EPISODE SUMMARY
Guest: Natalie Craig
Natalie Craig tells the story of how she founded her hair salon in Lubbock called Regimen after working as an emergency room nurse.
She shares the unique and amazing story of how her background as an abused child and her job at the emergency room created a desire to help hurting children in the foster care system. It turned out to be the relationships with her clients that opened the door to making an impact on thousands of young lives.
How the non-profit Walk in Their Shoes got started.
Working with Texas Tech football coach Kliff Kingsbury to secure a sponsorship with Under Armor.
How Under Armor helped supply thousands of children with shoes and clothing.
Why good shoes and clothing help build self-esteem and confidence.
Buy a bougie bag for yourself and a homeless child.
Link to podcast episode with Luca O'Brien
Phone: (806) 544-7389
Email: Regimensalon@gmail.com
Fire Slice Address: Summit Shopping Center, 7306 SW 34th Ave space 10 rear, Amarillo, TX 79121
https://www.facebook.com/fireslice
To contact Ruth, go to https://www.blairclinic.com
ruth@blairclinic.com
https://www.facebook.com/rutelin
Transcript
Welcome, welcome, welcome to What Pain in the Neck. I am Ruth Elder, your host. And with me here today is cheerful Natalie Craig.
Hi, good morning, or actually, it's 12:30 now. It's the first thing I've done today.
Okay, great. Yes. So thank you for taking the time to come and speak to us today.
Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it.
So the reason that I invited you is you have so much wisdom and so many solutions to a plethora of problems. So this podcast is all about solutions to suffering and people who have gone through some hard things and found a way to - found solutions to those problems. So it's essentially all about the solutions, but in the process, a lot of times the stories of what happened and what led up to that comes out.
So Natalie. Why don't you start by just introducing yourself, your business, maybe a little bit about why you're doing what you're doing?
Okay. Yeah. I'm Natalie Craig. I'm originally from San Antonio and I moved to Lubbock in 2000. I was in - we brought a business over here, Tony&Guy, and then I got divorced, and then we opened up Tony&Guy in the mall, and he left to Dallas, and I stayed here and decided to stay here with my kids. So for a little bit, I went into nursing school, but I couldn't finish that with two children. I couldn't get to the daycare.
That's a lot.
Yeah. I was working 7P to 7A in the children's ER, and that's where I fell in love with all the kids. And so I stopped that and opened up Regimen, and I've had Regimen since 2006. And I decided to open up a non-profit to help the children that I remembered coming through the ER. And that was in 2016.
Okay. We'll dig into some of that. So you've said you fell in love with children. That is a fascinating story. And then we'll get into, you mentioned regimen, a lot of our listeners are not going to know what that is. So we'll go into that. And then we'll take it a step further after that.
So you said the children that you saw in ER, you saw a big problem that you have made a big dent in, in your life. So why don't you tell that story, what did you see and what have you done about it?
We saw a lot of, a lot of children that were abused all through West Texas. We're a big hub for the ER, Covenant is, children's ER. And we saw a lot of abuse, abuse from boyfriends and husbands and families and children. A lot of kids, we having to bring CPS involved. And they were sent to the Children's Home of Lubbock as an emergency shelter for them. And so it was, it was a lot of pain, but yet a lot of pleasure just being able to, I worked at a night shift, so I worked from 7P to 7A, so about 3, 4 in the morning when it's calm in the ER, I got to go to the ICU or into the, mainly the ICU that was closest to us and held those children and kind of just cuddled with them when nobody else could.
And since we don't have video, I just want to point out that your eyes lit up when you were talking about that. So that's really sweet.
So I know that one of the challenges that you have done is this experience with the children led you to start a non-profit to solve a particular issue that you noticed that maybe not everybody would think of when it came to emergency foster kids. So what is that problem and what has been your solution to it?
The problem is people give - we go to visit them, and I try to be a foster parent, but being a single mom with two kids, that was too hard. And so I couldn't do it on my own, so I decided, okay, how else can I help? And I saw the kids didn't have clothes, and I would send them out - I would go out there and we'd donate clothes, but then I saw their commissary room, and it was just filled with old things that we would normally trash, but we feel like we better do something in our hearts that makes us feel a little good and like grandma's clothes were over there and these kids are coming from an abusive situation. And then they get bullied at school because of the clothes or the clothes, the lack of clothes that they don't have. So I decided to start with my, well, because I owned regimen, it's a men's salon, we only cater to men and our prices are higher, so I got a huge advantage of getting money from men because they were my clients and they believed in me and they - I would tell them “I'm doing this”. I didn't even have a legal non profit yet and I said, “I'm buying kids shoes. I'm going to go buy them Under Armour clothes. We're going to go get every sell item there is and give them brand new clothes” and they were like, “okay. How much do I give you?” And what was the coolest thing that I found that people don't think of doing is they don't show the people where their money's going. So with the salon that we had, it was big. It was more room than I needed at the time, but it was inexpensive. So I would say “I need $40 I need $50” and I would get the money, save it up and then we were buying these shoes and they were all brand new clothes and you know me and my salon, I'm OCD. So I was like we have 200 kids and these are their ages and this is their sizes and then I would find out their color and I made it personal. I was not going to be that lady that did two hundred of one thing.
Yeah. So, so instead of being a foster mom, you just - you were a mom in the sense that you took the trouble to really see their needs and see what they're about and to individualize it. But isn't that what moms do for their kids? So instead of being a mom to one foster kid, you got to share your mom heart to, I don't know, maybe several hundred at this point?
Several hundred, yeah. We took care of the children's home of Lubbock and the boys at the boys ranch, but now it's the boys and girls ranch. So now their brothers and sisters can stay together. And so we were, I think, at the beginning of that idea when we got to see these kids. And so we bought shoes for them, brand new shoes, and then Under Armour got wind of what we were doing. And Kliff Kingsbury became my vice president of the non profit.
Okay. So to those who don't know who Kliff Kingsbury is, sometimes people listen to this outside of Lubbock. Why don't you say real quick?
Yes. He was at the time our head coach for Texas Tech University, and then he moved and went to become the head coach for Arizona Cardinals. And now he's with USC. And he's a coach out there at UNC now. So he's a big deal.
Yeah. So he's a big deal. So what was it he did for you?
So he helps, you know, he couldn't be around the children because of legal issues with NCAA, just in case one of these kids wanted to play football, which some of them did. So he had to stay outside, but he helped in different areas. And so he helped us connect with Under Armour. And I got to meet Alex, it's a female, and she helped us out. She's like, “what are you doing?” And I was like, “I'm getting shoes. I just need better pricing because I wanted to max out the money that we're getting.”And so she ended up doing that.
And then she told me, “Oh, once a year in June, you could go to Under Armour and apply to be part of these three pillars and that they actually help with. And so they pick one person every year from each pillar.” Mine was community service. The others like breast cancer awareness and military.
And so, I was like, “will you help me put an email together?” Because we didn't even have a mission statement. We didn't really even have a name. Like, we said walk in their shoes was one of the things that we were going to do. And we - it was more of a reflection of, could you walk in these kids shoes? You know, and we were getting shoes. So it was, it was our campaign. It was a campaign thing, not a name of our nonprofit at the time. And so she helped me create a mission statement and we would go back and forth emails, yes, no, yes, no. And then, “hey, help me create something else.” And this was back in March. Like, end of February, actually.
Of what year?
2016. Okay. So, like, say January, February, she started helping me with this. Well, one of the emails, because we were getting it ready for June, one of the emails accidentally, somehow, got sent to the president who was in charge of picking these non profits. Thank you, Jesus. I had no idea how it got to him. And I get a phone call. I'm at Taco Villa trying to grab a tea. And I'm in line and I get this number out of Massachusetts. That's where they're at, their offices. And he tells me his name and he said, “how did you get my email?” And I said, “sir, I don't know who you are. I have no idea. I said, I was talking through email through Alex.” And he said, “no. That came from you to me,” and I'm like, “I have no clue.” And so, I said, “well, forget about Taco Villa.” So I went out of the line, got in the parking lot so I could talk to him. And he said, “what are you trying to do?” And I said, “I'm buying shoes already from y'all, there was like 289 kids I think at the time and we're paying this. I want to be able to get something better price for these children.” He says, “when do you need it?” I said “yesterday.” If I've got you on the phone, I'm going to go and tell you.
Right? Just be forward with your needs.
Yeah! So he said explain to me more and so I told him - explain what we were doing and who they were helping out and the kids. And he said, “let me think about it and see what I can do.” And I said, “perfect”. So in the midst of all of that, he ended up giving us - donating 495, almost just shy of 500 pairs of shoes. These were the, these were exactly the same shoe, all blue with yellow, orange.
Oh, that’s not what you were doing.
Yeah, but they were all brand new and they were like $129 a piece.
Wow.
So we took them. We were like, heck yeah. I went to my salon and of course I still had a lot of room, so we didn't have a massage therapist and so we just put all the boxes in this salon. And people were like. “What are y'all doing?” And so we had clients help us and we started donating and these shoes were like size little boys like two girls, they were kind of a unisex. So I said “anybody can have them. I don't care boys or girls.” They were super cute And so we went from we took them to children's home got everybody a pair gave them extra and then we took them to the Boys and Girls Club here in Lubbock and then we took some to Amarillo. And that's when I first extended Amarillo.
And so they have a boys and girls club out there as well. But theirs is a little different. They have school, like the entire school systems in this, in this location. And they bring people in from all over. Like I met some twins. They were super cute from New York city. Like it was insane. So they host and hold a lot of kids out there. So we go into that. I got to meet them and really close to them afterwards. And I loved it. You know, I just saw more children, more children.
So what did getting this pair of these shoes, what did that do for the kids? You said you got to meet them. Like what did you see?
The excitement of them never having - Many of them never had anything new, you know, and living in these locations, you don't get anything new. Everything's donated. So it's always used for the most part and we saw the excitement and so it was crazy. I would send videos to Kliff and I would send videos to Charles Perry is my CPA and I'm like, “oh my god, look.” And so, we were taking pictures.
Oh, and then I had so many shoes that were up to size 17. It's like a boat. You know, it was like, it was, they were huge. And so I was, I couldn't find these kids. And so I got on Facebook and started talking and putting on their - took a picture of the shoes and I said, we have ranchers and farmers, these kids are beef, you know, bread. You know, they're homegrown. There's gotta be some big kids out there. And so I said, “anybody, anybody”, I put it public on Facebook. “Anybody needing shoes size 13 to 17, please message me.” Well, that went nuts. And so people from all over, I was shipping, I was using my own money or my clients, I would tell my clients and they'd give me the money to ship them. And I drove, I drove all over Texas, I didn't know where Paducah was, I didn't know where some of these locations were. And I was driving out there giving them and taking pictures with these kids. And they were big boys. It was so cute to see these big kids. They’d come into my salon and I met a family here. He's a police officer. His mom, his wife works at one of the Christian schools here. She's a part time teacher, but her boys were a size 13 and a 15. And they were kids, kids. I gave her a 13, 14, 15, and 17 so they can keep growing. I was like, “here you go.”. So when we put that live I didn't know Under Armor was watching, had no clue.
So they called me a couple of months later and I thought it was like a joke and I hung up on them. And then I go, “maybe it's real.” And so I called them back. I said, “I'm sorry. I was so excited. I'm doing cartwheels and I'm happy and I'm texting Kliff.” And they offered me. A one time deal and they were going to ship everything to us. And I said, “why us? Of all the pillars, why us?” And he says, “because we've been watching you.”
Oh, that's cool.
It was cool. It was so cool. Made me cry. It still makes me cry thinking about that. So they chose us. Yeah. And we needed a warehouse. It was over half a million in just inventory is what we calculated.
And the one thing I loved in high school in trying to go to, I come from abuse. My father was a wonderful man, but I think abuse comes from the past. It's a generational thing. And his father was abused. And then he abused my dad and my dad abused us. It was up to us to stop that.
Okay. And that's what you're doing in droves, not just stopping it, but reversing it and using that pain. One of the episodes that we had just recently, I'll put a link to it, was a young man who said, “you know, use your pain into your purpose” and this is an example of that. And you found areas where these kids were suffering and you found a need that you could meet. So where do they go from here and where is it today?
Well, we finally given out all these shoes, we had suits, we had sweaters. I mean, they cleaned out a warehouse and they brought it all to us in big trucks, like, and I remember texting Kliff and I said, “they want to give us everything.” He says, “how many boxes?” And I said, “they don't know. they haven't sorted it out. Just know that to be ready”.
So how did you get a warehouse?
My clients, thank the Lord, my clients. Yeah. And so we had over 800 and something boxes filled with so many things.
So back to my abuse, my escape was track. I mean, I grew up with five brothers, all older, myself and my little sister. I was destined to be fast because I ran away from them all the time or chased with them and played football.I was the boy. I was number 6 boy my mom says because I was such a tomboy. Track was my thing and the one thing that Under Armour gave me that they didn't realize was my passion and so I got cleats for they were unisex and we probably gave out, I can't even tell you, we probably gave out maybe 15,000 pairs. Like this warehouse was filled and filled. And so we were we decided to hit all the schools here that were title one schools We gave to even Terra Vista, Frenship schools, LISD schools. We gave them to everybody first. We supported everybody here and then we moved out. And then to the little small towns that don't have the budget for track.
And so I put it on Facebook again and they started coming and we started sending. I, you know, my mom said, “you came from a Title 1 school. You should…”
So what does Title 1 school mean?
Title 1 schools are lower income brackets. A lot of these kids go without. In fact, when I gave some shoes to these girls, the girls track shoes, I have a video of them. And this girl said, “girl, these are better than my prom shoes.” It was so cute. And so we were hugging it out and I inspired them to run if they want to get away from their past. This is how you run. You run away from it. And you run with a track scholarship. You focus on something positive. You know, recreate your body. If you're being abused, you determine what your body's good at. And if it was track to get you and further lead you, that's what you did. And they love track. I mean, so many kids broke records. We had kids going to district. We had Estacado went to district. We had - I mean, it was, it was empowering what these shoes did for every kid. Yeah, it was insane.
Yeah, so it wasn't really about shoes. It was about getting their life back.
Yeah, and it's, it's crazy. You know how they say, look good, feel good. I used to think, oh, what a marketing scheme. I saw it firsthand. And these kids always said it was the shoes. I mean, the shoes were black with gold. We had some black and silver. I mean, these were shoes. And so they - I mean, I even tried a pair on and be like, I got to try these on. I would have run again. So we did. And so we got those track shoes and everything else and we just moved forward.
So, where we're at now is, we created a commissary room for them. They had a commissary room, and it was all the old clothes, everything that we saw. I would go over there.
This is children's home of Lubbock?
The children's home, yes. And I would go and watch the kids try to look through there, and they'd leave with nothing. There was nothing in there that they wanted to war, So I said, alright, “let's get rid of it.” And so we found another place to send all of that. We cleaned everything out. And we donated all of that to somebody else. And we tore down everything, painted it, put new floors. It was like blue and white and checkered and donated furniture pieces. We tossed it all. And we turned it into what looked like an Under Armour store. And we got new racks. We painted everything new. It looked like my salon.
And your salon is very upscale.
Yeah, well, this commissary room turned out to be upscale. And we created a shoe room and all the brand new shoes and socks and I mean, we went all out and we had all that stuff from Under Armour and so all these jackets, these jackets were three, four, five hundred dollars. These kids had no clue. But we did keep all the price tags on all the clothes, I just didn't keep it on the jackets because I didn't want them to be telling everybody and then somebody steal it from them. But the regular clothes, we kept price tags on them because this one child, this one little boy at the children's home, when I first donated clothes, I left a price tag on there by accident.
And it gave them value?
And he said, oh my, he said, “this shirt costs 8 Dollars?” Eight. And I go, “yeah”. And he goes, “wow”. I saw the excitement over 8. So I said, “wait a minute. It was on sale. Let's take off the price tag and let me show you what it really costs”. He goes, “25 Dollars?!” I don't think that kid took that shirt off for a couple of days.
That's cool. So it's kind of part of a journey of helping kids see their value and their gifts. That's cool.
Yeah. So after that, my thing was - I pushed new donations, don't donate used don't ever do that because they're already broken, these poor children they're devalued by their own family. Yeah, why would we want to give them used pieces? What does that do for you? Like we've got we've gotten the hand me downs. We know what it feels like but to get the bottom of the barrel, that these are the last pieces you just throw away. They deserve so much more. And so our push was everything brand new. Everything new.
One more question about this. My husband has a pretty nice, fancy, great bag at home. So can you talk about the bag?
Yeah. Okay. So the bag came from the clothes, watching them. I was like, “they need more”. So I went to a CASA event. A CASA is the Children's Advocate. They had a luncheon. These are people, adults, that take care of children from infancy, I believe, all the way up to 18.
That go into foster care?
Yeah, So they make sure they go to doctor's office, the attorney's office. They are their advocate for this entire time. And I went to a luncheon and this boy Ryan got to, step up and speak with his advocate and how great she was with him and stuff. But the one thing that stuck out, he came from a meth family. And this meth family would have meth parties. He was in the middle of all that. He got shot by his father with BB guns. Him and his little brother would get shoot at - well, they'd be shot at with BB guns for fun because they were methed out, right? And he said, “it wasn't until CPS came to my house to pick us up and put what little belongings we had into a trash bag, is when I felt like nothing.” He said, “that's when I felt like trash.”
When his belongings end up in a trash bag?
In a trash bag. And I cried.
Yes. I feel chills right now.
I cried. And so, I got to talk to him and I said, “that's when you felt like trash?” And he goes, “yeah.”
Not when he was shot at, but when he had to take his belongings in a trash bag?
Yeah, not when he couldn't be fed and him and his brother would sneak out to try to find food and stuff. He said, “I thought that was normal”. And he said, “but that was not” and so he tried to do something about it and he wanted to create a bag and then he realized how expensive and all the work involved. And so I said “one day I'm going to find you and you're going to help me find that” - I haven't found him yet. He's gone. I heard he went to Tech. He moved on from this kid who came from this. He moved to Tech - got into Tech and he was playing like an instrument out there. And I lost track of him and we've tried to find him and I can't.
When you say Tech, you mean Texas Tech University.
Yeah, this little kid who lived in a meth house, got out of that system, went to school, graduated and got into Texas Tech. Those are the stories, the love that we have for these kids, and to know that there's a possibility, you know? And so the bag came from his story.
So these bags, why don't you describe it? So I can see that it's like an incredible black leather bag with gold zippers.
Yes. We went bougie.
So how does it work?
So the bag of one of the stories that they said was we found a couple of kids that were hiding out at schools because they had nowhere to live. There was at the time, 480 kids that were registered for school, but were homeless. So we were finding some of that. That's this little gray area in our world that we don't really deal with yet And that's something that I would like to figure out one day. But they're couch kids. And so, they don't have a place to go. You see them in hotels. Some you don't see. One day you see them, the next day they're not in school.
So I'm going to stop right here. I mean, some crazy things have happened to you. So if somebody listens to this and they have some ideas for solutions for these kids, get in touch with Natalie and see if you can combine forces. Okay. So now continue with the bags.
So one kid needed - he didn't have anything. He was homeless. Good football player. One girl was wanting to go into the mission and do mission work. So we found them. We reached out to them and gave him clothes, but we didn't have a bag to put it in either. So I was like, “okay, this is something we need”. And so the counselors were telling us, “we try to give them food to take home, but they won't take it because they're called the brown bag kids.” And so kids make fun of other kids that don't have food. And so if they're given a brown bag with snacks to take home, they won't take it. They're embarrassed. So I was like, “okay”, and this all leads up to what my bag looks like. So I put all these stories together and, and said, “okay, we need something like this” and I couldn't find it. I looked high and low through Under Armour, couldn't find it. And I said, “okay”. And we gave up $5,000. We had a company, it's a foundation here in Lubbock, give us $5,000. It was specifically for bags. I could have spent the money and gave bags to whatever they look like, but it wasn't what I wanted yet. So we gave the money back to them and told them to use it for something else that we had our time to search, but we didn't do it.
So I go to bed and I wake up in the morning and I'm walking through my little desk area in my little office that I created to get my daughter ready for school and on that desk what I thought I dreamt, somehow woke up in the middle of the night and I designed a bag, that I don't recall designing, but it was a piece of paper on the table.
Wow.
Yeah. It gives me like - if I would - you see my goosebumps right now? And I was like, “what? I thought I dreamt this” and I'll have to show you a picture of it. And it is, it's cool. It's 3d. I was like an artist and it had everything it needed. It had - it has the - we completed it. I called Kliff and I was like, “you won't believe what just happened” and he goes, “God gave you that bag. Let's go with it.”
And so we did and so the bag is beautiful. It has more - I wanted it to feel like these kids had either Prada or Louis. It's a high end bag.
It is, yeah. And it's got lots of pockets, lots of zippers, and it's beautiful.
I use it all the time and I still haven't filled up all the pockets. And so it has a hidden compartment where you can put all your - I put my shoes in there when I travel so I keep it separate. It's TSA regulated so you can carry it on.
And presumably, the kids can put their brown bag in there and like have this upscale bag instead.
Yes, so on the right compartment on the right side. It's so nice. On the right side, it's insulated so they can put their food in there. So they don't even get rid of the brown bag. You got the bougie bag. You just put your food in the bougie side and then on the other side it zippers up and you can put dirty laundry or clothes so if they don't have a place to wash their clothes they at least have a place to keep it separate. And then I decided to add - how you hold it is also a backpack. You can wear it as a backpack, so that I didn't want this bag to be seen as something I move and relocate. I didn't want it to be thrown in the closet and, oh, this is my bag. I go from shelter to shelter. I wanted them to be able to use it every day, and so they can take it to school. They can - there's so many compartments that you can carry it like a backpack, and you can carry it on like a fancy duffel bag, and I wanted it to be something they can use every day. And it has pockets enough that you can. The leather, it's, it's not a leather, but it feels like a leather. It almost feels like a suede almost, too. And it's washable.
So the way this works, right, is people can come to you and buy a bag and then you donate one.
Yes.
Is that how it works? You buy one and then for every bag…
That is purchased, one is donated. Yes, and so, you know, I own my men's salon, so we sell it there. But I've had people buy it off of Facebook. I've shipped to San Antonio. Some San Antonio people have wanted that. And now we have it to where our website, you can either donate to the cause, or you - if you own a business. You can sell it at your location and even make a profit. You can make a hundred dollar profit just to help your business, but yet you're still donating one in that cause.
Yeah, so you're solving three problems here. You're helping a suffering child that has nowhere to go, you're building your own business, and you're providing great bags for other people.
Yeah.
So what is this website?
Nc-designs.com. You have to add the S at the end of designs. So that's us and it's up and running and so you can see the bags.The bags are on there. It's beautiful. It's one bag. We are $3,000 short, but you know, God will bless us. So right now to have 500 donated. So we're having another sample made. This time we're going to go silver. We're going to go silver, change it up. We're going to change it up with silver zippers now. Real pretty shiny ones. And all 500 will be donated to those kids. So all the money that's been used, every time your husband bought a bag, we ended up using all that money. I didn't take anything out of it. Everything went back into a savings account and now we have the money to pretty much have another 500 actually donated out completely.
That's great.
So I'm excited.
So how did you get into taking care of men? Is that because you had all these brothers?
Yeah. My background is computer engineering and well, obviously my personality says that was boring. So I started out in San Antonio. I went to UTSA and then we moved and I went to UTD and then University of Texas in Dallas. And then got married, had my son, worked with a hairdressing salon and helped them with their kind of their software training, the girls on the new software, we were pencil and paper, you know, and so I got into the corporate aspect of that business and liked it and then we got offered to have - help our friend open up an Amarillo location. So we helped them, but it's his location. He did amazing. It was - they offered 50 people that were really big with Tony&Guy, offered him a private little partnership thing and their own salon. So we helped Wade get up there and we were there for a year.
So I went to West Texas A& M there and still trying to finish my double bachelors. It was a bachelor's in computer science, engineering, and business. And even if you're in the state of Texas, every curriculum is different. So I ended up not graduating because we came here. I got to take a horse riding lesson, can you imagine Amarillo, West Texas A&M? They had horse classes as an elective and I'm like, “oh yeah, I'm in.” So all these classes.
Yes, I've been up there. My daughter actually.
Is she there?
Yeah, she's about to finish up.
I love that school. It's a great school. And so came here and could never finish this degree. I have 182 hours and I lacked three classes. And they were all computer science classes. So I was gonna have to go back to finish it. I was like, “I don't have time we built a business.” So I never finished my degree. And we start at Tony&Guy hair, and then that's when the story starts again.
Yeah, so now you have a regimen. So a few weeks ago, I did an episode where we focused on women's needs. So what are some unique things that you do for men that you feel is a need that men have that you provide?
You know, people think that men get listened to, but they really don't. We get to understand them. We get to hear their stories. We get to hear their sufferings, whether it's family sufferings or things that their children are doing. We get to hear the excitement. They share just as much as women. And they love just as much as women love. I mean, we cry with them. As counselors - with hairdressers for women. We are exactly the same for men. So they become family.
Yeah, so you help love them and pamper them and then you use your gifts as a bubbly personality to to network.
Yeah, we get to network. Your husband is - you know, I love your husband and yourself, and so I've been able to offer his services to my clients.
Yeah, you've recommended quite a few people to come here.
They, well - I keep getting good answers, and I said, “How was it?” And they're like, “Well, it's different.” They're like, "if you're expecting to get cracked in this and that you know, that's not what's gonna happen here.” They're like, “oh my god he measured every part of my body.” I was like, “I told you he's old school, get ready.” One of my really good friends and he even put - he said he put it in some review that he called him The Quacky Doctor or something like that because he was like “he's so different than a chiropractor.” “Yes he takes his time to learn who you are and what’s going on. He doesn’t just say, ‘hey lay down.’” I’d had that done and it doesn’t work for me
I think what's unique about what we do here is obviously, like you said, no cracking, twisting or jerking, but also every single person that comes, gets an adjustment that's tailor made for them.
Exactly. And I love that.
But I feel like you kind of do a similar thing for your guys that come through. You get to the essence of who they are, what their need is, and then provide that need. And that's what you've done with your non profit as well. You just see a need and figure out “what's at the root of this and what can I do to make a difference?”
I'm one of those people that I want to help. I'm a helper. I'm a Pisces. And everybody's like, “Oh, you're Pisces and that makes sense.” I don't really dig into Pisces and what they are, but I know anything I've read it's pretty accurate. But I want to help people and I want to problem solve.
Yeah. So the problem solving is, you know, you've sent people who've suffered with their pain here. You've seen this massive need in the community.
So to wrap things up, I have a couple of more questions. So how can people who are hearing this, maybe in the Lubbock area or maybe not in the Lubbock area, that really you, they hearing your story of shoes and clothes and meeting a need for, kids, suffering kids, do you have a call to action or any advice for people who want to make a difference?
You know, they can come join the force and call me. And, you know my cell phone is always open, but it's easier to text or they can email me. And so probably the easiest email because it's Yeah. Everything's kind of combined is RegimenSalon@Gmail.com because then they remember the salon name and then they won't remember the nonprofit name sometimes. Because it's so long because we never legally had a way to just change it. And so Regimen Salon@Gmail is probably the easiest way to get a hold of me.
And then for those that do listen right now, the month of November in Amarillo, if you can go to a restaurant called Fire Slice. It's off of like 34th behind Bigums. It's kind of in this alley area. It's a really cool pizza place. But if they go to Amarillo and they eat a slice of this pie, I believe is the month. It's on my Facebook and on my Instagram, a dollar of that proceeds comes back to us. So that in Amarillo, they're already helping me by doing that.
And I'll put all of this in the notes so they don't have to - so if you want to get in touch with Natalie or go and you're in the Amarillo area and want pizza and donate.
Yeah, a dollar of their dessert comes to me. So that'll be great. I'm excited to see that. And just the awareness, the kids will, they've taught all the servers how to speak about this nonprofit, so they get to share it. Great.
Yeah. So, clearly we have a lot more to talk about. We could do a lot more episodes. Oh, I'd love to. But before we go, what is something that I haven't asked you about, that you're really hoping to share or talk about, that you feel is really important?
Just the encouragement. You know, the encouragement of, really pushing when you want to donate, especially Christmas, buy one extra item that's on sale, you know, the big Friday, Thanksgiving, you know, Black Friday, think of these children, you know, think of buying something new for these kids at Black Friday or right after Christmas when everything's on sale. When you buy something, buy one more item for a kid and take it to these kids children's home of Lubbock and then you have the Texas, what is it, Boys and Girls Club here as well. They need to be sought after as well because they're, they're just as much as a need and Amarillo has a - everybody has a location. Find your location wherever you are and really push for something new for these children. It makes a difference in their smiles. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I wish you could see that.
Yeah. I love that super practical and relatively simple advice that even if we can't do things on a huge scale like you've done, every little simple gift matters.
Yes, everything. And you know, and it's not always just clothes.I have a nonprofit, I mean, I have a location that we're looking at and they just need deodorant and toothpaste. All these little things that we take advantage of, they need all that. And so they're asking for money for that over there. It's called New Hope. And so, yeah.
Yeah. Very great.
So very little things, little things. Our daily things.
Yes. Hey, Natalie. Thank you for inspiring us.
Thank you. I love it. I'm excited now. I get to go see your husband and get adjusted. So I'm happy.