Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 238: From Finance to Fashion: Connie Bergman's Journey at Talloni
What makes Connie Bergman with Talloni Of Asheville a good neighbor?
What happens when a finance executive decides to open a luxury boutique? For Connie Bergman, owner of Talloni of Asheville, it became a 19-year journey of community connection and resilience.
Describing herself as "the most blessed woman in the world," Connie shares the unexpected path that led her to establish her "frivolous, fun boutique" after 20 years in the finance industry. Following the birth of her daughter at age 42 and a desire to fill a gap in Asheville's shopping scene, she created a space that balances luxury with accessibility. Talloni carries coveted brands like Stuart Weitzman, Atulio Gusti, and Kate Spade, but maintains what Connie calls "a really lovely neighborhood way" of doing business. Despite offering shoes that can reach $700, the store was voted "best place to buy a gift" and offers options starting at just $30.
The boutique's commitment to community truly shines through Connie's stories of recent hurricane relief efforts. Her long-standing relationship with Stuart Weitzman resulted in a personal $10,000 donation to the local YMCA that had provided shower facilities during the crisis. Even more remarkably, the Coach Foundation contributed $250,000 worth of merchandise to distribute to those who lost everything. These stories reflect Connie's core values, shaped by her own childhood experience being raised by a single mother working three jobs after her father left when she was just two years old.
Located in the vibrant Biltmore Park inside the Hilton Hotel, Talloni invites everyone to visit without pressure to buy. As Connie puts it, "We are here to greet you and welcome you and to make you happy." Discover how a luxury boutique has become a beacon of community care while surviving 19 years of economic challenges, and why creating space for joy matters now more than ever.
To learn more about Talloni of Asheville go to:
https://www.talloniasheville.com/
Talloni of Asheville
828.681.5800
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I am really excited today because we've got a very special guest in the studio with us for the first time. So I'm really excited and super excited to learn all about them and their business. And I'm sure you will be too, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, ms Connie Bergman, who is the owner operator of Taloni of Asheville. Connie, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, it's great to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, we, like I said, are thrilled to have you and I'm sure our listeners are very excited to learn all about what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about your business?
Speaker 3:Well, I am very blessed. I wake up every morning saying I am the most blessed woman in the world. I own a very frivolous, fun boutique and never in a million years would I have thought that I would be doing this. But we have shoes and pocketbooks and jewelry from all over the world and it's just a really wonderful store and our clients love us and we love them, so it's really great.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:So I was in finance for 20 years, very blessed to stay home with my daughter. I was 42 when I finally got pregnant and blessed to stay home with her. I wanted seven children. God gave me one. She went off to pre-K and I twiddled my thumbs and just decided that it was going to be something fun to do in Asheville. Decided that it was going to be something fun to do in Asheville. We've lived here for 28 years and it will always be home. We've become very engrossed in the community, but our shopping per se was a little limited, so I decided to do this almost 19 years ago and it's hard to believe that we have been here for 19 years and have ridden the waves of the economy and just the events that have taken place our most recent hurricane. But yes, I love it. And but yes, I, I love it.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, great story. What what in the boutique business? Of course, yours is very unique. No-transcript.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, we're centered around fashion and some people think that it's very overpriced or it's. You know a little too, I don't know, bougie, and that's not really what we are. We do carry high-end products, Some of the major vendors in the world Stuart Weitzman, Atulio Gusti, Kate Spade but we try to do it in a really lovely neighborhood way. We were voted best place to buy a gift, so you can get a $30 pair of earrings, but yet our shoes can go up to six $700. Um, but we my business manager has been with me for over 14 years. My other associate has been here 12,. She's 80.
Speaker 3:We love our community and, um, so some might say it's it's too expensive of a store, but it's really not. And the other thing that I love is my husband and I both grew up with nothing. We both have been very blessed in our careers, and one thing that is incredibly important to me through the store is our local community. We give back in so many ways. We were all so heartbroken and Stuart Weitzman found out what had happened. He personally sent a $10,000 check to our local YMCA because he found out that I was showering there because we had no water, and thanking them for supporting their local community, and the Coach Foundation sent in $250,000 worth of merchandise to give back to the people who had lost everything.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:It's very, again, heartwarming to me that through the store, we, yes, we just yeah. There's nothing more important than community.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. Couldn't agree more. And obviously you're a good neighbor, so you're perfect on the Good Neighbor podcast. So outside of work, connie, if you have time outside of work, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:We family is very important to us. We have one daughter. We love to go and do things with her. I am an animal lover. We have four dogs, two rescues, two goldens, yeah, and we just love. We love to eat, and Asheville is the Mecca of food. So we're, you know we're just in the perfect place, but you know what? Having fun in our world today, it's important. So thank you for asking.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is. It is very important and, by the way, it sounds like you're pretty exciting in your store because you were jamming there for a while going on in the background. Is that like a show or something you're doing?
Speaker 3:Oh no, we just the clients. We get very busy, which is so lovely. So my business manager is out there with the clients and, yeah, and they know us by name, we know them. You know, we've been through a lot. Some of them have been shopping with us for almost 19 years.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, incredible. That's incredible. Well, let's switch gears for just a second. I mean you touched on this already, but could you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger in the end?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, every single one of us has faced amazing challenges. I know that For me, I think, one was that my father left when I was two. I think one was that my father left when I was two. My mother worked three jobs to raise three of us on her own. I think that's why I became a hard worker and after college I went out and started at the bottom in a bank and after 20 years worked my way up and saved a lot of money. And I think that's one thing that I've tried to teach my daughter is you work hard and you know you are committed. No matter what you do, always try your best.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I'm sure you're setting a heck of an example for her. How old is your daughter now?
Speaker 3:She's 22. She's in nursing school, so proud of her.
Speaker 2:Wow, Now where is she in nursing school?
Speaker 3:She's in nursing school in Tennessee, so she is over at ETSU.
Speaker 2:Get out Wow, Fantastic program by the way.
Speaker 3:This is what we are so happy about. Yes, and she's loving it.
Speaker 2:Wow, and Johnson city is a cool town too, so yes, yes, she works at the hospital.
Speaker 3:She works at the hospital there and um and this summer she's actually working at at the Ingalls there.
Speaker 2:So, nice, nice, I'll have to look for it. Well, I uh, I uh, I'm only about 10 minutes away from the North Carolina line, uh, but my daughter just graduated from, she's 22 and just graduated from App State.
Speaker 3:So nice, good mountaineering yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, anyway, sorry Didn't mean to get off on me, but if you could, connie, if you could think of one thing that you would really like our listeners to remember about Thelonia Vashville, what would that be?
Speaker 3:Well, one is that we do give back in huge ways and, um, that's the most important to me. Um two, you can stop in and say hi, you do never need to be or feel pressured to buy, we are. We are here to greet you and welcome you and to make you happy. Our products are wonderful and fabulous. We are in Biltmore Park, inside the Hilton Hotel here and this whole area. We have just found out that every store here has just finally, after 20 years, become leased, so it's just a beautiful walking area. Years become leased, so it's just a beautiful walking area.
Speaker 2:There's many restaurants here, there's the hotel, a movie theater and, yes, we're just booming, so it's a great place to come and stroll around. I can attest to that. I actually have visited there several times. So really cool restaurants were at the Biltmore Park. So awesome, wonderful, awesome, well, connie, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend with me and with with our listeners to tell us all about Telonia of Asheville, and also want to thank you for what you guys are doing for the community. That's incredibly important and not every business does it. So thank you for that and want to wish you and your family and Telonia Vashville all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and maybe we can have you back sometime.
Speaker 3:Wonderful.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.