Your Creative Mind

Vikas Garg, Founder and CEO of Social Impact App abillion on How They Are Changing The World

Vikas Garg, abillion Founder and CEO on Changing the World One Dish At A Time
Vikas Garg is the Founder & CEO of abillion, a global community on a mission to help a billion people create world-changing impact. Vikas is a dedicated supporter of education and conservation initiatives around the world. He's received Credit Suisse’s Global Citizenship Award, is a Young Leader of the Milken Institute, and a Charter Member of The IndUS Entrepreneurs. 
A bold idea to change the world brought the abillion team together in the summer of 2017. They wanted to change the world. They started out of Vikas’ apartment in Singapore, complete with a furry friend and a fridge full of kale. We've grown but we still maintain our family values as a small, hardworking team.
Connect with Vikas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikas-garg/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/abillion/
https://www.instagram.com/abillion/
The Episode's Full Transcript
Vikas Garg-full 6-21-21
[00:00:00] Vikas Garg: [00:00:00] A big part of what we are is an online experience, but that online experience of course extends into the offline world and often extends into something that we all love, which is the funny thing is this is something that we do three, four times a day, and it plays such a pivotal role in. The global economy and in so many, so many aspects of our lives, but also from a sustainability perspective.
[00:00:29] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:00:29] Hi, and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. I'm your host Izolda Trakhtenberg on the show. You get my conversations with peak performing thought leaders, creatives, and entrepreneurs. We explore how you can innovate through creativity, compassion, and collaboration. I believe that innovation combined with compassion and creative thinking can save the world and I aim to bring you ways.
[00:00:51] You can do it too. If you're enjoying the show, I'd be super grateful. If you could support it by buying me a cup of coffee, you can buy me a cup [00:01:00] of@buymeacoffee.com slash IzoldaT. And now let's get on with the show.
[00:01:13] Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg. I'm super happy that you're here and listening to this incredible episode. I'm also incredibly happy to introduce you to this week's guest. Vikas Garg is the founder and CEO of a billion, a global community on a mission to help a billion people create world changing impact.
[00:01:34] You know, that's right. What I'm going to love talking about Vikas is a dedicated supporter of education and conservation initiatives around the world. He's received credit Suisse's global citizenship award is a young leader of the Milken Institute and a charter member of the Indus entrepreneurs.
[00:01:53] He's amazing. And he had a bold idea to change the world, and that is exactly what he and his team [00:02:00] are working on. I'm so thrilled to welcome the cost guard. Thank you so much for being here. Hi, how are you? I am fabulous. Thank you so much for asking. I, I wanted, I want, first of all, I want to say that you, I am in New York city and you are in Singapore, so it is in the evening for me.
[00:02:18] And it is the very next day in the morning for you. And that's that, that was a little trippy for me. So I was like, oh yeah, it's tomorrow for you. So, and for you it's today and I'm, I'm here, back here and yesterday. So I yesterday that's right. I am, I am so honored and excited to have you on the show actually, because anybody who knows me for any length of time will hear me talk about being vegan and being plant what I call plant powered.
[00:02:46] And I, I want to sort of lift up this notion that you have of changing the world and that a billion is about something that's really close to my heart. [00:03:00] It's about getting 1 billion people. To commit to being plant-based by the year 2030. And I was wondering what started this for you? What made you decide that this was going to be your mission?
[00:03:15] Vikas Garg: [00:03:15] Oh, great question. And, and thanks. Firstly, thank you for having me on the show. Thank you for having me on the show. My pleasure. And it's always, always nice to, to talk to a fellow new Yorker. I've been living out here in Singapore for the last six years, but grew up in New York city and just immense gratitude for, for having us on the show today.
[00:03:35]Yeah, so, you know, I found. So how has the new Yorker? I originally came to New York when I was four years old from India. And one of the things that my mom and dad did to really in a way to preserve our culture and our heritage there were many things that we did, you know, including just like we used to speak Hindi at home, but we also stayed sort of tried and true to our vegetarianism when I was a kid.
[00:03:58]And so I, from, [00:04:00] from the day that I was born I was raised vegetarian and growing up in New York in the eighties. You know, like being vegetarian meant that like pretty much my entire food pyramid often was like a slice of pizza. It was like the easiest thing to pretty much get everywhere. And like, you kind of, you know, you could sort of, as a kid, know what you were getting, get like a slice of cheese pizza or a bagel with cream cheese.
[00:04:26] And I grew up, so I grew up vegetarian. I grew up never eating meat. And so, and I grew up a big animal lover. Even a bug lover. And it was just something that I got from my mom and dad. It was a really big part of our culture. So, you know, fast forward in my twenties, I decided I wanted to go vegan and that was due to a number of different reasons.
[00:04:46]Both my mom and dad got sick, really, really, really sick. And I started to look at like, why are two very, very seemingly healthy people getting so sick? I getting things like heart disease and cancer. And a [00:05:00] lot of the time I started look at a lot of it just started to point to food. I also just other factors kind of involved in that and, and I.
[00:05:09] I basically, I went vegan. And what, for me, even as a vegetarian felt very hard at the time because it meant that it meant giving up a lot of the things that I had come to love. Right. It meant like giving up on things like cheese and, you know, especially when you're talking about certain kinds of cuisines foods, whether it's Italian food or Indian food, you know, there's, there's butter in everything.
[00:05:34] There's, there's you know, there's eggs and everything there, dairy and everything. There's cheese in nearly everything. Right. And, and it just felt like a huge compromise. And I was already sort of the weird, you know, the, I was already the guy that whenever I went out with all my friends, I've asked like two questions.
[00:05:52] To make something vegetarian. And now I was the guy that had to ask five questions to make something be good for sure. You know, and, and so it was, [00:06:00] it, it really very much, it really, in the beginning felt like a compromise and a sacrifice for me. Fast-forward or I'd say that this idea of me going vegan has probably been one of the defining influences, one of the defining factors in my life.
[00:06:19] And one of the things that's created, immense joy and immense positivity and immense mindfulness, and really given me so much confidence and control over my life. And it's something that has gone from being sacrificial and compromising to something that's just truly an inspired way of living that helps me feel incredibly connected to everything and incredibly connected to the earth and cry more connected to other people.
[00:06:46]You know, very, very, very sort of. I'd say clued into who I am and giving me a sense of purpose and values and that every single day, every single choice I make is, has that [00:07:00] connection as that little connection back to my values, which gives me a lot of confidence in life because I'm leading a life full of purpose and values.
[00:07:09] So that was, you know, w w just going back to your question is to sort of, how did I come about this is I finally had, you know, sort of the opportunity in my life. I finally felt like I had gotten to the stage where I was ready to start a company. And I had a career. I didn't have this, we're effectively, we're a technology company, but I, I didn't have a career in tech.
[00:07:32] I had a career in finance. And I, you know, I just felt like, okay, I I'm going to make this. I made this decision that I'm going to start my own thing. And I just looked around and I just was like, You know, I spent my entire career, my entire life, 15, 16 years working in an industry, but I ha I was gonna sort of do what I was going to do now for them.
[00:07:55] I had the opportunity to do something for the next 30 or 40 years. [00:08:00] And I had an opportunity to really choose what that thing was. Right. So it started to really feel like, wow, I'm still, even though I've been doing something my entire life, I still feel like I'm, I'm, I'm in the early stages of the rest of my life and what do I want to do with it?
[00:08:17] And so, you know, I, at the time, I just felt like it was really an opportunity to improve social media, to improve the whole landscape of e-commerce. To build something that was more inspiring and impactful. You know, and I th I really felt like social media was broken. That social media was this sort of failed experiment.
[00:08:38] It was this great connector of people, but then it, it, you know, these communities around the world had formed and some of them had become extremely toxic. And, you know, you can see what happened, you know, the 2016 election or even in the last election, right. And many, many other events that happen in society every single day that, you know, that, that social media is, is, has sort of [00:09:00] become responsible for it.
[00:09:01] And I just felt like, you know, look, there's, there's an opportunity to create something that actually improve people's lives and improve people's lives and actually stood for something. So that's been the grand experiment for us. I just felt like if we could create something and bring people together in a community, and then we could inspire them and make it easier for people to around the world to live in a more sustainable way.
[00:09:23]And remove sort of the barriers and, you know, part of those barriers are, you know, when you go out to eat, some of them are when you go shopping. Some of them are when you travel. Some of them are just sort of when you're, you know, when you're, when you're out and about your day-to-day lives and said, Hey, and some of them involve just having support in your community, right?
[00:09:43] Because you may not have that support in your community. So we really wanted to create this kind of community, an online community, a community that, you know, people around the world really could join and feel supported in this journey towards a more sustainable world, a more vegan world. And we felt that this idea [00:10:00] of going vegan, whether it's all the time, or even just consciously making an effort to be.
[00:10:07] More vegan some of the time was a huge step in the right direction for the world. And that was something that was worth fighting for it. And then that's sort of how it got started about three and a half years ago.
[00:10:20] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:10:20] Wow. I feel like you should just go and Mike drop and that's it. Yeah. Wow. I'm taking all of that in everything that you said, and there's, so there's so much, there's so much wealth that you've talked about and that isn't necessarily monetary wealth, that feeling of being connected, that feeling of having that confidence.
[00:10:44] I love that what you have chosen is to be purposeful with the work that you're doing, because you could have done another app on time management. You could have done another app on, you know, this is how you buy stocks or whatever, but, but you turned it on its [00:11:00] head and you went, no I'm going to do something that means something and use all my skills to do it.
[00:11:04] And so when you, when you talked about the sort of early days when you were growing up and how you had to, you know, I'll have a slice of cheese pizza, things have evolved, things have changed, and now we can get there. There are so many restaurants that are vegan only for example. So, so within that framework, within that framework of, of things evolving, what role do you see a billion playing as things move forward?
[00:11:31] Cause I know you've got this 20, 30 timeframe, but what role do you see a billion playing in addition to yourself in making that go even further than it otherwise might.
[00:11:42] Vikas Garg: [00:11:42] Yeah, sure. So we start, excuse me. So we start with the idea of consumer advocacy first, right? And how do you take data? How do you take consumer data and really use it to actually improve the world?
[00:11:55] So where obviously a big part of what we are is an online experience, but that [00:12:00] online exterior experience of course extends into the offline world and often extends into something that we all love, which is ticking. Right. And the funny thing is this is something that we do three, four times a day and it plays such a pivotal role in the global economy.
[00:12:17] And. In, in so many, so many aspects of our lives, but also from a sustainability perspective. So for us we started with this idea that, Hey, like people are gonna, you know, people, people get on our app. They, they network with each other. They kind of, you know, they follow each other. They use the app to find great vegan options that can be vegan dishes at any kind of restaurant anywhere in the world.
[00:12:39] And we kind of gamified the whole process. We don't focus just on vegan restaurants or vegetarian restaurants, but he's really said, Hey, like if we're going to actually, if the world is going to become a lot more sustainable through vegan food, what we really need to do is create a, create a business, create a company that helps the world helps all of the world's businesses [00:13:00] create.
[00:13:00] More vegan food and popularize that amongst people. So that's really, that's a big part of what we do is we do a lot of consumer advocacy. So when, for example, if you went to a restaurant today, you took a photo of your vegan dish, right. That review, then just go, then it goes into the app, but it doesn't stop there.
[00:13:20] Our team then goes and figures out. Who's the owner of that business manager of that business, et cetera. And then we get that review back to those business owners. We not only do that, but if we're talking about, let's say it's a Japanese restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, we're then going to send that restaurant.
[00:13:37] All of the best rated vegan, Japanese dishes information, a reviews, op options, information to show them. And for many, many different restaurants around New York city and around the world, we might send them the best rated vegan, Japanese dishes from Tokyo. And the whole reason we do that from a consumer advocacy perspective is we want to show them that there's [00:14:00] this global movement growing.
[00:14:01] We want to show them that there's an, there's an economic opportunity in having great vegan options. And if we can really have that conversation with that business, that, Hey, it makes sense to have three, four, five, six, 10, you know, to have 20, 30% of your, of your menu being plant-based. Then we actually really start to move the needle.
[00:14:22] When you start to think about sustainability, if we could get thousands of restaurants in a, in a, in a geography to actually start thinking this way, And shifting from, you know, let's say one vegan dish, one vegetarian district, you're even lucky to having 10%, 20% than 30% of their menus be plant-based, we'll make a really, really big impact for every body.
[00:14:46] And every thing that's kind of involved in the global food system, including the animals and land the environment and people, of course. So that's really in a way, that's, that's a big part of the role that we want to play, which is consumer advocacy [00:15:00] working on behalf of the consumer to give you a sense of it.
[00:15:02] Last year, we sent more than 5 million emails all around the world with this kind of information and that sort of competitive landscape, really trying to in a way, create a meritocracy for the whole plant-based industry, trying to say, Hey, Hey, steakhouse. Right. Like, there are people who will go to a steak house and eat right.
[00:15:24] If they have a great vegan option and, you know, ironically I, in my career, that's exactly what I used to have to do because I was a banker in New York and, you know, I'd have clients come from other parts of the United States. And I they'd want to go to, you know, some of, one of the famous steakhouses in New York, like Peter Luger and Brooklyn.
[00:15:44] And, you know, I'd be sitting there as the vegetarian and then the vegan, and I'd always have this, you know, I'd have this awkward moment where it was like, okay, I'm getting tomatoes and I'm getting  and I'm getting some broccoli, all things that I really love. Right. Like, cause like [00:16:00] I'm very much like I, more than anything I love, well, I love my pasta, but I like more than anything.
[00:16:06] I love my whole plant-based sort of, you know, foods and. I just would always be having these conversations with restaurant owners, be like, Hey look, like, I wouldn't mind coming back here and bringing my parents and bringing up friends. Right. But like, can you have one or two really great options for me?
[00:16:26] Right. And often that feedback, they would respond to it. Right. And, and, you know, overwhelmingly, we felt like, okay, if we could do this at some scale, then that would be really great. If we could leverage technology to do this instead of door to door activism, if we could leverage technology to do this on a much larger scale, we could really move the needle.
[00:16:47] And so today, if you look at just with restaurants and then there's a whole other side to our platform, which is which is, you know, purely from like a consumer review perspective, it's consumer products. And today we have [00:17:00] 160,000 consumer products across about 40,000 brands on our platform. I get to that later, but like the you know, when you look at just the restaurant side of it today, we have.
[00:17:10] About 50,000 restaurants on our platform globally, about 65% of them receive this kind of information from us. Sometimes, sometimes it's just impossible to find out any information about a business. It's a business is sitting in Vietnam or maybe in Thailand or in, you know, in, in, in, in, in. You know, in, in Argentina for example, right.
[00:17:33] It, it just sometimes it's is a bit difficult, but generally we're able to find that information more than half the time. And we've seen tremendous results when we first started here in Singapore three and a half years ago. And we day one, we started sort of as a global app, but we had zero content.
[00:17:49] We had zero users. We started with zero users, zero content, you know, and, and built it up from there. But when we got first got started in Singapore is probably because [00:18:00] we're here because the company is here and all of our team this year, you know, this is one of our most engaged markets globally. When we first got started here in Singapore, I think in our first year we found that there were like less than a thousand vegan options available on restaurant menus, right.
[00:18:17] Uh, Restaurants on our platform and that number, like we just did our second annual Singapore, top 50 vegan dish awards. Right. And it's funny because like 40 of those restaurants that are on that list for, you know, the 50, and it's not 50, it's not 50 restaurants, it's 50 dishes because we really think that that's what people, you know, people care about what they're eating, what's on their plate more than anything these days, but like of the 50 dishes, I think around 40, at least 40 of those restaurants are not vegan or vegetarian restaurants.
[00:18:50]But they're just, we we've, we just did that. And today, thanks to a lot of the work that we've done. A lot of the work that a lot of other organizations, [00:19:00] companies, et cetera, people have done, we've gone from in the last three, four years. We've gone from a thousand vegan dishes on menus to 16,000. Yes. And you know, so that's pretty awesome.
[00:19:11] Like, and it's a huge honor, of course, where, you know, You pick the top 50 from 16,000 it's it's, it's quite a big honor. Right? So it was seeing restaurants respond to that. And like, you know, people get our frame certificates and very meat, heavy restaurants who would have never thought that they were getting, you know, they were going to get an award from a vegan company, a vegan organization, and they're so delighted, you know, they frame it, they put it right up next to their wine spectator award and, and, you know, and, and what ends up happening is they create more plant-based options and they start talking about them and then those things get started.
[00:19:49] You know, those ordered, they get ordered and that's really ultimately what creates impact, right? Because that larger pool of businesses around the world that, [00:20:00] you know, we know are never going to, they're likely not going to become vegan businesses. But there's a real opportunity that if we can get them to sort of shift to 20, 30, 40% vegan, that's going to make a massive impact for everything that we care about.
[00:20:16] So that's a big role that we play. Obviously we need to grow. Like we want to grow our user base. We want to grow our membership around the world. Our community is really strong right now, and it's in a hundred plus countries. And we just want to grow that and continue building. And as the community gets stronger and the use case gets stronger and the, the, the, the, our sort of product, which is our app gets better and better and better that impact that we make sort of on people in terms of being able to sort of guide people and show them.
[00:20:51] And, you know, you mentioned like, You're getting, like, I think that, you know, I've liked a couple of your posts and stuff like that. And it's, I was talking to one of our members in Vancouver [00:21:00] two, three weeks back, and she was telling me how, like she became vegan a year ago. There's a farm animal sanctuary I'm on Vancouver island that we support it's called Rosta.
[00:21:12] And she got a flyer about the sanctuary from a friend of hers. And she said, you know, I'm like, this is interesting. You know, I, maybe I should cut down my meat consumption and share that the, the, the sanctuary talks about us as, you know, a great tool for that. And so she started using our app about a year ago and now she and her entire family had become a hundred percent vegan.
[00:21:33]And, you know, not only are they become vegan, but they're trying out foods from around the planet. So because they're able to see like people in Singapore or other parts of Asia or parts of Europe and south America are eating, there's a feed. And she, her whole family has gotten an inspiration for cooking and trying new things.
[00:21:55] And, you know, and it's, it's, she's felt that it's a very, very [00:22:00] supportive, positive community that really backs her up, that when she posts something, right. Whether she makes something at home using, you know, a plant-based meat product and she takes a photo of it when she posts something, she sees all these comments and she sees all of this engagement and she's built this community and it really feels very supportive and it's really helped her continue on her journey and path to being vegan.
[00:22:27] And we love that. Like, I love that, that, that is in a way that is the biggest thing that we can do from an impact perspective is how do we help people and support people on this journey? We know it's hard, right? We know it's not perfect. It's not about perfection, but it's about how do you provide a really supportive community that just rallies behind everybody and supports each other.
[00:22:51] And that's really the big shift that we see that we want to see happening in social media as well. So super, super excited about that. And [00:23:00] and you know, really just trying to, trying to build that up and trying to really help people sort of create impact and feel good about creating impact. We have a lot of sort of work around that, that we're doing, but we, I think we do a pretty good job of it today and it's been amazing to, to kind of, to, to kind of see it grow and where it's going to go in the next eight, nine, 10 years.
[00:23:20] I can't, you know, I, I can't tell you, but we're, we're all working hard towards that goal. Have a billion
[00:23:25] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:23:25] people. I love that goal. I'm, I'm 110% behind you, a billion percent, if you will. You know, w what's interesting about what you said, and there's so much, there's, you know, you're talking and I'm going, yes, this, I need to ask about this and I need to ask about this.
[00:23:40] And, and the thing that, that struck me so hard as you were talking, I've, I've had that happen. The, I go to a restaurant and I have to pick the vegetables that I'm going to ask you to put together. And I go, you know, can you put this together in a salad? Or can you saute these for me in some oil and some garlic, blah, blah, blah.
[00:23:58] What's often happened [00:24:00] is. That the chef and I've had this happen several times. The chef comes out and goes, you know, I've never thought of putting these together like that. Do you mind if this is tomorrow is special? No, I do not mind if this is tomorrow special and I've actually had dishes that I've sort of put together, like that end up on the permanent menu of restaurants and amazing.
[00:24:20] Yeah, it's really, it's, it's very, it was one of them was called the Isolde salad, which I thought was just hilarious. But, but but the reason I'm bringing this up is because it was a, it was a perception shift, I guess, for the chef. So that notion of we can change, not just the consumers, percept perceptions, but the people who are actually running the restaurants are making the food, their perception that it's possible to make vegan food.
[00:24:48] That is good for you and all of that, but also that is scrumptious. That is really
[00:24:52] Vikas Garg: [00:24:52] delicious that people want that people
[00:24:53] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:24:53] want. Right. So, so, so how. How do we do that [00:25:00] on a, on a, and maybe this isn't part of a billion's mission, but how do we do that on a bigger scale? Because yes, I've, I've had the, as oldest salad become part of, of this Italian restaurants, permanent menu, but, but what do, what can we do as, as people who might be on a billion or people who might not yet know about it, but now of course you do.
[00:25:20] So go and get the app, but how, what can we do to change the perception of the people in the industry? Like I see that you're doing the mailings to the restaurants. Is there anything else that we can be doing? And if so, what do you think that is?
[00:25:34] Vikas Garg: [00:25:34] Yeah, look, I think that we all think that we all can be really great advocates, right?
[00:25:39] So anybody who's listening in on this, on this podcast You know, it can be a voice. Right. And I think that that's one of the most powerful things that you can do is communicate with people. Often, like, I mean, I, in, in Asia specifically when I got here six years ago, one of the things that I saw was, you know, people, a lot of people, when you go to a place, just kind of [00:26:00] accept the status quo for what it is.
[00:26:03] Right. And, and so you just ended up, you either, you use a search and you try to find places that have things that you want or things that you can have and you set things as a way. It is a little bit more and we just really wanted to change that. Right. But at the same time, like you get in a place like New York, right.
[00:26:20] Where I'd say that, you know, at a place like America, where businesses are much more likely to adapt and try to do anything, they can. To, you know, to, to please a customer and ensure that person's happy. You know, we ha we all have a voice. And so the best thing that anyone can do is, you know, is, Hey, like, you know, be a voice, be a voice for the movement.
[00:26:46] Right. Always ask the question and try to have that conversation when you can and try to be really positive about it. Right. So I think that sometimes what happens and, you know, it's always hard to generalize. I don't like generalizing, but I think that sometimes what [00:27:00] happens is some of the, some of the ways that we sort of go about having a voice sometimes are not sometimes can be a bit, bit more argumentative than they are helpful.
[00:27:11] And I think it's just a matter of sort of, you know, tone and it's matter of of, of, of, of casting sort of what we're doing, what we want in a very positive way. And reinforce it very positively. I know that the challenges with social issues, right. Is there so much on the line, right. And it's so personal.
[00:27:35]And I, you know, so, so for me, like I grew up as an activist since the time that I was a kid in New York and I went to my first peanut rally when I was just seven or eight years old, you know, and, and I kind of always been clued in to sanctuaries and, you know, and, and, and I, and so I, I, I grew up in sort of around this and I was also like, I was a constant debater and I was on the debate team and, you know, and I just, what I [00:28:00] have found is that debate for the sake of debate and you know, or, or, or this like that, you need to be right.
[00:28:06] Sort of mentality often. Ends up putting you in a box and I, and, and what you want. And sometimes we forget about, well, what is it that we want? And what's maybe the most effective way to get what we want. And often I would just say that at least what I've learned, and I just turned 40 is can just have it.
[00:28:26] You can have a pleasant conversation with somebody that usually does that. I can usually do the trick or at least plant a seed. So yeah, I think that's something that all we all can do. And of course, like, you know plea, like, of course, you know, folks can get on the, get on the app. Like we're really building the social community around this sort of positive messaging and consumer advocacy.
[00:28:45]And, you know, give it a shot, try it out. Because not only will whatever work or whatever time you invest in this. Help you and it'll be fun cause it's fun. Just, you know, social [00:29:00] media has to be fun and it's meant to be enjoyable for whatever amount of time you spend on it every day. But then not only that, but it also creates a lot of impact in the world and a lot of positive social change.
[00:29:12] And that's really why we designed it is really to give everybody, even people who are not necessarily comfortable, you know, going around and sort of speaking and doing that. Or maybe you're just too busy, an opportunity to just do something fun and gamify that. Do something fun and still make a lot of positive change in society.
[00:29:34] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:29:34] I like that you combine both of them. That's that's wonderful. And it's interesting what you were talking about being positive. The app definitely feels, it feels very upbeat. It feels very positive. It feels like I'm contributing to something. When I, when I leave a review and I, and I love that. And, and yet I was telling somebody about it who is not vegan.
[00:29:55] And the response I got was, Ugh, another vegan thing, you know? [00:30:00] And that's that, I'm not always positive when I talk about it, because I get, I get into that whole billions of animals are slaughtered every year mindset very quickly. So it's hard for me to stay positive when that is in the forefront. And yet.
[00:30:13]When I'm talking about the app to people who are already either vegan, friendly or vegan themselves, it's a really positive experience and I'm getting people to sign up and go, oh, this is cool. When I talk about it to non vegans, there's a, there's an eye roll. And so what is your, what is your thought?
[00:30:30] How, how is it best to talk about these subjects? And you said positive and that's great. And yet if they're, if you immediately meet sort of a wall of resistance, is it just a, okay. You're not a person I can talk about this with, or do you have any strategies to talk to people?
[00:30:45] Vikas Garg: [00:30:45] Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and you just, you know, just to clarify, like when I say positive, I, you know, I can imagine some of my friends were very passionate activists, their eyes rolling, because it's like, [00:31:00] it's what I want.
[00:31:02] I don't mean, you know, like what I don't mean, like, you know, it, it wouldn't be cool for, like, we all know can like racism. Right. Let's just take racism for example, right. There's no, like, we're all like trying to like, from, from like a, a vegan activist perspective. Right. If I was to where my, my sort of, you know, my, my, my activism hat for a second, right.
[00:31:24] I would, it's not, I would say that it's not cool. It's not cool to kill a little less. Right. Like, I would say something like that, like you know, and, and we would, I'd say that most people, if you ask them, is it okay to be a little racist? They'd be like, no, what are you talking about? Like, that's not, that's not cool.
[00:31:44] Like, you can't be a little racist. And so it's like, you know, I would make the arguments as well. So you're saying, is it it's okay to kill a little, right. Cause like, they'd be like, no, it's not okay to kill a little bit. That's what you do every single day when you, you know, [00:32:00] you eat animals and things like that.
[00:32:01] So like that sort of positive, I guess that's the, that idea of sort of positive messaging just for it. What I mean by that is you, to you, what I have found that works the best is sort of being able to relate to people. Right. And we can talk about all of the animal lives. And when you start talking about things like in the billions, often people kind of zone out cause it's, it just, it takes somebody out of their immediate sort of day-to-day life.
[00:32:35] But when you can talk to somebody in a way that really connects with them on a personal basis, and the best way to do that is to tell your own personal story. And really like, why are you doing this? And how does it impact you? And really I'd say that that's probably the thing that I have found, you know, it doesn't always work, but that's what I, at least when I come at it [00:33:00] from a very, very personal way, and I talk about my own health and I talk about my mom and dad, and I talk about, you know, I talk about my dog for instance and I talk about the changes that I felt and the struggles that I had you know, that then becomes a very personal story.
[00:33:23] And while somebody may not agree with it there, I'll probably a lot more willing to just kind of accept it or recognize that. Okay, cool. I get what this person is about and that's. Like that's their journey. And I respect that. Right. So then like, you know, at least you stroke, I think you establish a foundation which you can then build on from there because the person at least appreciates where you're coming from, some people will, of course never be receptive or be open-minded.
[00:33:57] And, and, you know, unfortunately, you know, [00:34:00] like we, we, we live in a world where there's a lot of, you know, human beings are very complex and intellectually, emotionally, mentally, physically, we're also a very, very diverse, you're not going to convince everybody. And that's, you know, th th I, I don't know if there's, you know, it's really about that.
[00:34:20] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:34:20] Well, it's it's for you. It's about a billion, which I think is good and, and more than a billion would be even better. I, I that's for sure. It's, what's interesting. That feeling of connection that you talked about earlier is similar to what I heard you say just now that, that it is it's meeting people where, where they are with where you are and I, and I totally respect that.
[00:34:45] And yet when I, when I think about it, I'm going okay. So there are all these benefits that you, that you have sort of rot, if you will, you've brought all these benefits from being vegan. And [00:35:00] yet, I don't know. Do you sometimes feel like you're tilting at windmills or do you see enough potential that it, that it's worth it to keep going?
[00:35:14] Vikas Garg: [00:35:14] Oh, definitely. I mean, I definitely see a lot of potential. And you know, we do a lot of things. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't work. Sometimes they don't work in the short term and often there is sort of this sense. It's very easy when you've got a whole room full of people to like constantly be pivoting or changing their mind.
[00:35:35] And often the hardest thing to do is to stay on tack a hard. One of the artist's things to do is, is really believe in what you're doing and believe in something that maybe not a lot of other people really see as as valuable. And, you know, look, you've got to take it in and you've got to, like, you've got to really analyze it.
[00:35:54] You've got to do your work. But you've also got to have conviction and things in life and, [00:36:00] and that's sort of the hardest, I'd say that's one of the hardest things. Sometimes because you could talk to five different people and get five different opinions. Sometimes it's just the way that you ask a question you know, where, you know, you're, you're almost setting yourself up to, to get a certain kind of response.
[00:36:16] So it's really, it's it's, I think it's about, I think it's about having, I think a lot of it it's about having conviction and then really thinking, at least for us, like thinking about like, okay, well, how do we build a business and how do we, and some to some degree stay grounded in the way that business works.
[00:36:33]And you know, and, and, you know, you're trying to create a new kind of business in an industry that, you know, is evolving, but not a lot of people are sort of accepted yet. But you think it's the future. And so it's, it's hard. It's really, really, really hard. But, but it's also really fun and it's rewarding and.
[00:36:55] You know, it's it's when, when you do have your wins, it feels really, really great.
[00:37:01] [00:37:00] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:37:01] I'm sure it does. Absolutely. And you know, it's funny. I, there are people who've known me forever in a day. And one of the first things that they ask me when they see me again, after not having seen me for a while or so you eat meat yet.
[00:37:15] And it's it's as if they think it's a temporary thing. And I'm like, it's been over 30 years, I think. I think I'm done. But the interesting thing here is that thing that you said about confidence, there is, there is a, there is a power in my mind to. Standing in your truth. You know, my truth for me, I'm never, I'm never eating animals or any animal products.
[00:37:38] Again, I don't use animal products. So that's my truth. And you said earlier that you feel a greater sense of confidence since you have gone vegan. And I would love it. If you could talk a little bit about what the flavor of that is, what is the root of that and, and how do you see it playing out in the way you've [00:38:00] innovated this entire social media space?
[00:38:02] He does.
[00:38:08] Vikas Garg: [00:38:08] Sorry. Could you repeat that question?
[00:38:12] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:38:12] I got the room. Yeah,
[00:38:14] Vikas Garg: [00:38:14] I got the, I got the, I guess, sorry she knocked on the door and knocked on the door. I heard, I heard the, I heard the first part of it, but then I wasn't, I'm not, I wasn't clear. No
[00:38:25] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:38:25] worries. No worries. I love it. Well, the question. No, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:38:29] That's great. You know, it's it, this is about it's funny. I the podcast got into the fourth edition of podcasting for dummies. It actually was, was featured in the book and it was featured in the slice of life podcast area. So that's because that's what this is. Things happen. This is a slice of life.
[00:38:47] So the question was actually about how your level of confidence has suffused your ability to innovate in, in the social media space, which has innovation, things like, you know, Tik TOK or [00:39:00] whatever. But this is, this is innovation with a purpose. And I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about how your level of confidence relates your ability to go to, I don't know if you have sponsors or if you have investors, but your ability to go to people who don't know anything about this, who don't know anything about veganism and be confident enough to go.
[00:39:18] This is a really cool thing, and this is why you want to be part of it.
[00:39:23] Vikas Garg: [00:39:23] Yeah, look, you know, you have to turn over a lot of stones. It's very competitive. And depending on who you talk to one person's sort of one person's gauge of success looks very different than another person's gauge of success.
[00:39:39]And you know the, the, the thing about, you know, the thing about the space is there's there's, you just, you have to, you have to find, you have to, you know, you have to do the work and you have to, you have to find the people who are going to support you, whether it's financially, and we're very much a venture backed [00:40:00] company at this stage you know, and, and our revenues.
[00:40:03]You know, if, if, if tomorrow our funding just completely dried up our revenues definitely wouldn't support what we're, what we're doing and building, we're not a very cap. We're not a very capital intensive business at this stage. We will become a more capital intensive business at this stage. And so it's really, again, it's setting yourself up for thinking, okay, like, well, what does this business really look like over the next three, four, five years?
[00:40:25] What are we building? And and really being able to communicate that effectively and meet the folks and build relationships with people and, and, and yeah, and convey, convey that sense of confidence. But behind that sense of confidence, it can't just be back, you know, behind that sense of confidence.
[00:40:48] There also has to be work and a plan and a, and being able to sort of describe and show and build. All the things that we need to do [00:41:00] in order to make our business, you know, fundamentally sound and sustainable. So we can be in business in the next 20, 30, and 50 years and get level over the next two.
[00:41:11] Yeah, let alone the next sort of two. Right, right. You know, which it really is. It's like, it's like, you want to build yourself for longterm success, but you've got to really think about like, well, okay, how are you going to survive in the next one year, in the next two years? Especially, I'd say that until you get to the stage where you have a hit product, right.
[00:41:30] And that takes time, you know, with some of the biggest companies in the food space that that's, you know, that's taken them before, before everybody, you know, in America had heard about the beyond burger. You know, it was even well before it was even the beyond burger was called something else that company had been around for, for almost a decade, by the time, you know, people really started to kind of, it started to go mainstream.
[00:41:57] And so while, [00:42:00] you know, while folks like Ethan and the people around him had that vision, they also were very smart about executing and building. And I'm sure that, you know, while they were thinking about what 10 years ahead were those probably very early on in the business, they were probably just thinking about what the next six months looks like.
[00:42:17] So there is always that sort of, you know, there's always that sort of, and I don't think that it's a, I don't think that it's an inherent conflict. I just think that it's a responsibility to be thinking about, well, you know, what do you need to do short term? What do you need the next three, six months and nine months and 12 months to look like, right.
[00:42:38] What do you need to build? How do you get the, you know, how do you, how do you build something. You know, short-term get that to scale and, you know, what's the long-term vision of this and are the things that you're doing right now matching up with the long-term vision for the car.
[00:43:00] [00:42:59] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:42:59] It's a lot, it's a huge balancing act, I imagine. And also just a lot, a lot of balls in the air. So you're, you're a juggler on a, on a unicycle. It sounds like and my husband is a clown. He was a clown in the circus. So I know of what I what's, I'm curious about the, how do I put this? You're it's it feels, it really does feel to me like you have a foot in several worlds, like you have the foot in the activist world, but you also have to have a foot in the sort of bottom line, financial interests world.
[00:43:29] And. What, where, what is the line there? What, what, when you have to make a decision based on what's best for the company, what's best for the bill for a billion what's best for, you know, the, in your mind, what's best for the planet, the animals, et cetera. Where do you fall? How do you navigate that when you have to make those decisions?
[00:43:52] Vikas Garg: [00:43:52] Well, I think that we have a very strong sort of core set of values. Right. And I think it all [00:44:00] starts there. So one of the great things about running a company that's built around values and purpose is it's pretty, it's, it's pretty clear to everybody what you stand for. Right. And you know, it's pretty clear where you stand on a number of different things you know, in terms of right versus wrong in terms of.
[00:44:24] You know, do we do the right thing by people? Or do we take like a more sneaky approach? You know, like just generally it does clear up, it clears up a lot of confusion. It clears up, I'd say clears up a lot of stuff that other companies, you know, would have a problem with because at the end of the day, running a company that's based on values and purpose is an extraordinary filtering mechanism for who even comes into the door right now.
[00:44:52] Like, you know, and, and that, that also, I mean, I'm not gonna kid you, like, I sit here and lie to you. Like that's not a perfect thing either. [00:45:00] Sometimes you want to have the sort of the very opposite views. You want to have the conflict you want to have as sophisticated people. You want to have, you know, the most successful, but you want to have the best people who are going to help build your growth, you know, your, your growth engine.
[00:45:19] You want to have the most successful people, the most experienced people on product. You want to have the most successful people on biz dev. And so sometimes those sort of, as a company that is built around a mission and a company that's built around values, right. As opposed to, Hey, we're just going to build this really fun sort of video sharing app.
[00:45:39] Right. And let's just go out and we don't care what kind of content people are posting. We just want to make sure it goes viral and we want to build that. And, you know, and that's it. We want to create this highly addictive app. Well, you can then welcome just about anybody on the planet, into, you know, into that, except for maybe people who are really [00:46:00] values based.
[00:46:01] And so the difference is, is we're quite the opposite of that, right? And so I'd say that one of the biggest challenges that we faced in the flat in the first three years is actually scaling our team. So like, we're finally, you know, we finally have gotten to the stage like three years in where, and especially during last year, like we started last year, With eight, seven or eight people on the team full time.
[00:46:25] And today we're at 32. Wow. So like it finally, like last year in spite of COVID in spite of everything last year was really the year where we started to grow, where the team started to grow, where, you know, the, the, the, the number of years of experience and the depth of that experience in terms of colleagues, new colleagues signing up joining was, was, just, was, was, was really sort of got, got a big upgrade.
[00:46:52]And it's really nice because like, we have a very highly motivated team and a lot of the, a lot of the [00:47:00] folks who may not have as much experience what they lack and experience they make up for in motivation and initiative. But the reality of that is that. What ends up happening is you end up having a lot of debt.
[00:47:13] You ended up having a lot of technical debt on your engineering team. You end up building things on a weak foundation. You end up constantly wanting to iterate, but not necessarily having great plans around it. And so we're finally, you know, or you build something wanting to get to a next stage and maybe you get there, but then you're like, what's next?
[00:47:36] And you kind of forgot that like, okay, you might get to the next step, but have you thought five steps forward from there? And so like, we're finally getting better at a lot of those things. And you know, that, so being sort of a values-based organization, being an organization that has a very purposeful mission is now actually I'd say in a [00:48:00] way, a breath of fresh air for a lot of people that are kind of coming into the organization and that's something that's been missing in their lives.
[00:48:06] Working at other companies,
[00:48:09] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:48:09] you're singing my song. I love
[00:48:11] Vikas Garg: [00:48:11] it. I'm going to, I'm going
[00:48:12] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:48:12] to apply. That's it. I'm going to do it. Okay. So to be, to be perfectly Frank you know, I don't, I I'm, I feel a little bit like I'm like, yes, everything you just said and, and it feels, it feels just a little disingenuous, even though it's not disingenuous, I really wholeheartedly support your mission because it does feel like it's not a, if you're not being vegan, you're, you're directly responsible for killing animals perspective.
[00:48:39] It's more like a, Hey, this is something you can think about. And this is something you can dip your toe in if you will. And yet you y'all are activists all over the place. Right? So one of the things that I love, and this is a, I think maybe a gamified thing that you did is that for every 10 reviews you leave.
[00:49:00] [00:49:00] The company will make a donation. And I thought that was so I thought it was cool. I thought it was super cool that I got to choose a sanctuary to get my little $10 donation from having given 10 reviews of, of dishes or whatever it was I did first. So what, what it, what role does that sense of play play in the app?
[00:49:25] Vikas Garg: [00:49:25] Yeah, so we started with this whole idea that look, you know, we, we want to create an impact. And we think that there's an opportunity here to build a really great company. And we're a really great technology company, a really great platform. And we, I just felt like, you know, people are signing up, they're going to be contributing information.
[00:49:47] That information is valuable. They're going to be spending time in their lives and how do we. How do we enrich that experience and how do we help people kind of connect back this idea, this small idea. [00:50:00] So we'll give you a sense of it. Like 65% of our users today are B eaters. 35% of our users are, are, are, are vegans and vegetarians.
[00:50:08] So for the 65% of people, right, I really felt like, what are, what can we do to help kind of. Create that connection. So they've gone and they've eaten something vegan or they've bought something that's environmentally friendly and cruelty-free, it might be, let's say it could be, you know, a vegan beauty product, or it could be you know, like the, a, a bag or, you know, a pair of shoes.
[00:50:33]That's, that's made without any animals harmed. And so, you know, they share that experience. They share whatever they purchase on the, on the platform to helping build our community. How do we keep them motivated and how do we gamify it a little bit? And how do we help them see that connection all the way through, with what they're buying with the life that that's impacting.
[00:50:55] And so that's how we started was if we could just reinforce this [00:51:00] and really create a daily sort of habit around them, choosing this lifestyle on a more regular basis. And we could game-ify that. And we could do that by connecting them. With really impactful causes around the world. And I know that you had captain Paul Watson on your show recently.
[00:51:20]But see shepherd is, is one of the organizations that we support that we are, we are, we are very, very, very honored to be partnered with them. But so for us it was, it really it's been, this is the sense of, okay, how do you help organizations around the world that are creating world-changing life-changing impact?
[00:51:38] How do you inspire people and how do you motivate people? You know, to basically keep going to, to keep, to, to, to, to keep trying to live this lifestyle and more regular basis by kind of gamifying it. And at the same time, reinforcing it with, Hey, look, this is the impact that's being created. So, you know, at the time the simplest thing that I could kind of come up with was, Hey, let's [00:52:00] put a little sort of award in people's pockets when they choose vegan.
[00:52:03]And we chose that to be a dollar. It's just really simple, right? It's a dollar. And what you can do with this on a dollar that you get, like in an Amazon gift card, or that you could go and spend on something, but it's a dollar that we donate to one of our partner organizations and we have about 65 partners around the world from, you know, ranging from farm animal sanctuaries and places like Argentina, to organizations like sea shepherd, which are really focused on Marine life to, you know, to organizations around the world, activist organizations.
[00:52:34]We, for instance, we support all three of the farm animal sanctuary is located in South Africa, do a lot of work in South Africa. And it's really just a global movement. Of course we do a lot of, you know, we have a lot of partners in the U S are closest to you as Woodstock in upstate New York in new Paltz.
[00:52:52] And Woodstock's been mowed. Woodstock was one of our earliest partners. So yeah, we've just been, you know, I've just been really focused on, on growing [00:53:00] that way and growing responsibly that way. And it's been amazing. I mean, we've donated over half a million dollars since we first got started to amazing organizations around the world.
[00:53:10] We're now supporting children's literacy programs in the developing world. So for a dollar, you can put a girl in school for a day for a dollar. You can buy a local language children's book for, for a kid you know, in, in, in a poor country for a dollar you can plant a tree as part of reforestation projects, In parts of all of pine parts around the world for a dollar, actually, not even for a dollar, but for 80 cents, you go through the United nations world food program and something called share the meal for 80 cents.
[00:53:43] You can feed a hungry child, three nutritious meals in a day 80 cents. Wow. Right. So like, we don't even think about 80 cents, right. That doesn't even buy you a pack of gum, but like 80 cents can feed a kid for a whole day. Right. It's an amazing program. [00:54:00] And the funny thing about it, most of the meals are plant-based.
[00:54:02] Most of the meals are a hundred percent plant-based right. Whenever possible. So, so this, these are the kinds of organizations that we think are making a real impact in the world. They're nonprofits. We want to support them. And a big part of what we do is really connect that our user journey back with that impact that they can create.
[00:54:20] And I'd say that's one of our most unique selling points for the platform is, Hey you know, we're creating impact in this way and we're just always working on how do we make this part of sort of the, the platform better. So you mentioned when you get to 10 posts, you get $10, you get $10 every time we get 10 posts, we're actually just, we just remove that barrier.
[00:54:40] So in the latest, in the latest version yeah, because we just felt like, Hey, you know, the reason we did it when we first started this two years ago, it was purely administrative was, you know, I'm literally sitting there and manually making these donations. Right. So is that okay? Well, like [00:55:00] let's, you know, and at the time time, in a given week, we were, we might've made a couple of a hundred dollars, a couple of hundred dollars donations.
[00:55:07] Now that number has grown. Now we're doing, you know, we're doing, we're doing like 40, $50,000 a month that we're donating to organizations around the world sometimes more. And It, you know, it was just purely administrative is how do I manage all of this stuff? Manage all these donations and things like that.
[00:55:25] As, especially as we scale the number of partners, now we have more than 60. Wow. And so we've gotten better at what we do. We've gotten better at sort of, you know in terms of just building the platform. So this stuff can to some of it's, to some degree, some of it can be more automated and more responsive to the user.
[00:55:44]So yeah, we just went live with we just went live with that feature. So it's, you know, for the folks that are listening to the podcast, download the app, take a photo. The next time you go to a restaurant, if you eat something vegan, take a photo of it. It's just like creating an Instagram [00:56:00] post. It takes 30 or 40 seconds.
[00:56:02] And pu you know, we'll put a dollar in your account that you can use to create impact. Or if you've got something at home, if you've just opened your fridge. Whether it's a bunch of kale or it's a pack of beyond sausages, or it's your favorite vegan butter from Yoko's or any other brand, take a photo of it and share it.
[00:56:23] You're going to help the company because, you know, ultimately that review helps the company. It goes online, it helps get them more customers in a way you're going to help that company. Even if the feedback is bad, you're still gonna help the company. You're gonna help that restaurant. You're gonna help other people discover that option and make the world a little bit more vegan every single time.
[00:56:48] And you're going to create impact for a life besides your own. And it's just fun. It's a fun thing to do, taking a photo posting it, you know, and really in a way, [00:57:00] creating impact and logging that on a day-to-day basis. So you have this beautiful sort of. View of all of the wonderful vegan, you know, your whole sort of journey around all of this and whether you're vegan already.
[00:57:12] And you're just, you know, using it to record sort of, you know, your, your day-to-day habits and create this kind of impact or, Hey, you know, you want to see and socialize and be part of this community and, and, you know, which is really, really supportive. And we backed that up with this amazing little thing that we do which we think is really awesome.
[00:57:31] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:57:31] I think it's really awesome too. And there's another benefit that you haven't talked about, which is close to my heart because I'm a writer and that is. That you get to put your writing hat on when you create a review, when you write about it, and you say that something was scrumptious, or you say that it was malicious or that it needed this, or it needed that, or, or this is what you liked about it.
[00:57:52] That those review, you know, you say something like, I don't remember if it's 50 words or 50 characters per review on the, on the app. But the point [00:58:00] is that one of the things I love to do is give my I'm a know it all. I admit that. And, but I love giving my opinion. I love giving my review. I review everything I do.
[00:58:09] If I go traveling, I review the place, I do a travel guide. If I go to a new restaurant, I take pictures of the food and I review it and I love talking about it. And so one of the things that the app does is give you the opportunity to have your say, to say it in a way that's really fun and creative, but still to give your opinion on, on what you've experienced.
[00:58:30] And I think that's a really big positive in what you're
[00:58:33] Vikas Garg: [00:58:33] doing. Oh, thank you. I really appreciate you saying that.
[00:58:38] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:58:38] I mean, it's ju it's the truth and take it from me. As I said, I'm a know it all. So I admit that feely there's anybody who's ever met me will go. Yes, she's a know it all. It's okay. So, so I, I am thrilled and I could, I could keep you talking for the next six hours, but I know you have a life to get back to, and you have a daughter who's been knocking on the door and wanting your [00:59:00] attention.
[00:59:00] So I, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing how people can find you on social, how people can find the app, and we're going to put it all in the show notes, but I kind of like having it said as well, just because people learn in different ways.
[00:59:18] Vikas Garg: [00:59:18] Yeah. Sure. Well, thank you. So the app, it's just called a billion, a B I L L I O N.
[00:59:24] And that's exactly who we are. We're trying to build a social movement for a billion people that makes the world a lot more sustainable that, you know, helps animals that helps people around the world that helps people live in a more healthier and more sustainable way in a happier way, in a more mindful way.
[00:59:39] So you can download the, a billion app in either app store and Google play, or if you have an iPhone in, in the iPhone and the apple app store it's completely free. And it's completely free to use. And and we do some really fun things in there. There's vouchers from restaurants every now and then there's lots of stuff going around.
[00:59:58] You can engage with businesses. [01:00:00] You know, you'll find that a lot of businesses will respond to feedback. A lot of companies are starting to jump on board. We've gotten a few thousand companies to sort of. To jump on board as well. And it just, it's just a great way to sort of record your daily impact and really find a supportive community around that.
[01:00:16] So it's called a billion, that's all one word. And we're of course you can also go to our website. It's a billion www.abillion.com where you'll find all of the information there, if you don't like to use apps. And and that's it. And then as far as find finding me, we're also obviously on all socials.
[01:00:32] So on Instagram, we're a billion and on Twitter where a billion app I'm on LinkedIn. I think we're just a billion, but yeah, you can find us on LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn. I don't really hang out on platforms like Facebook. I don't have a personal sort of account on, on social media, a billions the only social media app that I actually use besides LinkedIn.
[01:00:52] So you can find me on LinkedIn as well and Picasso Garg. V I K S G a R G. And I'm based in [01:01:00] Singapore. So yeah, look out for me. And if you hear the podcast, please connect with me and let me know. I'd love to get your feedback, love to get your thoughts and love to get to know you better.
[01:01:09] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:01:09] Ah, that's awesome.
[01:01:10] And you know, we didn't really talk about that mindfulness aspect and now I'm sorry, we didn't, you're going to have to come back again and we're going to have to get into the nitty and the gritty of that, because there's something very powerful about the mindfulness aspect of feeling like you're in balance.
[01:01:26] And in fact, if you wouldn't mind talking about that for a second, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what mindfulness is and how it relates to what your, what your mission is. If you don't mind.
[01:01:38] Vikas Garg: [01:01:38] Yeah, no, it's fine. You know, I think that living a life full of values and purpose is is, is something that really can drive mindfulness.
[01:01:46] I guess if the question is what is mindfulness is it's, it's having. Sort of God, I it's like, I'm like, don't use it. I'm using another word to define and define a word, but I'd say it's [01:02:00] consciousness, you know, it's, it's having something that grounds you and helps you feel connected and helps you sort of navigate is maybe the best way that I can describe it.
[01:02:12] And I'm sure that there's other sort of much better people who can define much better way, but to me, that's kind of what it is. Right. And I'd say the great thing about being vegan is that literally every single decision and choice you make, and there was a Cornell university study, 15, 20 years back that talked about how often.
[01:02:36] We make food decisions every single day. And I still to this day, like, don't understand this number, but like the study said that we make like 200 or 250 food decisions every day. Yeah. Every one of us. Right. And I guess I, I, the way that I think about it and maybe it's like, I have, you know, I've got a bottle of water here.
[01:02:56] It's like every time I decide to take a sip of that water, that probably counts as a [01:03:00] food decision. But the point is that like, you know, as a vegan food is, or somebody who's looking for vegan food or wants to eat vegan food, food is constantly on my mind. Right? What am I going to eat? Where am I going to go?
[01:03:12] You know, all of this stuff. And I don't think it's too dissimilar for others, but the difference is if, when you're vegan and you're looking for vegan food, that's like, you're voting. With your values every single time. Right. And it, it, that's in a way that creates a tremendous amount of mindfulness. Right.
[01:03:34]The other thing that I do is, is you've, I I've found a practice that works for me that creates a lot of mindfulness and a lot of people have a practice or something that they do. And so, you know, like for me, it's, it's trying to smile more a thing that I do that the Dalai Lama does, which has been transformational for me in my life, you know?
[01:03:56] And, and I don't think that you need to believe in [01:04:00] God for anyone who's listening and is not religious. I don't think it's so much about believing in God as much as like, just sort of blessing somebody or taking a time to sort of. Acknowledge somebody's presence when you walk into a room or if you're out for a run in the morning or you're just walking around and you see somebody smile at them, or if that feels weird, because I so probably feels weird to a lot of people to smile at a stranger, right.
[01:04:29] Smile inside. Or what I do is I take the opportunity to just inside say something as small as God bless you. Right. Or just bless you. And that little acknowledgement of that person in a positive way, for me, not only makes me feel connected right. But also creates a lot of positivity and mindfulness. So that's what mindfulness is to me.
[01:04:54] And I'd say my biggest daily practice around mindfulness is just, that is acknowledging [01:05:00] people is just constantly acknowledging people. And I find that sometimes when I deviate away from that, that's when I go to my unhappy place. So yeah, so that's that in a way is sort of what mindfulness means to me.
[01:05:10]As far as, you know, the platform, it is again it's how do we plant the seeds and create a very positive encouraging environment, you know, for sure and change social media. So we actually can find opportunities to acknowledge each other, to be mindful of each other, to be respectful, to, to like, you know, to, to, to, to, to really reinforce our daily habits and create better daily habits.
[01:05:36] And that's mindfulness to us.
[01:05:41] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:05:41] I love that. It's so my, my practice is not to acknowledge them internally. I do this interesting thing where I, if I'm out and about, I find someone. Who I pass in the street at usually almost always a woman to be, to be honest. And I compliment her. I will tell her something that [01:06:00] I, that I think is beautiful about her.
[01:06:02] And then I walk on, it's not like a, it's not like I'm stopping to talk with her or anything. It's just a, your eyes are beautiful. And then I move on and I've had women start crying because they weren't feeling beautiful or they weren't feeling happy. And that. That sort of pushed them into this place of being joyful and this compliment out of the blue.
[01:06:25] So that's my practice. And I think I love that you have a practice that that is, that is less intrusive. I feel like I'm probably pretty intrusive when I stopped them in the middle of walking down the street to tell them that I like that I like their eyes. So, so I have this question that I ask everybody who comes on the show.
[01:06:43] And it's a silly question. It's the last question. And I find that even though it's a silly question that it gives poignant answers. And so here's the question. If you had an airplane that could sky write anything for the whole world to [01:07:00] see, what would you say?
[01:07:06] Vikas Garg: [01:07:06] Oh, wow. Interesting question. Oh man. That's a, that's a, that's a very, very good question. Thank you. I would say, be kind,
[01:07:20] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:07:20] I love that. I love, love, love that. Yeah. And you might be surprised how many people who I really respect who've been on the show. Cause I don't have anybody on the show. I don't respect whose answer is behind it's it is, it is so many people like you who are living their values, treat kindness as something that's.
[01:07:43] So that's critical. That's crucial in, in the world. So I thank you for that. I really appreciate you saying that because it just reinforces that notion that the people out there like you, who are living in that values driven space. Have kindness at the forefront [01:08:00] because I'm really grateful that you've taken the time to be here on the show.
[01:08:04] Thank you so much for being
[01:08:05] Vikas Garg: [01:08:05] here. How has my pleasure is a little bit and thank you for reaching out. And it was an absolute pleasure getting to know you today and thank you for all of the questions and just delighted to, to be on the show. Hopefully get a chance to see you in back in New York.
[01:08:19]At some point well, and who knows. Right.
[01:08:24] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:08:24] And, and I might, I might look you up when I go to Singapore, cause it's on my bucket list for traveling. So absolutely wonderful. Awesome. Oh, you have just been listening to the cost guard, talking about a billion. The app that is starting has started a movement and will hopefully change the world with at least a billion people who are committed to a plant-based lifestyle by 2030, this has been the innovative mindset podcast I have been and will continue to be as old attract Nunberg.
[01:08:53] I thank you for listening until next time. This is as older reminding you to listen, learn, laugh, and love. [01:09:00] A whole lot.
[01:09:06] thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here. Please subscribe to the podcast if you're new and if you like what you're hearing, please review it and rate it and let other people know. And if you'd like to be a sponsor of the show, I'd love to meet you on patrion.com/innovative mindset.
[01:09:23] I also have lots of exclusive goodies to share just with the show supporters there today's episode was produced by us old attract and Bergen is copyright 2021 as always. Please remember, this is for educational and entertainment purposes. Only past performance does not guarantee future results, although we can always hope until next time, keep living in your innovative mindset.
 
 
NEW: Read the full transcript of the episode.

Jeanine Boubli, Founder of the Ethical, Animal-Focused Clothing Brand Red Tale Moon On How to Grow Your Business From the Heart

Ethical Fashion with Red Tale Moon Clothing Line Founder, CEO, and Artist, Jeanine Boubli
Jeanine Boubli is a mixed media artist and creator of the ethical and environmentally conscious lifestyle apparel brand Red Tale Moon.
She strives to create awareness and respect for all animals, Mother Nature, and soulful connection through her creative work.
Red Tale Moon's designs' are inspired by animals she know well as a volunteer animal caregiver at a local sanctuary.
She loves spending time outdoors, taking long walks by the water, and writing poetry.
Connect with Jeanine
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanineboubli
https://www.instagram.com/jeanineboubli
https://www.instagram.com/redtalemoon
www.redtalemoon.com
The Episode's Transcript
Jeanine Boubli-FULL-1
[00:00:00] Jeanine Boubli: [00:00:00] I will say though, that there, now that you're here talking about being scared, there is really nothing scary about following your heart. There is something very scary about not following your heart.
[00:00:17] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:00:17] Hi, and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. I'm your host Izolda Trakhtenberg. On the show, you get my conversations with peak performing thought leaders, creatives, and entrepreneurs. We explore how you can innovate through creativity, compassion, and collaboration. I believe that innovation combined with compassion and creative thinking can save the world and I aim to bring you ways.
[00:00:40] You can do it too. If you're enjoying the show, I'd be super grateful. If you could support it by buying me a cup of coffee, you can buy me a cuppa at buymeacoffee.com/izoldat. And now let's get on with the show.
[00:01:01] [00:01:00] Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg. I'm so happy that you're here and I'm honored and happy to have this week's guests. She's amazing. You're going to love her.  Jeanine Boubli is a mixed media artist and creator of the ethical and environmentally conscious lifestyle apparel, brand Red Tale Moon.
[00:01:21] So, you know, I love her and you know, you're going to love her too. She strives to create awareness and respect for all animals, mother nature, and soulful connection through her creative work. Red Tale moon's designs are inspired by animals. She knows as well. Well, she's she's a volunteer animal caregiver at a local sanctuary, but she also uses her heart and her imagination to create these incredible designs.
[00:01:45] She loves spending time outdoors, taking long walks by the water and writing poetry. Jeanine, I am so glad that you're here. I'm honored and thrilled to talk to you about your ethical stance on what you do and the artistic drive that [00:02:00] helps you help the animals of the world. Welcome to the show.
[00:02:03] Jeanine Boubli: [00:02:03] Oh, thank you so much.
[00:02:04] I'm so happy for this opportunity to share. Thank you so much. I'm
[00:02:09] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:02:09] so excited. So I. The thing, look, anybody who knows me for any length of time goes, yes, she's, she's an outspoken vegan she's plant powered, blah, blah, blah. Right. I I'm pretty far out with that. So the question I have for anybody I talk to about, about sort of being ethical, as far as how you interact with the rest of the living world is what, what got you started?
[00:02:36] What, what was the turning point where you said I'm going to choose a path like this?
[00:02:44] Jeanine Boubli: [00:02:44] Well, I didn't, I don't know that I consciously chose it. I feel like it chose itself through, you know, my soul, if you will. I started, you know, I was vegetarian for years and I started volunteering as you [00:03:00] know an animal caregiver at a local sanctuary That happened shortly after too challenging, having two challenging years of my life, my father was sick.
[00:03:11] I moved out from the city. I came out to long Island to help him. I didn't realize how much that affected me. Long-term and so after the house was sold and I was like, okay, you know, where am I going to know? Like, I'm not going back to Manhattan right now. And my life was kind of up rooted in a sense my heart was, and yet.
[00:03:33]It provided a, all, it also provided like an open an, Oh, well, an open space, like a big, vast bit of land, you know, and my future, because I didn't really know which way I was going to go with my future. And what happened was a neighbor where I moved to a neighbor said to me, one day she saw how I was, how I was with her dog.
[00:03:53] She said, she need, you love animals so much. You would love this place. And you know, they've got a cow and they've got [00:04:00] goats and sheep and blah, blah, blah. And I said, Oh, well, I grew up here years ago. I never heard of it. And so the next day I was Googling and I've been volunteering there ever since. And so that was, yeah, that, that, that this experience, that's still part of my life and will always be a part of my life because it's my heart.
[00:04:23]Really. Opened up my heart healed my heart, calmed my mind and inspired me to create or to get just being like you just being with the animals and their environment. I did not want to be with people at that time. No, I'm fine now, you know, but I just needed the quiet and just to be in a, in an environment now, all of the animals are loved.
[00:04:45] They're not, you know, they're, they're fortunate, they're loved and they're cared for and to be with them and witness their friendship and their wisdom. And when one of them is sick and how, you know, the other ones are there for [00:05:00] them it's just really, really beautiful. And so that's what started to inspire me to.
[00:05:05] Go ahead and use them as the subject matter for artwork. Because once again, I was kind of reborn, if you will. Instead I, they opened my heart and with my hearts opened, then I wanted to create, again, it could be in creative, it has always been inside me, but there was, I just kind of closed up like a closed fist.
[00:05:24] I, you know, just, but then they, they, they, it was them, it was being with them and their love and their sweetness. That opened that part of me up again.
[00:05:35] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:05:35] Yeah. Wow. I, you know, it's so it's wonderful and it's inspiring. And I know, I know other people who have that sort of connection and realize it's worth.
[00:05:52] And you took it, you took that connection and you decided to work on behalf of them, these [00:06:00] wonderful critters, these wonderful beings we share the planet with when you started, when you started that, that process of like, okay, I'm good. I'm inspired by this and I'm going to do it right. Can you talk a little bit about what happened inside you that first time you sat down or maybe you weren't sitting?
[00:06:20] I don't know what your process is the first time you, you went okay. That's it. I'm going to do this. I'm going to create. Was it a design. Oh, yes. Yeah. So the thing that, and how was your, how was your mind and your heart, where were they when you were doing it? Oh,
[00:06:36] Jeanine Boubli: [00:06:36] well this is a, this is a bit of a story, but I'll tell you.
[00:06:41] So I we had an Adobe user group on long island. I was the co co-manager of the group and the manager, Sharon. She said to me, one day I was at her house and I remember exactly where we are now because he brought me back there and. She said, you know, I would love to get our members more involved. Can you think of [00:07:00] anything?
[00:07:01] And I wasn't thinking I was just responding, you know, when things just come out of your mouth and I said, well, we have so many photographers in this group. Why don't we have them take some pictures? There's pictures of textures, there's textures and everything. I said, why don't we have them take some pictures of textures and then apply those textures to another image and share.
[00:07:26] And she said, great idea. Can you come up with something? I said, sure. So lo and behold the next day I, like, I already knew that I w I wanted to use something that was current. I am a creative person. There's like, there's many things that they can create, but I wanted to create something from something that was current in my life.
[00:07:48] Something that really meant a lot to me. And that's the animals something from my heart. So I said, okay, I'm going to just, I'll go look through some pictures, you know, of the kids. And I took a picture of salt. She is a white [00:08:00] sheep. And then, you know, just like what somebody's cooking and they don't measure, it was kind of like, you know, somebody's painting and they're splattering the paint.
[00:08:08] I was taking some other images, like even a blurred image of an image of some branches, if you will. I did not know what I was going to create. I was just gathering material, whatever felt, something, you know, oh, I'll put this in a layer. Oh, I'll put this in a layer. And then maybe it must've been almost eight or nine hours afterwards, just zoning with Pandora.
[00:08:30]I created this. I an art piece with the salts and I shared it with her. She goes, Oh my God, I love this. This is great. Well, what happened was, you know, we had this I couldn't show the process to the people, the, you know, to our members because it was a creative process. I was zoning, you know, it wasn't just apply a filter and, Oh, it looks like this, or, Oh no, this was, you know, masking and taking out and putting in and just, you know, create, create, create a bliss if you will.
[00:09:00] [00:08:59] And it had, it just, it was like a co-creation and one thing led to another and I was a member of long Island, visual professionals, a lot of creative people and a woman, Linda from like the Huntington arts council came one night and she spoke about having there was an art an art show. They were going to have a juried art show.
[00:09:23] And I had not entered a show in a long time. My creativity, like when my father was sick, I wasn't creative afterwards. I wasn't creative until I was re awakened. If you will, with the animals love and had my groove back. My mother had passed, you know, years before. So there was another time when I kind of closed up in that way.
[00:09:45] And it all, it all goes into the creative, whatever we create though, whatever, even the parts, the times when we close up that's also in there and that's important too, that comes, that comes along. So basically she said we are going to have, you know, we [00:10:00] have this this art show coming up and I wanted to share if anybody's interested, it's about you know, you can have photographs, but they need to be enhanced digitally or any kind of digital art.
[00:10:11] Lola love a lot. And it was like, somebody was tapping me on the thigh. Janine, you've got to do your art. You've gotta do your art. You've got to, you know, you've got to do this now. It was talking straight to my, she was like, I felt like she was talking directly to my ears amplified. And so I said to her afterwards, oh, I would really like to, you know, get some more information I'd like to enter the show.
[00:10:33] And so she said, great, do you have a business card? Well, lo and behold, I had created a square business card with salts picture that fine art piece from the Adobe user group program, you know, from the program from that project. And she looked at Saul's picture and she said, oh my God, I love this. This is great.
[00:10:51] And you should, you should enter this. Well, I entered salt, salt ended up winning first place. And that was the beginning of [00:11:00] okay. Universe is like, go, go, go, go with, you know, and, and so that took, I mean, I don't want to. Take too much time talking about it, because then like, there was a series of different things.
[00:11:12] Like I created a line of no cards and then one day this woman said, Oh, yes, I love these pictures. They're nice. And I thought to myself, none. And then, and then they're no, no, no. These are not pictures. These are living beings. They might be a nice, you know, there might be a nice picture. Okay. Yes. I could say yes to that, but no, there's so much more to them.
[00:11:34] And so one night before I had an opportunity to share a table a local farmer's market if the war just like worse and kept flying out of my fingers, I said, no, no, no, I've got to go ahead and share more. And then I, you know, I cut on, cut up some paper, put them in to sleep so that people would see, okay, this might be a nice picture, you know, and there's a nice animal Lavella, but there's so much more.
[00:11:58] And then they would turn [00:12:00] over the card and read what I had to share. And I saw it right with my eyes. They resonated, some people resonated more with the words than they did with the animal, which was, you know, a personal connection. So however somebody is going to Feel a personal connection, whether it's the words or whether it's the images that's the, that's the whole intention, a personal connection makes things more meaningful to us.
[00:12:24] So therefore we can share in a different way or maybe, excuse me, change certain choices in our life so that we don't cause any harm on really, you know, not unknowingly, but we can change, you know we can change and make our world a more compassionate place for all the baby. And there's one more like I, one more thing along the line of how, you know, there's like, it's almost like a spiderweb a divine a divine weaving of interrelated, [00:13:00] synchronistic happenings, or symbols, or meet somebody.
[00:13:03]I ended up having some. I didn't have red tail moon. At this time, I ended up having some of my prints at a local nature preserve. And now there wasn't a lot of traffic, people were there only on the weekend, sometime a few hours, but it didn't make a difference. I knew that it was up to, it was my cart.
[00:13:24] Like it was up to me to just show up and show, show up and share and however, whatever, if one person sees something and they relate to it and it makes them open up their heart or they enjoy it, or they might see something in a different way, then, then that's okay. If a million people see it, same thing.
[00:13:43] It doesn't, you know, it's, it's about going ahead and put it showing up and putting it out there. And one day the woman said, you know, I need a, I need a bio from you so I can put it with your work. And initially I kind of felt you know, like it's like like a child or a teenager. Oh, I [00:14:00] don't want to fill out that form.
[00:14:01] Right. I felt that that, that, that conditioned response, like, oh God bio. And then I thought for God's six Janine, get over yourself. This is your bio. You can write whatever you want. And so I did, and the word started flying out of my hands. Once I gave myself that freedom and that, you know, permission, yes.
[00:14:24] Permission and the worst flew out of my hands and instinctively, or maybe it wasn't extensively. It was like something that was tapping on my shoulder, but it wasn't a physical tap in my, it intuitively something that peg. Go ahead and put a picture of one of the kids in the bio. So I looked and then I just went ahead and I put, I put on pepper, she's a black sheep.
[00:14:48] She's very beautiful girl. I put her picture into the bio and then I wrote the bio and then I kept hearing the words over and over again. And I will just read [00:15:00] the very last part of the bio. And then we came like, cause I know I'm talking a lot. This is long, this has been quite a journey. So I didn't know I was going to have an apparel line.
[00:15:14] I just, you know, I didn't know any of these things. I just knew that I know, I know what I knew more than anything. I knew who I loved and I love, I love the animals and, you know, love is the strongest. So at the very end of the bio, I wrote, this is my, my Pepper's picture. Be someone who cared. Be someone who shares compassion for all living beings.
[00:15:40] If your heart is not open openness, you may be in for a joyous surprise. I am no different than you. I love my friends. I cherish a safe home, a sound, sleep. The music of the birds look at me and then the equal sign on the upper right of the keyboard. I [00:16:00] swear, I swear. I swear was popping out of the keyboard.
[00:16:03] Look at me, I'm a of wards, a flying out of my hand, look at me, boom, equal sign, see yourself. And that was it. And then I knew, I CA like I knew that was like everything. And in that little bit, and I said, okay, good. Here's her bio. And then I kept hearing those words over and over again, and I was sleep. I'd wake up tossing and turning.
[00:16:28] Look at me, see yourself. And I go ahead, go for a walk. Look at me, see herself in the shower driving. I was like, okay. I go, I have my hands open. You know, like with somebody very expressive with her talking, I'm like, okay, all right, I got it. I'll create a product. And that was, that was the beginning of knowing that I needed something that wasn't just not just, but something additional than a print on a wall that maybe five people will see it, or 50 people were.
[00:16:58] I needed something that [00:17:00] was going to be seen so that they were seeing the way I was fortunate to see them and know them. Yeah.
[00:17:10] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:17:10] I love that so much. And I love that statement. Look at me, see yourself. So the, I guess the question is, do you have clothing lines with pictures of some of these beautiful. And do you have the quote underneath?
[00:17:26] Oh, yes. Yeah. Okay. I need that. I need them
[00:17:31] Jeanine Boubli: [00:17:31] pepper. Pepper was my first, you know, and Pepper's picture. And it says be someone who cares, be someone who shares compassion for all living beings and on the bottom. Look at me, see yourself. And I put my TM symbol there too.
[00:17:47] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:17:47] I love it. I love it. That is.
[00:17:49] So I'm going to max out my credit card. I can tell. So, so here's the thing you, you must. You must have [00:18:00] faced challenges and opposition to doing something like this. Right. And so, so I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what those challenges were and how you navigated them, because it's such an important process to go through and your wisdom can really help someone else who's going.
[00:18:19] I want to do this. I want to live a more compassionate life and I want to put my money where my mouth is. Right. But I'm scared. So if you could talk a little bit about the challenges of that and also about your strategy, how you did it. I would love, love, love to hear it.
[00:18:35] Jeanine Boubli: [00:18:35] Sure. I don't know that I had a strategy in my head.
[00:18:38]Like I, you know, I got like an outline. I'll do this and then I'll do this and I'll have a business plan. I wasn't. That's not really my, you know, my strong point. I will say though, that there, now that you're here talking about being scared, there is really nothing scared. Scary about following your heart.
[00:18:56] There is something very scary about not [00:19:00] following your heart. And if I did not follow my heart and say, like, after save, after my father passed, and then I healed and I started volunteering and I work for XYZ company and from, you know, and I was there from seven in the morning, you know, from commuting or whatever, till if I did not go ahead and honor my art and took and took the safer more supposedly like reliable, dependable income coming in path, I would have lost myself.
[00:19:39] Because for years, I've always wanted to do something with my creativity. I was always creative. I always believed in it. And I it has not, you know, I, I know, and like, I love my parents and you know, it has nothing to do with anything they did. It's just I was brought up, you go ahead, get a job. You work up the [00:20:00] corporate, you know, you work up the corporate ladder, you make the money or you make the do whatever.
[00:20:04] And then you do what you love when you have time. Or, you know, it's just they always supported my creativity. They did. It's just that maybe it wasn't as safe, you know, and the parent wants a child to be safe, which means pay your rent. Pay and take care of your responsibilities, right. And go on a certain path.
[00:20:26] But no, no, no. Sometimes we just all have to follow our own path. And so I would say that the most scary thing is not following something that's deep inside somebody. I that's what, that's, what, like, that's what really is happening. Like that's, that's that it means everything. I will say that you know, resources, obviously finances and things.
[00:20:49] It does cost money. It does take time. There's trial and error. I started off with a print on demand company. And then if the [00:21:00] shirts were not organic cotton and for some reason when somebody said to me, well, if you're, I'm all a bit kind of like an attitude, well, if you're all about the environment, what about organic cotton then in and out?
[00:21:10] And I said, Well, that's what I really wanted. And this woman from like SBA, small business administrative administration, she said, well, then why aren't you doing it? I said, because I can't find it now. Now it's a couple of years later it's more readily available, but still it's not as available. If somebody wants to do print on demand, which I'm not doing, everything's custom right now.
[00:21:32]It is more, it's more expensive. And yeah, so there's like, I, I, I've learned a lot of things. I don't know that I've made it easier for myself with some of my choices. I think some of the, like if I, if I had created if I just went ahead and pick the plain cotton shirt and did it the certain way, and didn't really care about the environment or whatever, or did this or that.
[00:21:57]Because, you know, cotton, it's not that cotton, so [00:22:00] so-so whatever, I'm not saying about cotton, but if I went ahead and maybe did what seemingly was a simpler way, seemingly simpler, I don't know that it would have really been a mirror of my values at the deepest level. And I was like, you know what, I'm not a kid.
[00:22:17] I've got to, not even if I was young though I wanted to stay true to myself and true to the product because it's more than a product. It's a hard, it's hard first, a product second.
[00:22:31] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:22:31] And you know, what's interesting talking to you about what you just said is that it's evident in talking with you for even just a few minutes.
[00:22:39]It's evident, it's evident that you put your heart first into your product. And I think, I think, you know, this is going to sound kind of Calculating. And that's not really what I mean, but I think people resonate with that and the people who need to be your customers will find you because they're looking for the same thing, you know, they're looking for that same [00:23:00] thing.
[00:23:00] And so the question then becomes for me, how do you get the word out? I mean, yes, you're on this podcast and I'm glad to get the word out too, to the people who are listening, but how do you get the word out that you have a heart-centered business that is all about, you know, supporting and being kind and compassionate to the beings who share the planet with, to, to the other animals on the planet?
[00:23:23] What. What do you do? And, and how does it work for you? Well,
[00:23:28] Jeanine Boubli: [00:23:28] I honestly don't know. I need to do more. I do, I do need to do more. We were because it's not a cop out because of COVID, but you know, it was always nice to maybe be involved with pop-ups. We were involved in a couple of pop-ups this way I could speak directly to the people whoever was coming by and share some of the story.
[00:23:50] And or even like, just to witness people's reactions and hear what they had to say and hear their experiences with different either [00:24:00] animals or life or what they resonated with and have them share. I do miss that we were in three fashion shows. We were at a vegan fashion show. And yeah, I can remember driving to Atlantic city and it was like such an exciting thing because it was my first fashion show.
[00:24:20] And I had my flip flops on my hair was like a mess. And, but I had the, I had the products and it ended up, I ended up having no children models, you know, male models and, you know, women models. And it was just such a wonderful opportunity. And I, I remember that at the end of like all the different designers clothing, when they were presenting them, the The founders or whoever created the clothing like me and the other people, the other people in, I, they needed to go, you know, behind the models, you know, and everybody walks down like this little runway and they, they clap their hands and whatever.
[00:24:59] And I [00:25:00] still have my flip flops,
[00:25:06] like five in the morning at four in the morning, but I didn't care because you know, when you're following your heart, it's like, all right, this is an opportunity. All systems go, who chairs, you know, there's no time to care about that. You just want to make sure that, you know, the kids are, are, they, they liked their shirt, like, like it fits right.
[00:25:23] And they understand, they understand who they're representing. It's not just a shirt. It's, it's a, it's a heart and a soul. And they know about the animals beforehand and they understand the words behind them. If they're wearing something with words. So the fashion show, and then so, and then there was one at national geographic, so I'm just.
[00:25:42] In off to the side for a second, because that was a good opportunity to, to get in front of people. It was a sustainable fashion show at national geographic and yeah, in DC, no, no. In Manhattan times square, right in times square, that was a big deal. And very exciting. [00:26:00] And cat who put it together an amazing woman.
[00:26:03] And she actually gave me one child model that I didn't know, I was going to be able to have a child wouldn't, you know, as a universe would have it. I had a perfect shirt, actually. He wore assault shirt the fine art piece of salt in his thighs at home. So I could bring it to the fashion show. Like the next day it was just the way everything worked.
[00:26:22] And that was a wonderful opportunity to get in front of people who might not all be for the, you know, who, who, who. That that might not love animals or might love animals, but not, yeah, I love all animals or maybe they love all animals and they have never known as she personally, or a rooster or a goat, you know?
[00:26:45] And there was this big, huge wall and the pictures of the kids were blown up on this wall. So there was no way that somebody couldn't see them and then, you know, the models, you know, they, they were great. They were amazing. So, so that [00:27:00] was a way of bringing them their message and red tail moon in front of people that might not have been searching for it Googling online.
[00:27:12] You know? So that was a, that was a, that was a great opportunity. And also it was a sustainable fashion show. And what we brought to that I believe is the concept of ethical treatment of all animals into the sustainable conversation. Talk about that after, but that was very, very important because I that's, that's, that's not always the case.
[00:27:33] There's a little bit of a disconnect there or oversight. And I know that well we both know that I've got to now like reach out to press and do those pitches and get it going and get it out there because it's not going to happen if I don't start knocking on more doors, you know, and it's getting, I, you know, getting to that point, I have met people through you know, some great conversations on [00:28:00] clubhouse and connecting with some people that I've wanted to connect with and that well know or now know what I'm about and what red tail moon's about.
[00:28:11] Where if I didn't go ahead and knock on the door, open the door. Or open my ears or speak up in these conversations. They, you know, how are they going to know?
[00:28:23] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:28:23] Sure. And that that's the thing is then you meet people who can elevate what you're saying and get it out to a bigger audience, which
[00:28:33] Jeanine Boubli: [00:28:33] it is, it has for sure.
[00:28:36] Yeah. Aberrations. I would, I there is a woman who's going to write about ethical, I mean, ethical, she's going to write about, she has she creates vegan handbags and Rachel, moon's going to be one of her ethical crushes that she writes about. So yeah. So that's nice and more of that. And I would love to connect collaborate with a large company.
[00:28:59]I believe [00:29:00] what a red tin moon's all about and the quality of the designs and. That everything about it is worthy of that. And I think that a company whose heart isn't in the same place will appreciate that. But I do think it has to be all about heart a connection of heart, because those are the strongest connections.
[00:29:20] No,
[00:29:21] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:29:21] for sure. And you know, I feel like Stella McCartney, if you're listening, you should. Yeah.
[00:29:27] Jeanine Boubli: [00:29:27] Yeah. Call me, here's my number.
[00:29:33] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:29:33] So something about the big disconnect, and this is sort of the sustainable conversation with respect to how we, how we treat the animals we share the planet with I'm. Can you, can you talk a little bit about, more about what that means and, and what the importance of it is as far as bringing ethical treatment of all animals to the discussion.
[00:29:58] Jeanine Boubli: [00:29:58] Right. It's very, very [00:30:00] important. I just recently, you know, Hermes they, they now they just, they started advertising about launching a new line of bags of you know, created from mushrooms. Right. And so this was, I saw, I saw this on LinkedIn. I already heard about it and I had to speak up because, okay, it's great.
[00:30:23] If somebody is trying new things and it's better for the environment, that's great. At the same time. At the same time, there are crocodile farms, thousands and thousands, and thousands of crocodiles being bred. In these swampy looking pools or whatever. The, I, you know, I don't want to be pointing my finger at anybody.
[00:30:44] This is just, this is the truth. This is the truth. I'm not making this up. And nobody brought this up in this one discussion. I said, well, this might be great, but at the same time, what about all of the crocodiles? And then they're going to be like skinned [00:31:00] and to be somebody who's back. So does this mean that this company is going it's cha has a change of heart?
[00:31:07] So which I don't want to speak for somebody because I'm not that company. So, you know people can make their own judgments and I don't want to be judging anybody just, but at the same time, no judgment and speak up for those that can't speak up for themselves. So I needed to speak up for the crocodiles.
[00:31:26] And so the disconnect like, you know, there's. You know, people, not people, but this sustainable conversation, I initially thought, okay, sustainable people care about the environment and they're talking about the ocean, but they're talking and they're talking about, you know, plastic and garbage and wait a minute, wait a minute.
[00:31:49] What about the fish? What about the Marine? You know, the wildlife in the sea. What about what about the sheep and the goats and the hens and [00:32:00] the roosters and you know, like, and the ducks and the pigs, like what, doesn't somebody, you know, like who I know people do care. Why is that not being brought up in the discussion?
[00:32:11] And the thing is what sustainable people are concerned about the environment and global warming. And the truth is animal agriculture is. Horrible for the environment. It's not even a little bit. It is extremely hard. Horrible. There's excessive CO2 production methane. Let's see. Yeah. I have some notes here just to make sure that I pronounce everything correctly.
[00:32:37] Methane nitrous, oxide production. There is top soil, you know, like the soil, they, they feed well, there's also like deforestation there's the water supply. There's the tanneries like if you know, the, the Tanner is once somebody has like weather light, leather cows, [00:33:00] a cow skin there's chemicals in that they, they feed that the innocent animals, they feed them all kinds of chemicals and hormones to fatten them up, to keep them healthy until they.
[00:33:14] They killed them. They kill them so they can become somebodies meal. And then that's, I mean, and that's the end of that. So I don't know if I went off on a tangent. They're like there we've been brought up. I mean, I did not know certain things growing up as a child. I did not know. I mean, I became vegetarian pretty much during college.
[00:33:34] Well, I gave, I gave, I didn't give up. I gave for E a T horrible word. But I'm not, I'm not, I'm not eating, I'm not eating that anymore. I, I wasn't, I wasn't vegan then, but I just, something was wrong. I just like, I didn't want any part of it. And I we've been brought up. We've all been brought up with advertising.
[00:33:57]The, like [00:34:00] the cows. I mean, how many, how many people growing up or kids grow up thinking, oh the cows, the cows milk is for its baby. I don't think a child thinks that. I know, I didn't think that I just thought that ignorance or not knowing as a child, a cow produces milk growing up, you know, the, those parameds you know, make sure you have your milk, make sure you have your protein, the meat, the meat that, this, and the, that I could say, if they knew better, who created that shame on them, shame on them because that pyramid didn't help anybody at all.
[00:34:35] It didn't help the animals. It didn't help the environment and it didn't help people's health, if anything, it harmed every, all of them. So now that we know better, we can make better choices. So with a sustainable conversation whether it was at like the fashion show or a group that I was part of there sometimes there were people that just didn't want to hear it.
[00:34:58] They didn't, or, [00:35:00] or, and some people didn't care and some people here, but they weren't going to change for whatever reason. I'm not here to go ahead and tell somebody you've got to do this, or you got to do that. I'm all about Nope. Live your life. Freedom for everybody. And that includes also freedom for the animals.
[00:35:19] And it means freedom, like cruelty free don't cause any harm to anybody it's like it's, it's causing harm to them. It's actually causing harm back to the people because of you know, the environment and it just, it's not healthy. It's not healthy for them. And yeah, I could go on and on and on. I don't know.
[00:35:39] Did I go off on a tangent?
[00:35:42] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:35:42] I know you didn't go off on a tangent. I think, I think that it's such a huge topic and obviously one that you're so passionate about and one that I'm passionate about too, that, that there's so much to cover in a question like that, that it's not a tangent. It's more like, and then I can plumb a deeper depth and go [00:36:00] even further and talking about this is.
[00:36:03] It sometimes feels to me like, like you're screaming into a void because so many times I've had a similar conversation with someone who tells me, well, we have canine teeth, therefore we must, you know, and I'm like, you know what, quite frankly, those canines, you know, Silverback, gorillas have much bigger canines than be doing that.
[00:36:27] So, no, that's not a valid argument, but, but at the same time, there is, there is this feeling that I get, that there is a machine, a marketing machine. And, and I'm sorry if you're a marketer and you're listening to this, I have nothing against marketers, but I feel like some of the really big companies have marketing machines behind them that make things that they put things out that make you think like doing what they say.
[00:36:56] Yes. The only way, you know, and so, [00:37:00] so that's why, when I'm asking you these questions about Redtail moon, I'm talking about, I'm talking to an entrepreneur, a business owner who has chosen consciously to do something differently. And so then I start to wonder, how do you, how does any small business owner go up against such a, such a, a behemoth of, of marketing as, as something like animal agriculture or, or, you know, and we even saying that, honestly, shouldn't eat like saying animal, the slaughter of animals for human consumption, you know?
[00:37:39] So, so, so, so. So when we look at that, how, you know, how do you do that? What is your process? I'm probably gonna, I have to be very honest. I'm probably gonna lose a ton of listeners with this episode, but I think it's so incredible.
[00:37:52] Jeanine Boubli: [00:37:52] Not, I hope, I hope not. I hope if anything, you get more listeners, because I hope that whoever might not want to hear [00:38:00] what we're sharing right now, maybe just some maybe because it's shared from our hearts and not to go there's no, it's not intentionally pointing fingers at anybody.
[00:38:15] It's an awareness. It's an appreciation. It's coming from a bigger space than you or from me. It's coming from a bigger space is coming from what needs to be said, what needs to be shared. And it's the people that are not aware yet or who don't care yet, which I I'm listening to. I'm hearing myself now, which is like that.
[00:38:42] Perhaps we'll benefit even more from, you know, the, their, their, their lives will expand. Their heart might expand there. They may have more, they'll have better health. I mean, unless they eat all those yummy, delicious vegan treats and that's, you know, cause there's so many options, [00:39:00] but , it's, you know, even on like the energy level, M O God, to think to, to think that I ever wanted.
[00:39:11] It's just like, it's, it's horrifying. If I think that, I mean, as a child and not knowing there was the disconnect and just nothing looks like what it is and the supermarkets, it's all like, It's all like a lie, you know, say it's a cow or say, this is a, you know, just see the eyeballs here are the screams.
[00:39:34] That's every, every single living being you and I, and everybody listening, we all want, it's like this, we all want a safe home. Right. We that's something else. I didn't share this. I don't know why it kind of came up now, but it came up. They all want to say Paul, they're all like, I mean, it's more comfortable to be a peace, right.
[00:39:53] Then, then anxiety around or intense things going on. We all like to be with our friends, you [00:40:00] know, real friends, somebody who gets us at a deeper level to share, or just even like, just, just enjoy a breeze on a warm day. Like I've seen the headlines, you know, their friends and it, little warm Breeza, that's it.
[00:40:11] That's all they need. How beautiful is that? It's they're no different. They are no different than us. They are no different, they look different. I think some of them are probably cuter than us definitely care. And I may, you know, I mean, if I was called a, you know, like I brought this up the other day with somebody, even the English language, like, you know, the, the how, okay.
[00:40:30] So we're talking about the big companies and advertising and things and marketing. So, I mean, maybe it's not just the English language language and the terms use including animals. Oh, it's a pick style or Ooh, you kill, or, you know, don't be chicken, like, excuse me. But I don't really like, because I don't like that C word either.
[00:40:54] I like hens and roosters because I associate C with the store, you know, people eat [00:41:00] back. But the thing is if somebody called me a C, H I C K E N, or a hen or a rooster or a pig, I would be honored. Because there's no more like, genuine than that, you know?
[00:41:13] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:41:13] For sure for sure. I actually have taken, I have a huge list that I've been keeping for years now of animal metaphors that I've turned into vegan metaphors.
[00:41:26] So, so, well, the, the, I don't have a dog in this fight has become, I don't have a pie in this contest. So things like that I've gone through and I've, I've done so many of those. Let's see killing two birds with one stone has become petting two cats with one hand.
[00:41:49] Jeanine Boubli: [00:41:49] So I have this huge list
[00:41:51] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:41:51] because it is, it is about awareness, I think.
[00:41:54] And that's something that I'd love to talk with you about is this notion of increasing awareness, because with [00:42:00] these sayings, you know, when I say, when I say to someone, well, I don't have a chili in this cook-off and I go, wait, what? And I'm like, yeah, I don't like to say, I don't have a horse in this race.
[00:42:09] I say, I don't have a chili in this cook-off or I don't have a PI in this contest. And so people go, that's really odd. Why do you do that? And then I explain and they go, I never. Thought of that. And you know, the horrible one for me is more than one way to skin. A cat has become, there's more than one way to eat a potato.
[00:42:29] And I love the, so that's what I've done. And so the question is for me to you is raising awareness. What do we need to do, do you think, because I do, I'm a, I'm a communicator first. And so for me, it's language in one way or another. And so I decided to do these vegan metaphors instead of using the animal cruelty ones.
[00:42:52] And so, so what is, what do we do? What does someone who is who's a creative in this way that you are, what do [00:43:00] you do? How do you have those conversations? Is it that you let them see the art and then talk about it? Or is it. Is it a push from you? Like, okay. I guess the question I'm asking is, is it more of a push out to people or is it more of a pull in for them to get curious and then come to you?
[00:43:17] How do you do it? How do you have those conversations? I think
[00:43:19] Jeanine Boubli: [00:43:19] it's both because I, sometimes that conversation happens even if say I'm in the grocery store and I'm not wearing a red tail moon shirt, or I'm not at a place speaking it out, red tail moon. Somebody might be at the, you know, they're at the checkout and you know, they're smiling, you know, some people, most people smile at each other.
[00:43:40] Well, now we have, you know, masks on. So you can't tell they're smiling, but you can tell a little bit from somebody's eyes and you know not that I want to have this reaction, but it's very difficult being in supermarket. Sometimes I consciously avoid certain miles should go ahead and, you know, somebody.
[00:43:56]Yeah. You know, like at the checkout somebody said sadness [00:44:00] to some, to me. Oh, I am, you know, I'm smiling under this mask. And I say, Oh yeah, great. You know, hope you're having a nice day. And if I happen to see a piece of my friend's body it's not funny at all. It's kind of horrified in their card automatically.
[00:44:15] And it's unconscious. I'm sure that I've got this, not wanting to offend them, but it offends me, but I don't want somebody else's actions to offend me, but it does. It's, you know, it's like somebody's child, you know, if they, if, if there was somebody's child in there, they would, they would understand. And then they might say, because I wasn't happy.
[00:44:38] And only a couple of times Oh, is there something the matter? And I said, well, I have to him, you know, I happen to love all animals and take this from heart. That's like, That's my, that's my part of my friends, Bobby in there. And so you know, I hope you enjoy your day. I mean, what am I going to say?
[00:44:57] But with the shirts, you know there's a strong [00:45:00] message in there. The reason I did not consciously say, oh, I'm going to, well, pepper was the first, you know, and she had a message of compassion and then I wanted more messages of compassionate. But I also used salts our piece from that was from the beginning, right from, you know, what the adult the Adobe user growth and that it kind of came together.
[00:45:23] It didn't consciously come together. It came together and it's like, it has a life of its own if you will. And I saw that I had messages of compassion and people could connect with the animals by reading a message of compassion. They don't mind the messages, don't say You're a horrible person because you're eating my friend.
[00:45:42] I got not going to do that. Who am I to judge? I I'm in a, who am I? I mean, I'm not missing whatever. I'm human too. And I didn't know any better before. Cause I think if I did, I think I would have changed. I would hope I would have changed, you know, and then fine art pieces, artsy pieces that [00:46:00] somebody might resonate with because it's artistic looking and it's pretty and there's underlying intention of connecting with each animal through an art piece as well.
[00:46:13] And then there's the messages, you know, there's original poetry. And then there's you know, the bold text text is a bold statement, like the ethic L that's also, you know, text as a bold statement. So there's different ways through this. Different designs of connecting with different a different audience, if you will.
[00:46:32] That, that's what I hope. That's what I hope. You know, so yeah, so other ways I know that, but when I'm at, at, when I'm at the forum where I volunteer, which is a sanctuary now it was a dairy barn years ago. When people come and visit sometimes, you know, they, they might see, you know, they might come a few times.
[00:46:53] They might come more than a few times. It might be their first time. So if I'm there and I'm able to, I like to share a little bit [00:47:00] about the animal's personality. Definitely, definitely, definitely get, have them get eye level, like we have this amazing Turkey Liberty while we all the, all of the turkeys are amazing.
[00:47:09] And this little girl was visiting with her parents and I said, oh, come over here. You know, you can, you know, I'll have you meet, you know, Liberty and. So the little girl, like she stabbed me in there, but you know, Liberty of course is a little bit shorter than a little girl. And I said, you know, and I was already crouched down.
[00:47:26] I said, you know what, why don't you all crouch down? So we're all at the same level. And then you can look right into her eyes. And then a little girl started going.
[00:47:40] I said, you love her, don't you? She goes, yeah, I don't know how happy her parents were if they were going to have whatever for dinner or whatever, but you know what she connected. And so, I mean, in other places, you know what I feel like it's, I think like for you too, it's where everywhere we go, you know,
[00:48:00] [00:48:00] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:48:00] it's an opportunity for sure.
[00:48:02] I think, and yet the thing is for me, like I, until I, until I became a vegetarian and I will save that story for another day, I think I've done a podcast episode about it. I. Excuse me. I had a lot of animals. I have to admit that. Yeah. And, and I, and you know what, I can feel bad about it for only so long because I think feeling bad about it for me anyway, is a, it's a waste of energy because I did it, I accept it and now I can do better.
[00:48:34] And I think that's a lot of what this is for me, you know, except that you are capable of what you did resolve to do better and then act on that resolution. So when you do that, when you, when you yourself resolve to do better, whatever that means for you, what forms does it take in your daily life?
[00:48:56] Jeanine Boubli: [00:48:56] When I resolve to do better by me.
[00:48:59] Well, just like [00:49:00] what you said, you know, not to, to not rehash certain things, 'cause it doesn't, it doesn't change anything because our paths, I mean, I eat animals as a child and as a teenager I wish I did it. I really do wish I did it. But I did and I wasn't as conscious of certain things. But then I became, and then I changed.
[00:49:20]The past is really over for, I mean, yesterday and any day before those days are they could be great memories or not great memories and they're not our today except for what we choose to bring with us. So I can catch myself in certain thoughts sometimes. Or, oh, you know, maybe I should've done this or I could've done this.
[00:49:42] Or even with red tail moments, like, oh, I spend most of my resources, like, excuse my language, but. Can we, can I curse on here? I was like, fuck,
[00:49:55] you don't because I've had symbols from the universe, if you will. And I've [00:50:00] had amazing magical things happen in my life. And I've also put myself kind of into a bit of a challenging temporary predicament, if you will, at times too. So what I would say that what do we do? I go back to my reason.
[00:50:24] Why does that, does that make sense?
[00:50:28] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:50:28] Absolutely. I mean, if that's your answer. Yes.
[00:50:32] Jeanine Boubli: [00:50:32] Yeah, yeah. It's
[00:50:33] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:50:33] I think that's a great answer. I think going back to basics, what, why am I doing what I'm doing? What is, what are the reasons I'm doing it? Yeah, that makes so much sense to me on some very deep levels, because I think that's sort of introspection when you face yourself.
[00:50:49] With honesty and heart, you can't lie to yourself, you know, and we're really good at diluting ourselves. So as, as, as a
[00:50:57] Jeanine Boubli: [00:50:57] species, yeah, I
[00:50:58] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:50:58] could be good at that. [00:51:00] Yeah. Everybody can. I don't think there's anybody who has not lied to themselves every once in a while, but in your heart of hearts, you know, the truth.
[00:51:06] So you can lie to yourself only so long before you have to pay the Piper and the Piper's you. So at some point you kind of go, well, I'm going to have to face this, whatever this is, and we all have a different path there to that, to that point. You know? So, so the question that I have, you, you mentioned ethic Al for a little bit ago, and I would love it.
[00:51:27] If you would talk a little bit about that, because the, the photograph that we took together, I take a little screenshots so that people can see what's going to be on the show coming up. So it's going to go up a little bit later today. Yeah. It's so exciting. It's so I love, I love having those little pictures that say, look what is going to be on the show.
[00:51:44] Yay. So talk to me and you're wearing an ethic Al. Shirt and I'd love it. If you could talk a little bit about what that is and, and what, what inspired you, what was the, what was the moment in the creative spark that got you there?
[00:51:58] Jeanine Boubli: [00:51:58] Oh, sure, sure. So I [00:52:00] was sitting in this big chair that I've got and I you know, I've been frustrated or challenged with acceptance with that disconnect of ethical treatment of all animals being included in this, in quotes, sustainable conversation, why it's been either disconnected or overlooked?
[00:52:19] I think like an oversight. I think it might be uncomfortable. People don't want to bring it up. They don't want to stir up whatever it is and yet. It's important for every reason for me animals first. So I was sitting on the chair and I, I happened to, I was just, you know, chilling a bit and I was like ethical, ethical, ethical, ethical ethics.
[00:52:44] Oh, ah, I saw it. I saw it as old as I saw it. I saw design my eyes were closed and I saw it in my eye through my eyes. I saw this design ethic. Oh. So I went straight over [00:53:00] to my computer and open up illustrator and I typed up exactly what I saw with the bold font and the scripty part and the accent mark on the L and the last Ian, I know that's not the correct.
[00:53:17] Accent mark in French. And I'm okay with that. It's artistic license. That's what I saw. That's what came to me. And it was so strong. It was like, look at me, see herself. When I knew there was something there I'm like, that's it that says everything with epic elk came to me. I was like, that's it? And it's something that I know just to be out there more.
[00:53:38] And so it says the design ethic, L a strong and confident woman who is compassionate. Heart includes love. Wait, I'm sorry. Love and respect for all animals and mother nature
[00:53:56] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:53:56] so much. I need that shirt. I'm again, I'm going to max out my [00:54:00] credit card. I think that's so that's right. That's at the heart of what I believe.
[00:54:05] So you're speaking directly to my heart when you, when you read that, you know what I really want to honor for a second here. And I think it's so important to do this is that you listen to your inspirations that you went, oh, I see it. I know it. And you didn't go, ah, Nan, nevermind. Or, oh, it won't be any good or, oh, I'm going to discount it or, oh, I have to go wash the dishes you stopped and you went, let me put this down so that I have it so that I honor that creative spark when it comes.
[00:54:37] And I'm wondering, do you have just do, is it just who you are that that happens or do you have any sort of. PR creative practice or any sort of, I'm going to build an awareness for this so that I can grab it when it comes. What, what is your
[00:54:52] Jeanine Boubli: [00:54:52] process there? I would say that creativity like that comes when it wills, you know?
[00:54:58]But I feel like it's like a [00:55:00] spiritual, spiritual connect. It's like a connection with something much greater than me. And I do have a spiritual practice. I've always been on spiritual in the sense that organized religion was never, never did it for me, but if I was out in nature, That did it for me or being creative that did it for me.
[00:55:19]A universal truth that did it for me, something that was all inclusive. And so I, I, you know, I journal most mornings. I, I journal, I think you mentioned Julia camera and once that the artist's way. So I had many, many books and books and journals and things, and I remember even once moving from New Jersey back into Manhattan and having like all of these journals and my closet, and I said, oh, I looked at them and I said, oh, you know what?
[00:55:48] You need to go because I've lived you and it's okay to release you. So as far as the spiritual practice, I've also recently, this is after all of these [00:56:00] creations, but I have very happily Notice more synchronicity in my life this past month I started meditating again. I love there's a insight timer or an app
[00:56:11] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:56:11] that happens.
[00:56:12] Jeanine Boubli: [00:56:12] I love it. Right. It's great. And they have, you know, you don't, you can pay for it or if there's a million meditations that are, you don't have to pay for. And it's great. There's a great variety. And yeah, so I really love that. So I've been doing that. So I meditate now. I, it doesn't have to be hours and hours and hours a bit in the morning before I get out of bed, I go ahead, make my tea.
[00:56:36] I journal. And the evening before I go to sleep, just recently, like in the last week I started listening, listening to something. Before I go to sleep, I'm always like asleep before it's there. Yeah. And I also have to bet and singing bowls. Are they the best?
[00:56:51] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:56:51] Yes. Yes. I had a whole set at one point. I love them.
[00:56:55] Jeanine Boubli: [00:56:55] Wow. Yes. And the vibrations from the singing bowls is as if [00:57:00] the ocean is, it's like an ocean, like ocean, I, I feel like it's an ocean kind of a roar, but it, doesn't not, it's this bike back and forth and who like, sounds much better than that. And I can tell him, like I know, but sound like, but it's a very, very powerful, energetic vibe that yeah, that, that also that whenever, you know, I bring that into my life that also increased, it increases the creativity things that come to me visually word wise just feel connected and more at keys, if you will not scattered or.
[00:57:41] The locks I feel open. Open. Yeah.
[00:57:45] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [00:57:45] Yeah. I love, I love that notion of being, being mindful and letting the creativity flow from that space. I I've gotten increasingly [00:58:00] fascinated by the space between when an idea strikes and when you put words to it, you know, in that, in that instant, you can discount a completely or you can go, no, no, I'm going to stay open to this and see what happens.
[00:58:12] And it sounds to me like you have, like, you have embraced that aspect of you and I have an entire framework that I talk about with my coaching clients, about how we can be agile, innovative, and mindful. And that is what leads to gratitude. And that is what leads to inspiration. And that is what leads to happiness and increased health, all sorts of things.
[00:58:34] And so, so when you do that, when you're in that, and when you're in that head and heart space, Of creating. This is a strange little question. Do you lose time?
[00:58:43] Jeanine Boubli: [00:58:43] Yes. There's no sense of, there is no sense of time at all. I mean, there's hours can go by. I mean, it can anything, there's only a few times, a few cases when that happens a lot to lose [00:59:00] sense of time.
[00:59:00] It's being with the animals, it's being in a nature and it's when something creative bursts itself through us. Right. It's like it has a life of its own. And also everything's okay. It's everything is okay. It's not, oh, I've got to do this. Or, oh, shoot, how am I going to do that? Or it's like, it's, it's a knowing.
[00:59:28] It's a deep knowing that no matter why everything's okay. Keep on going. It's not about what comes back from the outside. Just keep on going and trust. Because there is a journey that all of us, you know, we all have our own unique journeys. We might all feel love and happiness or sadness and all different things, but we do all have our own unique journey and it's up to us to honor.
[00:59:56] What's deep inside of us, no matter [01:00:00] what everybody has something to share that. It's not only valuable to them, but that can actually also help others,
[01:00:08] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:00:08] you know? Absolutely. And I feel like what you just said, really doves dovetails beautifully into, and there's an animal metaphor. I have to think of a different one now because because every time I noticed myself saying them, I go, Oh, that's another one you have to change.
[01:00:23] So so the, the, the thing about that is that it does, it's it, it's going to coincide some with this notion of allowing yourself to. Be conscious about the contributions that you make. Right? So, so on some level, yes, we all have our own journey, but I think one of the signs of knowing yourself is also knowing, choosing how you will participate in, in this life.
[01:00:56] Yes. So, so there there's something so powerful there to me [01:01:00] with what you just said about that, because, because it really does relate very well to being a conscious participant in your life rather than. Almost in a bystander or, or an observer. Hold on one second. Oh God, I'm gonna have to quiet myself down here.
[01:01:19] Cause I'm coughing maniac here.
[01:01:23] Jeanine Boubli: [01:01:23] Maybe get some water.
[01:01:25] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:01:25] Oh, I'm drinking water. But sometimes when, I don't know if this happens to you, but sometimes when I get really passionate about what I'm saying,
[01:01:34] so, and I'm very, very passionate about this subject. I think, I think the notion of living. It's weird to say cruelty-free because, because we, we don't, I don't think anybody wants to go or, or maybe, maybe there are some people who do, but I think a lot of us, most of us don't want to think of ourselves as being cruel.
[01:01:53] And yet there, there are times that we have to face some pretty hard truths about who we are, and that's [01:02:00] not, again, it's not a judgment. It's more of a fact. Everybody has to face, like you said, we all have contribution we can make, and everybody has to face. Themselves and, and their, their beliefs and their behaviors.
[01:02:12] And no one, no one else can do it for you on some level. So, so I'm so grateful that you have been here willing to share your story and your wisdom. And I'd love to ask, Oh, I love the bird in the background. That was great. Oh
[01:02:30] yeah. I can hear it. That's beautiful. Oh, beautiful. I I'm a huge fan of bird calls, even though I don't, I don't know. I don't know how to differentiate too many of them, but I think they're beautiful.
[01:02:41] Jeanine Boubli: [01:02:41] So happy that you're here and giving. This opportunity to me and to all your listeners. Oh, that's,
[01:02:48] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:02:48] that's very sweet.
[01:02:49] Thank you. My goodness. I love it.
[01:02:54] Well, the birds going, I've got something to say here too. So sorry. So what's next for [01:03:00] you and for red tail moon,
[01:03:02] Jeanine Boubli: [01:03:02] what's next for me is getting off my unit lot and reaching out to no, it's true. It's true. It's been like it, sometimes things sometimes it's easier to walk forward because there's something that, and sometimes it's uncomfortable not to walk forward and I'm at that place where it's uncomfortable not to go ahead and give it everything that it's got because it's every, it does mean everything to me.
[01:03:29] So I'm planning on yes, I will do it. Go ahead and send some pitches out to different media and. See how I can collaborate with Stella. Are you there Stella McCartney? We're
[01:03:45] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:03:45] calling
[01:03:45] Jeanine Boubli: [01:03:45] you yes. Stella or somebody else like that. That might have the wisdom or things that know things that I don't know in maybe the retail industry to get [01:04:00] it to where it really does.
[01:04:04] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:04:04] yeah.
[01:04:05] Jeanine Boubli: [01:04:05] Went into collaborations and anybody, anybody listening to this as any comments or suggestions or conversation? What, well, you know, wants to know why does so and credibly special about it? Spending quiet time with sheep or not quiet time or anything. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm really open. I'm an open heart and but right
[01:04:28] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:04:28] now, well, so, so they're, they're, they're, you're, you're, you're leading me beautifully down this particular path.
[01:04:35] How can someone who is interested in finding out more about red tail moon find you?
[01:04:40] Jeanine Boubli: [01:04:40] Oh, sure. So you can go to well, I'm on Instagram. I'm at red tail moon. So red Shalmar is spelled R E D T a L E M O O N T L like the moon. It is an honor of the red tail Hawk. But that's a whole nother story, but red tail moon [01:05:00] on Instagram red tail moon is also on Facebook.
[01:05:03] I do not do a lot of things with Facebook, but I guess I probably, well and also red tailMoon@gmail.com. And my website, which is www.red tail T a L EMR. And then you get to see the different designs that we spoke about and you know, some pictures of the journey so far and clubhouse I'm at Janine bublé.
[01:05:32] So that's at you know, the at symbol, Jenny, J E a N I N E B, like boy, O U B, like boy L I, and there are, there has been some interesting conversations, great conversations on clubhouse. So connect with me anyway. Any, any way anywhere I would love to hear from you.
[01:05:50] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:05:50] And I'm going to have to find you in clubhouse too.
[01:05:52] So because I don't want to connect connected on there yet. Yeah. And, and the thing about this, I'm going to put all of these on the show notes, but I find that it's also [01:06:00] really good if you say it because people learn different in different ways. So you'll be able to find these links on the show notes, and you'll be able to also, if you heard them and you want to write them down, find Janine, obviously she's doing amazing, incredible, inspiring, and gorgeous all at the same time, work on, on behalf of the animals.
[01:06:19] And I I'm so thrilled that you were on the show.
[01:06:24] Jeanine Boubli: [01:06:24] Thank you so much for having me.
[01:06:26] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:06:26] It's my, my absolute honor and pleasure. I have one last question. And if you've listened to the episodes, you know what the question is? So I have one last question that I ask everybody who comes on the show, and it's a silly question, but I find that it yields poignant answers.
[01:06:40] And the question is this. If you had an airplane that could sky write anything for the whole world to see, what would you say.
[01:06:49] Jeanine Boubli: [01:06:49] I would say, live from your heart and share that love with all living beads.
[01:06:57] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:06:57] That's succinct. I love it.
[01:07:01] [01:07:00] Jeanine Boubli: [01:07:01] I love it. It encompasses everything right.
[01:07:04] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:07:04] I think it does. I think it does.
[01:07:06] And, and it's so it's such a, it's again, it's poignant. It's a poignant reminder that we can, that every single one of us can do that at any time. That's one thing. That's one thing that I would love to sort of say right now actually, is that. You can change. You can change your mind. You can change your behavior.
[01:07:27] Believe me, if you knew, how, how much of a hardcore carnivore I was, I wasn't even an omnivore when I was a kid. And now I'm a hardcore vegan, you
[01:07:36] Jeanine Boubli: [01:07:36] know? Yes, yes, yes.
[01:07:38] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:07:38] You know, we can all, and, and this is not about judgment. I'm not going, you must do this, but I, but I am saying that if you decide that you want to look at any, anything in yourself, in your life, in your work and make changes, then the first step is becoming aware that you want to make changes, sort of knowing yourself.
[01:07:59] And, [01:08:00] and for me, that has been the artist's way from, by Julia Cameron writing my little morning pages since 1997 and also a meditation. Like I, I am such an advocate for finding even five minutes a day. Doesn't have to be long to breathe. To, to center yourself and to breathe and to just be with your, with yourself.
[01:08:23] So, and I know I love Janine that you said that you do that because I go, well, of course she does. Yes. That makes total sense. So, so I'm so grateful that you're doing the work you're doing on behalf of the animals. And thank you so much for being on the show. And thank you for last week's episode was captain Paul Watson.
[01:08:41] He would not have been on the show without you tagging me and saying, Oh my story, I have to get in touch with them. So thank you so much for doing that. Of
[01:08:49] Jeanine Boubli: [01:08:49] course you got, you have the same heart. And also I want to thank Liao because if we L did not tag you in a post, she connected you and I.
[01:09:00] [01:09:00] Yes,
[01:09:01] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:09:01] she did.
[01:09:02] That's absolutely right. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's so fantastic. I love it. I love these little relationships that are it's. It's like, it's like a beautiful, it's like a beautiful web. It really is. I love it. Love it. Yeah.
[01:09:12] Jeanine Boubli: [01:09:12] And Gloria started it. So there we go.
[01:09:16] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:09:16] So we're doing all the sh this is the shout-out portion of the show.
[01:09:19] This is a shout out.
[01:09:22] Jeanine Boubli: [01:09:22] You have a shout out to the peeps
[01:09:24] Izolda Trakhtenberg: [01:09:24] that's right, right. Absolutely. Well, thank you again, Janine, this has been the innovative mindset podcast. I am Isolde Trachtenberg. If you're enjoying the show, please do me a favor. Leave a review on the apple podcast website for the show. Let me know what you're thinking.
[01:09:40] I would love to hear from you about what you think, what you want the show to be, because in many ways, it's about, it's driven very much by the people who listen. So until next time I remind you to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot.
[01:10:02] [01:10:00] Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here, subscribe to the podcast, if you're new, and if you like what you're hearing, please review it and rate it and let other people know. And if you'd like to be a sponsor of the show, I'd love to meet you on patrion.com/innovative mindset.
[01:10:20] I also have lots of exclusive goodies to share just with the show supporters. There today's episode was produced by his old attract and Bergen is copyright 2021 as always. Please remember, this is for educational and entertainment purposes. Only past performance does not guarantee future results, although we can always hope until next time, keep living in your innovative mind.
 
 

Captain Paul Watson, Conservationist and Environmental Activist

Captain Paul Watson on the Crisis We Face and the Innovative and Creative Ways We Can Save the Planet and Also Ourselves
Captain Paul Watson is a Canadian marine conservation activist, who founded the direct-action group Sea Shepherd in 1977. Watson was one of the founding members and directors of Greenpeace. In 1977, he left Greenpeace and founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. A renowned speaker, accomplished author, master mariner, and lifelong environmentalist, Captain Watson has been awarded many honors for his dedication to the oceans and to the planet. Among many commendations for his work, he received the Genesis Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1998, was named as one of the Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century by Time Magazine in 2000, and was inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame in Washington D.C. in 2002. He was also awarded the Amazon Peace Prize by the president of Ecuador in 2007. In 2012, Captain Watson became only the second person after Captain Jacques Cousteau to be awarded the Jules Verne Award, dedicated to environmentalists and adventurers. In 2019 he was awarded a commendation from Governor Ned Lamont from the State of Connecticut for "50 years as an environmental conservation activist". He has been described as "the world's most aggressive, most determined, most active and most effective defender of wildlife."
Connect with Captain Watson
https://www.facebook.com/captpaulwatson/
https://www.instagram.com/captainpaulwatson/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/captainpaulwatson/
https://www.instagram.com/seashepherd/
https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/
 
A note from Izolda. I admit it. I fangirled at the Captain. He stands for my deepest-held beliefs. He has been doing it all his life and has inspired many to take up the call and do what they can do to help. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to speak with him and bring his wisdom and insights to you.

Liel Anisenko, Marketing and PR Pro

Marketing Expert Liel Anisenko on How To Discover the Next Steps Towards Your Goals
Liel is an experienced full-stack marketing professional passionate about supporting the growth of early-stage start-ups and newly-founded companies by applying field-proven strategies for gaining exposure and traction, growing customer base, and raising capital.
With 15 years of hands-on B2B marketing experience in IoT, Biomed, Telco, Law Enforcement, Construction tech, and retail, she’s worked with various companies from start-ups to Fortune 500 enterprises. Seeing start-ups grow is her ultimate reward.
Liel was raised in Russia and moved to Israel at the age of seventeen alone. She has built a successful career in tech, built her own family, volunteered for various causes and acquired friends for life who became her own family.
Connect with Liel
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lielanisenko/
https://lielanisenko.medium.com/

Dagmar Bryant, Transformational Coach

Transformational Coach Dagmar Bryant on How to Get Off the Sidelines and Into Your Life!
Dagmar Bryant Ph.D. is a UK based, Australian Motivational Speaker and Mindset and Transformational coach.
Utilizing her knowledge, belief and wisdom, she has inspired people all around the world to make constructive changes and dramatically transform their lives.
Dagmar has graced speaking platforms globally including USA, UK and Australia, helping many people across all avenues of life. Dagmar has appeared on TV and been heard on radio. She has been published in the wellness press and has produced two meditation CDs.
Connect with Dagmar
https://www.facebook.com/dagmarbryant12
https://www.instagram.com/dagmar_bryant/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dagmar-bryant/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_AhZ0QHEPF7FaIPJr_8T4Q
https://dagmarbryant.com/

Wendy H Jones, Bestselling Author, Marketing Expert

Author and Marketing Expert Wendy H. Jones on How To Begin and Succeed in Your Writing Life
Wendy H. Jones is an international best-selling author who writes adult crime books, young adult mysteries, children's picture books and non-fiction books for writers. She is also a writing and marketing coach, runs the Writing Matters Online School and is the CEO of Authorpreneur Accelerator Academy, The president of the Scottish Association of Writers and hosts the writing and marketing show podcast.
Connect with Wendy
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wendyhjonesauthor
Twitter https://twitter.com/WendyHJones
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-h-jones-529a7016/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wendyhjones/
Website: https://www.wendyhjones.com

Rochelle Marie, Women's Leadership Business Coach

Business Coach, Rochelle Marie, on How Women Can Thrive in Leadership Roles
Rochelle Marie has worked from entry-level roles to leadership positions twice (once after a 12-year career gap to raise her kids) without pretending to be someone she's not or losing her sanity.
After one too many stories from career mums who were literally vomiting on the way to work due to toxic managers, she decided enough was enough.
With her degree in Psychology, Post Grad Diploma in Career development, and her entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial spirit, she now empowers and inspires women to get their leadership role where they can make a difference.
Connect with Rochelle
https://www.facebook.com/groups/hlwactiongroup
https://www.instagram.com/rochellemarie_hlw/
www.herleadershipway.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rochelle-marie-hlw/
 
 

Wally Green

Wally Green on Table Tennis, Business, and Ping Pong Diplomacy
Wally Green, celebrity table tennis pro and entertainer, grew up in a housing Project in Brooklyn where gangs and violence, were a huge part of his life. Today his life, completely changed by the sport of table tennis and he has represented the US in numerous International competitions across the globe. The most recent being North Korea, where he was the only westerner who dared to participate! His “Ping Pong Diplomacy!” “I will make them love me!” He has also appeared in numerous media outlets from talk shows to tv spots to numerous newspapers and magazines. He also co-founded SPiN New York. New York’s premier social ping pong club, bar, and restaurant.
Connect with Wally
https://www.whoiswallygreen.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wallygreennyc/
Clubhouse: @wallygreennyc
SPiN: https://wearespin.com/location/new-york/
 
 

Olympic Athlete, Speaker, Survivor, Stephen Heidenreich On Running to Win

Olympic Athlete, Stephen Heidenreich Overcame a Traumatic Brain Injury to Succeed - Here's His Story
Stephen Heidenreich is an Olympic athlete, a sub-4-minute miler - only one of 1,400 men in history to achieve this. While training for the USA Olympic team, a near-fatal hit and run accident changed his life forever. His neurosurgeon gave him a five percent chance to live. Despite a traumatic brain injury and these unfavorable odds, Stephen completed a Master of Business Administration at the prestigious Indiana University Kelley School of Business and a Master’s in Education specializing in Special Education. In the face of tremendous physical and mental challenges, Stephen trained for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.   
Connect with Stephen
Website: https://www.stephenheidenreich.com/
 
Get a copy of Running to Win.
 
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Personal Branding Expert Lauren Davis On Building Your Personal Brand

Lauren V. Davis Believes We Each Have a Real Personal Brand. Here's How to Discover Yours
Many people are intimidated and frustrated by trying to bring their personal brand to life through Social Media, Live Events, and Public Relations.
Lauren Davis lives in Rockford Illinois and works with people over the world to overcome their personal branding discontent and grow their presence so that they can focus on sales, exposure, leadership, and community impact through her marketing consultancy Lauren Davis Creative and her podcast, the Real Personal Branding Podcast.
When she is not running her two businesses in Rockford Illinois, (the other––a brick & mortar vinyl record store) she is traveling the globe learning and networking at conferences and workshops to better serve her clients with that knowledge.
Lauren's natural and undying passion revolves around seeing people and organizations that "do-good" succeed. 
Connect With Lauren
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ldaviscreative
Website: https://www.laurendaviscreative.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/understandsocialmedia
 
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