Podcast Description: In this lively episode, Sugar Gay Isber sits down with Elizabeth Nuebauer from Obstreperous Ostrich—a jewelry company with a name that’s hard to pronounce but impossible to forget!
We dive into the business side of handmade jewelry (crafted by her talented partner, Chris) and explore our shared passions, including learning Spanish, living in Mexico, and joining the Craft Industry Alliance. Elizabeth also shares her exciting plans to launch a YA writing contest—spoiler: I’ll be one of the judges! Tune in for laughs, inspiration, and a celebration of creativity and community.
Contact Elizabeth:
Website: https://oostrich.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Obstreperous-ostrich/100063565927607/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildostriches/
Hashtags: #JewelryPodcast #CreativeConnections #HandmadeJewelry #YAContest #WomenInBusiness #LearningSpanish #CraftIndustryAlliance #PodcastFun #CraftIndustryAlliance
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, good morning. This is Sugar Gay Isper and Jewelry as your side hustle. And today
(00:26):
I have a very special guest who we have some crossover on how we met, which we'll talk about.
So that's really fun. And she's the business part of jewelry making, which is such an important part
of a jewelry person's life because we got to sell this stuff. We can't eat it, right? So welcome
to our podcast today. We have Elizabeth Newboss. Nice hit, right? No, but I like that. It's
(00:51):
Newboss. Because yeah, I'm a boss. Newbauer. Yes. Newbauer. I just put that little boss in there.
And she has a she works with a jewelry maker and they've been teamed up for six years. And she
does all the business parts. She's got some fun things to talk to us about it. And it's the
(01:15):
Astiparis, Austridge or just austridge.com. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, so welcome. I'm so glad to meet you.
And we're also friends with Abby, who is the Craft Alliance Council head. I don't know if she's
amazing. Abby is amazing about her. Like she's got it going on like seriously, she's been doing
(01:39):
this for a long time, but she really brings a lot of us together. So you're a member there?
Right. I'm a craft. I'm a CIA person. I'm a CIA person. I would drop that group or anything. I
really love the roundtables. And that's usually where I met. I've always had a lot of people
from that group on my show. So let's get started. Now, let's just talk about you, because this is
(02:02):
really where the fun comes in. And I so tell me who your friend is that you work with. Tell me about
that and how y'all, I would love to have you in my life. Number one, I'm so proud that she
thought to mentor up with somebody who could, while she's doing her part, you're doing your part,
like what a gift you are to her. Like, oh my gosh. So it was really serendipitous. So we were both
(02:25):
working in this factory, this string factory, you know, like, making string, making string. Oh my
God, I want to hear about this. Making parachute cord, making the little string for your blinds
in your house, making cat collar, the stuff you make cat collars. I mean, it's a really,
(02:45):
it's really, it was really interesting. So I started that just to get a little personal. I moved
back to my hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado, about 20 years ago to take care of my parents. So
I was just looking for a job. I didn't want a career, I just wanted a job. And working in a
factory was so amazing because I had no responsibility. I've always been this overachiever, hardworking
(03:07):
person. And I just loved going in and being like, you have 10 pounds of this that you need to make
into this and you have eight hours to do it, have fun. And then was it? I had a whole time,
missing lunch, no working through breaks, none of that. So that was really good. So that's where I
became acquainted with Cindy. She was in the packing department and I was, oh, I worked in
(03:30):
pretty much every department there. I can't remember where I was at the time. So flash forward
about 15 years, 14 years. I'm not, I'm working there in the Bob and winding department, which is
where you put the string on Bob and so it can be braided into other things. And she has been doing
(03:53):
this poor painting for which it is my fault. It is all my fault. She started to become an artist.
I have a degree in art history and I would take Cindy to art exhibitions, local art exhibitions.
We would go up to Aspen to the museum there because it's really great. We would just go to all these
(04:14):
little offbeat things. And one day I was in Michaels of all places and they had paints and
canvases for sale for like just super cheap. It was like eight bucks and you get the paint,
you get the, you get the acrylic paint, you get the canvas, you get the brush. So I gave it to her
and I said, have at it. And a year later, here we are in business. So she got interested in pouring
(04:41):
paint and one of the outshoots of that is to make jewelry out of it. So she brought her jewelry into
work and started showing it to people. She's like, this is what I do. And the first person she showed
it to was like, well, how much? And Cindy was like, sell it. What do you mean sell it? What? So that
day she sold like, I don't know, over 20 pieces. And this is in a factory where people don't have a
(05:06):
lot of money. They're not super arty. They're not really, you know, it's like, they're, they had to
really love it. Right. Whatever she was doing was really resonating with the people there.
So I'm like, you know, I'm kind of looking for a side hustle. I'm looking for a project. I'm kind of
bored. So I was walking to her office as she was walking to my office and we meet in the warehouse.
(05:30):
And I'm like, I could sell these for you. And she's like, would you sell these for me? So we kind of
had a little synchronicity from the start on that. So one thing I want all of you out there to know,
if you are a maker, you do not have to be a seller. It is a very rare artist who can do both.
And don't feel bad if you can't sell your stuff. Find somebody, find an Elizabeth, find somebody
(05:57):
who's like outgoing and loves your work and wants to take it to the world. You have those allies in
your life. Don't think you're all alone. Don't think you have to do it all by yourself.
I think that is the best, biggest message. Bam, we're starting off this new year to say,
partner up with somebody. Like it's, it's actually the smartest thing ever. Like I'm so proud of you.
(06:20):
And now I'm now seriously. So now flash forward, you guys have been doing this for six years.
How are things going? Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm not lying. I'm giving you, as a friend of mine says,
the big T truth, I'm giving you the big T truth about how are you this last 2024 was a dumpster
fire. No doubt about it. And it's because of the type of people we sell to, it took me,
(06:44):
it took me a long time to figure out who our people were because it was so random. So we're
selling in Arizona, I'm selling to a conservative Republican politician and grand junction, I'm
selling to a little trans kid who's trying to figure out her identity. And so like how like those are
very different. Huge. Yeah. And you know, kind of everybody in between. Old people, young people,
(07:09):
babies would grab at our stuff. I'm sure you've had that experience because your stuff is so
visual and color. People gravitate towards the colors that they like. Right. And so
I figured out who our people are, are people who are very confident in themselves, and they don't
care if they're not normal, they don't care if they're mainstream, they're very secure and who
(07:31):
they are and what they like. So they're going to look for something that is as unique as they are.
The other demographic of people that we seem to attract are people who are who have made that
commitment to be themselves. This is another like we're doing this at a good time. I didn't think
about New Year's, but it's people who are committing to I have this secret person inside who I really
(07:52):
want to be. And I want to honor her and or him and become this person. And a lot of times I don't
want to say, you know, our stupid little jewelry has made someone come out or but you know, we've
had a number of people who are like, I'm going to buy a necklace, even though it's like a girly
thing. And then the next time I see them there in a beautiful dress and they're flying,
(08:16):
they're flancing around down and it's just like it's amazing. So those are our people. We're not
the mainstream people. And I think that like, yeah, these are the people who are more sensitive,
they're more skittish. When things get going, you know, I'm not going to get into anything
political, but it's been a very odd year. I think I agree. And our people are just kind of staying
(08:40):
at home, waiting to see what's happening. And kind of like, we don't know, you know, so
anchored down. Yeah, I think that is why we did so bad last year in 2024.
And I'm very surprised. I felt the same thing. I really felt like, well, until this election is over,
and then things are going to get better. And it's like, okay, but things didn't get better because
(09:03):
we had this big upset. And so now everybody is still in that same mode. Like we kind of now
we're kind of not waiting for like, okay, gear up for a Valentine's because we know people have to
do Valentine's like that just has to happen. And then the spring will come and then maybe we'll
see that things aren't as horrible as we think they're going to be. But yeah, I totally get you.
(09:24):
Like, the world really affects sales. Right. It just does. Well, I got super lucky when I started
our business. Well, yes and no, we started in April 2019. And April 1st, really great
time to start a business. If you're like, really serious about business, like we are, we are so
(09:50):
serious. Okay, April fools were like, okay, free make out, whatever is gonna be fun.
So that was the 2024 hit or 2020 hit and COVID everybody was getting home. Yeah.
And what we learned from that was when people are at home, everybody's going to open an online
business. So that was hard for us. We got we really got lost with that. Yeah. But the next year,
(10:17):
things were opening up. So I did our local farmers market because it was $20 and I had a
cardboard table with a sheet I bought at Goodwill. And that was my booth. So you don't need to start
with tons of money. You don't have to have like $100 custom made canopy for your $200
and you know, you don't need the bad. Yeah, we had hardly anything. That was it.
(10:43):
And we did so good. But it's because people were happy. I didn't realize this at the time.
I'm glad it happened the way it happened. But people had stimulus money and they were happy
to see people and they were feeling really good. And they were like, Oh, I want this. And it wasn't
even a question about isn't an indulgence. Should I spend money? It was just like, I like it. I'm
speaking to me. I want you know, so that was really good because we could have choked in that first
(11:08):
year. I don't know how many of you watching this know the statistic, but the statistic my business
incubator pervade to me when I was in the beginning business class nine out of 10 business, businesses
don't make it through the first year. Right. So that was really encouraging to us. And that people
(11:29):
are looking at it and they want it. And you know, it's like, I was such a green newbie girl. I didn't
as long as we had more money coming in than going out, I didn't care. He's like, Whoa, we sold
stuff. We made 20 bucks. But I was not counting my time. I was not counting. I was just like
happy that we're moving forward. Just kind of like the girl walking into the forest, not seeing
(11:52):
the bear, not seeing the rose, sorens just going like, Oh, my gosh, this is so great. We're in the
forest. It's beautiful. You know, it's like, Oh, we're making money at our business. Oh, my gosh.
So the next year, I got a little more serious about it. I made a spreadsheet. I put taxes. I put,
you know, vendor like fees. I'm on Shopify. So they charge a fee if you do stuff with their
(12:15):
credit card machine. I put in gas. I put in if I had to have somebody sit at the booth
which is important. And I mean, as a business owner, I don't have to pay myself. And I really
haven't gotten a paycheck yet. But yeah, but I wanted it to, I wanted to know, I wanted to know
how much money was this going to be? And what did we really want to make? We don't want to be
(12:38):
the next big huge thing. We just want to make a certain amount of money a year so we can have
some mad money so I can travel the Cindy, whatever art making supplies you want. So that's what we
want. So that's a lot different from somebody who's like, I'm going to be the next Tiffany's,
you know, it's a totally different thing. So it was really great. We had a lot of conversations
(13:04):
before we actually founded the business. We talked about what we wanted it to be like, we talked about
even, you know, we from the beginning, we're like, we're not going to be serious about this. This
is just a side hustle. This is a whatever. We're not going to be like really businessy. But it did
(13:25):
take us a couple of years to figure out how to do business on our terms because none of us were,
neither of us were business people. Right. And there's a huge, there's another thing, this is
another like if you can highlight, highlight, highlight, there's a huge business out there to
take advantage of people starting businesses. Oh my God, yes. Every time we turn around,
(13:45):
like you have to just filter it all out. Right. Everybody wants a piece of something. Everybody
right. All these, oh, it's just a free thing. And then you click on this and I'll take you to this
and then sign up. And then all of a sudden you're getting emails and didn't you want to do this?
Like, yeah, $5,000. No, right. And it's like, everybody's got their dream. Oh my gosh. And so
(14:08):
I'm here to tell you, do it on your own terms. Do it your way. Not to say that there aren't people
out there that have good advice. And you did have an incubator with you. I don't want to get too much
into it. That beginning class was amazing. But other than that, I didn't get a lot of support from
them, which is, it is what it is. I know, I know. But you know, at the end of the day, we're still
(14:33):
here. And it took me two years to really figure out how to filter out what I thought I was supposed
to do and what I really needed to do. Like, this is a big one. The first advice I got was, oh,
you have to be a brand and an influencer and you have done it. And then so for a year, a year,
I posted pictures of Odette, who was our spokes hostage. And it took me a year to figure out people
(14:56):
don't give a crap about Odette, the people that I want to give a crap about jewelry. So maybe I
should be posting jewelry every day. Then we started getting people signing up and following
and that kind of thing. So it's just kind of like, that is a real big one for me. That was like the
big thing. Yeah. In terms of what people are telling me what to do. I am very lucky because I worked
(15:21):
as a photography assistant for a guy who did, it was boring stuff. It was paint cans. It was for
Unitedson. So it was just, you know, white backdrop, take a picture. And it was just
when digital was starting. So I had experience with Photoshop. I had experience with photography.
(15:47):
So that made it a lot easier for me. Not everyone has those skills.
Yeah, I agree. You gotta be more photographer after stuff, gotta.
Right. Pictures are important, especially if you're going to be doing stuff online.
So I was really lucky that way. I have a fairly quirky sense of humor. I worked at a branding
company for a few years. So it's like, I have these skills that. Yes. Yes. Yes. And you believed in
(16:12):
your friend because you saw how people reacted. Like your peers, how they reacted to it. So you
knew you had a good product. Right. It required that like just learning, well, COVID right in the
middle of everything. Yeah. That's how we always had the election. But that's over. So we are
constantly like reinventing ourselves and moving forward and growing. And that's how we get better.
(16:37):
Right. It's looking around, looking at other people's Instagrams, learning from those Instagrams.
A lot of it has been. We're talking creators, really. Yeah. I do a lot of that. I do a lot of that.
I'm not real good at Instagram or Facebook yet. Same as we're still at like 70 people. I don't
know how to get 70,000. I don't know if we want 70,000. 7,000 might be okay. So it's kind of,
(17:02):
that's one of those things too. It's like, some people want 70,000. I'd be happy with 7. I don't
think we can handle 70. But you never know until you get there. Right. I'm not ruling it out. But
that's it. I always just look forward. It's just like whatever it is forward. It's like,
so when people, so now we're all selling because I'm so curious on this. I mean, I,
(17:25):
I would love to have a partner. You're exactly what somebody needs. Like I'm so proud of you.
Well, I want you to be making money. So I appreciate that. I, you deserve that. So let's
hope that that's your, this is the year of wealth. That's for me. This is what I'm calling it. The
year of wealth. We're all trying to figure it all out by now. We've kind of figured it out.
(17:46):
Now it's all about really like, market, getting that product to people and making them happy and
all that that is required. Like it's so much, but we are content creators. Like at the end of the day.
Right. That's what we become. Unless you're just going out and just doing the markets. And then
you've got this whole audience of people there that can sign up to be on your Instagram with QR
(18:10):
codes and all that kind of stuff. So have you kind of gotten into the QR codes and we've got a QR
I'm a dork. I have a big round magnet on the, on both sides of my car is a stripper's ostrich.
Oh, it has a bit of a circle in the middle. And it has our logo. It has our ostrich running on it.
(18:32):
So what does that point to your website? It goes to the homepage. Yeah. So I've done that.
I have because
so getting a QR code that's like four by five, which is what I needed for the magnets,
I had to buy like 50 of them. So I've been slapping it on our banner. I've got it on the
(18:56):
canopy of the tent. I'm trying to figure out, I wonder if I just slap it up somewhere with it,
just a QR code if people would scan it just out of curiosity. Yeah, girl marketing something.
And I've got these, I've got these, you know, like 40 QR codes I need to get rid of maybe in my
travels throughout my life, you know, I'm out of place where there are a bunch of stickers. I'll
(19:16):
just put one up and see what happens in a bathroom stall. I'll just count the bathroom
stall because you're sitting there and you got your phone and you're like, I'm saying I follow
some people on this right here. Some wonderful things on Instagram. Like I do not poopoo anything
that is on there. I see so much the content is so rich, but definitely the people that are about
(19:40):
guerrilla marketing and you know, just really interesting things that they do. I just, it just
gets me so excited and the kind of people are just really thinking out of the box like you
thinking, well, let's get these stickers and let's put them everywhere. So now your next sticker and
your next order maybe should be for your Instagram. And then they'll go to that's how you grow your
(20:03):
Instagram. So you're getting your business out there and your website out there, but
maybe this works. It's for our homepage. So maybe the next iteration would be doing Instagram,
but what's been most encouraging to me, and this is advice I've been getting from a lot of people
and it's been helpful, has been to grow our email group. So I would like, I don't know,
(20:26):
not even 30 people in our email sign up. And I did try in years past, it's like
Cindy makes these really great like tiny mag, she makes magnets and they cost like 50 cents to make.
They're super cheap. And so I would have a thing of magnets out, sign up for the email, get a free
magnet and no one would sign up. But for whatever reason, this year, this year, I got over people
(20:53):
signing up. And maybe four or five have unsubscribed. And I do an email every week.
Yes, I'm going to really nurture that group and keep them in there. And one of the things, I mean,
do your email group. You can add my name to it. Like for sure. Well, if you would, if you would go
(21:17):
to the website, and sign up on the sign up thing, just so I know it's working well. Okay, I will.
That would be awesome. And you can be the same for me. I would love it. I would love it. I can't
believe I haven't done it already because I go to your website a lot. You're a big inspiration.
It's true. And you know, another thing is I have, so I have, this is one thing I have,
(21:40):
sugar gay is bar, which was kind of late incoming. That's a whole different story. And that I have
pointed directly to my Shopify store. So and then the other one is gay is burn. That's more like
my that juicy kind of all that personal stuff. Okay. So the two, you know, it makes it makes it
where okay, you want to be a shopper, go to the Shopify. And it's very easy to point those things
(22:07):
to different, you know, that right, point it to something. Yeah. So yeah, it's all
like, it's all fun and games until you realize this is all hard work.
Well, that's the big thing. That is the big thing that when we first started, now I can't remember
the name of the author or the name of the book. But it was, it had to do with teens being it was
(22:34):
like a guide to be a teen influencer. So if you're a teen or a tweening, you want it to be an influencer.
This is what you do. Every chapter was a, this is what you do. Okay, one chapter was this is how
you post. And another chapter was this is what you post. But at the end of every chapter was a
little synopsis of someone who was an expert in that thing. So like, we're an expert at Instagram.
(23:02):
So for my success on Instagram, and it was somebody who's huge, I mean, it wasn't like some
little person was, you know, like the Kardashians or someone, and every single person in that book,
and there must have been, I don't know, eight or nine chapters to it. Every single one said,
you have to do the work. It seems like you can just have an XE store and people will come or put
(23:25):
it on Instagram and people will buy it. But to get to that, you are correct. It's a lot of work.
Yeah, my husband, of course, I've been doing this for a really long time. My husband's an engineer
and has zero interest in entrepreneurial things. And if I asked him to like do anything, he would
physically vomit. He'd be like, I cannot do that. Because he sees me, I think about it,
(23:54):
working on it all the time, all the time, just like, you know, because you have to. And it's fun
and it's what I love and I branch off into other things. And now I'm a little, you know, enterprise,
but it's all me. There's nobody behind me. And it is my word and I need to kind of stop this word
because maybe it's like bad, I don't know, the word is slog. It's a slog. I don't know if that's
(24:21):
like a very good word or not. Like, I think it's perfect. Because it's like behind the scene stuff,
behind the scene stuff, it is a slog. It's not glamorous. Unless you're really into administration
work, it's not fun, you know, dealing with taxes, holy crap, taxes in Colorado are insane. Because
(24:43):
every town has it has homeroom, which means you can't just send all your money to the state and
then dole it out. Right. So that's horrible. Yeah, it's really hard. So I don't get into that.
Because that is a slog. That is, I agree. It's like SEO is a slog. Like, oh my God,
(25:04):
you're trying to learn Facebook ads and, you know, Amazon ads and Google ads. That's a slog. Like,
those are really like, it's almost as I, okay, I remember when I first started, there was none of
this. And back before COVID, I was actually teaching social media at the college level.
(25:24):
And then that COVID break kind of happened and then it exploded. All the different things that
they were making us do. And now all we're doing is creating free content for these giant companies
to promote themselves because that's what it's become. So I get it. Like, it's not like anything
(25:44):
I can even, I don't feel comfortable even teaching it anymore because the layers of how you can go
are so deep that, I mean, it really is a college degree now. Like, I know you can get an influencing
degree on social media like crazy. It is crazy. And it's like, you know, I'm always like, gosh,
(26:07):
I wish I had like a 12 year old niece who could just do this for me, you know, because
yeah, it's just hard. There are so many segments of the population that you can get in touch with
and everybody has their own way of doing it. And I am so out of touch with anybody from like
six to 26. Right. Yeah. And it's like, and there that's like three demographics and just in
(26:31):
those years. I love it how you're thinking about that though, about them. Yeah. Because they are
kind of a really good market for you. But I don't even know how, I mean, do they go to
farmers markets? Like, I don't know where you would go to reach those people. Right. Well,
this is what we're trying. We're going to try this thing. So one of our most successful event
(26:55):
is our local Comic Con. Yeah, no, it is. It's normal Comic Con. Yeah. Comic Con is where the
people who have been ostracized, the people who don't fit in, the people who may be on the
autism scale, like these are our people. And they show up there and they like, it is so it's like,
(27:19):
we love doing it. We love seeing the costumes. We love seeing the originality. We love seeing
people be themselves. It's been really great. And so as a thank you to this segment of the
population, and to celebrate our six, because I forgot, we were in business already for five years,
to celebrate our sixth anniversary, we're doing a short story writing contest. And it's called
(27:45):
Flash Forward Fables and it's science fiction. And it's a mashup of flash fiction, which is
very quick, very short fiction, flash forward fiction, which is something here, I moved to
Grand Junction, take care of my parents, flash forward 20 years, I now own a jewelry store. So
it's that kind of. I have never heard this before. And then we're going to do. And I've gotten some,
(28:12):
I hadn't realized that heavy hitters, the little Grand Junction Colorado has in the
science fiction world. We have James Van Pelt, who is an amazing, amazing writer who coincidentally
happened to be my swing coach when I was in high school. Oh, love it. Love that.
Hendrix is a well renowned science fiction critic. She liked write book reviews. That was her career.
(28:38):
Yeah. Oh, wow. Our local library is astounding. And they have a really great librarian, teen
librarian who's super on board with helping us out with this. So that is how, you know, not that
I mean, see how excited I am. I just want to do the contest. I think this contest is going to be
really cool. But one of the perks of doing it is we're opening it up for teens only. So you have
(29:01):
to be 13 to 18, 19, 13 to 19 to be in it. And so we're hoping we can maybe reach out to this community
that I can't think of any other way to reach. What a brilliant, brilliant marketing strategy.
Yeah. So it's going to be really fun. And, and what will you do with all this kind of, and I have to,
(29:23):
I have to put up parenthesis, I just published a Clify book. I saw that.
Because writing is my first genre. I mean, I have a degree in journalism. I've been, I'm a professional
writer for a big company right over there. You just can't see it from here. But it's within my home.
(29:44):
You don't have to answer this question. And if you don't want to do it, not going to hurt my
feelings, but we are looking for six judges, if you would like to judge. I would love to judge.
I was about to say like, what do you do with all that amazing content? Because that's a lot of
content. And then you, then you kind of have it. And like, now how do you like, get other people to
(30:07):
read it? Yeah, you get me to judge and I talk about it and do all that kind of stuff with you. Of
course I will help you. Right. Or I will do this. I, I love writing and I love seeing other people's
work. And I'm so encouraging of that age group. It's definitely who my audience was when I did
this. It's more of a young audience book that I wrote, no sex and really customer's inning.
(30:31):
But that was just because that was who I wanted my audience to be. So I get it. Like, good for you.
Yeah. Great. So the, it's kind of like, it's coming up because, you know, April 1st is our
sixth anniversary date. And I have no idea how many people are going to respond to this. We had
(30:51):
a lot of people doing our QR code at Comic Con this year. There's this really great writing
workshop in Utah called Life, the Universe and Everything, based after the famous, now I can't
remember his, now I can't remember the name of his book. But the meaning, the meaning of life is 42.
(31:13):
And if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. And if you don't,
so there are these conventions for people who write science fiction, which I didn't know.
And like fan fiction and like that kind of thing. So I'm hooking up with a couple of those people
to advertise it and to find people who want to write. And I'm hoping it'll be a little bit of
(31:37):
word of mouth through people, people sharing and sharing and sharing. And that is what I'm hoping.
I'm going to, I want to do a visual party on April 1st for everybody because I'm hoping we'll get
people not just from Grand Junction, but from other places. I have my eye on another librarian
in Sioux Falls where we did a thing this year so that we can like branch out to other places.
(31:58):
You'll have Texas covered. So we love that. Okay, love it. I'm in charge of Texas.
No problem. No problem. You got it. You got it.
So that's, it's a hundred dollars first place, $50 second place. And then we're going to have four
runners up because it's six years. We have to have six prices. They'll all get one of our bookmarks,
(32:21):
which you know, is my job to whip it up. Our bookmarks are amazing.
That's all of my life.
I'm sure you can see them on the website.
Yeah, I can see them. Now, do they, when they give you their work, does it have a front cover,
or some kind of an image or anything like that?
No, it's just going to be words. So it's, because it's flash, because it's flash fiction.
(32:46):
Oh, I can't remember right off the bat. I think it's really short. It has to be like
2,000 words or less.
Okay.
And that's to make it easy on you guys. Plus, I love it. I love alliteration,
obviously, of stripper and sastry.
Flash, forward fables, like, yeah, but I do want to make it easy on all the judges. So they're not
going through like, you know, your Romano club and it's like 500 pages long. No, I want it to be
(33:10):
short and fun and yeah, interesting.
I think that would be very inspiring stories too.
Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. I'm really curious to see what happens. So I'm gearing up for that.
I've got the web page ready to put out there. I got it out there earlier, but then I wasn't sure
the timing was going to work out, but I'm going for it. I'm saying who cares about the timing?
(33:32):
Yeah, we're doing it.
And then what about that local high schools? Do you work with them?
Right. So Jim M. Pell also worked in the Grand Junction High School. I think he's out of Fruta,
which is the next count over. So I've got, he gave me a connection for that. He gave me a
connection for Mile High Con, which is our science fiction, Colorado science fiction writing convention
(33:54):
that they do every year. And I'm hoping I'll get more from that. There will be the people at the
LTUE thing in Utah. So, you know, getting on these people's email lists or Instagram pages or whatever
we'll just be getting the word out. A lot of people at Comic Con were like, Oh, I know somebody
here. This would be perfect for. And it did kind of, I kind of got one of those like, but you have
(34:18):
to stay true. Yeah. You know, it's like, well, I'm only 12. It's like, Oh, I know. Or like, I'm 20.
Yeah, I'm proud of you for holding firm on that. But that is the other carving point. Yeah.
But those people want to have their work seen too. And they're young. And so it's such a great
(34:39):
opportunity for somebody. Right. And it's low stakes. You know, not charging you. Yeah, that's
the way to do it. Don't charge anybody to get it. Yeah. Get them excited about writing. And, you
know, like, what a gift that you're giving some young person that like have their story read.
Like, well, up there. Because one of the things I really want to do, depending on how many entries
(35:02):
we get, is to just get it out for one day on the Instagram or get it out one day. I don't know,
maybe I have to go to a different platform on Twitter, but no, because that's too many. I think
it's a local media. I think you need to go to your local media. Oh, yeah. No, we've got that.
That's easy. Those people are easy. We don't have a lot. What I'm looking for is statewide media.
(35:26):
I'm like setting my sights a little higher. Yeah. Because that's where you should like.
Yeah. Yeah. So, and then do you say, because AI is a really big part of all this now,
do you tell them no AI? Yeah, no AI. It has to be an original work. We don't care if it's fan fiction.
We don't, we don't care if it's been like that. We want something preferably that hasn't been
(35:51):
published. An original work to you, like 2000 pages, I'm hope, or 2000 pages. 2000 words.
I hope anybody can do 2000 words. It's not a lot. It's like a page. Yeah. It's nothing. That's,
I mean, I think it's such a, since that's kind of my audience, I kind of
totally feel what you're doing. Like I'm so proud of you for really creating this whole experience
(36:16):
and then tying it somehow another all back to jewelry because, you know, first prize needs to
get a piece of jewelry, right? Like, what about that? I think everybody probably will get a bookmark
because there are men that will wear jewelry, but there are a lot. Right. And we didn't want boys
to feel excluded because it's a jewelry company. So bookmarks we got, maybe key chains too.
(36:39):
Cindy's key chains are great. Yeah. They're really cool. Yeah. So something that's
more gender neutral is kind of what we're counting for.
Oh, well, I'm very proud of you. You know, I have a, I have a son that's gay. I'm very much
of that's part of a community I've been with for my whole life. So I totally understand all that.
(37:01):
And, you know, I live through all that and I love all that. My name is gay. So, you know,
I'm all part of that. If you put in sugar, there's a lot of you put in gay, there's a lot. So that's
why it is one sugar gay. That's really smart. Yeah. I don't know about that, but it's just how it
actually happened because Facebook wouldn't let me use the name gay when I first signed up in
(37:26):
2007. They said it was not part of the community standard. So no. So then later they came back
and said, okay, well, you can use your name now if you want. Thank you. So then I have had to rebrand
myself. Now that was probably like 10 years ago, but where they came back and said I could use it.
But now it's just too many names. I have a lot of names. Yeah. It's just what it is. Sugar gay.
(37:53):
So what else? So besides this, so this is going to be April 1st. You're going to be doing, you know,
the whole thing and I'm excited to get to pair up with you. Elizabeth, that's what I said. We're
going to be friends. It's going to be great. Yeah. And then you're going to do something maybe for
Abby for, right? Okay. So you way back when in our conversation, you were asking more about
(38:17):
how we make our money because we're not making it online. So yes, what how I do,
what the only thing I know how to do because online is really hard to get people to your
website and to get people to buy. It's hard. I want to see it in their hand. Right. So, you know,
that first year at the local farmers market, I was like, I'm going to do more of these. So the next
(38:38):
year I started doing every farmer market I could find in our area. And then I started doing more
craft fairs and I just kind of have expanded. This was the first year where we went outside of
Colorado. I went to Arizona. I did the front range, which is still Colorado, but those mountains,
that Rocky Mountains kind of divides us into two different communities. Yeah. And I went to go visit
(38:59):
my friend in South Dakota. So it was really great to see how we did in other places. So that's how
I did it. There were a lot of things I wish I had known when I had started because here I am. Here
I got my card table. I got my sheet. I got my stuff. And that's what I got. I did. I didn't even have
a credit card reader. I did all my sales through my website, which I don't know how legal that was
(39:23):
because I don't know because one of my things and I'm not doing this, but I wish I could find a
tax person who could tell me because the taxes, I just want to tear my hair out. taxes, Arizona is
the worst for state taxes. It was just so difficult to deal with them. And I'm like, if I ran everything
through my website at these local events, but I have to pay state taxes, right? Yeah. Is that a way
(39:49):
of getting around it? And I can't get anybody who's going to go on the record and be like, yeah,
that's totally legal. Or no, don't do it. I don't have any problem paying the local taxes to the
local community. Like that's fair. And I wouldn't even mind paying the state taxes if it weren't such
a complete cluster. It's I've only had to do it in four states and all four states that I've done
(40:16):
in South Dakota was the best. If you have to pay taxes in South Dakota, those people are so nice
and so accommodating and so helpful. But taxes are a thing. So it's a hard thing. I know I did the
Tucson gym and mineral show last year. And and it was like, just talking to the tax people and just
(40:36):
getting it all down. They really couldn't give me an answer. I'm like, well, wait a second, like,
so at the end of the day, I really didn't sell that much to even make it work. Like, just go home.
Like, they had they made it so hard to get a sales tax license for the correct one. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
(40:56):
Yes. Because it's all those, you know, I'm just a little business and yeah. So they were not very,
they were not very accommodating. They didn't really know what to do with me. They're like,
okay, well, okay, well, that's what I'm going to do. Yeah. Yeah. So whatever. Yeah, it's hard. You
are such a good business person. Well, I'm proud of that because, you know, everybody has the same
(41:20):
issues we have to deal with taxes. So yeah, it's a big one. But to get back to your original question,
what I'm doing for Abby was, I've been working on it for the last month, things that I have learned
from my experience. I'm not going to say I'm an expert, you know, School of Hard Mox is where I went
and I have a very specific experience with local farmer markets and craft fairs and those kinds
(41:46):
of things and even more specific if you want to just keep it to Colorado because things are somewhat
the same in other places and somewhat different. Right. And so, Abby said, if I wanted to do this,
have at it. So what I am going to be doing is presenting like speaking of Elizabeth Newboss,
(42:06):
I love this. So it's be a booth boss is what I'm going to do. And I'm going over the pros and cons of
doing in person events. I'm doing the things you need to do for them. And then just maybe a few
(42:26):
stories about my experiences there. But I think the first two things are going to be enough. What's
really important for me because I am the business person is hopefully I can help people who aren't
so business savvy to not get taken advantage of not get this letter in the mail that says,
you owe a $12,000 tax bill because you haven't paid this bill for a year and it's compounded,
(42:50):
compounded, compounded. And it was like, this is not my, you know, it's like it was a,
it was something on their end that was the problem. But it's just like how to be proactive about
keeping your money correct, which is really important, how to be mindful of making money. So
a lot of times people are like me my first year, it's like, I sold stuff. But it was like,
(43:15):
I had to be sell enough to actually cover our costs. Right. And thank you, COVID. I mean,
I was supposed to say that, but thank you, COVID for having that year after COVID when everyone
was spending money and super happy gave me the capital to buy a custom made tent to get tables
(43:36):
of my own to get tablecloths. So I was able to take what we had made that year and put it into
the business for the next year. So we could be more professional and the more professional I was,
the more I learned about how to pick a good show, how to prepare for a show,
like how to spot not foolproof, many of these things are foolproof, but how to spot a nefarious
(43:57):
organizer because there are a lot of people out there wanting to fleece people, which is in Colorado,
I guess it's a huge thing. I haven't run into it yet, but I have heard from some of the Facebook
groups that I'm on that there are people who will take your money and then you show up to the
parking lot in the shopping mall and no one is there. Yeah. So there are things and that's what
(44:26):
I'm hoping to cover for the craft industry, no, yeah, craft industry alliance people. And again,
for those of you out there, I cannot recommend this group enough. I've got more real help,
not just like, Oh, I heard this or Oh, I want to sell you this, so sign up for my program and do
this. Her workshops are good. I love those craft nights. I've been missing you because
(44:53):
I've had to do the one at night and not the one in the afternoon because I've been doing stuff
during the day, right, either traveling to a show or coming back from a show for the last few months.
So but they're, they're great sources of real life experience, people who are not being sugar
coating and being like, Oh, yeah, I'm doing this year. You know, they're like, Wow, I did really
(45:15):
bad at this. And this is why, right? Just that's the important thing. It's how we learn really,
is that we're sharing our information. Right. Or like, this work, great, this you should do this,
it's none of this like, if I share my idea, my business is gonna go down the drain. So I'm not
gonna tell anybody it's more like, right, if I do good, you do good. If you do good, I do good.
(45:40):
We support each other, right, which I think is how it how it works. Yeah. Now, I don't know anything
about I know they're really big on the H and H, I guess Abby and then we're all kind of like tied
to that somehow. Well, I haven't been. I wanted to go this year, but it did like the timing.
I think it was like in May, and I was going to be here till August and I didn't want to.
(46:03):
And one personal thing about me is that I live most of my time in Mexico. I have a house 30
miles from Mexico City. Yeah. Really? And so I do a lot like it's great. It's I can afford to live
there. I love being there. I have a huge garden, which is a personal passion. I can do all my stuff
(46:23):
online I need to do down there. And then I come back to the United States for a few months to
do the in person things. So I'm hoping to gradually do less in person and more online. But
well, okay, you have to tell me like what city in Mexico City? What city?
San Vicente, and it's like what wait, what? I was in today's chocolate pond.
(46:48):
Well, it's 30 miles south of Mexico City. I just find this place like that is like such a hook to
me like tell me okay it's a 30 five on my Duolingo learning Spanish. So it's a passion with me.
Way to go. I do like six apps because I took classes and they were not I couldn't get the
(47:10):
Wi-Fi at my house. And so now I have a tutor and I do a Duolingo, jump speak, talk, pal, I do a
bunch of these different things because they'll come at Spanish from a different way. So that's
what I do. So I was taking care of my parents and my father finally passed. And I had ruined my career
because I moved to Grand Junction and my focus was taking care of my parents not having a career.
(47:34):
And it was like I could go anywhere in the world. Where do I want to go? And for two years I've
fretted. Well, probably more like 15 years. Where am I going to go? What am I going to do?
And a friend of mine said come down for a day of the dead in Mexico City.
He's like it's month long, come stay for a month, we'll have fun. It's you know, it's tons of stuff.
So he said I have this friend who has a house out in the country. Let's go there for a weekend.
(47:58):
So we went down there and I kid you not, I opened the gates up right there. They opened the gates.
There's this beautiful garden, this cute house, this little casita. And I felt like I was walking
home. I was like, wow, I feel so comfortable here. And it was a little ramshackle like nobody
had really been living in it for about 15 years. And I was just like, wow, this is amazing.
(48:18):
So when we were leaving, my friend says, you know, it's for sale. And it was like, this is it.
Mexico wasn't even on my list of places to think about. I was thinking like friends,
you know, some island somewhere, or maybe Sweden, or you know, this was not even.
But the moment I saw it was like, okay, this is my home. And that was, and it was it. That was it.
(48:43):
I love Mexico. Well, you're welcome to visit anytime.
I have some friends that live in Aji, south of Guadalajara. And my son used to work in Guadalajara.
He went there every week. And now he's not there. But so we went down to go visit him. And I was like,
(49:03):
of course, because Spain, like Spanish is in my heart. I used to live in Seville. But the short
of it is, is my husband's like, no, not me there. Because he doesn't speak a word in Spanish, not
even Ola. So but to me, you're living my dream. Oh, well, thank you. Like seriously, like, it's
such a great, like number one, the people are so warm and inviting. And I'm so in love, you know,
(49:30):
I'm a border person, I'm on taxes. So I'm with people all over. And since I was a little girl,
we had people come in from Mexico that work for on our ranch. So I've known about Mexico and the
people there for my whole life. And I love them. And I would live there tomorrow. Couldn't take me
(49:51):
away if I got there. Well, it was just a it was like a whim. And I am the only person from the
United States living in my town. I'm pretty much the only one that speaks English. So it's been
I've been working and working. And I continue to work and work on it. And it's really hard too,
(50:12):
because it's like, I just I love my little house, I don't want to leave it. And so I don't have the
opportunity to speak with people all the time. But I get by, as you say, people, I think about
how we treat people from Mexico. I know, don't even go there. I might be crying. And then I think
about how incredible, can I tell you a quick story? Yes, I wanted lunch. And so I followed my
(50:37):
nose, because that's what I do. I'm at the market, you know, I follow my nose. I'm like, Oh, my God,
just smells really great. There are a ton of people eating here. So you know, it's good.
I sat down, I was feeling really awkward, because I didn't like I didn't know how to eat the food.
It sounds stupid, but because they have these suits, and then they have tacos. And I and I'm
like, Oh, I'll get both soup, and then I'll get some tacos, because I'm American, we have soup,
(51:01):
and then we have our main meal. And I'm sitting next to this family, grandma, grandpa, you know,
the daughter and the grandson. And I'm eating my soup. And they're like, Don't you want to
talk on them? Like, I'm gonna have a taco after. And the mom and the daughter just exchanged this
look that was like, that pretty dip it or mother never taught her how to eat tacos with soup.
(51:24):
So all of a sudden, there's a taco in my hand, which was amazing, because it was
barbacoa. Yeah, my favorite. Yeah. And so then it was like, you dip it in the soup, you put it in
your mouth. And so I learned how to do this. No, not just one taco. I finished half my soup,
finished my taco. I'm like, thank you. And another taco right in my hand. Yeah, totally great. So
(51:51):
then we get to talking. And they're from a little farming town outside of where I live. And I had
been there because exploring, right? And they were amazed that I'd been to their town. It was just
this beautiful thing. And then when they left the table, everybody who was eating there said goodbye
to them. So it just was, it was this beautiful experience. And like the food is amazing. And
(52:16):
the people were super cool. And that is, that is the food that they that they're eating is not
all this process crap. Like here, like it's all just made right there. Somebody's sitting there
making, go and there might be a rooster walking around and then matter. Like, and the food is
not this process. We're not going through the line in our car to go grab a burger and fries.
(52:42):
There's not that like, it is my, I'm going to come live with you. Like, let's just do.
I have a desk house. It could be someone living in it. So please feel free anytime. And I'm not
just joking. If you would like to come down, I would love to have you. Seriously, like,
you don't even know that's my world. Like, my heart is in Spain still, that's Spanish is in
(53:05):
my heart. Nice. You know, I get it. Like, it's, I'm so proud. I'm so glad we got that out. Like,
look, I told you at the end of this, we were going to be friends. But look, I'm now going to be like
judging your competition. And I just wrote a book. Like, I'm too old for the competition,
but I get the genre. Get it. Right. Love it. Yeah. We both have CIA in common. Love that group. It's
(53:31):
been life affirming. And I love her newsletters. And I always go through and look at all those
guys. Anything relates me on this. What can I do to be part of this group? Like, so, yes. And Abby's,
let me write an article before for the harm. Like, so we're bonded on that. And then the Spanish came
in. Bam, like a thunderstorm. I can't. We're going to get to the Austin part because I spent my
(53:57):
terrible 20s in Austin. Yeah. And I still have a very good friend there. She does news caps, news boy
caps is her specialty. And I usually get down there once or twice a year. And I so wanted to hook up
with you the last time I was there. But it, I was only there for like two days, because my dog got
(54:17):
sick. It's a whole story. We're not going to get into it. But Austin's a cool place. Like, it's
cool place. Yeah. And we have a ranch about 70 miles from here that we go every weekend and we
work on the ranch. Your kids exercise and then, and I feed the vultures. I don't know if you
the Mexican Eagles. Now I got two of them. Like, we're just, we're in our little bubble there.
(54:43):
It's just like we've made a little bubble. When we first got there, there was no animals at all.
We couldn't even find a squirrel on this beautiful property with hundreds and hundreds of trees.
Where is everybody? Now we've called them in. Just call them in, you know, like it's the joy of
we have a flock of seven herd of seven deer and these vultures that come and they know me.
(55:07):
Like they'll come right up to the house like they're and they ate like a bag of
organic soil. It must have had like some good stinky stuff in it. They attacked those plastic
bags like like the birds in Alfred Hitchcock. It was crazy. So, you know, we're just, my husband and
I said there's always food that doesn't get eaten. So, you know, unfortunately that's how it is. But
(55:32):
at least I don't, yeah, it goes to some Mexican Eagles now are fighting over some old tamales I
had that's a neighbor made. I'm like, look at that. Like one of them walked over here. Aida's
tamale. One of them walked over there. Looks at that tamale. Walked back and got the other one.
It's like we're both eating tamales. They were Mexican Eagles. It's like, yeah.
(55:53):
So, they were so happy. I wish you were, I wish you did live closer. But you know,
because we have four more minutes and then our time is coming to an end. But number one,
I have learned a lot from you, you know. And I think that Cindy is very lucky to have you. Like
(56:14):
seriously, it's nice to have somebody that appreciates the arts like you obviously do.
You understand that handmade. I always tell people my jewelry is it's interesting jewelry for
interesting people. Yeah. You know, I kind of think that that's true. It's not just the little
dot necklace. Like how boring is that if I would have had to have made those, I would have been
bored by the second one and be like, okay, I'm done with this. Like, I did that in two seconds.
(56:38):
That's not going to help me. Give me something I can sink my teeth into. So, you know, I, and you
know, maybe it's something, even though it's a guy thing, you know, I'm rich in my supplies. I have
an entire room of supplies. I have another room of supplies. I have another room of just finished
jewelry. We could make a unisex necklace. Like I could do that for y'all. Like, you know, a lot of these are unisex.
(57:04):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely, definitely. But you know, it could have something even just like
that, you know, grand prize winner. So it could have something within that piece. And if you don't
know how to do it, I do. That we could put the words in there. Because you know, that's what I do.
That would be cool. I'm looking forward to this collaboration. I think it's going to be really
(57:24):
fun. I am too. So now, seeing you are all like, Oh, this is going to be great. We're not, we
seriously are friends forever now. I feel it. I feel it. I do too. It's like, Oh my God, you're
living my dream. And we have so much crossover. So it really has been a pleasure. Okay, let's talk
(57:44):
about how people can find you because that's the great way to end a show is let's recap all of your
links. So you give it to us. And then it's also going to be the bottom in the description will be
everything that you're talking about. You can find that. Of course, I want you to go to the website.
That's the first place I want all of you to go to. It's easy to remember. It's Oostrich.com.
(58:09):
Oh, it says 00. O and then ostrich, regular spelling ostrich.com. A lot of people are like,
what? Oostrich? It's like, I don't like that. But no Oostrich.com. 00. It's on Instagram.
I think we're under obstreperous ostrich. I think I'm making spell it out on Instagram,
(58:32):
but you can find all of this on the on the homepage. Okay. And oh, on Facebook, Facebook were
on Facebook, I think were obstreperous ostrich on Instagram or wild ostriches, because I did have
obstreperous ostrich, but I screwed it all up. And so, okay, that's been talking so much. My throat
(58:55):
is getting dry. I know, I know me too. That's because it's the end of the hour. We have one more
minute. And it has been a pleasure to be spending an hour with you. Oh my God, what a great time,
Elizabeth. I look forward to meeting Cindy down the road. I think that's something I'd love to
have her on my show too. But you and I, we're forever friends. So that just makes my day perfect.
(59:21):
I feel like giving you a big hug. So here's my little hug for you.
Okay. Well, you know how to get a hold of me and we're friends. And everything I said is for 100%.
I will help you out. I would be honored to be a part of your, for your judging and everything else
that I can do to help 100%. Like it's, it's that's in my heart. So, well, right back at you, sister.
(59:46):
I don't know how I can help, but if I can, let me know. Okay, well, I'm looking forward to our
collaborations. And thank you so much for making my day. And this has been Sugar Gay is for on
jewelry as your side hustle. And there's always something new on this podcast. So keep listening.
And we will see you later and welcome to 2025. You're my first one. Season two, Episode one,
(01:00:10):
check done. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Hi, good morning. This is Sugar Gay Isper and Jewelry as your side hustle. And today
(00:26):
I have a very special guest who we have some crossover on how we met, which we'll talk about.
So that's really fun. And she's the business part of jewelry making, which is such an important part
of a jewelry person's life because we got to sell this stuff. We can't eat it, right? So welcome
to our podcast today. We have Elizabeth Newboss. Nice hit, right? No, but I like that. It's
(00:51):
Newboss. Because yeah, I'm a boss. Newbauer. Yes. Newbauer. I just put that little boss in there.
And she has a she works with a jewelry maker and they've been teamed up for six years. And she
does all the business parts. She's got some fun things to talk to us about it. And it's the
(01:15):
Astiparis, Austridge or just austridge.com. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, so welcome. I'm so glad to meet you.
And we're also friends with Abby, who is the Craft Alliance Council head. I don't know if she's
amazing. Abby is amazing about her. Like she's got it going on like seriously, she's been doing
(01:39):
this for a long time, but she really brings a lot of us together. So you're a member there?
Right. I'm a craft. I'm a CIA person. I'm a CIA person. I would drop that group or anything. I
really love the roundtables. And that's usually where I met. I've always had a lot of people
from that group on my show. So let's get started. Now, let's just talk about you, because this is
(02:02):
really where the fun comes in. And I so tell me who your friend is that you work with. Tell me about
that and how y'all, I would love to have you in my life. Number one, I'm so proud that she
thought to mentor up with somebody who could, while she's doing her part, you're doing your part,
like what a gift you are to her. Like, oh my gosh. So it was really serendipitous. So we were both
(02:25):
working in this factory, this string factory, you know, like, making string, making string. Oh my
God, I want to hear about this. Making parachute cord, making the little string for your blinds
in your house, making cat collar, the stuff you make cat collars. I mean, it's a really,
(02:45):
it's really, it was really interesting. So I started that just to get a little personal. I moved
back to my hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado, about 20 years ago to take care of my parents. So
I was just looking for a job. I didn't want a career, I just wanted a job. And working in a
factory was so amazing because I had no responsibility. I've always been this overachiever, hardworking
(03:07):
person. And I just loved going in and being like, you have 10 pounds of this that you need to make
into this and you have eight hours to do it, have fun. And then was it? I had a whole time,
missing lunch, no working through breaks, none of that. So that was really good. So that's where I
became acquainted with Cindy. She was in the packing department and I was, oh, I worked in
(03:30):
pretty much every department there. I can't remember where I was at the time. So flash forward
about 15 years, 14 years. I'm not, I'm working there in the Bob and winding department, which is
where you put the string on Bob and so it can be braided into other things. And she has been doing
(03:53):
this poor painting for which it is my fault. It is all my fault. She started to become an artist.
I have a degree in art history and I would take Cindy to art exhibitions, local art exhibitions.
We would go up to Aspen to the museum there because it's really great. We would just go to all these
(04:14):
little offbeat things. And one day I was in Michaels of all places and they had paints and
canvases for sale for like just super cheap. It was like eight bucks and you get the paint,
you get the, you get the acrylic paint, you get the canvas, you get the brush. So I gave it to her
and I said, have at it. And a year later, here we are in business. So she got interested in pouring
(04:41):
paint and one of the outshoots of that is to make jewelry out of it. So she brought her jewelry into
work and started showing it to people. She's like, this is what I do. And the first person she showed
it to was like, well, how much? And Cindy was like, sell it. What do you mean sell it? What? So that
day she sold like, I don't know, over 20 pieces. And this is in a factory where people don't have a
(05:06):
lot of money. They're not super arty. They're not really, you know, it's like, they're, they had to
really love it. Right. Whatever she was doing was really resonating with the people there.
So I'm like, you know, I'm kind of looking for a side hustle. I'm looking for a project. I'm kind of
bored. So I was walking to her office as she was walking to my office and we meet in the warehouse.
(05:30):
And I'm like, I could sell these for you. And she's like, would you sell these for me? So we kind of
had a little synchronicity from the start on that. So one thing I want all of you out there to know,
if you are a maker, you do not have to be a seller. It is a very rare artist who can do both.
And don't feel bad if you can't sell your stuff. Find somebody, find an Elizabeth, find somebody
(05:57):
who's like outgoing and loves your work and wants to take it to the world. You have those allies in
your life. Don't think you're all alone. Don't think you have to do it all by yourself.
I think that is the best, biggest message. Bam, we're starting off this new year to say,
partner up with somebody. Like it's, it's actually the smartest thing ever. Like I'm so proud of you.
(06:20):
And now I'm now seriously. So now flash forward, you guys have been doing this for six years.
How are things going? Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm not lying. I'm giving you, as a friend of mine says,
the big T truth, I'm giving you the big T truth about how are you this last 2024 was a dumpster
fire. No doubt about it. And it's because of the type of people we sell to, it took me,
(06:44):
it took me a long time to figure out who our people were because it was so random. So we're
selling in Arizona, I'm selling to a conservative Republican politician and grand junction, I'm
selling to a little trans kid who's trying to figure out her identity. And so like how like those are
very different. Huge. Yeah. And you know, kind of everybody in between. Old people, young people,
(07:09):
babies would grab at our stuff. I'm sure you've had that experience because your stuff is so
visual and color. People gravitate towards the colors that they like. Right. And so
I figured out who our people are, are people who are very confident in themselves, and they don't
care if they're not normal, they don't care if they're mainstream, they're very secure and who
(07:31):
they are and what they like. So they're going to look for something that is as unique as they are.
The other demographic of people that we seem to attract are people who are who have made that
commitment to be themselves. This is another like we're doing this at a good time. I didn't think
about New Year's, but it's people who are committing to I have this secret person inside who I really
(07:52):
want to be. And I want to honor her and or him and become this person. And a lot of times I don't
want to say, you know, our stupid little jewelry has made someone come out or but you know, we've
had a number of people who are like, I'm going to buy a necklace, even though it's like a girly
thing. And then the next time I see them there in a beautiful dress and they're flying,
(08:16):
they're flancing around down and it's just like it's amazing. So those are our people. We're not
the mainstream people. And I think that like, yeah, these are the people who are more sensitive,
they're more skittish. When things get going, you know, I'm not going to get into anything
political, but it's been a very odd year. I think I agree. And our people are just kind of staying
(08:40):
at home, waiting to see what's happening. And kind of like, we don't know, you know, so
anchored down. Yeah, I think that is why we did so bad last year in 2024.
And I'm very surprised. I felt the same thing. I really felt like, well, until this election is over,
and then things are going to get better. And it's like, okay, but things didn't get better because
(09:03):
we had this big upset. And so now everybody is still in that same mode. Like we kind of now
we're kind of not waiting for like, okay, gear up for a Valentine's because we know people have to
do Valentine's like that just has to happen. And then the spring will come and then maybe we'll
see that things aren't as horrible as we think they're going to be. But yeah, I totally get you.
(09:24):
Like, the world really affects sales. Right. It just does. Well, I got super lucky when I started
our business. Well, yes and no, we started in April 2019. And April 1st, really great
time to start a business. If you're like, really serious about business, like we are, we are so
(09:50):
serious. Okay, April fools were like, okay, free make out, whatever is gonna be fun.
So that was the 2024 hit or 2020 hit and COVID everybody was getting home. Yeah.
And what we learned from that was when people are at home, everybody's going to open an online
business. So that was hard for us. We got we really got lost with that. Yeah. But the next year,
(10:17):
things were opening up. So I did our local farmers market because it was $20 and I had a
cardboard table with a sheet I bought at Goodwill. And that was my booth. So you don't need to start
with tons of money. You don't have to have like $100 custom made canopy for your $200
and you know, you don't need the bad. Yeah, we had hardly anything. That was it.
(10:43):
And we did so good. But it's because people were happy. I didn't realize this at the time.
I'm glad it happened the way it happened. But people had stimulus money and they were happy
to see people and they were feeling really good. And they were like, Oh, I want this. And it wasn't
even a question about isn't an indulgence. Should I spend money? It was just like, I like it. I'm
speaking to me. I want you know, so that was really good because we could have choked in that first
(11:08):
year. I don't know how many of you watching this know the statistic, but the statistic my business
incubator pervade to me when I was in the beginning business class nine out of 10 business, businesses
don't make it through the first year. Right. So that was really encouraging to us. And that people
(11:29):
are looking at it and they want it. And you know, it's like, I was such a green newbie girl. I didn't
as long as we had more money coming in than going out, I didn't care. He's like, Whoa, we sold
stuff. We made 20 bucks. But I was not counting my time. I was not counting. I was just like
happy that we're moving forward. Just kind of like the girl walking into the forest, not seeing
(11:52):
the bear, not seeing the rose, sorens just going like, Oh, my gosh, this is so great. We're in the
forest. It's beautiful. You know, it's like, Oh, we're making money at our business. Oh, my gosh.
So the next year, I got a little more serious about it. I made a spreadsheet. I put taxes. I put,
you know, vendor like fees. I'm on Shopify. So they charge a fee if you do stuff with their
(12:15):
credit card machine. I put in gas. I put in if I had to have somebody sit at the booth
which is important. And I mean, as a business owner, I don't have to pay myself. And I really
haven't gotten a paycheck yet. But yeah, but I wanted it to, I wanted to know, I wanted to know
how much money was this going to be? And what did we really want to make? We don't want to be
(12:38):
the next big huge thing. We just want to make a certain amount of money a year so we can have
some mad money so I can travel the Cindy, whatever art making supplies you want. So that's what we
want. So that's a lot different from somebody who's like, I'm going to be the next Tiffany's,
you know, it's a totally different thing. So it was really great. We had a lot of conversations
(13:04):
before we actually founded the business. We talked about what we wanted it to be like, we talked about
even, you know, we from the beginning, we're like, we're not going to be serious about this. This
is just a side hustle. This is a whatever. We're not going to be like really businessy. But it did
(13:25):
take us a couple of years to figure out how to do business on our terms because none of us were,
neither of us were business people. Right. And there's a huge, there's another thing, this is
another like if you can highlight, highlight, highlight, there's a huge business out there to
take advantage of people starting businesses. Oh my God, yes. Every time we turn around,
(13:45):
like you have to just filter it all out. Right. Everybody wants a piece of something. Everybody
right. All these, oh, it's just a free thing. And then you click on this and I'll take you to this
and then sign up. And then all of a sudden you're getting emails and didn't you want to do this?
Like, yeah, $5,000. No, right. And it's like, everybody's got their dream. Oh my gosh. And so
(14:08):
I'm here to tell you, do it on your own terms. Do it your way. Not to say that there aren't people
out there that have good advice. And you did have an incubator with you. I don't want to get too much
into it. That beginning class was amazing. But other than that, I didn't get a lot of support from
them, which is, it is what it is. I know, I know. But you know, at the end of the day, we're still
(14:33):
here. And it took me two years to really figure out how to filter out what I thought I was supposed
to do and what I really needed to do. Like, this is a big one. The first advice I got was, oh,
you have to be a brand and an influencer and you have done it. And then so for a year, a year,
I posted pictures of Odette, who was our spokes hostage. And it took me a year to figure out people
(14:56):
don't give a crap about Odette, the people that I want to give a crap about jewelry. So maybe I
should be posting jewelry every day. Then we started getting people signing up and following
and that kind of thing. So it's just kind of like, that is a real big one for me. That was like the
big thing. Yeah. In terms of what people are telling me what to do. I am very lucky because I worked
(15:21):
as a photography assistant for a guy who did, it was boring stuff. It was paint cans. It was for
Unitedson. So it was just, you know, white backdrop, take a picture. And it was just
when digital was starting. So I had experience with Photoshop. I had experience with photography.
(15:47):
So that made it a lot easier for me. Not everyone has those skills.
Yeah, I agree. You gotta be more photographer after stuff, gotta.
Right. Pictures are important, especially if you're going to be doing stuff online.
So I was really lucky that way. I have a fairly quirky sense of humor. I worked at a branding
company for a few years. So it's like, I have these skills that. Yes. Yes. Yes. And you believed in
(16:12):
your friend because you saw how people reacted. Like your peers, how they reacted to it. So you
knew you had a good product. Right. It required that like just learning, well, COVID right in the
middle of everything. Yeah. That's how we always had the election. But that's over. So we are
constantly like reinventing ourselves and moving forward and growing. And that's how we get better.
(16:37):
Right. It's looking around, looking at other people's Instagrams, learning from those Instagrams.
A lot of it has been. We're talking creators, really. Yeah. I do a lot of that. I do a lot of that.
I'm not real good at Instagram or Facebook yet. Same as we're still at like 70 people. I don't
know how to get 70,000. I don't know if we want 70,000. 7,000 might be okay. So it's kind of,
(17:02):
that's one of those things too. It's like, some people want 70,000. I'd be happy with 7. I don't
think we can handle 70. But you never know until you get there. Right. I'm not ruling it out. But
that's it. I always just look forward. It's just like whatever it is forward. It's like,
so when people, so now we're all selling because I'm so curious on this. I mean, I,
(17:25):
I would love to have a partner. You're exactly what somebody needs. Like I'm so proud of you.
Well, I want you to be making money. So I appreciate that. I, you deserve that. So let's
hope that that's your, this is the year of wealth. That's for me. This is what I'm calling it. The
year of wealth. We're all trying to figure it all out by now. We've kind of figured it out.
(17:46):
Now it's all about really like, market, getting that product to people and making them happy and
all that that is required. Like it's so much, but we are content creators. Like at the end of the day.
Right. That's what we become. Unless you're just going out and just doing the markets. And then
you've got this whole audience of people there that can sign up to be on your Instagram with QR
(18:10):
codes and all that kind of stuff. So have you kind of gotten into the QR codes and we've got a QR
I'm a dork. I have a big round magnet on the, on both sides of my car is a stripper's ostrich.
Oh, it has a bit of a circle in the middle. And it has our logo. It has our ostrich running on it.
(18:32):
So what does that point to your website? It goes to the homepage. Yeah. So I've done that.
I have because
so getting a QR code that's like four by five, which is what I needed for the magnets,
I had to buy like 50 of them. So I've been slapping it on our banner. I've got it on the
(18:56):
canopy of the tent. I'm trying to figure out, I wonder if I just slap it up somewhere with it,
just a QR code if people would scan it just out of curiosity. Yeah, girl marketing something.
And I've got these, I've got these, you know, like 40 QR codes I need to get rid of maybe in my
travels throughout my life, you know, I'm out of place where there are a bunch of stickers. I'll
(19:16):
just put one up and see what happens in a bathroom stall. I'll just count the bathroom
stall because you're sitting there and you got your phone and you're like, I'm saying I follow
some people on this right here. Some wonderful things on Instagram. Like I do not poopoo anything
that is on there. I see so much the content is so rich, but definitely the people that are about
(19:40):
guerrilla marketing and you know, just really interesting things that they do. I just, it just
gets me so excited and the kind of people are just really thinking out of the box like you
thinking, well, let's get these stickers and let's put them everywhere. So now your next sticker and
your next order maybe should be for your Instagram. And then they'll go to that's how you grow your
(20:03):
Instagram. So you're getting your business out there and your website out there, but
maybe this works. It's for our homepage. So maybe the next iteration would be doing Instagram,
but what's been most encouraging to me, and this is advice I've been getting from a lot of people
and it's been helpful, has been to grow our email group. So I would like, I don't know,
(20:26):
not even 30 people in our email sign up. And I did try in years past, it's like
Cindy makes these really great like tiny mag, she makes magnets and they cost like 50 cents to make.
They're super cheap. And so I would have a thing of magnets out, sign up for the email, get a free
magnet and no one would sign up. But for whatever reason, this year, this year, I got over people
(20:53):
signing up. And maybe four or five have unsubscribed. And I do an email every week.
Yes, I'm going to really nurture that group and keep them in there. And one of the things, I mean,
do your email group. You can add my name to it. Like for sure. Well, if you would, if you would go
(21:17):
to the website, and sign up on the sign up thing, just so I know it's working well. Okay, I will.
That would be awesome. And you can be the same for me. I would love it. I would love it. I can't
believe I haven't done it already because I go to your website a lot. You're a big inspiration.
It's true. And you know, another thing is I have, so I have, this is one thing I have,
(21:40):
sugar gay is bar, which was kind of late incoming. That's a whole different story. And that I have
pointed directly to my Shopify store. So and then the other one is gay is burn. That's more like
my that juicy kind of all that personal stuff. Okay. So the two, you know, it makes it makes it
where okay, you want to be a shopper, go to the Shopify. And it's very easy to point those things
(22:07):
to different, you know, that right, point it to something. Yeah. So yeah, it's all
like, it's all fun and games until you realize this is all hard work.
Well, that's the big thing. That is the big thing that when we first started, now I can't remember
the name of the author or the name of the book. But it was, it had to do with teens being it was
(22:34):
like a guide to be a teen influencer. So if you're a teen or a tweening, you want it to be an influencer.
This is what you do. Every chapter was a, this is what you do. Okay, one chapter was this is how
you post. And another chapter was this is what you post. But at the end of every chapter was a
little synopsis of someone who was an expert in that thing. So like, we're an expert at Instagram.
(23:02):
So for my success on Instagram, and it was somebody who's huge, I mean, it wasn't like some
little person was, you know, like the Kardashians or someone, and every single person in that book,
and there must have been, I don't know, eight or nine chapters to it. Every single one said,
you have to do the work. It seems like you can just have an XE store and people will come or put
(23:25):
it on Instagram and people will buy it. But to get to that, you are correct. It's a lot of work.
Yeah, my husband, of course, I've been doing this for a really long time. My husband's an engineer
and has zero interest in entrepreneurial things. And if I asked him to like do anything, he would
physically vomit. He'd be like, I cannot do that. Because he sees me, I think about it,
(23:54):
working on it all the time, all the time, just like, you know, because you have to. And it's fun
and it's what I love and I branch off into other things. And now I'm a little, you know, enterprise,
but it's all me. There's nobody behind me. And it is my word and I need to kind of stop this word
because maybe it's like bad, I don't know, the word is slog. It's a slog. I don't know if that's
(24:21):
like a very good word or not. Like, I think it's perfect. Because it's like behind the scene stuff,
behind the scene stuff, it is a slog. It's not glamorous. Unless you're really into administration
work, it's not fun, you know, dealing with taxes, holy crap, taxes in Colorado are insane. Because
(24:43):
every town has it has homeroom, which means you can't just send all your money to the state and
then dole it out. Right. So that's horrible. Yeah, it's really hard. So I don't get into that.
Because that is a slog. That is, I agree. It's like SEO is a slog. Like, oh my God,
(25:04):
you're trying to learn Facebook ads and, you know, Amazon ads and Google ads. That's a slog. Like,
those are really like, it's almost as I, okay, I remember when I first started, there was none of
this. And back before COVID, I was actually teaching social media at the college level.
(25:24):
And then that COVID break kind of happened and then it exploded. All the different things that
they were making us do. And now all we're doing is creating free content for these giant companies
to promote themselves because that's what it's become. So I get it. Like, it's not like anything
(25:44):
I can even, I don't feel comfortable even teaching it anymore because the layers of how you can go
are so deep that, I mean, it really is a college degree now. Like, I know you can get an influencing
degree on social media like crazy. It is crazy. And it's like, you know, I'm always like, gosh,
(26:07):
I wish I had like a 12 year old niece who could just do this for me, you know, because
yeah, it's just hard. There are so many segments of the population that you can get in touch with
and everybody has their own way of doing it. And I am so out of touch with anybody from like
six to 26. Right. Yeah. And it's like, and there that's like three demographics and just in
(26:31):
those years. I love it how you're thinking about that though, about them. Yeah. Because they are
kind of a really good market for you. But I don't even know how, I mean, do they go to
farmers markets? Like, I don't know where you would go to reach those people. Right. Well,
this is what we're trying. We're going to try this thing. So one of our most successful event
(26:55):
is our local Comic Con. Yeah, no, it is. It's normal Comic Con. Yeah. Comic Con is where the
people who have been ostracized, the people who don't fit in, the people who may be on the
autism scale, like these are our people. And they show up there and they like, it is so it's like,
(27:19):
we love doing it. We love seeing the costumes. We love seeing the originality. We love seeing
people be themselves. It's been really great. And so as a thank you to this segment of the
population, and to celebrate our six, because I forgot, we were in business already for five years,
to celebrate our sixth anniversary, we're doing a short story writing contest. And it's called
(27:45):
Flash Forward Fables and it's science fiction. And it's a mashup of flash fiction, which is
very quick, very short fiction, flash forward fiction, which is something here, I moved to
Grand Junction, take care of my parents, flash forward 20 years, I now own a jewelry store. So
it's that kind of. I have never heard this before. And then we're going to do. And I've gotten some,
(28:12):
I hadn't realized that heavy hitters, the little Grand Junction Colorado has in the
science fiction world. We have James Van Pelt, who is an amazing, amazing writer who coincidentally
happened to be my swing coach when I was in high school. Oh, love it. Love that.
Hendrix is a well renowned science fiction critic. She liked write book reviews. That was her career.
(28:38):
Yeah. Oh, wow. Our local library is astounding. And they have a really great librarian, teen
librarian who's super on board with helping us out with this. So that is how, you know, not that
I mean, see how excited I am. I just want to do the contest. I think this contest is going to be
really cool. But one of the perks of doing it is we're opening it up for teens only. So you have
(29:01):
to be 13 to 18, 19, 13 to 19 to be in it. And so we're hoping we can maybe reach out to this community
that I can't think of any other way to reach. What a brilliant, brilliant marketing strategy.
Yeah. So it's going to be really fun. And, and what will you do with all this kind of, and I have to,
(29:23):
I have to put up parenthesis, I just published a Clify book. I saw that.
Because writing is my first genre. I mean, I have a degree in journalism. I've been, I'm a professional
writer for a big company right over there. You just can't see it from here. But it's within my home.
(29:44):
You don't have to answer this question. And if you don't want to do it, not going to hurt my
feelings, but we are looking for six judges, if you would like to judge. I would love to judge.
I was about to say like, what do you do with all that amazing content? Because that's a lot of
content. And then you, then you kind of have it. And like, now how do you like, get other people to
(30:07):
read it? Yeah, you get me to judge and I talk about it and do all that kind of stuff with you. Of
course I will help you. Right. Or I will do this. I, I love writing and I love seeing other people's
work. And I'm so encouraging of that age group. It's definitely who my audience was when I did
this. It's more of a young audience book that I wrote, no sex and really customer's inning.
(30:31):
But that was just because that was who I wanted my audience to be. So I get it. Like, good for you.
Yeah. Great. So the, it's kind of like, it's coming up because, you know, April 1st is our
sixth anniversary date. And I have no idea how many people are going to respond to this. We had
(30:51):
a lot of people doing our QR code at Comic Con this year. There's this really great writing
workshop in Utah called Life, the Universe and Everything, based after the famous, now I can't
remember his, now I can't remember the name of his book. But the meaning, the meaning of life is 42.
(31:13):
And if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. And if you don't,
so there are these conventions for people who write science fiction, which I didn't know.
And like fan fiction and like that kind of thing. So I'm hooking up with a couple of those people
to advertise it and to find people who want to write. And I'm hoping it'll be a little bit of
(31:37):
word of mouth through people, people sharing and sharing and sharing. And that is what I'm hoping.
I'm going to, I want to do a visual party on April 1st for everybody because I'm hoping we'll get
people not just from Grand Junction, but from other places. I have my eye on another librarian
in Sioux Falls where we did a thing this year so that we can like branch out to other places.
(31:58):
You'll have Texas covered. So we love that. Okay, love it. I'm in charge of Texas.
No problem. No problem. You got it. You got it.
So that's, it's a hundred dollars first place, $50 second place. And then we're going to have four
runners up because it's six years. We have to have six prices. They'll all get one of our bookmarks,
(32:21):
which you know, is my job to whip it up. Our bookmarks are amazing.
That's all of my life.
I'm sure you can see them on the website.
Yeah, I can see them. Now, do they, when they give you their work, does it have a front cover,
or some kind of an image or anything like that?
No, it's just going to be words. So it's, because it's flash, because it's flash fiction.
(32:46):
Oh, I can't remember right off the bat. I think it's really short. It has to be like
2,000 words or less.
Okay.
And that's to make it easy on you guys. Plus, I love it. I love alliteration,
obviously, of stripper and sastry.
Flash, forward fables, like, yeah, but I do want to make it easy on all the judges. So they're not
going through like, you know, your Romano club and it's like 500 pages long. No, I want it to be
(33:10):
short and fun and yeah, interesting.
I think that would be very inspiring stories too.
Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. I'm really curious to see what happens. So I'm gearing up for that.
I've got the web page ready to put out there. I got it out there earlier, but then I wasn't sure
the timing was going to work out, but I'm going for it. I'm saying who cares about the timing?
(33:32):
Yeah, we're doing it.
And then what about that local high schools? Do you work with them?
Right. So Jim M. Pell also worked in the Grand Junction High School. I think he's out of Fruta,
which is the next count over. So I've got, he gave me a connection for that. He gave me a
connection for Mile High Con, which is our science fiction, Colorado science fiction writing convention
(33:54):
that they do every year. And I'm hoping I'll get more from that. There will be the people at the
LTUE thing in Utah. So, you know, getting on these people's email lists or Instagram pages or whatever
we'll just be getting the word out. A lot of people at Comic Con were like, Oh, I know somebody
here. This would be perfect for. And it did kind of, I kind of got one of those like, but you have
(34:18):
to stay true. Yeah. You know, it's like, well, I'm only 12. It's like, Oh, I know. Or like, I'm 20.
Yeah, I'm proud of you for holding firm on that. But that is the other carving point. Yeah.
But those people want to have their work seen too. And they're young. And so it's such a great
(34:39):
opportunity for somebody. Right. And it's low stakes. You know, not charging you. Yeah, that's
the way to do it. Don't charge anybody to get it. Yeah. Get them excited about writing. And, you
know, like, what a gift that you're giving some young person that like have their story read.
Like, well, up there. Because one of the things I really want to do, depending on how many entries
(35:02):
we get, is to just get it out for one day on the Instagram or get it out one day. I don't know,
maybe I have to go to a different platform on Twitter, but no, because that's too many. I think
it's a local media. I think you need to go to your local media. Oh, yeah. No, we've got that.
That's easy. Those people are easy. We don't have a lot. What I'm looking for is statewide media.
(35:26):
I'm like setting my sights a little higher. Yeah. Because that's where you should like.
Yeah. Yeah. So, and then do you say, because AI is a really big part of all this now,
do you tell them no AI? Yeah, no AI. It has to be an original work. We don't care if it's fan fiction.
We don't, we don't care if it's been like that. We want something preferably that hasn't been
(35:51):
published. An original work to you, like 2000 pages, I'm hope, or 2000 pages. 2000 words.
I hope anybody can do 2000 words. It's not a lot. It's like a page. Yeah. It's nothing. That's,
I mean, I think it's such a, since that's kind of my audience, I kind of
totally feel what you're doing. Like I'm so proud of you for really creating this whole experience
(36:16):
and then tying it somehow another all back to jewelry because, you know, first prize needs to
get a piece of jewelry, right? Like, what about that? I think everybody probably will get a bookmark
because there are men that will wear jewelry, but there are a lot. Right. And we didn't want boys
to feel excluded because it's a jewelry company. So bookmarks we got, maybe key chains too.
(36:39):
Cindy's key chains are great. Yeah. They're really cool. Yeah. So something that's
more gender neutral is kind of what we're counting for.
Oh, well, I'm very proud of you. You know, I have a, I have a son that's gay. I'm very much
of that's part of a community I've been with for my whole life. So I totally understand all that.
(37:01):
And, you know, I live through all that and I love all that. My name is gay. So, you know,
I'm all part of that. If you put in sugar, there's a lot of you put in gay, there's a lot. So that's
why it is one sugar gay. That's really smart. Yeah. I don't know about that, but it's just how it
actually happened because Facebook wouldn't let me use the name gay when I first signed up in
(37:26):
2007. They said it was not part of the community standard. So no. So then later they came back
and said, okay, well, you can use your name now if you want. Thank you. So then I have had to rebrand
myself. Now that was probably like 10 years ago, but where they came back and said I could use it.
But now it's just too many names. I have a lot of names. Yeah. It's just what it is. Sugar gay.
(37:53):
So what else? So besides this, so this is going to be April 1st. You're going to be doing, you know,
the whole thing and I'm excited to get to pair up with you. Elizabeth, that's what I said. We're
going to be friends. It's going to be great. Yeah. And then you're going to do something maybe for
Abby for, right? Okay. So you way back when in our conversation, you were asking more about
(38:17):
how we make our money because we're not making it online. So yes, what how I do,
what the only thing I know how to do because online is really hard to get people to your
website and to get people to buy. It's hard. I want to see it in their hand. Right. So, you know,
that first year at the local farmers market, I was like, I'm going to do more of these. So the next
(38:38):
year I started doing every farmer market I could find in our area. And then I started doing more
craft fairs and I just kind of have expanded. This was the first year where we went outside of
Colorado. I went to Arizona. I did the front range, which is still Colorado, but those mountains,
that Rocky Mountains kind of divides us into two different communities. Yeah. And I went to go visit
(38:59):
my friend in South Dakota. So it was really great to see how we did in other places. So that's how
I did it. There were a lot of things I wish I had known when I had started because here I am. Here
I got my card table. I got my sheet. I got my stuff. And that's what I got. I did. I didn't even have
a credit card reader. I did all my sales through my website, which I don't know how legal that was
(39:23):
because I don't know because one of my things and I'm not doing this, but I wish I could find a
tax person who could tell me because the taxes, I just want to tear my hair out. taxes, Arizona is
the worst for state taxes. It was just so difficult to deal with them. And I'm like, if I ran everything
through my website at these local events, but I have to pay state taxes, right? Yeah. Is that a way
(39:49):
of getting around it? And I can't get anybody who's going to go on the record and be like, yeah,
that's totally legal. Or no, don't do it. I don't have any problem paying the local taxes to the
local community. Like that's fair. And I wouldn't even mind paying the state taxes if it weren't such
a complete cluster. It's I've only had to do it in four states and all four states that I've done
(40:16):
in South Dakota was the best. If you have to pay taxes in South Dakota, those people are so nice
and so accommodating and so helpful. But taxes are a thing. So it's a hard thing. I know I did the
Tucson gym and mineral show last year. And and it was like, just talking to the tax people and just
(40:36):
getting it all down. They really couldn't give me an answer. I'm like, well, wait a second, like,
so at the end of the day, I really didn't sell that much to even make it work. Like, just go home.
Like, they had they made it so hard to get a sales tax license for the correct one. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
(40:56):
Yes. Because it's all those, you know, I'm just a little business and yeah. So they were not very,
they were not very accommodating. They didn't really know what to do with me. They're like,
okay, well, okay, well, that's what I'm going to do. Yeah. Yeah. So whatever. Yeah, it's hard. You
are such a good business person. Well, I'm proud of that because, you know, everybody has the same
(41:20):
issues we have to deal with taxes. So yeah, it's a big one. But to get back to your original question,
what I'm doing for Abby was, I've been working on it for the last month, things that I have learned
from my experience. I'm not going to say I'm an expert, you know, School of Hard Mox is where I went
and I have a very specific experience with local farmer markets and craft fairs and those kinds
(41:46):
of things and even more specific if you want to just keep it to Colorado because things are somewhat
the same in other places and somewhat different. Right. And so, Abby said, if I wanted to do this,
have at it. So what I am going to be doing is presenting like speaking of Elizabeth Newboss,
(42:06):
I love this. So it's be a booth boss is what I'm going to do. And I'm going over the pros and cons of
doing in person events. I'm doing the things you need to do for them. And then just maybe a few
(42:26):
stories about my experiences there. But I think the first two things are going to be enough. What's
really important for me because I am the business person is hopefully I can help people who aren't
so business savvy to not get taken advantage of not get this letter in the mail that says,
you owe a $12,000 tax bill because you haven't paid this bill for a year and it's compounded,
(42:50):
compounded, compounded. And it was like, this is not my, you know, it's like it was a,
it was something on their end that was the problem. But it's just like how to be proactive about
keeping your money correct, which is really important, how to be mindful of making money. So
a lot of times people are like me my first year, it's like, I sold stuff. But it was like,
(43:15):
I had to be sell enough to actually cover our costs. Right. And thank you, COVID. I mean,
I was supposed to say that, but thank you, COVID for having that year after COVID when everyone
was spending money and super happy gave me the capital to buy a custom made tent to get tables
(43:36):
of my own to get tablecloths. So I was able to take what we had made that year and put it into
the business for the next year. So we could be more professional and the more professional I was,
the more I learned about how to pick a good show, how to prepare for a show,
like how to spot not foolproof, many of these things are foolproof, but how to spot a nefarious
(43:57):
organizer because there are a lot of people out there wanting to fleece people, which is in Colorado,
I guess it's a huge thing. I haven't run into it yet, but I have heard from some of the Facebook
groups that I'm on that there are people who will take your money and then you show up to the
parking lot in the shopping mall and no one is there. Yeah. So there are things and that's what
(44:26):
I'm hoping to cover for the craft industry, no, yeah, craft industry alliance people. And again,
for those of you out there, I cannot recommend this group enough. I've got more real help,
not just like, Oh, I heard this or Oh, I want to sell you this, so sign up for my program and do
this. Her workshops are good. I love those craft nights. I've been missing you because
(44:53):
I've had to do the one at night and not the one in the afternoon because I've been doing stuff
during the day, right, either traveling to a show or coming back from a show for the last few months.
So but they're, they're great sources of real life experience, people who are not being sugar
coating and being like, Oh, yeah, I'm doing this year. You know, they're like, Wow, I did really
(45:15):
bad at this. And this is why, right? Just that's the important thing. It's how we learn really,
is that we're sharing our information. Right. Or like, this work, great, this you should do this,
it's none of this like, if I share my idea, my business is gonna go down the drain. So I'm not
gonna tell anybody it's more like, right, if I do good, you do good. If you do good, I do good.
(45:40):
We support each other, right, which I think is how it how it works. Yeah. Now, I don't know anything
about I know they're really big on the H and H, I guess Abby and then we're all kind of like tied
to that somehow. Well, I haven't been. I wanted to go this year, but it did like the timing.
I think it was like in May, and I was going to be here till August and I didn't want to.
(46:03):
And one personal thing about me is that I live most of my time in Mexico. I have a house 30
miles from Mexico City. Yeah. Really? And so I do a lot like it's great. It's I can afford to live
there. I love being there. I have a huge garden, which is a personal passion. I can do all my stuff
(46:23):
online I need to do down there. And then I come back to the United States for a few months to
do the in person things. So I'm hoping to gradually do less in person and more online. But
well, okay, you have to tell me like what city in Mexico City? What city?
San Vicente, and it's like what wait, what? I was in today's chocolate pond.
(46:48):
Well, it's 30 miles south of Mexico City. I just find this place like that is like such a hook to
me like tell me okay it's a 30 five on my Duolingo learning Spanish. So it's a passion with me.
Way to go. I do like six apps because I took classes and they were not I couldn't get the
(47:10):
Wi-Fi at my house. And so now I have a tutor and I do a Duolingo, jump speak, talk, pal, I do a
bunch of these different things because they'll come at Spanish from a different way. So that's
what I do. So I was taking care of my parents and my father finally passed. And I had ruined my career
because I moved to Grand Junction and my focus was taking care of my parents not having a career.
(47:34):
And it was like I could go anywhere in the world. Where do I want to go? And for two years I've
fretted. Well, probably more like 15 years. Where am I going to go? What am I going to do?
And a friend of mine said come down for a day of the dead in Mexico City.
He's like it's month long, come stay for a month, we'll have fun. It's you know, it's tons of stuff.
So he said I have this friend who has a house out in the country. Let's go there for a weekend.
(47:58):
So we went down there and I kid you not, I opened the gates up right there. They opened the gates.
There's this beautiful garden, this cute house, this little casita. And I felt like I was walking
home. I was like, wow, I feel so comfortable here. And it was a little ramshackle like nobody
had really been living in it for about 15 years. And I was just like, wow, this is amazing.
(48:18):
So when we were leaving, my friend says, you know, it's for sale. And it was like, this is it.
Mexico wasn't even on my list of places to think about. I was thinking like friends,
you know, some island somewhere, or maybe Sweden, or you know, this was not even.
But the moment I saw it was like, okay, this is my home. And that was, and it was it. That was it.
(48:43):
I love Mexico. Well, you're welcome to visit anytime.
I have some friends that live in Aji, south of Guadalajara. And my son used to work in Guadalajara.
He went there every week. And now he's not there. But so we went down to go visit him. And I was like,
(49:03):
of course, because Spain, like Spanish is in my heart. I used to live in Seville. But the short
of it is, is my husband's like, no, not me there. Because he doesn't speak a word in Spanish, not
even Ola. So but to me, you're living my dream. Oh, well, thank you. Like seriously, like, it's
such a great, like number one, the people are so warm and inviting. And I'm so in love, you know,
(49:30):
I'm a border person, I'm on taxes. So I'm with people all over. And since I was a little girl,
we had people come in from Mexico that work for on our ranch. So I've known about Mexico and the
people there for my whole life. And I love them. And I would live there tomorrow. Couldn't take me
(49:51):
away if I got there. Well, it was just a it was like a whim. And I am the only person from the
United States living in my town. I'm pretty much the only one that speaks English. So it's been
I've been working and working. And I continue to work and work on it. And it's really hard too,
(50:12):
because it's like, I just I love my little house, I don't want to leave it. And so I don't have the
opportunity to speak with people all the time. But I get by, as you say, people, I think about
how we treat people from Mexico. I know, don't even go there. I might be crying. And then I think
about how incredible, can I tell you a quick story? Yes, I wanted lunch. And so I followed my
(50:37):
nose, because that's what I do. I'm at the market, you know, I follow my nose. I'm like, Oh, my God,
just smells really great. There are a ton of people eating here. So you know, it's good.
I sat down, I was feeling really awkward, because I didn't like I didn't know how to eat the food.
It sounds stupid, but because they have these suits, and then they have tacos. And I and I'm
like, Oh, I'll get both soup, and then I'll get some tacos, because I'm American, we have soup,
(51:01):
and then we have our main meal. And I'm sitting next to this family, grandma, grandpa, you know,
the daughter and the grandson. And I'm eating my soup. And they're like, Don't you want to
talk on them? Like, I'm gonna have a taco after. And the mom and the daughter just exchanged this
look that was like, that pretty dip it or mother never taught her how to eat tacos with soup.
(51:24):
So all of a sudden, there's a taco in my hand, which was amazing, because it was
barbacoa. Yeah, my favorite. Yeah. And so then it was like, you dip it in the soup, you put it in
your mouth. And so I learned how to do this. No, not just one taco. I finished half my soup,
finished my taco. I'm like, thank you. And another taco right in my hand. Yeah, totally great. So
(51:51):
then we get to talking. And they're from a little farming town outside of where I live. And I had
been there because exploring, right? And they were amazed that I'd been to their town. It was just
this beautiful thing. And then when they left the table, everybody who was eating there said goodbye
to them. So it just was, it was this beautiful experience. And like the food is amazing. And
(52:16):
the people were super cool. And that is, that is the food that they that they're eating is not
all this process crap. Like here, like it's all just made right there. Somebody's sitting there
making, go and there might be a rooster walking around and then matter. Like, and the food is
not this process. We're not going through the line in our car to go grab a burger and fries.
(52:42):
There's not that like, it is my, I'm going to come live with you. Like, let's just do.
I have a desk house. It could be someone living in it. So please feel free anytime. And I'm not
just joking. If you would like to come down, I would love to have you. Seriously, like,
you don't even know that's my world. Like, my heart is in Spain still, that's Spanish is in
(53:05):
my heart. Nice. You know, I get it. Like, it's, I'm so proud. I'm so glad we got that out. Like,
look, I told you at the end of this, we were going to be friends. But look, I'm now going to be like
judging your competition. And I just wrote a book. Like, I'm too old for the competition,
but I get the genre. Get it. Right. Love it. Yeah. We both have CIA in common. Love that group. It's
(53:31):
been life affirming. And I love her newsletters. And I always go through and look at all those
guys. Anything relates me on this. What can I do to be part of this group? Like, so, yes. And Abby's,
let me write an article before for the harm. Like, so we're bonded on that. And then the Spanish came
in. Bam, like a thunderstorm. I can't. We're going to get to the Austin part because I spent my
(53:57):
terrible 20s in Austin. Yeah. And I still have a very good friend there. She does news caps, news boy
caps is her specialty. And I usually get down there once or twice a year. And I so wanted to hook up
with you the last time I was there. But it, I was only there for like two days, because my dog got
(54:17):
sick. It's a whole story. We're not going to get into it. But Austin's a cool place. Like, it's
cool place. Yeah. And we have a ranch about 70 miles from here that we go every weekend and we
work on the ranch. Your kids exercise and then, and I feed the vultures. I don't know if you
the Mexican Eagles. Now I got two of them. Like, we're just, we're in our little bubble there.
(54:43):
It's just like we've made a little bubble. When we first got there, there was no animals at all.
We couldn't even find a squirrel on this beautiful property with hundreds and hundreds of trees.
Where is everybody? Now we've called them in. Just call them in, you know, like it's the joy of
we have a flock of seven herd of seven deer and these vultures that come and they know me.
(55:07):
Like they'll come right up to the house like they're and they ate like a bag of
organic soil. It must have had like some good stinky stuff in it. They attacked those plastic
bags like like the birds in Alfred Hitchcock. It was crazy. So, you know, we're just, my husband and
I said there's always food that doesn't get eaten. So, you know, unfortunately that's how it is. But
(55:32):
at least I don't, yeah, it goes to some Mexican Eagles now are fighting over some old tamales I
had that's a neighbor made. I'm like, look at that. Like one of them walked over here. Aida's
tamale. One of them walked over there. Looks at that tamale. Walked back and got the other one.
It's like we're both eating tamales. They were Mexican Eagles. It's like, yeah.
(55:53):
So, they were so happy. I wish you were, I wish you did live closer. But you know,
because we have four more minutes and then our time is coming to an end. But number one,
I have learned a lot from you, you know. And I think that Cindy is very lucky to have you. Like
(56:14):
seriously, it's nice to have somebody that appreciates the arts like you obviously do.
You understand that handmade. I always tell people my jewelry is it's interesting jewelry for
interesting people. Yeah. You know, I kind of think that that's true. It's not just the little
dot necklace. Like how boring is that if I would have had to have made those, I would have been
bored by the second one and be like, okay, I'm done with this. Like, I did that in two seconds.
(56:38):
That's not going to help me. Give me something I can sink my teeth into. So, you know, I, and you
know, maybe it's something, even though it's a guy thing, you know, I'm rich in my supplies. I have
an entire room of supplies. I have another room of supplies. I have another room of just finished
jewelry. We could make a unisex necklace. Like I could do that for y'all. Like, you know, a lot of these are unisex.
(57:04):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely, definitely. But you know, it could have something even just like
that, you know, grand prize winner. So it could have something within that piece. And if you don't
know how to do it, I do. That we could put the words in there. Because you know, that's what I do.
That would be cool. I'm looking forward to this collaboration. I think it's going to be really
(57:24):
fun. I am too. So now, seeing you are all like, Oh, this is going to be great. We're not, we
seriously are friends forever now. I feel it. I feel it. I do too. It's like, Oh my God, you're
living my dream. And we have so much crossover. So it really has been a pleasure. Okay, let's talk
(57:44):
about how people can find you because that's the great way to end a show is let's recap all of your
links. So you give it to us. And then it's also going to be the bottom in the description will be
everything that you're talking about. You can find that. Of course, I want you to go to the website.
That's the first place I want all of you to go to. It's easy to remember. It's Oostrich.com.
(58:09):
Oh, it says 00. O and then ostrich, regular spelling ostrich.com. A lot of people are like,
what? Oostrich? It's like, I don't like that. But no Oostrich.com. 00. It's on Instagram.
I think we're under obstreperous ostrich. I think I'm making spell it out on Instagram,
(58:32):
but you can find all of this on the on the homepage. Okay. And oh, on Facebook, Facebook were
on Facebook, I think were obstreperous ostrich on Instagram or wild ostriches, because I did have
obstreperous ostrich, but I screwed it all up. And so, okay, that's been talking so much. My throat
(58:55):
is getting dry. I know, I know me too. That's because it's the end of the hour. We have one more
minute. And it has been a pleasure to be spending an hour with you. Oh my God, what a great time,
Elizabeth. I look forward to meeting Cindy down the road. I think that's something I'd love to
have her on my show too. But you and I, we're forever friends. So that just makes my day perfect.
(59:21):
I feel like giving you a big hug. So here's my little hug for you.
Okay. Well, you know how to get a hold of me and we're friends. And everything I said is for 100%.
I will help you out. I would be honored to be a part of your, for your judging and everything else
that I can do to help 100%. Like it's, it's that's in my heart. So, well, right back at you, sister.
(59:46):
I don't know how I can help, but if I can, let me know. Okay, well, I'm looking forward to our
collaborations. And thank you so much for making my day. And this has been Sugar Gay is for on
jewelry as your side hustle. And there's always something new on this podcast. So keep listening.
And we will see you later and welcome to 2025. You're my first one. Season two, Episode one,
(01:00:10):
check done. Thank you very much. Thank you.
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