You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime,
where we do what we say in the title, we lean local into the community here to see kind of what makes Greater Green Bay tick.
And, you know, today we're talking about part of the local economy.
People sometimes, they underestimate, a local storefront can be more than a place to buy things.
It can be the first real platform a small maker has to become a business.
We've got a great guest here.
Very interesting, been reading about her, some questions they put together.
But my guest is Andrea Fanta.
Right?
Fanta?
Fanta.
It depends who you ask.
I say Fanta because it rhymes with Santa.
All
Santa it is.
There we go.
Owner of Soul Purpose at Bay Park Square.
And she's built a business centered around supporting local artists, local makers, and small businesses, while also creating an online support community called WAMI AF.
We're going to get to that a little bit later.
Sure.
But you launched Soul Purpose to help local creators and entrepreneurs
gain exposure in retail space, which is a very cool concept.
Before we get into that, tell me who is Andrea Fanta besides the business owner title?
I
am a mom, a wife, and just a all-around busy body, I think.
So I love being part of the community and kind of getting involved and helping people, giving back wherever we can.
So my family definitely gets involved with that too.
born and raised here.
So it's funny because you mentioned we'll talk about mommy af later, but it actually kind of developed from that.
Oh, you can jump ahead.
Yeah, so back, I think it was 2019, which feels like a long time ago already.
My family was going through some stuff and I didn't really have a support system.
And so I created the online community, the mommy af group, before sole purpose, before COVID even, and it kind of became an online community of people like
connecting, creating friendships, business collaborations forming from that.
I was doing real estate at the time and I had an office and I decided I was ready to shut down my real estate career.
It just wasn't fulfilling me and I wanted to do more within the community.
And so we used the storefront that we had left where a real estate office was.
We had about a year and a half left on our lease.
And so we utilized the mommy AF group to find some local business owners who were looking for a place to sell their creations.
Yeah.
Obviously, you know, when you're paying rent in a space, you can't just bring people in and hope that their stuff sells and covers your costs, right?
So we kind of put together a business plan like you pay us this much per month and then this percentage to help us cover our costs and will help promote your stuff.
And at first we were like, are people really willing to pay for that?
But they were lining up.
So like, okay, this is catching on.
This is
We had all kinds of stuff.
So there's a lady who does
stained glass, someone who makes
own, like body lotions and soaps, just all kinds of fidgety toys and 3D printed stuff, cups and clothes and...
You know, I'm not the techiest guy that anybody in this room can tell you, but...
So you invited them to display their things, and then how does the ordering shipping, is it all just back to them?
And did you ever handle the product, or were you just totally a marketing company?
So we, yeah, they bring the product into the store.
Oh,
Yep, yep, physical store.
So they bring it in, we have an inventory system, so we make sure we're, once they leave the stuff with us, we're taking responsibility for it.
Covered by insurance.
So yeah, it's a whole, it's like Etsy in real life.
definitely more of like a, like a mom's community.
Like you've got, my kid needs help with potty training or whatever, post those things there.
But we knew, so we would do like on Mondays, we'd do a post called mom boss Monday, where people could promote their small businesses.
So then we would go to those posts and be like, we're opening a storefront.
Are you interested in selling your stuff?
So kind of the mom's group is still mostly for just mom stuff.
But then we use it for, to kind of feed the business stuff too and help those business owners grow a little.
There's a lot of moving parts in that.
Yes.
You're an entrepreneur in my eyes, and I think in your eyes too, right?
Yeah.
I mean, you take the risk and you're creative.
Yeah.
I love the entrepreneur.
Were you always like that when you're a kid, or was there a defining moment when you're like, look, you were in the real estate business, which is kind of entrepreneurial, but kind of can be a little bit corporate, depending where you work.
Tell me about the entrepreneurial spirit.
I believe in that.
I'm afraid It's not as strong as it used to be but I'm wrong on that.
Yeah,
so as a kid I struggled in school I was undiagnosed ADHD and so I could never like Find my way like I didn't get great grades.
I wasn't good at math.
So I knew I didn't
like college wasn't going to be for me and so I got out of school and like what do I want to do?
I ended up having kids at a young age and so there was a lot of struggle there and I wanted to be home with them so I'm like okay I definitely did the jobs where I worked in an office to pay the bills and get that stuff done but when I got married and we got pregnant with our last two like I don't
want to be away from my kids all the time.
We don't find a way to make this work.
And so we ended up art, I mean, fast forward now.
Our kids, we homeschool the oldest too.
So they're at the shop with us working sometimes or just hanging out with customers.
But yeah, it really, I haven't always been an entrepreneur, I would say, but I've always been creative and I've always found a way to connect people.
People ask me like what my art is because I own an art store and I say that my art is creating community.
I am pretty strong.
It's definitely scary to
take that leap and to do things like that.
But I also think that it's scary to stay exactly where you are.
And I think that people are afraid of change sometimes.
And so that's why they don't take risks.
And I like to live my life in a way where I don't have regrets.
And I could sit and think about starting a business and what that could look like for my family and never do it.
And I would have regrets then because I didn't do it.
So I can do it and we can maybe run it into the ground and we go broke, but we tried it.
Yeah, about
local
We have Mr. Burns Hot Sauce and some.
Seasonings, freeze-dried candy.
Right.
Yeah.
So they bring that in.
I'm making the stuff at home.
I need distribution.
I can't really get into festival, you know, but I need a place or JCPenney or whatever.
Yeah.
They come to you.
And then they pay you and you sell their stuff and pay them a commission.
100 vendors, that's a lot.
It is a lot.
It's a lot of personalities.
Yeah, we're open anytime the mall is open, which can be a challenge because when it's hot in the summer, there's not a lot of people shopping in the mall,
still have to be there.
But yeah, so we're there Monday through Thursday, 10 to 8, Friday, Saturday, 10 to 9, and then Sundays, 11 to 6.
Well, that's a lot of hours.
Yeah.
And I do have, like, the last few weeks, so my family's in the process of preparing to move across the country by the end of the year.
So I've got a store manager there who is kind of running the show right now, and will be taking over when we go.
So that's a whole different adventure that's... You're leaving your
Yes.
We'll probably not be connected to it anymore.
We're probably going to end up passing ownership.
We opened April 1st of 2021.
So we've been... So that's five years?
Yeah.
That's nice.
there.
Yeah, it's not cheap rent.
And it's not really, it wasn't designed to be a moneymaker.
It was a passion project, but you know, enough to break even at least to make sure you can keep the lights on.
Yeah.
When people say it's not really a moneymaker, yeah, it is.
I mean, just really do it if it wasn't.
So the...
I want to just touch on the entrepreneur thing.
I'm going to move on.
I got some other things I want to talk to you about your whole Facebook connection, all that stuff.
But before I do, I want to stick with the entrepreneur for a little while.
Do you think the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well?
I think people are discouraged because things are expensive and that makes it hard to be an entrepreneur.
But I do think the spirit is still there alive and well.
It is, yeah.
It doesn't do anything, really.
Absolutely.
I mean, today's, it's, I mean.
Right.
It's talking to somebody, some of my breakfasts, or somebody this morning looking for a housing, and I feel sorry for them.
They're middle-class, you know, they're young professionals, and they ain't gonna happen for a while for them.
It's hard.
And sometimes you gotta give a little bit.
Yeah, definitely.
We'll have some other ideas for them.
But people who succeed in small business and people who don't, and believe me, there's plenty of both, do you have a network of support for small businesses like are you a member of?
I get the whole mother's thing and you got all these little entrepreneurs working out of their homes and you're their distribution point.
But do you have somebody that you can bounce things off of saying, look, these people are driving me nuts?
What am I going to do about the utility bills are crazy?
It's eating me alive here.
Do you have somebody that you can bounce things off of?
Personnel things, especially.
Yeah, there's a couple of local business owners who have just been running small shops also that we have kind of a group chat that once in a while it's like, hey, I just ran into this issue.
Have you run into this before?
Or things like that.
But really,
I have found that a lot of people like to keep their secrets close to their chest.
There's a lot of like networking groups and stuff like that.
And I've been to meetings with them, but a lot of people are just looking for ways where they can make more money, not necessarily like collaborate and support other small businesses.
So we're always looking for ways to build more groups like that.
So I was in.
paper converting.
And we had a group, but there was another guy that was in dry cleaning, another guy that was in insurance.
So we had, there was nothing competitive about it.
And we made that very clear because especially, I'm going to say especially, but it's, I will say, especially in the converting business, there's a lot of secrets that you do to, you know, make and you don't want to share.
But anyway, it was nice to have, I just harken back, I think back to that.
And I think that support group really helped me a lot.
But I could tell them,
when I'm paying for rent and they weren't in the same business, they'd say, that's crazy or you should do that or buy the building or not buy the building that stuff.
So it's nice to have that as you go on here.
But do you think, and you kind of address this a little bit, but entrepreneurship, you think it's a bit harder or easier, but a little bit harder because
because the cost of entry now is more
definitely yeah to start a business you have to like you've got to have a product right if you're going to sell something and so you have to buy materials and you have to have a way to make sure people know about it and market your stuff so it's everything costs a little bit
of money and I think one of the reasons that people are in with you is because of the overhead cost I mean if every hundred of those people had storefronts they all have hundred electricity bills and a hundred you know rents and they can maybe work with you and make that more efficient
Is there something people misunderstand about small business?
Do you
think?
I think people definitely think that most small business owners are just like greedy corporate people.
We get that all the time people come in or like so you're just making money off of all these small businesses like well not really but not much money at all but I think it's providing a space for them that people just don't quite understand.
even you know the people in the store they bring us their product they pay a monthly fee they pay a percentage so they have to make sure that it makes sense for them to
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
I'm talking with Andrea Fanta, rhymes with Santa, about what it really takes for small makers and for local businesses to grow.
And what she does is,
It's very unique, but very necessary.
There are a lot of small vendors working out of their homes, their garages, and they need a place to display their products and to showcase, and they can't really all afford to have their own retail space.
So they collectively work with Andre, and she has a space at Bay Park Square Mall called Soul Purpose, cool name, and you can go in there and take a look at these
homegrown, if you will, right?
I mean, it's local talent and you have these products there and you can shop there.
You're open the same hours as them all.
Your business, unlike some traditional businesses where, you know, we do research, we test the product and it's all this, as they say, belly to belly, selling, knocking on doors, getting rejected.
Yours was built really around
Social media.
Yeah, like and Tell me about how you built this large online community with mommy AF you have two businesses and just for the listeners If you're just joining us mommy AF is more of a support group firm for mothers on anything from like
I don't know, do you talk about us?
Do you talk about husbands on there?
Oh yeah, that's like
I figured that'd be pretty good material.
But you know, if your kid's acting out, you know, how do I handle this thing?
And that is very, very active, right?
You have a lot of people who tap into that.
And then you have this, I can also help you sell product if you're working out of your home and at this distribution point.
So, but.
You built this large community and what did Facebook allow you to find that maybe you weren't finding somewhere else?
I think the nice, now keyboard warriors exist right on the internet.
There's the person behind the keyboard who's saying all the negative stuff.
But there's a lot of people out there who I think have really positive things to offer and they don't necessarily put it out there unless they're prompted.
And so that's one thing that I've noticed with the groups a lot.
is that people are willing to share their advice more like it's like they just needed somebody to share it with you know maybe they didn't have somebody in their life so it's really cool seeing like this group community of people just keep growing because somebody's like oh i posted this here and i got a lot of helpful responses i'm gonna invite my friends to this group yeah so then it just keeps growing and then you just have more resources when you need help
Oh, there are.
And obviously it's the internet, so there's no way to know for sure.
So I have about 20 different people who help me go through all of like the member requests.
So people have to answer questions before they can join the group.
All right, cool.
And we put like trick questions in there because if they're a bot, they'll get tripped up and they won't know how to answer it.
So there's all kinds of things that you can do to kind of
block it to make sure that we're not getting a bunch of robots in there.
So in listening to you one would think that this is awesome you got these mothers who thousands or hundreds I don't know how many you have but it's a lot it's a lot that that can get on there and talk about everything from their lazy husband to their
kid that's acting out, Archon is back when he's supposed to be doing something or acting out in church.
And then you have this other social network of vendors that can come together.
From an outsider, it sounds like, well, that's cool, like the world's getting closer.
But do you think there's things contrary to that, that Facebook has isolated people more than brought people together?
Definitely.
I'm just wondering somebody like you who
has a bird's-eye view of the whole thing.
Do you think people are more isolated or do you think they're more connected because of social
media?
Social media can definitely bring people together, but I think sometimes there's a disconnect.
So when we started these online groups, it was great to have that online resource, but the ultimate goal was for people to find their people and get together in person, because I think people really need human interaction.
And so social media, I think, also gives people a place
to isolate and feel like they're still interacting, which I don't know how healthy that is either.
It's not real.
You're just talking on the internet.
But so I think people just still need to take it a little step further and still have that human interaction.
Social media is good.
It's great.
I think there's something missing from online relationships compared to face to face.
Even when COVID hit, and it has a little bit to do,
Like, I never liked selling over Zoom and all that.
And I know it was very popular.
And we had board meetings over Zoom, and I just didn't think they were as productive.
I mean, I would much rather, you know, if you had to wear a mask, but go and be in the same environment.
Like, interviews like with you coming in here, and we just met you today, but, you know, we could have done this over the phone.
We could have done it.
But I don't like that because I think I feel like I know you better now just in the 20s.
It's
just more personal.
that.
That was our ultimate goal when we created like the first mommy AF Facebook group was to get we would do events like mom, friends, be dating events so people would come and do each other.
Okay.
Definitely.
It works for some people.
And some people are like, I have zero interest in going to that event, but I would love to hear about it when it's over.
And that's fine.
Yeah, we started doing the first year we opened.
We did a mom prom.
So we invited all the moms out to come out and get dressed up.
We had a DJ and threw out a big event.
and then all the guys got jealous.
So now we start doing an adult prom every year for the husbands too.
Really?
Yep, in April.
It's a big event.
600 people.
We pick a local charity and we raise money for them and just dance the night away with 600 strangers.
So it really depends on which events that you're trying to be part of.
So there's, the mom group obviously is just for moms, the money AF, but there's also a dad AF and a married AF and a, what else is there?
There's like 75 different groups because the goal was for people to find their people.
It's a lot to manage.
Maybe I need a business person to tell me about that.
I can help you with that.
I'm going to be right back.
This is Lean Local with Jim Schmidt.
Welcome back, everyone.
This is Lean Local with Jim Schmidt.
And I'm back with Andrea Fanta, who's a very
interesting, unique entrepreneur.
And what she has done, given the times we live in, is really built two very strong organizations.
One is called kind of mommy AF, but it's where mothers can go and just network, talk to each other, network each other, ask questions about everything from cooking to raising kids to lazy husbands, just a number of things.
And then she's got another
business, again, done through the social media, that talks about how if you're making something at home and you want to sell it, Andrea can help you with that.
She's got a retail space in Bay Park Square that's open the same hours as Kohl's or any other store.
And she's got 100 vendors that send her product or drop product off.
And then she manages the store and sells it and gives them an outlet to have people come in and touch and feel it versus everything being online.
And that is interesting.
I want to just talk to you about the society.
We talked a little bit about
Are people more isolated or closer together?
Are they seeing each other?
Because from a guy like me that came out of the belly-to-belly cell as they used to call it.
That's all I did was travel.
I'd leave Sunday night and just come back Friday.
It's exhausting.
It was, but it was everywhere.
I traveled quite a bit.
But I really got to know my customers, not just what they bought.
I understand their inventory, but I really got to know them.
like baseball or if their kids were doing and stuff like that.
So anyway, it was cool.
That stuff matters.
I think it does, too.
That's why most, a lot of my real estate relationships, even though I haven't done real estate for five years, that's how I know a lot of people that I know.
It's because I threw the Christmas parties.
Right.
And I got them gifts with new dog tags with their dog's name on it, with their new address.
personal things that people care about.
And I guess you can do that through social media, but there's really nothing like going and handing them the, you know,
That's the gift for their dog.
That would mean a lot to me, by the way.
I'm a huge dog lover.
Before we get into this next segment, I have some questions here I want to go through.
I want to thank a couple of sponsors here.
I don't know where you bank, and there's a lot of great banks, but one of my favorites is Nicolet Bank.
They're here in Green Bay.
They started in 2002.
And you just want to hear about people just starting banks.
You always think about associated or these banks that have been around forever.
And these two young guys, Bob Atwell and Mike Daniels, just said, look, we're going to start a bank.
We're going to be more community focused.
We're going to hire the right people that are engaged in the community.
And they built that.
And it's a huge bank now.
They just received the Free Enterprise Award last week from the Rotary.
Very cool.
It was a great bank with a great event.
But their values have been consistent.
And Bob got up there when he got the award and just talked about it, how being real and just being local in the community and being fair.
They've just done that for, what, 24 years now, it's 25 years, I guess, that they've been there.
Again, very successful, and they've just done what they said they were going to do.
And they do everything.
They do car loans, student loans, obviously houses.
But my experience with them is they're a good business.
Because business is tough.
Banks are good to you.
Things are good.
Right, yeah.
When you're bringing money into that, yeah, I like you.
Then they got to sit down and really help you out.
They don't give up on you.
And Nicolay's like, look, we got to work this out.
And they do.
And they are so charitable.
As you know, I work at the new community shelter.
They're very generous to us.
And so many things.
I mean, you see Nicolay's name everywhere.
Yes.
The reason they're so successful is that they just give so much to the community.
love them as a bank.
So it's just NikolayBank.com.
If you want to check them out, they got, you know, wealth management department and like I said, all sorts of different people working in different aspects of your life to help you get the best deal that fits you, your lifestyle the best.
So, yeah, give them a call.
So I want to thank Nikolay Bank.
Hey, so we're talking your
Business is built a lot on social media, a lot.
Your mother's group and even your retail business is done through the internet and through social media.
But do you worry about, like you see it all, do you worry about where society is heading or do you think we're heading in a good direction?
I think it depends on who you hang around with and what their perspectives are because what I see
A lot right now and I'm probably pretty guilty of it too as I think as a society We enjoy a good echo chamber and we tend to find the people who agree with what we agree with and stick with them and I think it's important to not lose the ability to listen to different perspectives because Things don't change if you just stay the same, right?
So I think as a society like I do think there are a lot of people who are just kind of stuck right now because they don't really know what to do but
I think, I don't know, it takes all kinds of people to make a society work and to grow and evolve.
Right, a diverse society.
Absolutely, yes.
So I think as long as there are still people who are pushing the other people, I think we can still progress.
And even when it comes, and I delve into politics, but
If somebody just watches one station and reads one journal, that's not healthy.
I have a brother like that.
And I'm like, look, man, you just got to pick up, switch to channel.
But yeah, that worries me a little bit.
And I think people, even on social media, they'll get into something and they just feed more into that subject matter.
They The algorithms know what you're looking at and they just give you more of the same
and you would never say that to a person in real life The things that you see people type online.
Oh, yeah when they get in those arguments if I wouldn't say it to your face I'm not gonna sit there and waste my time typing it to you,
you know, I'm pretty honest, but
I think there's some of both.
I do see like my kids love to be on their phones.
And if we let them, that's where they'll just sit.
And I get it because you can find everything you need on your phone now, right?
Like you can literally talk to your friends, you can order dinner, you can order your groceries,
Like, there's not much you can't do from your phone.
So I understand the appeal of it.
But I do think that a lot of the kids, like my kids especially, I work from home, my husband works from home, they get bored sometimes.
They're like, let's go out and do something.
And I'm not a go out and do something kind of person.
I like to be home.
But it's good for me to see my kids still wanting to go out and be people.
not completely wanting to just isolate.
So I think it's easier to isolate for sure.
So that's the big part of...
A little bit of gratitude.
Right.
But I also think if we can come up with a program where we need high school volunteers, I think it gives them a chance to meet kids.
Your kids are homeschooled, but sometimes schools are a little cloistered.
My kids were lifeguards, and what was good about that was that there were kids from East, West, Proble, and it was cool.
They met
friends
that they would have never, ever met had they not been a lifeguard for the city of Green Bay, that's what they did.
And I think those volunteers, like I said, I work at a homeless shelter, and when we have kids serve community meals, that's pretty cool, because they're like, where do you go to school?
And as long as they're all within, you know, sophomores, juniors, you know, you don't want to get...
young kids with old kids that can be creepy.
So I kind of want to, I'm not sure I got the answer on that, but you think younger generations are becoming more community-minded or more disconnected, and your kids are becoming more community-minded, that's because you're making them become...
Yeah, and I think that's a big part of it is...
your kids, you are the biggest example your kids are going to see.
So if you also are sitting there on your computer or your phone all day and you're not doing something to get involved with the community, your kids aren't seeing that.
They're learning it from your example.
So even if we as adults don't feel like going or like going to the farmers market or going and doing that social activity, I think it's good for your kids to see you do it even if you don't feel like doing it and having that discipline to just make yourself leave the house.
That is great advice.
And yeah, we homeschool.
So they don't really have a lot of interaction, but we utilize the store a lot.
We have a Pokemon Club and a book club and
different groups where people from all over the place come and get together and talk and they have their little social circles.
I
I think it has the ability to do both, but I see it definitely the way I use it anyway, bringing us closer together, because there are so many people that I meet through these online communities that I never would have met before.
You know, there's because, you know, it stinks to go through a struggle, but because I struggled with this, and I posted it here in this community, people from, like our mom's group isn't just Green Bay, it's an international group, so there'll be people from California and New York.
commenting on the post.
Really?
Because things are different cultures in different states even, you know.
So this is how we do things here.
This is how it's helpful to have those outside perspectives.
And I think it helps bring us a little bit closer together.
That
gonna happen.
No, no, no.
Yeah and we that's a lot of work.
Probably three years ago we started doing homeschool and we do so it's partially homeschool and then we also utilize an online charter school.
Right.
So they actually have teachers that they talk to throughout the week.
Okay.
Which is helpful because I'm not good at math but I get lost track of your
It was just it was like what kind of world do you want them to grow up in?
I mean I'm kind of like people something my wife and I talked about like
We're glad we're not raising kids today.
Yeah.
But on the other hand, there's a lot of cool things kids could do today.
Kids travel a lot more than anything when I was a kid, you know.
And there's just a lot of cool stuff that can happen.
But I'm just curious, as a mother and someone who runs a mother's group with a thousand people that tune in, what kind of world do you want your kids to grow up in?
I want my kids to grow up in a world where people can just be who they are.
Because I think if everybody just had confidence, I think a lot of things boil back down to that.
Everybody is trying to impress somebody else with what they're wearing or their car that they bought or whatever it is.
And I really am focused on making sure my kids know that they are cool.
Like, you are my kid.
Like, you have pink hair.
You like to swim.
You like Pokemon.
You're cool.
It doesn't matter if somebody else thinks that that's nerdy.
That's not your person.
Right.
So I think,
yeah.
That's great advice.
Yeah.
So just encouraging people to
people and be who you are because that's how you attract your people.
And it's hard when they're surrounded by other people who you know, yeah,
Yeah, all right We're gonna take a quick break, but then we're gonna come back here and you know, we don't know each other that well We actually just met today, but I'm gonna hitch up about your political ambitions.
Oh boy I think it's interesting because I think I worry sometimes of
Who's in office?
And I just think diversity is strong in there.
And obviously you have a different perspective than some other people.
And I want to talk to you a little bit about what you look for.
So we'll be right back.
You're
listening to Lean Local with Jim Schmidt.
This is lean local with Jim Schmidt and Yeah, I'm really enjoying our conversation here because I think we're two different people.
I mean we grew up in two different Times you social media build two biz two huge businesses around social media and You know, not like I sold Kirby backing plans, but I was kind of a door-to-door guy, you know unlike you but And you see the world from
Like I said, a different perspective than some of us.
You are very open to people being who they want to be, and I think that's cool.
Even though we live in this politically divided time where people are going to be in one box or another, you seem to be more open to whatever the individual wants.
Yeah.
I definitely get accused of being liberal AF, and I'm fairly liberal, but I definitely think that
We only hear What the media wants us to hear so I think that it's important to look at a person and have a conversation with a person right and talk to them about what they think about something versus just throwing them into a box
day and
and they
yeah
people I say what's the common thread with homelessness and you know is it alcohol and it's that's a problem I mean 70% of our people we have 160 people that live at our place and 70% of them are in some kind of treatment which
And you can look at the reasons for that, but the 100% is their childhood, I think.
Absolutely.
Yeah, most people think they're not homeless because they're an alcoholic.
Usually, that part comes after.
You got to look at the underlying
got you there.
And
You know what I mean?
Like, you can't really dwell on that.
But they're still there.
But it's there.
And it's something that's just to no fault of their own, I'll tell you that.
So you're born and raised here.
You've got a pretty good pulse on the community.
Do you think of Parlene, some of your experiences into a political run for office, city council, county board, assembly, or I don't know?
I have been asked that before.
Yeah, I'm sure you have.
Yeah.
I have a bit of a potty mouth and I'm not always good at biting my tongue when I'm in difficult conversations where I have strong opinions.
It's never really been on my radar.
I think the more things keep changing and I guess the more outraged there is within our community, people often look to me like, well, what are you going to do about it because I run all these things?
And that feels like a lot of pressure sometimes.
But I think even without running for office, we do a lot of stuff to help our community in ways that I hope I wish that more politicians would.
I'm glad that you're working with the shelter and helping people there.
We run, we've got a free community covered inside our store.
So we have a fridge and a freezer and then a bunch of shelves.
Community comes in, they donate stuff, people come and they grab it whenever they need it.
But sometimes people are nervous about coming in to grab stuff because they're afraid they're gonna get dirty looks and stuff like that.
And it happens.
So it's hard to see stuff like that and not wanna step in and make big change, but I also don't really ever know where to start with that either.
Think there are a lot of businesses who are putting forth a little effort.
I just think
There's, individually, it's hard.
As one small business owner, I do a few things, right?
But I can only do so many things.
I can't spread myself completely thin.
But I think that if more business owners were less focused on being in the spotlight and doing their good deed, like posting it on social media, if they're gonna do this donation, instead of taking that effort and energy and putting it there, if they collaborated with other small business owners, I think we could do so many cool things.
And I try and I reach out to other small businesses and it's crickets.
It's like pulling teeth to get people to even respond to you and say no.
I
think sometimes they're a little bit, they might be paranoid too about like, they think they're being scammed and I don't think it's all scammed.
We've had a couple in Green Bay, but nothing to make sure.
Tell me, let's talk, you know, we're both living here now and we both care deeply about the community, but tell me what Green Bay does well right now and what Green Bay could do better.
I think, and I,
Green Bay, I think, is a very diverse place.
We've got a lot of really cool things.
And I think that it's growing.
I do see a lot more small businesses popping up.
Unfortunately, I see them closing almost just as quickly.
So I think Green Bay needs more resources for small businesses, because I think everybody's shop small, support local, but they don't actually do it, or they don't
help spread the word.
People don't understand that like running a small business, you need customers every day.
So if somebody's coming in to shop for their mom's birthday, that's great, but also coming for your dad's birthday and for mother's day and for Christmas, or we can't stay open, you know?
So I think, sorry,
it got stuck.
I would agree that I don't think people okay so Green Bay has some small businesses but like you said there's a lot of them that open but there's a lot of them that close and the reason they close is I've talked to some people nobody came in for like two days I mean
The bills are there every day.
They are, yeah.
And I think it's important, and that's the part of the collaboration.
And that's why having 100 small businesses within our store, it's helpful.
We do, like in the slower months, when people aren't spending money, some of the artists will come in and they'll host a class.
So they'll charge a ticket price for that class.
So you have something coming in, but it's, I mean, it's still work to get that.
You know, it's marketing that class and it's like pulling teeth sometimes.
That is a great question.
I Don't know if I've even thought that far ahead.
Um, it goes quick, right?
Yeah, it does.
It does unbelievable.
I
I think that Green Bay has headed in the right direction.
I think we've got a lot more, we've got a lot of diversity, we've got a lot of places for people to gather and collaborate.
So I think Green Bay is doing that really well.
I'm hoping that in 10 years, there's a lot more smaller organizations that have joined forces to not get rid of Walmart, but you know, like big organizations like that, they don't know, they don't sponsor your kid's soccer team, right?
cool, right of
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.