother actually her family, came from um Chula Vista. They were one of the uh, californios, the Californios that got land grants from Mexico. So they came from La Paz and got land grants in Chula Vista.
Speaker 2:That's like 18-something. Yeah, late 1800s or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he actually came in the early 1900s, I don't know. But I didn't even know all of this super interesting stuff about that side of my family until there was like a museum exhibit and I was like wait, what? So yeah, I was born and raised here in San Diego, mainly La Mesa. I was raised by a single mom. My father was actually murdered when I was three. So yeah, I was just raised with my mom and basically kind of a village type of thing Like everyone in my family kind of raised me a little bit my grandparents and my aunts Because my mom started an embroidery company in 1983. So it was just me and her and I had to sleep in a sleeping bag while she figured out how to use a computerized embroidery machine, because we were the first person in San Diego to have one and no one knew how to use it.
Speaker 2:Early eighties right 83.
Speaker 1:So my mom would just like read the manual and cry Like I don't know what I'm doing and that was when we were entering commands or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, it looked like the Commodore keyboard like on the machine and you had to do all these weird things like backspace, backspace control period, like just totally old, old, old old. But she obviously ended up mastering that. So basically I just kind of was raised going there my whole life, I worked there my whole life. The business got really big. We went from just me and her to 52 employees at one point and you know, I just kind of like grew up around Helix La Mesa. That's where our shop was and that's basically where I'm from and my origin and my origin.
Speaker 2:So talk to us a little bit about what that experience is like. As a young kid, I'm always intrigued by the way that children see their parents right your mom, single mom, at a time when it might not have been as socially acceptable, when it might not have been as socially acceptable. And to also be a woman running a business, a female entrepreneur that was it was very rare, that was very rare Did you realize that that was rare.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did, yeah, because I mean it was talked about all the time and she was not taken seriously by a lot of people. She struggled, for sure. People thought it was kind of cute, like oh, how cute, you know, you have your little sewing machine here and you know, and like no one really kind of understood that and she definitely struggled. But my mom is one of those people that has like a really good personality. She's very outgoing, very sweet, so she just won people over and then she literally was the only person in San Diego that had this machine. So you know sporting goods stores and things like that would kind of have to go to her to get things done, and so people definitely respected her very quickly. But it was a known thing that like I don't think, I don't think we knew anyone else that was a woman owned, you know, business owner that I remember everyone that came in were all male business owners, everyone so you, she started out small, and then you said at one point you had 52 employees there.
Speaker 2:How did that trajectory go from just you and your mom, and probably just a few people, to 52? And then we'll talk about going from 52 to, ultimately, where you are now.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, so, yeah, it's pretty wild. So it was definitely, you know, a journey. So we had one small little place on La mesa boulevard where she started with one little machine and then, um, no employees. Well, she started getting a lot of military accounts doing flight suits.
Speaker 1:she did a lot of the flight suits for top gun the first one for the movie yeah, the movie and she did lots of patches and then she started doing all kinds of hats and so she started really building accounts because, again, she was the only one. So from there she was able to move down on university, a little bit university in like Massachusetts, and get a small, like a little bit bigger but still small, and she was able to get a bigger machine. So now she had two machines and she had one, one employee, and then it just gradually, like things went really well and then they were so crazy she had to just keep buying more machines and keep hiring more employees and then she would knock down one wall down there. And you know, add, because it was like a business park, not a business park but kind of a building that had, yeah, a business park. So one neighbor would move out, she'd take their space and knock down the wall and buy another machine, and then the next neighbor leaves, she knocks down the wall. So we were there for, oh gosh, probably like 15 years or something.
Speaker 1:And then my mom was, you know, her boyfriend was a entrepreneur, a very successful man. He's like, you know, you just need to buy your own building because she's running. And they found this business park up on university. That was 11 suites, 11 individual suites, and then they knocked all the walls down and made it one big, huge company and the whole side was all that. We got up to like 97 embroidery heads so, and that there was, I think, from like, from like the late 90s into, well, I mean, right up until COVID, really. We're we just always so extremely busy, um, but then, you know, we got up to 52. It's too many. You don't make money when everything goes to overhead. And by that time there was competition. There was a lot of embroidery companies coming in now, so my mom had to stay, you know, price-wise competitive.
Speaker 2:And then when?
Speaker 1:you're 52 employees and then the other guy's working out of his garage, you know. So anyways it. And then it just kept kind of getting worse. Like some of the you know, we just didn't have the profit margin to have all of these employees, so we had to kind of downsize and downsize and then, you know, different laws would come in or different things would happen and it was just be like, okay, we got to like downsize a little bit more, um, and then, um, I mean basically that's kind of how we kind of started downsizing little by little, but we couldn't go under 24 employees, cause that it took that many to really make the company function, under 24 employees, because that it took that many to really make the company function.
Speaker 1:But you know, we had, I mean, our first employee from 1984 worked for us all the way until, like even when I opened up my new shop, my employee, carmen of 22 years, just moved to Florida last month. So I'm like pretty devastated. We worked together every day for 22 years, yeah, and all of our employees there, they were with us for like decades. So we had a really good, solid crew, yeah. And then you want me to talk about how it went.
Speaker 2:It's your story, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, actually.
Speaker 2:That's the exciting stuff when it turns left and right that we least expect it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the exciting stuff when it turns left and right that we least expect it. Yeah, well, what we really least expected was my mom's like right-hand lady, you know. Just some things really come out. I guess things in the dark come to the light type of thing, where we found out a bookkeeper who was very close to us had been doing things that were definitely not okay. So there was quite a problem there. You're talking someone who worked with us for like 25 years and was in control of everything that had to do with a lot of things and just like overnight it was like so now I had to take over everything. I think this was in like 2011 or 12 so money things, a money thing without getting specific right, right, so we um, that was huge, that was huge.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know, we were, I think we're in business 30. Probably around 30 years at that time. And then when I like kind of took over, I mean you're in business 30 years and you go in and we had like $3,000 in our bank account and payroll in nine days and our payrolls were like 35 grand every two weeks and I was like so I mean, I had to hit the ground running back then and my mom was just so upset and it was. It really was hard for her to kind of like get over that. So I did kind of take things over back then and my mom was able to kind of slowly fade out and I like took over the whole company back then with all the employees.
Speaker 1:And so I went through all those hurdles, which is it's hard to run a business, especially when you have a ton of employees. It's very difficult, yeah, so then after you know everything was fine and then COVID hits and we also had two floods at our shop and it was really bad and of course my mom owned the building. So we were lucky we had FEMA, because we had already had two floods before and learned that the insurance doesn't cover natural rainwater floods. So anyways, after all of that, my mom decided I'm going to retire.
Speaker 2:I'm just I'm done, I'm done.
Speaker 1:I'm going to sell this building and retire, which is what she worked for. It's fine At first. Of course, it was very traumatizing to me Because it's like this company is my identity, kind of thing, so this can't happen, you know. And then COVID hit, and then we couldn't go anywhere, do anything and I was stuck at home. My mom went through with it, for sure, and then I relaunched it as an LLC and then I, you know, got my employees together and I got some machines and we got a warehouse in Casa de Oro and basically I kind of started over from scratch. However, you know, I mean we had this huge following of customers and everything, so I just made sure I kept on to all of our accounts and all of our people. And basically now I'm.
Speaker 1:And then so I took my employee, carmen, who's with me 20 years. It was just me and her in the storefront, and then the production management stuff were down at the warehouse. Well, then I brought my son in about a year after that and so, well, now Carmen left March 1st, her and her husband moved to Florida, and so now it's me and my son. So it's like we went full circle. It was just me and my mom, and now it's just me and my son.
Speaker 1:And we went through this whole entire other life in between there.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting. I think people wrongly assume that running your own, owning your own business is this liberating process that is going to result in you owning your own time and oh gosh. And, and it's the, opposite, and now you don't have to work for quote, unquote the man.
Speaker 1:And in the end.
Speaker 2:You're working seven days a week.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you don't clock out.
Speaker 2:You don't clock out.
Speaker 1:No, there's no clock out.
Speaker 2:And any extra money goes back into the business, and so it's really got to be a labor of love and a full-on commitment. This isn't a tech sector where you invent something and then you hope that Google buys you. Exactly so. How have you been able to maintain enough of a competitive edge all these years when you know there's competition locally from the dude in his garage? But there's also online competition right there's almost on demand stuff that you can buy on amazon like a day or two later right that's at some level of quantity, right?
Speaker 2:yep, um, how do you compete with that?
Speaker 1:well, I don't know that I can really compete with it. It's just what it is. I've definitely watched this whole industry change so many different times from what it was. I mean, this industry started when I was a little girl. The only way that you could embroider a logo onto a garment was by buying a paper tape. Okay, so you know how the paper tapes and they got all the punch, the holes punched in it and it reads it. So my mom was the first one to get a logo. It was called punching a tape back then and people still call it punch a tape and people have no idea what that even means.
Speaker 2:You mean getting the logo set.
Speaker 1:Getting the logo set up. Okay, Is used to be called punching a tape, because they would literally punch a tape. They'd put this on this big long wall and they'd sit there and punch every little single hole so that the little projector thing at the bottom of the machine could read it. And then it yeah, our first logo was the Old Globe Theater. I'll never forget so I go from remembering paper tapes and my mom had to order it.
Speaker 1:It was like in the Midwest, it was a whole big thing. It was super expensive, we had to wait for it to come in the mail and it was a whole thing. And then we went from that to computer digitizing, um logos. And then we were the first to have an in-house digitizer which changed like everything and like. So people from all over I mean the country were calling us and sending us logos to have them set up, because we were the only ones doing it. So after that then you could start getting logos set up online and they're doing it overseas. So we got rid of a whole art department. I mean there was no reason for us. That guy actually took off and kind of had to go on his own because he couldn't even get a job anywhere, because now there's no in-house digitizing, really.
Speaker 1:So, um, I watched that change and then now everything is just it's. I mean, how do I compete? I don't know. Um, some people don't want to deal with the. Oh, I'm just going to type this in and see what happens so maybe it's relationships, it's definitely.
Speaker 1:Relationships, absolutely. And then you know we have longevity with so many different companies, schools, everything that um, you know our reputation is just we're always going to make it happen. That's how I was raised. You know my mom was no joke. Like're always going to make it happen. That's how I was raised. You know my mom was no joke. Like it's going to be done. It's going to be done the right way. You treat your customers like gold, you treat your employees like gold and you make it work. And that's just how it's going to be.
Speaker 1:Even if you don't, even if you're cutting back on your own spending and your own.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely Gosh. There was times we could cash paychecks just to make sure everybody's on.
Speaker 1:you know like owning a business is very difficult, especially when you get you know the whole employee side of things. It's like you have workers comp and then you have all these things going on and all your numbers change and you get kicked off of. Now you're at state fund and they want $13,000 a month just to have workers comp and like a business like us cannot afford that but we really had no choice. So just trying to cling on and dealing with all the things that come and go with dealing with so many different people at one time and being responsible for all those people and their relationships with other people, and you know, just very difficult.
Speaker 2:I was thinking in preparation for today about the journey we've gone through at Albert Einstein Academies with uniforms and the uniform logo and the public probably doesn't totally know but we've had like literally internal uniform battles with and you know about some of them with like rogue logos.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, and some staff members I'll be very diplomatic ex-staff members trying to get thinking that they could just send the business to someone else a family member, what have you a relative? For that very reason that you talk about that, it's on some level. It's fairly easy for those people to go and then they outsource it somewhere and then these uniforms show up and I remember looking at things going. So it's always the yellow. By the way, it's always the gold on our logo.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah so you have the right, right gold thread. Uh, I'm not sure what they call it, but anyway that that's the right color. Topaz, topaz, but okay. But there's, but there's a whole host of rogue uniforms yeah they're far fewer of them, but once in a while I've seen one and and this is just a sign of how long I've been here and I go ah, that's one of those.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's like when Coca-Cola tried to have new Coke in the 80s and then for a little while you'd see the cans and you were like that's how it feels, you know. So that whole like that, that is so funny. The battle for the uniforms, right. And so we've been. We've partnered with you guys for a long time. Einstein's in its 22nd year, so you're almost ground zero for.
Speaker 1:Einstein, yeah, I think I started with. I remember her name was Linda and I think it was before you were here.
Speaker 2:It is so Linda, Linda, Linda.
Speaker 1:And I think Barbara was still there, though.
Speaker 2:Barbara. Barbara's like always been there, so you've been more than 20 years. Oh, linda, linda, and I think Barbara was still there, though, barbara, Barbara's like always been there. So you've been more than 20 years.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or just about 19 or 20. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a long time, right? No, yeah, you're right 20. 20.
Speaker 2:And it's interesting just to reflect on that and to I never anticipated that uniforms could ever be a controversial thing or logos could be controversial, right, the very first. This is like an OG story, but before we started working with Morgan's, someone had these patches made online. I remember them and they were iron-on patches. Yep, online, I remember them, and they were iron on patches. And the whole thing was like hey, you get your blue polo or white polo shirt and then you need to iron this thing on, but people didn't have irons and they didn't. So then people were stapling them to their shirts and safety pin and it was just a whole mess. So when we joined up with you, it raised the uniform game up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But then also life has changed and the realities of Einstein have changed, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're now funding uniforms for everybody? Yeah, and it's ethically the right thing to do in a public school. Unfortunately, a lot of public schools or public charters that require uniforms don't pay. Yeah so for some families it's a hardship. You know some people can drop a couple hundred bucks a semester. It's not a big deal and other people it's expensive. So I know you've been great about working with us on on that and getting uniforms and um in people's, people's hands.
Speaker 2:Um, can you talk about the impact of COVID? Uh, because when I think about a business where a lot of your clients are schools, where obviously, if no one's there in person, we don't need to buy kids uniforms, car dealerships, sport, whatever, I think you have a sporting team. All those in-person stuff. It all went Restaurants and bars with uniforms. How did you survive, COVID? Have sporting teams? All those in-person stuff. It all went, with restaurants and bars with uniforms.
Speaker 1:How did you survive, covid? Well, that's a great question. I feel like, looking back, those two years 2020 and 2021, weren't even real to me. They didn't happen or something. They're foggy. I'm like, how did I get through all that? I don't know, um, but I just will tell you that when we well, specifically, let's talk about school uniforms, because that the covid thing affected every uniform, and when I say uniform, it could be a restaurant, you know, car dealerships, all that kind of stuff. They were a pullover. And then I have breweries and bars that have merchandise and sell you their logoed shirts and hats and all their things. So it was difficult, very difficult, to get anything during when we kind of reopened, stock was gone and everything but for the school uniforms it was specifically so insane because a lot of the kids hadn't gone to school in like almost two years, was it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a year and a half, two years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something like that. So a couple things came into play. One, the old uniforms that those kids have no longer fit them, so they have nothing to come to school with because they literally have grown since their last uniforms. Uh, then we had the absolute insane national shortages of all youth and basically adult uh, polo shirts and thread thread, even right thread oh, it was everything backing thread.
Speaker 2:Uh, everything was just like a okay and we gotta do it right now, you know, and then like okay.
Speaker 1:Thread, even right Thread. Oh, it was everything Backing thread. Everything was just like okay, and we got to do it right now. And then like okay, we got it, yeah, we got it, yes, okay. And then like, okay, tomorrow we're going to do it again. It was just such a weird thing. And then all of the online stores that sell uniforms, like French Toast and Land's end, and all of them, they were totally out of everything and there's and now, mind you, they deal with schools all over the nation so they were so overwhelmed, they were like not even returning phone, they were not even answering their phone after a while they're just like they're not here and we don't know when they're coming, so you know.
Speaker 1:So then I at that point had every and because a lot of people still order online, so I don't not everyone comes into our shop you know, um, but everyone came into our shop that year.
Speaker 1:We had, I mean, literally like hundreds of people a day and they were no one could. I couldn't order shirts, you know they. So people were going to walmart's all over the county and seeing if they can find something or target. So people were coming in and bringing shirts to get embroidered and I'm not even joking, like the entire floor in our place was just covered in plastic bags full of shirts. And so I'm like we're literally having dozens and dozens of families come in every day and some of them were bringing in five, 10 shirts a piece, 15 shirts. I mean I literally was getting like 1000 shirts a day to embroider all individual families, so to keep track of like all those individual families and then throw to my production. Like we got to get these done. You know it, oh, we had never been so overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:And then it's when we have like basically nobody now, if this would have happened at the other shop with all my employees. It would have been smooth sailing, right. It was like four of us trying to figure it all out.
Speaker 2:So you watched your mom run the business for a long time. You gradually took over, as you've described. What have you done differently from what your mom did? And this is not to criticize your mom. Every generation, hopefully your son does things differently from what you do. Eventually right.
Speaker 1:That's what we want, yeah.
Speaker 2:What have you done differently as times have changed in running the business?
Speaker 1:It's hard to say, because she really was obviously like my 100% mentor and like raised me to be a certain way. So I like to hang on to actually a lot of her old school ideals. A lot of times now I hear things like the customer's knowledge right, or, you know, there's just kind of like a different, uh, way of dealing with certain things nowadays and I liked I always liked that, because I always make sure like I mean maybe the customer isn't always right, but I'm going to at least make them feel like they are. You know what I mean. And if it means I'm going to lose 20 bucks or something, then oh well, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I'd rather save my reputation and the relationship than worry about dollars and cents, and so my mom taught me that. So I want to always want to keep that and I want my son to always keep that Also. You know employees and customers the best you can. But I would say differently um, I think my mom kind of burnt out and then was kind of like mentally and like emotionally kind of out of it, and I get it, but I try to like not get to that and I try not to look at it as like this is pure torture. I hate this. I try to like look at it like this is a blessing, I'm lucky, like I'm glad I'm here, so maybe that.
Speaker 2:Do you ever take time off?
Speaker 1:No, that is one thing, and my mom took lots of time off. She got to go on trips all the time. She got to say whatever she wanted, like I'm going to Vegas, we're going to Vegas, like her and her boyfriend used to go to Vegas like twice a month. They would go everywhere, but I was never allowed to go anywhere.
Speaker 2:It was not fair for sure, because you had to stay back.
Speaker 1:Because, because I had to do everything right. So it got to the point where it was like I went to the Caribbean in like 2010. And I hadn't gone on a vacation until 2016. So I didn't have any kind of vacation for six years and then I took my son to Puerto Rico and then I didn't go on vacation again for like another six years. So again, no clocking out, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:What's your goal for your son Like? So he's working with you now and there's going to come a time. I know we kind of believe father time is not real, but it's a thing. So you're going to get to a point where you say I'm transitioning out and then you hand it eventually to him. I'm assuming, right, that's kind of the plan With your best motherly intentions, where would you see him in a perfect world in 30 years with the business?
Speaker 1:It's so hard to say, to be honest, it is so hard to say I know what he would like to do. And so, with the whole employee thing, after dealing with that for so many years and the extensive nightmares that you go through and then also there, you love it but you hate it and it's hard, but also the cost of everything, especially here in California, so there's no way I'm ever going to go back to like this full production because I wouldn't be able to and I'd never be able to grow. So I think is what he wants to do is start a production.
Speaker 2:What does that mean for the lay person? What do you mean start a production?
Speaker 1:Like get you know 25 massive embroidery machines and have all the silk screening machines in there, and you know what I mean. So we used to be like so humongous.
Speaker 2:Must have returned to where your mom was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he hasn't lived that life. So I think that's kind of what he wants to do. I'm thinking you know, do whatever you want to do, that's fine with me. Just be prepared for kind of really long days and years and, you know, I don't know how well he would do with all the stress. We're definitely different personalities but I think that he's really into though you know, all the.
Speaker 1:He's into things a little differently than I am. He's a little more into like fashion and he actually like, wants to like. So he like sews things and you know he makes his own sweatshirt and then he embroiders it. So he's just like he's kind of more into something. Yeah, he's a little crafty and then he knows how to actually run all the embroidery machines and run all the things and do artwork and things like that, where I always had employees that do all that part. So I was like the sales and keeping everything together and doing all the employees. So he's a little bit more hands-on with the actual productions and the actual things going on. So hopefully he'll be able to balance that along with maintaining relationships with customers and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:How have you been able to handle stress over all these years? I mean, what you just described is an incalculable amount of stress.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Imagine right between floods and people making off with money or and.
Speaker 1:I think the workers comp is probably the worst.
Speaker 2:That was really bad, Just getting a getting a bill for the workers.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean you just there's just a whole time period of just fraud that affected a lot of people. I think they've tightened things up a little bit now.
Speaker 2:So wrongful claims by employees.
Speaker 1:Well wrongful, and it being like groups of people right, so like one does it and then, before you know it, it's all three of the best friends that you lunch together. They all have you know so.
Speaker 2:They all have repetitive stress injuries.
Speaker 1:No, they all like fell in the bathroom and needed an ambulance, I don't know. I don't remember. There were so many different instances, but it's just that whole. Then you know, like your insurance drops you. So then it got to a point where, like, if you even have like more than one workers' comp claim, your insurance stops you and you have to have insurance, so you have to go to state fund and it was just like five times the amount of what regular workers comp was, and I mean I had to try to find PPOs and P.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, it was such a nightmare and it lasted three years. So, like every payroll was just like uh, cause know, your workers' comp is based off your payroll, so, and we had to pay all these other things and every payroll for years was like so stressful. You know they're $35,000 to $40,000 every two weeks and you're getting a bill for workers' comp for $13,000 on top of it, and then you have your accounts receivables and all the thing. You know it's like you have to constantly make it work, work, work, work, work. That was probably like the hardest time for me and I don't know how I got through it.
Speaker 2:To be honest, so this podcast we always try to return to education in some way and actually I found that most conversations, most good conversations like this one eventually end up talking at some level about school or what you learned or what you didn't learn. It sounds like you were. You know you learned on the job. Yes, we were joking prior to hitting record that your social security statement goes all the way back to the early 80s, and I don't want to cast any accusations towards your mom, but that might count as child labor.
Speaker 1:Probably.
Speaker 2:Probably so. The federal government still took the money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they saw my birthday.
Speaker 2:Maybe the feds at that point were complicit in child labor too. That was the 80s Not always even a bad thing. Right to have young kids or teenagers experiencing growing up in a business.
Speaker 1:I will say that I was always much more advanced than everybody else in my class. In like my group of friends. I was always on a whole other level than them. I had my own checkbook, I had my first car before anyone else. I had two jobs. In high school I always was like on it. You know, I had my first bank account when I was like nine years old. I just, I think, growing up in a business, and my mom actually like saying, hey, you need to go help this, or here Did you do this, you know, and and watching it all happen all day, because that's where I went after school. So I think that it actually was really beneficial for me personally.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that you say that I was talking to, I think, one of my brothers recently and we were talking about reminiscing about when we were kids 10, 11, 12. And we had summer jobs we cut the grass, or in the winter, we you had a snow day, because I'm from the East Coast. You have a snow day, you wake up.
Speaker 2:The shovel You're either going to sleep in which in my house was not really that much of a possibility usually or you're going to get up and you're going to go around the neighborhood with a shovel and you're going to knock on doors and you're going to say, hey, I'll shovel your driveway for five bucks or two bucks or whatever, and you're young and strong and you do it and then you end up with $25 or something. It's like a king's ransom at the time and I don't see young people doing that the same way.
Speaker 1:Right? Not at all.
Speaker 2:And you see enterprising 14, 15, 16-year-olds. They go, get their work permit, they go, they work in a chain. My daughters worked for the past two and a half years in summers and stuff at Target and it's been good, no-transcript, so that was its own. I mean I'm not really afraid, but I remember I had a Chow. Chow was the first client.
Speaker 1:They're kind of mean.
Speaker 2:They were mean and I used to just take it and walk around the block and then tie it to a tree and stand away until the owner until the owner found me.
Speaker 2:Um, apologies to the, to that chow chow, I don't think it's around anymore. Uh, but you grew up getting to see, you know, doing that enterprising kind of work, but also seeing the inside, behind the scenes, of how, of how a business operates right, how you, you know, you, balance your, your books, and how you, how you, um, how changes in the cost of materials are going to change your family's ability to pay the mortgage Right So-.
Speaker 1:Life, experience Life experience.
Speaker 2:Did school prepare you at all for all of that, or was it kind of totally separate? Because my next question will be what do you think we can do in schools to prepare the next generation to be entrepreneurs?
Speaker 1:I think leadership roles is really important because that also helps people with life lesson and life experience. I personally, like when I was in high school and, like you're saying, when I was growing up I mean I was born in 76. So I'm like 80s, 90, early 90s and yeah, I mean like everyone basically had some sort of a job or some way to make money. Otherwise, because, like our parents didn't like just give us money, like if you wanted money, you're like go get a job, like I don't care, and I mean that. And like chores, like I had chores. I had to do things in order to get money.
Speaker 1:Um, you know what my mom used to give me allowance and I saved up all these coins and I walked across the street to gemco and I got these sandals that I wanted so bad. I was five years old and I saved up exactly $4 and I got there to the register and I'm like I'm buying these. I walked out of the store with them on my feet. They were like those wooden candies with the strap and I went clunking down the street. But when I got to the register, she's like, hey, it's like four something because there's sales tax, and I was like what I didn't know. There's sales tax and I was like what I didn't know there was sales tax.
Speaker 1:So she, so she, she, she actually paid the sales tax and then, like I walked in my mom's like what are you doing? Oh, my god, you went and bought something across the street. No, you can't do. But I think that, like with schools, um, because I kind of I kind of looked at school as more like a competition thing. That was my whole thing. So I, you know, like I got into a competition thing.
Speaker 1:That was my whole thing. So I, you know, like I got into a competition with my boyfriend and high school sister of like who could get the best GPA, because she thought she was so much smarter than me and she went to OLP before Helix. So she, she was like above me. So I was like, oh, really Okay. So we went on a competition and it was. It was really great for me because I ended up getting a 4.2. I won. And I think a lot of times now people take out they don't want any competitiveness, they don't want really leadership roles or working. I don't even think people even think kids are not even maybe not kids, but even teenagers really should have a job or work. And when I was growing up in school, you know there was like a whole work office. I don't know if you remember that Like you go there and you work permit or they would help you fill out applications. There was, you know, we're like 14, 15. I don't, probably. I think it was 15.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I mean it was encouraged. It was encouraged to get an after school job, it was encouraged to I don't know, do you? Know just do stuff like that. I don't know. My son's going to be 25, so I'm not really sure where the schools are right now. I feel like it was kind of trending that way where the schools are right now.
Speaker 2:I feel like it was kind of trending that way. What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting their own business a young person or maybe a mid-career change, and may have accurate and inaccurate ideas about what it means to run your own business?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would just say that they have to learn to work as hard as you can imagine to work, and also, you're never going to clock out. Also, you have to have a really good, you know a product of what you're selling. I've sadly seen people kind of come up with an idea and spend so much money and open it, but it wasn't very well thought out, there wasn't a true business plan. And then I've watched them fail at it, not because they weren't, you know, super into it and wanted to work and wanted to be successful, but there was no. There just wasn't an audience for it and people weren't, you know, lining up to buy their product or whatever it might be. And then they lose it all and then they invested all of that and then they now they're starting.
Speaker 1:So I would definitely say business plan number one, lots of research, and just know that it's not going to be some easy type of thing. I mean it's, it's just not. And I'd start out very humble Because I feel like an owner should be there. That's how I feel, like of course there's going to come a time where you know you've earned.
Speaker 1:You've earned your Vegas trips. Yeah, I've also known a few owners that have started and things have gone well and I mean they're out of there like phew, Like they've never even really spent a whole eight hour day at this. You know, whatever, maybe restaurant or something, Because they started it, it got a good reaction, but they were never even there, they weren't part of the team, they don't, they don't even know what's going on and it always ends up a disaster. Then you find out your employees are running everything and they're doing everything that you don't know about and you have to really be engaged and, like 100%, be part of everything that goes on.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that you say that the other night I went to pick up my dry cleaning and because of my hours are not always in alignment with the hours of a dry cleaning establishment, I don't know why, but dry cleaning seems to close early.
Speaker 1:I don't know, it doesn't fit in with my workday.
Speaker 2:So I found a place that's 24 hours. There's a kiosk, wow. You go and it's a small chain here in San Diego. I guess I can say the name Araya Cleaners, a-r-a-y-a. Anyway, I went there's one near where I charge my car. I go and drop my dry cleaning off, show up a couple days later, you put your coat in, whatever, and then you swipe your card and then the robotic thing opens the door and you get your clothes. Now, in between there someone has to come, take the clothes to wherever they launder them, do it and bring them back.
Speaker 2:So I'm there the other night and every time this was a funny thing every time I go, it's playing nice music, there's a screen and there's this middle-aged guy's face on the thing and he's talking to you hey, thank you, welcome. Come into Araya Cleaners and he's very distinctive kind of silver-haired guy, well-dressed, whatever. He's talking. And I'm there and I hear this door open next to where I'm standing at the screen, and that guy in real life comes out and I, I'm standing at the screen and that guy in real life comes out and I go hey, it's you. And he goes yeah, I'm the owner. It was like 10 at night, wow.
Speaker 1:I love this story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he comes out and I go hey, dude, that's you Like, you live in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are you like in there? And he's no, you know, I'm just, I'm, I'm coming to check on the on the machine and I had to bring some a delivery because someone's got to bring it right, right, and anyway, I was asking them that they advertise this service, that they pick up and drop off at your house, and I'm wondering how I get signed up. And, bob, we go in this whole thing and I said, hey, I, I love your, your concept here, but what I like most of all is that you're actually here and that was just such a beautiful thing. Because I don't know if he's getting rich or not that's not really why he's doing it, but he's tried to have this concept and make it work in San Diego and he's got a number of kiosks and I've never heard of that.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting. I want to go check that out, yeah.
Speaker 2:Araya, it's an interesting concept, right For people who pick up and drop off laundry on days and time of day when your dry cleaner's not open.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you get a text message that says that your laundry's ready.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a day or two and I don't know how it compares cost-wise.
Speaker 1:It seems reasonable to me and and you're paying for that convenience because I don't have to plan my life around when the dry cleaners are open right and he has to make sure that that is all a big, well-oiled machine, or else it's just gonna get bad reviews and people are gonna knock it. They're not gonna use it.
Speaker 2:No the first time so yeah the first time you put your card in and it fails to return the clothes that you dropped off. You'll never use it again. Right Then you got to be sending an email to customers.
Speaker 1:And that's a nightmare. It's a nightmare, right?
Speaker 2:So what he even does. Is he like? I had this button? I didn't even know the button was missing. Got this note. Complimentary button, free button. We attached it to your jacket.
Speaker 1:I was like that's legit right there.
Speaker 2:Really, you know, and that's that level of.
Speaker 1:Because when the owner cares, everyone cares, the vendors care, the employees care, that's right.
Speaker 1:Everyone cares. You can tell when there's a business where the owner is not present and doesn't care, because the whole place is going to be like that. It's not like some employer, some random person or even the vendors, like if you're not on top of your vendors and you you know because I'm sure I have no idea how he does that, but you know just the cleaning and then the dropping off and all the different things. All of that has to work and if you're not involved it's probably not going to work. Or if it does, it does and it doesn't, it doesn't. And so definitely I like that guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I should actually have him on this podcast. Yeah, I'm going to. Next time I go on, I'm going to go on the website and see if I can send him an email. He's the distinctive silver haired guy.
Speaker 1:That is so funny.
Speaker 2:But it's interesting too, because you hear about businesses that start and then they lose their way. Or, like Apple, for example, like they started and then they actually I think Steve Jobs either got fired or pushed out or something and then he came back because the company had lost its way, Like it went through a period of time when they didn't have a clear vision, and he came back in and then, I mean, he passed away. But you could see where Apple is and it's so. I always reflect on this. There's a great podcast called how I built this, where they talk about they interview entrepreneurs, and most entrepreneurs, like yourself, have gone through failure after failure, challenge like there's no one who goes. I was really easy, I did this, and now I live on a Caribbean island, right? No, I bought the island. I fly into it on my own plane. It's not that way. A lot of them had failed businesses before the high profile one that worked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they're the ones that everyone told them it was a ridiculous idea. Like, hey, I got a plan, there's going to be an app and you can summon a car driven by a stranger and they'll drive you wherever you want to go Right. Or hey, here's one. You can rent out a room in your house to a stranger, yeah, and they'll pay you for it. Right when I grew up, that was like a recipe for a crime.
Speaker 1:Exactly Like that was literally inviting a serial killer. That was like stranger danger, you know.
Speaker 2:but yet we're.
Speaker 1:We found a way with you know and no one else would even do that. Like I'm not going to stay in someone's house, I don't even know them.
Speaker 2:What if the sheets are dirty? I'm like, okay, but you're also trusting that hotels clean their sheets.
Speaker 1:That's a different conversation.
Speaker 2:But it's just interesting, right, what businesses do and don't take off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And even on that show they actually talked to the founder of Netflix and there was a time that Netflix offered to sell themselves to Blockbuster.
Speaker 2:Like this was in the early early might be early 2000s, or it was when they were doing their their, when you could order the dvds oh, yeah, yeah right and they were like, yeah, they were a successful business, but they offered to sell themselves for I can't remember a few hundred million dollars to blockbuster, and blockbuster wouldn't even like have to take a meeting with them. And we saw how that turned out Right. And so they, you know, they figured out streaming.
Speaker 1:And then Blockbuster tried to do Redbox. They tried to copy Redbox. They were a day late and a dollar short Right.
Speaker 2:And so by then, netflix had dominated the streaming thing. Now no one ever does the DVDs anymore. Right, and the rest is history, right? It anymore right and the rest is history.
Speaker 1:It's a multi-billion dollar colossus.
Speaker 2:So it's just interesting how these points come and you turn left or you turn right and the impact that that has over time.
Speaker 1:That's one of the things, even with my son. He's going to be 25 and he's actually been working for us since he was in high school or right when he graduated high school, um, so he does have a lot of experience, um, and he's doing really well and um he's got his own little specialties with the flight suits in the military and all that stuff. But he's not 100 ready for me to leave right, um, like because I mean now you can work remotely and a lot of my stuff I drop ship. Like I have a lot of customers that aren't even in San Diego, you know, they're all over the country, even up in Northern California. I have a school up in Thousand Oaks. I do a ton of stuff for them. So if you really think about it, like to be there inside the shop is all about just for people who walk in.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:And see all about just for people who walk in and see your face and have a conversation with you. But probably 90% of my business is pretty. I could do it remotely, but I won't, and I don't because I still have to be there and I still have to it's. I'm still building it with him now. You know what I mean, because he doesn't have all of the knowledge like he. There's some things he still doesn't understand or has to ask me or isn't sure about. So I don't want a customer to walk in and say, hey, I want to get this and it's something I can answer in a heartbeat and he's gonna be like let me call my mom, hold on, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So like yeah, never say let me call my mom so it's just, he's not let me call the ceo real quick. Yeah, he's not ready. Let me call the CEO real quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's not ready. So then, therefore, I'm not ready, right, so got to hang in.
Speaker 2:So I think that I'm so intrigued by this entrepreneurial piece and the misperceptions that people have about business and we've talked about that a lot. Yeah, business, and we've talked about that a lot. But, apart from the long hours piece, what do you think is an essential misunderstanding that people have about small business owners? Like when you're on an airplane, well, you never travel, but let's say you meet someone new and like hey, what are you doing? You're like I own my own business and it's 41 years. They're thinking you're loaded.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're thinking you know you got all this free time, but what's another misperception that they think that they have.
Speaker 1:Those are the big ones, yeah. Or a lot of people are like, well, you know you. You know you, you're a business owner, so that's just what comes with it, so you're just lucky. Or a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Someone the other day was an online thing, um and oh, it was like a big discussion about the, the girl who owns in and out burger, and so she actually went to an interview, filled out an application, got hired and started from the bottom right because her father and grandfather would want her to do that.
Speaker 1:That's what they want to do and she wanted to come in the bottomless level, which is exactly what happened to me when I got, you know, like after high school and I had my son, I like, when it my mom started me filing at minimum wage like you're starting filing, I was like okay, but then I ended up taking over the whole office because I knew so much more than everyone else. But anyways, um, you know, people really have this really strange thing about that and I thought people, I think, when they think you have a small family business or something, I mean obviously in and out, it's not a small family business, but they started from nothing. Yeah, you know, they started from just a roadside burger place and then now it's multi-generational, um so, but it takes so much to build that I mean they didn't start out as billionaires, obviously, and I don't think I'm not planning on being a billionaire or making my company into some massive franchise or anything.
Speaker 2:Sounds exhausting being a billionaire anyway. Right, I know Like oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally. But I think a lot of people do think that I just have this super pampered, luxurious life and I, I tell people all the time like I would trade places with you any day just to be able to clock out Like I can't, even when I'm on vacation. There's never been a vacation I've taken that I do zero work, never, ever. I wouldn't feel all the way relaxed if I didn't at least know you know that's just how I am. I don't know that's just how I am. You're preaching to the choir in this room.
Speaker 2:Okay, because I thought you were looking at me like what's wrong with you. No, no, no, no. People look at me like what's wrong with me. Yeah Around right, but when you have so much responsibility I think it's the.
Speaker 2:I think it's the lives of people, the lives and the livelihood and the families of people. This is something that I've spoken about. Let's just call it what it is isn't very kind to individuals in positions of leadership and business owners or leaders in an organization like ours, because there are all these assumptions that they have that are not based in fact. Right, you're rich, you have all this free time, you can work remotely, you just send a couple emails a day and then you're on the golf course for eight hours a day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you play 36 holes and then you go to a bar yeah um, or like in a school leadership role, yeah, you give your own parking spot, and it's this and that and it's. And I'm thinking, yeah, there's certain there's, there's obviously perks that come with with these positions, but the level of, uh, the lack of, or the there's just not much opportunity to turn off the switch. Oh yeah Right, there's just not like I'm going dark.
Speaker 1:Especially when you really care.
Speaker 2:When you care, I think the caring, the caring is not a switch Right, it's just not.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:And so you could officially be on a vacation day or tell you know you're going to Vegas or whatever your thing is, but you're still there. You're still mentally connected, emotionally connected and ready to troubleshoot from a distance and I think you look at your life and, as you say, in a lot of cases you'd want to trade places with somebody because you want to clock out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's probably a part of you that wishes that your son maybe had an easier life than what you had to have, and whatever, but we all find our own path.
Speaker 1:Right, it is what it is.
Speaker 2:It is what it is. It is what it is. But I was, I was, I was chuckling the other day because the I was having a conversation with somebody about, about, uh, I don't know, spring break or something, and I'm like so, first of all, most of the world doesn't get a spring break. That's a college, fort lauderdale, you know tequila shooters kind of thing um, and I and I'm not saying teachers and other people shouldn't have them.
Speaker 2:I mean it's part of the system we work in, but it's when I get a lot of work done on spring break and summer break, you know, and those are the things that folks don't see and they're not really seeing you working hard. They may go buy your business. Your vehicle's not there. They think you're an absentee owner. You might be driving across town to-.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I'm doing actually.
Speaker 2:Take uniforms and do this, do that. Go meet with your clients and say, hey, I hope this was. Can I fix this for you Exactly? And that's all the stuff that kind of gets missed right in the simplification and the truth is. America. The backbone of America is people like you. Backbone of America is not Apple or Tesla.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not. We will definitely survive without them.
Speaker 2:I mean well, and there's a whole host. I mean most business in America is small business. It's like whatever less than 10 employees. There's some crazy data around that and the other piece is you don't have your money parked overseas and paying zero in taxes here, and all that corporate piece right. So that's really why I wanted to also have you on, apart from the partnership that Albert Einstein Academies has had with you, and you've been very generous with both uniforms for students and donations to our events, and a great community partner.
Speaker 2:But apart from that, just to be a representative of small businesses is a really special thing.
Speaker 1:Definitely, but it is all about the relationships. For example, when we went into COVID and we were all working remotely, I had to get a storefront for Albert Einstein, because where else are they going to go? They have to go there to get the uniforms. Like where else are they going to go? They have to do it. I've been doing Albert Einstein so many years. I've watched children grow up, come adults, come into my shop and say, hi, I used to come here when I was a kid or, you know, multi-generational sometimes where, sometimes where you know, I've had a mom come in and be like oh yeah, these one shirts were so great that my daughter's in high school.
Speaker 1:Now I'm giving them to my kindergartner and you know, I've spent so many years knowing all these people and like I truly care. So it's like that with actually all my customers. I don't want to let anyone down and they're like dependent on me, so I want to make sure it all goes perfectly. I don't want to let anyone down and they're like dependent on me, so I want to make sure it all goes perfectly well. I have a catering company right now who's flying out to Paris for the Olympics and they cater the entire Paris Olympics and this is like I've had a partnership with them since the 90s.
Speaker 1:My mom started with the original owner and I did the Winter Olympics in Canada. It was so stressful trying to get all that out, to go through customs and make sure it's there on a certain day, and they can hold it for 30 days. I was like, do I need to fly out to Canada? Like what do I need to do? So I just and just this order going, you know, on Saturday to Paris, like I was supposed to do a couple other things. I'm like, no, I just have to make sure this order gets done, right, you know, everything's like cause I won't, I won't rest or be relaxed until I know it's good.
Speaker 2:So Well, you've been very generous with your time. I just have a couple more questions for you. But where can people find you?
Speaker 1:We are at 8219 La Mesa Boulevard. In La Mesa we're in the village area.
Speaker 2:And online at morgansmonogramscom. Awesome. You're a sports fan. You like baseball. You ever been to a baseball game?
Speaker 1:Of course. What would your walk-up song be?
Speaker 2:You're a sports fan, you like baseball. You ever been to a baseball game? Oh, of course I've been to it. What would your walk-up song be? Hmm, Because you know that's a thing now right, Every player has their own song that they play snippets of when they walk up to bat.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Yes, what would your walk-up song be?
Speaker 1:Well gosh, it's not a trick question. No cup song. Be well, it's not a trick question.
Speaker 2:No, I know, but I'm trying to think so like you're talking about, like what makes me move, like I don't know if you were a major league baseball player a song that represents you. I'm assuming they choose the songs because it's something they like.
Speaker 1:Oh really you know what song I I really like I have. I have such a big love for music and it's it's all over the place. One song that I love when me and my aunt get together we listen to. It's called uh, I think it's called like a long, cool woman, or cool long woman, either long, cool woman or something with a black dress. It's like a 70s nice. Do you know what song I'm talking about? Um?
Speaker 2:you gotta hear it. I'll be looking it up.
Speaker 1:It makes me like dance.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's your walk-up song. Yeah, that's your walk-up song. So I usually ask people on the podcast if they could design a billboard for the world that sent their message out there about what they believe in. What that billboard would say we're going to change it for you, since you're in the embroidery and sign and that business. So you get to embroider a huge banner, you get to design a logo in your head with a message to the world about what you believe about life, about business, about the way things should be. What does yours say?
Speaker 1:The golden rule would be probably plastered all over that. That would probably be where I'd go with it.
Speaker 2:Treat people how you want to be treated.
Speaker 1:Treat people like gold actually is how I was raised. Yeah, and care, care about people, care about families, care about you. Don't have to dedicate yourself to becoming, you know, like a Mother Teresa or anything. But there's a lot of people, I feel, that are a little more self-centered nowadays as compared to when things used to be. It takes a village to raise someone and all of that kind of stuff. It takes a village to raise someone and all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:So I feel like carrying humanity, you know, amongst everybody, even if you don't know someone or no matter where, what walk of life they come from. That's a big thing for me. Does it matter what walk of life anyone came from? I never think I'm better than anybody else and that's super important to me, cause I I don't like when you know like there's people that have complexes because they didn't come from. You know a certain place, and if you knew any of my employees, I mean they're straight from Tijuana, they've lived there their whole lives. I used to go down there and have garnet sautas with their whole family. I love them, they were the best. No matter who you are, where you come, they'd be like she's the owner? Yeah, and she's coming to our house. Yeah, like, yeah. So what? Like I'm not, I'm nobody better than anyone else. So, yeah, let's eat some carne asada, let's go, I'll have a beer too. So just being down to earth, grounded, open to just being kind, I guess.
Speaker 2:That's a great way, I think, to end today, with the golden rule being grounded being kind. I wish you all the best in your business. Thank you. We're going to link. We forgot to talk about the newspaper article, but we're going to link to that in the show notes and I think you've got a news coverage coming up soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on Tuesday Tuesday next Tuesday.
Speaker 2:So we'll try to get that dropped in too and get that connected. So it's been a real pleasure having you here for a conversation.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:Look forward to the next 20 years.
Speaker 1:I know Take care. Okay, thank you, I know Take care.
Speaker 2:Okay. Thank you to Brad Backeau for editing and production assistance and to Tina Royster for scheduling and logistics. Thanks for hanging out and have a great day.