#231 – Conscious Fashion & Living with Angela from Threads Worldwide

Anna Sergunina: 00:00:00

Welcome back to the money boss parent podcast where navigating the sea of parenthood intrapreneurship and financial empowerment. I am your host Anna Sergunina and today we are diving into the conscious living and fashion with my special guests, Angela Melfi. Angela is the co founder and C EO of Threads Worldwide. But also she's a devoted mother of two young kids age seven, and four. Angeles Mission spans across nine countries, including our own country, United States through threads worldwide. Angela champions fair trade practices, fostering life changing connections with women artisans through creation of exquisite jewerly home goods, and handbags. Today, we're setting our focus on talking about how do we incorporate this idea of conscious living. Join us as Angela shares her insights in transformative power of conscious consumerism and how it intertwines in what we already do in our daily lives. As parents, entrepreneurs and steward of our finances, we'll uncover some actionable steps to integrate conscious shopping habits into our routines, and ensure that every purchase reflects our actual values and contributes to a brighter future for all. Grab your favorite beverage. And let's get started. Angela, welcome to the show.

Angela Melfi: 00:01:27

Thank you, Anna, thanks for having me.

Anna Sergunina: 00:01:29

I'm so excited. And so we are talking today about a topic that I haven't really explored on the podcast yet, I mentioned to you behind the closed doors before we hit the record button that I do have some experience with working with clients in my financial planning business, when they bring up the idea of wanting to invest part or some you know, some percentage of their portfolio in socially responsible investments or companies that support some of the or you know, some or all of the causes that are really important to them. So today, although that's not the topic we're discussing, but more of an introduction of where we had it. I want to chat to you about the business that you've built that is focused on on that. And as well as how are you raising your family? And how do you really living and doing your life with this idea of being conscious about that area? So I know it's a lot and we can unpack it all, but I am excited for sure. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do.

Unknown: 00:02:37

Yes, yes. Yes, though. Thank you. Um, so I live in Denver, and I started my company threads worldwide 12 years ago. And I think what's interesting is a little bit of the journey that got me there, which is that I I learned about sex trafficking actually in September of 20 2009. No 2009. How do you say that number 2009. Is that Yeah. And and I remember very vividly learning about it. And yes, it has existed a long time before that. But it was where it just really came across my radar. And I really took a deep dive into researching how this happens, and more importantly, how to prevent it. And it came, it brought me across a term that I hadn't heard before, which is fair trade. And fair trade is the idea that we pay the people who make our things are food or clothing, etc. And they're paid in a way that's fairly fair for them. And it's a livable wage. And before that, I had never put much thought into that at all. I was always looking for the biggest deal. I was one of those people like 99% of people walk into Target for toothpaste and walk out $100 later buying all the cutest thing. So that's where I really started this journey. And it was through my research that one of the things that I learned is that one of the ways to prevent trafficking is to give specifically it happens with men as well, but specifically women of stable income. And so through a lot of conversations and meeting with various companies. I had this idea and the idea was sell things made by women around the world and sell through a community of women here in the United States. And so it was combining these two ideas that we came up with threads worldwide. Like I said, we've been in business for 12 years, we've started our 13th year which is just incredible. And that's exactly what we do. We connect communities through a Fairtrade products and specifically we're focused on jewelry, handbags and home goods. because that's what women buy here. And we wanted this to really be a conversation and an entry point into this conversation of how we shop, where we shop, and the difference that it can make with women around the world. So that's a little bit about how we got started, why we got started. And you tell me where you want me to go from there? Because I can talk for ages about any of those topics.

Anna Sergunina: 00:05:24

Yeah. So so as you're building this business, how, like, how did you decide how to find these women, right of these companies that exist outside of United States, for example, that you want to partner up with, like, talk a little bit about that process? Because I'm sure there's probably a listener out there that's thinking, you know, I may have a cause that I want to support. I like the idea of Fairtrade. And thank you for explaining that. Like, what that actually means. How do you? How do I know you don't have to give away all your secrets, but how openbox start to like, make some, some moves around that. Because it could be a complete extreme right? Investing in the business is a lot, it takes a lot of effort, money time at the same time, just like that example, at the beginning, where I mentioned that a client wanted to invest in the socially responsible investments. And that's the same thing. It's just like the other side of the coin. So talk a little bit about like, how do you decide? What are the first steps that you take?

Angela Melfi: 00:06:27

Yeah, well, good question. Because I'll tell you what, I always wanted to start something on my own. And I had no idea how to do any of it. I didn't know how to start a website. I didn't know how to connect with artists and around the world. I mean, we joke but literally, I didn't even wear jewelry. I mean, we were I was a volleyball player in college. I just, I wasn't learning part of what I what I did. And the first way was we were I mean, we went to a buyer show. In New York, there's a huge buyer show and they sell everything. Well, there's one section, small section that was handmade, global Fair Trade Company. So that's where we went. And we started. From there. We've gotten referrals, we've developed relationships over a long period of time. So that's where we started. But that's certainly not how we met everybody. Yeah, and, you know, one of the things that that, I think is important is to rewind for me that, like I said, I didn't think about this at all, it was just, I just, I literally was like a lot of shoppers, what's the best deal that I can find. And some of the things that I've learned since then, is really looking into how what kind of companies are paying attention to and prioritizing their workers. And we are seeing this as a really, really big trend that people are starting to pay more and more attention to is an ethical company. They are they part of the Fair Trade Federation, where, how and where did they source their materials and their labor and all those things. And so lucky for us, we're on the forefront of that, and the way that we, you know, big part of our company, as well as education, because the way that we sell is through what we call gatherings where women gather their communities together to hear about the women that we partner with and to shop their beautiful jewelry, we didn't want to just do online, of course, we have a website, I didn't want to get really, really good at Google, I didn't want to have a retail store where I can only influence the people who happened to walk into my store, I really wanted to be able to have women become advocates for this and to start educating their communities. And so that's, that's the second half of our model that's really important, I think is what has had us do so well and getting the message out.

Anna Sergunina: 00:08:50

Yeah. So so it sounds like pretty much anyone who really is passionate about this could could participate and get started, right? Yeah,

Angela Melfi: 00:08:58

that's exactly what we want. We want to lower that barrier of entry, where women want to, like you said, they might have a passion that that's important to them. We've We've lowered all of the barriers to be able to participate in some way with us.

Anna Sergunina: 00:09:15

And so, as you guys, gals participate in supporting these women elsewhere, like I guess I'm just thinking to myself, like, there's, there's gotta be a way for you to see the impact are you making like how, and know you mentioned that in order for women not to go the route of you know, getting in these situations where where they have to sell themselves for money? Like how do you sort of trace those steps like you guys buy the goods that they produce? Can we see like, can we see the impact that it's making? Maybe? Yeah, okay.

Angela Melfi: 00:09:50

Yes, yes, we can. And I love that question. That's all I'll answer it, but I'll just say I love that question. Because that's where you're where people are starting to think about oh, okay, great. So so you're doing this work with these women? How can we see the difference? And then hopefully that translates to more and more things that you start to shop, like, wait a second, if this t shirt is $3, what what's happening here who's not being paid, because I'll tell you what, it's not target, not Walmart, they're getting their money. So who is not being paid? And that's the kind of thing that we want to in a positive way have people start to pay attention to is like, oh, who, what's the impact of my purchase? So with us, one of the things that and by the way, all this is on our website, you can see videos of the women that we work with, who look on our Instagram. And one of the things that we do is we go on trips to meet the women every year. So we're going to Vietnam in April, last year, we were in Bolivia before that, we've been to Guatemala. So we've been you know, we go all over to meet these women. And one of the things that we know is that every three items, so if you think about it, like what you're wearing right now necklace, earrings, you probably have a bracelet on right, every three items that from threads creates an entire day of work. And this is work where they're paid fairly the paid a livable wage, they're paid on time, they're working in healthy working conditions, there's no child labor, that's all part of our part of our certification through Well, it's not certification, but part of being a member, I should say, of being a part of the Fair Trade Federation. But but to see it all, you can see that so we know those statistics, but then we go and we visit and we meet the women and we hear firsthand what difference it makes. And I can go on and on about a million stories. A lot of them are on our website. But you know one of them in particular I'll share about her name is Marla and her daughter Rocio was the first daughter in of three to go to school in Guatemala, you know, typically in Guatemala, they are married when they're 14 or 15 years old. They move in with their in laws. For your listeners. Just imagine that moving in with your in line. No, thank you. No, and you take care of that family and you're pregnant. 15 Well, Marla's Mom, sorry, Rose Marla's daughter. Rocio was the first one that she made sure went to school and did go on that route. And now this woman, Rocio She's 25, she's getting engaged, she has a full time job, she's gonna she's creating curriculum for young girls. And that's her path because her mom invested in her future. And I promise you without this work, and without the people who buy the bracelets that Marla makes, Rocio would probably be on her third or fourth pull. Is that like the like that's one of 100 stories that I could share about some of the difference that happens when you're buying things already? What about buying it in a way that you know, who made it and the difference?

Anna Sergunina: 00:13:01

Yeah, and that's a good actually good segue, because he was describing what happens, you know, overseas, right or outside of our little pond. So how we, you know, the comfortable consumers that we have a choice like, you can open your phone and click a button, you'll have something in your hands, like, within an hour. How do we make that decision? Like? How do you even think about what can you buy Fairtrade? Where do you go, right? I mean, outside of beautiful jewelry and things that you guys make, but just in general, like how do we, it's a mindset, right, like, how do we switch make that switch?

Angela Melfi: 00:13:37

Oh, my gosh, I love that question, too. It is the mindset and I haven't heard of that comfortable consumer. But that's exactly the privilege that we have. And so I'll say a couple places to start one, it does take a little bit more work. And it does take a little bit more time because these are handmade products. But if you go search for fair trade and fill in the blank, if you look at fair trade federation.org And I can give you some of these resources for your show notes as well. But fair trade federation.org You can search on whatever it is that you're looking for, and you'll find it and start looking at the labels of things. It's as simple as when you're at the grocery store, pick up the fairtrade bananas instead of the regular bananas. Fairtrade bananas, many of them are a little bit more expensive they are but that means that those workers were able to do to be healthy while they're making while they're growing. The banana. coffee and chocolate are a really easy one. And there's a bunch of companies out there again, I can send them to you. There's a bunch of options as you start looking, and I'll say two it can get overwhelming but baby steps. You know, maybe you switch from you know, the current coffee to a fairtrade coffee. There's so many delicious options. If you start taking those baby steps, you'll start to see All the different different ways that that your consumerism can make a real difference in somebody's life.

Anna Sergunina: 00:15:08

And does does every, like fair trade? I guess the the reasons or the causes that the fair trade is supporting, I'm not sure if I'm saying even properly, but thank you for supporting, let's say like, I mean, easy switches for me could be like coffee and chocolate, we drink, we eat chocolate and we drink coffee. And that's like, a no brainer, right? Yeah. Do all of these organizations support the cause that you're talking about or this is you can be selected for what you want to support.

Angela Melfi: 00:15:39

Okay, so fair trade is the term for there's nine tenants for being part of the fairtrade Federation. It's sort of like if you think about organic, right, there are certain requirements that your food has to meet to be organic. And and if they're not organic, it doesn't mean that it's junk. Because you do unfortunately right now, you have to pay for certification to be organic. Same thing with Fairtrade. So doesn't mean if it's not part of the fairtrade Federation, that, that they're exploiting people. But the onus the work to prove ourselves is on the people who are doing the right thing, which I want to flip. I want it to stay on your you know, mug, this was made with, you know, three hours of slave labor, versus us having to go through the work of proving that we're Fairtrade, that would really flip consumer behavior. Until then, one of the things are, until then a fair trade what that means is that there's nine tenants. And again, it means that there's no child labor, healthy working conditions, and paid fairly and paid on time. Anybody anytime you see fair trade, that's what they have to be dealing. I see. Sort of like, I will compare it to food, though a little bit more. If you see something on the shelf, and it says natural flavoring. You might think, oh, it's natural. That's, that's good for me. Not necessarily, almost anything can be labeled as natural. It's almost like an adjective versus a label. Same thing with ethical, you know, if it says ethical, I don't know, it could be a little bit, you just want to have your radar. So so a great place would be to look at from the fairtrade Federation. And if it says Fairtrade, and there's a label on it, you can be sure that they've, they've gone through the process that we have to ensure that that the workers are taken care of.

Anna Sergunina: 00:17:50

And so who does the effort in getting these goods these products and goods to us, right? Because the United States is not I'm sure, not the only country that buys from them, right? Like they they can be selling all over. So like, where does it or originate does, it originated from us as consumers, or it's the people that like, like you were mentioning, Guatemala, or Vietnam, or India, is that where, like how to do is women, for example, know where to go to get their, you know, products and products out to the consumers.

Angela Melfi: 00:18:25

So we're approached all the time to purchase more products from new groups. So there are a lot of them around the world. And one of my missions is that we keep sending as much work as we can to the groups where we work right now. Which is heartbreaking, because sometimes groups contact me and they want, they have something to sell. And we until we grow here in the United States, I can't take on a new partner, because it will dilute the work that we're sending to the partners that we already have commitments and relationships with. So they're trying, they're just like, anybody, they're trying to find buyers. And we want to be able to offer that to as many women as possible. And right now my main focus is to grow here in the United States grow people who want to sell who went to host who want to shop with us, you know, like you were saying earlier way to partner with us, we need more women here to be able to do that so that we can, you know, buy more from other groups.

Anna Sergunina: 00:19:33

Okay, I got it. I see. So, if I think about this in context of personal finances, because I my brain just goes there somehow I can't help. Yes. So and, you know, thinking more like Okay, so if I make these conscious choices to look for products, food items, right, I'm not sure what else like you know, personal items closing like, how would this Aside from making the you know, participating in the ferrets Rate space supporting the causes. How would this help me improve my finances? Like, talk if you can have a couple of examples that you've personally experienced? Yeah.

Angela Melfi: 00:20:12

Well, I'll say once I've been talking about Fairtrade, which if you're buying, if you buy new anytime that you can, again, make those baby steps towards Fairtrade. And another great way to do it. And this helps finances extremely, is to be looking at where you can buy secondhand, it keeps things out of the the way to call it dumb. When we're buying secondhand, there are great websites, and they have fancy stuff. So depending on your style, if you are high end designer, there are secondhand places that have high end designer, there's ones I'm sure wherever, especially in San Francisco, we have some in Denver, that you can look at websites like read up. So it's thread without the A thr Ed up.com. Poshmark is one. I think it's called the real real I haven't gotten to them. But it's I mean, I'm talking there, there's some fancy stuff. So I think that there's a stigma sometimes about oh, secondhand or thrifting. Like there's, you know, holes in it, or it's really out of style. No, I mean, there's some gorgeous things. So that's one way. Another way is like renting, so there's a couple of websites out there, but one of them is Rent the Runway, I just started with them and they are so much fun. It's high end is designer stuff that comes to you fully pressed and clean. I mean iron to the seams down the sleeves, I mean, it's beautiful thing. And again, you get new fresh clothes, that you're not having to throw in the dump or, or whatever you're doing afterwards. Those are some ways to save money and look really, really great. Another thing is Fairtrade is tends to be better made, it's handmade. So it's better made, and quality. So your things will last longer, you know, any of these throwaway brands like I don't know, forever, 21 and old, maybe you're buying things, you can only wear them two or three times. So one thing about the price there again, who's not who's not being paid. And then also what happens to that shirt when it gets Red, Red Baron and you throw it out. It's just a waste of money. And so there's a lot of alternatives that might take a little bit more time. But it's a real adventure, being able to go and and find something unique, instead of just the manufactured style of the day. Yeah,

Anna Sergunina: 00:22:43

that's awesome. I'm so happy that you mentioned renting clothes. I actually just started that myself this year. It was it sort of was a phase rental runway. So I'm like literally on my just about to start my second month. So I haven't been figuring all the way Yeah, it's it's a they've been around for so long. So they know their their their idea. But I didn't go into it with thinking about the Fair Trade angle, which you're introducing me to it now. But I went into thinking about, okay, I want to test it out, right? This this concept like I am on board with not having to own things that don't add value. And that's kind of like, you know, has to do with you know, do you lease or buy your car? Do you have to buy or rent your home? I mean, things that don't add much value to your life right or to your finances. What you know, what is it? What are the alternatives and so closing is like one of the other angles for me so I'm really interested to explore that. There's so many choices. Oh my god, that it's so overwhelming, but exciting at the same time.

Angela Melfi: 00:23:50

I never thought about it from the finance perspective, just like you said, like why put money into something that I've been talking about depreciating? Especially if it gets a hole in it? Oh, yes. You know, and this is you wear it and you look you and this new styles and then you send it back. Yes,

Anna Sergunina: 00:24:07

that's what I thought. I mean, for I think for like, their average membership fee a month is $150 I can't buy much $450 Even if I just go to the same store, you know, at the same brands, and there have like hundreds of brands that I've never even heard of. So it was like okay, something is like okay, in my head was like something is really off here either. I don't understand how this works. Or this close is going to be completely terrible or Mike like I've came up with all kinds of reasoning right going into it. I mean, it's been interesting so far. Yes, you do have to send the clothes back. You don't have to do the laundry. None of that which is exciting. So yeah, I love it from that angle. But I'm gonna focus a little more on Fairtrade and you know, even like I know the app a little more now I have it on my phone if you can do it on your on a computer as well. You can look up brands Right? Like if you're specifically wanting to support a brand. Would that Drazen? That's, that's an awesome way to do it. So yeah, I I'm excited for that. Oh, for sure. Yeah. So yeah, I figured, okay, if this is a budget for a year, right, because I, you know, it kind of stemmed from looking at my credit card statement at the end of the year. I was like, whoa, okay, so and credit card statements, sometimes the way that they categorize things for purchases and stuff, they like they bundle your Costco purchase or your Amazon. So our categories are rather large. I couldn't, you know, I was like, Okay, well, what's reasonable? So I looked at that number, and that's, you know, for a family of three, I was like, Okay, well, I'm probably the one who spends the most as you can, you know, gas. Boys and Men don't need as much clothes, all the boys that are growing up, you know, like weeds do. So I was like, Okay, this is the reasoning for trying something like that, right.

Angela Melfi: 00:26:02

And then you have growing kids website, like, read up, I buy, I buy all my, well, I get a lot of hand me downs, I'm very lucky to have slightly older kids in my network. But I buy a lot of I buy some of their clothes from thread up. And you can say new, you can say new with tags. And it will it will all get things for them. And they're so cute. And then when they bust a hole in it, it's not sort of has devastating is oh man, I just bought that. You know, it cost me a lot more. And now I have to throw it away already. You know, like, it just is a great alternative. Yes, I've

Anna Sergunina: 00:26:41

barely I like, it's really been less a little more than a month and I started this. So I was like, Okay, well, if this works out for me, I'm gonna look and see what companies there are that would do similar similar thing for the kids, right? Because that's where I was like, okay, gosh, how much clothes literally, do I have to buy? Keep up, right? And like you said, yes. Well, you know, you can spend more money and buy designer labels, right. But that's a completely like a different angle of what you're trying to accomplish versus buying a quality closing, right, that's going to last and it's not going to fade and shrink and all of that. So yeah, I'm that's probably the next layer of experience. Yeah,

Angela Melfi: 00:27:23

like you said, you try it out. And then you have a good experience. You try out something more you try out something more. Yeah,

Anna Sergunina: 00:27:29

totally. Well, great. So you mentioned is part of your job. And I feel like it's a such a exciting opportunity is for you to travel and go see places that you may have not really like, gone, I'm going to Vietnam is a trip that for most people will never do, right. Unless it's like, you know, when you're on your bucket list. So talk a little bit about like, how that experience and you've been doing it for like over a decade, decade? Like what how has that shaped your family values? Do you guys do that together? And then just yeah, just like, where's that? Where's that part for you? kind of connects to the business? Yeah,

Angela Melfi: 00:28:12

well, it directly is in the business, I went one of my biggest passions. probably second to my family is travel. I've been all over the world. And I one of the reasons and building threads is I wanted women to be able to participate in this and be able to explore and see new places. And so the the women who saw with us, they're called social partners. So it's short for social impact entrepreneurs. And these women, they make money as a as another stream of income, they get jewelry for a great deal, they get to travel with us and they can earn trips. And so earning their trip, you know, there's certain things that they need to do and they can earn a trip either the chance to buy in at a discount or a you know, all included where we're paying for everything even up to their flight. And like you said we get to go on these trips that not only are they sort of unique places, but the experience is is not something you can buy. We go into villages where you know the you get to meet the women that we've been working with and that we've been creating work with for the last year to three years, however long the the seller, the soldier foreigners have been around. And it's just something so unique. And I'll say to it's also really nice, it's it's an incentive trip. So we're celebrating we're going to we're staying in five star hotels. We go we went to Malta and Bolivia we went to one of the top 50 restaurants in the whole world. In Vietnam. We're looking at Michelin star restaurants to go to so we celebrate and there's and this is woven in level of impact that you just aren't going to be able to experience on any other crap. And so women, I mean, there's this woman, Shannon, in Denver, I met her and she came be lining up to me at one of the parties and said, I want to travel. Where are we going, and she got started. And since then she's been to Guatemala, Bolivia, going to Vietnam. And she, I think the last place that she'd ever been in the country or the world is Mexico. And so there's that kind of like, way to branch outside your comfort zone and see something new in a way that's really curated and, and meaningful. And so that's just one of my big missions is to be able to introduce Americans who are traditionally pretty isolated to the amazing world that's out there. Now,

Anna Sergunina: 00:30:45

that's awesome. How does that How do you work that into your own family? Like, how do you balance that with two kids at home? And yes?

Angela Melfi: 00:30:54

Well, one is I have an amazing husband, who just is number one fan of me and number one fan of threads worldwide. And it started when he and I went on our honeymoon. And we went to Bali. And that's where we met one of our partners was in Bali. And so he got to see it firsthand. We've also come down after a trip and brought our daughter down at the time she was one, we went to Ecuador together. He we were talking about going to Vietnam together but with the timezone change it just too much for our young kid. So, you know, it's just something that I want my kids to travel and see the world. We spent a month in Nicaragua last year, and it's just a priority that it takes more work with kids, for sure. But I don't know, I'm always my best self. When I travel. I slow down. I have patience for everything. And so mixing kids into that it just it's a different kind of experience. And when I was traveling my 20s but it's it's like seeing here is seeing the world even through another layer layer of curiosity through their eyes. Ya

Anna Sergunina: 00:32:01

know, it's that you said you said it exactly. You can't really buy that experience on the, you know, on the five star all booked for you kind of trip. So you've seen you've seen the world for a couple from a completely different window, which is really awesome. Yeah. How? How can our listeners connect with you learn learn about this amazing work that you're doing? Yeah,

Angela Melfi: 00:32:25

so um, it's pretty simple. We're everywhere at threads worldwide. So our websites, threads worldwide Instagram, Facebook is Preds worldwide. And then me I'm Angela dot Fred's real life. And that's on Instagram.

Anna Sergunina: 00:32:39

Awesome. Yes. And we're going to include the links in the show notes to I think he also mentioned that you have something special for all of the listeners who want to check out what is it like to buy this Fairtrade product or just like start to be more conscious about it? Yeah. There when you have an in store for us? Yes,

Angela Melfi: 00:32:58

yes. Yes. Well, yes, we want to get some Fairtrade earrings and necklaces on your listeners bodies and earlobe. And the way to do that is if you go to threads, worldwide.com and then shop, and then there's a coupon code box. And if you type in your name, Anna will do all caps, a and na all caps, that will be 20% off. And we are offering that through the end of May. So you can get some new spring, summer looks for your spring summer outfits that maybe you rent or us from a secondhand store and get some new jewelry that, you know, I'll just say as women to we're the best advertisers, we're the biggest shoppers like you said, We're that we make the majority of decisions in the family to shop. And we share about everything if you think about it. And the last time that somebody said Oh, I like your I like your shirt. You know, I don't know about you. But for me, I can't just say thank you. I have oh, this is where I got it. And this is the deal that I got and did it all I was a gift, whatever it is, we have to explain it. So now we want women we want you to be able to share oh, these Thank you these were made by moms in India, like you're going to share about it anyway, we want to give you something amazing to share to get this conversation of Fairtrade and specifically threads out into the world. So we love to give your listeners a chance to do that.

Anna Sergunina: 00:34:22

That's amazing. I know it's definitely a conversation starter and it's really easy. For those of you who may be I was listening to a podcast, another podcast just this morning on my run and it was about networking and you know, the mentioned was like a lot of us are even though we do you know go out to network whether you're business owner or you have you know, you have a professional career, we most people tend to be more introverted. So this is a great you know, in a certain way, just start a conversation with really anyone who gives you a compliment. And

Angela Melfi: 00:34:54

that's what we find to for your listeners. If you want to get more involved. You know, host something I get your friends together. And one of the number one reasons that we hear that women want to host right now is because they miss that people are coming back from COVID Still, and some of those friendships that you lost, it's like a really great excuse to get your people together and to gather them all around something amazing that makes a difference in the world where they can have fun and when there's something to do, you know, it can be awkward walking into a house, you know, and you don't know anybody but if you know what you're there for, you know that there's going to be something to do it. Just it's another level of connection that is simple, like you said, are easier than a regular health party.

Anna Sergunina: 00:35:39

Yes, I can't agree more with that. Well, thank you so much, Angela, for sharing this. This idea. I know it's not new. It may be new to the listeners here. But it's it's very excited and I can't wait for this episode to come out. So thank you so much for being here today.

Angela Melfi: 00:35:55

Thank you for your interest, Anna.