Participant #1:
You are listening to. Hello Cupcake. It's Me, a podcast with your host, Michael Peterson. Hey everyone. Michael here with Hello, Cupcake. It's Me, a podcast. This is episode 14 and it is March 18, 2022. How are you? First off, if you haven't done so already, please like and subscribe to this podcast channel makes things really easy and there's always new content being uploaded, so getting right into it today is kind of a little bit of a busy day. I'm going to go have lunch with my sister at noon, I'm sorry, at eleven. And then at noon I need to come home and get ready because I've got to take my new cat to the vet. And I swear to God, if it has tires, tits, testicles or tail, it's going to cost you money. And that's exactly what it is right now. Over the last couple of days, he got like just these really bad watering eyes and started sneezing uncontrollably a lot of times and like multiple hard sneezes. And your cat should only sneeze once every so often. But this has become like multiple times a day and he's constantly rubbing his eye and there's like this yellowish green Goop coming out of one eye. Now the other eye is starting to get all infected and watery looking. So I got a hold of a veterinarian and I'm taking him in today at two, which is going to be freaking interesting, especially if they give me any kind of medication that I need to put into his eyes or whatever. Because last night just trying to clean his eye for him, he freaked the fuck out and took off and wouldn't come near me or anything else and wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. So I'm hoping that it's not some kind of eye drop or eye cream medication because, yes, that's just going to be a whole bunch of unnecessary. And if they give me like a cone to put on him, I don't know how that's going to work because some of his hidey holes I don't think he can get into wearing a cone. So I'm a little bit nervous. It's a huge shock and a huge change from what I have had to deal with with my older cat, Bella, who I just had to put to sleep a couple of weeks ago. Like, in her 13 years of life, she never once got sick. She never once had to go to the vet. She was a good, healthy little cat, this guy, he's come with all the baggage. So we'll see what happens. But yeah, I'm just kind of like a little bit worried about him and trying to be the good pet parent type thing and make sure that he's well taken care of and healthy and all that other fun crap,

Participant #1:
man. I'm also worried because I'm taking him back to the humane society where I got him from, because that's where the vet is going to look at him at. And I know this is me projecting my own emotions and stuff onto him, but I'm like so worried that he's going to get like, when I go to put him back in the carrier, he's going to get upset that something bad is going to happen. And then once we get back to the Humane Society, I'm like worried that he's going to see and smell everything and think that I'm giving him back up because prior to me adopting him, he had been adopted out once before. And then they took him home and brought him back, like not even 24 hours later.

Participant #1:
And it might not have anything to do with it. And like I said, that could just be me projecting my human emotions onto him and the situation, but I'm really hoping for the best.

Participant #1:
Yeah. Just thinking about all that stuff and worrying about having to try to administer eye drop medications and what have you. Moving along. My birthday was fairly decent. I did the previous podcast about my birthday or whatever, and I'm still kind of reminiscing about some of the things that happened and the fact that I've really enjoyed going to the bar lately for playing trivia and stuff and just getting to hang out with a whole new set of people and reconnecting with some friends that I don't normally see on a day to day basis or whatever, or really even like talk to on Facebook or what have you. They all used to be part of the same friend group. And so whenever the weekends came along, nine times out of ten we'd find everyone at the same kind of house or we'd all be partying together and stuff like that. And then there was like a little bit of a fallout separation and the party hosts went one direction and everyone else kind of just disbanded and started doing their own thing. And I kind of got stuck in the middle and was like that free agent. And so I never knew where to go or who to hang out with. And some of those people I get to hang out with now and it's kind of cool just reconnecting with them. I don't know if you can hear Bernard in the background singing the song of his people, but yeah, he's very vocal right now. He also knows that I'm getting dressed and getting ready to walk out the door, and he usually gets a little freaked out whenever I go to do that.

Participant #1:
Yesterday when I met up with my sister and went into town and we went and had lunch, I found this local donut shop. It's in a pop up restaurant. So this restaurant has a lot of different people who come in. So on like Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, it's one person and then on the other days of the week it's another person. So there's this donut shop that shows up there. And I finally found like, okay, this is the day that they're going to be there. And so I went there and the Donuts are handmade, they're fresh, and you get the doughnut plus the whole. And they're a little bit pricey, but I don't mind paying for quality and for small business. So they're made by a gentleman by the name of Zach, and he does this amazing cake, donut. And I got the Maple bacon and one that he called the Almond Joy. The Almond Joy was like a chocolate cake doughnut with frosting on it and some coconut sprinkles. And I thought it was going to taste more like an Almond Joy, but sadly it didn't. But it was still really good. Very moist, very just well put together, not greasy, feeling like some Donuts can feel like when you make a bad home or whatever. And we got to talking and found out that he's a member of the LGBTQ community. Excuse me? And I was like, oh, okay, so you're a local business owner, you're part of the LGBTQ community, and you make Donuts. Hi, I'm your new best friend, and I'm going to patronize you as much as possible. So I love supporting LGBTQ

Participant #1:
businesses. And I also like to try to support small businesses because I know what it's like to have a dream and to want to start up something that you're passionate about and then not having the funding or just getting it up and running and then not having the capital to continue your traction and to get eaten up by larger corporations or whatever. And so just a really cool dude. We got to talking for a little while and found out that we had a lot of things in common with each other and just got to chit chatting and shooting the shit. So I think I'm going to go back there today and get some more Donuts. I have an extra, like $5 laying around. And that will also give me the chance to go by and say Hi and just throw a couple of extra dollars in his direction. So anyways, what are your thoughts on supporting small business? I know a lot of times when we go to support small businesses and stuff like that, we look at the price Tags of things that they do. So, like, if a guy is tied dying T shirts and he's selling them for like 30 or $40, well, I can't justify paying 30 or $40 for Tshirt because I can get a tie dyed Tshirt at Walmart for like $6. And where that is true, this guy is like hand fashion the T shirts. So he has to take into consideration the cost of his material and also still be able to make a little bit of a profit for himself. Now I've dabbled in the small business market myself. Back in 2013, from about 2012 to 2015 ish I used to make handmade jewelry, and I would put out, like, say $30 to buy materials. And then I would create these pieces that could retail easily for anywhere between $$30 to $70 each. But people would come by and they would look at it and they're like, no, I'll give you like, $4 for this bracelet. I'm like, well, there's at least $7 worth of materials in that bracelet. So I'm going to have to ask that you at least give me the $10 that I have it listed for. And that's the other thing that I try to remember when I was doing things. Now I have another friend who's very business minded, and she never understood my pricing point. And they always tell you, like in all these little small marketing classes, our business classes and stuff like that that you need to charge for your time and your talent and so on and so forth. But at the time, what I was doing is I was using jewelry making as a way to help me with my mental health. And so I didn't keep a track on how long it took me to create a pair of earrings or how long it took me to create the bracelet or whatever that I was making. I did keep a running total of how much material was, though. So, like, if I used a memory wire, how much did I buy the whole spool of memory wire for? How many feet was the memory wire? And then how much was it for it to be like this? Many inches and so on and so forth. So that's how I tried to compensate my material cost. So I tried to break it down to the best that I could. And then I would say, okay, well, this cost me $5 in materials to create. So if I charge $12 for this, I'm making that $5 plus an additional $2. So that might not be the best way to do things, but for me, it justified itself. And people are never going to pay you for your time. And if you're doing a hobby that you're turning into a business, chances are you are going to be doing that hobby already. So why charge for your time? Because in my opinion, you're never going to be paid for your time. And living in the area that I live in, it's very artsy already. So the market is completely saturated, and it's very hard pressed to find things that you can do in this community where you are the only person doing that. For a while there, I was just starting to get into candles. And then a girlfriend of mine, she started doing candles and her business took off. And so now she's got like a full fledged small candle making business going. And I'm sitting here with $100 worth of materials for making candles. And I haven't ordered candles since October. I still have a lot of jewelry making stuff. I haven't made any jewelry. We also have a huge new age spiritualist group here in town. And like a lot of people practice wicked and things like that. So I'm going to start making wicked crafts that not only appeal to people who practice that spirituality, but also have a wider range of appeal for people. But I'm not going to charge more than ten or $15 because the materials that I've sourced maybe come out to $25. And if I'm only using like a small amount from each one of those sources materials, it should more than make up for it. But at the very least, there are going to be cute little gifts to give during the holidays or whatever. And I have quite a few already made up. Now,

Participant #1:
the whole point of that Rambling rant was just like trying to figure out what you guys thought about small businesses. Do you patronize them? Do you try to give them what they're asking? What stops you from patronizing a small business? Or do you get in there and do you try to haggle with them? Those are the questions that I'm posing to you, just like, what do you try to do or what do you hope to get from small businesses? Like I said, I patronize small businesses the best I can, but I also live on an extreme fixed income due to being on Social Security and Social Security disability. So there's times where I'll see something at a small business and I really want it, but it's like I can go to Walmart and get it for half that price. And is it something that I truly need and want or not even so much want? Is it something that I truly need? Do I need to part with that, like $15 that I could be putting toward buying more groceries or putting two drops of gas into my car? Because gas prices are almost a million dollars a drop at this point. But yeah, I still try to do my best and patronize people and their businesses the best that I can. So anyways, guys, I'm going to hop off here, but if you have any questions, comments, concerns, please put them in the comment section below. Make sure to leave me a voicemail message. You'll see the little icon down below to click on that. And if you would like to be on the show and would like to add your perspective to a topic or whatever, we can arrange that. So you can shoot me an email at HelloCupcakeitsme@gmail.com And then just in the subject line put in, I'd like to appear on your podcast and leave me your contact information and we can go from there. So until next time, I will talk to you all later. Bye, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. You have been listening to Hello Cupcake, it's Me, a podcast with your host, Michael Peterson. Please make sure to check back often as new episodes are released by weekly. If you have any questions, comments or concerns. Please feel free to to send a message to HelloCupcakeitsme@gmail.com And until next time stay happy safe and keep doing the best you can with what you have been given. Bye.