 Kauai business on a think tech Kauai. My name is Kathleen Lee and I am your host for this program. Today I am excited to welcome back to the show Michelle Carmack. When she was last here she was talking about oak and pine and now she has another business venture. So I'll let her go into that Michelle. Welcome back to the chef post. Hi. Thanks for having me. So happy to be here. And when you say that she has another business I was just like oh my gosh. It does sound like a lot but I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to talk more about all the ventures that we have going on under our belt. Wonderful. So let's start with you first. Tell our viewers again a little bit about yourself. Yeah yourself. I appreciate that. Yeah so I'm an entrepreneur. I have my big passion is to support women. And I find that the businesses that I grow and lean more towards is around community support, human connection, finding ways for people to get in front of each other and build those relationships again. And I think you know I've always had this bug in me to get people in the same room. But I really found this passion after COVID. I think after a while of being isolated and then alone it's easy. You know it's safe to say that we're looking for that in-person connection and that community aspect of it. And I'm just happy to be able to take the skill sets that I have to be able to you know build that type of container for us all. That I think is wonderful. Let's start off with oak and pine first and delve into how gather evolved from that if I'm saying that correctly. So let's tell our viewers briefly about oak and pine and how you got into gather and what gather is. Yeah you know what's interesting is the long-term vision has always been gather. Like when I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur that I wanted to build a community that I wanted to have this container for us to all share and be in gather was the vision the concept. But when I first launched my business back in 2018 I didn't know how to get there and I felt very overwhelmed because I didn't have the resources I didn't have the connection. I really didn't know what my first step was. So I had to really take a step back and reflect well how am I eventually going to get to this space and create it for us because as we know having a brick and mortar is very expensive. There's a lot of overhead. There's a lot of learning that comes with having a physical space. So being able to say well my first step doesn't need to be opening the space but rather if I know that I want to have a community let's just start there. So that's where oak and pine really blooms from is is that concept of getting like-minded people together and for me as I mentioned my passion is to support women. I was in this new chapter in my life of I want to be considered an entrepreneur. I want to grow into this role. So how can I find other people and other women who are doing the same who are looking to design life on their terms through entrepreneurship? So that's where oak and pine was born. Back in 2018 I hosted my first event. It was a room full of my closest friends and family and past colleagues. They were there to support me. We had 25 people. I was able to like take really great photos and then sell the next event which was two months after that and that room was filled with 25 wonderful supported people but outside of my network and I started to realize like okay this is actually happening. This is growing and then after that we did 50 for a bigger conference and it just kept growing and growing and it wasn't until COVID hit where I had to really pivot because I had to cancel all my events. It wasn't an option to be able to have in-person events. I didn't know anything or much about online events at that time either. So I had to pivot to be a hybrid community until we can open the doors. So that's when I opened and launched the Oak and Pine Society membership and then we just grew during the pandemic from seven to a hundred members and that was true validation that we are looking for a community especially when you're a new entrepreneur and then that was kind of our trajectory. That's how we grew. That's how I personally find myself as a member of this community because if it weren't for this society I know I wouldn't have had the confidence or the resources or the network to be able to achieve my end goal which was gather and opening up this physical space for us all. I love hearing about that and I believe it went to one of your first events a while back. It was at a beautiful hotel in Waikiki and I thought it was very well organized and you were helping people out with. You had a couple of guests too, notable women from the community and you were helping your guests out with goal setting and I thought at that time that was pretty amazing since I hadn't ran into a network like that where it was focused on women. So let's go into that. Why is it important for you to support women, women entrepreneurs, women business owners, women professionals? Why is that so important for you? It takes some soul searching for me because when you decide that you want to be an entrepreneur it can be overwhelming. All possibilities are available to you. Everything is at your fingertips and it's up to you to decide what you want to niche down to who you want to support. So at that time I started to reflect back on my own lineage of like well why do I want to be an entrepreneur? Why is this important to me? And it gave me a chance to reflect back on my own childhood and the lineage that I have. So if it weren't for my grandma and my mom being the strong brave women that they are to be able to uproot the Philippines and Wuzukua'i and I'm happy they picked Oahu, my life would look so different as a first generation American and I think about that all the time. I was like they gave me a head start in life because they chose to take the risk to do something different and to do something for themselves so that their future can have a better life and I think about that and I hear the stories of the women in my circle now doing the same for their family and for me it's like because I had that in my network and I see and I get to read the benefits of it I want to support other women who are on that trajectory as well who want that for themselves who want that for their family and you know the best way I think we can do that is through community. So when you meet these women who come to you as a resource what are some topics or challenges that they ran into that you've identified are there common ones why do they reach out for the network that you provide? Yeah it's so interesting because you do see common stories but everyone's situation is so different so the common thing I hear is that I don't know where to start I'm looking for community I want to be able to do this thing and I want to be able to have the resources so when it comes to the struggles I would say for women in particular it's like I feel like I have no time because I'm taking care of my kids I'm worrying about packing their lunch the night before it's dropping them off now I have a sick kid and I have to you know go pick them up or my mom I have to take her to her eye doctor appointment so caregiving caretaking being a mom really does take a lot of time but yet they still have this desire to be able to provide it for their family financially they have this passion that they want to launch a business and they feel that you know and being able to find a way to do both is really hard and because everyone's situation is so different being able to create a container where they can say like here's my struggles right now I don't know where to start what have you done and that story talk that conversation can be very encouraging and empowering but then also the free flowing dialogue allows them to really find and pick and choose what what feedback and topics are relevant to them at that point in time right so yeah so I would say the common thread is time like how do you even have the time to build a career how do you even have time to build a business while you have all of these other responsibilities at home and speaking of time and doing all these things I want to commend you and I want to let our viewers know that you are actually running an event right now will be interviewed and I'm so grateful it's a testament to you doing it all and making time for you know commitments and things and I absolutely love you for that so thank you Michelle let's delve into that so events you are right now at gather yes what is so gather is an event venue it's a space where you can host your panel discussions your workshops if it's a wellness workshop if it's an educational workshop it's also a great space for companies to do their leadership off-site sales trainings company meetings and what's funny is I keep finding myself back in the event space and when I launched my business back in 2018 I didn't identify myself as an event planner until two years later and I said oh I put together these conferences I put together these meetups for our members I become an event planner and I had like this whole like oh my gosh this epiphany of like I just realized what I am who I am as an entrepreneur what industry I'm in and I and I like called a meeting with our members like share this big thing and I was like I know who I am as a career person I'm an event planner and they're just like yeah yes we knew that Michelle and it was it was just such a funny moment for me of recognizing and having like that aha moment that clicked for me but it was so obvious to everyone else and I think when we think about the entrepreneurial journey or even when you're in your career that that moment of aha is like priceless so all that to say I thought I was going to be opening a co-working space it after having six months under our belt I'm realizing that it's more of an event venue and I'm actually very relieved in that because I know that industry I know events and it's less co-working although we do have you know days where people come here to work remotely so it's it's pretty interesting how the business is taking shape of itself yeah and and I would love for you to go more into that as an entrepreneur how important is it to have the flexibility and the open mind business for change oh it was hard for me to be honest to let go of what I thought this business was going to be because I had this set vision right and when you put co-work inside of the name it really limits you of what you are and what you do so it was a moment of like okay well let's just figure it out and be flexible and as soon as I kind of let go of the expectation that's when opportunity starts to come up that's when I can speak about the business a lot more clearly um that's when I could get like direct feedback from the people who are using the product the way we have that it's growing into so I think as an entrepreneur and even as a career person really it's neutrality that helps you grow because once you let go of expectations you start to see all of the different types of opportunities that are available to us in this moment and that will leave you down a path that is exciting of fun and just kind of going with it you know at in and that's wonderful that you talk about that so tell us a little bit about what's going on right now at gather yeah so I you know what's funny is whenever I need panel discussions like this and gatherings I seriously am like on the verge of crying and and the reason because that is is like I mentioned I'm passionate about supporting women and to be able to see other communities out there who are doing the same in their own way um and empowering women who are gravitating towards them it's just it's just the icing on top so today boom wahine they host an amazing panel discussion for female entrepreneurs um it was about how to get ready for the holiday season and I'm just so so so grateful that Nikki the founder had chose our venue to be able to host this wonderful workshop that is great and congratulations on that by the way for you know people knowing more about your intention and the space that you provide you know how you talked earlier about realizing who you were as far as your direction when it comes to your entrepreneurial journey goes what would you like to tell individuals out there as far as how to find or even start finding clarity when it comes to their purpose kind of a deep question but no I love it I love going into the deep conversations it's it's my bio um but I would say find people that you feel comfortable with to be able to just speak it out loud to say this is what I think I want to do I don't know exactly what it looks like just yet but this is why I'm passionate about it this is why it's been on my mind for so long and here's the story behind it and I think I think as people in general when we before we say it out loud we want it to be perfect right we don't want to say the wrong thing we don't want to wrap ourselves in a box or anything like that but I've found that clarity comes the best from just having conversations with people having just this casual free flowing dialogue and what's interesting about the conversation is you get different perspectives so they have a whole different life that they're living they see what you're explaining in a whole different lens and when you are able to hear what they hear you know what they're experiencing from the conversation it gives you so much it's it gives you a different vantage point um so I would say my my biggest advice is just to talk about it and it doesn't have to be perfect and it's okay to say I don't know I think you know you don't have to always come off at super confident just find that that one safe group whether it's a community that you tap into whether it's your business bestie or whomever find someone to be able to just spit ball with and and have those conversations thank you for that where is gather by the way it is in Hawaii hi same building as Roy's restaurant um and we have this beautiful corner lot that overlooks the ocean um you can see diamond head and if you're looking for a great space to end the day highly recommend it because the sunset here is just phenomenal and aside from well maybe including that you talked about how the venue is it seems like a great physical space what else lend you to choose that particular spot for your business I I'm from Waikai I I live in the area and I've been here basically my whole life and I found that we don't have anything like this in the neighborhood um and to be able to say like we're serving the community by providing a comfortable workspace we're serving the community to give them you know uh another venue option rather than having to go to town but then also encouraging other people who are don't who don't usually come on the side to be able to see the beauty of Waikai and um that and then we have a lot of parking stuff helping definitely on the top of the list is like how much parking do we need this definitely needs a lot as an event venue so uh that was on the top of the list I love about that definitely be an event planner at heart and I'm sure he will appreciate you for that I had oh my god I had another question for you and it completely flipped my mind um okay so we already talked about your passion for it and the challenges let's talk about your vision for uh gather what where do you see this company I don't want to go out too far but I'll just say in the near future where do you see gathered going yeah so in the near future I see gather well even backing up and kind of relating back to what we were saying earlier of letting go of expectations my expectation when we open the door was we were gonna have co-working event venue and programs like those are the three things that I thought we were gonna offer under this roof and I'm finding that it's less co-working and more events and more programs so I really see us like leaning into those two two products um programs are things like oak and pine and I'll give you a little teaser I'd love to come back to talk about this but I'm also developing another program called work tribe which is a maternity transition program for female or for women in the workforce and I know we talked about this off camera my husband told me it stopped building businesses but I was like this is the last one I promise I'm very passionate about it because one of the things that I'm finding is not everybody has the option to be able to grow a business even though they want to so how can we create a more inclusive and supportive environment in the nine to five and I will truly believe that there are companies out there who want to do it they just don't know where to start so this is a program that I can like really help them in so anyway so those are the programs and then the event venues it's a place for leadership off-sides uh paddle discussions like today it's a place for masterminds and workshops so it's very uh it's a very like elevated place for you to grow as an individual both personally and professionally and you already went over this earlier let's let's go back to this where does one start if they wanted to start a business yeah I would say find community because you don't know what you need until you take that first step and there's always going to be people out there who are offering a cookie cutter ways to start your business that might have worked for them but it might not work for you so the way that I have structured Oak and Pine is we have regular meetups for you to expand your network through um these casual settings we have like alhanas we have coffee chats and that's a way for you to just talk and practice speaking about your business um but then we also offer different resources and workshops so that you get a little taste of this is event marketing or this is how to um like have a productive day here's a framework so it gives you a little taste of what could be your next step but a place to experiment and explore so going back to your question where do you start I think it's finding a resource that you can tap into a community and network that you can tap into to be able to discover your first step I've you know I've heard you talk before and again I mentioned back in the day when I went to one of your events and I think you are a very passionate individual which is why I'm so honored to know you with that being said I would love for you to tell our viewers out there or advise or you know share how would you how would one tackle fear of starting especially when it comes to new endeavors or new business um once funny is fear doesn't go away it it's always there and it's always at the same level it seems but you learn how to kind of work through it you know you speak with these great um when you have conversations with people who are on stage pretty often you ask them like how did you get over the fear of public speaking they say I don't I just learn how to process it better so it's the same thing with entrepreneurship it's like right before you get on stage the butterfly feeling of should I run away should I make an excuse that you know I don't feel well like what what do I need to do to get out of the situation I think whenever you feel that emotion find the tools that allow you to break through it so as an entrepreneur what's your ritual you know if you're feeling overwhelmed with the day to day what can you do every single day so that you can get out of the emotional state and really into the action like what what do I need to do what is my next step so so yeah I would say to process fear explore different options right it could be journaling it could be maybe have a wellness practice like you go to sound hearing once a week or you do something that grounds you I like to walk my dog in the morning and leave my phone in the car and not like just stay completely disconnected and I watch my dog you know walk around and have fun so on and so forth so for me that's kind of how I ground myself and I would encourage everyone else to do the same just find something that you can do as a ritual to get you in that mindset regularly I love that and I I do something similar where I have to get out and get some sunlight every morning so that's where I do my workout and similar to you I I mean I have my phone but I don't look at it when I'm doing my workout is there anything else that we haven't talked about that you would like to add in the few minutes that we have yeah um well I would just love to kind of plug the things that we have going on under our roof so I kind of touched on it but with our umbrella we have two things programs and events so if you're looking for a community of local female entrepreneurs and you're looking to see a network in a very comfortable environment I do and invite you to check out our membership we have regular events that you can tap into before you've been committing see for the right fit if there were the right community and if we're not there's so many other great communities locally that you can tap into so that's one and then the other program that I'm slowly starting to develop is to the mission there is to make the workforce more inclusive for women who are having kids so this work tribe is a maternity transition program for local businesses and our goal here is to support women in these middle manager roles so that they can climb the career ladder into leadership roles and executive roles so I'll be talking more about that once once it starts to get some traction and then the second thing that I would love to chat about is you know our event venue as an event planner my whole goal is to make events easy for you so whether it's that you're looking for a space for a company offsite and it's overwhelming for HR team you can just partner with us we'll take care of everything from like finding the food doing the layout you just tell us what technique we'll get it all set up so that way your your team can focus on their core duties which is making sure your employees are happy and we'll provide you the space we'll provide you with the support and that's what we're looking to do at gather wonderful and michelle how do people get in contact with you and Gavin yeah um you can contact me via email which is join j o i and at gather co-working and dot com um I'm most present on instagram and linkedin as well so you'll be able to find me there thank you and again I am so appreciative of you making the time to come on the show today so thank you thank you michelle we had today michelle come back join us on our show founder of oak and pine as well as gather and hopefully you can be back on to talk about that third program in the next year or so I will be keeping an eye out for that so thank you again michelle thanks for having me of course and thank you to the folks at think tick what you for making shows like this possible j fight del hailey and mike thank you for everything that you do for the shows until next time a little book