Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Thursday, September 26th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailov here at 430.
We're going to welcome a natural resource educator and a Mitchell from UW-Madison Division of Extension Wood County.
Right now we have with us in studio our favorite people, our favorite people, just period.
We have the hitters with us. I'm just going to introduce you guys as the hitters now.
That's quick. We don't have time for any of that.
Right, but we're going to get right to it.
We have Katrina Steven and Mike with us today. We have other gang.
Good morning to everybody in radio land.
I'm here mainly to add color for your morning.
We appreciate that.
And just to describe his clothes are blue and green today, everyone.
Perfect.
Nice, rich, dark colors.
Some great stuff.
And I was just thinking we need more color in this segment.
So perfect, actually.
James and I are rocking the blacks here where you need to like, switch it up a little bit more.
A little bit, a little bit more, yeah.
Yeah.
I want to get right into things over there because it's a busy time of year for you guys.
We're going to talk anniversary in a little bit.
At presentation recap, but first, what's happening over at the shop?
Yeah. So like always, it is that that season.
Everybody's feeling busy.
We're all coming in, trying to boost up their immunity and everything like that.
I just wanted to do just touch base a little bit about a presentation that has gotten switched.
We've been talking about it a lot.
We're going to have an essential oil presentation, but it's going to switch a little bit.
Same date, October 29th at 515.
That's a Tuesday.
Same time.
All of that's the same, but we're switching it.
The essential oil presenter actually can't make it that day.
But we're going to do something fun.
We've been talking about doing for a while, and so it's going to be an experiment.
It's going to be a fall panel discussion.
So this one, we're not going to have Mike Hittner, but hopefully we can bring him into the panel discussion
with all of his lovely years of experience.
But at this store, we have a lot of experts in different things.
Whether it's pet health, we have two herbalists at the store.
We have a nurse at the store.
So we have a lot of diversity, and together we can really answer a lot of different questions.
And so we're leaving it as, come with your questions.
They can be anything from digestive to prenatal health to pet health.
I mean, you name it.
And if we don't have an answer, we'll figure out an answer.
How about prenatal pet health?
You know, we might be there.
That might be two of us working together.
Pretty good.
They're already trying to get me on the spot like this.
Katrina's ready for it.
I love that it's your own family, too.
Do I get to?
Yes, exactly.
It's so reminiscent of my own family.
She's used to it.
Yes, I am.
So you can clearly handle anything.
So it's going to be fun.
And I think we have done a panel discussion once years ago.
CBD days.
Yeah, when CBD was just kind of coming out, it was over five years ago, between five and
10 years ago.
One of our earlier discussions, we brought a farmer, we bought an expert from the CBD
industry and something that we had like three different people.
And that was one of our best attended lectures ever was this panel discussion.
And it was this, we thought about it, we're like, let's bring together some experts
and just let people ask questions.
And if people aren't sure kind of what to ask for questions, we're kind of, we're doing
a thematic thing.
So this one's going to be the fall theme.
And so we'll have different, yeah, we can maybe talk about immune system.
If it's crickets, we're not going to make it be crickets there.
And we're going to have like discussion points that we're going to talk about.
But ideally, it'll bring conversations about, it'll bring creativity and of course, answering
people's questions.
So definitely start writing down your questions.
Mark your calendar for October 29th at 515.
It's our fall panel discussion.
When you do something like this and you keep it loose where you can kind of go from one
topic to the next or kind of listen to the audience and kind of follow their lead,
you know, they that you only open yourself up to not only a real fun conversation, but
an opportunity for the community to be able to ask questions about things that maybe
they don't normally get a chance to.
Yeah.
It's a really wonderful idea.
I actually think that this with the popularity or something like this, you might end up
getting yourself in a routine here of doing this yearly or something like that.
That's a whole we're going to do maybe like a fall in a spring one.
So just trying it out and so that'll be, that'll be exciting.
Yeah, definitely.
We'll be reminding the audience about that and our morning shows and everything.
That's great to hear.
That's a fun one.
Yes.
I know you wanted to get into anniversary talk and dive right in.
I mean, we have so Stephen, I were just chatting with our dad before the radio and Stephen
said, you probably started the anniversary events.
Didn't you?
The customer appreciation days.
So we have the expert here with us, my kid and the one who has started it really as you
know, he's always said so humbly like really, it's our thank you to the community for
all their years of, you know, working with us for supporting us.
We're a family around business and I think it's a great idea.
What you started, what 30, probably about 30 years ago, yeah, 30 years ago.
So do you want to give the context for any way that's not new to what anniversary sales
are?
Yeah.
Or some highlights from past anniversaries.
Yeah.
Well, the anniversary sale is like Katrina said was our giving back to the community for
their support for so many, many, many years.
And it, it's held in the fall though, actually our anniversaries in the spring, but because
of the unknown weather and March, it was kind of decided, well, let's not do that.
Well, may I have a snow out or something like that.
And so this was our, our time to do it in the fall.
And I think it's worked really well for the community and for ourselves and we love to
see all the people.
I mean, we see people we have, we only see maybe a couple of three, four times a year.
We see people we see once a week and it's a great mix of people and the people come
there and they get to see the other people they know.
And so it gets to be, it's like a community event after a while because everybody's visiting
with everybody else and talking and saying, well, I use this for this and oh, you do, okay.
And so that, you know, it goes on and on from there.
But I think it's a great time and it's a celebration of the community and it's our celebration
of the people that come in and support us.
So, yeah.
You know, it's so interesting to hear that, sir, because honestly, when I've been at this
event over the years and I've heard people talk about this event over the years, they,
they, we're going to get to the sales and you guys go above and beyond when it comes
to sales and the different and things that you offer during this event.
But that's what I hear from people first and foremost is that the people that they run
into and get a chance to talk to, Terry and I were just talking about it, that this event
is one of those ones that people look forward to.
In part, mainly just so they can run into people or have, I have those conversations.
Maybe even ask some of those questions that they haven't had a chance to ask that they
have written down Katrina and they're like, oh, well, now I can ask you, so go on there
for this anyway.
Yep, exactly.
It's, it's, it's really cool what you've created with this where it was an idea of we want
to think the community, where the community has kind of been like, well, we want to throw
this right back at you.
We appreciate you guys.
We appreciate what you have here and giving us an opportunity to be able to have these
changes.
It's a mutual love affair.
It really is.
It really is.
It really is.
And it has been for a long time.
It has been for a while.
So yeah, we're going to celebrate our 78th anniversary, which is incredible.
And just to kind of give people like a little framework of what this one will look like.
So it's on Friday, October 4th and Saturday, October 5th.
Our normal business hours, those days.
So Friday is 9 to 6 and Saturday is 9 to 4.
It's going to be 20% off of supplements, homeopathics, CBDs, you know, different, like all of
our supplement line.
And then the cosmetics as well, so essential oils, or maybe you need shampoo or toothpaste,
what, what not.
So it'll be 20% off of those things.
And then what we love about it is there's a chance, right?
My dad was saying like, you get to connect with other community members.
And I just heard this from someone else the other day saying, I'm just excited to come
to see my friends.
And I said, yes, I love this.
It's a community event.
It's so fun.
But other things to look forward to for our anniversary.
So right, the 20% off of supplements and cosmetics, but we were going to have door prizes.
So you sign up to win a door prize.
And there's incredible door prizes.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
And everybody always talks about how like they said, oh, I won a prize last year.
They say, I never win anything.
That's because we try to get a lot of door prizes.
So you've got a high chance of winning.
It's not like there's just one item sitting on there and it's like, oh, I'm not going
to win that.
You know, it's like oftentimes we have over 70 different door prizes, we're calling people
for days.
Yeah, we are.
And it's a lot of fun.
And it's always fun seeing people come in and say, oh, I never win anything.
I'm so like, they're just overjoyed.
So that's something that's been really fun that our dad's actually done for a long time.
Another kind of tradition that we've carried on that he's done, he started, I don't know
when we can ask him, maybe you'll remember, is given away a free gift with each purchase.
And so we've got every year, we kind of, we kind of try to bring our best game to the
show.
We're like, what can we give away this year?
And we always want to give something to people that they could all use and they could
appreciate.
And something they can maybe even remember when they take it home.
So that's also a really nice thing is everybody goes home with a free gift.
That's in addition to all the discounts like a train of work.
And I think we should do a teaser.
We're not going to say what it is, but we're going to be working with, wow, I'm incorporated.
Oh, nice, nice.
In Wisconsin rap.
We feel heartily.
So we're really excited about that.
I do think that from now on, anytime Phil is talking about the company, he has to do
the way.
You have to say it that way.
I like it.
I was, I was in point yesterday, hanging out with my daughter doing a recording session.
And Bri has been coming to rapeteer a little bit more.
And she's been learning more about family and natural foods.
And I was telling her about the event here and everything.
And, and one of the things she asked right away, being a younger person and everything
as well, with all this stuff going on, do I, do I have to do this?
Do I have to do that?
Do I have a QR code to hit?
Do I have to?
No, no, none of that.
None of that.
Now a days it feels like if you want to deal on something, you've got to literally jump
through hoops.
Like you've got to have an app.
You have your soul.
Yes.
Yeah, you're signing off your mortgage.
You didn't even know you were a child.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rumpel still doesn't come over.
Like it's all these different things.
You guys.
We keep it simple.
Yep, it's, and I mean, you can ask the questions if something's on sale or not, but a lot of
things are on sale.
And it's going to be fun, right?
The door prizes we have, the sales that are happening, the free gift that you get.
There's all three samples.
Yeah.
We're going to have some different representatives with different companies that will be coming
in as well, talking about certain brands that people might be familiar with, like true
grace.
Or.
Which is a great Wisconsin based company.
Yes.
So yeah, they've got, they got a really, really excellent person there working and they
can answer all of it, you know, all the questions and more.
We can cover a lot of them, but she'll do a great job.
Friday we have Peter from Nature's Plus, and I think my dad worked with Peter.
Like that's how long Peter's been in this industry.
So he knows everything.
It's kind of unusual to get a rep that actually calls on, you know, days, you know, most
of them are over the phone or the internet or something, but actually a rep that calls
on, he's been doing it for about 25 years.
Yeah.
Really magic there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Peter's a great guy.
I just love connecting with him because he's really genuine.
He's from Minnesota.
So, you know, kind of like our neighbor here.
And yeah.
Yeah.
So that's Friday.
So then on Saturday, we're going to have, her name is Liz, and she works with, we've
talked about Gaia, that company that's, it's out of North Carolina.
It's a certified organic, herbal company.
They do really great blends and clean, clean gummies, not the ones that are taste like
sugar.
Yeah.
It's like the kind of thing you'd want to give to your kids or yourself for that matter.
Yeah.
So she'll be doing that in some protein powder sampling as well.
Lots of things to taste.
Then we have, his name is Philip, and he's with Clover Meadows.
It's an amazing grass fed, a two casing free milk that is just north, like near
wasa.
And so he'll be doing yogurt samples and milk samples.
That's on Saturday, and you'll taste, people will describe it and they'll say, this is
how milk should taste.
This is how the milk I grew up on, right?
And that's what you want.
It's non-imaginized, you know, it's what you want.
Yeah.
If people come in and say, like, oh, I grew up on a dairy farm, and I remember going into
the bulk tank and, you know, getting fresh milk, and they'll say, I've heard more than
one person say this, it tastes like that.
I haven't tasted that kind of milk since I was a kid on a farm.
And it's because all this milk comes from one farm.
So most of the times when you get milk, it probably comes from 100, I don't know how many
farms, 1000, you know, but, you know, all the milk comes from one farm, it's a biodynamic,
which is actually above and beyond organic.
So if you haven't heard of biodynamic, it's, I would compare it to organic standards.
So very high, you know, standards, everything's in glass.
So you don't have all the plastic going on.
And it's not homogenized, like Katrina said, and it's low heat pasteurization, you have
to legally have a pasteurized state of Wisconsin, but it doesn't have to be homogenized.
So this isn't homogenized again, really, really amazing stuff.
And the yogurts are probably my favorite person, because I'm a big yogurt fan, and they all
have like basically three ingredients, milk, the culture, and then like maple syrup, or
berries, like actual fruit sounds awesome, you know, real fruit, it's like a smoothie almost.
It's great.
It's great.
We sell so much of this yogurt, like how much are we going through a week or so now?
I don't know.
I can't keep track of it.
You need another order of it this week, so I think it's like over 24 bottles a week or so,
which is a lot for, these are full size bottles, like a little like day size.
So anyways, I'm really excited.
We've never had him in there before.
That will be great.
We've also got Tom Hack coming in.
Tom Hack with Terry naturally.
So we've had him years ago, but Terry is such a strong brand for us at the store.
It's really nice to have people ask questions.
And Tom is great there to really, you know, give some samples out as well as really direct
your questions.
And Tom is like, people have kind of got to know Tom because he's worked with Terry.
He's worked with Terry Natural since the beginning of the company.
And so like, I've known him forever.
I'm just like, he's like synonymous with the company.
So like, everything that people like about Terry, they really appreciate about Tom.
He's very genuine and he knows the answers about all the products and stuff.
So definitely any questions for about Terry naturally, the company, stop in and talk to Tom.
So this is going to be October 4th and 5th.
Our anniversary customer appreciation sale definitely come, join, bring a friend, come
on Friday, decide to come back Saturday.
We have people do that.
We love it.
We love, you know, smiling and thanking the community, which has been really fun.
Do you have any little like stories of past stories?
I think this would be a fun one for you guys is two different things that I remember he
was doing with the anniversary event.
Then we had Spiro's come in, who's a local community guy, likes doing video recording
and stuff.
And he kind of did like a little documentary.
We talked to customers.
My dad was kind of like the head interviewer.
So he'd go around and talk to the customers and Spiro's had recorded it.
And then we got these, we connected with some like customers who'd been shopping there
for years.
And that was fun.
And some new customers.
And I think Zach that time did a drone over the store and people coming in and that
sort of thing.
Yeah.
We had fun footage.
Yes.
And then we've also often had music at it.
And Leanne would probably be the most famous.
I don't know.
Do you want to talk about Leanne and what she did and how you started that?
Well, we just wanted to add a little pizzazz and we had some polka dancers in our employee
base.
And so Leanne is from Port Edwards area and she plays, you know, the accordion and everything
like that.
And she usually brings a friend or two that plays either horn or something else.
And so we got Leanne in there for a number of years and customers were going in the back
and we cleared out a space and they were poking and dislistening the music.
And so it was a great addition.
We actually even left the door open so people could hear up front a little bit too.
And it kind of drew people in because they loved the music and the great polka music
that Leanne plays.
Sounds awesome.
Totally.
I also a memory that I think of kind of through my childhood and helping out with the
store is we had a gentleman named Steve Gillis and he was the Barliens representative and
he would make popcorn and he would sprinkle the Barliens' flax oil on top and a lot of
people would recognize and remember that but the smells and the sounds were, we'd have
music in the back, popcorn, poppy and I mean it was like a good time.
Soil on it, James and people in radio land, it tastes almost exactly like butter.
So you get the benefits of flax oil but without the extra things and maybe you don't
need for extra butter but you don't have the calories and everything else and you get
the benefits.
It's a great mix and Steve came up with that on his own I believe.
Yeah.
He was great.
Is it well done maybe for maybe the 80th anniversary we'll have to bring back the popcorn
and say, okay, dancing.
I think you and I think the same thing about me.
So stay tuned.
Got it.
Definitely got to bring that one back.
At some point.
Okay.
So we have a few minutes to recap digestive health.
So let's see.
My radio.
A big presentation.
So yeah, we kicked off our presentation series this week.
It was on Tuesday and we had Dr. Tracy come through and she's so great.
She's a naturopathic doctor.
She's been doing this for 20 plus years and folks who come to it always come again.
Like they really like what she has to talk about because digestive health kind of relates
to everybody.
We can all improve our digestion.
It doesn't matter if it's acid reflux, constipation.
Well, like Dr. Tracy was saying, if you're eating foods right foods have nutrients in them
or your supplements have nutrients in them.
If you have a good digestive system, you're going to absorb things way better.
So everybody should really work on it.
It's what you eat.
What you absorb.
Yes.
And I think that's something that we don't always think about.
And that's why we really love the company she works with is vital planet.
Brenda Watson is the founder of that company and she's been doing digestive health for over
30 years.
And that's all she does.
So to have a company that's really focused on that is really special.
And I think it's an important pillar of our speaker series to always have at least one
or two events throughout the year about digestive health.
And Dr. Tracy kicked us off really well with that.
And I encourage people to stay tuned on our future speaker series.
We have, I don't know, we're going to have one each month and they're going to be great.
They're free to attend.
There's usually some free gifts and giveaways or some at this event.
Yeah.
Three people left with something that was going to be benefiting them for sure.
I was just going to say real quick.
And the time that I've talked to her or read about her, one of the things that came up,
I thought it was really noteworthy is how many people she talks to that don't realize
they're having digestive issues until they talk to her or hear her talking like,
oh, wait, that's not normal or I'm dealing with something because we don't talk about it
that much.
So we don't even know what normal is for a lot of the time.
So yeah, I encourage others to check out a lot of the work that she's doing over there.
It's really a smart person when it comes to this topic and really makes you comfortable
talking about these things.
Yeah.
We talked about poop.
We talked about that.
She talked about what poop should look like.
And I was trying to remember what the name is bricks, the bricks.
You can look and actually see what your poop should look like, everyone.
She's great at this stuff and just so really good at talking about it, where it's just
like you're talking about anything else, it makes it really comfortable.
And she reminded us too that 70% of your immune system lives in your digestive system.
So another reason of keeping it clean, keeping it healthy, we can recap on this probably
for hours longer, but it's definitely something we can all use, whether it's our brain,
our digestive system, it's fantastic.
So definitely come and ask us questions and we'll try to do our best recap on it.
Oh yeah, it's all fresh in our mind now.
So if you've got any questions on digestive health, tell them this week, but yeah, it's
fresher than ever.
And we got some extra handouts and stuff we can give folks to if they come in and just want
to ask us for them.
And keep in mind, everybody, that the gang of family and natural foods is always anxious
to answer your questions there, therefore that as much as to say hi and greet you.
Visit our friends over at family and natural foods at 910 West Grand Avenue right here in
Wisconsin Rapids.
And you guys are going to be with us before the sale, aren't you?
No, this is it.
So just a reminder, we have our 78th customer appreciation sale and it's going to be on
Friday, October 4th and Saturday, October 5th.
Come celebrate with us.
We will be sure to make sure that you guys get a great turnout and that's what you need
us, but we will be sure to be raving about this on the morning show and everything and
make sure you guys have a good turnout.
And I'll see you down there.
I'll be down there for it as well.
Thank you.
This is always love talk with you guys.
Mike, I don't, I don't really interview you.
We're co-hosts.
We co-hosts together.
Yes.
And I appreciate that, sir.
It's also interesting to hear about the documentary thing you guys were talking about.
I get that all the time when I get him out of the air with me.
I always get to co-host with him.
So it's great.
Good to see you, sir.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you, James, and WFHT.
Find out more at familynetrafood.com, familynetrafood.com.
Be sure to follow them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up to date and all the cool things that they are doing over
there at family natural foods.
Well, a more mint and day magazine coming up for you right here at 97.5 FM, 13.20 a.m.
WFHR, we are locally grown radio.
