EP#28-A New York Times Bestselling Author Explains How Trauma Became A Career

Something wild happens when you stop treating your instincts like a soft suggestion and start treating them like real information. We sit down with Allie Kingsley Baker, a New York Times bestselling author, co-writer, and Coachella Valley entrepreneur, and her story moves fast: Los Angeles gets unsafe during the pandemic, a “we’re just going for a drive” day ends in La Quinta, and suddenly a new life starts taking shape in the desert.

We dig into the writing side first, including what people get wrong about ghostwriting vs co-writing, how one project can snowball into a career, and what it’s like collaborating with high-profile names while still protecting your own creative voice. Allie also shares the part most people leave out: chasing a dream job in the art world, getting burned by a toxic boss, and using writing to process the experience until it becomes a publishable book and a turning point.

Then we get real about small business in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley: why she built Art Major Studio to give families a place to create without the mess at home, how an hourly “drop in and make anything” model works, and what opening an Italian restaurant teaches you about staffing, margins, stress, and risk. If you’re into entrepreneurship, local business, creative careers, or practical leadership lessons, you’ll leave with a sharper filter for choosing the right opportunities. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s building something, leave a review, and tell us: when was the last time your gut was right?

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Fresh squeeze and dream dream applies. Stock on dashboard digital unwinding. Organic plate, salmon over key wrong. Keep it authentic, everything you see wrong. Welcome back, everybody, to C V Hustle season three. And we're super excited to come back to you guys today with some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs here in the Coachella Valley. And today we got a real special guest because today's special guest is a New York Times best-selling author, a restaurateur, and also a serial entrepreneur, Miss Allie Kingsley Baker. Thank you for joining the show today.

How Dinner Turned Into A Booking

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to have you here. And I, you know, he was like, I mean, I gotta do some research on her. And I was like, don't tell me anything. I don't want to know. I want to be surprised, you know? So he was like, I go, just let it, let it come out, and then I'll, you know, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, so should we tell the story about how you ended up coming on the show?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, sure. No, of course. I mean, that's how things happen. It's true.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

So Bobby and I love kikis. So we went down there and we were just sitting there hanging out, and your husband came up and start just started talking to us. Of course, you know, it's kind of nice to see if we're all enjoying our, you know, our dinner and stuff. And I was like, keep the wine filled, please, or just bring the bottle. And uh he just, you know, so then we just started talking, and um, we have friends that I think you might know, Rachel and um Joel and the Viracco Coffee. I don't know if you know them. Oh, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

We've met. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

So I started talking to him about that, saying, hey, I think, you know, we might know some people in common, yada, yada. And then I said, you know, would you and your wife ever consider, you know, consider coming on our show? We have a podcast, and um people always look at us like, I don't know, you know, but he was like, no, he goes, you know what? Forget me, my wife. You've gotta have my wife on. She's awesome. And she we she has all of these things going on. She has a book, she's got, you know, the the restaurant here, she's got a ceramic um studio or something like that. So I was like, all right, give me her info. So he he gave it to me on a business card, and I swear it's been sitting on my desk with the just right there. So I remember to call you because I lose everything.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Same.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

So this is true.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

So then I call her and I'm like, hey, all right.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

So it was meant to be.

Leaving Los Angeles For La Quinta

SPEAKER_01 2:25

I totally meant to be. Um, so how how did you end up here in the desert? And like were you originally native here, or how did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

No, you know, my husband and I were living in LA and uh we were new parents when the pandemic hit. Um, and our adorable, sweet, safe neighborhood went to shit. It uh it just got destroyed by protests, and you know, the city has really fallen apart ever since it never it just hasn't recovered. And um, half of our neighborhood burnt down. There was one day where I was like, Do you smell smoke? And he looks on the balcony, and there are three police cars on our street on fire. And it just, we were like, We're we need to leave. And it was during the time where everyone was leaving, we were in the city, so everyone's leaving the city and going to the suburbs. Um, and people were getting, you know, outbid on houses by like 150k cash. It was so crazy.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

You could not get time.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

You could not get a house, you couldn't move anywhere. And he was like, Well, we could always move to the desert. And I'd only ever really been to Palm Springs for bachelorette parties and things like that. So I was like, We are not moving to the desert. I'm not moving to Palm Springs. And he was like, No, no, no, you don't understand. It's not like that. There's beautiful cities outside of Palm Springs that aren't so you know, party party. And I just couldn't see it. But then one day he's like, let's just go for a drive. We drive into La Quinta, and I was like, We're home. So we found a house. We were like, this is it, and we left two weeks later.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

You know what? Seriously, you like you you drive down Washington and it's gorgeous, right? You've got the freaking huge mountains in front of you, all those like palm trees. It's lush.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

People don't realize it's not like sand and cactus. It looks like Hawaiian certain parts. It's so beautiful here. And like it's safe, and people are nice.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

I'm not nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

I mean, please. People are very nice here. We um, you know, we were just used to a different speed, different attitude, and we were both working very Hollywood kind of jobs, and so we were in the fast lane, and then we came down here and it was such a nice change of pace, and we were like, okay, we can breathe here. I can go on walks with we had a stroller at the time, I can go on walks and I'm not afraid. Like really, a whole other lifestyle. Yeah. Well, what the hell were you seeing in Hollywood that got you? I mean, there were it, especially right after the pandemic, it was just really bad. Lots of um muggings and people on our street were getting like pistol whipped. I mean, it was really scary. Gosh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

It's time to get out of town.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

It was time to get out of town. We had some really scary stuff happen out there.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

So we were like, yeah, pistol whipping's time to go, man. Time to go, right? Like, I'm gonna shoot to the desert. Like my little, like my little joke there. Go, I got it. I got it.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Yes.

Becoming A Celebrity Co-Writer

SPEAKER_03 5:42

So pandemic brings you down here to the desert. But before you came down here, you were kind of an established art uh author. Yeah. You want to kind of speak to, I mean, you've had I think 14 books published at this point.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Um 13. Okay. Um, let's not go crazy. I need some ideas. Oh my God. Well, I um I wrote a book 20 years ago, and it was my own book, fiction, and I was lucky enough to have it published, which um now that looking back, I'm like, how did I pull that off? But I did. And I started getting jobs after my book came out to do ghostwriting. Um, my first book um came out and it did pretty well, especially for unknown name. And I at the time, you know, we had Twitter and I got a tweet. This is like 2012, I believe. Um, I got a tweet from someone and it said, hi, you know, I am writing you on behalf of my friend who is looking for a ghostwriter to write a book about fashion. And I just read your book and I think you'd be perfect.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

And I was, I had to Google, I didn't know what a ghostwriter was. And I was like, okay, well, you know, that sounds like a cool job or a cool thing to do because after my book came out, I didn't know what I was gonna do with myself. And um I said, sure, sure thing. And I was living in New York at the time, and they said, Well, where are you? I said, I'm at New York, and they go, Where do you live? And I said, 77th in Lexington. And they were on, I think, 76th in Madison having brunch. Oh, yeah. And she said, Come down and meet with us right then and there. So I went down and it was Nikki Hilton. Oh, nice! Um, was there and and like the nicest person on the planet, and we just started talking about ideas and we designed her book on a napkin.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

And um, you know, went through agents and publishers, and her book came out. And then after that, it was like boom, boom, boom. I just kept getting more work. And I, in the beginning, I was thinking, like, okay, when this dies down, like what am I gonna do now? But it it hasn't. It's been 20 years, and I'm doing one to two books every year. I have three books coming out this year. Um and then I'm booked through next year. So it's it's just been like a whirlwind. That's awesome. A lot of fun. I mean, depending who you're working with, of course, but for the most part, it's been really fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Okay, so a ghostwriter. Yes, tell me what that means.

The Dream Photography Job Breaks

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Okay, so I also got really lucky with Nikki because typically when a celebrity hires somebody to write their book, they don't want anybody to know it's a secret. They're like, I wrote this whole book by myself because I'm that talented and I can do it all, and da-da-da. Um, Nikki was very cool, and she actually insisted that my name was on the title page. Oh, wow. So I've actually never ghostwritten a book. Um, after that, it's sort of just set the bar where I say, I want my name on the title page. I because I I want the credit, I want to get more work from it. I I would like to be able to talk about the fact that I'm proud of this project. So I've never actually been a ghostwriter. Now I'm more of a co-writer. It'll say like celebrity's name with my name. Um, so it's a lot of fun. It's cool to So what was the first book about? What was the name? My first book was The Liar, the Bitch in the Wardrobe. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And it was based on my 20s, my early 20s. Um, I was a photography major. Oh shit. Yes, I really wanted to be a photographer, but I meant to be here. Yeah. Uh-huh. My idol was this very famous photographer. And I was like, I'm going to work for him one day. I just knew. And I would like flip through his books and I would like daydream about working with him. I'd actually daydream about working with him when I was in art school. And I'd put on Elton John. For some reason, the song Mona Lisa's Mad Headers, that really made me feel like passionate about what I was going to do when I finally got this job, right? And I had no connections. We lived in Seattle. I didn't know anything about anything, but I saved up my money. I went to New York. I knocked on this guy's studio. I was like, hi, I want to be your intern.

unknown 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Knock on doors things. I did. And it did the door did not open. This was not. It was like, no, I tried it so many times. And and I, who I was just a kid. I was a nobody, and you know, I had I knew nothing. Um and then I left Seattle. I finished school. I moved down to LA and um I started hostessing at Euro Chow, which is a Mr. Chow restaurant that was open for a little while in Westwood. I was the hostess and I saved up enough money to move to New York because I was going to work for this guy. Like I was just, I there was no other option. Yeah, yeah. And so I come. It's happening. So on my last night working at this restaurant, my car was packed. My money was saved up. I was going to drive across country and stay with my friend in his frat house at Columbia University. Yeah, gross. I did it before last night. It was not cool, but I was gonna do whatever it took, right? And my last night at the restaurant, I finished my shift, I grabbed my bag, I go to open the front door, which was a no-no. You don't go out the front door, but I was like, this is my last night. Going to the door. What are they gonna do? So I go out the front door, I open it, someone from the outside holds it the rest of the way open. I look up, it's the photographer. What the f yeah. Oh my god. And I did like a spin around back inside, threw my bag under the host station. I was like, that's my freaking table.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Nobody touches that table. Oh yeah. And I did, and I just, I wasn't even a server, but I I worked that table and I said, I worked it in there, and I was like, you know, I'm actually moving to New York tonight. And he was like, that's great. And I was like, I'm going to work for you. And he goes, You are? Like, who are you? And I told him, I've spoken to this person and this person, I know your studio manager. Like, I started and he was like, Do they know you? And I said, No, not yet, but I'm that's what I'm doing. Nice. And um he was interesting. He was just gonna be a good thing. He didn't call the cops on you, so that's but I'll never forget this. And this was forever ago. This was, I mean, I was a baby. He took a the last drink of his cocktail, he put it down, he goes, Don't move, don't move to New York. You are way too kind for New York, they'll eat you alive. And I was about to be like, sorry, like that's my plan. And he goes, Besides, I moved my studio to LA last week, and you start on Monday.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

Oh, wow. Are you kidding me? Oh, yeah, that's okay. Isn't that crazy? It's a crazy story.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

It's a crazy story.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Talk about meant to be.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

And my first job music video for Elton John. Oh my god. Swear to God. Swear to God. And it it was crazy. And I worked for him for a long time. Well, I held a record there. A long time there is two years, and I was there for two years. Um, a long time's like six weeks, because he's a terrible human. Well, I mean, it was awful. Yeah, yeah. I had stuff thrown at me. I like my nickname was ugly because I wore Uggs to work once. Oh my god. Once it happened. I mean, he was just like the meanest of the mean, and it was terrible. But um how much knowledge did you get out of those two years? Yeah. I mean, I met everyone I ever worked with again after that. I mean, he was on he is one of the top photographers in the world, and I got to work with absolutely every superstar, and we were on private planes and we were flying all over the place, and it was like something that you just don't really experience, and it was amazing. And and it was so bad though, it was really hard. It really um working for somebody that treats you so poorly, especially when you they're on a platform for you. Yeah, um, it really like it's tough. It was tough. I I mean, and I was a baby, I was like 23, and it was almost like he put his hand inside of me and turned off my light. I just I just wasn't the same. And it was really terrible. And I and when I left, um How did you leave?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I want to know if it was slam the door in his face, flip him off.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

My last night. So I made friends with a celebrity through him, a fate, very famous woman. And she would call him and say, Hey, can I borrow Allie today? And once a week I'd go hang out with her by a pool. And she'd be like, This is your day off. Cause she knew. And um, we became really close. And one night after shooting all day and all night, you know, he was really into drugs and really into all the stuff, and I think he had some mental stuff too. He got really upset with me because I didn't put the, you know, how we used to have those portable phones in our house and they had to sit in the cradle just ready to charge. I didn't have it in just right. And he went to use his phone and it was dead. And he was so pissed off that he threw it at me and it cracked me in the back of the head. And I was so upset that I just ran out of the house and I jumped in my car, and I was driving home. And I remember thinking, I really was like, This, I'm done. And I thought, not with him was like life. And I I saw, I was like timing the cars going on the highway the other way, and I was like, Oh shit, I could just turn this wheel. Like, and like I could put my just put all this behind me. And I just like it wasn't even that I wanted to die, it was like I wanted to be hurt. I, you know, I was I was so dead inside. Well, you're probably used to being hurt, right? You're just like, you know, it's just bad. And I called this celebrity and I told her, I you know, I'm in a really bad place, like I'm thinking up, and she said, This is what you're gonna do. You're gonna go home, you're gonna write him, and you're gonna quit. And I said, Well, what am I gonna do? This is my dream and this is my there's nothing else. She was like, We'll figure it out in the morning, but I got you. And so I went home and I quit and I started working for her, and you know, that was its own story. But then this all ties into writing because I just wasn't meant for that world. I just wasn't. I'm sensitive and morals and you know, the whole shebang. Like that's a tough world to be in. And uh it's just it's you gotta have thick skin, but you also have to be a little bit crazy. And I'm not crazy enough, I think, to survive in that environment.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

So But if you were in New York, I mean, they always say like they're hardcore, not the friendliest. It's different, they're honest.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

New Yorkers will tell you to your face you're a piece of shit. People in LA will be like, you're the best, and then they'll be like, She's a piece of shit. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, LA's nicer, but not really. You're like, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Like at least I know where I stand with people.

Writing Pain Into A Published Book

SPEAKER_00 17:17

I know where I stand. You're not my people. That's cool. Let's keep it moving. But um, and I ended up moving to New York. So after all the stuff with the photographer and the celebrity, and I was so broken, and I started writing everything down. And I wrote it like a story. I wrote it in third per in third person, the whole story. And when I was done with it, I meant to give it to my family and my friends to explain what happened because my parents were so disappointed in me. Why would you leave your dream job? They had no idea. So I wrote it down and then I thought to get it, you know, cleaned up and edited because I didn't want to give them some janky book. So um I contacted an editor who worked for a publishing house, like a friend of a friend of a friend, and I offered them something like 200 bucks to clean it up. And so he called me and he said, Do not clean it up. Do not do not give this book away. This is this is like publisher worthy. And I was like, No, I'm not a writer. He was like, You're a writer.

unknown 18:18

This is really good.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

So you didn't even intend to release that book, huh?

SPEAKER_00 18:22

No, that was just No, and I never said any names. I didn't today, like people that know me know, you know, who everybody is, but that wasn't my intention. It was just to tell a good story. Because around the same time, the Devil Wars Prada came out, and I was like, that's so inspiring, but also like, shut up. That was nothing. You were like late running with coffee, like, oh, you poor dear. My story was a hundred times worse. Like, oh my god. But real assistants in the real world were dealing with it's like I knew people that had it so much worse than I did, even and like you know what, but like when you probably look back at it now, like you think about just music artists, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:59

They get their heart broken, they make like a fast record, right? So, yes, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

That need that pain. Yeah, you kind of need that. That way you're swift era.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

You know, I can't sing like her, but you know, I can write it down. Yeah, and it really healed me. And it also was like a big middle finger to the whole story. When it did come out, it was kind of cool. And the whole time it was happening, I was thinking, why is this happening to me? All I wanted was like my dreams to come true. I worked so hard to get here. Why is this happening? And then when I got the book deal and that became a thing, I was like, that's why this happened. And especially now I can look back and be like, oh my gosh, I wouldn't have had a story to tell if I didn't go through all that. And then I wouldn't have put a book out, right? And then I wouldn't have reached Nikki, and then I would have been put on this really cool path that's taken me all over the world and and afforded me, you know, all kinds of take care of my family and everything.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Please, please tell me that you signed the book and sent him a copy. Oh my gosh. I totally would have done that.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

No, I was you know, you would have hand-delivered that book. Right? The PTSD is real. I had nightmares that he would like come up to me. I always had nightmares that he would come up to me in like a restaurant or a hotel lobby or something, and it was always like very WWE. He would take a chair and crash it over my head because he's so mad at me. If I saw him today, I think I'd melt into a puddle. And I'm like 20 years older, and I would like to think that I'd kick his ass. But like, I I don't think so. I think like you see people like that from your past, and like I think I would die. I would pee in my pants, fall on the floor, and start convulsing 100%.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Like, so I'm gonna we're gonna have to get you some um like special guests. Move on over. Just carry some uh brass knuckles with you in your purse. I mean, that's what I do.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Nah, you wouldn't you wouldn't dare touch me today. Damn right. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

But I mean, it got you what, maybe we are 13 books later and throwing on 14, 15 seconds.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

It gave me another creative outlet. Um, I love photography, but it's now just like something that I love, and I'll always have photography and I'll always love art. And I, you know, that's always gonna be part of my life. It's not my career, and that's okay. It really wasn't a fit for me. Um it's like a hobby. It's a hobby and for me. And I appreciate other people's, you know, work, and and I just um I'm able to do art in this new way that I didn't really know existed, and it got me there.

Building Art Major Studio

SPEAKER_03 21:46

Yeah. So the art still flows, it's just a different, just a different way of output. Yeah, that's awesome. So taking you from your days, you're still an artist, yeah, but then we're kind of bringing it back to how. we kind of met you. Yeah. You guys come out here. How did how did how did you become a restaurateur from from an author? I mean, what's that's that's gotta be another crazy story.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

First we we moved here and there wasn't a lot of there were not a lot of places where I could bring my kids because when we moved here um years ago there weren't a lot of options. Now there are.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Yeah it's grown.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

You know, everything was outdoors especially in the summer it was like what am I going to do with these kids? Yeah. And there weren't a lot of options for them. So I thought well maybe we should open something. I was going to get an office to write from but I thought what if I just like open something that I can write from but it's also a space and I kept thinking well where would I want to have my kids? And I want to be one of those moms that does art projects at home with the kids but I also hate having a big mess and I'm just not that mom. So I thought it would be really cool to have a place where you could go and let your kids be really messy and play with glitter and glue and scissors and go crazy and uh leave the mess there. And I was like that's it. So boom and um the perfect space opened up um in the center where Jadabugs is it's a local kid's clothing boutique. And that's our friend Heidi she's the best. I love Heidi. So I told her my idea and she said I'm gonna keep you in mind if anything opens up this is where you have to open it. And she called me like two weeks later and she said oh the thrift bookstore is moving out you need that space and I was like done so I took it we just like blew it out and um and we opened it like a month later.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Where does the name come from art major major that's kind of my grandfather was a crafter and his name was Arthur Major I thought it was like a play on like college and I know getting an art degree or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

See I like that he was a crafter some of his pieces are actually at the studio and so it really inspired me to do that. And he was a big give back person. So that's a huge element of our studio too um it's just oh my gosh it's my happy place. It's a lot of people's happy place. It's just it was it was something that was really needed here and it's grown um to be such an essential part of the community. We have two locations outside of the states. Yeah we have one in Lewisville Colorado by Boulder and we have another one outside of Seattle in Snookwami Washington. Oh wow um we're hoping to build more and more so is it a franchise now then huh? I mean franchise one day but right now I just kind of licensed it out. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:47

That's awesome. Yeah I mean that's a that's a telltale good sign of a good idea if other people are wanting to copy it and use your model to do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

So it's it's awesome and and the cool thing is it's it's not expensive. So you know um people don't need a huge nest egg to be like yeah the all the like kind of the essentials to to make the art happen right absolutely oh my god yeah it's not it's not expensive to open one it's not expensive to operate it you don't need to be an artist you don't need to be a teacher you just need to love families love kids and love to be creative and that's it you know okay so I have to just tell you this is another way I know we're supposed to connect okay our grandson's name is major no way yeah that's so cool I remember my daughter was like I'm gonna name a major and I'm like what major like major pain in the assembly is a great name afterwards I'm like such a great name yeah that is a really good name isn't that cool I love that I love it so so how does the like that that business run is it like a membership or you just drop in and you know a lot of people ask for memberships I haven't found one that really works. Instead I'll do like a summer pass where you have an all access pass and you can come to any of our camps and you can come on the weekends and if you're in us you know in town you know that's your space kind of like a gym but what has been working better is you know drop in on Saturdays for open crafting that means you can come by anytime between 11 and four and um we don't charge by the piece. So most places you go in and they're like what do you want to make and you're like I'll make that vase or I'll I'll decorate that hat and they'll be like okay it's$30 or whatever for that for you to do that one thing. But I didn't want that. So instead ours is by the hour$30 for an hour of crafting and creating and we tell everybody when you come inside this is now your art studio go ham. Wow and we assist you with getting all the supplies kind of like a restaurant and you just you can go crazy and if a kid comes in and wants to paint something and then wants to do a jewelry piece and then wants to you know decorate a purse and then want they could do whatever they want in the course of an hour.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

So so you have like what do you so you have like a bunch of things to do then right we have everything.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

If I find something cool it's going in the studio. I have a lot of recycled materials bottle caps you need any tile things like that yeah samples totally yeah we have people bringing us carpets I mean we've got everything we can recycle and reuse everything.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

I can't tell you how many times I've reached out to like nonprofits for for that and then I've had some people come pick up and the others like eh so we just end up like tossing it out so we could do some fun stuff and something cool that you could do with kids is like put the tiles in a Ziploc bag, give them a hammer, let them go ham, break it up, and then we can make a cool little mosaic mosaic did you hear about that place down here that you can just bash stuff oh is there a rage room here? Yeah I've been waiting for what the hell and I was like that sounds pretty funny here.

Opening Kiki’s And Getting Humbled

Handing Over The Restaurant

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Oh yeah I mean I've always wanted to go to one gonna go rage against the machine yes no free publicity here people if you own if you own the rage room stop call me I was saying you know that's a good I'll do a trade so what's the best way so if somebody's listening they want to check out your studio yeah I mean they can check us out online it's artmajorstudio.com or we're on Instagram I'm pretty busy on there at ArtmajorStudios um yeah we're pretty easy to find okay and just drop in appointments available we can drop in on Saturdays and then our big thing is camps so I like to say when school's out we're in presidents day spring break those weird holidays where it's like teacher yeah learn a new skills whatever holiday or yeah yeah like whatever it is we're open because I'm a working mom I still have to work and I can't with my kids in the house. So I get it we're nine to two a lot of places are nine to twelve or whatever I'm like no we you need a full day I got you dang we got a full day I'll drop them off all day totally and they love it they have so much fun it's a really cute community of kids in there. So if you don't like to clean up who does oh it's like a restaurant you make your mess and then we clean it up for you oh okay okay it's we're just we're destruction proof we have you know lots of vacuums for glitter and then oh my god I can only imagine you probably go home when you're glitter I always have paint somewhere on my body like always oh my god that is hilarious so you doing the art you're an author now you're now you're an entrepreneur right art studio and then um then one day it honestly was like the most spontaneous thing we'd ever done we were in a pool with our friends and we were drinking it was President's Day weekend these never work out by the way what boy you're telling me and we were like just talking about businesses I was like I've always wanted to open a restaurant I just feel like it'd be so fun to touch tables and be like talk to people food can I get you a drink like I just thought that sounded you're going back to your hostess days right now like I thought it'd be so fun and they our friends were like yeah we love restaurants let's go to restaurants let's go open a restaurant I mean and then cut to like a day later I'm so hungover and my friend is sending me listings I'm like what are these she's like restaurants I'm like no no no no no no no no no that was just the one topic was like yeah first of all those were the margs second I meant like when we're retired and we have FU money and we're just like let's buy a restaurant yeah you know do something let's go do something yeah I did not but then we found a spot and it just felt like right so no way we bought a location we gutted it we built rebuilt everything we you know brought in a chef designed the menu and all of that we did the whole thing and we did it quickly and we opened and we thought gosh I hope people come and then they came and we were like holy shit we we couldn't even get into our own restaurant. Yeah it was so are these like people that live here so they're able to do help with the work and and that or what yeah we all pitched in and um you know it it was a lot of it was a lot of work oh I was a lot of stress and it it was uh yeah I can imagine yeah it was really good until you know it was it's that industry respect that industry is crazy too oh yeah we heard it's hardcore is crazy we've got people stealing from you crazy we've got I mean it's like Vanderpump rules up in there like this one sleeping with that one who was dating this one and like they don't want to work together that you know like that industry is crazy. This person's high this person's drunk they don't show up on time they don't show up they just I mean we had and that's like messed up of me to say because we had no really good people there. And the people who are there now we clean up house let me tell you everyone who is there now is a rock star. Yeah for sure this was in the beginning when we didn't know what we were doing and we had to weed out a bunch of yeah yeah but the people who are there crush before it was very disappointing it's hard it was hard it's hard you lose a little restaurant hope in humanity opening a place like a restaurant you do and you know we were kind of naive Tony and I my husband and I we were like you know we'll just be investors and we'll be investors right yeah right in a way dude you have to be very hands on because people will steal you blind the people you least expect to and so well let me ask you this because it's tough it's Italian right or myself okay so then how did that why did you why that my husband's Italian the other owner was Italian and we love Italian food and there there wasn't anywhere there are good restaurants out here for sure but they weren't making their own pasta um with you guys make your own bread we make everything and everything is sourced locally or imported from Italy and you know there's a lot of pride in it and you can taste the difference. Oh totally I mean it was so good. So the restaurant was a beast because we were thinking it'd be this little thing side project and it turned into your whole life which is great yeah right but it was way too much for us I'm a full-time writer Tony's got his projects full time yeah and we've always said we don't want to work at night and on the weekends because we want to be with our kids. Oh yeah yeah that's not for us they're gonna they're gonna grow up like that like that right that's not for us so boys are just the initial um our initial partners they dipped out in April of last year and then Jack who um owned the restaurant before we bought it we kept him on for a small percent because he's been in the restaurant industry for a million years and he's local need that experience everything inside and out about this industry and he stayed on as a mentor because we were like Jack we're gonna need your help yeah and then um he had to come in a lot more uh as we were getting busier and we're like Jack we need you and then um Tony and I were really had a really honest conversation one day and we were like this is not for us. It's a lot of fun but it's also a lot of stress and oh yeah we don't we don't like who we are right now because we're we're we're overdoing it. We're burning the candles at both ends and the middle yeah so we talked to Jack and Jack was like I'd be happy to take this over he is a restaurateur to his core he loves it and he's good at it. Oh I tell you it's like that is his lane and so we kind of handed it over to Jack and we were like good luck bro we love you we love you we're full supporters of you and everyone here because the staff there now is like family. Oh yeah and so it's great we just went there a couple nights ago um we had an awesome dinner and it was like going and seeing family and and we're so happy we're so proud of them right I want to know who designed it because I love the striped you know whatever I love the I love the olive trees I it's very New York so I'm I'm assuming you had some something to do with that because it's very New York totally I love art obviously that's like my jam so we did a lot of sourcing Monique Lemon came in she's a local designer I know who she is design 111 she shopped at my place yes yeah she is so talented and so wonderful and there were a lot of things I wanted to do that I was like this will be so good and Monique was like no thank God because she was right and you know she's obviously a designer and a pro because she knows best and she did I mean she jazzed that place up and she allowed us to really also put our own style in there. I go to Misty's almost every weekend I love it there so much. You should totally talk to Tyler she is a gem um Misty's consignments I got so many amazing pieces from there.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

That's the bads with these quirky cool very cool very I don't I don't feel that ambiance in any other restaurant around here honestly that's why I think we go there a lot is because it's just a beautiful place to sit down and eat and the food is great.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

I go there because of the carpaccio well that's so good.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

I'm like I need my own don't even touch this it's so everything and you know I can say that because I don't own it anywhere but like everything there is so good.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Everything yeah yeah the people who are there really care that's a pretty amazing that it just was an idea you guys had and here it is like I mean it just goes to show you like you know I'm a I'm a believer in the El Woods uh mantra yes it's like well like it's hard I mean with anything there are a lot of stupid business owners there are a lot of stupid people out there and if they can do it and they can make it I'm not that dumb I can make it too that's exactly why like I started mine I'm like that dumbass can do it I definitely can do it.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

A lot of really stupid very successful people absolutely I run into them every day.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Right? And it's like if they can do it I can do it. Well like it's hard I say that all the time and it's true. You just have to have the passion the desire and um a little bit of money. A little bit of money helps but you know once it it takes one thing to get you going and then you you know with art major we didn't have a lot of money saved up I really wanted to do it. I knew it would work I got a credit card with an intro APR that was very low bought everything on it. Nice and then I figured if this doesn't work I can pay off this card you know and I'd be uh you know I'd lose it but it's not going to I'm not gonna lose my house over it you know and and you have to take some risk no risk no reward absolutely and my brother in law always says no risk it no biscuit you know and it depends on the risk. So art major was low risk. Yeah there was no risk but it was low risk. I only signed three years and um it the the rent isn't so much that if I you know nobody showed up tomorrow either you know it wasn't gonna kill me. Um the restaurant were like we've done it before we could do it again that was high risk yeah that was terrible we had anxiety every night because everything was on our name you know we signed on for the lease we signed on for all the equipment we signed on for it was just us and it was terrifying because every weekend we were like please please make it over the line please make it over the line like it was terrifying and we always hear like there's like no margin in food or like in the restaurant business and it's like what the hell do people do it for then I mean for the love of it has to be yeah what is it has to be for the love of the business. Yeah it has to be because you know I'm not saying restaurants don't make money they do. Of course yeah but but our restaurant I'll be honest our restaurant made a couple million dollars in one we made zero I believe as with many millions of dollars went through that restaurant yeah we made zero yeah that's that's kind of a story with all startups you know you always gotta yeah it's kind of kind of plan for having a loss for the first couple years just to get your feet under you you know and clean up stuff you know and if you've got full time jobs and you can't dedicate yourself it's hard because at a certain point you're like what am I doing this for I'm killing myself and the anxiety of just like we could lose our house at this time oh and I'm sure the hours too like right they're insane like it was a lot of pressure when we signed that away I cried a lot because I felt it felt like a failure I was really you know I was like gosh and it had my kid's name on it Kiki's my daughter oh emotional I forgot to ask you about that so I felt like I don't want to give my daughter's name to somebody else and that is a huge thing people ask me what's the best business advice you have it sounds like not a big deal but I would never name my business after my child because first of all when things are going well but somebody leaves you a bad review and they talk smack about your business. Oh heck no you're like that's my baby it just it has a different feeling about it where if they were like you know we hate Paradiso I would have been like well sorry but when they're like we hate kikis you're like oh that hurts a little more soul and especially when you know it was time to let it go and it was really hard to let it go for that. But I also you know we built a little family there with like the hostess and the the staff the servers the the chef like they're our buddies and it really I was like oh are we letting them down it was hard but it took about two weeks and after that I mean oh my god it was like smoking the biggest joint of freedom it was like a freedom joint it was like it was like every my our shoulders were up here for like two years and then all of a sudden it was like oh so you know that was a hard lesson and but it was a it was a I mean it's a like okay I did that that's it check that was a bucketless item we'll never open another free shop but it was it was a bucketless item and you know we ended up losing like six figures not a high not a mid like low six and at first we were like oh that hurts but then I thought about it and was like all right we learned so much we basically just each got our masters in business management business development um you know there's your next book idea yeah you can write a business we learned so much and Tony ended up getting a great role that you know a a great position and it was based on his experience at Kiki so it it really everything happens for a reason I believe in that and I think we just paid for our masters at Harvard and you got oh he's peace of mind that's definitely worse than peace of mind I mean oh my gosh to get away spot free from a business like that is a miracle and thank God.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

Yeah you know well I want to personally thank you for taking that risk though because you opened a damn we love it right I mean that's one of the best restaurants in this area it still is you know what I agree we we are patrons and I feel like you're welcome coach yeah exactly exactly we all owe we all owe you a debt of gratitude for that you know because it does bring a little piece of New York to the valley I feel you feel like you're in a different like I we brought a couple friends of ours never been there a couple weeks ago they're like this doesn't seem like it's in the valley it's like we just stepped into like a portal here.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Yeah it's cool he wanted to go there for his birthday and I'm like our family's too goddamn big we'd have to like rent out that whole thing right if we'll have to come back another time yeah so yeah yeah but that's thank you for that's give me well I mean we'll give you your flowers on air here thank you for doing that because the valley didn't need a team effort it wasn't all me but you know

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Yeah, you guys did an awesome job. It's pretty it's a pretty amazing story. Pretty amazing story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

And just for the record, I need to know the color of that teal in the women's bathroom. Oh, she's obsessed with that. Oh, I love that color. I love that color. It's so pretty.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

That's a unique question I'll get it for you.

Advice For New Entrepreneurs

SPEAKER_03 44:16

Well, we're kind of running up against time here, but we always like to ask our entrepreneurs if there was, you know, the next generation coming up that maybe wants to be an author or a restaurateur or uh, you know, open a small art studio, what advice would you have to that person just starting out to kind of get going? And what would you tell that person?

SPEAKER_00 44:37

My dad always told me in life and in business, go with your gut. And I can't stress that enough. Anytime I have not listened to my inner voice or that not in my stomach, and I went against it, I regretted it big time. Um, and when I did, like with art major, people thought I was crazy. My parents were like, What are you talking about? Tony was like, I believe in you, but I don't care. I my gut was like, This is gonna work. This is gonna work. And um, and it did. And it it's amazing. So cool. I love it. And it it is like that with everything, and it's like that with books. Um, you know, when you're looking for somebody to collaborate with, it's kind of like dating. You either feel them and they feel you or not. And if you feel like wow, this person's gonna be really difficult to work with because they don't seem very kind or they're not really looking you in the eye, or like, well, whatever it is that your inside voice is going, red flag, red flag, like listen to that. Um you know, and don't don't always think things through with your brain. Close your eyes, lay down, sit in your car, go to a quiet place, and pay attention to how you feel when you think about that. If you get a job off, so you have two job offers, right? Lay down, close your eyes, and think, okay, I just walked into this job and this is what I'm doing. Are you butterflies in the stomach? Or are you like heavy chest? Yeah, that's everything you need to know.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

You gotta listen to your body, you gotta listen to your gut.

SPEAKER_03 46:12

Wow. Spoken like a true artist here.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Oh yeah, you do.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

You got you got to.

SPEAKER_03 46:17

No one you guys like each other. That's something you would say.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

But you know what? I barely like I'm as old as I am, I'm like a slow learner because I've I've always heard that, but like just probably up in the past couple, like two years, I really like, really go for it. Yeah, and really listen because I'm like, oh, god damn it, okay. Yeah, you know, I got my head beat up against the wall a couple of times where I'm like, all right, yeah, do it.

SPEAKER_00 46:41

So you have to like learn the hard way a few times. Yeah, that's true. Because you always look back and you think, oh, I should have, I knew better. I knew this was gonna happen. And then you're like, next time you clock it and you're like, I'm going this way this time, you know? Yeah. It's really important.

SPEAKER_03 46:56

Yeah. That's some good advice, people. So take notice. Some real good advice. Season three, we are starting off here with a bang. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me. You're a wealth of knowledge. You're a star in our community, a rising star, I think. And uh we we appreciate you coming in.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

Yeah, so nice to meet you. Thank you. We'll have to meet again. Definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

Uh, we'll take you up on that. So you guys found some value in that conversation. You guys know the routine. Like, subscribe, and follow. And we'll see you next time on TV Hustle.