Episode Summary

In this episode of the Make Space for More podcast, host Melissa Swink interviewed Heather Herdman, PhD, RN, co-owner of Sweet Willow, an herbal shop and café. Heather shared her journey from nursing to herbalism and entrepreneurship, describing how she and her friends saved a beloved local shop from closing. Learn about the evolution of Sweet Willow, Heather’s thoughtful decision to bring on a business partner, and the importance of community engagement. When it comes to bringing on a business partner, Heather talked about knowing what you want in a partnership and the benefits of having a supportive team. 

Key Highlights:

• The decision to buy Sweet Willow was spontaneous but driven by passion.
• Sweet Willow has evolved to include food offerings alongside herbal products.
• Bringing on a business partner was a strategic decision for sustainability.
• It's important to have clear conversations about roles and responsibilities in a partnership. You need to know what you want before seeking a partner.
• The integration of a new partner can be smooth if they are already familiar with the business.

About Our Guest: 

Dr. Heather Herdman is a clinical herbalist, as well as an advanced practice nurse. Her passion is working with individuals to support them in finding their way toward heath and wellness, using a herb and food-based approach whenever possible. She believes that we each have an innate understanding of what makes us feel and function best, if we learn to listen to ourselves. As a researcher, she combines her knowledge of clinical trial data and traditional ways of knowing to support clients in wellness, and offers integrative options when clients are in the midst of Western medical treatment for a variety of conditions.

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone. Welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink, and I am so excited to welcome a guest to the podcast today. I am joined by Heather Herdman. I will share her formal bio in a moment because it's very impressive. She's had a lot of experience doing a variety of things over the years. But first and foremost, she is one of our clients. We work with Heather in

a variety of capacities through her retail store and also through the nonprofit organization that she is the CEO of. But I am so happy that she's able to join us today and share just, of course, things that she has picked up and learned over the years through her professional career, which is very expansive. But then also, particularly, I invited Heather on the podcast because one of the ways that she has continued to grow and scale her business is through adding a business partner.

And so in the spirit of growing and scaling our businesses beyond ourselves through a variety of ways, certainly I share about virtual assistance and outsourcing and being more strategic with the way you're spending your time and your energy. We also had Christy Holmes on the podcast several weeks ago. You can go back and check out that episode where we talked about how do you onboard your first formal employee and the things that you need to have in place and.

be prepared for when you start entering into that area of growing your business. And certainly business partnership is another area that you can grow and expand beyond you. So without further ado, Heather Herdman holds a PhD in MS in nursing science with a focus on women's and infants health. She has been an herbalist for nearly 30 years and has co-owned or owned Sweet Willow for the past 10 years.

She is also the CEO of an international nursing association. So thank you so much, Heather, for joining us today. First things first, before we dive into all things business, maybe tell us a little bit more about you starting off.

Well, first of all, thanks for having me, Melissa. It's really nice to be here. So yeah, I mean, I'm a nurse by background. I have been in a variety of roles from faculty members at different universities here in town to, as you said, running an international nursing association, which I've done for the past 20 years. But I think my passion really is the herbalism. And I've always been really fascinated by herbs and

never had really thought about owning a store until the former owner decided to leave town and was going to close the shop that had been known as Sweet Willow Naturals at the time. And I coerced a couple of friends into buying the shop with me. And, you know, now we've been in business for over 10 years, so that's kind of fun. But I love nature. I love I love herbs. I love, you know, being outdoors as much as possible. So

That's very cool.

and you're an avid traveler as well.

I am. Yeah, that's probably my second favorite thing. Yeah.

And luckily you're able to do some traveling through the work that you do as well and be able to tie that in.

I do, I do a lot of international travel with my nursing association. So I just got back from Germany and Portugal a couple of weeks ago and I'll be heading out to England and Peru in the new year.

was just going to ask because you were in Peru for a long time, maybe like a year ago or earlier this year. That's right, Brazil. Yes. Yes, that's right. I know. It's interesting because unfortunately, I even was able to see you in your shop the other day. Heather is local to me in the Green Bay, Wisconsin area. I stepped in at her shop. My daughter, by the way, is a huge fan of her sunshine tea. We'll talk more about that later.

Brazil. I was in Brazil for about six months.

Yeah.

want to definitely share a little bit more about all the goods that Sweet Willow has to offer. But you know, it's interesting because, you know, through our team, you know, I know when Heather's traveling, and then, you know, there's times where then I can pop in at the shop and there you are. you know, certainly, it's nice to be able to kind of have that mix.

It is, it's a nice advantage to have you local.

Absolutely. So prior to buying into purchasing Sweet Willow and then running that, what made you want to get started in business? So certainly you saw the opportunity that here's this wonderful shop and unless somebody purchases it, it's going to close and those resources are no longer going to be available to the people in the area. What led you onto an entrepreneurial journey?

Yeah, it really was kind of a snap decision really when I when I found out Dr. Laura Vanden Avan actually owned the store previously. And she and her family were moving up to Marquette, Michigan. And when the announcement came out that they were moving, I thought, my God, where am I going to get my herbs? And I drove into the store. And I'm like, What are you doing with the store? What's gonna happen? And she said, Well, I'm probably gonna have to close it. And I was like, No, no, no, no, you can't close it.

And I literally went home, picked up the phone, called two friends and said, do you want to buy an herb store? And they were like, okay. So it really, it really was kind of a, just a snap, like, my gosh, I can't let this thing close decision. And it has really become my happy place. So yeah.

Ha

Mm-hmm.

I love that, I love that. So how is the business that you and your friends purchase the shop? How have things grown and evolved over the years? Certainly you've changed locations.

Yeah, we've changed locations two, three times. So we started off in a very tiny little shop. And my first co owner and I used to laugh that we were going to kill each other in the back room because there wasn't room enough for the two of us to move around at the same time. So it was very, very tiny. We moved then to a bigger space, but pretty much still stayed focused on teas, herbs, herbal products. And then when I moved into the De Pere area out of Bellevue,

I really wanted to start incorporating foods because both as a clinical herbalist in my own life and then just in general, I really believe that food is, it's the best vehicle for getting healthy stuff into us. And I think we have kind of taught people to take pills and look for prescriptions or supplements or what have you, and so much of what we need, we can actually get it through our food.

Mm-hmm.

So I wanted to just start doing some simple soups and those kinds of things. And now we have a little cafe. We have a wonderful chef, Chrissy King. She's fabulous, who brings to us just a wonderful ability to whatever food is available locally from our organic farmers, she'll say, we have this this week, we're gonna do this. And so.

It's come in a constantly evolving menu, which is exactly what I wanted because I wanted it to be seasonal. I wanted it to be teaching people like some things like nettle, which people people laugh at me in the store because I am a nettle freak. But when that when it's nettle season, we do nettle lasagna and nettle soup and nettle pastas and stuff. And people are like, nettle, like the stuff that stings you. And then they eat it. And they're like, my God, that's really good.

So I love introducing people to stuff that they would not ever try otherwise. So we've kind of evolved to have some food items, some frozen foods. We have a lot of folks who come in and they'll buy three or four nights worth of dinner here because they know that there's no preservatives. There's no, like everything we make is made from scratch. We don't use pre-made bras. We don't use pre-made stuff. So if you have vegetable broth, we made it here in the store.

you

Mm-hmm.

and they like that and we have a lot of vegan and gluten free options as well. So a lot of people are able to take advantage.

That's fantastic. It started with buying an herb shop that you loved and then you've just grown it into offer a variety of herbs and teas, but even more importantly, foods that are easily accessible for people and then they're incorporating those nutrients into their everyday lives. As you've grown the shop, and certainly, just a reminder for those of you who are listening,

Heather is very involved in the shop. Of course, she is the co-owner and she also has a variety of other things that she's doing with her professional career. Heather, one of the things that I know we talked about last year was you had added a business partner to just help you sustain all of this growth and to shape where you're headed. At what point did you decide you might want to bring on a business partner to help you run the shop?

Yeah, I actually had been thinking about it when I reopened the business in De Pere. So it's been about four years actually. And for two reasons. One is I'm getting older and at some point I'm going to retire and hit the road and see places I haven't seen yet. And so I wanted to be sure that this would be still here. That when I move on, that this is still an opportunity for the community to have a good place to come.

And so I started looking for a partner and Kathleen Rattery and I have known each other for over 10 years. We've been on a board together, that's how we met. And then we stayed in touch through the year. She was a very common customer in the shop herself. And I just thought it was a good fit. She has a background in indigenous culture. Her doctorate is in

Got it.

Indigenous Studies here at UWGB. And so she has an interest in, especially in plants and herbs that were pre-colonial, know, pre-colonization and looking at kind of what were the native plants, how did they use them, how do they use them today? And so she brings kind of a more rounded version because I come from a more probably European Western herbalism bent.

Although I have studied with Native Americans as well, but she has that real solid component and I loved that. And so, yeah, it's been a good mix.

Sure.

That's fantastic. How did you have that conversation? Like, hey, here's what I'm thinking about doing. I mean, right? Because that's something that you had thought about bringing a business partner on for several years, and then it was a matter of, I think that this person might be a really good fit. How did you broach that conversation?

We were actually having a cup of tea in the shop and she had been in to buy a bunch of stuff and we were just talking and she was asking me how things were going. And I just said, so you want to be a partner? You want to be my partner? And I kind of just threw it out there to see how she responded. And she said, yes, I do. And I was like, really? So it was, it was kind of like.

And she's like, are you kidding? And I said, no, I'm not kidding. it was just kind of like, it just was right in the moment. And yeah, and then we just started having a conversation about it. That was right before COVID hit. So then of course, during COVID, that didn't seem like a very good thing to be talking about. So we talked about it off and on that year. And then as things kind of started to come back and...

Okay.

Okay.

she got her kids back into school and all that kind of stuff, then we were like, okay, let's do this.

Okay, that's right. I remember she has kids who are school age. And so I would imagine her capacity to be able to take on something like this and get involved as a business partner, COVID really shifted that.

Yeah, yeah, and she was finishing her doctorate at the time. So I was on her doctoral committee. So she was quite busy with that. And she's very involved in the community as well. yeah, but I do find that busy people tend to get more work done. I don't know.

Okay.

It's true. It's so true. It's so true. So when the timing was right for the two of you, just out of curiosity and certainly share as much as you feel comfortable with, what are some of the steps that you guys took to formalize the business partnership? What did that look like?

Yeah, I mean, we first started just having conversation, you know, what, what, what was it that she obviously she can't be here 24 seven, because she has kids, she has other things in her life, I wanted to be able to have more flexibility to travel, to kind of do some of the things with my nursing organization that I have kind of put off a little bit because of having the store, like I didn't travel quite as much because somebody had to be here.

And so we talked about that and her real interest is in kind of growing partnerships in the community, bringing in collaborations with, for example, United Nation, with different partner organizations around, whether that's farmers or growers or those kinds of things, which were always things I wanted to do, but I only have so many hours in the day.

Correct. Yes.

So she's been really good about kind of going out and starting to make those, form those relationships and figure out are there ways to, know, for us to source some things from, maybe from the United Nation, for example, and then what can we do in return? You know, how can we make everything a win-win for everybody? So we talked about that. So she's been really vital for that.

She's been much more involved in kind of helping us figure out what's a social media strategy, which as you know, I hate. You know, the kind of the whole marketing thing to me, I just have never, I've never really been good at it. I don't really like it. And I feel kind of icky about it sometimes. And she's very good about, you know, this is a good way to get our name out without it being like, we're out to sell you something because that's just not.

Hahaha!

my thing. And so we kind of looked at how did our interests mesh. She's really good at teaching classes. She's got a whole series of kids classes going this fall, which have been really well received. So I wanted to have somebody who could do some of that so that I'm not the only person teaching classes. And so it was just a really kind of a lot of conversation to figure out what do you want to do versus what do I want to do.

And then of course, there's the whole legal thing about getting the documents written up, doing all that kind of stuff, which necessarily involves attorneys, but has been not a horrible experience. You have to go through the documentation and get it all done.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I wouldn't even know where to start, I don't think, if I were to bring in a business partner as far as what types of things need to be ironed out with an attorney, obviously. It's who's responsible for what, I would imagine, or what happens when there's a disagreement, or how is money shared, all those kinds of things.

Yep. All of that. All those things. Yeah. How much money are you putting in? How much, how much, how much do you get out every year or what is the split? you know, what are the, what are the responsibilities of one versus the other? What happens if one of you wants to sell out? All of those things get ironed out.

Yeah, yeah. I can't imagine moving forward though without those things figured out because it's not something that you just want to wing it, you know, if or when something goes wrong. And it could even be not even so much that business partners aren't interested in working together anymore. could be like, God forbid life happens and emergency happens. Like, what do we do?

Right.

Right. I mean, when I did buy the store initially, I we had one silent partner and then Mary Radu, who ran the store with me for five years. And it happens to be my best friend. I we get along great. We were able to run everything really well. But then we got to a point where her mom was ill. My mom was getting older. And she kind of made a decision that she needed to bow out because of family responsibilities. And we actually closed the store.

because I was like, I don't think I can do this by myself. And then within two months, I was like, I missed my store. And I was actually sitting in Luna in De Pere and I looked across the street and there was a for rent sign. And I walked across the street, called the lady, she happened to be in the building and I like put a down payment on the new location. So yeah.

That's amazing. I don't think that I realized that you actually like full on closed up shop at one point.

We did, we full-on closed up. We were closed, I want to say, for six months before I got reopened.

Okay, okay. So a little hiatus, but obviously you were back and the public has received it very well ever since then. Yep, and continued to sustain. So once you and Kathleen kind of figured out whose interests lie where, whose responsibilities are what, you got all that formalized in an agreement, what was the process like with kind of getting her...

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

involved with the employees who are at the shop and all of your vendors and various relationships kind of integrating her that way.

Yeah, well, I think the employees all knew her because she hung around a lot anyway. Yeah, it was really helpful today. She was a known face. She knew them by name. They knew her. She's very easy to, I people just, she's very likable. you know, her personality is such that people are, it's easy for them to kind of get to know her. She started just kind of shadowing people in the store to get a sense of what everybody did.

Okay, that's helpful.

And then I kind of threw her a loop because I did get a grant to go to Brazil for four months. And so I had to call her, which when we applied for it, I really didn't think we would get it. And then we got it. And then I had to call her and say, so I did a thing. She was like, that's awesome. And OK.

And so, you know, I was like, I really, really want to do this. if I, mean, I understand if you can't do it, but if you could do it, it would be really awesome. And so she did. She's kind of stepped in and became the face here. And I mean, I still did all the ordering. handled stuff on the backend because I could do that from Brazil. We were in contact all the time. were, you know, WhatsApp, WhatsApping each other all the time and had some zoom calls when we needed them.

but she became just kind of like the face here. And it was actually, think, pretty easy transition for people. We started to recognize that we needed more help. So she was like, hey, we need to hire some people. So as soon as I got back, we were looking for the chef, which we ended up hiring Chrissy. And we've just hired a new person as well. it was actually a pretty organic.

transition.

Good, good. Yeah, and again, because your staff already knew Kathleen because she was frequently at the store beforehand, it just made it a more natural progression rather than here's a brand new person who's gonna help take over for me. There's definitely a way to do it rather than bringing somebody in. I don't wanna say cold, if you will, but that certainly must have helped.

Right. Right. Exactly.

Yeah, it definitely helps a lot.

Yeah, yeah. What would you say are some of the things that you would recommend to somebody who's considering bringing on a business partner?

Yeah, I think the first thing is you really have to know what you want yourself. know, so when I would talk to friends about what I was thinking, you know, they would say, okay, you know, do you want somebody like full time? Do you want somebody who's going to like challenge you? Do you want to be able to like turn over some of the responsibilities and, you know, some of the questions that some of them asked me, I was kind like, I never thought about that.

So really kind of having a good sense of what is it that you want to do. So I said to her when I asked her, once we were having that kind of first organic conversation, I'm at a point in my career where in five years I'm gonna retire. And so I'm kind of looking at that same timeline here in that I'd like to, I might stay involved.

as a silent partner or continue to do some consults or what have you, but I don't know that I want to be here as much. And so looking to start to transition some of that off to somebody else. You know, I say that and then I'm here all the time anyway, because I love it. Yeah.

Of course, but there's a difference between wanting to be there and present and having to be.

Correct, correct. yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What would you say are some things that you might caution somebody against who is considering bringing on a business partner or maybe like, this might be a red flag or if this is your motivation, I would caution you to re-examine where you're coming from.

Yeah. You know, I think I would say, I, you know, I did initially have somebody who was interested in partnering with me and it ended up not working out. And, and had I, I think the conversation happened too early on in our relationship and it was, I was going off more off of what I heard about the individual than what I actually experienced with the individual.

Mm-hmm.

So I think taking the time to really get to know the person because it was pretty, I started to realize pretty quickly into the conversation with her and nothing negative about the individual, just different expectations or desires, I guess. So for me, it's like, if you own a business, you own the business. It all falls on you. It comes back to you. At the end of the day, you're the one that has to...

100%.

You know, it's your name, it's your reputation. And it was more of a, well, when I feel like being here, I want to be here, but you know, I want to take time off a lot or I want to, and it just wasn't the level of commitment that I felt like you needed. So before, you know, I, a, I knew Kathleen, I knew her work ethic. knew, I knew a lot about her, but even that, like taking that year or year and a half to just kind of have conversation.

Yes.

I think was really important. so I would say, don't rush into something. Make sure that not just your values fit, but that your work expectations, your work ethic, I guess, is similar. And that you have a similar vision for the future. I I'd be really uncomfortable if somebody came in here and said, let's turn this into a supplement shop. Like, no, that's not what I want to do.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes, you missed the point.

Yeah, exactly. So you want to make sure that you're on the same page.

Mm-hmm, yes, 100%. Well, I really appreciate you sharing lessons learned and peeling back the curtain a little bit of how this all came together behind the scenes. And it sounds just like it happened very, I no pun intended, but organically, considering we're talking about herbals and clean eating and things like that. But it came together organically and it sounds like it was just a much better fit into the business, not only for you, but your staff as well.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it really was.

Yeah. Yeah. yeah. And I think I think the staff love her. You know, and she's here a ton. And, when when when she first started, everybody would ask me every question, you know, and now I think they're very comfortable asking her everything that they asked me. I mean, maybe not maybe not the herbal specific questions, but business running questions. Yeah, they're pretty comfortable.

For sure. Yeah, I would imagine that would be a mental shift for your staff as well. They were used to going to you for direction or clarification on things, and then now there's another person that they can talk with. I would imagine that took a little time as well.

It did. I mean, in a couple of them were very upfront about that. who do I ask? Like, do I do I ask you? Do I ask her? And especially when I went to Brazil, you know, then it was like, is it okay for me to ask her? And I'm like, it's absolutely okay. If she doesn't feel comfortable making the decision, she'll let me know or just text me. He like text me. So for a while, you know, the gal that ran the shop when she would text me or what that mean and say,

this is happening, is this okay? then I'm like, perfectly good with that. So I think once she was like, okay, she's not gonna get upset if I do what Kathleen says, then she was much better about it. So, yeah.

Yes.

Yes. Now that I'm thinking about it, that time away must have really helped form that bond with them and Kathleen.

Yeah, I think it did. I think it did. It probably, it probably also freaked everybody out for a little while, but, but, but, know, yeah, it all worked out. Exactly. Yeah. I, I, I just, I told her gal who read it, cause she was like, what, what, how are my, how are my responsibilities going to change? And I'm like, they're not, they're not, I'm still going to do everything that I did, you know, online, I'm going to do all the ordering. You're still going to tell me when I need to order stuff. I will take care of it.

Yeah.

That's okay. You know what? Sometimes that's the best way to do it. We're just going to rip the bandaid off and we're just going to, this is where we're headed.

And I said to her, here's the bottom line. No matter what happens in the store, nobody's going to die. So take a breath. And I guess having been a newborn ICU nurse, that was a different reality, Where so if something bad happened there, somebody could die. Nobody's going to die here. This is a fun place. I want you to be happy here. I want you to enjoy working here. I want customers to feel that. So take a breath.

This is true.

completely.

Yes, right.

Yep.

just remember everything's going to be fine. You know, and, and, it was, it was perfectly fine. They didn't, really didn't miss me that much at all.

my goodness. Well, that must've been like the most amazing feeling. Like I can travel, I can step away, and I have a committed team back at home who are going to serve our clientele well and represent the business well. That must've just been like a turning point for you. Like that's big breath of fresh air.

It really was because I was really nervous about it. I didn't tell them how nervous I was, but I was like, my God, this could really sink or swim here. And within the first three weeks, I was like, they've got this. They've got this.

Yep. Yep.

Yes. Yes. Well, that is so exciting. for those of our listeners who are local, where is Sweet Willow located?

Yeah. So we're in downtown De Pere. right on the main drag on Broadway, 109 South Broadway. So kind of near the traffic circle going across the bridge to the other side of De Pere. But we have a beautiful view of the river. There's parking in the front and in the back. And we're open Tuesdays through Saturdays. We open at 10 in the morning and we're open until five Tuesday through Thursday, four on Friday and three on Saturday.

to the other side.

So, and you should come in for lunch. Our cafe is open 11 to two. You can also get some tea. Yeah.

or get some tea, some tea. Your teas have very healing properties. So whatever your ailment might be, even like if you're feeling like overwhelmed or unfocused, there's a tea for that.

Yeah.

There is, we have about 50 different blends of teas now. I think when we bought the store, had 12 or 16 blends. So we've expanded those quite a bit. And I also custom blend for people, which I love. That's like one of my favorite things. If somebody comes in and says, I want something to relax, but I hate the taste of whatever it is. Could you do something else? Then it's kind of fun to put together something that will help them with whatever it is they're looking for, but also tastes good.

Yes. Yes. I think we talked about that a little bit. Yes, we want the benefits to be there, but we also want it to taste good because, I mean, who wants to drink something that they have to force themselves to drink with cough syrup? Yes. Now, Heather, you're able to serve clientele really from all over as well, not just local. Do you want to share a little bit about

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes there just is no really great way, but yeah, when possible, we do our best.

We do.

know, your website and I know you do herbal consults as well. So if you want to hear a little bit more about that.

Yeah, I do herbal consults, which is like my favorite thing on the planet. And I do a lot. I do about half of them on zoom. So I have people, I actually just had somebody internationally the other day. but I've done people from all over the country and then we do them locally here. have a little office up the street, from the shop where I can do them locally as well. and so those are.

Okay.

Fantastic.

just to help people kind of look for options, maybe to support the medications that they're taking or supports, you know, I always say herbs are an and, not an or. So there are a lot of herbs that work really well with Western medicine that can be very supportive. So I have lots of patients who, for example, are going through cancer treatment and will come in for things to support their immune system.

We'll do a consult. occasionally speak with their physicians if that's what they would like. I always share documentation for them to take to their physicians to show them why I'm doing what I'm doing. And I actually get some consults from nurse practitioners and midwives in the area, which is really nice. And we work on diet. Again, we work on like stress release things and then what we can do with herbs either in food or as teas or tinctures.

Mm-hmm.

to support their lifestyle. that's a lot of fun. And then we do have a website, brand new website, thanks to you all, because I would have never done it. But we have a wonderful website that you can order pretty much any of our products on, except for a few things. But mostly you can either order food for pickup or our products from teas to herbal products to even bulk herbs. And we ship.

and you can ship, where can you ship to?

We ship anywhere in the United States. And I actually did have somebody had me ship a bunch of to Germany the other day. And I wrote to them and I said, are you sure because this is going to go through customs? And she was like, yep, yep, yep. And she had actually been somebody who'd been in here and visited the store. And she's like, I just love your teas. And she ordered a ton of them. And so we shipped them out to Germany. So yeah.

Okay.

I love that. Definitely can ship anywhere in the United States and perhaps internationally have the conversation where there's a will, there's probably a way. Yes, I love it. Your website is?

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

Our website is sweetwillowwellness.com. we're starting to get a lot of holiday requests in. So we've had some basket requests. In fact, I have a couple baskets sitting here for pickup already. We've done some, we do like business gifts for employees. We do personal gifts as well. So.

Perfect.

Yeah, that's available. You can either come in and talk to us, call us, or order online.

Wonderful. Well, Heather, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing just more about your entrepreneurial journey and of course talking about how adding a business partner has given you not only the flexibility that you were looking for at this stage in your life, but also has helped the business expand as well and through partnerships and things like that. So really appreciate you taking the time to share today.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I appreciate you having me and just I want to give a shout out to your team. You know, I do work with them both locally in the store, but also in my International Nursing Association. And honestly, it's probably been the best decision I've ever made for both organizations to have, you know, an assistant who is like my virtual assistant who I feel like is part of my team. I forget that she lives in Georgia because she seems to me like she's here. And, and it

Yes.

It's just been a wonderful experience. So thanks for that.

Well, thank you so much. We really enjoy working with you in both capacities. I know Lisa is, she absolutely loves the work that you do and loves the partnership and collaboration with you. And Kathleen, of course, we have many other team members working with you as well. So thank you for that. So appreciate your time today. Yes, absolutely. Well.

we adore her.

Absolutely, you do. Yeah. Yeah, you're welcome. You take care.

Thank you everyone for listening and tuning in today. I hope that this has been helpful for you, especially if you're considering bringing on a business partner to help you advance the work of your business or organization. So if you know somebody who's been thinking about bringing on a business partner, would love to have you share this episode with them because there might be some tidbits and tips that might be helpful for them in that decision-making process and also that transition of bringing them into the business.

Thank you so much for tuning in today. I will be back next week with another episode to help you grow and scale your business beyond you. Have a wonderful day, everyone. We'll see you next week. Bye-bye.