Awesome Brooklyn!

It had been Vanessa's dream to own her own store so she found a location in the best neighborhood in Brooklyn to complete her vision and as of November of 2017, Awesome Brooklyn has been brought to you by Vanessa, her daughter, and husband. At Awesome Brooklyn giving gifts in their opinion is even greater than getting them. In this podcast you will hear about Vanessa’s Awesome store…  but you will really hear her living her values. Vanessa is an activist, and her voice is loud, passionate, and courageous.  And she uses her voice and her business as a direct vehicle for standing up for values and systematic social challenges as she is rooted in principles that concentrate in an equality for all.       

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www.awesomebrooklyn.com / awesomebrooklyn

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Transcript

Dondrill Glover: 0:01

Welcome to the new york now podcast, a modern wholesale market for retailers and specialty buyers seeking diversity and discovery, gathering twice a year in America's design capital, New York City. It's where buyers and designers on earth have refreshed and dedicated collection of eclectic lifestyle products.

Amy Loewenberg: 0:20

Welcome to the new york now buyer spotlight podcast. I'm Amy lowenberg relations and partnership development manager at New York Now, and I'll be bringing you important information, conversations and perspectives from both sides of the aisle. I treasure the relationships I've established and I relish in the new ones I made every day, sharing information and introducing our amazing community of retailers, buyers, artists and makers, through my spotlight podcasts and my store tours on Instagram. Today we're talking with Vanessa Raptopoulos, owner of Awesome Brooklyn. Vanessa got her start at a catalog and website called uncommon goods also located in Brooklyn, which you may have heard of. After that Vanessa started her own jewelry line, but she always wanted to get back into the gifting world. It had been Vanessa's dream to own her own store. So she found a location in the best neighborhood in Brooklyn to complete her vision. And as of November 2017, Awesome Brooklyn has been brought to you by Vanessa, her daughter Athena, who spends almost as much time at Awesome as she does, and their biggest supporter, the husband Miles, who you may see out on Flatbush Avenue promoting them. They of course, have been met with much of that community love and support that Brooklyn is so known for. And awesome. giving gifts in their opinion is even greater than getting them. So what they do is try and cultivate enough awesome gifts, that when you shop their site, or their brick and mortar, you think, Wow, this place is awesome. And I can tell you from personal experience that it is from her dynamic and often socially impactful front window and product to their love of local artisans and New York centric items to their features of girl power and black made products to their own branded line of candles, and an amazing assortment of green cards. Vanessa is an active member of her community, she and her family can be seen and heard campaigning for city council and standing up for social justice. Vanessa is an activist and her voice is loud and passionate and courageous. She uses her voice and her business as a direct vehicle for standing up for values and systemic social challenges. As she's rooted in principles that concentrate and equality for all. In this podcast, you will hear about her awesome store. But you will really hear her living her values. So welcome, Vanessa. It's a pleasure to visit with you today.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 2:53

Hi, Amy.

Amy Loewenberg: 2:55

We have a lot to cover. And you're a very busy woman. But first and foremost, let's hear more about your awesome store Awesome Brooklyn. We know why you created it, and a bit about your features, but not enough. So give us a verbal tour through your store.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 3:12

Okay, well Awesome is as the name describes awesome. The whole goal is when you walk through the store, you start picking things up and you think Wow, this is awesome. I need this for myself, my mom, my sister, whoever somebody that you weren't even shopping for they you see it and you're like, Oh my god, I need this because this is awesome. So there's a lot of that going on, like people are picking things up saying this is awesome. And then being like, Oh, that's the name of the store. Haha, you must get that a lot. Haha. So there's a lot of that, which is cute. But it's basically a celebration of I mean, I think all stores are an extension of ourselves. So it's like what I think is cool, what I think is awesome. I mean, it's really just like a retail exploration of anything that catches my sort of stream of Oh my God, that's awesome. Whether it's like shopping at the shows, whether it's people keep asking me for certain items, and I want to find it for them. But I don't want to find them. Just that item. I want to find them an awesome version of it. Like today, we were talking about slinkys and we were sitting outside and a neighbor walked by and she was like, do you have any slinkys right now? And I said no, but I should get them again. And my friend was there and she's like, don't just get the regular slinkys and I was like well do you guys like metal? slinkys Do you like plastic slinkys and they were like, well, and I was like how about we do a metal rainbow slinky cuz that's awesome. That is awesome, right? Like a regular metal slinky. That's just a slinky. So that's kind of the idea behind it. Like I only have 400 100 square feet or so. So I have

Amy Loewenberg: 5:02

your you really do pack a lot of merchandise in there and you do really well.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 5:07

thanks. Yeah, there's not much space and I have no storage. I have no basement. I have like these teeny little dinky drawers at the bottom of my dress, my bookcase kind of things. And that's it. So I'm like, Yeah, it's a lot. I wouldn't do that. Again, if I were going to open another store, I would not not have storage,

Amy Loewenberg: 5:29

trial and error. Well, we know about your awesome product. And it sounds like you've got some pretty awesome customers as well.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 5:39

I do I have awesome customers. Most of them live in the neighborhood. But after the pandemic hit, I picked up a lot of I guess they found me on Instagram. And you know, I'll get orders. And I'm like, how did this girl in Michigan find me? And you know, maybe it'll be somehow we're connected somehow. But a lot of the times, it's just like, Oh, I don't know, I was on someone else's thing. And then they mentioned you and you know how Instagram works? Yeah, that's how they're everywhere now. And it's kind of a conflict, because I'm like, do they really want to hear about my local politics? But in the end, like, I know, is this talking about Instagram, which we're not really talking about right now. But the customer group is on Instagram. I mean, that's in person, of course. And those are people who live in my neighborhood. And those people I know pretty well, at this point. Obviously, still new people come in every day. But there's like a whole nother customer group that's on Instagram, which is not necessarily local. And so I've kind of been like, do I just talk about this that? I don't know, you just kind of have to be yourself and like, talk about whatever you want to talk about?

Amy Loewenberg: 6:52

Yeah, well, I think that that's the beauty of it. But you said it yourself, your store is an extension of you, your products are extension of you. So your store is an extension of you. So you should talk about whatever you want to talk about. So those guys in Michigan learn about what it is. It's important to you.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 7:08

Yeah, totally.

Amy Loewenberg: 7:10

And you give like really great highlights of like, what's happening at awesome, like between the store, Athena, your adorable daughter. And we're like, what's going on in the neighborhood? Has your approach to business changed after this past year?

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 7:28

Yes, I didn't really have an entire website at the beginning of the pandemic. So that definitely grew. My approach changed, in that I was more keyed into figuring out the need of the moment, and realizing that I could actually provide something that people needed right there, like, you might have to order from a vendor, and it takes a few days. But that's only a few days, like people's minds don't change from week, Monday to Friday, like, Oh, I don't need a mask anymore on Friday, or Oh, I'm not gonna sit in my house anymore. So at the beginning of the, you know, I don't need a puzzle. So the beginning of the pandemic was like, how long is this gonna last? I don't even know. for week one, I kind of sat around and was like, I'm not buying any more inventory. I'm just selling what I have. And then it was like, wait a minute, I already sold every puzzle I had the week before I close, like, people still need something to do. Like, let me see if I can get some more puzzles. And so like my approach, definitely, like, Listen to what people wanted more. And then like, told them as fast as I could I have it. Because, you know, people couldn't get that immediate satisfaction thing of that Amazon like it will show up in 12 hours. Mm hmm. And so they were like maybe more willing to wait maybe more keyed into the Wow, it's really important to keep my small businesses open. I was just sort of feeding off everybody's energy and like, ran with whatever direction they wanted me to go with as long as it was like, of course, awesome product, you know, I'm not gonna just like sell them and 95 masks then right. That's not what I'm here for.

Amy Loewenberg: 9:22

Well, you were very communicative over Instagram. I mean, I was following you. And I could see why, like when stuff was coming back in. Yeah. And I could see you like being very flexible with bringing product in. And I think I think I think we all had to do that in our own way. But to listen to your customers is is gonna continue to grow the connection, which is Yeah, yeah, very, very good at

Unknown: 9:47

thanks. I feel like another thing that sort of happened during that time was like, I realized that people really needed to pick me up. And so like Athena would tell jokes, and we Do like kinda like things like that, that were just like stupid, but like people were really, really depressed in central Brooklyn particularly. I mean, we have one of the highest zip codes for the coronavirus outbreak. At the beginning, it was so dark around here and so, so scary because we didn't know anything. And we all live on top of each other. So it was like, Oh my God, if I see my neighbor across the street through the window, it's going to give me Coronavirus, like, quick hide. And so like people just needed, like to laugh and smile and be reminded that like there are other people out there and like your community is still here, and your restaurants are still here. And we did an Instagram Live. I don't know sometime at the beginning, it must have been like, April or something, or maybe March. And I set it up where I had like, I had my state senators zoner miry, who was I think the first or the second person to talk and he just was like telling us what's going on. And then I had a bunch of restaurants who were like, this is what we're doing. We're not open for business, but you can still order takeout. And this is we have a new menu and I had like the wine store telling about how he does deliveries. And I just had like a bunch of people that I would like cut them off. And they everybody had like five minutes. And I would ask them a couple questions. And I would go to the next person. And there were probably like six or seven people. But I just felt like it was a way to be like we're still here.

Amy Loewenberg: 11:33

You're also here providing people information to on

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 11:36

Yeah, like nobody knew anything. Yeah,

Amy Loewenberg: 11:38

yeah. You're touching on something, I want to talk about your story a little bit more. But you know, you and your family are definitely Crusaders for some many important social inequalities that we face. So in terms of your store, I noticed that you've got dedicated space right up front that features products showing support of important social challenges. So for those of us who know you, we know that this is at the core of your beliefs and values. But what would you share with your fellow retailers as to how they can find their cause in their balance with carrying a more socially charged product line?

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 12:16

Well, the best piece of advice I ever got was from Christina at Calliope, who told me because she's got like, 20,000 Instagram followers or something like that. And when I was first starting out, she was so helpful. And I was like, how do you get to 20,000. And she was like, just be yourself and go with it. Like, don't just be you and people will either like you and want to all the time or not. And who cares about the people who don't. And so you know, in that, like, just be yourself. Like, just if you're outraged about something like maybe people won't even know about it. Like, just yesterday, a girl came in and was like, you know, I never really even noticed the garbage in our neighborhood until you brought it to my attention. I don't know how you're gonna not notice the garbage in our neighborhood. But this girl had not noticed. And then she was like, and then you keep mentioning our Councilmember Matthew Jean, and how terrible he is. And I really started paying attention like, yeah, you're right. And I'm like, Look, I just want you to be thinking more about the neighborhood. And you are a member of it. Like we are all members of this community of Brooklyn of our smaller community in Flatbush of whatever. And I just want people to understand a little bit more about what's going on. Because like, sometimes your head is just in a class out and you're not paying attention. But some people are like, actually, like, where do I get the information? And I'm like, hey, right here. There's a lot of shitty things going on. We're in Brooklyn. So we think we live in this like democratic utopia. It's not there's a lot of shady stuff going around in our own neighborhoods, where people are trying to, you know, muffle out other people's right to vote, or whatever it is just the level playing field does not exist. And people need to realize that just like, just like the other day, you know, we got this button that said, carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man. And that I feel like is to the core of what I'm trying to tell people. These. No offense to white men everywhere. There are plenty of amazing ones. But there are plenty like Donald Trump, who think they're so amazing. And like, take over and we're like, wait a minute, hold on. That's not fair. Like you have a voice to stand up for yourself. Stand up for your family stand up for your community, like we're all in this together. And so like, yeah, the New York City and they're like, oh, Just like New York is transient, right? There's maybe people aren't here forever. And so they don't like take the commitment to be like, I'm a member of this neighborhood. I'm a member, that's me, but you are, and not taking a part is taking a stand.

Amy Loewenberg: 15:14

Mm hmm.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 15:15

Like, I don't know,

Amy Loewenberg: 15:16

I just think that's something as well,

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 15:18

yeah, doing nothing is something and like, I don't know, I mean, you know, like,

Amy Loewenberg: 15:23

I find that when I walk into your store, and I see some of the product that you carry, like it is, it's a very comfortable way for me to show support as well, whether it's a T shirt or a sticker. And I also know that I would assume that some of the product that you're getting proceeds go back to help certain causes. So there, there are so many ways that one can really help impart support in so many different social inequities that through product and and i think that that's a really loud conversation right now, of course, is in alignment with what is happening in your community as well. I'm certainly not discounting that. I'm just saying that you have found a really nice balance of being able to do both. And I think that there are other retailers that are looking for their way to do that comfortable. Yeah,

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 16:12

I think it's scary if you come into it, and and start when you didn't do it from the beginning. Because you're like, what if I lose my customers? It wasn't scary to me when George Floyd was murdered to be like, black lives matter? Because everybody already knows I already think that, you know, like, it wasn't, that wasn't a conversation, what was the conversation was, what are we going to do about cops treating people like they're less than human? And that's where the conversation needs to start, instead of being like, you know, all the way back there. Like, Come on, guys. Let's get on with the program here. And so I understand, like, I have Instagram friends who lost a lot of followers when the election was going on, and, okay, but that's because you weren't telling people like, your truth before. And they're, they're fine with it. But it was, it was definitely a conflict. For a lot of people. It wasn't a conflict for me. I mean, I live in like a liberal bubble in Brooklyn, no one's throwing, you know, hate mail. And me, no one's calling me and making death threats. I've had no other retailers who really bad things have happened to and it that is very scary, and very real. And America, I'm lucky enough to have a voice in of the community that I am part of, yeah, I feel like my voice is what everybody's voice is around, or most people's voices around here, like for equality and justice

Amy Loewenberg: 17:50

well, and you're helping people find their voice to through some of the product that you carry. But in addition, you have a very strong presence in the industry. And I know, the GCA, a little while ago, they hosted their noted pitch program, a focus on diversity. And during that event, they featured nine black members picked at random who basically pitched their lines to a panel of top retailers to which you were one of them. So congratulations. Share with us the importance of a program like this, and what would you like to see continue to amplify in the industry,

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 18:22

that program was amazing. We're doing it again in May. Yeah, so I'm part of that same pitch program for black makers. And then, and two of the lines that I picked up that day are two of my best selling lines, like we've sold so many of them, I didn't even know anything about off three of the lines that I picked up I didn't even know anything about. So oftentimes, when I walked through the shows, I think to myself, wow, this is a white woman's industry. And there's a few cool gay guys that are hanging out. But that's it. And every once in a while, there's a black buyer. And every once in a while there's a black maker, but it's not enough. And they're like lots of amazing black people who make lots of amazing products and I carry a lot of them in my store. But I would love to see the shows more representative of more types of people and I don't know how to do that. I know that noted, did it so it was like free if you got accepted. I don't know it would be great to do like maybe some scholarship programs to New York now or like some people who maybe couldn't afford a booth could get some exposure.

Amy Loewenberg: 19:45

I hear you. I think we can all look at what we can do to be a force for good and magnify the opportunities for those in need. You know looking at the tradeshow industry alone, various an intentional evolution of awareness and action happening. Across the board, but can it be more? Yeah, absolutely. If we can all continue to raise the bar on social inequities, we can all participate in making the changes necessary and enable all humans a fair and equal playing field. But there are a few things that we're doing at New York now to create more market accessibility. We added over 300 PLC owned brands on our site as important resources regardless of them being a part of our market. We are we've reviewed our categories to see where representation is missing of the local brands across the United States. We are constantly deepening our existing partnerships and creating new ones, highlighting PLC brands and our podcasts and digital talks giving a louder voice to local communities. But to your point, Vanessa, on a financial level, we've redefined our booth spaces and booth packages to allow for a smaller footprint. So more people are able to utilize our market who may not have normally had the finances to do so not to mention the advantages of our digital market offerings which make participation so easy.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 21:08

You know, I have to say I listened to one of the podcasts that you did, and it was with Greer in Chicago. And she said, I never thought about this ever. Let me just preface this with I have been in retail but never really in the card world until I opened awesome. And I knew I wanted to have cards, but I never knew cards were going to take off like they did. And so this has been an entirely new category for me as a buyer. So she said, it's amazing when you think about all the cards you've ever sold, and all the heart written heartwarming notes that have been written in these cards and all the touching sentiments that went to 1000s of people across the country and world. Like that is the be a part of that is so amazing. And I never even thought about it. And it made me think about it. And I just think it's just that's just such a wonderful feeling. So thank you to her for telling even like, we can get all caught up and doing stuff and then don't like step back to reflect on like, what are we actually doing?

Amy Loewenberg: 22:23

Yeah, Greer was really good at at kind of getting you recenter it again and seeing things on a much larger Yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate that. You know, so very, very clearly, you're passionate about what you do. And you're passionate about your community and your neighborhood. And the people and and I understand why you love it so much. So you're involved in a few community projects to one of them is something that I think is really meaningful. I mean, they all are, but I this one actually calls out to me. Can you share with our listeners who Josephine from the J Lotus gallery is and what the gate project is,

Unknown: 23:02

yes, Josephine. I actually met many, many years ago when Athena was just a little baby. And we would go to the library, and she would read to us at storytime. And then, years later, I see like artwork happening on the roll down gate at the beginning of the pandemic. So all our gates are down and it was just like so depressing. And then the graffiti went crazy. And the sanitation budget was cut. So when they used to spray paint over with gray that wasn't happening anymore. So like every roll down gate was covered. And it was just like horrid. And so she decided she wanted to bring a little joy to people. And so she was going to start painting the roll down gates and she was finding artists and painting the gates and doing it with like no money. The artists were like willing to do it. And they wanted to canvass for their work. And she she was getting stuff done. I was like seeing this project. And I'm like, this is amazing. I want to be part of this, like we can help you. And lo and behold, it's Miss Josephine from the library. So we just like we're off and running right when we realized, like who each other were. And so we Josephine does most of the work, I just tried to get the word out, because I have a larger Instagram following and I tried to help her get artists. We also donated some money from mask sales that we did at the beginning of the pandemic that I wanted to bring the money back into the community and this was like the perfect place to do it. So basically, we're trying to paint the roll down gates in the neighborhood, all the ones that have graffiti all over them. We have a bunch of businesses who are like yes, do it. We have a bunch of artists who are like yes, do it. We're starting the project backup now that is forming again. But the big, the big wall that we got is the Dwayne Reed And that is the wall that's on Parkside Avenue. So if you get off of the park side, Q and B stop, you basically come out, you either take a ride, and it's Prospect Park, or you take a lap and it goes towards Flatbush Avenue. There's this huge wall of Duane Reade that's just like a ugly orange color. And they have said that we can paint that wall. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, it's amazing. It's so big there. We're gonna split it into like probably four panels and have different artists do different things. But we want it to be a mural of people who are from Brooklyn, people from Central Brooklyn, people have made a difference. Maybe like some kids who live in the neighborhood now just like something happy and wonderful that when you it's just going to transform that whole spot.

Amy Loewenberg: 25:50

That's a huge spot there. There's no way that one's not going to be able to see that from like, blocks away.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 25:55

Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be awesome. So we're really excited. And Josefina has been like working her butt off. And we're hoping that our new council member can give us some money, too. We'll see how that goes.

Amy Loewenberg: 26:07

So fingers crossed around. Yeah. And when do you think that that might be happening?

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 26:12

This summer,

Amy Loewenberg: 26:13

during summer? Awesome.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 26:14

Yeah, yeah.

Amy Loewenberg: 26:16

You've also been featured in the media lately, a little bit. April 2021 has been a pretty good month for you. I know that the ladies over at stoop stories did a highlight on you. And then well, let's just talk about that for a moment for those who don't know about stooped stories that they call themselves a documentary storytelling project, correct? Yeah. Why don't you share a little bit about them and and your experience?

Unknown: 26:42

one of the young women who was helping with stoop stories is one of my customers who lives in the neighborhood. And she was one of the people who was doing like outreach, trying to find people to write or tell stories about. And she was like, I immediately thought of you because you're such a big part of this community. Would you like to be a part of this? I'm like, of course, it sounds amazing. So they came by we took some pictures in front of our house, because it's like the stoop thing. And then we went over to awesome, and we continue talking, and we took some pictures in front of awesome. And it's going to run, I think, on Saturday, which is the plan, which is April 11, I think anthro 11, the 10th. And then after they got picked up by timeout in New York for the month of April. So I don't know what that means for my story. But they said all the stories that happened in April are part of this like timeout in New York project, which could be really cool. But they were also saying that they're trying to get the whole project put into the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Children's Museum for like, another show there. So I don't know what's gonna happen with the pictures. I've seen one picture and it was really good. But they told me they weren't even using that picture. So yeah, so I don't know. I'm just like really excited for it to come out. Because I think saucer is is so cute.

Amy Loewenberg: 28:08

I like him, too. I follow them. And I pinged them. And I was like, I love stories.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 28:15

Yeah, I do, too. Yeah, it's good. It's a good idea.

Amy Loewenberg: 28:18

It is a very good idea. Um, but you were also featured in New York Magazine this month.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 28:23

Yay. I'm most excited about

Amy Loewenberg: 28:26

all right. So what do I like?

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 28:29

I didn't even know what's happening. I got a fact checker called me at the store. And literally, there were like, 15 things going on. Like somebody was ordering balloon. Somebody else has asked me something else. The phone was ringing. I wasn't even gonna answer it. So I was like, I was probably somebody asking me something stupid. I can't answer right now. And it was New York Magazine. So I was like, I knew it was coming. I didn't know.

Amy Loewenberg: 28:51

Always answer your phone.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 28:53

For real, and I didn't know what it was gonna be. And it was best of New York toy stores.

Amy Loewenberg: 28:59

That's awesome job.

Unknown: 29:02

Yeah, we're on the same list is like camp. And I mean, all I saw was camp. And I'm like, that's, that's your like, I'm,

Amy Loewenberg: 29:11

I'm up there. I'm in the one.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 29:14

I'm taking it. So yeah, it was like the best place to find Girl Power gifts, which I thought was exactly what I am.

Amy Loewenberg: 29:22

Yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, congratulations.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 29:26

Thanks. And actually it was one of my neighbors who recommended me which is even better.

Amy Loewenberg: 29:31

Who did?

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 29:31

one of my neighbors, a guy who owns this place called skate Yogi, which is like a skateboarding shop. Oh, cool. So it was all because of him, which is amazing.

Amy Loewenberg: 29:40

I walked by there when I saw your store. Yeah, I think I did. Well, you've clearly created a really good formula for awesome, Brooklyn. Thanks. What can we expect to see in the future?

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 29:51

Ah, I always wanted a few stores. So we'll see what happens. Maybe not the exact same thing, but maybe something a little bit different. Maybe something with a little storage in the back too. Yeah, that would be really amazing. A whole basement?

Amy Loewenberg: 30:09

Well, um, this has been really wonderful. We've talked about a lot, but is there anything that we've missed? Is there anything that you'd like to mention before? We, um,

Unknown: 30:19

I don't think so. Follow me on Instagram. Awesome Brooklyn.

Amy Loewenberg: 30:23

That would behow to connect with you. Awesome Brookly.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 30:25

Yeah. That's how to connect to me. I reply to all my DMS is me. I'm a control freak.

Amy Loewenberg: 30:32

No.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 30:34

So yeah, we'll talk. It was so nice to talk to you, Amy. I'm so glad you came into my store. Well, I like a year and a half ago now, huh?

Amy Loewenberg: 30:43

Yeah, I've been in I've been in twice they think and I'm like I am. Let's see. Oh, I bought one of those candles. I love so much. Is it called watermint?

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 30:53

Oh, yeah.

Amy Loewenberg: 30:53

Oh, I love that candle.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 30:56

That's That's a good one. And my employee tries to push that on everyone when they're trying to decide cents. That's her. Her go to but it smells really good.

Amy Loewenberg: 31:04

It really does. I think that's one of your own branded candle. Yeah. So that's nice that you have your own line of branded goods.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 31:10

Yeah, it's been pretty good. slowly growing. Yeah. All right, my friend. Well, thank you. Yeah, I can't wait to see you in person.

Amy Loewenberg: 31:20

Absolutely. August is coming around the corner. So

Unknown: 31:23

I hope I am looking forward to it. But I don't I hope that August doesn't come too soon.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 31:29

Really, we got a whole summer that I got to live. We got this crazy person who's like, you know, you only have 50 summers left in your life. So you better start living off.

Amy Loewenberg: 31:39

Oh, can we no

Unknown: 31:42

He's like one of those Inspirational Poster people too. It's like, come on, girl.

Amy Loewenberg: 31:49

All right. Well, my ferrymen awesome. And I will. I will talk to you and see you soon.

Vanessa Raptopoulos: 31:55

Okay, sounds good. Thank you.

Amy Loewenberg: 31:57

Bye. Vanessa is pretty awesome herself, is't she? So whether you're in n ed of a cool rainbow slinky or ou have a line that you think is awesome and want to share w th her reach out? You heard h r? She answers all dms. thank ou so much for joining us tod y. And don't forget New York now is now an online 365 sourcing nd connection platform. Make s re to sign up and sign in. nd definitely connect with me w en you do. Thank you again so m ch and I'll talk with you so

Dondrill Glover: 32:26

Thank you for listening to the New York Now podcast. Make sure to tune in weekly for engaging and insightful conversations touching on the most relevant topics facing our community today. Is it through your mouth comm to learn more about our market, and how you can join in on the conversation