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Ellen has a diverse background: she studied acting at Ohio University and moved to New York to pursue it, but quickly found that wasn’t the career for her.

In her fifteen years in Brooklyn she managed a bookstore, was a kitchen manager for a cafe, studied pre-med at Hunter College, and then fell into the fashion world where she worked for many years.

She’s now funneling her energy into Alakazam, which she took over in March of 2019, and feels she has found her calling!

Listen in as Ellen shares what it has been like to use her platform to raise awareness about the causes that matter to her community, how she has deepened connections and relationships with customers throughout the pandemic, and how growing a team has given more time to plan for the future.

Follow Alakazam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alakazamtoys/ and shop now on their website.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please share a rating or review! Thank you for your support.

Follow us on social media @sincerelyyoursmallbusiness.

Transcript

[00:00] Speaker A: As a frequent shopper of Alakazam. It was so fun to talk to Ellen Joy. For this episode, we talk about taking something terrible like Covet and turning it into an opportunity to embed ourselves into the community and how failure is a necessary piece of learning how to run your business. Coming up on the Sincerely Your Small Business Podcast, the podcast for learning all about the business owners you love. And joining us in real, raw conversation, you've always wanted to get to know your favorite local business owners, but with everyone's busy schedules, it can be hard to actually sit down and chat about it all. The Sincerely Your Small Business Podcast is your window into what inspires them, makes them tick, and how they've grown as business owners, community members, activists, parents and friends. I'm your host, Jess Norby. Ellen has a diverse background. She studied acting at Ohio University and moved to New York to pursue it, but quickly found that wasn't the career for her. In her 15 years in Brooklyn, she managed a bookstore, was a kitchen manager for a cafe, studied premed at Hunter College, and then fell into the fashion world, where she worked for many years. She's now funneling her energy into Alecazam, which she took over in March of 2019, and feels she has found her calling. Welcome, Ellen. Hi.

[01:38] Speaker B: Thank you.

[01:39] Speaker A: I'm so happy you're here today.

[01:41] Speaker B: It's so nice to talk to you. Thank you for having me.

[01:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Can I just say that I just am so appreciative of you and your team in the store. There have been so many instances where I have purchased things for my daughter or for friends that need it only for their kids or gifts. And if I need to choose the delivery option, I mean, it just comes so quickly and the service is so amazing and it's just, like, better than ordering from a big box store, which is obvious. But I just wanted to share this with you.

[02:07] Speaker B: That's super kind. Thank you. Yeah. We are still offering delivery. I just feel like maybe that's going to stick around forever because there are always circumstances where people are like, oh, my gosh, I need something, and I can't leave my house right now with my sick child.

[02:24] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. I mean, the most recent time I shopped delivery from your store was my girlfriend. Her son tested positive for COVID. And so, naturally, everyone was quarantining. And it's just such a nice surprise to send them something while they stay in the house with each other for I don't even know how many days, because I can't keep track of the rules, but they were inside. And I got a surprise gift from Alexander, and she just was so appreciative and yeah. So thank you for continuing to do that.

[02:49] Speaker B: That is so sweet. Thank you so much. Well, I have memories of being, you know, with my first child, living in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and both of us being so sick or even just me being sick and being healthy and being like, oh, no, what are we going to do? And it would have been nice to have an option that wasn't television because I don't know. But my kid just is stimulating for him. He can't sleep or anything when we have too many screens.

[03:19] Speaker A: Yeah.

[03:20] Speaker B: I'm always looking for alternatives.

[03:22] Speaker A: I hear that well when I use them. When I lived in Charlesville, I wasn't even sick. I just didn't want to travel out with a towel.

[03:29] Speaker B: You know how what it's like 100% sorry. Remember those days very well.

[03:34] Speaker A: Even, like, going upstairs to get something like Skylar, I'll be right back. She's like, no, I want to come. And it turns into, like, going upstairs to get a towel takes, like, five minutes.

[03:42] Speaker B: I know, it's exhausting. I mean, they're so cute. It's totally worth it. But it's also just like, let me have that base. Exactly. What are you, a helpless human being that I have to take care of?

[03:54] Speaker A: Yeah, what's up with that?

[03:57] Speaker B: Okay. I guess so. Oh, my gosh.

[03:59] Speaker A: Can we talk about your decision to take over the store? And just leading up to that and.

[04:05] Speaker B: What that was like many things in my life, taking over the store was an opportunity that popped up. So I was taking a 16 week workshop at CIC. Hey, CIC, you're awesome. And that's it. I know. They're amazing. And I had planned to open a children's bookshop was the idea. And I didn't even think. I was like, you know, I like this idea. It's probably never going to happen. Just not how you're supposed to think. But I was just like, it'll probably be at least a year before I can move forward because I had a two-year-old at home. I mean, things were complicated. Just lifewise. We only lived in Charlottesville for a couple of years, and then I got to the end of that workshop, and I was approached by Stephen, who's the president of CIC, who said, you know, I feel like this isn't what you're doing, but maybe there's some crossover. There's a toy store that's for sale, and I thought you might like to just investigate that. And so I went home to my husband, who was like, absolutely not. And then we spent some time thinking about it. I spoke with the previous owner for a while, and it turned out to be, honestly, one of the best decisions I've ever made. It is this wonderful mix of it's like, all of my interests meet here, and I'm really grateful that it worked out this way.

[05:36] Speaker A: I love that he just approached you and was like, I feel like this would be a good fit for you.

[05:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I should send him a present or something.

[05:50] Speaker A: What have you changed since taking over? Like, did the vibe stay the same? I didn't have kids then. And so I didn't really need to shop there. But what has changed?

[06:00] Speaker B: No, and I say this with all the love in my heart, I do feel like the previous owner was done. She was ready to not be doing this anymore. And I think in some ways the store reflected that. So when we took over, you know, the first thing we did was focus on a culture shift. It was about taking down the signs that said don't touch anything and all the stuff that you can't do. Because I thought this is a space where you should be able to have a sensory experience and there were some places that you could do that. But anyway, I felt like we could open that up more and I also shifted the buy. So as we started to buy for the store, I realized, you know, the toy industry is so wide open. I mean, many industries are, but there is just this massive range of products, right? And so in trying to narrow that focus, I started to ask myself some questions. And, you know, not to do a pitch, but it did end up being sort of like our mission statement, which is that when we buy, we curate based on five principles and that is design, which is not just how something looks, but also does it clean well? Is it playable, is it easy to learn, is it easy to store but also playability? So that means is it a sensory experience? We don't carry too many things that just sit there on the shelf. Inclusivity has really important to me. The toy industry has gotten better. But when I started buying just a few years ago, there were not many options just in terms of not only products that were diverse or show diversity in children, but also marketing and packaging, which I think is almost as important, if not just as important. So we're talking more than just dolls, but also that outdoor toy. Like what does the kid look like on the package of that outdoor toy? Then price point, which is still always and always a consideration. Just like how can we as parents not be broke while trying to have a fun experience with our kid? Yes. And then the ecology, the sort of eco effects of things. In other words, like not just how things are made, but what's their sustainable impact in terms of I don't know, if I'm looking at something and I'm like, you know what, I feel like a kid would take that home and put it right in the trash, then we're not going to carry it.

[08:49] Speaker A: The fact that you were able to pause and reassess kind of like, well, how do we want the vibe and the culture of the store to be now that you're the owner I think is huge. And when I walk into the store, I feel that I am glad to see baby dolls that have more than one skin tone. And every toy I bought from there, like Skylar has used a repurposed. And just the most recent thing we bought was the Tender Leaf ice cream cart.

[09:15] Speaker B: The best. It's cute, so much fun.

[09:18] Speaker A: And she will take those ice cream balls and put them in other containers and then it's just like the way we can use them is so, so great.

[09:29] Speaker B: I love that. Yeah. It is amazing what they do, how they choose to repurpose their toys. And I can speak from my own experience. My eleven-year-old is still repurposing things that he played with when he was three. I mean, it's amazing what they do.

[09:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. The imagination is wonderful. And this kind of leads me into my next question or thing I would love to ask you. I just love how on social media and in the store, you're very active in supporting and talking about the causes that are important to you. And was it an easy choice for you to be like, hey, as a store owner, as a store, as a brand, like, we're going to talk about this stuff in order to give back to the community and take part and knowing that that might alienate some customers from you?

[10:14] Speaker B: Well, I think that the prospect of alienating any customers is always scary. But when it comes to certain things, whether it's Black Lives Matter or gay rights or trans rights, or Gosh, any of the things that I think about and believe in, I don't know that there is a choice. For me. I think about this a lot because I have a really awesome employee who's younger than I am, and she always kind of keeps me on point, you know? And so if I say, like, hey, I think we need to do we need to talk about this, or we need to say something about whatever the thing is that I want to talk about, she'll say she'll kind of check me. It's like, are you doing this? Is it helpful for you as a business to enter this conversation? And I think that that's a really important question. And what I always, and maybe this is, I'm not sure, but I almost always come back to yes, because I think that we have voices and those voices can be heard by lots of people. And with the megaphone that I have, even if it's on a smaller scale, I think letting people, for example, when George Floyd, when all that horrible stuff happened, letting people in the community know, hey, we don't think that this is okay. I feel like opens the conversation up in a different way. Like I think a lot about, I have a lot of people I love who are gay. And I think a lot about, there's a lot of debate about is it like when it's Pride Month, it becomes commercial now and it's, you know, like, and I get that side of it. Absolutely. But I also feel like there's a normalcy to it, and I feel like that is a good thing, you know, that it is so much a part of mainstream culture that Target is talking about Walmart is talking about, like, Celebrate Pride Month is a fine line. You know, I do feel like I do understand that it sort of feels like it delegitimizes things when Walmart is like, Celebrate Pride Month, but I actually think it's a win because it means that it's so accepted in mainstream popular culture. So that was a very long answer to your question. But I do think it'll battle a lot. I do think it can be scary. I don't think that everyone is my customer. I think that it's more important to me to be true to who I am and to cultivate the relationships with people who are our customer. It doesn't take long to walk into my shop and know what we're doing. And it's not like everything is overtly political. It's not. But it's kind of hard to be a parent now without being somewhat political, I think.

[13:22] Speaker A: Agreed. Agreed. And I think just to kind of piggyback on what you're saying, being a local business owner, I think puts us in a really unique position. I mean, I don't live in Charleston anymore, but I have the luxury of working online with folks from anywhere but living in Charleston for so long. I do agree with you that if we're a small business owner, we have the opportunity to use our platform, no matter how big or how small, to start a conversation and be inclusive and let people know out there that you can come into my community. And I just feel like that's what it's all about. And like you, I agree that alienating people is kind of part of the game. If we think about branding in general and who our ideal customers are, like, there are already going to be people that may not be a good fit for your business, and that's okay. I think for the most part, I.

[14:16] Speaker B: Think a lot about one of the things that we think about when we, for example, inclusivity. When I think about that in our buy and in our store experience, right. I want kids to come in here and see themselves, but I also want them to see children who don't look like them. I think that having those experiences creates an empathy that is important, especially right now. And in the end, really, it's like, what do I want the world to look like? How do I use my little tiny corner to help adjust people's perceptions a little bit if I can? Yes.

[14:58] Speaker A: So fun. And I just am so glad I'm smiling because it's so important to introduce our children to other ways of being and other ways of looking and other ways of operating in this world, and it just helps them be curious and helps them just understand. And exactly like you were saying, the hope is that they have more empathy and more understanding and more compassion.

[15:21] Speaker B: Yes. And in the end, it's a gift to them. Right. I mean, I always think about that. It's like when I am giving my children an experience that is outside of what they know, that's a gift. When they can interact at school with kids who aren't like them or who come from different financial backgrounds or different cultural backgrounds, I always see that as like a bonus. The impulse for me to move closer to more diversity and more different and more celebration of differences in all of us is really just about an impulse that I've always had. It's something that I personally find exciting.

[16:05] Speaker A: I just commend you. It takes so much conscious effort to do that. I think, at least for me, subconsciously, it's so easy, and I'm saying this as an Asian American, it's so easy to choose like the white looking doll and just choose books that have white people on them. And even I've had to now that I have a child pause and say, like, wait, what do I want our bookshelf to look like? What do I want her toy shelf to look like? And it takes extra effort. It's not easy to choose the things that we hope will help our children in the long run. Yes.

[16:37] Speaker B: And it's not always what they want. Right. But I do think that having the opportunity is important to acquire or to experience something new.

[16:51] Speaker A: What lessons do you think you've been learning over the course of the past 1923 years of owning this store?

[17:00] Speaker B: So many. So many. Well, I mean, I would say first of all, I was going to say before and I blanked out because that is my post pandemic brain, it isn't perfect. And one of the things that like, for example, when the George Floyd stuff happened and we came out with a statement right away and not right away, we took time to think about it and figure out what we wanted to say. I had good friends who I knew were on the same page as I was. Right. And I remember just writing to them and being like, hey, it doesn't have to be perfect. I do think you should consider saying something. And it was really there's this worry about saying the wrong thing. You can always go back and amend and we're always learning and we're always changing it anyway. So that goes back to your earlier point. I think that I am constantly, constantly learning. My rule for myself is that if I make a mistake, as long as it's not too expensive, I'm okay.

[18:12] Speaker A: I love the cabin as long as.

[18:14] Speaker B: It'S not too expensive. Especially when it comes to messaging or like, you know, promotions or, you know, failure is guaranteed. I fail almost on a weekly basis at something I have learned a lot about my strengths and my weaknesses. I know a lot about, you know, sort of not just that, but also what I want to do and what I like to do. And that has really shifted how I run my business and one of the most important things I've done in the past year. So, I mean, I was in business for a full year before the Pandemic hit. It was almost exactly a year. I hit my one year anniversary on March 1 and then we shut our doors for five months on March 15. And in 2020, that in itself was not just it was a massive blow just in terms of like, oh my gosh, I'm still sort of treading water here and now what am I going to do? But it did give me an opportunity to connect with people in a new way. Right. Because the store, when I took it over, was not in great shape when I bought it. We had planned we had talked to the landlords about renovating and that was always on the horizon. But we wanted to spend some time in the store and build up some financial shelter before doing it. And with our doors shut, it gave me an opportunity to almost go out into the community, both through social media and physically. My niece, who used to help me run the business, we started packing orders every day and running them out to people and tried to make every interaction and tried to make every moment useful and kind. One of the greatest things that I think I learned was from that time period was how important it is to me to feel like I am being useful in some way. And that was really what got me through that time. It's just this idea that I could help people who were stuck at home and bring a little bit of joy or something into their lives when things were feeling so dark.

[20:32] Speaker A: Yeah. I think as stressful and maybe scary, that time was for everyone, at least in Charleston. I felt it. I felt the coming togetherness of the community and the businesses that we support and it just was a very special feeling that rose out of something kind of terrible.

[20:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. Yeah.

[20:55] Speaker A: Do you feel like the work you did to go out and make these visits meaningful and really kind of drive home that you were helping people through this time? Do you think that kind of feeling has stayed even after you've since opened the doors? Obviously, it's 2022 now. We are a couple of years out. Do you feel like that's still there?

[21:17] Speaker B: I definitely do. I think we grew some loyalty there. I know that a lot of people weren't familiar with me. I mean, I was basically kind of new town, so a lot of people were like, who's this lady? But we built a lot of relationships both near and far and we had people writing to us because their parents lived in New York and everything was shut down and they didn't have a way to get anything and they really needed help. And that has definitely sustained. We're in kind of a funny place here where we see so much tourism. Because of our location on the major tourist destination, I'd say like 75% of our business is tourism.

[22:08] Speaker A: Oh, that's really surprising to me.

[22:10] Speaker B: It's crazy, right?

[22:11] Speaker A: That's cool.

[22:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's cool. I mean, it is cool. So actually that really helps, inform kind of how we do things here, I think about the fact that we're sort of a surprise for people is fun for me. But anyway, that said, I think that people in town are still discovering us, though I do think that we created some pretty significant bonds with some folks who have been loyal ever since. And I'm super, super grateful for those relationships.

[22:36] Speaker A: Yeah. What has surprised you about being a toy store owner since that? From what I heard you say, it wasn't your original attention.

[22:45] Speaker B: You know, in some ways it shouldn't be a surprise, but the biggest surprise is how much I really love it and also how much it kind of scratches an itch for me. That's okay. So I am a very odd mix of person, I think, in that I have clearly like a reverence for very silly things. I really love dumb stuff.

[23:14] Speaker A: I love it.

[23:15] Speaker B: But I also can be pretty serious and I don't know, serious-minded. And there's something I think, to me, a little bit punk rock about this feeling that the world is burning a little bit. Things are so difficult right now, and I'm fully invested in joy and in silliness that is extremely satisfying to me in a way that I can't totally explain except for that I'm probably still a teenager on the inside. I love it.

[23:52] Speaker A: It's almost like, okay, this is all going on in the world. And kind of like not like an eff-you, but kind of like, well, here's how I'm going to handle it.

[23:59] Speaker B: If it's a little bit like a middle finger, it's like, hey world, guess what? We can still do fun things. We can still have fun. We're going to have fun. And look at all this stuff. There are lots of different ways that we can do it. Let's double down. Here's like a plush cactus. Here's a fart whistle. Take that, universe.

[24:23] Speaker A: I love it. I think it's such an incredible thing to take part in something, owning a business that can be so stressful, I think. And so like, okay, well, Linnet and I were talking about this yesterday. This is August. We just recorded an interview with her yesterday that we just always have to aim for the things that we think are supposed to be true. Like goals, like, oh, we just need more revenue this month. We need to increase, blah, blah, blah. We need to get more toys. But the fact that you can kind of maybe have those goals and be like, well, we can still do it and have fun and touch people's lives and help people and offer this feeling of joy that is so necessary now more than ever. I feel like that's like a weird, cliche thing to say, but I just feel like now we always need more joy. But especially now with the things that have happened over the past couple of years that are going to be around for a while and other things that are happening in our world, we need that.

[25:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. It's a counter to the seriousness of the world. Right? I have these secret like I sort of spy these families that come in or even adults that come in by themselves and I see their body language change and there I don't know, and I just get such great satisfaction out of that. Just like, hey, yeah, this is a place where you can come and you can have this experience that is kind of unexpected and you can relax into yourself and be silly for a minute and let the outside world take a beat, I guess.

[25:57] Speaker A: Yeah. I love it. It's like a little escape, kind of. For me, that's awesome. What's it like to be to own the store, to work with the team and do all the things that you do day to day and come home and have family and kids? What has it been like to navigate both of those things?

[26:19] Speaker B: Well, it used to be really hard. I mean, it's still hard. It's still not that we don't have days that are hard. No, there's the phone.

[26:26] Speaker A: No, don't apologize. It's the life of being a business owner.

[26:30] Speaker B: I don't have to get it though, so that's good. That's great. I was for a while doing everything which meant that nothing was being done quite to the level that I would have liked it to be. So, you know, I was doing all the social media, I was doing all the visual merchandising, I was doing the buy, I was paying all the bills and doing all my books and the financial stuff and gosh any and every of the other millions of things, managing staff anyway. So I didn't really ever stop working. I would come to work, I would work a full day, I would go get my kids, we would maybe have dinner and I would put them to bed and then I would continue to work until midnight. And after this last holiday season, after this last December, we managed to find some really excellent folks for holiday who I was like, you know, let's start the sales associates and just kind of see who they are because I think they're great. And it turned out that they were great. And I've managed to now basically delegate lots of different responsibilities to people on my team. So now I have a team member who does social media. I have a team member who does visual merchandising. We hired an inventory manager, I have a store manager and we've got really excellent staff. And that means that I can take a lot less home with me and it means that I can have my weekends off, which is gosh, I don't know. That's so nice in my life when I've had that. So I can spend time with my family and my husband because that's also important. I also think that when you're knee deep in everything and your head is so deeply immersed in the day to day stuff, it is so difficult to look at the big picture and think like an entrepreneur. So, taking a few steps back, I was talking to my siblings and told them that I'd hired all these people and they were like, well, what do you do now? Even run the business. I still have a lot of things to do. But, you know, just giving me a moment to plan financially, to map out what the next season is going to look like, to think about sort of expansion and how we can run more efficiently. And all of those things for me are become very, very satisfying. Even though I love doing all the other stuff, it's been really good for me to step away from it.

[29:12] Speaker A: Yes. It's like when you finally get the support and build a team around your business, you get to think about where you want to take it. Whereas just like you said, if you're knee deep, there just isn't mental space, there isn't time, there isn't capacity to do all those things. And then how can we grow if we don't dream and make goals and plan for the future?

[29:37] Speaker B: And it's only been good in the end. You know, you think like you want things to be a certain way. You are a professional and when you start to realize that you can hire somebody to do it and they might even be better at it than you. Yeah, I feel like that's a good day. That is part of the job, is finding good people and cultivating those good people so that they can be better at it than you and you can grow.

[30:10] Speaker A: Exactly. Was it hard for you at all to kind of release some of that control? I imagine, at least for myself, when I first hired an assistant and I have another virtual assistant, initially I was like, well, I can just do all those things and it's going to be fine. And initially I gave them like the really quote unquote fun things to do, like thinking about how we can create a really be on social media and all these things. And my therapist was like, that's not why you hired them. You hired them to do the things that you don't want to do. Why are you giving them the things that you. Want to do the creative stuff, the bigger things that took someone else to tell me and for me to do some reflection and be like, oh wait, I can let go of the things that I'm afraid to because that's what I need them for. And they can probably do it more efficiently than me because they're a little more removed from the ins and outs of the business.

[30:58] Speaker B: Right. And I don't know that I found it difficult. I think that I still kind of dip my toes into all aspects of the business. So I haven't maybe completely relinquished control, but it's become more of a managerial like a managerial relationship in that I can say. We do these weekly walk and talks where we all the managers get together and we talk about sales for the week and we walk the floor and look around at everything and say, okay, well, this thing we think this is really great and why is it not moving? So a lot of it for me now is just about analyzing and being in a leadership position in that role and kind of mentoring, in a way. Some of these younger kids who work for me who are super talented to say, like, okay, well, I like what you did here, but how do you take this and I don't know, make it better? How can we make this even better than you did here? And that's true with social media and it's true, and it's about seeing like, person who I hired who is wonderful, you bring some things to the table here, bring it to me. We're going to sit down together and have a creative brainstorming session. And I can tell you, help us stay on brand. We can decide how we want things to be and then they go and execute it. So I don't just like say like, OK, now this is yours, and walk away. So I don't think I have that any yet.

[32:30] Speaker A: It would feel more like a team effort. The fact that you are able to still give quality time to the positions and the managers and still support them with things, I mean, that to me feels like the best optimal setting to work in is to feel supported by the person you're working for and not for lack of a better word, ignored.

[32:49] Speaker B: Yeah, well, gosh, I hope so. And you know what's awesome is but we had to have a talk fairly early on just about sort of territorialism because they all took such amazing ownership and people were kind of like, oh, stay in your lane. And I'm like, no, no. It's a Venn diagram. You know, like we all overlap. Like, here's one circle over here that is social media and here's a circle that's inventory. And here's a circle that's visual merchandising. And here's store management and employee operations. And all of those meet in the middle to make this perfect circle. And we all support one another. And I think that that has been just really great for us. I hope it helps us continue to grow.

[33:32] Speaker A: What's something that still feels like a struggle for you now that you're a few years in? You have this amazing, supportive team and you're in this sort of you're evolving into this more managerial and mentorship role. Is there something that still feels I think many things feel difficult, but particularly hard that you're still trying to figure out?

[33:54] Speaker B: Well, hiring great people means paying more for them, which I really do believe in, but it means that our payroll is high. So finding that balance and trying to figure out how to grow sales so that we can keep off from people on staff is always kind of something that I think about. I also really this is going to sound like such a silly thing, but I really have trouble containing my buy and I have to stick to a budget and it's not easy for me because I see something great and I'm like, oh, wow, I have to have this in the store. And then my inventory manager is like, why did you do this to me? So there's that. I do think that I don't know. Finding that balance between work and life is still a struggle for me. I still find it difficult sometimes to not wake up at 06:00 a.m. On a Saturday and try to update some stuff on our website. But mostly and again, looming recession, I mean, like, you name it, the world. I don't know. I mean, all of that affects sales. People get nervous and that's always in the back of my mind when I wake up at night. It's like that is in my mind. And like, the long list of things to do, which all of the administrative stuff, my brain just doesn't like. That's probably why it's important for me to have people do other things because I have to do it. And it's all the financial stuff, all the tax paying and the books and all of those things. My ADHD brain is like, oh, this is boring. But I have to find a way to be focused on it so that I can see the bigger picture.

[35:39] Speaker A: Yes, there's some nonnegotiable things that only you. Yeah, exactly.

[35:43] Speaker B: Just me. I have to do it.

[35:45] Speaker A: Exactly. How do you find some of that joy and some of that just that break for yourself? I mean, I know running a business, especially a storefront, is really stressful. I mean, you listed all the things that can potentially help you up at night and the things that are offering. What do you do to take a little break or unwind or is that something that you're still working on?

[36:06] Speaker B: I do still work on it. I love to play board games, but my husband won't play with me. Are you listening, Michael? Play board games with me. So I'm always looking for my kids will do it. Or maybe I can get somebody at the store to play with me and learn some stuff. Sometimes just the release of having the new stuff come in. Like, we just got 20 boxes of jelly cat plush. Oh, my gosh. But outside of the store, I don't know. I'm not great about it. I used to be a voracious reader, and now I typically read more news articles or I listen to podcasts. I do have a struggle with that. I like to cycle. That's awesome. I don't do that as much as I should, but I do like it.

[36:57] Speaker A: I can relate. I think people ask, like, oh, what? You know, people meaning like, two friends are like, what are you reading now? If I'm like. I'm still working on untamed from three years ago, before I read my daughter. I'm almost done, and I used to read all of the time. And I think life has its seasons, and some seasons last for a while, and I'm with you. I'm still kind of looking for a hobby or things to do when I'm not thinking about work, taking care of a toddler. And right now, Unwinding is Binging the Bear or something on Netflix, 100%. I hear you.

[37:33] Speaker B: We are so deeply into that reality TV show alone right now. What is that? Oh, my gosh. It is a survivalist reality show. So the season that we're watching, it's on Netflix, I think they send ten people or whatever who are professional, survivalists and naturalists out into British Columbia, into this really remote place. And they have to they have, like, very few supplies, and they have to basically survive for it's. Like, whoever lasts longest, wins.

[38:11] Speaker A: That sounds terrifying and captivating at the same time.

[38:14] Speaker B: Totally love it. My husband, I wanted to watch him. He was like, who are you? That's amazing. But anyway, yeah, I used to be deeply into music. I used to read a lot, and every once in a while, I'll pick out something really, and I'll just devour a book, and then it's like a few months before I'm ready to pick another one up again. I think it's just like, my brain needs that escape, but I don't know. I don't allow it very often. I also really miss seeing art, you know, and need to make more time for that. The pandemic kind of threw a wrench and all that stuff. Going to live shows for music or going to museums has not been an option for a while.

[38:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. For us, it's still a little bit like, are we going to do this? Are we going to and I'm with you 100%. This has been such a wonderful conversation. I want to end with one more question, and I've been asking this to the most recent people that we've had on the the podcast is called Sincerely, Your Small Business. I love to hear from you what you think sincere means? Or what does it mean to you as a business owner?

[39:23] Speaker B: If my child asked me what sincere means, I would say I would say heartfelt. I guess I would say that sincere, to me, means more than just honesty. It means that it's coming from a genuine place.

[39:41] Speaker A: Heartfelt was such a powerful word to describe sincere. And, yeah, I love that.

[39:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's right. Thank you.

[39:51] Speaker A: Thank you. Can you share with folks who are listening where they can find you, how they can shop and all the good things?

[39:58] Speaker B: All the things? Yeah. We are Alexander Toys. We have two locations. One on Charlottesville's, downtown mall, 100 East Main Street and one in Harrisonburg in Agora downtown market. But you can also shop online with us at Alakazam Toys.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at alakazam toys.

[40:17] Speaker A: I love it. Ellen, thank you so much for making time for me today amongst, I imagine, the busyness of a store day. And I had so much fun talking.

[40:25] Speaker B: To you today, Jess. It was really fun. Thanks for asking me.

[40:34] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to this episode of Sincerely Your Small Business. We'd greatly appreciate it if you could share a rating or review on Apple podcasts spotify or wherever you're currently listening so that others can learn about the podcast too. Thank you and talk soon. You.