In this exciting episode, we have a special guest, Christina Calle, founder of Calle Creative, joining us to share her expertise on branding and its transformative impact on businesses. But that’s not all—Christina will also take us on her personal journey of leaving behind her laid-back corporate life to build a thriving business that allows her to be present with her family.

Tune in as Christina reveals the true power of branding and how it can elevate your business to new heights. Discover her unique perspective on work-life balance and gain insights into why she made the courageous decision to follow her dreams and create a business that blooms while prioritizing her family.

Get ready for an inspiring conversation as we explore the keys to successful branding, the importance of authenticity, and how embracing your passions can lead to a fulfilling and balanced life. Join us as we uncover the untapped potential within your brand and learn from Christina’s journey toward a more rewarding and purpose-driven career.

Listen to the podcast episode here!

So Christina Kelly is joining the podcast today. Welcome.

Thank you for having me.

Your business Calle Creative. started three years ago, like we were just talking about. But let’s start off with kind of what you do. And then we’ll kind of dive into some of the stuff.

Okay. So I built my business, mainly around branding. I know like a lot of designers, just say graphic design. Like I’ll do a postcard, I’ll do a flyer or brochure, I’ll do whatever you need me to do. With my small businesses, I believe that branding is incredibly important because that’s what drives everything, your website, your social media, your business cards, your flyers, or brochures, if you don’t have solid branding down, then you’re just kind of just doing whatever that you feel like doing at that time. My best example is when you go into Canva, and find those trending templates.

The next day you find a new trending template. And the next day you find a new one. There’s no consistent consistency in your branding. Whereas we look at some of the top retailers in the world like Walmart, and Target Starbucks, they don’t pick whatever they want for that day, they’re not changing their logo colors, because today, they want to do green and tomorrow, they want to do pain. Sure, we easily recognize these brands, because of them being consistent. And we’re walking down the soda aisle and we see red, we automatically know that’s Coke, not gonna be confused on it. Could that be Pepsi? That’s gonna be the blue section, soda aisle. Okay, I know, mine is a Coke product, I’m gonna go to that section.

So by building brand awareness, people can easily recognize you through your ads than through your social media posts and get people to stop scrolling, or to stop turning that page in that magazine, because they’re like, Oh, I know that logo. I know what that looks like. You’re creating a bridge visual breadcrumb for people by keeping a consistent look and feel. So that’s why I focus mainly on the branding. And then once we nail that down, then I help people with all their marketing materials and their social and their websites and stuff.

How would you define branding?

So I actually have a presentation, the 15 steps of branding, because branding does not start with your logo. Shocker. I know. And that’s what I do design logos. But it really comes down to everything that is about your business, your values, your goals, and your business, your target audience to who you’re communicating, even down to your tone of voice and the personality of your business. We have Harry’s razors versus, Venus’s razors, they’re both razors, they just brand to a different type of person. Sure one’s more feminine, if you will, and one’s more masculine, make sure they sell razors.

Same thing with Target versus Walmart, do the exact same store, but because of how their branding and who they’re targeting to basic moms, or just everyday families, their branding speaks to them, which is why we have people that are tattooing Harley Davidson on the side of their arm because they live to feel a part of that branding, even though they have nothing to do with the business. They’re, they don’t maybe have shares in the business, but they just live and breathe that brand. They feel super connected to it.

It comes down to more than just the logo. It’s the colors, it’s the fonts, it’s the images that you pay. It’s the quotes that you put on your Facebook. It’s the charity work that you do as a business. CVS gives tons and tons of money to the community to help fight opiates. And so that’s one of the things that I love about CVS is a little bit more expensive. Yes, but I know that they’re doing so much more for the community. So we understand more beyond just that logo. People start connecting and becoming brand loyalists. And that’s what we all want. For people to be loyal to our business. And we do that through branding.

So how is it? Is it just? Is it like defining all of those parameters and brands, like guidelines or brand structure? And then just repeating it, like being consistent with it? Is that how you, like create that brand awareness or create that brand loyalty?

Yeah, definitely. And so, when you’re starting a business, you kind of want to outline like, what are we going to stand for? Like, what is our business about as a community? You know, is it to build a better affordable brand are we going to have a stance on like, pro-military, or, you got to outline what your goals are, and your business and stick to that? So then you can again, feel, the consistency of it, so people can get to know who you are as a company.

It’s a little bit easier for smaller brands because I can make a local connection. Jeff Bezos is not sending us a Facebook message saying thanks for buying that. We just are loyal to Amazon, because it’s convenient. But with our smaller local brands, it’s that handwritten note that we get in that box in our mailbox is that thank you letter that they wrote by hand, and just that, when we get that box, and we open it, and we want to share it on social media with those unboxing videos, it’s the people that sell out your soaps, right before you go to the farmers market, is because they want to support you.

You can buy soaps anywhere, right? But they want to buy soaps from, the person at the farmers market because they believe in what she’s doing, and that she’s trying to make a difference. That’s where our small businesses can really stand out by communicating, not necessarily saying, like, look what I’m doing and taking a selfie every time you do charity work, but just know that you’re getting those Google reviews, having those testimonies, testimonials, and stuff, letting people speak for you, too.

Which is it’s as a small business owner, it’s, it can be challenging, right? Because it’s, I mean, you just listed off like, a ton of different ways, to promote your brand. Right, promote your business. Is there one aspect that’s maybe more important than the other? Like, if you’re going to create a logo? Or is it like, like some of those brand guidelines? Like who’s my target audience? Who am I speaking to? Like, is that? Like, is there one thing, it’s more important? Or is it just like, you just gotta get it all hammered out? Like the earlier the sooner, the better?

I think the most important thing, besides having a solid logo, the colors, and the fonts, like the visual part, but understanding who you’re trying to reach because when you’re trying to market to everyone, you’re going to sell to no one, we see it all the time when we go to these networking events, I’m looking for anyone who has a heartbeat, and you think of absolutely no one. You’re like by selling a home, in Florida. I’m your realtor, right?

If you go into these networking groups, and you say I am looking for that busy mom that lives in Starkey, that has outgrown their home, like, Oh, my friend was just talking about there’s no room in their house, you already picture someone in their mind. So if you really understand who it is, who is your target audience, then you can also align your values towards those people to not necessarily be fake about it, but just understand like, Okay, this is the audience that I want to work with. Because that audience is close to the values that I hold to. So my values reach those people because they have similar values that I do. And so you have to be super clear on who you want to target. Sure, like niching down is super important. When people say like, everyone is my client, and like, no one thinks of everyone. And you can certainly market to everyone., I went to business wanting to help female entrepreneurs that are in the maker category, or the photographers. I love working with those people because I’m artistic. And those people are artistic. Sure, I have a lot of people that come to me for their trades. I have roofers, I’ve AC people, I have windows and doors, people, so yes, I can design for them, but they just see the quality of work that I do. So that’s why they come to me, but my target audience is female entrepreneurs that are the makers, the photographers those types of people

And I think that’s the misconception about niching down, right? Is it like I’m only gonna, I’m only gonna be able to serve like this small little community where in fact, like, you’re just speaking to those people, but you’re still gonna be able to serve other people like outside of that niche and people are still gonna want to do business with you outside of that niche?

Exactly. And I think with relatives sometimes people are like, I do not want to mobile homes and do not recommend this photographer like I don’t want to do babies do not tag me and those baby pose, you can have like hard No but a lot of people were like, I’m too scared to like you said niche down because Maybe we’ll get nobody. I was like, but you’ll be laser-focused. So the people that you’re looking for are going to find your posts because you’re speaking to them. Target did a fantastic job of targeting the basic mom.

They knew that moms were coming into Target. And it was kind of like their, their break out of the chaos their house they can go into the dollar spot, which is right there. But it’s gotten hit that spot first because it’s gone. It’s gone. Kind of like all day. But they saw that moms were coming in with their Starbucks coffees, they weren’t really going to the food court at the supermarkets anymore. So they took out the food courts, and they put in Starbucks, well, then they saw that mom with her car trying to hold the Starbucks cup and the kid with the K-Pop, they redesigned their carts to have a cup holder in it. So mom could put her Starbucks in the cup holder, and also  Target pharmacy, nobody was going to Target pharmacy like that’s not what top of mine. So they took that out and put CVS in. I’m already shopping at CVS,  have my I need to go and pick up groceries and I need to pick up a new bathing suit, I’ll just have my prescriptions sent here because I’m already going to be there. And so it just made sense for them to partner with the basic moms who are shopping at Starbucks, they’re already shopping at CVS, why not already bring that in? Because they already have that following? Some of the larger targets have Alta in them too. Because Alta owns the beauty category, why try to reinvent it just bring it all to an end and let them do it. They’ll bring in that cult following for the Alta was a holiday package that they are the pallets that come out and stuff that people are lining up for. So Target does a fantastic job on and, messaging to those people.  And, and hitting that everyday lifestyle at a premium price.

That’s pretty cool. So how did you? How did you transition into, like starting your business? Like what made what led you to start your own business?

Well, my husband will say that it took a pandemic for me to start my own business. A lot of people kind of went through that, right? Yes, there are a lot of pandemic businesses out there. I was very comfortable at corporate America, and with a paycheck that came in, I knew how to budget for it. I loved the work that I did. And I love my cube mates. We’re all in Cube City together. But in 2018, my dad attempted suicide. And so it kind of made me realize that I don’t have tomorrow because I still have his Christmas gift.

From December that I told myself, I’ll send it, I’ll send it, I’ll send it. And it was the middle of January when my dad decided to do that. And so you don’t have tomorrow. And I kind of already started resisting corporate life, making sure I took my time off, made sure I told my boss I am leaving early today because my kids had scouts, or they have something at school. Whether he approved it or not. With something else. But I told myself, my kids are only going to be little for so long. And I just had my second one in 2017. So he was very young when my dad did what he did. And my husband and I were like, we gotta figure something out. You know, who’s working nights I was working days, I was being a team player and going out after hours and going into the back bar, and driving home late at night. So I was missing morning time and evening time. And I convinced myself that I was just the mom coming home to put my kids to bed. I wasn’t actually a mom.

And it still took me another two years of corporate so that I was like, I need to do something I need to do something. So March 2020. It was on a Tuesday, I was seven months pregnant with my third and got an email to come down to the conference room. And we all knew it was all the security guys out front, this virus was going around, our programs were getting canceled because the stores were closing in most and some of the state stores are already starting to close at this time.

And we didn’t know what retail was going to be like certainly going into and coming out of it. So major programs were being canceled, and our retailers were closing and because they were closing in their corporate state. The rest of the places had to follow suit that they had to close because of corporate standards not necessarily statewide came from corporate down. Sure. So we were like, go and my mom also worked at try it. So we both lost our jobs that day. She was the collections manager actually. Funny enough. And then we went to Chipotle. And we ordered a bunch of everything and just sat there and just like stared at each other and then I called up my friend like, I guess we won’t be going to your baby shower luncheon next week because we all just got let go. Because she was due and a couple of weeks and went home.

Obviously, I had texted my husband, and I was like,

Oh, this happened, and completely, like you had no idea this was coming, right?

Because this was like COVID was just kind of like ramping up. COVID was just like really mean, I was kind of joking around, we have the huge sanitizing things that are different stations, and I remember we had this ginormous one. And the next day, we had like, these little ones, like, Oh, we’re trying numerous one had babies. We’re trying to make jokes about designers. That’s just what we do. We put up memes around the office. But it was a couple of weeks leading up to that when the sellers were like another program, cancel, stop working on that. You don’t need to work on that program anymore, just got canceled. And so we’re kind of like, get nervous. I’m like, Oh, my work just got canceled. And one of the last pro pitches I was working on was actually for Target. And they’re like, target canceled their meetings. And we’re like, okay, cool. We’re also trying to work with carnival too. And then we’re like, nothing.

And so it’s kind of like lol of like, what do we do? We start organizing our files, let’s create dummy projects for pitches. And then when we all kind of walked in the next day or that week, some people like core people were missing. Like, we’re so and so like, mostly the boss levels were like, where are they?  And are HR people who disappeared the week before? We had someone from our parent company there was we’re like, Oh, I think something’s coming down.  So it was kind of like the last like month whenever things were getting weird, but not complete shutdown. I thought we were just going to have another layoff like when eBay left when we had that a bunch of people gets laid off for that. So I took the next couple of weeks just kind of like recompose myself like okay, and you go get another job. Here’s my resumes go. And as I said, I had job offers. Publix wanted to hire me. But after my maternity, there was a company over in Tampa that wanted to hire me after maternity leave. And I’m like, but I need to figure out life now. Like I’m seven months pregnant. I’ve got my husband had surgery on Friday, he had a rotator cuff surgery. Good news. So I’m like updating my resume and the parks. I was allowed to go in because of COVID. And then I had my one in kindergarten, and then my three-year-old at that time, and then the school shut down. So I’m like, okay, so I guess we’re gonna win this online learning, trying to have a fun job and take care of my husband who just recovering from rotator cuff surgery. I’m like, Cool.

And then my mom got the notice that the rental was being sold, and she needed to get out. So I’m like, All right, mom, and my little brother, like, come on in. We’re all gonna live together. And then I just needed to be more available to everybody.  I had my mom, my little brother, then living with me. And I had my husband who had to have a second rotator cuff surgery, the bicep ended up detaching. And then he had hip surgery that December. So I’m like, I gotta do something that gives me more availability. More flexibility.

And so I’m like, Well, why don’t I become like an art teacher? And I was like, I thought everything was going on with the schools and like or not, doesn’t work, ya know? And I just kind of like, put some feelers out there. I’m like, I think I’m just gonna do my own thing. And I posted in a local mom support group, and I said, Anyone needs a logo? I was like, I don’t have a job anymore.  And they’re like,  I need a logo. And my first one was actually a friend that was getting into real estate. Okay, and I did her logo. And then a former boss, messaged me, she’s like, Have you found anything yet? And he’s like, No, I don’t really know what I want to do right now. She’s like, will come to work with us. She was like, you’ll have like the same job, but you can work from home. She’s like, I know, you’ve got the little ones. You’re about to have a third one. I’ll just give you work. And you can work as you need to. I’m like, okay, cool.

So I ended up doing a lot of their social media stuff and their internal stuff. And just from their other triad, people were like, Hey, do you have a job? I’m like, No, I’m gonna do some freelancing for a while. I’m like, Cool. Can you do this website for me? Cool, or, Hey, I’ve got a buddy that needs a logo. Can you do that? I’m like, I’ll do that. And so it just turned into word of mouth and I had enough business that was coming in that was paying the bills.  And my husband just get your LLC already. Just do it. I’m like, All right. So on October 2020s, when I got my LLC, okay, no idea what I was doing. I did it wrong. I found out so if you need someone find someone to help you do an LLC. There is a wrong way to do it. And then December I hit publish on my website and hired a business coach because I know how to help people with their marketing stuff and their branding but trying to do it yourself is completely different.

Was it hard to narrow down your brand and like your target audience?

Gosh because I’ve had, this extensive experience I used to work with the powersports dealership is building out the bikes, babes and barbecue postcards and bikini bike wash stuff for Harley. And then I worked with an encore and 1000 trails for their seasonal campaigns. And then I did stuff with PwC. And I’m like, so I have this I can work with a lot of different people. But who do I want to work with? Nothing gets my trades. I love them.

But just like I said, I really like the more artistic businesses then they have a very artistic background. Painting clay jewelry, I’ve done everything with glasswork. And because I have that such artistic background, I want to work with more artists trying to start their own businesses.  And I know the power of branding will get them to see one of my clients Joellen she was DIY in her stuff, during COVID Does COVID business and she does soaps. And she was like, I just, I need help I need to get out of this. My branding is great, but I know it’d be better. So we rebranded her and had her so prolapsed on her stickers for all of her scrubs. Sure, now she’s selling stuff over in England and Canada. She’s in several boutiques and everything here. And so I tell people like DIY is fantastic. It gets you starting a lot of people that are in their queue, wishing they can start their own business.

But it comes to times when you’re stuck, and you no longer see the growth. And if you’re a product-based business, I said go to the stores, where do you see your stuff? Is it at Target, then bring your candle to Target, and put it on the shelf? And can it compete with everybody else at a higher level than everybody else? Good idea. If you can’t compete, then you need to fix it.  Because we used to do store walks when I worked at Triad. So we would go see what other people are doing. Like, what is the next campaign? Who’s advertising? Who’s on the end caps? What can we do for our clients to get them on the end cap? What can we depending on what shelf level you are, is a different premium price. So like it cost the most expensive for that product to be at eyesight. So we wanted to see who’s on eyesight, what are they doing? And so we would do that for our sellers. And like this is what’s going on right now. Walmart, this is what’s going wrong right now at Sam’s Club.

So did you. So you learned a lot from your corporate background and like the job you had, and I’m sure that’s helped you tremendously, like starting your business. And just like working with the people, right?

Oh, definitely. I definitely have a process that I have developed. And I noticed when people stick with that process that it it goes a lot easier. Because when PwC was rebranding the company worked for the time we were right into it. So I saw what they were doing when babies are us updated their purple to a brighter purple like we got the style guides working with eBay when they did the refresh we got their ginormous style guide. So I had to read it to make sure the stuff that we were designing,, met their standards.

When I worked with the powersports dealerships we had to make sure that all of our postcards were coopted proving like a party was gonna give you money to do that. You know barbecue chili cook we have to make sure that the postcard met their standards. So I had again read the style guides to make sure that we’re doing great Honda and BMW are some of the worst ones to work with. Because Honda was like Oh, Lenny’s be like 30% about us and 40% about the offers and 50% about the event I’m like that doesn’t add up to 100 like designed for that. And then like BMW had their specific fonts and their tags that are on every single advertisement and they have a strict clear space one of my postcards got rejected because too close to the edge clear fear that a clear space would be cut off when the postcard was produced. But we would do 10,000 postcards for each dealership crazy. We have multiple dealerships that would buy into that program, so I had to make sure that everything was right to get you to know Harley to approve and stuff. So I got very good at looking at style guides. So when babies are asked to refresh their logo, we would do marketing campaigns. We do a logo parade now like that’s not the right baby for our logo and how can you tell that it’s brighter purple? How can you not see that?

You’re just so familiar with everything at that point. You’re so ingrained and…

I made an important point to reach out to our lawyers to get what is it like what are these contracts state so we are working with Staples and Office Depot Office Max at that point, they’re competing businesses. Oh, wow So I needed to know what in our contract were we allowed to do and not allowed to do. They were never allowed to be next to each other. So when we had a circle rotating banner at the shopper marketing Expo, I had to make sure that logos were on the opposite side. They can never be seen together at any point when that thing spun around. Oh, wow.  So because we would get in trouble. It’s against our contracts? Sure.

Sure. So let’s go back to your business. And one of the reasons you started your business was to spend time with your family and, to just have more flexibility in your schedule, right? One of the I think that’s like one of the difficult things about like, owning your own business, is that that work-life balance, like when do you? When do you shut off, especially when you can work from home? Right? It’s like, we’re like, where’s your workspace? Like? How do you define all that? So what I want to ask you like, how do you define work-life balance? And then too? How do you make it? How do you? How does it work for you? And your scenario?

So we all hear work-life balance. It’s all over. LinkedIn is all over Instagram’s work-life balance. But truly, there really is not a work-life balance. It’s just whatever works for you. Not what society says it is. And for me nine to five weekends off, right?

For me, I knew that I wanted to be a mom as well. I didn’t get to do that with my older one. So I left at 430 in the morning and got to the gym because I was on this whole health kick. But I had to be in St. Pete by seven o’clock, I lived over a New Port Richey. And so I knew I had to leave. So there was no relief. Even if I skipped the gym, I still would not be home early enough to wake up my kids and make breakfast and get them to school. So I knew right off the bat that I want some days where I can wake them up and have breakfast with them.

Because I was something I never got to do, except for on the weekends, but get them off to school. And then I knew like, I want to pick them up from school. So I’m like I’m walking with them. And they can run up to me, I knew I want to do that. And in the beginning, it was really hard. Because I was brand new, getting out there like who is this girl? Christina? Like, do you do more than logos? I’m like, yeah, and so people are like logos and stuff for describing me she does logos and stuff. But I was different. I believe that data insights is really important and part of the branding process. So I had the client questionnaire, I do the mood boards.  And so there’s a lot of education that I had to do with people. Because I was not that $50 100 law or Fiverr designer, create my logo, right?

Tell me what you like. And I’ll do a find something on Pinterest, and I’ll copy it., Here are my templates, which one do you want me to employ? Right?

And so, right off the bat, I had to know like, what was my why? My why every day is what drives me, my wife, my kids, and my husband, my family. Because I could have easily lost all of that during COVID. Not COVID Sorry, and corporate in COVID, too. But in the beginning, I said a lot of yeses when I should have said a lot of noses. I took on a lot of projects. And I was working until like after my kids went to bed. I was continuing to work until one o’clock in the morning.

Because I said a lot of yeses. So no problem. I’ll get back to you all. Unlimited revisions. Cool. I’m not taking deposits for future dates. And so people were like, oh, change a plan. Like cool. I got two weeks of no work.  Who wants a business card?  So after year one, I had to really evaluate and like, Okay, this schedule is not working for me. And like I’m still missing things. I’m working when it should be dinnertime,  I’m home and I’m locked in our bedroom working. So actually, I have two phones. Now. Two, I have my personal phone on my work phone. Okay. So at three o’clock, that phone gets turned off. If you’d like oh, man, your phone gets turned off my work phone gets turned off. And I’ve had a few people like, Wow, you’re really hard to get ahold of. I’m like, when are you trying to get all at five o’clock in the evening like, Well, it’s because my phone is off. I am. Mom. I told him that I am mom mode in the evening.

And when I get invited to evening events, like has to be like really good evening events for me to give up. Dinner.  But I know Mondays are for scouts. So I’m like Sorry, I’m not doing anything. Its scouts are on Monday, and dances on Tuesday. Churches on Wednesday, and like maybe Thursday night events only, but again, it has to be like really meaningful, important for me to go to, um, and then Fridays, I don’t work anymore on Fridays. I take my daughter to gymnastics or I take her to the library because I didn’t get to do that with my boys.  So it takes a lot for me to do stuff on a Friday. And I have to see that there is  like is meaningful For my time, because I’m trading it for my daughter, I was at a Wood Badge training for scouts, it’s two weekends. And it’s a leadership training to be a better leader and to create a better program for Cub Scouts, and for troop two, and so on said there’s gonna be, there’s gonna be one day, that will be your last day, then you can pick up your child. I’m like, Oh, my God, my mom can’t pick me up anymore. Obviously, I don’t remember when that last day was. And so after that, I went home and picked up my eight-year-old like to just still pick you up. But there’s gonna be a day that you won’t even realize that you can no longer pick your kids up right now. They’re no longer I want you to tuck you in bed and read you a bedtime story or sing a song. Luckily, my eight-year-old still lets me do that. And my husband, I scream out the window. I love you when we’re dropping them off at school. So does that mean that I lose some projects because people are like I needed over the weekend? And like, I will never work over the week. That’s my choice. If I decide that I want to work over the weekend because I want to get stuff to hurry up and do. If I work and work in the evening. That’s my choice that I can make, that people cannot put that timeline on me like I make my schedule.And is it limiting? I only work for maybe five hours a day. Can I grow my business bigger and faster? Probably. But I know my why is more important than me growing an agency.

Which I think is. I mean, obviously, that’s, that’s important, right? Like, if you could, if you could have that defined and to be able to limit your schedule like that and figure out what’s important to you from day one? I think that’s huge. Yeah, you know, and then people, like, if they really want to work going back to like, your ideal client, right? Like, you’re gonna find your ideal client, you’re gonna find the people that really want to work with you. Right? And they’re gonna work within your schedule, they’re gonna be fine with whatever your schedule is. Yep. It’s it’s important that, that you’re the one that you design, their brand and logo and stuff.

And it goes back to communicating your core values. One of them was family. It’s very important to me. A lot of people decide to start their business, their kids are already grown up, were in their 20s, or they’re in high school, and then they decided to do their business.

Or I’m doing it when my kids are still little. So I want to have that flexibility still. But it goes back to how you plan on setting up your business. What is your why is not going to cut someone’s grass to make their day better like, what gets you up out of bed to go cut someone’s grass? What gets me out of bed, to do design work, is my kids and creating that business model to allow me to call up. I’m a board member for one of the local networking groups, and during spring break my son’s like, can you stay home?

I’m like, absolutely. And so I text him, like, I’m not coming to a board meeting, I’m going to the Rec Center with my kids, and we’re gonna do Scout stuff. But then the following Monday, I was like, I gotta go do my work stuff my kids see me working to, I bring them along, and one of my clients is chocolates by Michelle, I bring them to her shop, and they love it, they don’t see it as work.  I’ll take photos of like, their little hands, grabbing the chocolate, for social media and stuff. And so I try to bring my family and when I can to make it fun. If we’re going to the farmers market, so I can see my clients and stuff, bring them along, and it’s fun. So I’ve found ways to integrate my family into my business too. But not like, man, not another work, meaning my dad was in salesman, those were boring when he would bring us along for work. And we’re sitting there quietly, not allowed to do anything, we get the I Have we started, like, teetering on somewhere. So that’s another thing like a family is really important. Like, that’s a fine way to involve your family in what seemed like it’s work, but you’re allowed to work and be with your family at the same time.

And like you said, it’s just fun and you’re getting to do you know, everything that you enjoy, you’re getting to work, work on your business, and then be with your family at the same time. Exactly. Pretty cool. So I’d like to wrap up with one question, and I’m curious to hear your answer. But when you’re not working, what’s it maybe besides your family, I’m gonna challenge you to do something besides your family. What is one thing that you enjoy doing? Oh, man, like if you had like, one day to do whatever Christina wanted to do, what are you doing?

What am I doing? It’s probably the beach. Okay, cool.

What beach Do you like going to?

I really liked going to Indian rocks beach. Because it’s not crazy like Clearwater it’s not right into St. Pete yet. We actually park or my family goes or like if I go by myself, the dog park was free parking and then we walk over. But I just really really enjoy the beach. It was one of those memories growing up where my parents weren’t fighting. We were in Florida for spring break and We go to the beach,, and it’s just it’s so calming and you just hear the waves, and the air just like opens up your sinuses. You’re like, everything is right.

Someone posted about that like, like getting to the beach and hearing the wave, like the sound of the waves just like everything just goes away, right? It just does everything and it’s so true. It’s like the moment you see the ocean. It’s just like a different experience. It is

The beach and then going through like nature trails, and then with nature really, which is probably why I’m really big into Cub Scouts. I like finding different nature parks. Okay, and walking around those. Just listening to the sounds and being quiet. So you can see the other critters that are coming around. Like I saw a family of armadillos one time or like the woodpeckers and stuff. You hear them but sometimes you don’t always see them so you’re walking through these nature parks really quietly you can see them, and there are great ones all over the place during COVID We found a ton of them because we like to get out of the house.Two boys are quickly becoming nudists. Get out out, do something. And so we went to just a bunch of different parks.

And there’s a ton of them in our area to like you said like there’s there are some great spots where you can like really feel like you’re like even in Pinellas County where it’s busy and there’s a lot of development stuff, but like, can really feel like your

Moccasin Lake Park is over here. Like right in this area and has a really cool Park.

Oh, yeah, that’s just is that like that the one that’s off enterprise? Yes.

They have birds and stuff that you can go and see. And sometimes they bring the bird ambassadors out you can’t touch them. This is really cool to get up and close with like American culture where you usually see them like, sign up err on the side of the road, but like, they’re actually gorgeous birds. My dad had not a pet but was kind of a pet vulture at one time. That’s just like feeding them.

the mom, I guess she would go into one of his old horse barns in LaGrange, Georgia. So his property was like really old. He had a carriage barn and a horse barn and then had like, the original chimney from the house that was still left. We just see this buzzer going in and out. And now we’re like, okay, whatever. And then one night we heard the coyotes and they are loud. And we’re like, oh my god, they’re getting into something. And we thought we’re gonna see like a massacre or like a digger or somebody’s backyard.

And then we saw the horse barn was just like a mess. So we’re cleaning up and when the floorboards were broken, he saw a baby buzzard underneath it, they must have like hatched and the coyotes got in there or something like that and destroy the NASS but one of the babies fell on the horse on the floorboards. So he kind of like raised it protected and stuff, and like he just hang out with the cats in the dog and we had Georgia wildlife call on him. Like we’re not caging him, do his own thing. He just likes to hang out, drink coffee, play with the cats. And then my dad got called again, they’re saying your buzzard crashed a wedding? He got into the wedding cake. Oh, no. A little church down the road. But so he unofficially had called him an Alabama parrot. Nice. So but Moccasin Lake Park is pretty cool. And I like the trails and the butterfly garden and turtles.

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Stroll through the laid-back streets of the Palm Harbor community with this informative podcast, proudly brought to you by Donnie Hathaway with The Hathaway Group, your trusted guide and local expert in navigating the diverse and ever-changing property landscape of Palm Harbor.

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