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Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garland. We're

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Speaker 1: back with Melissa Gilbert. So much wisdom and kindness to share.

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Speaker 1: I can't wait for you to hear the rest of

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Speaker 1: our conversation. Okay, well, of course we have to talk

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Speaker 1: about Little House on the Prairie. I know how much

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Speaker 1: people love nine O two and zero, and that's just

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Speaker 1: from the nineties. You started a lot earlier. You've recently

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Speaker 1: celebrated the fiftieth anniversary, and also a show that's never

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Speaker 1: been off the air. It's always on somewhere.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's wild. It's wild to be a part of

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Speaker 2: something that has that kind of longevity, but the legacy

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Speaker 2: of it and it's so beloved. People love that show.

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Speaker 2: They love the stories that we told. They love the

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Speaker 2: relevance of the stories that we told. They they're now

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Speaker 2: people are looking back and going, oh, Little House. They

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Speaker 2: told some pretty poble stuff.

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Speaker 1: And just in such a like a non offensive way,

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Speaker 1: like not like it.

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Speaker 2: Was not its real Yeah, exactly, it was not exploitive.

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Speaker 2: We were telling Michael Landon was consciously telling the stories

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Speaker 2: of the nineteen seventies through the lens of the eighteen seventies.

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Speaker 2: We were talking about civil rights and veterans coming home

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Speaker 2: from the Civil War on our show where the veterans

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Speaker 2: coming home from the Vietnam War. These were all topical

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Speaker 2: and important stories, and unfortunately, so many of them are

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Speaker 2: still things we need to discuss today. So that's why

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Speaker 2: I think Little House continues on. I mean, we you know,

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Speaker 2: we did dumb, fluffy episodes where we just had fun

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Speaker 2: Jennify on Halloween, but it was it was pretty hard hitting.

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Speaker 2: We took on rape, arson, crib death, all kinds of horrible,

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Speaker 2: horrible things on that show.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I have always been a fan. I watched it

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Speaker 1: when I was little, I've watched it with my daughters.

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Speaker 1: I got to work with Shannon Doherty who was played Jenny.

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Speaker 2: Yes she did. She sure did.

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Speaker 1: Such such good, good memories of my childhood from watching

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Speaker 1: that show.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, And.

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Speaker 1: It's been such an incredible jumping off point for so

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Speaker 1: many other things. On top of having this great, successful

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Speaker 1: career outside of that show, you really kind of chose

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Speaker 1: to take ownership of Laura, and you seem okay being

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Speaker 1: a little bit her forever.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I'm her and she's me. It's really

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Speaker 2: hard to do. It's really hard to differentiate between the

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Speaker 2: two because it was so ingrained in you know, I

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Speaker 2: was nine years old. It's an acting I was pretending.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it was a game, it was a job.

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Speaker 2: Certainly I had mendus responsibility, but it was it was

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Speaker 2: an adventure more than anything else. And it's you know,

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Speaker 2: when I was in my mid to late teens in

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Speaker 2: early twenties, I sort of wanted to distance myself from

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Speaker 2: it a bit because I wanted to establish myself as

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Speaker 2: a young woman when people were still thinking I'm twelve,

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Speaker 2: and that was kind of a hard, prickly time. But

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Speaker 2: now as I've aged, it's obviously something that I've really

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Speaker 2: come to embrace wholeheartedly. And now with my lifestyle brand

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Speaker 2: with my partner Nicole Hosey, and I with Modern Prairie,

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Speaker 2: we've taken that whole ethos and all of that feeling

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Speaker 2: and goodwill around Laura and Little House and the Prairie

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Speaker 2: and moved it into the future by modernizing it for

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Speaker 2: women our age and beyond and created a community where

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Speaker 2: they can gather and share and support one another through

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Speaker 2: all of these things we're going through at this part

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Speaker 2: of our lives. Yes, there's a business component to it.

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Speaker 2: There's products, there's clothing, there's crafting. But we have free

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Speaker 2: events and seminars on everything from finding joy after grief

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Speaker 2: to being a caregiver to making pigh crust. There's something

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Speaker 2: for everybody. And the women in our community and on

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Speaker 2: our app are now starting to gather together away from

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Speaker 2: us on their own and have meetups and lunches. And

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Speaker 2: these are women who have felt underappreciated and marginalized simply

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Speaker 2: because of their age.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was going to ask you about this

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Speaker 1: because in twenty twenty two, if I'm correct, that's when

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Speaker 1: you founded Mone Prairie. Yes, you're with Nicole, your partner.

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Speaker 1: Why did you decide that that was the right time

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Speaker 1: to focus some of your energy on that? It's no

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Speaker 1: small feet. I've done it too. I have kind of

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Speaker 1: pivoted to embrace my past and bring it into my future.

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Speaker 1: And you know what, the whole I choose me and

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Speaker 1: very very very similar stories you and I. Yeah, what

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Speaker 1: made you want to do that? Like? How did you

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Speaker 1: figure out you wanted to do that?

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Speaker 2: It sort of fell into place. I mean for many

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Speaker 2: many years I knew there was the potential for something

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Speaker 2: Prairie branded, something there, and I had had conversations with

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Speaker 2: the branding department at the agency where I'm a client

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Speaker 2: for years, and we sort of came up with a

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Speaker 2: deck and an idea of what it might be, but

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Speaker 2: it fell by the wayside. And then I came to

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Speaker 2: know Nicole, who at the time was working in swim

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Speaker 2: swimwear and she was working for a company that was

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Speaker 2: designing swimwear for the seasoned woman. Let's call me And

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Speaker 2: we had a mutual friend who introduced us, and so

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Speaker 2: Nicole and I did some Instagram lives. She fitted me.

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Speaker 2: She sent me swimwear which is like the torch, like

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Speaker 2: trying on jeans, it's agony, and this is so easy

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Speaker 2: and this it was great, great swimwear. I felt really

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Speaker 2: good on n even posted pictures and she and I

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Speaker 2: just started chatting and I told her that, you know,

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Speaker 2: I'd had this idea for something but it never happened,

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Speaker 2: and she said, let me get back to you. And

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Speaker 2: about a week later she came back to me and

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Speaker 2: she created this deck and this idea for this company,

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Speaker 2: and she said, I think I want to do this

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Speaker 2: with you. How about you? And I said, are you kidding?

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Speaker 2: This is amazing because it was so much more than

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Speaker 2: I or anyone around me had ever come up with before,

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Speaker 2: because it wasn't just retail, it wasn't just killing stuff.

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Speaker 2: It was creating this community in this world of women

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Speaker 2: supporting women now at this phase of our lives. And

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Speaker 2: so we did it ourselves. We bootstrapped this ourselves, we

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Speaker 2: funded it ourselves, We've created it. We're really scrappy. We

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Speaker 2: still are, you know, We're we're doing really well. The

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Speaker 2: business is growing in leaps and bounds and amazing. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and now we're at the point where we're actually going

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Speaker 2: to have to start hiring people to do some of

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Speaker 2: the things we do because we're doing too many jobs.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, who knew at this stage in your

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Speaker 1: life as a seasoned woman, which, by the way, what

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Speaker 1: is your definition of a seasoned woman? I'm cureus. I'm

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Speaker 1: kind of no, but like I want to hear you

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Speaker 1: tell me.

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Speaker 2: I think it's experience, wisdom, knowledge, self awareness. I think

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Speaker 2: that's it. I think I think that's it.

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Speaker 1: Seasoned. I like it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The building of the community is really like at

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Speaker 1: the core of it, which I admire.

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Speaker 2: Thank you and I.

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Speaker 1: Wish you all the best, you know, I was going

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Speaker 1: to say before, like, at this stage in our lives,

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Speaker 1: who would have thunk that we would be back to

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Speaker 1: the drawing board, like grinding again to create these you

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Speaker 1: with yours and me with mine. Like I've never worked

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Speaker 1: harder in my life.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I know, I know, it's it's extraordinary, but

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Speaker 2: it's this. It's a different kind of work this go around.

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Speaker 2: But right it's like a joyous creative creative. There's so

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Speaker 2: much yes ending that goes on in our business and

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Speaker 2: and and for us with the crafting space and being

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Speaker 2: able to bring that part of myself into the business,

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Speaker 2: and and then you know, we just did. We've we've

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Speaker 2: done an initiative that I love so much. We have

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Speaker 2: we're in the quilting space now. We have created fabrics

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Speaker 2: for quilts, a fabric kit with Riley Blake, who's a

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Speaker 2: big fabric distributor for quilting, and it did really well.

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Speaker 2: We're launching our second, our second kit. But in the meantime,

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Speaker 2: we did quilting lessons on the app and I learned

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Speaker 2: to quilt. And now we've done this thing where the

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Speaker 2: women who quilted have all done blocks with our.

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Speaker 1: Fast saw that on your Instagram.

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Speaker 2: Yeap, including myself, and then we've embroidered our names on

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Speaker 2: it and little messages on it, and our master quilter

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Speaker 2: and quilting teacher is assembling them into four quilts that

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Speaker 2: we're going to give to Jennifer Garner and save the

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Speaker 2: children for their big gala and auction. And we're debuting

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Speaker 2: those at a thing called Garden of Quilts in Utah,

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Speaker 2: which is our first It's going to be the venue

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Speaker 2: for our first in person modern prairie meeting for all

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Speaker 2: of our ladies. So we were able to gather as

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Speaker 2: a community, even all over the world and country to

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Speaker 2: create these quilts that will benefit children in a way

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Speaker 2: that we would not have been able to otherwise. And

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Speaker 2: there's something so traditionally beautiful about that. It's like a

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Speaker 2: quilting circle, a pair of people in the village. Right

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Speaker 2: we're taking care of children in our country.

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Speaker 1: It's so full circle. I can't take it.

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Speaker 2: I know, it's crazy.

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Speaker 1: It's like you are back to where you began and

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Speaker 1: really able to put your heart and soul into it

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Speaker 1: in a way now because you're calling the shots, you're

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Speaker 1: leading the you know, you and your partner are the

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Speaker 1: bosses Yeah, it's gosh, I know I can relate. It's

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Speaker 1: such a great feeling. It's it's so different.

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Speaker 2: It really is. It's business, but it's beyond that, and

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Speaker 2: that is so fulfilling.

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Speaker 1: It's the community. Yep, yep, I love that. So I

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Speaker 1: do know that You're longevity in this business is really remarkable.

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Speaker 1: What would you want women like me or women out

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Speaker 1: there who are listening to know about staying the course,

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Speaker 1: staying true to yourself and all the women that not

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Speaker 1: just in our industry, but all the women everywhere, because

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Speaker 1: it's not just applicable to show business.

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Speaker 2: I think it's really important. If I could choose one thing,

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Speaker 2: it would be to stay curious. One of my favorite

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Speaker 2: things is when I walk into a room or zoom

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Speaker 2: or a situation and I'm not the smartest person in

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Speaker 2: the room, There's always someone I can learn from, and

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Speaker 2: I think that's that keeps that spark alive in us.

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Speaker 2: You can see those people who think that they know everything.

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Speaker 2: A lot of the leaders in world leaders and in

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Speaker 2: our country are that way, and they just look sour

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Speaker 2: and heavy and burdened because they've lost that curiosity, and

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Speaker 2: that curiosity is well, that's that's the laura. Yep, that's

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Speaker 2: what it is, and and that's what will keep me

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Speaker 2: vibrant and vital and excited about getting up in the

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Speaker 2: morning and doing something and learning something that curiosity, stay curious,

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Speaker 2: stay curious.

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Speaker 1: That is great advice. Wow, I just love our conversation

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Speaker 1: that you are. I'm just I'm in awe of you.

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Speaker 1: I want to I want to be you. Kind of

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Speaker 1: is that weird?

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Speaker 2: Oh?

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Speaker 1: I love the laura inside of you so much. It's

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Speaker 1: so present. It's just it's you've come so far. Wow,

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Speaker 1: you've you're a great example.

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Speaker 2: Oh, bless your heart. So are you. I think we're

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Speaker 2: sort of in like the same kind of pace and

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Speaker 2: this will serve us really well. You know, we'll we'll

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Speaker 2: we'll reconnoiter in our in our eighties. Well I'll be

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Speaker 2: in my eighties before you. I will see where we

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Speaker 2: are then do.

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Speaker 1: I'm so curious what's going to happen.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, but I anticipate great things.

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Speaker 1: Great things. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.

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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much for inviting me. This was

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Speaker 2: really special. And I do hope our past cross in

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Speaker 2: person at some point because that would be really nice.

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Speaker 1: I do too. I will give you the biggest hug.

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Speaker 1: I hope it's not too weird.

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Speaker 2: No, not at all. It won't be all.

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Speaker 1: Have great back, okay, all right, thank you Melissa,