Stacy Tasman Stahl on Jews in the Lou (Full Episode)

Stacy Tasman Stahl joins Alex Rich on this week's episode of Jews in the Lou.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

And so, you know, my parents are like, Do we have a bus? Yeah, we have a bus. And then found a bus right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hey guys, Alex Ritch, John Korimba. Hey, we are excited to let you know that we have episodes of our podcast, Jews in the Lou, dropping every other week. And you're not gonna want to miss.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

We have some great guests lined up. Amazing. And while I have you, I want to thank the St. Luce Jewish Light for their incredible partnership and support of our podcast. Uh St. Luce Jewish Light doing amazing work for our community, keeping us informed, uh uh with stories, with updates.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Um visit stljewishlight.org, subscribe to their newsletters, they'll keep you up to date on everything going on. Absolutely. Well, see you soon. Honestly, we just roll it and we just chat and we just have a good time.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

That sounds good.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Oh no, so the cameras aren't even here. You can say hi to the camera if you want, or it's not like you know, super serious. We like to keep it chill here. Okay, we're good. Um but you were just telling me about how you traveled around the world and all that different stuff. But you're originally from New York, and your husband's originally from here. You guys moved back here, what you said 10 years ago. 10 years, yeah, it feels like a year, but and that was your first in this is your first you were here and you never left.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Other than leaving for a year to backpack around the world, yeah. Yeah, so I'm actually so I was born in New York, I grew up in Florida in Sarasota, and then moved to New York again after college, and that's where I met Greg, who's my husband boyfriend, now husband. And um, yeah, he happened to get a job offered back here in St. Louis, and we never intended to move, but every time we visited, I loved St. Louis, and so I was like, I actually think this job is a great opportunity, and we're gonna leave New York sometime. So yeah, so I moved here, and I guess yeah, that was about 10 years ago, and um we left for the year uh in 2019. Fact packed around the year, we put every or around the world, we put everything in storage that we had, and then we came back the week that the pandemic broke out. We were in South Korea, and I had just found out I was pregnant, and then this flu was going around Asia, and we were like, we should cut the trip short a week, and so yeah, yeah. Wow, and that was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

That's I can't imagine like being out of the country when all that went down.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Oh my gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Seriously, because like I remember you kind of heard like that it was kind of gonna start spreading more and more, but then like it was kind of one day the world was open, and the next day, like everything here was just shut down. 100%.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

And honestly, where we were in Seoul in South Korea, we they kind of did shut down. We everyone immediately had to wear masks, your temperature was getting taken anywhere you went, and it was a ghost town quickly, and then we flew back, I think through San Francisco or LA, and the US had not figured out how big of an issue it was.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

And so we were looking around like okay, this is about to get real, and they don't realize, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

You knew, you knew like what was coming.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Yeah, or at least I think I knew what um that our day-to-day was going to have to change because I we had already seen it for the past five or six days in Seoul. So, yeah. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

I know but so I heard heard you are uh well first of all, talk about like what your professional like life, your experiences.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

You am I right to say you're the what what it was quoted the proposal queen?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Proposal expert? Proposal expert. That could be a good point.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Proposal expert in St.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Louis in my 20s. Okay, so now I'm the now.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Go back to the 20s, talk me through like how did you get kind of started with what you're doing? Like because you were an entrepreneur, yeah. Basically, like through and through.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Through and through.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Um, but I want to know about all the different businesses and how you've kind of got into what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Yeah. Um, well, I do come from an entrepreneurial family too, so I always like to say that because for me, climbing a corporate ladder would be the scariest thing in the world. I'd have zero confidence. Um, but taking risks and starting small businesses and local businesses, any, you know, that's totally normal to me.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Um, so I started my first uh So you saw your parents do that growing up?

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Many times.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

What kind of businesses?

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Um, well, my favorite one was a roller skating rink. Oh my gosh. It was so funny. I was so legit, really fun. Um, it was all like space themed and it was had like neon intergalactic design. It was really cool. Um then they also had a bus company.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Okay. So they had Was this all at the same time kind of go? Sort of, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Um so for the buses, um, there were a lot of school parties at the roller skating rink, and the schools would call up and be like, Do you actually have a bus that could pick our kids up? Yeah, and so you know, my parents were like, Do we have a bus? Yeah, we have a bus, and then found a bus.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Right, figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Um and so I think that like find a bus is totally my mentality. And um, so yeah, and my dad, I remember as a high schooler when the bus drivers called out sick, he'd be right there at school saying, I'm Stacy's dad. And as a bus driver, yeah, it was really embarrassing, but also Did he ever have to step in and drive the bus and a few years?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

All day, all day, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah, all day.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

And he would make sure your school bus?

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Not my exact one, but he'd show up to my school for a field trip or something, and he would like make an announcement, hey everyone, I'm Stacy Tasman's dad. Here, you know, and I was like, Dude, please don't. Yeah, but now I'm super proud of it. But when you're in high school, you're like, You're like, dude, chill.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

This is embarrassing.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Okay. Wow, those are some random. So you've definitely seen like.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

And then they had a class business when I was really young in New York. Um, they had like a printer, ink cartridge, resale, yeah, just kind of everything.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Um, yeah, so, anyways, I started my first company when I was 23. Okay. And it was a way for couples to share their proposal stories on the internet. So this is pre-Instagram, pre, I mean, people weren't even doing anything but writing on each other's walls on Facebook. They weren't sharing content. And so um, I had a friend get engaged, and everyone wanted to know how he asked, and so I was like, that's kind of cute. And I went on to go daddy.com and I was like, um, let's just do how we asked, let's see, you know? Right. And then in my head, I was like, you know what? I think the knot is gonna buy this one day. I can just feel it. Um yeah, and I just started it kind of out of nowhere, and then five years later, the knot did buy it, and so that was my first So what it was called what? So it was called How He Asked.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

How He Asked.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, and a way for couples to share their proposal stories on the internet. So we had it was all user-generated content. People would submit their stories and their photos, videos, and then we'd give them a landing page that they could share with their friends, and it was editorialized too, so a lot of people thought they yeah, well, because yeah, so it was basically so that they didn't have to tell the story of how they did it like a million times. 100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

I mean, it's now why it makes sense why the knot bought it.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Totally. Well, they had so they've got the knot, the nest, the bump, um the the knot for wedding planning, which you're familiar with, I'm sure, and then the nest for babies, which you might we're going down that road, yeah. We're getting ready to hear about that. Oh my gosh. In September, you said, is that right? September, yeah. That's awesome. Congrats, do you know, boy or girl?

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Uh it's a girl.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Oh, lucky. I have two boys, which I love, but yeah, everyone wants their girl, you know. I know, right? Oh, that's so great.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, thank you. We're excited. Um, but pretty good. Not not really nervous or anything, you know. It's just kind of one of those things. You gotta just be ready for it.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

You know?

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Ready and not ready at all at the same time, you know, because so.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

My wife's pretty, like, I think she knows a lot about children in general. She's a fifth grade teacher.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Oh, not that I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

You picked a good one, right? It's like she's doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I just need to kind of be able to learn to learn as I go.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Yeah, I will say there's so many resources for babies and toddlers. My kids are heading into elementary school, and I feel like that's more of the Wild West. So if she's seasoned in that space, I feel like the baby stuff you just got.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Babies are just kind of they're just kind of there.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

You know, you just gotta keep them alive.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

A hundred percent. Keep them alive. Keep them alive and do cry it out. That's my piece of vice.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yes, a hundred percent. Um, so we're excited about it. Yeah, good. That's awesome. But but I mean, going back to your Yep.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Yeah, so they had the Nest and then the bump. Oh, so Nest was for like home planning and then the bump for baby planning. And so they didn't have a pre-engagement audience, and so how we asked was great for that.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Which is fun, and I had a pretty cool, like, we did a whole maybe. I'd submit mine.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

I'm sure you would tell me about it.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Um actually, like uh, I had a group of people helping out. I had Luke at Bucket List, he was flying the drone, doing some of the camera work. Yeah um uh Alpaca Picnic, Julie. I don't know if you had Julie. I've seen it. She was great. Yeah, they had that set up at the top of the World's Fair Pavilion. Yeah, and um Joanna Serengo, she was on the voice. She's great, musician. She's on the road trail.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Oh my god, you crushed it!

SPEAKER_01 9:24

So she stood there and played, was singing that's awesome, was singing a Taylor Swift song because my wife loves Taylor Swift. Same, same. Um, and then I'm trying to think what else it was. I mean, that was pretty much yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Was she surprised? Did she know?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

She was surprised. Yeah. I think she knew it was maybe common at some point, obviously, but um she had no idea like that's where we were like heading to for it to happen.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

So it's so memorable. It was fun.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

It was so there was like hidden cameras. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

It was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

It was it was like a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

I mean, there's so few moments that you get that extreme emotional surprise and reaction, both of you. Like you're feeling your own set of nerves, and she's feeling her own overwhelm. And it just, I mean, there's just not many times that you capture that much between you two.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

It was awesome. It was awesome. But what have you heard, like you've heard them all? What's the craziest story you've heard?

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Um God, I don't know. Crazy never really impressed me. It was like the more personal ones. Um, this one always stands out to me, maybe because it was also super visual, but um, there was a couple that'd been together, I think through like since middle school. Okay. And so people were always asking, you know, like, when's the engagement? When are you getting married? Like, they love the nosy when when are you questions? And so they just had this answer all the time that was like, we just need a few more ducks in a row. And so that was like their staple answer.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

And so for the proposal, he brought her out to this like unknown field, but it had all these like blown-up ducks, like r not rubber, but you know, inflatable ducks, and each one had a little note on it. Like it was basically their life ducks in a row. Oh. And so each one had a memory, and he like took her down memory, memory, oh my gosh, memory lane. Okay. Um, yeah, and at the end, he was like, Well, it looks like all of our ducks in a row are in a row, so will you marry me? And I just thought that was just sweet. That's great. So, yeah, and I don't the honestly, people asked me, like, did I ever see anything go awry? Um, and we did have some people write to please take the story down because we're no longer engaged, and I will tell you, it was always the ones that were extreme. Helicopters renting out the zoo, like the big ones were the ones that wow totally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

You had people email you and say take it down.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Yeah, that was sad. Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I mean, it happens, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

I know it happens. Yeah, I want that too.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Okay, so that's well, that's quite the business.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Yeah, it was so fun.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

So, did that kind of that did you didn't think that would blow up into what it did, maybe?

SPEAKER_03 11:47

I mean, I thought it was a good idea at the time, you know. Now in hindsight, I'm like, people are sharing content left and right, and so crap. Today, yeah, I mean, yes and no. I think we like I always talk about having a sweet spot in business, and I do think that we entered in a sweet spot because um even Instagram, it came out when we were starting to grow, and so we were one of the first accounts that had a massive following. It was very organic, high-integrity audience. Um, it was before you know people had reached that was influencers weren't really a totally. I always say we were like an OG influencer, and so um, yeah, and we we just had a very authentic audience. It was not a crowded enough space yet, and so we really stood out, and um, we would share some of the better proposal stories on our Instagram and they'd go viral. Um, I actually think we yeah, we were ahead of the time. Now, if someone started it today, they'd be in the past, right? Like there's a million people doing it. But at the time, yeah, it was good, it was good.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

So you had that, you sold it to the knot. Yep, sold it to the knot, and then kind of graduated to the next forming more, forming more businesses.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Yes. Um, so I had a two-year commitment to the knot as part of the acquisition. Um, but I was living here at the time, and they were in New York, so um I had some free time on my hands, and um yeah, I I one of the things that was hard for me with the first business was that it was very intangible. So, you know, it was content on the internet, and I had advertisers that paid me to put a banner out on the website or post something on social media, and yeah, there were certain numbers and you know, uh analytics that we could see, but not as robust as it was now. So there were times that I felt like I think it did really well, but I'm I'm not quite sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

It's hard to put numbers behind it.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Yeah, and I really I just I really wanted to do well for the people who invested in our business and I mean like advertisers, um, and it was just tough, you know. And so I remember thinking to myself, two things. One for my next business, I want something that's more tangible, right? I want something that people can see and feel and hold, and then decide, oh, okay, I'm gonna buy this for the exact price it is, and I feel like it's fair, you know. And I so I really wanted that. The other thing is um I really just wanted a 180 challenge.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

I had done digital, and you know, to a degree, I could probably rinse and repeat, but that's just not my style. I like to learn new things and be totally challenged, and I wanted to start from square one, so I was like, all right, let's give myself a totally different thing here. And so I had this idea for this chocolate greeting card business. It's called, I ended up calling it sweeter cards. So it's a greeting card with chocolate in it. Um, and so yeah, tangible. We need a warehouse, had inventory, needed to, you know, have designers and chocolatier, you know, so it was uh very opposite. And I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Okay, a greeting card with chocolate in it. So, but obviously, the like I mean, think the main question with that is were you ever concerned like that this chocolate's gonna melt or like keeping it fresh? Like, yeah, how does that work?

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Totally. Well, the good thing is, which I did not expect, chocolate's shelf life is long, it can be 12 to 18 months uh or more. So, shelf life, not an issue. Melting, yes, that was an issue. So we definitely had a more seasonal business. Um, but that was fine because I used to joke that during the summer we go to Europe anyway, so I didn't work. No. Yeah. Um, but uh yeah, so we actually when I first started the company, I I thought that the goal was to be in every greeting card aisle in the country. Um so think of I mean Schnooks, Dearburgs, anyway, you know, they've got these huge greeting card aisles, and the greeting cards are ten dollars these days. And they're you know, you throw them out later. And so I was like, there's gotta be a way. And so, I mean, there's a longer story to how I had the idea, but I was like, Oh, we'll be the only chocolate bar in the greeting card aisle and we'll really stand out. And anyways, two things happen the pandemic hit, so grocery stores are like, girl, if you're not toilet paper, don't call us, you know, and two, um, it turns out that those aisles were owned by like Hallmark and American Greetings, so they had really yeah, I mean, they they have these um like vendor agreements that they their people stock them even at Target, like you'll see their brand there, the American Greetings or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

That means they kind of own that section, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

And so they have their own people come and restock it. It's not it's not Target.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Okay, interesting. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Yeah, it's really cool. So, but I mean, not for my business because all of the buyers were like, uh-uh, that's not our aisle, we don't own it. And I was like, Okay, well, how am I gonna get to my goal, you know? Um, and honestly, I almost said, and I was pregnant with my first kid, and I and again the pandemic, and I was like, maybe this wasn't a hit and I'm gonna move on. But I serendipitously got an inbound request for custom cards. So previously I'd been printing like tens of thousands of cards at a time to sell in big retailers' boutiques. Uh and then I forget who the customer was, but let's just call it Coca-Cola. I was like, oh, can we have a hundred? And again, I'm gonna simplify these numbers, but let's say it cost me 45 cents to produce the cards at mass quantities.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Well, I went to my printer, I was like, I only want a hundred, and I thought like maybe they'd be a couple bucks, and he was like, Okay, they're gonna be eight dollars each. I was like, eight dollars each just for the car, not the chocolate, not you know, and so like that bus story, I was like, call the customer back, and I was like, we can do it, you know, and I just figured it out, and so over time that business grew enough to where we had the scale quantity, so it did end up costing less, but um, yeah, so we found our way into the promotional product space because there's that whole custom you know industry there.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

So people want that stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:53

And then I sold it to a promotional products company, a food gift company who've been around for 45 years. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

And they like so you're basically like getting these ideas off the ground and then kind of passing them off.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

100%.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

So what then um and what and so you have those two, and then is there a third business?

SPEAKER_03 18:12

There is a third business.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Um and this is what you're currently doing?

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Yes, um, I can't take full credit. It was my husband's idea, and I'm helping. Um, and it's relevant to you because you just got married, but it's called Betting on the Wedding. And it's an app that lets guests place lighthearted and fun bets on things while happening at your wedding.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

No way.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

So you could have set it up ahead of time and wait, what is your wife's name? Annie. Annie. So, you know, it could have been like, you know, place your predictions on you know, the wedding and um Alex and Annie's big weekend, and like will Alex cry before Annie, will Annie have an outfit chain? Yeah, yeah, so there's just yeah, so it's cute.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

That's f wait, that's fun. I think like I know people have done that where like they'll kind of fill out a little colour. The sheet, yeah. So you guys make it like it's official, it's like legit on yeah, so um and it can be part of their wedding website and all that.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Yep, yep. So those I we saw them come out after the app launched, like just the sheets where you would like circle your answer, but there's no way to actually know who won that. Right. You know what I mean? And so our things it's like a Yeah, so our app, you well, first of all, it's just way cuter. And um and the guests do it ahead of time.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

But it's an app.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

It's an app, yeah. Yeah. So the guests do it ahead of time. So like you guys would send it out in advance and say, like, hey guys, we're doing a fun prediction game. Um, fill out your best guesses. And then when it comes to the wedding weekend, as the things kind of unfold, you get you like pick a co-organizer who calls the bets for you, like your best man or something. And then there's like a live leaderboard to see like who's guessing the most, right? You know, yeah, it's really fun. And it's not something like guests are not on their phones all the time looking, right? They've already placed their beds every now and then they'll peek and be like, oh my god, like Ben over there is uh is winning. Uh yeah, so it adds a lot of engagement and I it's just super fun. So it's very viral too, I have to say. Like everyone loves it.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

It is like, is that would you say your expertise then in everything you've done would be like on the so on like the the digital media, the the organic, like yeah, I think it would be like um consumer brands.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

Um just knowing like having creative ideas that consumers love. Honestly, people like us love. You know, um all of my businesses have been generally in a market that I exist in as well. So the proposal website, it was when all my friends were getting engaged. The chocolate business, I was always looking for ways to, you know, send love to my friends and small gifts, like you know, it was just so hard to find meaning in them. They were all plastic and junk, and so I like needed something that was better. And then now with betting on the wedding, we actually have been betting at our friends' wedding since my very first friend, her name's Jackie, got married. So we were like 27, and it was this one friend group of girls, and our boyfriends, now husbands, all met at this wedding for the first time. And then next year it was the next friend that got married, so the boys got back together, started betting again. The next year that so our very last friend's wedding, uh, even the uncle was like placing bets, and my husband and our other friend were like going around analog, like taking people's bets. And so we were like, we should just develop this, you know. Yeah, and you did. So yeah, yeah. So my husband uh developed it, not not he himself, but he oversaw it. Um and now he's got a technical co founder that he works with. Um and then yeah, I'm on more of the brand, consumer positioning, messaging, how are we talking to the customer, how are we selling ourselves, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

That's fun.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

That's definitely different.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

Yeah, it's yeah, it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

That's so neat. Um, so you've done a ton of different things.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

But then is there something, I guess you said your childhood, like you saw kind of your parents and starting to do these different things. Is there something that stuck out to you as far as the specific reason as to why you wanted to? You knew you wanted to always work for yourself?

SPEAKER_03 22:25

Yeah, I think two two things. One, I'd just never seen anything else. Um, it was it came naturally to me um to see risk and and have risk tolerance.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Um and the risk never scared you?

SPEAKER_03 22:39

No, no. I think um knowing that my parents had have done it many times, um I was 23 when I started my first business and they were my first mentors, and their advice was always spot on. You know, I I never was like a fish out of water wondering, am I doing this wrong? Is this crazy? They just could immediately keep pushing me and motivating me. And you know, um, I will say when I graduated college, um I had a friend who had traveled around the world after college, and I was like, I want to do that too. And I went to my parents and I was like, I'm just telling you this idea. And honestly, I had jobs all through high school, college, everything. So I had my own money. I did not need my parents' money, but I wanted their approval to backpack in Southeast Asia. Okay. Just their like their support, you know. And they were like, no, like, go get a job, go start working. And I was like, you don't understand, like this is life-changing, and it'll fail, you know, and they just didn't get it. I did it anyways. Um, but all that to say in business, it was never like that. They're like, yeah, girl, we know we get it, we see it, you know. So that was very helpful to me. But separately, um, yeah, I think like I respect the system and I think that there's really great things about the system, but I I believe that um, like how do I say this? Um like respecting the system, but standing on top of it is where I always want to be with my creativity, with my ideas, like I never want to go so like off the cuff, but like, why not me? Is I think something I think all the time.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

You know, and other people do it, and other people take risks, so you know, I'll do it too.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Do you feel like, because you come from a Jewish household, a Jewish background, um, and this is Jews in the loo. So do you feel that your um Jewish background and Jewish upbringing helped shape that at all? Because one thing Ben and I kind of always talk about is as people that, as Jewish people that kind of really always a little bit have to prove themselves or work for what you're work for what you get. Yeah, those are kind of the backgrounds and households that like a lot of the people we're talking with come from where they've seen their parents work really hard for what they get and kind of um nothing's really ever totally given to you. It's it's all about what you have to overcome to get there. Do you feel like there's parts of your upbringing and being Jewish that kind of played a main role into this that maybe wouldn't have otherwise?

SPEAKER_03 25:11

Yeah, absolutely. I think um maybe it's also in our genes, you know, this survival is you know all on us or us together. Um, but I definitely think that, you know, my parents both, for one reason or another, you know, they grew up in New York and had a couple tough moments with their families, and they kind of started anew in Florida. So not only did I come from a Jewish family, but they also had their own set of challenges of starting over per se. And I saw them work as a team. Um, I saw them do things with high integrity between themselves, but also in our community. And I think that's something that's really special about the Jewish community is that we're really open to you know giving guidance and giving love and giving support. Um, so I think for me, yeah, I I think it's actually more like genetic that it's in our DNA that we have to prove ourselves and have to make our own, and I think for centuries or you know, hundreds of years we've done it, and so yeah, I feel it.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, I think that's like important in what we discuss is like we just kind of have a lot of pride, and so um, are you like I know your husband you mentioned is not Jewish.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Yeah, but he says he loves being Jewish.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

So is there like, is it important to you to have like a Jewish household, Jewish morals as far as how you're raising your children?

SPEAKER_03 26:40

Yes, for sure. My children are in preschool, but they both go to Temple Israel, okay, and they love it. Um and my husband honestly loves it. Um, you know, when we were first dating, I of course, you know, in my head, it's like I gotta marry Jewish, I gotta marry Jewish, and uh, but I met him and he's so special and he's so smart and he works really hard, so a lot of the same Jewish qualities that my parents met him and they were like, yeah, he's better than being Jewish. You know, like they love him. Well, they were only unsure because they'd never met him, and so they're like, he's not Jewish, how could it be? There's no way, you know, and then they met him, and they're like, Oh, that's a good one, you know. Of course, and um, he jokes because he had one other Jewish girlfriend at at a certain time that he always knew he'd marry a Jew. And his family is Italian, and so there's a lot of overlap. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Yeah, we talk about that a lot too.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Totally. So um, so yeah, so I when we first met, I was like, listen, and obviously I got the approval from my parents. I was like, listen, you don't need to be Jewish, but we do need to raise our children Jewish.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

And so if you're not ready for that, then like you I'm the wrong woman for you, you know, not he's wrong for me. And so um, that was a pretty quick, like, yeah, like he was on board. Yeah, and so he's um, yeah, we we love it. And I think the kids um they know about other holidays, but in a very just like, oh, my grandparents get me a lot of presents, so it's hard to turn Christmas off, but it's only the the consumer side that we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

And you hit Christmas with I like I said, my wife's not Jewish, but like we're gonna have kind of a Jewish household, and it's funny because like you can experience Christmas, I feel like everywhere else.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

Like, yeah, good point.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Everywhere else you can experience Christmas, but like I was a lot of people's uh especially in college, like I met a lot of people that I was the first Jewish person that they had ever met.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

Wait, where did you go to school?

SPEAKER_01 28:37

And I went to Indiana, really, which is like there's a lot of Jewish people that go to Indiana, a lot of St. Louis people that go to Ayu, but it was crazy, like, and I think that's one thing that always stuck out to me was just kind of being able to share like what my family does for Hanukkah or like around Christmas, right? Like we always just kind of joke, like I would go to my other friends' houses for Christmas, so I was experiencing it, but I was like the only person that a lot of my friends were able to come over and experience Hanukkah like with my family.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

And there's like you said a couple times, there's so much pride in being Jewish. There is, and they and they are like so shocked by like you come over and like the questions that you're asked, or like it's like sometimes honestly, like people think we're like a whole in a whole nother world or like aliens or something, but you're like but in a sense, I I the community obviously is incredible, and you know, with the rise of anti-Semitism and like a lot of the hate from a few years ago, um, you know, I have I had kids, I have kids in school in a Jewish institution, and so I do fear for crimes against children and in the synagogues. I fear for it, however, do I personally feel uh like I'm internalizing any of that hate? No, no, no, no. I because I think our community is strong enough amongst ourselves, and we've had to be strong within ourselves forever.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Time and time again.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Right, so this isn't something new, and while again, the safety aspect, it would keep me up at night. I could cry thinking about it. It is so scary. It just doesn't translate to like what I feel and who I am. I will never, you know, my pride will never decrease, my love, my openness, my, you know, and so to a degree, like anti-Semitism is such a uh such a waste, you know, for people.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Do you feel like your husband um notice it, like, because we have this conversation, my wife and I, all the time, about people understand that there's hate for Jewish people, but like when you're inside the the inner circle, I guess, of the Jewish world, yeah. Like, does your husband, or I guess more so when you guys first started dating? Of course, anti-Semitism, right, has made its return for whatever reason. But do you kind of ever have those conversations where like your husband is surprised? Yeah, like it is surprising to those people where it's like, I don't know, I've just kind of always felt it, lived with it, felt, felt it like, you know, I think.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Yeah, it's un, it's I actually remember this conversation when we were dating. We were in, I think maybe China, some some Asian country, and we were at like a palace with a bunch of gardens, and I vividly remember us getting into a little bit of a heated discussion on it because he was like, I just don't understand why it's so important. And I'm like, I'm trying to find the words, but in needing to explain it to you, I'm actually feeling kind of like, why am I explaining this? And because we live with it, like you're saying. We grew up with it, like it's it's not um like it's so strong and it's so powerful, it's in our hearts, it's in our souls so much that I'm like, I don't know, you know, and so it's hard to show and share that passion without having the words and it just being a feeling. Now totally different. You know, we were really young when we were when we first met, and he did not have so much exposure and um to you know the Jewish religion other than that one girlfriend, but um, yeah, it's it's hard to put into words. Um at this point now, he's like like a very big defender, and well, like there are times where I'm like, honey, honey, honey, like we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Where you have to like you have to kind of stick up and just like you just gotta do it, you gotta talk about it, you gotta put your voice out there. Yeah, um, you're you've talked a lot about travel though. Yeah, you like our world traveler. How many countries have you been to?

SPEAKER_03 32:32

Well, I stopped counting, um, but I like 85-ish, upwards, more.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

And how do you have the time for all this? I got so many.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Small business, baby. Come on now. No, more seriously. I mean, like it's- You asked before about what drove me to start my own businesses and do my own show, and honestly, it's the flexibility in my life. So I remember when I was a kid, um, my dad would take my sister and I on these six-week-long camping trips. Okay. My mom just didn't want to go. Or she'd like to meet us for a week if we were at a hotel. Um, and it was I just so uh impactful to my childhood. My most vivid memories are those trips.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

And it was yeah, and so this has been an all like you grew up traveling.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

Sort of. I mean, I I grew up camping with my dad. Um, and we had been to like 37 states all over, but we had like my dad had a uh Acura Legend, little tiny car, and a pop-up camper. So we were not like doing it. He he would be so offended if it wasn't. Yeah, he was pulling the camper and he had like um the crank in the car. This is like a two-door little sports car, he he thought it was, but um, and he would like lift up the crank if we were whining or complaining in the back and be like, listen, girls, you know, and so it wasn't like luxury travel, but it was good, you know, Jewish dad travel. Yeah, yeah. So um, but really just the time off. And like my parents both, you know, could take time off during the day, come to my track meets. Um, you know, we went skiing all the time, we're from Florida for so we had to travel for that, you know. So they just were flexible, they did whatever they wanted, and so that was the nature that I grew up in, and so I just obviously was gonna carry that, you know. And um, in fact, you know, my my kids now they're four and five, they've been to like 22 countries as well.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Oh my god, seriously? So, how do you go about even like planning on what's net like what goes through your mind when you're like what's next?

SPEAKER_03 34:19

I don't know, we're running out of places now.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Seriously, yeah. No, I mean like because I've seen like there's a couple on whatever on Instagram or TikTok or whatever that has been to every single country in the whole world.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Oh my gosh, is that like is that what your goal is, or do you just like to um I think well, so um, yeah, when I was 22, like I was saying before, I had a friend who traveled a lot internationally, and I was like, I really want to do it, but I don't know how. And he was like, just like pack a toothbrush and a t-shirt and let's go. And I was like, Oh my gosh, uh yeah, and I just kind of trusted him. I literally had a Jan Sport backpack and like three changes of clothing, and my best friend and I went to Thailand and Southeast Asia for two months after college. Um, and I think that was another thing, you know, a lot of people think change or starting something or doing something new is really hard. And that was one of the first lessons I had, separate from my upbringing, where my friend was like, no, no, no, it's easy, just like book a flight, bring a toothbrush. And I was like, really? And it was, it was that easy. And so in that moment, I was like, I guess everything's a little easier than you think. We just put these barriers up all the time. And so I love to mentor other young companies, and I am constantly, or people who have ideas, and I'm constantly just saying, like, just do step one. I don't, we don't need the whole vision for the future. I just need you to say, like, if this was, you know, if you do one thing to get this started, what would it be? And then they'd say one thing, I'm like, okay, we'll go do that, you know. And if you can make it down into small bite-sized pieces, I think it's just easier.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Um, so I think with travel, that was where it kind of sparked a friend that said, just do it. And so I was like, Okay. Uh, and it worked. And so, yeah. I don't know. I I met Greg and he liked to travel, and so yeah, I've got a I've got a bunch of stories.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

I was gonna say, I I can't even imagine. Do you um are you more of like beach? You're probably not beach at this point. I'm gonna I'm gonna more so say like you go and want to see just like you just wanna see the world, like see what's out there. Yeah, and that's kind of what I've like gotten into more recently is just it doesn't always need to be like a trip to where it's warm or a trip to where it's like yeah, there's just so much cool geography out there.

SPEAKER_03 36:36

Oh yeah, and like and and I think yeah, geography and and culture and something that culture. Oh yeah, I mean people live life totally differently. There are times that I, you know, like we were in India maybe a year and a half ago, and I'd been before, but um, but it it'd been a while. And um God, India is just a whole other world, like literally a whole other world. Right. And so then I go back to you know my life here thinking like, oh, this is the only way to raise your kid. Oh, you have to do it this way. Oh, start your business like this. Oh, you want to make a million dollars? Here's how you I mean, there's like this is the exact way, this is what America tries to, you know, sell to you. That there's one way and this is it. And that's just so not true. And I've seen that firsthand a million times. I have seen that people sleep with their baby, they they co-sleep. I have seen that, you know, they live in huts with four, you know, eight people, and um, you know, you just you see it, you see the way that they they don't all have nine to fives. Yeah. But we're we're it's so we believe that our way is the only way, especially as Western people. And objectively, that's just not the truth.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

So you think probably traveling has helped your just views of life in general open so much more.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Well, I remember so on that year-round trip specifically, I so most of my friends here in St. Louis had had kids before me. So I was the last of my friends here to have kids, but the first of my East Coast friends, you know. Um, anyway, so you know, I remembered all these conversations about how, you know, you need like four different strollers, one for the car, one for the I was in uh Zimbabwe, and we were driving, uh actually, no, sorry, let me think about this. We were in Ethiopia, and we were driving past these villages of all these children running out to scream at the bus and say hi and wave. And I literally saw this like four-year-old baby wearing a baby. Like he had one of those wraps, which that is something that you should definitely get is to wear a baby. But it was a four-year-old baby wearing a child, and I'm like, oh, but I need four strollers, and this four-year-old can do it, you know. I mean, they don't even have strollers in most of Africa, you know? Like I'm generalizing, but and so I just it always stuck with me that you know, here we're all like, oh, here's your huge list of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

And there they're like, What what is a you want me to lay my baby on a there's so many different bams and we're going through it, I swear, right now. It's like there's so many options. Um, what's your favorite country of the now?

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Oh man, um I know it's hard to pick up. I know. I love Jordan for the culture. Oh, another thing I was saying, you asked, like, what I love seeing just eye contact with other people and like getting into their eyes and their souls, and I think different countries, people's souls through their eyes look totally different. Okay. So I felt in Jordan like there was just a lot of deep beauty, a lot of the same cultural feelings that I have about you know Judaism. But um, so I love that in Jordan just the spirit, the kindness, the family was yeah, gorgeous. Um, Japan's another world. It's insane. Um I think for diversity of experiences, South Africa's awesome. You can go to wine country, safari, cool cities, shark diving, beach. I mean, it has everything. Um, plus they speak English, which is good. Uh Guatemala's great. Okay. Uh yeah, there's, I mean, I gotta live whole.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

You've literally been like, I mean, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Oh, Greece, Greece, I mean.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

So we just went to Greece for my own. Oh, what do you think Greece? So awesome. We went to Paros and Crete.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Nice. Oh, yeah, awesome. Awesome. It was great, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

We did the Amalfi Coast, and then we did, and then we did uh Greece. But Greece is like so cool, the food, the views. They got like, you know, you got the clear water, the beach, but you got the rocky landscape.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

Totally. But it's the great food and great food. So um in a Greek lifestyle, I'm like, hmm, I know. Should we be living in the world?

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Everybody's like, they eat dinner super late. Yeah, totally. It's but I love it. Yeah. And I think that it is um, it does open your mind a lot to like travel anywhere. Yeah. And so I think we're gonna try to make it a point. You know, we just went to Hawaii a couple couple months ago, which God, that's such a far journey, actually. It is such a far, and it's so far. It's one of those bucket list places where it's like you want to go check it out. Yeah. Um, but we'll have to talk because like you've literally probably got it listed out exactly like too, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:09

And my husband's a huge note taker, so he has like, okay, first we moved our foot here and then we placed our foot here, like every step he has written down. She tracks it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Jeez.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

And now with AI, he's just like dictating his phone, like everywhere we go, he's like, okay, I had this to lobby, I had this to I had this to just like tracking thing for us.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Well, I I talking about AI, I don't we don't have too much longer, but um as you kind of are doing these next um businesses, because I'm sure you've got a million ideas in your mind that you haven't kind of looked at. Do you how do you feel about AI?

SPEAKER_03 41:46

I think it's um it's amazing in so many ways, and it's a little bit overwhelming in other ways. I think that for some tasks within the company that we're currently working on and thinking about if I had this five years ago, I think it's making things so easy in a lot of ways. However, there's also a lack of context that I think is really important, especially with a small business. So like you getting close to your customer, close to your feedback, close to you know the product and the offering a little bit more. I think it's creating some distance, um, which I question. Um, and then like honestly, on a safety perspective, um, we actually just met a woman from Romania who was getting her PhD. We were in Rio when we met her, um, and she is studying deep fake regulations.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

And so I think when you think of deepfake, you think like, oh, someone's gonna deep fake Donald Trump or deep fake Will Smith or you know, some famous people. But she said the true threat is deepfaking amongst each other. So let's say you had an ex-girlfriend or you had an ex-boyfriend who wanted to take something out on you, they could deepfake you into something very dangerous, and it's happening with kids, and it's so accessible for the common person to do it, and we don't have the resources to fight it. Whereas, you know, the celebrity figures have a whole team to help combat it. Where people like us, if it happened to us, we wouldn't know where to turn, it would be too expensive. And so that scared me. Um I mean, I have a lot of thoughts, but I do think that um from a business and efficiency perspective, it's unbelievable. How about you? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Um, I agree, I don't use it enough. I think that it does simplify a lot of things. Um but I do agree that I think that there's things that are becoming uh harder to realize what's real and what's fake. For sure. Even for like, you know, I know the older demographic gets kind of sucked into it a little bit more, but like it's starting to the point where I start to question like is some of the some of the things that I'm saying, are they real or for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 43:55

So and there's a difference between like real isn't like, oh, that is a fake image of a person. Here in person there, but there's also, oh, that wasn't your thought or your idea or your experience. It's even this morning, I wrote a blog post in 32 seconds and I sent it to my husband, and I was like, here, go put this on the site. Like 32 seconds.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

And it's it's it that's what's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

Yeah, and so like they don't know what voice it is, and and then over time we're all gonna just look the same, sound the same, how do you differentiate? You know, and to me, authenticity is really important to me and my integrity and how I feel every day. But also, I believe authenticity and integrity in your business is the only way to success.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 44:32

I've seen so many people who try to, you know, use their ego to get through places, you know, and I just I never it's never aligns with me. Um, or like, you know, they sell a hope and a wish and a prayer, and I really I don't know, the the the underbelly is important to me. And so I think that that's going to be harder to maintain because you've got AI doing the work for you, and so it's do I be authentic? Exactly, or do I just let it, you know? Sure. So there's a time and place, and I think over time we will all recognize when it's really helpful and when it's actually maybe dumbing us down and taking us further away from who we are and what we're doing, right? Um, so yeah, I think we're in that weird space now with it.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

But the uh before we finish up, the last thing I want to ask you in regards to being like authentic and um just running the business, like you doing the work. Yes, you do some things with Arch Grants. Is that correct? Okay, so um as an entrepreneur, Arch grants and St. Louis as kind of a hub for a lot of like startup businesses. Yep, talk about you can kind of trans transfer what we just talked about being authentic into business and what Arch Grants and why it's like important for you.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

Yeah, so I like Arch Grants because I think they first of all they give out a lot of grants. So there's they touch a lot of companies and people here, and I think they have a really uh strong commitment to, I think the whole community has a strong commitment to Arch grants. Um they so there's two pieces of it. One is they want to grow businesses in St. Louis, but they also want to attract others to move to St. Louis, and I think having that dual track is really important. But of the founders that I've been working with, a lot of them are, you know, one, two, three-person teams at this point. And a lot of what I do is help them get through some of those mental hurdles and face some of the things they might be avoiding, some of the uh things that they might not feel qualified for. Like I was saying before, when you're starting a business, you know, you don't you don't know anything, and I think that scares a lot of people. For me, I'm like, okay, well, I guess I'll learn. You know, it's almost a little like bobbleheady, like, okay, we'll just do that. Um I simplify it, but that's kind of true. But I don't think it's as easy for other people, and so I've been a little bit of an accountability partner to just remind people like, okay, you look a little, you know, nervous of heading this direction, but we can do this, we can do it together. So um, yeah, yeah, I I think it's a great program and I've loved being involved. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

Well, I think you obviously have a lot of unique stories, and you've done a lot of different um not just startups, but just like lived a lot of different life experiences, and I think it kind of shows that you don't necessarily need to know exactly what your path is.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

You can really just kind of make something happen out of things that otherwise would be done.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

I love that summary, that's exactly how I feel, and I think that again, people are scared to do things, and I'm like, listen, turn right, and if you liked it, then keep going right, and if you didn't, go left. That's it, you know? And uh I think that we learn about ourselves the more we do. And so when you hold yourself back, just imagine how much opportunity there is that you're just never going to see, you know. And um, yeah, I think for me, um just like having it having an idea and doing it yesterday is something that I just kind of live by, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

And um are you gonna be a travel agent next or what?

unknown 48:10

No.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

Greg is my husband's the travel agent. I'm just show up and I'm friendly to everyone, you know?

SPEAKER_01 48:16

That's fair. Well, I appreciate you. Yeah, this is so great. Yeah, thanks for chatting.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

Thanks for the good questions and your point of view.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Oh my god. I see I got so many more questions, but I don't want to like take too much time. It's just um uh I wanna I think you should put together an excursion. Ben's a big traveler too.

SPEAKER_03 48:33

Yeah, yeah. Um, I saw he was just in Morocco, which is an amazing place to live.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Oh my gosh. In like I think he was all northern Africa. Yeah. So it was just awesome, the experiences, and you know, you get a lot of ideas for her. Um for for him, he gets a lot of ideas with his restaurants.

SPEAKER_03 48:52

Oh, yeah. Um well he gets not only food but design and feel and ambiance, and you know, what he wants, you know, what spirit he wants to bring in, what he wants his patrons to feel, and I think when you can explore that in other places, you know, it just it feels magical. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:11

It feels like sometimes I go to places or restaurants, um, you know, in all parts of the world, and I feel like it was like placed here, like a human didn't build it. It's just like so perfect and so natural, and like this is unbelievable. How did this get here? Yes, but it was people building that, you know, and so I think Ben gets to take some of that.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

And honestly, that trip that that that thought in general is just like when you think about that, it really is like it trips you out there. 100%, yeah. It's nuts.

SPEAKER_03 49:37

Oh my god, yeah. Actually, even I was just in Rio and like last week, and have you been to Tel Aviv?

SPEAKER_01 49:44

I have.

SPEAKER_03 49:45

Okay, so you know it's like this gorgeous beach with this huge city. Yes. Well, Rio's like that, but plus mountains, okay, like insane mountains, jungle forests everywhere, like it's gorgeous, all built into the city. And I'm like looking around, and I'm like, wait, humans built this. Like, I yeah, I'm just like, oh man, how cool is this city? It's just like, you know, here, but it's not just here. The people did it, humans did it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

Honestly, that's a whole nother conversation. Seriously. Yeah. No, I appreciate you. Not aliens, not maybe aliens. That's a that's another thing. We can't talk about that. Um no, thank you again. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 50:22

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it too. It's good to know you.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

Yeah, great to know you.