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Bulverde Market Day to Texas Business Talk · Texas Business Talk

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is Texas Business Talk.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're building relationships, strong businesses, and thriving communities, one conversation at a time.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your Chaos Coordinator Ashley.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's get to business.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I figured the best place to start would be the why behind why we're here.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let me do this point why this podcast.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'll start way back.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: In 2008, I was a new mom.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you would have told me that I would have four girls, I would live in the Texas Hill country where I wanted to retire.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever get here before then.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then also own 20 acres of commercial land, be managing a farmer's market, and not doing photography, I would have been like, wait, what?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make any logical sense.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Small business typically doesn't make logical sense.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: We as small business owners tend to do things the hard way.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're maybe a little bit stubborn.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is not unique to find a small business owner that wears a million hats.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you're here probably because you are a small business owner or you would like to be.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm guessing since you're listening here, you are a person with a small business or the hopes of having one, or you're just a curious person like I am.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, I'm sure you have a good understanding that there are ups and downs all arounds, and you're trying to balance all the plates that you have up in the air.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have to call it quits and then restart later.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: There are seasons in our life where we can't take on anymore, and we need to know when to set a plate down and pick it up later.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are some times where we are absolutely beyond excited and motivated.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting things done, we're on the right track.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are times where we just don't know what to do, we're just stuck.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The struggle is real and it does feel never-ending, but you know what?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a linear process.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So keep going.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I can say that only because looking back at my journey here, it does make sense.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you can't see light at the end of the tunnel until you're right there at the very end.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to keep going if you feel like you are called to do this thing.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: For me, my small business dream started in 2008.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: That was a long time ago.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there were a few times that I thought, okay, I'm starting.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I am getting it going.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I'm gonna do.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I have four kids.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like every time I got pregnant, we moved.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: As a photographer, that means starting your business over, finding new clientele.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: There are some businesses that transferred perfectly fine when you move, but most not.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You really are starting over.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And life happens.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: You really have to roll with the punches.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: If I would have said, I'm just packing up, I'm stopping, I wouldn't be here.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that would be really sad.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine to know when to put that plate down and then when to pick it back up.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because as much as we would like to do it all in reality, we are only capable of doing a small number of things at one time.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a saying, Jack of all trades.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't really know that full saying until a few years ago.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: When I heard that, I was like, whoa, wait a minute.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: That makes total sense.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you were doing all these things, you really are not a master at any of it.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was in my photography business, I would go to these continuing education conferences and they'd be like, niche down, find your niche.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And for a while I was like, what does that even mean?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: This sounds so ridiculous.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are mindsets in both camps.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you niche down and you specialize in one thing, are you giving up opportunity with other things?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like in photography, say you are a newborn photographer.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, great.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: You have been trained how to pose newborns, how to light them, all of that.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's guys, it's way more than what you think.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not set the baby down and take a cute photo.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Posing of a newborn to make it look realistic in real life, that's not the case.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like you are moving that baby's head and putting that baby in positions where people watching you might think, oh my gosh, why are you doing that?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then you see the photo and it's whoa, because three-dimensional objects do not transfer to a two-dimensional surface, a photograph.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: You have to do things different in the three-dimension to make it look right in the two-dimension.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a whole thing.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: I digress.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So are you giving up opportunities to earn income by niching down?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or by niching down, are you looked at as a specialist?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're sought after because you are a professional.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are a specialist in this one thing, and that's what people want.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's literally 50-50.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: What you decide to do matters.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you decide to niche down and only specialize in one thing, do that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do it well, broadcast that everywhere.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I am the best at this thing.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Come to me because of that.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm a newborn photographer, but I also do maternity and I also do family and I also do young kids.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that makes sense, right?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because it all goes together.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anywho.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So my lifelong passion has been photography.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I picked up a camera when I was like nine or ten years old, and I absolutely loved it.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was the kid that always had the camera with me.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I learned it just by myself, just by playing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot even tell you how much film I burned through.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Bless my parents for paying for that.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then in high school, I learned how to develop my own film.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was the dark room days.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: My senior year of high school, I helped teach a photography class because that teacher was no longer there.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was on the sidelines of the football field taking the photos.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I was the one that had the camera at outside school events taking incriminating photos of my friends.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I actually still have a box of photos in my house.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So all of you that knew me then, beware I have a ton of evidence of our shenanigans.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, anywho, I graduated high school.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that I needed a quote real job.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I really wasn't interested in a whole lot of other things, so I didn't know what that meant.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I liked architecture.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I watched my mom drawing house plans.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: We built my mom's dream home when I was, I guess it was like middle schoolish or yeah, middle school.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, middle school, end of elementary.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And for years I watched her stay up at night and draw these plans.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: She had all of these magazines with house pictures and different floor plans and all of that.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then new neighborhoods were going up everywhere when I was little.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we were one of the first houses on our block.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so after dinner, we would walk around and we would walk through these homes that were being constructed and we would try to guess: is this the living room?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the guest room?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the laundry room?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it I loved it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I figured, okay, I could study architecture and I could study CAD design.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did that for a little while.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then I thought maybe I could be a teacher.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: My now husband was my boyfriend.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: We are really talking seriously about what our future looked like.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, you know what?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I could be a teacher and easy.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: That did not last very long.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you teachers.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you, nurses.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: There, we all have our skills.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: We all have our gifts.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And those who are gifted in teaching two dozen little people in a room, I pray for you daily.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Those of you who are nurses, who are dealing with bodily fluids and people that are not at their best and who are hurting, God bless you.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: I pray for you.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was not for me.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I love children.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love my children.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I was realizing that I was doing those things just to check a box.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And my now husband proposed, we were engaged, he was starting law school.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was gonna be in Oklahoma.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't want to be apart.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I did apply to transfer to the University of Oklahoma, and I would start paying for my college.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, you know what?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do what I want to do, and I'm gonna get a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in photography.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I did.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's still the darkroom days.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I do not think that I would have continued in photography if my hand was not forced my senior year of college.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was a transition from the darkroom to digital.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was scanning in my negatives in the computer and learning how to use Photoshop.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I hated it.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I really did.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I hated it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's when I photographed my first wedding, it was that year.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we had been newly married that summer before, and a friend in one of my classes had just gotten engaged, and they were on a really tight budget, as we all were then.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so she was asking me for advice and help.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I helped her plan the wedding.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like the wedding coordinator of the day of, and I was also the photographer and the videographer, wore a lot of hats that day.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I also forgot to start the record button on the video camera.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was really awful.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: They were walking back up the aisle, and I was click, click, clicking away, and I look over at the video camera and went, oh no.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mistakes have been made, guys.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Mistakes have been made.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: You probably are well aware of that.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so I figured, you know what?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think I could do this.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I really enjoy this.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy people, and I'm a I'm an ex of service kind of a person.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to help.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went to the photographer of our wedding and I said, hey, look, this is what I have my degree in.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I've done over the years to further hone my skills.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Could I be of service?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Could I help you?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Little did I know that her husband, a farmer by trade, like he worked the land, and his side gig was being her editor for photography.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I took over his job.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: He taught me how he did things, he did the consultations, he did the booking, he did the phone calls, and he also edited everything for her.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: The initial edits, the fine-tuning she would do.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's the two-step process, he would start and she would finish.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I took that over for him.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: He went back to farming and it was great.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we I did that for a little bit.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then my husband got a job up in the Round Rock, Texas area, so north of Austin.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we were gonna be moving, and I was newly pregnant.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, okay, here we go.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going out on my own.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I had learned a lot about running a photography studio.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: That was going to be my goal.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: One day I'm gonna have a studio to call my own.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't know where, but that was a dream of mine.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had my first baby.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was figuring out new motherhood, and I was also getting my name out there of, hey, I can do portraits.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I had a little backdrop and some lights in my garage.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I learned a lot of lessons.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then we moved.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was now pregnant with my second.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: We moved again.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I did take that plate and put it aside, my photography plate.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Life was just hectic then.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: We were there for about a year, and then we moved to the North Houston area, picked that plate back up again.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: I really tried hard then to get my name out there.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: We moved two, maybe three more times within that just same area.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And every time I was like, okay, I can do this, I can do this, and it didn't work out.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So now we are in the San Antonio, Texas area, and we moved here in 2018.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was homeschooling our four girls, and I decided I really want to pick my camera back up again.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I met a lady in our neighborhood who also had an interest in photography.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: She had just gotten her first camera, figuring it out, really wanted to make a go of it.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, hey, I've been doing weddings for a little bit now.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked in a studio.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is my background.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions, let me know.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: If I can be of help, let me know.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember how long it was before she called me.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it was long, maybe six, nine months.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Ash, I have my first wedding.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to come maybe help me be my second photographer?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, great.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like so much fun.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we did, and that was the start of about five years of me being her second shooter.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the assistant photographer is called.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So she did all of the heavy lifting.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: She was booking the clients, it was her business.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: She was having the consultations, she was doing the planning.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then the week before the wedding, she would send me the information.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I would look it over, I would show up on the day of, I would do all the things that she needed me to.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I would hand her my memory card at the end of the day.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I would get paid and move on.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was great.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: We were photographing probably two weddings a month in the peak season, sometimes more, but then it got to be a lot.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So my kids are getting older, they're involved in things, I was missing out on things.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I made a few pretty big scheduling errors.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm now trying to juggle my kids' extracurricular activities and schoolwork and photography and managing the house.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I also was second shooting for a few other photographers at this point.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there was one photographer in the area, and I had done a couple weddings with her, and she was fantastic.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had said yes to photographing a wedding with her, and she did things a little bit different than others.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: She would send you a contract when you said yes, I can do this wedding.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it was way in advance of the actual wedding.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And working solely with my one friend, how we did things was a little bit more casual.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: I did not put it on my calendar.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had said yes to my friend to do a wedding.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And my kids were going to camp, overnight camp.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I also got sick.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I am calling my friend, and I'm like, hey, oh no, wait.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I texted the other photographer I was working for.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I said, okay, hey, I'm sick.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: I am telling you now.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is Monday, the wedding's on Saturday.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you now, I don't know how I'm going to be on Saturday.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I could be fine, but I could not be fine.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you now so that you could be looking for another photographer.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, okay, fine.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you know of anybody, let me know.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: So then I contact my friend and I said, hey, I'm not feeling well.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sick.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Could you possibly be the second photographer for this other girl?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And she was like, No, I can't because we have a wedding together.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I went, Oh, oh no.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was up a creek, guys, without a paddle.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I felt terrible.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Not only was I getting sick, but now I have left two photographers in a really tough spot.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I started calling around to all my photographer friends to find someone to replace me for both of these weddings.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the other photographer that I was working for, she was like, I found somebody, I'm good.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I have never heard from her since.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't blame her.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I royally messed that one up.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then my friend, we did find somebody to take over.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized, wow, I can't keep doing this.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then I messed up again before I finally decided I can't keep doing this.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you need a few good, real big mess-ups to be like, okay, I need to make a change.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's fine.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to learn the hard way, like I said before.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Another camp week, the next year.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I, my kids were at camp.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: You really can't contact them.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: You write letters to them beforehand.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: My three younger ones were at one camp.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: My oldest, it was her first time at a way camp a little further away for the big kids.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so again, I did not put the wedding on my calendar.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: So my friend texts me about Wednesday.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hey girl, this is a schedule for Saturday.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, wait, what?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: I pick up my kids from camp on Saturday.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have a wedding in Sagin on Saturday.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the little ones pickup is in the morning.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: The big one's pickup is in the afternoon.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's about an hour and a half difference from to get from the little's camp to the big.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, the day of camp pickup is the absolute best.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you went to camp as a kid, but I did.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that final day, especially at T Bar M camp, which is the best camp ever, Andy Bronfels, Texas.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love them.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up going there.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew what a big deal camp pickup was.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then not only that, my older one was going to the big kid camp.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that pickup is going to be even more fun.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't get to go.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, I was not able to tell my big kid that I was not going to be there.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: So my husband carries the three younger ones up with him, gets to camp, and I hear this later.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: So she is looking for me.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like she sees my husband and her sisters, and like my husband is like, she clearly was looking for you.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had to go up and be like, hey, mom had a wedding.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: She was devastated.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was heartbroken.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was all around awful.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided right then and there, I cannot keep doing this.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I told my friend, I can't.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I need to step back from weddings.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a really good decision.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: I you cannot do all things for all people, it's just not possible.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the start of me hanging up my photography hat.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: However, we had started down the road of building a wedding venue.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So in the thick of me doing these weddings, I was going to all of these venues and all of this stuff.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And all the while I was still hanging on to the dream that I was gonna have a studio of my own one day.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna back up just a little bit.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: When my youngest was born, my sister-in-law, my sister-in-law and I lived in the same area, and we were best friends before I started dating her brother, just FYI.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: So long history there.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: She was a hairstylist and a really good one.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we dreamed about having a little business together.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like my studio, her doing hair and makeup, having the salon next door.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if people were gonna get portraits, they could go get dolled up next door, maybe a boutique of clothes, maybe some sweet treats, a little bakery nearby, like complimentary businesses close by that we could all work together to bounce clients back and forth.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was a dream.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then we started moving all over the place, like I'd said.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: But that little dream was still in the back of my mind.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So every place we moved, I was looking at buildings and land.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, could this be it?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Could this be it?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is this a right place?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the right place?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we started homeschooling our kids.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: We Have moved to the San Antonio area, Bulverdi, precisely, just north of San Antonio.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was driving my daughter to work on this horse farm, and I drove by this piece of land in downtown Bulverdi.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say downtown Bulverdi, I say that with respect, but there's no blinking light.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's only stop signs on the side roads, and it's so small.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was this piece of property that we would pass on the way to the farm, and I would ooh in all over the light.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Look at those trees.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would place a family right here, and I would put my lights right here, and I would use this lens, and I would stand right here, and it would be gorgeous.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you build some stairs right here with some flowers on either side and some lantana, and the butterflies would come and it would be so beautiful.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a for sale sign on that piece of property, and I did call on it, and then I realized how much they wanted for that piece of land, and I went, wait, what?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, never mind.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So then that got my curiosity going, and I started looking at more land when I drive around town, and I started calling on more signs.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Little did my husband know.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: So then I started getting an idea of okay, this much land costs this much.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Starting, I was starting to realize like the lay of the town, where things were happening, where things were growing.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, hey.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then I got the nerve up to tell my husband my big crazy idea.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, when Sherry and I were hanging out, we had this dream of having this place where complimentary businesses could all be in one spot.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And okay.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then I started calling the phone numbers on these signs of commercial property.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the way he looked at me was just like, oh dear God, where are you going?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have big crazy ideas a lot.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a creative person and I'm a let's just get it done person and let's see how it goes.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't have much of a plan, but we'll figure it out later.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Person.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've gotten better with that over the years.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I told him my big crazy idea.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, we could build a wedding venue there.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but like I could use that as my photography studio during the week, and then we could rent out this space.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, hey, make a business plan.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I did.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I spent a while making a business plan.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started talking to family about it.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I started running the numbers.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I'd go to weddings, I would talk more about, hey, this is what you do.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would talk to the DJ, I would talk to the venue manager, I would talk to caterers.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was in it.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was sharing my idea.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had a name for it.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had told my in-laws, and they were like, this okay.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: We ended up buying that piece of land.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: We bought 20 acres of commercial land in downtown Bulverdi, which is called the Bulverdi Village, because it looks like a little village.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty small.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: The plan was to put a wedding venue on that piece of property, and we hired an architect.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: We spent a lot of money on that architect.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a lot of money.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I figured we need to figure out a way to make an income off this property without building anything.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: We couldn't build anything on this land because it was unplatted land.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, I have learned a lot in this process.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So this is July of 2021 when we bought this piece of land.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we did not celebrate the day we closed on that piece of land.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: We, I guess we did.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: We went to the property and we were like, woohoo! And we bought a bottle of champagne and opened it and walked the property.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Our neighbors came with us.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was really sweet.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't like a okay, we've done it.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a okay, now it's time to get to work.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize it until about a year later that the family that said yes to us did want to celebrate, did want that moment of, okay, we're starting this thing.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt bad about that because my mindset is not like somebody else's, and my love language is not like somebody else's.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: My likes, dislikes, skills, gifts, and it is important to recognize when someone else is in need of something when you are not.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we should have taken the time to celebrate and thanked them for helping us get to this point.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we were down the road of planning this wedding venue.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: We had gone to the city of Bulverti and shown them our preliminary plans.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: We had shown them our preliminary plans of this is what we plan to do.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is this something that the city of Bulverti would like to see in this area?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: They said yes.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: We were very excited, and I just knew that this was the piece of property because this area, it was the fastest growing county in the country for a period of time.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was like the top three for a while.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: It still might be, but there was 281 highway expansion going on just south of us.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was doing research on the growth of this area, and I found a traffic impact study that showed the roads that would be projected in the next 20 years.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning the town is growing, it's it's growing outside of San Antonio to if the growth rate continued like it was, the roads would have to be expanded to take on more people.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And these are the roads that would be expanded.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Then these new roads would be built.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And looking at those maps and seeing those projections, that piece of property that we bought was right in the middle of it.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it was taking 30 to 40 minutes to get to the downtown San Antonio area from this piece of property.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Once the highway was expanded, it'd take maybe 15 minutes.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: It would cut it in half.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I knew this was the right place, but there were multiple people telling me when we were in the due diligence period.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the period of time you get when you've put the land under contract.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: You have this period of time and you can negotiate it to be longer or shorter, whatever.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's your time to figure out is my plan going to work in this piece of property?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if it doesn't, then you can back out of the contract.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can say, okay, no, you can take my earnest money.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: This piece of land is not gonna work for me.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it was really important for this piece of land to be in a high traffic area.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I knew it was gonna work.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just knew it.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the people telling me, hey, you're gonna have to deal with the city and the city's regulations and the ordinance and stuff, and that's not always an easy thing.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you go outside the city limits, you don't have to abide by any of that stuff.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can just come up with a plan and build it.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, I need to be over here.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: I knew it.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: We started down this road of playing the sweating venue.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: We got about a year and a half into it, and that is when I started making big mistakes with my photography and realizing I cannot do all of this.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am a woman of God.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just gonna put that out there because I am not shy about it, and I'll probably talk about it more.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: I am a faithful person, I believe in prayer.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was praying about what I am going to do here because I'm feeling a little uneasy about this.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt God move.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I felt that I had been tempted and that I was going down the wrong path.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a thing called discernment.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: When you know the word of God and you believe in the power of prayer, you will have intuition.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: You will have a gut feeling.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: I personally believe that is the Holy Spirit telling me, hey, red flag, or hey, you're on the right path.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're on the right path.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: You may not believe that, and that's perfectly fine.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: We can still be friends.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: I promise.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: I personally believe that the Holy Spirit was prompting me to be like, you need to turn around, girl.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are going down the wrong path.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was being tempted.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: My original plan kept getting bigger and bigger.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started thinking, man, okay, we're gonna have a wedding venue.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna book it this many times a month.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then during the week, I'm gonna use it for my own photography clients.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then I can rent it out to people.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then we can, then, and then my husband won't have to work this corporate job anymore that he's not happy with and he's frustrated with, then he can work for the wedding venue.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it started snowballing, guys.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then the order of our house got flipped.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not what it that's not what God intended for our specific family, and that's fine.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to my husband and I was like, we need to talk.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: I need to talk to you.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that we're doing the right thing.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he took a big deep breath.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was a big deep breath of oh my gosh, what have we done?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was a I think you're right.
• 32:14
  unknown: Whoa, okay.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, like we have convinced family to buy this land with us.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: We owe them their money back.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: We told them this is what we were gonna do to earn this money back and to make this profitable and make it worth their investment.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, we have got to make them whole again.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: What are we gonna do?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I had started a farmer's market.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Back to unplatted land and learning a lot.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: This piece of land was unplatted, meaning we did not have the right to build anything on this piece of land.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there are rules and regulations in every town and every state.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to build something, you have to follow these rules.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: You have to take those plans not only to your city or where you're living, but you have to bring those plans to the TCEQ and show them this is what I'm gonna build.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is how big it's gonna be.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is how it's gonna impact the traffic, this is how it's gonna impact the water.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because, guys, when it rains and you have a building, the water falling from the sky hits the building, then it falls onto the ground, then it rolls, whichever way the topography lets it roll, then it goes into a storm drain, then and then and then and then you have to plan for all that.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: So this is unplatted land, meaning it's basically raw land.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: You have to go and get it platted and make it official.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought I've got to I've got to make an income off this property while we're doing this planning.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: There were two families, there were three buildings on the land, a big old house from like the early 1800s that they added on to over decades, a barn that was a shell of a building, and a little house, about 1800 square feet.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a family living in the big old house, there was a family living in the barn, and there was a group of men who were woodworkers that were renting the barn.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the land was making a little bit of an income.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: We needed to make more to pay for taxes and insurance while we were planning all this stuff.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, you know what?
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love going to farmers' markets, been doing it for a really long time, love taking the kids to home, don't need to build anything.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: We need to get insurance for it, and I just need to hustle up people that will trust me to come to my land.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I started the Monday Market Apple Verde in 2021.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: We purchased the land in July of 2021, and our first market was Labor Day, September 2021.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was a glorious day.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: We were so excited.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: There were six vendors, and I was the sixth one, so really only five.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we I had met a few people along the way, a few businesses in town.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking about this property that we built.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: We had some fringe at church that were commercial developers and were in small businesses.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we sought out their counsel.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, what are we doing?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can you help us with this?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have no idea what we're doing.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that very first market, oh my goodness, we were so excited.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: There was another family there that I had met through this process.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: She was starting a coffee trailer.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Her coffee trailer was being built.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: She was one of the vendors.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they worked out of a tent.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had been going to other farmers' markets talking about my plans and trying to recruit other people.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, there were five vendors plus me as an informational tent.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: The sun was shining.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful day.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And two hours in, we saw some clouds.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, uh, I think it's like way over north.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Looks like over towards New Bromfels will be fine.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at the radar.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's over New Bromfels.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna skirt south and southeast, and it'll be fine.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Ten minutes later, it's darker.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, I should look at the radar again.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that supercell is growing real fast and growing real fast and now coming straight at us.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Within 10 minutes after that, torrential rain, guys.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wind like none other.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: The water rose covering our feet within minutes.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: We were holding the tents because the wind was so insane.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Lightning, thunder, heavy rain, guys.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: I am holding a metal tent while looking across the street and seeing lightning strike in the lot next door.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let the tents go.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's leave.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we packed up, tents went flying, put multiple tents in the dumpster that day, and I thought, what in the world did I get myself into?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now that I'm on the other side, I can see that was the enemy trying to deter me from doing something good.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: My intuition, my discernment was right.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: And needed to make something of it.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to keep it.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: And by keeping it, you have to pay taxes and insurance.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's that.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I kept going.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was stalking small businesses on Facebook and Instagram.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was continuing to go to farmers markets, continuing to reach out to people.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you want to come?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you want to come?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you want to come?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of no's.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of no's.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of late cancellations.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: So people would say yes.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then they like I was waiting for them to pay me and something better would come up for them and they would cancel on me at the last minute.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it was two years, a year and a half, two years of me getting to the market and having empty spaces because people would cancel at the last minute.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I have got to do something about this.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: All the while I was still photographing weddings.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I would go to the market, I would start the market and then leave to go photograph a wedding.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I did that for about two years.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then I realized I'm really trying to wear all these hats and not doing it well.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: I hung up my photographer hat two years in and decided to transfer the market from the Monday market at Bulverdi to Bulverdi Market Day.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it was on a Monday afternoon, and I thought, you know what?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: I need to switch this.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: It needs to be on a Saturday.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: I did it on a Monday initially because I was planning to have a wedding venue on the property.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't have a wedding going on and a market going on at the same time.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Too much traffic.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that traffic impact study, it was too many cars, and the city would not allow for that.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know what?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna do a wedding venue here.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna switch it over.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when I was starting a market, then going home, taking a shower, grabbing my camera gear, going to photograph a wedding and not getting home until one o'clock in the morning.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was exhausted.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was missing my kids' volleyball.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was missing my kids' horse stuff.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was missing all of the things.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: And every time my kids saw me packing up my camera gear, they got sad.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you going?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have another wedding.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then my heart started breaking.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I transferred the market to a Saturday, it doubled in size.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, when I say double in size, I meant God blessed it.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: God was like, you're on the right path.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I can do this.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: I could do this.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great thing.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: I started seeing small businesses start thriving because they had a place during the day that didn't cost much overhead, and they were able to get the word out about their business.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: We were surrounding ourselves with people that all had different skills and we leaned on each other and it formed this community.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful thing.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes change is hard, and it's hard to know okay, is this the right change to make for my business?
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it can go two ways.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: It can go great or it can go south.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this was a good change.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're forced to make a change, and sometimes we can do it gradually.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, it's scary.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: But this coming September, we will be celebrating five years of the market and three years of it being Bulverdi Market Day on Saturday.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the market is every second and fourth Saturday of every single month, all year long, from 9 a.m.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: to 2 p.m., 2545 Bulverdi Road.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been going great.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: We start out with five tents, me being the sixth.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have 35 tents and three food trucks.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have installed electrical outlets for the food trucks, so we don't have generators.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a waiting list, it's a thriving community.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have regular shoppers.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's great, but it's also hard.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard because I feel like a chaos coordinate.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I call myself.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's legit, it's real.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: It is not perfect.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is not pretty, but it's doing well.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: It what started out as a side gig turned into my main purpose.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love these people.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: They are we're a market family.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: And watching these small businesses start out, then grow and grow out of the market is a double-edged sword.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the nature of the beast that has been created.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: And my mom actually said that to me not too long ago because I was a little heartbroken that some vendors were leaving.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, like they're leaving and they're great and poor me.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: And she was like, that's just the nature of the beast you've created.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: You've created a place for small businesses to start.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: The whole goal is to grow out of you.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I never thought of it that way, but you're right.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: But that's okay.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned that's okay because now there's more small businesses that need a spot.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is to grow.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we have home bakers, clay artists, woodworkers, all kinds of like really cool businesses that are popping up.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the opportunity for a storefront for the day that has almost no overhead is a great place to start.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then they build their business.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then they start dreaming of how I can grow.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then they get a storefront.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the goal.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like the coffee lady who we started at the same time, she got to where she needed to earn a certain amount for each event that she went to, and our little market was not cutting it for her anymore.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as sad as I was to see her move on, I know that it was the best thing for her business.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a baker right now that has been coming to Of the market for a couple years now, and she just opened up a storefront.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know that she's gonna be leaving here pretty soon because she needs to focus on her storefront.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: She's in this transition period right now where the storefront's just opening.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: That takes a lot of capital to start up.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's okay, I really need to make sure I'm earning enough every month to pay for all this stuff.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: So she's still doing markets, but then also still running the bakery.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there's gonna come a time where she's gonna realize I can't do all things.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: I need to put my effort over here and I'm gonna have to find another baker.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's it is a beautiful thing to grow.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to do that.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Putting my photography love on the back burner was really a move of faith.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And now I have been blessed with more growth.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: Although I still miss doing photography, I know wholeheartedly that I'm not supposed to make a business out of that.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: That may be a passion of mine, it's definitely a gift of mine, but I still use those skills at the market.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm photographing their products, I'm photographing the market, and I'm sharing that all across all my platforms to get the word out there.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: So in the countless conversations that I have had around the San Antonio area, I have been able to hear the why behind what they're doing.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm like, whoa, dude, you made a whole business out of this.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like a whole business out of this one thing.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: I need to hear more about this.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: What in the world?
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: How is this possible?
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: How do you earn enough money just doing this one thing?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then other businesses, I'm like, how do you do that?
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: How do you make that?
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: That looks wow.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: You made that by hand.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then I start hearing about how they got started and the struggles they had, the doubts, the successes, the oh my gosh, the surprises, business choices, the heart behind their business.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I am a curious person by nature.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so then I started thinking, I am legit interested in how you guys do things.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because what if you have a little insight of how you grew that's going to help somebody else?
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or what if you went through a struggle that someone else is going through and you have some good pointers for them to get through it?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: So this idea for the podcast started last year.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was called creatively devoted.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I'm a person of faith.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in Jesus Christ.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that some of us were gifted with a creative spirit that we're kind of crazy, you know?
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then some of us are gifted with like administrative tasks where you can like see the big picture and you really are great at helping someone else's small business thrive.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: We all have our gifts.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started interviewing people to hear their why.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I wasn't really, I really didn't have a plan with it.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I was wearing too many hats.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it just dissolved.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I can't keep doing this.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna put this on the back burner.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I have this intuition that this is important.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I have been interviewing businesses.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get behind on things.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was sick in January, I got the flu.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: It took me like two weeks to recover.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was legit sick for a week.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I was realizing I don't want to fall behind.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: So right now I'm in the preparing phase.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have been interviewing small businesses, gathering information, building the website, all of that kind of stuff.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then we'll launch it.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I want this to be a place of encouragement, encouragement through other people's journey, the lessons they can help somebody else.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe someone is looking to hire help, like the baker.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: She was talking about how she had help in her home business.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: That lady wanted to go her own bakery.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: So she ended up leaving.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now the baker is on her own.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm in a place too where I am having really early mornings on market days.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: I am at max capacity.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it would really be nice to hire somebody for market days to where I don't have to have 10,000 conversations all day long on Saturday.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to have somebody there that could be like, hey, you have a question about the market?
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: That person right there is not me.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get there.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get there.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Every dime that I have earned on the market, I have not taken income off of.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, this September Labor Day will be five years.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: All of the market income goes to the business account to pay for the development of this property.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the lot development, the plans for that, they changed too.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not doing the wedding venue anymore.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, that went out of the door two years ago, almost two and a half years ago now.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have been working for the past two years trying to figure out what to do with this 20 acres of land.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of small businesses, we are creating a space for more small businesses.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we have this market.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to be building permanent food truck pads so that these food trucks will have a home for the week during the week to be open.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we have designed this 20 acres to be the home for 11 commercial buildings.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: We will be selling the pad sites for the business owner to build their own building.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: Each building is a different size.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: So according to what your need is, if you want the 4,000 square foot building, great, divide it up however you want.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you want the 2,500 square foot building, great, divide it up however you want.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Use it however you want.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we are at the end of that process.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: We are about to be ready to say, hey, world, we have commercial pad sites for sale.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so excited.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is going to be great.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: It will bring more money to our local community.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many small businesses that would really love commercial space, but guys, it is no small thing to say yes to a commercial space.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just really not.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: And not everybody can do it.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody can say, I own this building and this is where my business is.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: You sometimes you have to rent, just like renting a home.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody has the finances to buy a home.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to rent, you have to start somewhere.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: And commercial space around here is not easy to come by.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the rent is astronomical and just going up.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we figured, you know what?
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like we really love this community and want to see it thriving.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: So there's all this space.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: We have these beautiful oak trees.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we have designed this piece of land to preserve as much of the natural landscape as we possibly can.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what drew me to this piece of property in the first place is the trees.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the lighting and the beauty and all of that when I wanted to do photography.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: I still see it that way.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: I still see it as a cozy place, a place with nature's beauty.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: We tried to keep as many trees as we possibly could.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: But when we did the tree survey, there was like 900 protected trees on this 20 acre.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: So then we started trying to figure out okay, we can shove a building in here, but where are we going to put the septic system?
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: Where are we going to put parking?
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: We realized, oh, we are going to have to cut some of these trees down.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a battle with the city.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: That was not easy.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: They have their ordinances, they have their rules, they're there for a reason.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand that.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's like a six-inch diameter tree that you're going to cut down, it's so much money per inch that you cut down.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we have spent all of our money just purchasing this piece of land and like retaining ownership of it.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: We can't pay X amount to cut down trees and then replant them.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then if you replant trees, you have to dig in the ground to put irrigation for those trees to live.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because if the tree dies within a year, you have to replant it.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if you dig a trench in the ground to lay irrigation, then that's going to mess with the roots of the tree next door that you really want to keep.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: And oh man, guys, I like I said, I've learned a lot.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is the end of this process.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm very excited.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think that it's going to be a great place for small businesses.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: So through these stories, I hope that it blesses you.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that it encourages you.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that it helps you with the struggle that you're having.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that new people get hired.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that businesses thrive.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I honestly hope that it will gift you with a win, no matter what size win it is.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: So now that you know how I landed here, I am really looking forward to all the conversations that I have already had and will continue to have with like-minded business people.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: So each month I will be sharing interviews.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: In between interviews, I want to be sharing shorter episodes, little helpful tips and things like that.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be growing.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know we will.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think local is so important with big box stores, Amazon.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Amazon's easy.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: But you're sending your money to Timbuktu.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there are so many people in our area that make similar products that are better quality.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: When I started looking at labels, I realized wow, this is made way over there.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: And these ingredients are not the best.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you are taking the easy route, I hope to encourage you that there is another easy route.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: It just takes some change, and change is hard, but it's so good when you see these small businesses grow into bigger businesses that are providing a much-needed service or product to the people next door, it feels really good.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: And guys, I guarantee you from watching the market over these years that when you buy from a small business owner, not even kidding, there is a happy dance that is done when the sale has been complete.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, there are smiles.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: There are legit, oh my gosh, this is what happened today.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are connections that are made.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is a beautiful thing.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's my hope to continue that.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for listening to my backstory.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I got here.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_00: A roundabout way.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you are interested in being a guest on the show to be interviewed, I would love to hear from you.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can email me at txbusinesstalk at gmail.com.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's txbusinesttalk at gmail.com.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: These episodes will be hosted on that website.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can also find these on the Bulverdi Market Day website, bulverdimarketday.com.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_00: I am hoping to make as many connections as absolutely possible.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to give a shout out to a business, please make a post about it and tag us so that we can grow this community.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing better than a personal referral.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: I wholeheartedly believe that.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you tag somebody, I will reach out to them.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Again, thanks for listening, guys.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: Love y'all.