How a $5,000 Grant Snowballed Into a Dr. Dre Partnership

12:31Kara Still:What's interesting, I mean, I think certain things take on in certain neighborhoods that we go to. But what's interesting is that everyone is always in love with all of the product. They're really excited. They're talking to the vendors. Like, we've had warm welcomes everywhere we went. And that's been amazing to see. And no matter where we've been, it's been a discovery for the people that are there. Everybody has had a great reaction to anything that we've brought into a community, a neighborhood, whatever it is. And one of the things, especially very early on that I heard from multiple people, including a friend of mine, was when we come to your events, there's something about it that feels different.

13:12Kara Still:Like when we come to your market, it just feels different than any other market or pop-up that we've been to. I like to think it's the care that we bring to it. I mean, honestly, like the divinity of what we're doing. You know, this was an assignment. This wasn't something we expected. This was something that we were given to walk into and to build. And it matters to us. And we, from the very beginning, wanted it to visually look different and feel different and be an experience for people. So it's nice. I think people get that and get that we care.

13:49Carmen Dianne:You both come from deeply artistic backgrounds. I have to imagine that that came into play as you were not just putting the sort of operational and logistical components together to pull these things off, but as you were sort of like world building around this. What did you want it to look like? What did you want it to feel like?

14:08Kara Still:That's actually how we got the name Prosperity. Because I was talking to a friend, we didn't have a name for a long time, and she asked me, she was like, well, what do you want people to feel? What do you want the experience to be? And when she asked me that, like immediately, Prosperity. abundance yes and it can look pretty too yeah and that was our our thing also we wanted to create a great experience for everybody no matter where we're going whether we're going to Inglewood or Compton or Malibu we want everybody to still feel great shopping you're getting quality products so that is important for us to show up the same way everywhere we go this you know you talk about the

14:47Carmen Dianne:divinity of it all. But as two women living in human bodies, this was not something that you had planned for, right? It's not something that you were like, you weren't like working your careers, saving your money, knowing you wanted to build this thing. It was like, it was to some degree an act of desperation, right? As much as it was divinity, you're like, okay, well, the front burner has cleared, right? So now we got to do this. So how were you funding this?

15:13Kara Still:actually our first year, customers contributed to us on our website. They donated to us on our website before we even officially crowdfunded. And that LA Times article had a lot to do with that too, I think. We did eventually crowdfund, which was its own journey with lots of lessons, but it was successful. And that's how we got the money for our first trailer. And I just want to say, I think also the LA Times article really helped, I think, the fact that we created our mobile experience from the beginning, because that first year, people contributed to us. And I think for the full year, we raised like, they contributed like $19 ,000 or something like that.

15:54Kara Still:And that is literally the money that we used to function for our markets that we were doing. Just because they believed in what we were doing. They didn't know us. And many of those people have been along with us on this entire journey.

16:08Carmen Dianne:There's something very like beautifully circular about it. It's like you were doing this thing to support the community and then the community is also like supporting you back, which is what I think business can do when it's sort of like functioning at its highest level, you know?

16:25Kara Still:Yeah. Okay, talk to me about this crowdfunding campaign because what year did you do the crowdfunding campaign?

16:32Carmen Dianne:2022. 2022, okay. Which, you know, in so many, in like dog years feels like, founder years feels like a million years ago. And the landscape has changed. But even in 2022, crowdfunding was not in that moment of its heyday where you could trust that the money was going to come rolling in. What did you do to create a compelling campaign?

16:52Kara Still:Well, the first thing is we did not intend to crowdfund. We kind of got it. Yeah. Are you seeing the pattern? We get tricked into all of this. With the crowdfund, we won a grant and we just thought we were going to get the$25 ,000 that was the grant. But they put it in a crowdfund like they matched$25 ,000 worth of a crowdfund. So we still had to do the work to get the other money, but they didn't leave us high and dry. They gave us great training on how to run a successful crowdfund and speak to our customer and know about our audience. And that was key not only to the success of the crowdfund, but to the success of our business to this day.

17:37Carmen Dianne:So you get this grant for$25 ,000, but it actually isn't, they're not handing you the money. They're saying go and raise$25 ,000 of your own and that will unlock the$25 ,000 that we're giving you?

17:48Kara Still:So to speak. So it was the Drew and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund. It was amazing. It was amazing. Everything that we got from winning that grant has stayed with us. And so, yes, they said, along with this training and the support, we will match 25K for your crowdfund. And then they connected us with Fund Black Founders and with Crowdfund Better. and they taught us how to crowdfund. And within that, it's not just about crowdfunding. They taught us how to communicate with our audience. They helped us be able to tell our story. They taught us the importance of consistent communication and building those relationships.

18:36Kara Still:And that's really the basis of not just crowdfunding, but any fundraising. But the things that we learned from them. It is. And the things that we learned from them, not only did it help us to launch a successful crowdfund campaign, but they were the foundation of our audience communication to this day. And so those are people we can still call like as mentors, if we have questions, if we need things, those are people we still refer other businesses to if they need support in those areas. But crowdfunding is hard. It's hard. It's not a GoFundMe. It's not set it and forget it. But long before you ask anyone to give you money, you're having conversations with people.

19:17Kara Still:You have to connect with them. You have to fill in the blanks so that people don't feel like, I haven't heard from you, and now you're just asking me for something. So this was months of preparation before we ever raised a dollar.

19:32Carmen Dianne:We have a lot of people who watch the show who are either aspiring entrepreneurs or they're early on in their journey. Like, can you give us a few really key tips that you learned? You got all this great education from other people who were willing to grant it to you. What were some of the big takeaways?

19:51Kara Still:Consistent communication with your audience. Like we scheduled newsletters and what our posts were going to be just so that they're consistently seeing us. So like Kara said, it's not out of the blue that we're saying, hey, we're doing this thing. Support us. They need to know what we're doing and they need to see the process. So show the process. and having a level of transparency. You know, when timelines shift, when things didn't go the way we expected, we let people know like, hey, this is changing. Like we didn't see this coming because especially when you're crowdfunding, people are choosing to give you their money because they believe in the thing you're doing.

20:28Kara Still:So if you go MIA, then it's like, well, where did it go? How did it, I don't understand what happened. And so it's really been important to share the process. I think that has made a big difference. And even though our timeline has shifted and it's been really challenging for us, for people to be able to continually support us so freely and willingly.

20:51Carmen Dianne:Has that extended to your social media strategy as well? It basically is our social media strategy.

20:58Kara Still:Tell them everything. But we keep it like digestible, right? We keep it so that it's as easy to understand as possible and as, I guess, kind of succinct as possible. The thing is, we're really going through these things. We're really doing these things. And we want to share it with you. But we want us to feel honest, but not heavy. You know, it's like there's enough of that already. Totally. And so we want to show it to you, but we don't want you to feel like bad about it. We want you to feel like there's something you can do. and you're supporting us in turn, supporting the farmers that we work with and the businesses, all of that contributes and makes a difference.

21:39Carmen Dianne:It's like you want to share Black joy, right? You don't want it to feel all doom and gloom. Like there's like, to your point, there is enough of that, but there is something so powerful about letting people in on the story and the warts and all of it. How do you find that balance? How do we find that balance?

22:04Kara Still:First being okay with imbalance. Yeah. I don't know that we've found the balance, honestly. I'm sure there are times when people have maybe wanted us to share more, but we have to process whatever's going on over here, or we may have to do the work behind the scenes. And then there are times when we're doing a lot of things, So we have to balance making sure that the things we're communicating are clear and make sense because on our end, we're doing a lot of things. But on the outside, we don't want it to get confusing or muddy. So I think it's just like a push-pull of depending on what's going on and what information we're trying to convey.

22:45Carmen Dianne:I would imagine that this is a space among many where your partnership is also really important. You can sort of hold up a mirror to each other, help gut check, right?

22:55Kara Still:Yeah. And we have to talk about everything because by the moment, things change so fast. By the moment. And sometimes maybe I want to share something and Kara doesn't or vice versa, or maybe we want to do different things. But I think because there's two of us to talk it through and weigh out the pros and the cons of this action, that really keeps us level. And maybe there's our balance, Kara. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's it. There's two of us. Ultimately, we're moving in the same direction. We have the same goals, but we're two different people. So sometimes it's like, yep, yep. And sometimes it's like, wait, let's figure out what we're doing.

23:33Carmen Dianne:It's a marriage. Yeah. Okay. So to that end, how do you move through conflict?

23:38Kara Still:Talking. Talk about it.

23:43Kara Still:That really is it. At times when we feel like or don't feel like having the conversations, it really is just talking it through. and sometimes it's like, okay, let's put a pin in that and come back to it because there's also a bunch of other things to do. Sometimes it's like, okay, we're staying this conversation through until whatever the completion of it looks like, but it's just talking about it.

24:05Carmen Dianne:There's something you mentioned a little bit earlier about the grants. And I think a lot of people don't recognize that you can get grants as a for-profit company. How did you discover this?

24:18Kara Still:Also by accident. We received a grant. And with that grant, they didn't specifically ask that we were a nonprofit. But what came with the grant was fiscal sponsorship. So they were a nonprofit and they became our fiscal sponsors so that when we applied for other grants that required nonprofit status, they would step in and be that partner.

24:41Carmen Dianne:I see.

24:42Kara Still:And at the time, we didn't know what a gift that was. And this was actually the very first grant we ever got. The very first grant that we ever got, we found because we were looking for it. And it was because the grant was for creatives doing social impact work. It was written for us. Oh my God. So niche. And it was$5 ,000 to do whatever we were doing. And we were doing prosperity market. And then, like Carmen said, they gave us the option to also have fiscal sponsorship. And it's been a blessing because part of our work is social impact work. Not just with the community, but with the businesses that we work with and represent.

25:23Kara Still:And so being able to get nonprofit funding or 501c3 funding for some of the work that we do that in turn helps grow Prosperity Market because we have a fiscal sponsor has made a huge difference. And we don't have to be the ones running the nonprofit part of things because of our partner.

25:45Carmen Dianne:They can essentially sort of like give you the designation in the moments that you need it. Exactly.

25:49Kara Still:And that was a conversation where I'm glad there was two of us to talk about it because at first we were looking into, okay, if we're a nonprofit, how do you become a nonprofit? That's a whole nother story. But then it's like if part of our mission is to create economic impact in our community, then we have to have some autonomy over the funds that we take in and how we spend it. So we made a choice not to be a nonprofit so that we could keep that autonomy. I would imagine that writing grant applications is like a whole universe of its own.

26:21Carmen Dianne:Very much. Do you have any keys to writing? I was going to call it a pitch. I'm so film and TV. That's part of it too. You are pitching yourself.

26:31Kara Still:Any keys to writing a compelling application? Bring clarity and be concise. And I think those are things that once we started bringing that into our grant applications, we started to see results. But it became more clear to me when I was a grant reviewer for a grant. Like we weren't a part of this at all. But I volunteered to be on the review team because I wanted to know what it was like from the other side. Right. What does the competition look like? Yeah, kind of. And like how are people writing? What does it look like? And it's very clear. Like some things are beautifully written, but it's too flowery and you don't know what are you actually doing and what's the actual impact.

27:08Kara Still:And then some people are very direct and they're saying we're doing this. It's going to impact this many people. It's going to cost this much money. And that clarity, those are the winners. I think one of the things that people don't do, and a lot of it is usually time constraints, but what would make a big difference is if you let someone else read what you're writing.

27:29Carmen Dianne:Right.

27:30Kara Still:Because if they have questions, then the person reading it is going to have questions.

27:33Carmen Dianne:Right.

27:33Kara Still:And that's another time, I think, when it's great because it's two of us, because anything that we're writing has to go through both of us. So if we read it, you know, and then it's like, oh, but wait, this piece of information or if they're looking at it here or those kinds of things. And I think that's something we got into the habit of very early. I remember when we were coming up with our mission and the way we were describing prosperity market. This was still very much during the pandemic. So we're like texting or screenshotting or talking on the phone to people we know to be like, OK, read this.

28:06Kara Still:What does it say to you? What do you get from that? Yeah. Because it makes such a difference. Like your knees deep into what you're doing. So you don't always see the holes. And then the other thing about grant writing is knowing how to tell your story as it aligns with what the grant is.

28:27Carmen Dianne:Know your audience.

28:29Kara Still:Know your audience because it could align perfectly. But if you can't draw the through line from what you're doing to why it makes sense there, it doesn't matter.

28:40Carmen Dianne:It doesn't matter. You got to connect the dots for them. Exactly.

28:43Kara Still:And you have to do it explicitly.

28:45Carmen Dianne:Are grants still part of your funding mix?

28:49Kara Still:Definitely. Definitely. You're still writing them. You're still applying. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because there's so many different types. You know, there's private and philanthropic funding. Then there's city and state. There's so many different options. And why leave that money on the table if it's going to contribute to the work that we are doing to support the community?

29:12Carmen Dianne:It's really cool to hear this. I haven't talked about grants at all on this show. And I think it's like eye opening for people to recognize that if they're doing certain kinds of work, at least, that this is like a whole avenue of money that is available to them that they might not have been considering prior.

29:30Kara Still:For one grant, we used to put together vendor workshops, photography workshops, for the farmers and businesses we work with. Because why? They need good photos of their product. We need good photos of their product on our website and to be able to sell. So we had food stylists come in. We had a photographer come in. They got lessons on how to take different types of product photos with their phones. We also had the photographer take professional photos. So they left with their own tips and professional photos that they got to use and we get to use of their product. And, you know, like that's just one small thing, but impacts your business in a huge way.

30:11Kara Still:But that's not something that we could directly fund from Prosperity Market. But if we have funding to create support for the businesses we're working with, we can do things like that. And that helps move everybody forward.

30:25Carmen Dianne:You ended up raising$100 ,000 with a crowdfunding campaign, right? Which gave you enough money to bring your first baby into fruition, the first trailer. Can you help us understand what it looks like and how it functions?

30:41Kara Still:Yes. So our trailer is a huge 48-foot trailer. The back is a farmer's market. You can actually come inside. It's like an aisle in a grocery store that you can shop. The front is a kitchen. So it is a food truck. And we rent that out to chefs and food entrepreneurs. So it is half food truck, half farmer's market. And it's pink and beautiful. And we're so proud of it. Did you have to have this thing custom built?

31:07Carmen Dianne:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

31:08Kara Still:Absolutely. You should see our sketches. Our hand sketches that we had to give to the builder.

31:15Carmen Dianne:What was the process of finding the builder who could pull this off for you?

31:18Kara Still:Lots and lots of research. Lots and lots of research. Because it's bigger than most things get built. It's not a standard thing. We had ideas that we wanted to fulfill and bring to life in ways that have never been combined before. Research and trial and error. It exists now. It exists. Is it on the road? It is. It is. So we're having our kickoff event for this trailer. We've kind of been in a soft launch era. So we've been bringing it out here and there, testing it, using it to its full capacity for the first time. And now this event that we have coming up is going to be at Earl's on Crenshaw, which is one of our favorites and a great partner.

31:59Kara Still:Iconic. Iconic. And this is really letting, like introducing the trailer to the community and letting people know that this is going to be coming through your neighborhoods now weekly.

32:08Carmen Dianne:How does it feel?

32:10Kara Still:I don't know if it feels real right now.

32:13Carmen Dianne:So many years in the making.

32:15Kara Still:There's the relief that the part of getting the trailer done is done because that took so long. It was just such a process, so many unknowns. and then there's the, all right, new business again. You know, and that really is what it is because we were doing pop-ups at first. We were doing just everything that we were doing looked totally different. And even though having the trailer was the original vision. It's a reinvention. It's completely new. So now five years into Prosperity Market, we're starting a new business. We have a lot of learning behind us, a lot of information, a lot of support, and it's still something that's completely new.

33:01Kara Still:And to be honest, I feel a little anxious about it. Like this is what we've been working so hard for this whole time and it's really here and now it's, I want to say do or die, but I don't want to say that. It's do or do. There's a lot of feelings that come along with it because everything from logistics and operational changes and hiring and trailer route building, all of those things that we've been talking through and planning for, we really have to implement now. So there's a lot of feelings behind it. A lot. It's easier to talk about when it's saying, we will do this in the future. This is coming soon.

33:50Kara Still:Theoretical. Theoretical. That's my favorite word. This whole thing is just a theory that we have. Yeah. And now it's here and it's like, okay, we're testing this theory.

34:02Carmen Dianne:Yeah. What's the hardest learning curve that you're coming up against right now?

34:06Kara Still:Myself. Throughout this experience, actually. So, I mean, of course, neither one of us knew what to expect when we were starting this thing. We had no idea what the journey would look like. But I think my personal experience is the most challenging thing that I come up against. I knew myself to be someone who, when I put my mind to something, if that's what I decide on, I'm going to do it. I keep my word with myself. By no means perfect, but I have challenged me in ways through this process that I didn't expect. And then there's to keep going. And some days it doesn't look or feel like my best.

34:51Kara Still:And some days I don't want to. And some days I'm super excited. But the biggest challenge that I come up against on any given day is usually me.

35:02Carmen Dianne:Has that provoked any kind of different practices or exploration? Like you guys have been talking about mentors this whole time, right? That's another big theme, it seems, in your journey. like asking people for help when you're coming up against yourself and the mirrors being held up like how are you working through that where are you turning in the personal area

35:25Kara Still:probably nowhere there's there's been a lot of prosperity mentorship but in terms of like my personal I haven't had many conversations with people who may have had similar experiences but now are beyond certain points yeah I think for me the exploration is like figuring out what works because like Carmen said, with prosperity markets, sometimes things move and change so fast. So personally, it's the same thing. It's like, oh, okay, like something that worked for a little bit no longer works because now we're doing something different. And so now life looks different. And for me, it's been the balance of not neglecting the things that need to get done at home or personally because there have been different levels of like going all in with prosperity.

36:14Kara Still:And so continuing to check in on that for myself.

36:19Carmen Dianne:Right. You both built careers that are really craft oriented. And it's not to say that you can't continue to be challenged, but it's like you were probably both really in the pocket, right? Like you were like, I'm a sick makeup artist. I'm an amazing fashion designer. Like you knew what you were doing. And then you get into this position where the goalpost keeps moving. And every time you feel like you've mastered something, you're like, oh, well, now there's a whole other bunch of things, right? But we're the ones moving it at the same time.

36:51Kara Still:The goalpost keeps moving, but we're moving it. I definitely can agree with what Kara said myself. I think that entrepreneurship, I say this all the time, but entrepreneurship really shows you yourself. It holds the mirror to you. And it's all you. You know what I mean? As a leader, it's all you. There's no things don't happen to you. So how do you handle it? And what can you do better? And you have it's like a self-awareness that you have to have. And it's not comfortable all the time when you're looking at yourself and seeing things that you want to change. This is like a real time things that we're grappling with.

37:28Kara Still:But I just, you know, yesterday was yesterday. Today is today. You start over a lot every day. Every day. Sometimes multiple times in a day.

37:39Carmen Dianne:Okay. You have to tell me how you got on Dr. Dre's radar.

37:44Kara Still:Good morning, America. We were in like, how do we get on? I'm like, Dre is watching Good Morning America? Yes. Because of our PR fairy godmother, she introduced us to our publicist now present day, who has been just instrumental in all of the press we've received. Shout out to Skylar. Skylar. Shout out Skylar. And she got us on Good Morning America somehow, which Dr. Dre watches apparently. Wow. People surprise you. Yeah. And he actually, his team reached out to us. I mean, we hadn't even made it home yet. We filmed early in the morning because it airs on East Coast time. And we went to breakfast and we're at breakfast.

38:24Kara Still:And our web developer, Mallory, who's like monitoring our emails and stuff, texts us. And she was like, you guys should check your email. Did you think it was real? No. No. It literally said interest from Dr. Dre. We didn't think that was real.

38:41Carmen Dianne:Wow. OK, so what was the interest? What's been the upshot?

38:44Kara Still:He wanted to see how he could support. and that turned into two more trailers for Prosperity Market.

38:52Carmen Dianne:Yeah. Wow. So you're going to have three on the road. We're going to have three. Three on the road. Yeah. Two sponsored by Dre. Yes.

38:58Kara Still:Two sponsored by Dre. Wow. Yeah.

39:00Carmen Dianne:That's amazing. What do you think, like beyond the monetary component of it, what does support like that from somebody who is that deeply influential and also that deeply embedded in L.A. do for a company like yours?

39:12Kara Still:You know, he's done a lot of philanthropic work that people don't know about. And for us, not originally being from L.A. and then being so embraced by communities throughout L.A. to then have the work that we're doing get the Dr. Dre stamp of approval has been tremendous. It's been enormous. It very much validates that what we're doing is wanted on a large scale. And we would have never in a million years thought that that was from Good Morning America. That's the outcome that we would get. Never. We would have never guessed. Yeah, it's wild.

39:53Carmen Dianne:You don't know what's on the other side of each door. You never know.

39:56Kara Still:That's why you just have to show up and tell your story and just keep showing up.

39:59Carmen Dianne:Right. And even if something doesn't happen in the short term, it's like these things, sometimes months, years down the road, something will come back around in ways that you don't anticipate.

40:08Kara Still:Well, there have been so many things that we've had conversations about and discussed. And at the time, it's like, oh, we want this to happen or this could be cool or whatever it is. And it's just like, it's just not the right time. But there have been so many moments, even just small things where it happens. It just needed to happen at a different time. So whether that's like a connection to a community partner or a location we want to put on an event or whatever it is, it's just being, I think just trusting in the process and having faith that if, like Carmen said, you continue to tell your story and we continue to do the work and continue to show up, that the things will happen that we don't have control over, right?

40:51Kara Still:Those things in the background, those things that if we just put one foot in front of the other, will show up for us when it's time.

40:58Carmen Dianne:Has that changed your relationship with being told no? I think no is just, I don't register no.

41:06Kara Still:No is just like, okay, well, how else can we try? How else can we ask? Which way? How do we get around the no? And I feel the same way. I think it's really interesting because early on, I think both of us were not phased by no. we just go about it differently. So like I think with Carmen when she gets a no she'll ask it a different way. You didn't hear me. Let me say it this way. And for me when I get a no I immediately go into okay how else can we get this done? But I think that like no's were not a problem for either one of us to begin with. Gross mindset right there. But the funny thing is asking it a different way works sometimes.

41:45Kara Still:It really can. It really can. I'm an interviewer. I know that. And I mean, even with things like that, sometimes we get the no, we ask it a different way. Maybe we still get the no right now. But so many of those moments have shown up later. Right. It's like, all right, well, there you go. Sometimes a no is just a not right now. It's just a not right now. And for me, I'm always prepared to like figure out another way. I'm always looking at like, all right, how else can we get this done then?

42:12Carmen Dianne:Do you have any examples of that that you can share? The rain out.

42:17Kara Still:Oh, yes. So speaking of Good Morning America, we had a market plan that they were going to come and film. And this was February 2023. And it was raining. Like that whole week it had been raining. Like torrential downpours. And any other time we would have just canceled the market because that's what you would do. But Good Morning America was coming to film. So we couldn't cancel. I mean, what do you do? We still had the market. We pared it down. So we told our vendors, you don't have to come. You know, your safety is first. You don't have to come. But if you do want to come, we're going to have one big tent.

42:54Kara Still:We're all going to have tables under this tent. And we're going to make it a rain party. And that's what we did. And we got just enough footage for Good Morning America. The sun came out and let us get a good, you know, some good shots before the rain came back. And so many of the vendors, I mean, you know, Good Morning America was going to be there. But so many of them came anyway. They were like, no, we're sticking with you guys. We're going to do this. We're going to come. The equipment rental company that we were working with. It was just like, literally, how can we combine all of these tents to like create a big canopy of things, line everybody up underneath.

43:31Kara Still:Customers still showed up and came. People still had a wonderful experience. But we were on the it was probably like three in the morning. We were on the phone. We're like, what are we going to do? My apartment was flooding. Like, it was just, it was not a fun time. At one point, we were on the phone and Carmen was like, Kara, what are we going to do?

43:51Carmen Dianne:Mm-hmm.

43:52Kara Still:And it was just like, okay, we're going to figure this thing out. Let's make some calls. Let's email every vendor. Let's call the equipment company. Let's just figure it out. And had we not figured it out, we would have never had the chance to meet Dr. Dre. Right.

44:08Carmen Dianne:It really is a testament to the loyalty of what you've built among your vendors and also with the people who show up because we all know nobody leaves their house in the rain.

44:19Kara Still:And it was raining so hard. And customers came. It wasn't even just the vendors. Like people actually were there shopping.

44:25Carmen Dianne:Taking pictures, being excited with us. Yeah. Kara, you've also said that this journey has changed your perspective on money. Yes. What shifted?

44:34Kara Still:So I'm very aware that the experiences that we have had and are having with the money that we are using to grow Prosperity Market, to do the work with the community members, all of these things, most people in my life will not experience money in that way. Those kinds of funds will not come in and out of their possession in that way. You know, you get grant funding in chunks and amounts to be able to do certain things, have certain deliverables. That's not the way most people get their money. So I've really gained an understanding of how much and how little a big amount of money is all at the same time.

45:20Kara Still:And it's been really interesting because it's like what could be considered a really large amount of money in someone's everyday life. when you are operating a business is not. And figuring out how to make it stretch and how to make it grow and where you need to put it. And at the same token, I think that both of us have kind of learned not to blink an eye when we need to ask for large amounts of money for grant funding. So things that really might make the average person nervous is like, no, do we need to pad that number so that if they say no, we can get what we actually need? And so I think that's really where the shift happens.

45:56Kara Still:It's like I don't flinch about it. And I understand how far a dollar can go in a very unique way. And it just it doesn't translate regular life into building a business.

46:10Carmen Dianne:Yeah. Your understanding of scale has completely shifted.

46:13Kara Still:Completely.

46:13Carmen Dianne:Yeah. But you still have a connection to the smallness of things from the beginning. Absolutely.

46:21Kara Still:You can sort of hold both. It absolutely has not diminished my appreciation. and if anything, it's contributed so much more to the fact that it's a tool and it's a resource. You know, money is a tool and a resource to get the things that we want. And personally and also in business, even in the moments where we don't always have the money, there's looking at, okay, how else can we make this work? Are there ways that we can get the money or still get the tools and resources, even if we don't have all of the money at that moment. Such as? Our trailer. I mean, yeah. And honestly, a lot of requests and favors.

47:02Kara Still:Along the way, especially early on, people were willing to do things for us because they believed in what we were doing. And we were not always able to pay what they're actually worth. And those things were such a big help in the beginning.

47:18Carmen Dianne:There is so much power in just being willing to ask for help. And you've spoken about these like various mentors that have come in and really either unlocked a path for you or helped teach you something, a skill set that you didn't have prior. I think a lot of people are looking for mentorship and it can be a kind of like nebulous thing. Do you have any advice in terms of how to identify those people and how to reach out to them and how to have a successful relationship with them?

47:50Kara Still:Well, the first thing I would say is you don't actually have to know them. I have many mentors in my head that I just, I consume their content and I read what they write and I learn from it. So that's the first thing I would say. And you can do that while you're, you know, pursuing meeting a person. And I think that along the way, we've not been afraid to ask for a conversation, not for a favor, not what can you do for me, but a conversation. And I think that's gotten us pretty far. And also understanding like all of these people have not mentored us through the entire process. And some people we just call mentors because they have so much more experienced than we do.

48:33Kara Still:And even a few interactions with them has made a big difference. They don't even know they're our mentors. So it's not like, oh, we've talked to this person once a week for five years. It's just that we take the opportunity to learn from people whenever we can. And I just, I think it's just the willingness to ask for a conversation. And sometimes I think you don't even realize you're in the moment of a conversation and just be like present to it and ask the things or say the things that are there. But you need to be aware that like maybe that moment is like happening right now.

49:14Carmen Dianne:It's a beautiful perspective on it. I have to say just like the sort of willingness to also just like give people their flowers. You know, we had this one conversation with this person and it helped us and we're going to call them a mentor, you know, it's lovely.

49:28Kara Still:Before we had our first market, I mean, this is still 2020. We talked to Arlen Hamilton, who is an incredible investor and she has a fund. And we had a 30 minute conversation with her that changed the trajectory of Prosperity Market. Because in this conversation, we were telling her about the market we were planning. And she was just like, what about COVID? And in my mind, I was like, oh, it'll be over by then. We'll be fine. But she planted that seed and that's what started our online marketplace. So we did a pre-order, a 24-hour pre-order where folks could shop online. And we had to do all of this from scratch, by the way.

50:06Kara Still:So we had to then build a website that could list products and sell products. But it was a 24-hour shop. And then they would pick up their orders with contactless pickup at our market. And then that has now turned into what is our online marketplace. Well, one conversation.

50:23Carmen Dianne:One conversation. Thank you for this conversation, Carmen. Thank you. I really appreciate you guys being here. It's a pleasure.

50:30Kara Still:We'll do it anytime. We'll have you back for sure.

50:33Carmen Dianne:And thanks to all of you for tuning in. If you like what you saw, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. We'll see you next time.