Episode 3 : Jr. Main St

Join me as I interview 2 High School students who were a part of our junior Main st program through Columbia Main st this year. We talk about their experience what they accomplished what they did at and so much more. Columbia Main st is a nonprofit organization that makes a lot in our downtown community happen. I am honored to be serving on the board and also be a part of our junior Main st program as a small business.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Small town southern tribe runs deep within my soul from the courthouse where told stories to the Alright so ladies, thank you so much for joining me on today's Spot Law Land podcast.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

This is going to be episode number three. So pretty excited about this. So thank you so much for joining us. Um, today, who do we have with us? What is your name?

SPEAKER_03 0:28

My name is Marley Mulder. I'm Maya Gardenheir.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

Alright, and what grade are you all in?

SPEAKER_03 0:33

I'm a sophomore at Columbia Central High School.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

And I'm a senior at Columbia Central High School. Awesome. And what are y'all drinking today?

SPEAKER_03 0:42

I'm just drinking water. Saying I'm drinking drinking water.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Yep. Okay, and I've got my water here with lots of lemon in it. And I just told y'all like prone to kidney stones, so like I it's more like lemon tart water in here, but it is absolutely wonderful what I'm used to drinking. Alright, so how you all got connected with Elia was through a program called Junior Main Street. So we have a Main Street program here in Columbia, and we started this program called Junior Main Street this year. So this was the inaugural program of essentially teaching you, teaching the next generation of high schoolers about what Main Street does. And so, can you tell me a little bit about your experience with Junior Main Street? It's also a volunteer program. So you all have put in a lot of volunteer hours since August 30th. That was summit day. So can you tell us a little bit about the Junior Main Street program and what you've all experienced so far?

SPEAKER_03 1:41

So I decided first to join Junior Main Street just because I've grown up in Columbia and downtown especially, and I'm really I'm in the business and marketing class at school, so I was like, this is the perfect opportunity for me to like learn more about the behind the scenes stuff. So I was really excited to join the program, and it's been so cool to see the behind the scenes because I do spend so much time downtown, so it's like been really fun. I mean, we got to help with like a grant the other week, and it's crazy, like I had no idea we would get to participate in some of this stuff, but it's been really fun, and I've gotten to meet a bunch of people from CA and like we went to the same school, but I didn't know who Amai was, and just schools all over, so it's been really fun.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

That's really neat. Um, last year I was a part of the Mayor's Youth Council, and I like really love to help around the community, so uh it was mentioned to me, and I just would I love to get to know the behind the scenes of like being a business owner, and like we learn the logistics of like community events like First Fridays. Like you go there as like a citizen, but you don't understand like what the behind the scenes is. Like we had to when we had to plan our movie event, we had to find sponsors, vendors, and that was it showed us how like hard people think it's just like boom, event like not at all.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

There's a lot of work that goes behind the scenes, and um it was really neat to watch you all come together because it's a group of 25. Um, we might have dwindled down a little bit because it has a huge time coming. Yet like you all have met twice a minimum of twice a month for our meetings and then going to a local business, which you're here, Elia, um every single month. So a minimum of four hours of volunteer hours every single month through Main Street, plus all of the times when you talked about First Friday, you also had to volunteer at First Fridays. Um, and you talked a little bit about the movie night that y'all did, learning how to get sponsors, things like that. So, yeah, there was a lot involved in a short amount of time of learning what goes on behind the scenes. And um, Marley, like you said, y'all helped um basically providing photos and a letter, a referral letter for a grant.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Um Yeah, like I didn't even know. I mean, I guess I knew what a grant was, but I didn't know how the city got grants and stuff. So it was crazy. Like we just basically all got to well, we split off and all wrote parts of a letter, and then she composed it into one big letter and showed us how we got to do the pictures to like give an idea. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

And we got to use our like artistic, like creative ideas, like with the mural and what I think one of our ideas was to put like meal prints on the sidewalk to like lead to where the art district is, and it's it's so fun to get to know that if that proposal happens, like we were a part of that, and those are some of our ideas.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Yeah, I love it. I absolutely love it. I love that your voices are being heard and you you've got to be part of this whole process. Um, okay, so through the Junior Main Street program, like we mentioned a little bit earlier, you were assigned to a business. Um, what do you think of what'd you think about when you got assigned to Elia? I know you're talking to me, but but yeah, what do you think when you got assigned to Elia? Well, like what were your first initial thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 5:06

So I'd been to Elia in the past. I've like gotten a service here before this location, the old location, and I just thought, oh, it's a nice spa. But whenever I got assigned here, it's been really cool once again to see like the background and like the behind the scenes of what all the work, even though we've really just been working on the social media aspect, it's so really cool to see how you get to like promote your business, and I don't know, it's really cool. And now I just see the whole business in like a more complex way, I guess. So it's been really cool.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Yeah. Um, when we were at our summit day and we had to choose, I Elia was definitely in like my top three. Like, I was really excited because whenever you go to a place, you don't really think about like she said, the behind the scenes and getting to see like the benefits of all the treatments that happen here, and then knowing the story behind Elia. And then I remember one day we were talking about like what goes into choosing products, yeah, choosing products, and then like quite a lot, yes, and then like the retail part of it where you try to cater to an audience, and then sometimes that doesn't work, so then you have to choose something else that you think might cater to the audience that's coming in. Yeah, so it's really fun to learn like the behind the scenes of what it goes on to like be an owner. It's ever changing, yes.

SPEAKER_04 6:29

Okay, so one of the things that when y'all were assigned here, one of the things I wanted to do is make sure you understood what Elia did. And part of that was you all got facials. And Marley, you got to get a facial with Amaya and an our other gal, who's normally here, Molly Jane. Um, and they did some video and I've used that video on social media as well. But what were your what were your initial expectations of a facial? Or did you even have any expectations of a facial? Marla, I think you've had a you've had a little one here before.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Yes, so I'd had one here before, and I knew how nice it was, obviously. And but you think, oh, nice facial, relaxing. But once I'd kind of gotten to hear, like we said, a little more of the background, it kind of made me appreciate it so much more. And it had been a while since I'd gotten my first one here. So now after that one, I'm like, I'm gonna have to start coming here like regularly because it's so nice. And even that one I don't know, 30-45 minutes probably about how long it was. That was like, you're like, can it really have that big of an effect in that amount of time? It definitely did. I was like, this is so nice, I felt so relaxed.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

That's awesome. And did it meet that?

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Yes, I've gotten facials before, but not from here. And you know, I have sensitive skin, so some products like you know, kind of make my skin feel like it's on fire sometimes. Yeah, that's okay. And coming in here knowing that this is like a clean spa and you choose your products wisely, it like it was so amazing. Like you go into a facial and you want to be relaxed, and that's definitely what happened. Like, I felt at peace. It was like really good. Like she said, those 35 to 45 minutes change you when you walk around. You were in there for an hour. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Like, so you you may have entered spotland because you I listened to it. It's gone. Yes, it was it felt too short though. Yeah, it did. It I was really upset when I guess that's a good feeling to be upset that you yeah, I didn't even like walk out the door and then like not have to come back in the door. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

That didn't feel like an hour. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Yeah, um, it was an hour, they they were each an hour long. Um, what was something in the facial that surprised you? Or was there anything that surprised you in the facial?

SPEAKER_03 8:58

You talked about before, like the arm and the hand and the neck massage, and I was like, okay, we'll see how this is. Oh my goodness. It was, I mean, it felt so nice. Because when you think facial, you think just your face, but it was so nice, and that might have been my favorite part, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

That put me to sleep. Yeah. I went to sleep after that.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

That's a wonderful compliment. We we consider that a compliment when our guests fall asleep.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I say, yeah, the massage part, because usually, like when you get facial, some people don't do massages. So that was like a really nice part, and then I love the mask part. Like when you put the towel over a face, pure bliss. That was amazing. And how did your skin feel afterwards?

SPEAKER_03 9:40

Great. I wish it could feel like that all the time. It felt like no, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

And it was like really glowy. I loved it. It was so okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:52

So what I'm kind of hearing is that it it skincare goals were achieved within the facial, but your whole body was also able to relax. So it's almost like it was more of like a whole body treatment than just me giving you a good cleanse on your skin.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Yeah, because I think people just think like a facial's just I think this meets a higher expectation of a facial, especially with like the massage. Because I don't think most people like provide that service with the facial. So it was more of like a it's kind of like an out-of-body experience.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Like the room's relaxing, and you're like in the covers and the bed's comfortable, and like you kind of your feet are kind of proper, which like that's nice too. Yeah, I could actually relax. I wasn't just like stiff or anything. Yeah, you know that you're like in a safe space, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

So I mean, you girls are in high school, high school can be really stressful. So I'm so thankful that I was able to give you all these facials to help release that stress and just a facial can be more of like a reset too, where it's like, okay, now I've got the mind capacity, the energy to to keep going. But yeah, it's definitely more than just uh a cleanse and exfoliation on your face. So I was really thankful that I got to give you too. What's something that you would want others to know specifically about getting a service here at Alia?

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Probably like you said, like it's a safe space, like you don't have to come in and feel like oh prioritize like you know making people.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Oh, relax. I don't want to say home, but like they feel comfortable and there's like no judgment. They don't have to worry about something you know bad happening while they're in the room.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

And you know, they can just it trustworthy. Even when I like walk in for the meetings and like relax.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Yeah, I feel like when the essential oils like yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

Okay, good. Um that's how y'all just described that's kind of been really intentional about how we've created Elia as well, and even how we go about giving our services. We have I believe we have 10 service provider, 10 or lower service providers right now, and all of which give such a calming experience, no matter what when you come in. But I love that y'all feel at home when you're here, and it you're relaxed and not stressed when you get here after a long day at school, too.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yes, it makes like I wish we had more time instead of just like an hour. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Well, you know, you you can always stop in here when you're around the square. I you know somebody who's working down at the front desk now. Like it's it's like a it's a safe space, like it's a place where you can come and just be yourself and not have to worry about what anybody's thinking about you.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

And like you said, you have like 10 different providers, or on that number. I've gotten a facial from you and I've gotten my eyebrows waxed here twice by two different people, and even like they're all just so like make you and help you relax. And even when I was getting my eyebrows waxed, like I still felt so like calm. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

Well, because also you're laying on a treatment bed, and it's still like we have so many people that say, Oh my gosh, that was the most relaxing wax I've ever had. And like when people used to say that in the beginning, I was like, How can a wax be relaxing? And I'm like, Oh, okay, like you're not in a shampoo bowl, you're not having noise going around. I'm like, okay, yeah, I I can see this, but like, yeah, I intentionally turn the lights off at the end to do the little massage at the end, too.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Yeah, on the topic of waxing, it's like I take a cosmetology class at school and we were practicing waxing, and I was letting my friend wax my eyebrows, and she like whipped off like a half, like half piece of my eyeball right there. So then my cosmos, she had to like thin out my eyebrows like really bad. I mean, I don't know if people could tell, but I was like really distraught or like you can tell. We can't tell though. Yeah, and it was before like the snowstorm, so I was like, I was glad, but like I was in the like my head was in the I have it on video and everything. With your head in the shampoo pole? Like we I was laying in the seat, like but I wasn't like directly laying in the shampoo bowl, but I was just like I realized at the camera and I like screamed right now.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

What did you do?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Yeah, that's like an example of a non-relaxing waxing.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

Yeah. And we also do lots of training here. So before any, like if once I hire estheticians, I do several weeks of training with them, even though they're licensed and they've been out of school, they've got like their license to touch somebody's face, and like we need to elevate it and like bring them up to Helia standards as well. So, which I never I never mind hiring anybody straight out of school because I get to train them, but it is a lot of there's a lot of extra training as involved. But yeah, unfortunately, your experience is a school experience, and and that happened. It was funny in the moment though, it was funny.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

I I was like, okay. And I'm almost like, I might never do that again. Never let somebody and experience, well, actually, I wasn't gonna I was like, yeah, but I was like, I was giving her experience.

SPEAKER_04 15:07

Yeah, it's kind of like a catch 22 because you need experience, um, but also yeah, it's just it's just one of those things.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Oh camera, it was actually hilarious. Everybody, everybody in the room like stopped and they were like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

Oh, I'm sorry. Well, um keep kind of like massaging that area and that'll help bring blood flow back to the surface. Unfortunately, a lot of times, like when hair is pulled up that's not supposed to be pulled out, it can take a long time to grow back. So just you know, keep massaging and bring that blood flow to the to the surface to stimulate hair growth. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, you know you can get a relaxing browser. Yes, I'll keep that in mind. Um, okay, let's see where we're at here. Okay, so is there anything else that you'd like to share about your experience here at Elia through Junior Mean Street? We did a lot of like videos with a little elf as you can.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

That was so fun. Like coming, like get into when we me, Molly Jane, and um Marley, when we got to like come up with ideas, that was so amazing. Like the Chandelier one where she's that was my favorite one.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

I need to I still need to post that one. That was to like promote the Nod Pods. Um, but then we sold out of Nod Pods before we could post the one. Well, that's a great product, yeah. So maybe Serenity just needs to come back because we do have them in stock again, like a Christmas in July or something like that. We will be using that video.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

And not only like come up with those ideas, like but we got to help make them, which was really cool, which is a lot of work, yeah. It's a whole lot of work. And then after we would like film all the stuff, you have to do all the editing, which I know that takes forever, probably. And you had to come up with a script of what she was gonna say.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Yeah, it's it's a lot, it's a lot to do social media, and um, you know, I I got into this field because I love taking care of other people, love giving facials, and I love training other people. I discovered I'm like, and now I'm a social media person too. So let's throw that on apparently a podcast too. So learning how to use a mixer, yeah, and learning how to record things. So being a small business owner, hopefully you all have gotten to see that it's more than what you see at the front, it's all the extra behind-the-scenes work that goes into for me, it's I like to tell a story. We like to tell a story of what Ilia is and how we got to be where we are and um what and what we do, and you all are now part of that story too. So I want to thank you all for being a part of this being a part of Elia history and so glossy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Even I'm sure like whenever some people have to do social media content, like it starts to become like a chore for them. But that was like so fun. Like, I looked forward every every week to like come back and make up a new storyline for the post in your life. I didn't help with that. We helped.

SPEAKER_04 18:09

You all have been in in all three of you have been in social media posts that we've done here.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

So especially when we went on the little scavenger hunt during hospital and we were skipping in front of the um courthouse. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_04 18:24

Like getting dark too. Like it was that was really pretty.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

This has been like the best experience. Yeah, I really I'm so glad, like I'm glad this was like we were chosen for this because yes, it's been so fun.

SPEAKER_04 18:34

Yeah, there were uh we all had to have letters of recommendation to be part of G Your Main Street, and we unfortunately like we couldn't accept everybody. So there were some people they'll be able to apply again next year because this is a ninth through twelfth grade program. Um, but Amaya, this is your senior year, so it was either you were in or out.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah, I'm really glad I'm in because this is like like Marley said in the beginning, where we get to meet new people, because even though we live in the same town and everybody goes to schools, not everybody knows of each other. Yeah, and now we have like new connect like connections and friendships with each other, and it's like really beautiful to watch that flourish through like the couple months that we've all been together.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

I think there are seven or eight different schools or homeschool schoolers that were represented within the group of 25. So it was really neat to be able to, you know, we got Santa Fe, Callioga, Homeschool, Agatha, Central, CA, Zion, like like I think Spring Hill. I can't remember if somebody from Spring Hill is down here or not, but um just to be able to see so many people come together for this, and now like I have two kids in the program that you know that you know of, and um, like we'll be passing people, they're like, Oh, that was Amaya, or oh, that was Rye, or oh, there goes Sam. Like, um it's so cool. So to be able, like they're recognizing people around town too. So you're yes, Main Street. This is the program you're a part of, and we've invested into you, but you've also invested a lot of time into this program yourself. So I'm gonna say how proud I am of all of you to show up, be here, be a part of this, and take ownership of your town too.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

So it's been so fun and a great experience, and I've gotten to learn so much through it, and yeah, it's been great.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

With volunteering, I know that not a lot of people like volunteering, it sometimes feels like a chore sometimes that they have to, but like the experience with First Fridays and doing Vault Fest, like that was so fun, and it just felt like we were at the event. It wasn't like we were just helping, like we were able to be a part of it, and it was like Kelly has made it a way for us for it to be fun and not a task, yeah, not task-oriented.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Yeah, even though it's been the first year, they've done everybody's done a great job with like making it a fun program and not feel like a chore to come every week, especially like when we were doing our mealtown movie night.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

That was a long day, yeah. That was a really like for lunch, like I said before, like friendships, like me, Marley, Ava, and Mary Dud Mary Dudley.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

We all went to play. And especially for us, like I said at the beginning, we go to the same school, but Central's huge. So like I didn't know who Amaya was. And so now we're like friends, like we take pictures at football games and talk. It's so fun. Yeah, it's been really cool.

SPEAKER_04 21:24

So well, ladies, thank you so much for hanging out with me at Alia since August. And you know, you are always welcome here, and thank you for doing this podcast today. And I can't wait for it to get out and share it. It'll be a couple weeks before we release this specific episode. Thank you so much for coming out.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Beneath the stars and strap.