Turning Trauma Into Triumph: The Story of Rethreaded

In this episode of Hometown Jax, we sit down with Kristin Keen, the founder of Rethreaded, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit dedicated to helping survivors of human trafficking rebuild their lives. Kristin shares the powerful story behind Rethreaded, how she turned a mission of hope into a thriving organization, and the challenges she’s faced along the way. From creating sustainable job opportunities to providing long-term support, she explains how Rethreaded is breaking cycles of trauma and empowering women to take back control of their futures.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about social impact, entrepreneurship, or community transformation. Kristin's journey is a testament to resilience, purpose, and the power of business to create real change. Tune in to hear how she’s making a difference in Jacksonville and beyond—one stitch at a time.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29
Unknown
Where are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.

00;00;14;29 - 00;00;29;07
Unknown
I am very excited about this episode today. Kristen Keane, thank you for being here today. What an honor. I know one of our mutual friends, connected as Billy Wagner. Billy Wagner knows everybody, so it doesn't surprise me.

00;00;29;22 - 00;00;50;04
Unknown
He said this would be a great person to have on the podcast. He was actually sitting in that same exact seat a little while ago, so he was just on my podcast. So this is great. It's the podcast circuit. We're very happy to have you. Now, Kristin is the founder of Re Threaded. Actually a lot of people in our community, in the mortgage, in real estate know re threaded.

00;00;50;16 - 00;01;09;20
Unknown
But our audience is much bigger than that. And I want to make sure that they know who you're about and what rethread it is about. We're going to walk through a bunch of different things in this podcast, but can you tell us what rethread it is? So thread it's mission is for the complete restoration, of survivors of human trafficking.

00;01;09;24 - 00;01;32;27
Unknown
Okay. So when after a woman experiences human trafficking, we're about stage two. So a woman comes to us, usually with severe, complex trauma, 72 barriers to rebuild her life. So she we give employment, so we give long term employment 3 to 5 years so she can work in retail finance, operations in the kitchen, wherever she's naturally gifted.

00;01;32;27 - 00;01;55;24
Unknown
And we we give her a job there. And then when she's working with us, she's paid on the clock training. So it's career development. Mental health resources, group counseling, individual counseling. EC I mean, whatever a woman needs to rebuild her life. Rethread it does that, and it's and it's long term, 3 to 5 years. And do they live there, too?

00;01;55;24 - 00;02;16;11
Unknown
And they don't live, they don't live their work, the business and the wraparound services. Okay. Okay. So you said women. So it's only when it's only women. Okay. Okay. So tell us a little bit about the human trafficking, because I noticed one of the things that was said on your website that Jacksonville is actually a huge hub for it.

00;02;16;11 - 00;02;20;06
Unknown
And I guess people like me, I'm talking from my perspective.

00;02;20;06 - 00;02;39;24
Unknown
It's hard for me to conceptualize it like, how does someone get grabbed and put it there? I'm thinking of the movie. Someone gets grabbed and puts in this situation, like, how does that happen? So in reality, only 5% of human trafficking cases is abduction. Only 5%. The other is a woman.

00;02;39;24 - 00;03;05;20
Unknown
95% is a woman is a vulnerability, a woman. And I'm just going to say woman, boys, girls all trafficked. I'm going to say women because that's who we work with. Yeah. Has a vulnerability. And the trafficker exploits the vulnerability, to control the person so he can sell her and make a profit. Okay. So the definition of human trafficking is the use of force fraud or coercion to perform a sex act for profit.

00;03;05;22 - 00;03;09;22
Unknown
Okay. So a woman has a vulnerability. I'll to put it in story from, like,

00;03;09;22 - 00;03;30;20
Unknown
one of our women was, married, four kids, married her high school sweetheart, like PTA mom class. Her mom loved being a stay at home mom. That's what she wanted to do her whole life. She's 24, and her husband came back from war from the military and had PTSD and decided he didn't want his family anymore.

00;03;30;27 - 00;03;55;05
Unknown
So she was left with a kid and all these kids mortgage cars, and she started working nights in a retail store, and a man came through her line and said, how are you? She told him, unknowingly revealing all her vulnerabilities, and he started showing up. And over a couple of months, they started a romantic relationship, which turned into a year long relationship, where he slowly isolated her over time.

00;03;55;08 - 00;04;11;29
Unknown
And then after a year, he introduced trafficking, the force, fraud and the coercion. Severe violence, severe sexual exploitation, threats against her children. And she was trafficked in Jacksonville for ten years. Oh, my gosh, I know it's just so hard to understand that.

00;04;11;29 - 00;04;18;27
Unknown
Wow. And is this person that does the trafficking generally part of an organization?

00;04;19;10 - 00;04;45;06
Unknown
It just depends on the situation. There are trafficking rings where they sell, buy and sell girls. Sometimes it's a boyfriend, sometimes, I mean, it's all different. It's, like trafficking really has nothing to do with being moved. I wish there was a different word for it. Right? So there are networks. A lot of it is a related to addiction, like addiction is one of the main vulnerabilities.

00;04;45;28 - 00;05;05;09
Unknown
A lot of so a lot of the, the traffickers are drug dealers. And then there's the other equation is that. So this woman named Rachel, she was when she was able to leave the life. It's because they finally arrested her trafficker and she was taken out of a hotel on the south side in 95. Okay.

00;05;05;12 - 00;05;28;19
Unknown
So at that time he was controlling the lives of 36 women. And that means there's enough customers. There's enough people in Jacksonville buying buying sex. From women who are being trafficked to support that. So there's this whole other equation that no one likes to talk about which is the demand issues. Right. People, people the trafficker wouldn't have anyone to sell to if there was no demand for sure.

00;05;29;08 - 00;05;51;02
Unknown
So it's almost like a sophisticate, a pimp, like it's it's a pimp. Yeah. It's not like what you see in the old school movies where he's on the corner doing. I mean, it's mind control. It's almost cultish. Yeah, it is, and it's it's a very similar trauma from a cult. Except usually there's extreme violence usually introduced and threats and.

00;05;51;02 - 00;05;55;00
Unknown
Right. Coercion. Wow. And it

00;05;55;00 - 00;06;16;27
Unknown
that's the thing when you said that word trafficking I mean I'm in visualizing a different country, someone grabbing a kid and their parents don't know about it and you never see him again. 100% of our women are U.S. citizens. Wow. Wow. And a majority of our women, so far, 95% of the women that were threatened or trafficked in northeast Florida right now, how do they know about you?

00;06;16;27 - 00;06;37;27
Unknown
Or do you have efforts to go out and try to find them. So this is the most amazing part that I always love to talk about is that. So we're kind of stage two. So when a woman gets out of the life, she's, I mean, severe complex trauma, usually no driver's license. Like in trauma still is your ability to rationally think, usually in addiction recovery.

00;06;37;29 - 00;06;57;02
Unknown
So we're like stage two, so we're like six months out and they come to us. So we're we have partnerships with the rehab centers wherever we can get the word out. We have relationships. But really what happens is, is that our women, they get healed and strong. And the women that they knew in the life are watching them.

00;06;57;05 - 00;07;00;17
Unknown
And our women pave the way for other women to come behind them.

00;07;00;17 - 00;07;13;06
Unknown
And they bring along women that they knew when they were in the life. And that's how really women come to Rethread it is through our survivors being healed and whole and proving that you can have a different life. There's something you can do that's different.

00;07;13;11 - 00;07;29;15
Unknown
How long do they usually stay with you? I know you said it's 3 to 5 years. 3 to 5 years. It takes that long. It takes I mean, just from, brain healing science. Like when you come out of severe, complex trauma, which is trauma that you have over and over and over again. Right. Changes your brain chemistry.

00;07;29;17 - 00;07;48;12
Unknown
At minimum. It takes two years to reach baseline. So for the first two years our women are just like getting back to basics right. Right. So then it's the next three years, 2 to 3 years that they're actually building their life. Do you struggle with them like trying to get back in? Not necessarily in the life.

00;07;49;13 - 00;08;11;19
Unknown
We have, like a 95, 98% success rate of women. Not going back to the life, right? A lot of times the addiction, is what takes them out or they get in an unhealthy relationship and that pulls them back. But we've had women come back. Right. And a lot of times our women have enough of a they get enough.

00;08;11;19 - 00;08;28;14
Unknown
Like, one of our women said it to me the other day, she was one that was with us for a while and then left and she said she came back to see us and she said, you know, when I was here, I had a glimpse of who I was. Right. And and that was enough for her when she did relapse, to have the strength to go back and do it again.

00;08;28;15 - 00;08;51;19
Unknown
So, So but like, for example, this year we had four women leave successfully. Like, like when I say successfully, like, go on to like, they probably make more money than me. They're like directors of development and drug rehab centers. One's a office manager. One just graduated top of her class in welding school. They have their kid. I mean, everything is restored, right?

00;08;51;22 - 00;09;13;15
Unknown
Complete restoration of a woman's life. Wow. So I'm super proud of all our women. Work so hard as you should be. Because, I mean, it's just it's not like fixing something and you fix. It's like a long term thing from what I'm hearing. It's and it's a and it's usually a generational thing. Right. Usually a lot of our, our vulnerabilities as people.

00;09;13;15 - 00;09;35;00
Unknown
Right. Come from our family unit. Right. And what we learned and what is modeled. So our women are literally breaking generational cycles. Well, I think that's really interesting. And I think people would would understand. And what you're saying more that this is not the movie Scituate. This is just everyday, Jacksonville and how appropriate it is for this podcast.

00;09;35;00 - 00;09;56;23
Unknown
Well, it's meeting the wrong sometimes meeting the wrong person at the right time. Right. And the fact that the, the idea of someone as naive as me, that there's people out there in lines at stores just looking for those people. That's what's scary. I know, I know and scary and kind of, I mean, frankly, hard to believe until you've experienced it.

00;09;56;23 - 00;10;18;09
Unknown
So. Wow. Well, this talk about how you really turn this around, though, and you've made a business out of being able to support those people. So we talk about the mission. So that's talk about like how does how do they financially support what do you sell all that good stuff. So we run an apps we run an app.

00;10;18;16 - 00;10;37;03
Unknown
There's a couple different business, but our main is our we run an upcycling company, so we have a manufacturing center and we make items out of upcycled products. So we have a partnership with Southwest Airlines. So they donated to as 27 pallets of airline seats, leather airline seats. And we figured out how to make those in a new products.

00;10;37;03 - 00;10;58;21
Unknown
So journals, keychains, purses I mean, we make all kinds of stuff. And then a lot of people don't know, but like one of our main lines of business is corporate gifting. So like, that's why we know the real estate company community so well is because a lot of the real estate agents or, give our gifts as closing gifts or homebuilders give our gifts.

00;10;58;21 - 00;11;22;13
Unknown
So and then we also over Covid, we also purchased our first company. We purchased a toffee company. So a candy company. So we literally make the best candy. And then it is so good, the best candy in the whole world. And then we run a retail store that is filled with goods made by women, who have been able to leave trafficking through that business.

00;11;22;13 - 00;11;39;18
Unknown
So everything is survivor made in our store. That's so awesome. And you can buy it online. Buy it in their store. Now that there's talk about because I did I went out there one day and we're taking apart the seats. So are you still working through the 27 pallets of seats? We're done. We're done with those 20.

00;11;39;20 - 00;12;09;15
Unknown
We honestly, this year we just finished those 27 okay. So it took about six years. Do you just raise your hand. All the airlines say we need more seats or we are we have some other connections some Collins Air and a couple other. We have right way trains. When they redid theirs, they gave them to us. So we are we are currently looking, for other sources of leather, but so like but this kind of a side note and kind of funny like, so where would those seats go if they didn't get the landfill?

00;12;09;17 - 00;12;25;23
Unknown
So did they take it to that big place they see in the desert where all the, the, the bad or the old planes go? Yeah, yeah. And it just, it would be there with us for ever. So when you say donated, of course it's nice for them to facilitate getting it to you. But it would go to the landfill.

00;12;25;24 - 00;12;50;17
Unknown
It would go to the landfill. Wow. So not this is why I love southwest. So, because. Typically you think of that and you're like, oh, it's a PR stunt. And yeah, they do. It is a marketing. But not only do they donate the leather airline seats, it also came with a grant. So like they got that allowed us to purchase the machinery that allowed us, to fund three months of training so we could figure out what to do with the leather.

00;12;50;19 - 00;13;07;26
Unknown
Right. They we have an installation of the airport that would just send it to, like, they're like a partner with us, like. But I love that. Takes some money and effort to get the seats out of planes to you. They could choose totally different things to do with it, and they choose to make this effort and do good.

00;13;07;26 - 00;13;26;12
Unknown
I love it. I, I will brag about them. Well, yeah. Deservedly so. I mean, you know, they deserve the credit. I mean, however you want to look at the credit, I mean, that's great. So, let's go back about you a little bit because I noticed this. The itch must have started when you went to CoA. A lot of India.

00;13;26;12 - 00;13;47;06
Unknown
It's just kind of called Calcutta. I should know that word. So tell me, what brought you there and how that started. So really, all of this stems from my you can always kind of tell what a founder struggles with and like, I want women to know their worth and their values from my own story. Right? I'm not a survivor of human trafficking, but I'm a survivor of exploitation.

00;13;47;06 - 00;14;05;19
Unknown
And I was like, I never want another woman to feel this way, right? So that like in my 20s, my early 20s, like 20. Yeah. A couple of years ago, a couple years ago, I mean, my dream at that point was like, I wanted to be married by 23, three, 23 and three kids by 30. Okay.

00;14;05;25 - 00;14;24;26
Unknown
But I, I became a Christian around that time, and I just felt like God said, whatever you think is your greatest shame, I'm going to use it to change the world. So that there was a switch in my life and suddenly I wanted this to became my passion. I want women to know. Yeah. Who they are, what they, what value they add to the world.

00;14;25;01 - 00;14;46;05
Unknown
And that has led me on a totally different path. And that's how I ended up in Calcutta, India, for almost six years, working with women in the red light district there. Okay, okay. And there was that is it was 10,000 women, 30% underage. So like 3000 girls. It's called working the line. So like women and girls just standing in line.

00;14;47;00 - 00;15;03;28
Unknown
And like this for, for a block radius in the city. Wow. So what did you do when you work there? You went out and kind of ministered to them and try to get, hey, that we can offer you a change kind of thing. So for two years, me and my friends, we just sat with women and learn the language.

00;15;04;03 - 00;15;21;27
Unknown
So listen to stories. We drink a lot of tea. And then after two years of like hearing all these stories, we're like, we are going to go insane if we don't do something right. I can't sit here anymore. Right? And so me and my friends started a business so they would have a way to leave because there's nothing to go to, right?

00;15;22;01 - 00;15;42;23
Unknown
In India. Like you're shamed your market women. You don't have education. Like probably maybe if you're lucky, get a maid. Unless they find out about what's happened to you and then you're ostracized. So we started a business to give women a way out called Sari Bari. And we we took, this is where the upcycling came from. We took vintage saris from India.

00;15;43;00 - 00;16;02;06
Unknown
That's the dress that women wear. And we started making blankets out of it. Right. And it started with three women, and I was there and we grew it to 30. And then I came home and my friends stayed and they grew it to over 100 women. Wow. I love that's what I really love about you and the research I've done.

00;16;02;06 - 00;16;22;10
Unknown
And the themes that we're going to talk about is that you've not only, ministered or going out and changing lives, but you're figuring out a way through it, through business. Like, you know, hey, we can help you cycle, you know, with your psychology, but we got to figure out a way how you can sustain. Yeah. Afterwards, you have to go to something, right?

00;16;22;12 - 00;16;41;14
Unknown
Right, right. So, you know, work certainly gives us all some a mission and a purpose and things along those lines. I feel like that's kind of what you've been doing. It's it's the work at re threaded where women get to rediscover what's inside them. What am I good at? What brings me life? What am I naturally good at?

00;16;41;14 - 00;16;59;27
Unknown
What's harder for me? Yeah, that's who they figure out who they are. What's a typical workday there? Is it start at eight. And yeah, I love it. I do love my job so much. 830 to 5 hour lunch. Every morning we start the first 15 minutes with devotion. Yeah. And that is so it's a group thing.

00;16;59;27 - 00;17;19;18
Unknown
Everybody gets a group thing, everything's there. And it's on topics where whoever is leading is a topic. Sometimes it's on, like how to stop being on your phone to what is your purpose. Right. And we all get to take turns leading it. So that's my favorite is when we just had a woman in the program lead for the first time leave Goshen for the first time, and it's a really big deal.

00;17;19;18 - 00;17;45;00
Unknown
Yeah, for sure. So, then at lunch, we I I'll brag about this too, because my staff is amazing during, the recession. Right. That was three years ago. Four years ago. Three years ago, we. Anyways, we started a food program and we started providing food from different food banks. But then we started taking the food from the food banks and providing two hot meals a week.

00;17;45;03 - 00;18;01;20
Unknown
And we just extended that to five. Wow. So now we know that our women, we get to eat lunch together. Yeah. So it's like a sacred time, right? And then we get home cooked meals five days a week. So we know our women will have access to good, healthy food. And then it also provides a job for our women.

00;18;01;20 - 00;18;25;22
Unknown
And then they get to learn how to cook. I mean, there's just so much goodness that comes out of that. Is it ever a little, hard when, a woman gets in the program initially like, no, no, no, you have to show up here at eight. Oh, you have to like, it's so some of our women show up with, like, no job experience, you know, like, when we're, you know, when we're doing internships in college and school and they're in the life, right?

00;18;25;22 - 00;18;46;17
Unknown
Yeah. So they come and, there's no, no. Right. They've never haven't had structure of being on time every day at 830. And here's the structure around you. And yeah. So there's a lot of grace that first year. Yeah for sure for sure a lot of grace to get women stable enough and healthy enough to function. Yeah.

00;18;46;19 - 00;19;11;16
Unknown
So yeah, it's a big deal. We celebrate a lot. So we had we hired a hiring class this year of seven. I think it was seven. And we have we've had 100% retention rate. That's awesome. It's awesome. And we're celebrating that. And again I'm so proud. It's probably because you're serenity Guard. And I remember that. I love our Serenity Guard and I love our when I was there we you took us around the tour.

00;19;12;00 - 00;19;32;05
Unknown
I don't know if it was you. I can't remember, but I remember the Serenity Garden. Yeah, it's beautiful. And when I was on your website, I remembered that. So that's where things happen there. Yeah, it's the the peaceful, quiet place. Yeah, well, that's super interesting. I want to start I want to kind of go through your history a rethread it a little bit.

00;19;32;07 - 00;19;47;13
Unknown
It's for those of you want to know, it's on the website. It was really nicely done. I was asking you for your bio before, and why didn't you just tell me? Aaron, go to the website. It's all on the website because I think I, I didn't know it was there. It was. It was just laid out really nice.

00;19;47;13 - 00;20;13;21
Unknown
So I kind of want to go through the progression because 2024 was 13 years, right? Okay. So you founded in 2012. We know we talked about that. You talked about your your multi multi multi multi imports established and first home party. What a home party. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So that was before before we threaded was called re threaded I was calling it moved to imports.

00;20;13;21 - 00;20;34;19
Unknown
And it was a for profit company because I really wanted to have a for profit company for women. So is re threaded a nonprofit. It's a nonprofit okay. So we started doing home parties. So I knew all these vendors in India who were employing survivors of human trafficking. So I would bring those I would bring those gifts over and we I would sell them at home parties.

00;20;34;19 - 00;20;53;17
Unknown
So, yeah, we had our first home party, made our first dollar. And then eventually through lots of, advice, we changed it to a nonprofit, okay. Which was actually a very, very, very smart decision. Right, right, right. So that's yeah, that's how that's the first time part. Yeah. We started our the main way we made money in the beginning was home parties.

00;20;53;17 - 00;21;11;07
Unknown
Okay. We'd go just like a Mary Kay party. Right. That's kind of what I was thinking. Exactly. So in that when you just started, would you just grab a couple survivors and say, hey, I need your help kind of thing? Or which you it would. So I was I came back from India and for two years I worked as a dietician.

00;21;11;15 - 00;21;32;17
Unknown
Like I actually use my degree for the first time. Right. And I would run home parties at night. Okay. Saved all that money, and then I quit my job and worked as a nanny part time and worked on re threat developing re threaded and then went full time the summer of 2012. To launch it. And I forgot the question.

00;21;32;20 - 00;21;53;02
Unknown
I'm telling you the history was the question. It's, Yeah, we were just talking about this. The what what was the functionality of okay parties. So you bring so then for, so I saved all that money, and then we launched the summer of 20, 2012 with me full time and a part time bookkeeper and an intern. Okay.

00;21;53;05 - 00;22;15;16
Unknown
So we launched in July, and then we hired three survivors full time. I mean, I could write a book and what not to do. We hired survivors full time. We all can. Kando. Yeah. That's true. Hired survivors full time to make product. So they learned how to sew, and it was a lot. Yeah. So that's how we brought survivors in.

00;22;15;16 - 00;22;25;11
Unknown
At the beginning was full time. And now? Now it's a whole beautiful program, right? That. Well, now that I'm thinking about it, like,

00;22;25;11 - 00;22;34;14
Unknown
did you know you would be dealing with, airline seats? Is that why you called it re threaded? No, it was culinary threaded at the beginning. We knew we were going to do t shirts. Okay.

00;22;34;15 - 00;22;56;27
Unknown
Right. So how so? Because re threaded means kind of means me taking something old and making it. It's making it's deeper than that. It's, taking something that was meant for this purpose and using it for a different. Gotcha, gotcha. So it's kind of like this idea of re threading our lives, right? This pain, hard things that happened to you or sometimes meant to hurt you and destroy you.

00;22;56;27 - 00;23;13;25
Unknown
So we take that pain and we're thread it, and we use it to reach our potential to heal and reach. Awesome, awesome. So it started off with t shirts, and then in 2017, that's when we got the phone call from southwest. They're like, hey, do you want to be part of this program? That's like, heck yeah, yeah.

00;23;13;25 - 00;23;15;21
Unknown
Well, you kind of hit on my next point.

00;23;15;21 - 00;23;34;14
Unknown
Well, let's go back to the first building, 2022. You literally had a building donated by somebody. Yeah. Load King. I don't know if anyone knows the company. Load King. It's like this hidden treasure. They're they're a national company in Jacksonville. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's run by the Chuck family. And what do they do? So they, outfit.

00;23;34;14 - 00;23;55;10
Unknown
So, like, Starbucks would hire them when they open a new Starbucks, load. King makes everything for the store, puts it in a shipping container and ships it and installs a store. So they have, a bagel company like companies hire them. So they literally donated you a building. Yeah, they donated us a building. Wow. No air conditioning.

00;23;55;12 - 00;24;19;04
Unknown
Only two offices that were air conditioned. And the rest. Hey, we start with the building and our opening. Yeah. And then we had that. We repainted it, repainted the floors, and then at our opening party on July 14th, 2012, July in Florida, no air conditioning. I was like, we set up a store. Yeah, me and all my friends, like anyone who is my friend, was on my board and got on my board or they helped out at that time.

00;24;19;06 - 00;24;41;21
Unknown
Right. And we had we were expecting at most, you know, like 200, 500 people showed up. Wow. And we had our record sales of $12,000 and that record held for like six more years. Wow. So it was like Jacksonville embraced us literally from day one of sales. Like one day. One day. Right? We had no inventory system. We had no everything was by hand.

00;24;41;29 - 00;25;02;02
Unknown
I mean, oh my gosh, it was it was so fun. And it's okay. And it was something so good stressed I do I think about it like, oh my gosh, I understand. Well, you talked about hiring your first three employees in 2012. Now let's go to the next thing was on your timeline. It's scarf legacy. What does that mean?

00;25;02;02 - 00;25;21;09
Unknown
So that's around that time we also created our signature product, which I do not have on today is our gray scarf. And it's a t shirt scarf made out of scarves made out of t shirts. And it had this deep meaning to it. And, once we told the story and what it meant to people, it became like our signature product.

00;25;21;09 - 00;25;38;06
Unknown
It's kind of like what every company dreams, right? Right. And when you would wear it around town and people be like, oh, this re threaded and people would know this, you know, you said t shirts, were they given to you, t shirts that were for some donated T-shirts. Okay. And it was interesting to at that point, the scarf was the best selling that we made jewelry and all kinds of stuff.

00;25;38;06 - 00;26;00;07
Unknown
But the stuff the scarf is what's stuck. Well, what's really interesting, going back to the business sense that you have is telling a story and deeper meaning behind your Prada is a winner, right? Sure. Winner. Whether you're doing what your work or whatever, that's a winner. Yeah. Which is. Yeah. Which is why our taffy, our taffy is honestly the.

00;26;00;07 - 00;26;28;29
Unknown
I would put up our talk against any other taffy in the world, and it has this deep meaning. Right purpose. Right? Right. You launched first retail store on Barrett Street. That's different than the old King building. No. That's okay. Awesome, awesome. So retail store. 2015 established pathways for growth. And what I'm guessing from what, talking to you a little bit, like you have really specific processes and plans that the survivors go through that we do not.

00;26;28;29 - 00;26;53;08
Unknown
But so when I was so my stuff. So I am a entrepreneur to my core ideas and energy and I understand I will run myself into the ground with ideas. But we have this amazing staff. Jason Jones, our CEO, he came around 2015. And then Nikki, who's now our CFO, came around the same time. And that's when we really started to put structure and structure, and that's when we started to have career paths, development.

00;26;53;08 - 00;27;16;04
Unknown
Right. So at that time was manufacturing, retail and retail. Yeah. And now we have 5 or 6 career paths that women can take. Interesting, interesting, interesting traction into our business around that time too, though it's a business operating system and it changed our lives. Well, what is that? What do you mean it's a traction like a it's a or just right EOS us.

00;27;16;05 - 00;27;34;04
Unknown
Oh, of course I know. We use us here. Oh my gosh, it that's funny that you say that is awesome. We implemented that and we have growth every year. So when you say you implemented it because this is really interesting it you implemented the the way you conduct meetings, the the implementation the run your goal through here. Yep.

00;27;34;04 - 00;27;55;17
Unknown
Rocks. Wow. Did you have a consultant come in to help you with that or Jason Jones is, the CMO is an operational genius. Wow. So I, someone gave me the book. I read the book and the book, and the book started saying, do you control your business or does your business control you? And I cried, and I was like, Jason, Jason, we have to do this.

00;27;55;17 - 00;28;16;08
Unknown
And he said, I will do this on one condition that you don't change your mind right? So we did it. We did all the work and it was a game changer, right? It's still game changer for me. Interesting. Love the tidbits we're hitting on here. Serious topic, but some, you know, side tangents on really what works for business.

00;28;16;21 - 00;28;35;01
Unknown
The, entrepreneur that has all the great ideas is now part of being how does it feel to be structured? Are you okay? Oh, it hurts so bad sometimes. Sometimes I call Jason the Dream Crusher, and sometimes I call him the dream. Okay, so it just depends on I understand. Yeah, I understand, circle of sisters, tune out of the 19.

00;28;35;01 - 00;28;59;06
Unknown
What's that? We we have our women's affinity giving circle. So it's our women who want to give their time, treasure and talent. And we have now 85 women who volunteers on the radio. And it's a it's a giving circle. So they give money and they there's they're kind of like our inner circle. Okay. And they get they do our dress for success program and, have to go through a training to become special volunteers.

00;28;59;06 - 00;29;17;11
Unknown
Okay, ladies, but they're kind of like, you know, like elders in a church, kind of. Yeah, yeah. Next level. Interesting. And then I see a band of brothers in our band, and brother, it's the men in. We let them in, and then, because this is a great point, because everyone thinks that this is a women's issue.

00;29;17;11 - 00;29;35;17
Unknown
Like, usually women show up, but in reality, this is an issue. Yeah. And like it's going to it takes both men and women. And right now the band of brothers they've been really working on. What are we going to do about demand. Right, right. How are we going to come alongside other men? And because we have this belief, right.

00;29;35;26 - 00;29;58;11
Unknown
A woman's journey to being sold is broken, right? No. No woman chooses that. Right? Right. And then. But a man's journey to buying is broken, too, right? So how can we bring restoration? Everybody interesting. And stop the cycle. Yeah, interesting. This really stood out. In 2020, Covid hit. You guys made masks. We did an awesome pivot.

00;29;58;12 - 00;30;17;02
Unknown
Yeah. So we were at that. Know how to make masks now? No one knew how to make masks. How do you make them? But again, we had we had, at that point, we were in 20 800ft² and then offsite, we had three storage containers full of t shirts, and we had this one that was full of brand new t shirts.

00;30;17;02 - 00;30;34;18
Unknown
And when the pandemic hit, no one had masks. And we're like, well, we have these storage containers full of t shirts. We made t shirt mask and we were we were the first one out and and the t shirt. But then we also were one of the first ones to do medical mask. We got access and then the hospitals used them.

00;30;34;18 - 00;31;03;08
Unknown
We had a partnership with Vystar and all the credit unions got together and funded making masks to us, and then we were donating them to the hospitals. And yeah, our whole warehouse became, a mass, a mass production facility. Well, that had to be a pretty quick pivot. It was a quick pivot, like, which is one thing in my my skill set that I can pivot like nobody because of my ADHD entrepreneurial spirit.

00;31;03;10 - 00;31;21;12
Unknown
How did you like. But seriously, how did you figure out how to make masks? Because I mean, like on the internet? Yeah, on the internet. And then Jason, worked with our design manager at the time, and one of our survivors was really savvy, too. Okay. And they they're the ones that really developed them. The medical masks. Interesting.

00;31;21;14 - 00;31;41;12
Unknown
Wow. Wow. Going on in 2021, you purchased your first building or home, 36,000ft² in the. My one five is not in the middle of Covid in the middle of Covid. So that's where you are now. That's where we are now. And that's a big like Q acres. Yeah, yeah, it's a compound. So tell us how you found it.

00;31;41;12 - 00;32;02;26
Unknown
Like how you went about buying it. How does that work. So we were in 20 800ft² for ten years. Yeah. We were looking for a building for about four years. And then Covid hit. And about two months into Covid, we reached out to this realtor we know, and he showed us four places. The last place was 515. We call it 515.

00;32;02;28 - 00;32;24;16
Unknown
We walked on 515 and we're like, we knew instantly, this is it. Yeah. Like this is are going to be our forever home. Was it in bad shape? Did you know it was it was, it was in move in a bull shape. Right. It was a auction home okay. This auction house at the time. And I mean I love this story because again Jacksonville showed out right.

00;32;24;16 - 00;32;46;06
Unknown
Yeah. It's in the middle of Covid. We found this building. We put an offer down. We have six months to buy it outright. So it's $1.2 million which is to me is just like an exorbitant amount of money. I mean, a billion in my this will be a million. And we bought the building debt free, with enough money to rehab the first section of it and move in.

00;32;46;06 - 00;33;08;27
Unknown
Gosh was incredible. Six months of organizing donations. Yeah, we bought the building and then we had about eight more months of rehab to we did. Yeah, we made it look nicer, put in insulation and all that good stuff. How did you know it was the place for you? Right. Because we knew it was. You can remember the moment like, oh yeah, we walked in and it equipped it, it equipped us.

00;33;08;27 - 00;33;29;27
Unknown
We there was space to grow. Right. And we've been we have two buildings that we've been renting out for the past two years. So that's income. So while we're growing we can rent these out and still grow. Right. And we're near Springfield, which is a great it's a great neighborhood near East Side, which is being developed. And so we just met all of these criteria.

00;33;29;27 - 00;33;51;00
Unknown
Right, right. And it was like a unanimous incredible, incredible. So this get to the exciting one that you've referenced before. Yeah. Is purchase the toffee. Like so you purchased a toffee business. Oh my gosh. At the same realize you're just trying to make mask and jewelry that toffee doesn't fit into that well. Well the funny thing is we bought the oh we bought poor Jason, our CEO.

00;33;51;03 - 00;34;11;10
Unknown
We bought the toffee company in the same time we bought the building. Oh my gosh. We had I had met Anita. It was called Amelia Toffee. I had met Anita two years prior to this guy in the company. And we have to sell survivor made. So she took our survivor made coffee and our honey and tea, and she infused it in her toffee neat.

00;34;11;12 - 00;34;29;18
Unknown
And then we sold it, and it quickly became one of our number one bestsellers. So it worked out. Now that we have the new building right, we could build out a kitchen. And she was ready to sell, right? So it was perfect timing, perfect merger. We knew it was a great product. Yes. Tested? Yes. Corporate gifts. Right. Yeah.

00;34;29;18 - 00;34;48;26
Unknown
We bought bought it and never looked back. And it's our number one bestselling product now by far. Wow. Yeah. And you sell that online in addition to in your store. We sell it online sometimes because we can't ship it. Right, right right. Delegate. Yeah for sure. That's the downfall. But have you had it. Yeah I need it.

00;34;48;27 - 00;35;08;15
Unknown
I having an apple toffee is really good. I'm sure yours is amazing. Yes. Literally. Yeah. Yeah. Did what? Because you were using the toffee before. So that's really what gave you the idea? Hey. Yeah. Are you interested in selling. This is a perfect thing. Yeah. And then we didn't know this but like when we bought the company it came with a chef.

00;35;09;13 - 00;35;32;04
Unknown
Darlene who's like still there. Oh she's still there. She's full time with us now. She was only a couple hours a week and. Yeah but now she's full time. She's incredible. Yeah. And so, so for example like, we have coffee toffee. Right. And it's infused toffee infused with coffee. So they take our survivor made coffee and they make a coffee extract.

00;35;32;04 - 00;35;56;10
Unknown
So we have homemade coffee extract. We have homemade vanilla extract. They make they roast their own peanut butter and put it in there. So like, it's like this amazing artisanal toffee. Yeah. But that is even more amazing than we thought when we bought it, right? Because of the people that came with it. Oh, man, that's awesome. And then it goes on now, which was interesting just this past year.

00;35;56;16 - 00;36;16;09
Unknown
Now the production is on your on your ground. On ground. We okay. We finally the the industrial kitchen took longer to build out than the entire, 21,000ft² we're in. So when you like. Yeah. And that's hard for people to understand. Yeah. That haven't worked in our no. One industrial. Like what's an industrial kitchen like. What is it.

00;36;16;16 - 00;36;37;00
Unknown
What is it. So we have to have there's all these special architectural things you have to have. Everything has to be space differently. We have a huge freezer because you make the top and then flash freeze it. You have to have, like a certain burner with a certain hood on it. I mean, there was all these specifications, so it's a large, very regulated kitchen.

00;36;38;07 - 00;36;58;01
Unknown
Regulated by the FDA, the city, the government, I mean all the levels. Yeah. You have to have it. Food inspector like, I mean it's like all the levels, right. So it's just a different beast. What we did right now is that does that just do the top the top five or did you fix your meals through that too?

00;36;58;02 - 00;37;23;06
Unknown
Right now we don't do it just for toffee. And then we make meals in our, putting air quotes kitchen. Yeah. We have, we have like, pressure cookers and, and toaster ovens and somehow they just make it work. They cook for 42 people every single day without an oven. Wow. That's amazing. And some of it's, do we have the best people ever read it?

00;37;23;14 - 00;37;48;16
Unknown
That's amazing. Well, you just celebrated your 13th birthday in 2024. And I have to ask because I can just see it oozing from you. What? What's the next product coming? Any sneak peeks? Ideas? There's definitely some in your head, I can tell. There. There always is. I'm probably most excited about I'm going to write my first section of a book.

00;37;48;19 - 00;38;06;09
Unknown
Okay? It's going to be about finding your purpose and living out your purpose. So that's like my project right now. So that is I'm getting really excited. Yeah, we we already have the book cover designed and I haven't even read the book. So that's which is very typical. Yeah. Just just fill it in. Yeah I believe that. I mean start writing.

00;38;06;09 - 00;38;28;21
Unknown
Yeah. That's awesome. And and I'm glad that kind of bleeds into you because I wanted to talk about you a little bit. Just doing the research on Facebook and everything else. You're an ocean swimmer. I am how how far out in the ocean do you go? Not that we you have to get out. So you swim out past the breakers, and then you swim parallel to the shore, right?

00;38;28;23 - 00;38;45;09
Unknown
And you swim. Usually we try to swim with the current, right? So depending on the day, you do it with people, right? So I don't do it by myself, okay? I only do dumb things with other people. Oh, God. Okay. That's good. Because when I texted you the other morning, you're like, I just got out of the beach, and I'm like, hold on a second.

00;38;45;09 - 00;39;03;02
Unknown
It's. It's, December here, and you're swimming in the beach so you don't wear a wetsuit. You must be pretty, tough. This is a new. Yeah, I usually wear a wetsuit, but, my wetsuits don't fit anymore. So I was like, well, I don't want to stop swimming. Yeah. So I found that I really, like I really love the cold water.

00;39;03;02 - 00;39;26;00
Unknown
Yeah. It's like all the I mean, it's kind of like on trend now. Well, yeah, for sure, but it stops and everything. It stops all the voices in my head. Yeah, I feel peaceful. I mean, I swim faster. Yeah. I want to get out of the cold. Right, right. But I just it's this amazing sensation of, you're in this cold water and your feet or hands are cold, but all the blood is in your core, and you're warm.

00;39;26;00 - 00;39;42;19
Unknown
Yeah. In this really cold environment. And there's. I just love it. Yeah, well, that's all in the sunrise. I mean, it's beautiful. I love the beach. I'm a beach person. I'm not out there swimming that far out because, I always like to see the bottom. That kind of freaks me out. But I'm glad you're braver than me.

00;39;42;21 - 00;40;01;17
Unknown
No, I know everyone. Things ask me about sharks. And I was like, sharks is not my worry about it. I. I would feel sorry for the shark that would try to take you on. I think they, Now listen to one of your podcast. Sounds like you have an earring problem. Could you do have an earring? This, works because I thought that was very interesting.

00;40;01;19 - 00;40;22;09
Unknown
Okay, that episode was about. We ended up talking about leadership. Yes. And I in the best. Literally, I'm the best customer at Rethread and buying earrings, right. Because they. I only want to wear we threaded earrings, but I lose earrings all the time. Okay. Like literally all the time. And you're just aware of the problem and you still do it?

00;40;22;12 - 00;40;43;04
Unknown
Yes. Okay. Except, these earrings are for me threaded that I have on, and they have backs on them. And now I never take them off. So I swim in them, shower them. So far, I haven't bought a pair of earrings in like six months, which is a record. Wow. Yeah. And sometimes I let the fact that I lose everything discount me as a leader.

00;40;43;07 - 00;41;01;06
Unknown
Yeah, but it's just part of who I am. Well, yeah, I'm. And I'm confident you're a good leader. You can lose earrings. You're still be good. Now, I saw you had a significant milestone last year. You bought your first house. I did, I bought my first house I can you is it close to work? You? Well, this is me.

00;41;01;06 - 00;41;24;21
Unknown
Okay, I live next. I did live next door to my best friends. Okay? For, eight years. But I rented a house next door to them. And then we have these neighbors, and we're all, like, really good friends who take care of each other. I'm single, so I like having my little tucked in community, and I, I run an eBay side hustle, so I've been saving for a while to get a down payment, and.

00;41;24;24 - 00;41;40;23
Unknown
But I didn't want to move because I don't want to move out of my little people. Right? Right. And then the house across the street came available miraculously, and we didn't have to put it on the market, because I knew her and I just bought it from her. And I literally moved across the street and bought my first house.

00;41;40;26 - 00;42;01;26
Unknown
Well, congrats. And now I just have a deeper understanding of all things. I don't know if I love it yet because it's been very well. Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's a different mindset when you want it 100%. It's a totally different mindset. Yeah, it's funny hearing your story and re threaded, your hard work and your perseverance and putting yourself in tough situations.

00;42;01;28 - 00;42;18;11
Unknown
I feel like the light has shined upon you that things are happening the way that they should. For somebody like you, do you feel the same way? I'll take that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, good. And you graduated from you. If you're a gator, I'm a gator. And food science, which is what I was. I thought that was really interesting.

00;42;18;11 - 00;42;39;29
Unknown
Nutrition. Yeah. It makes complete sense when you're making masks. In my in my previous I was I majored in food science dietitian. And then I did a year internship in Augusta, Georgia. And I got my license as a dietitian, and I've only worked two years in my life as a licensed dietitian. Interesting. Well, I imagine that that training kind of helped a little bit with the food and stuff or.

00;42;39;29 - 00;42;57;00
Unknown
No, not really. No, I forgot well, you know, going to school, we go to school and things happen in life after that. I know that's what I was. I don't have to tell you. My dad had a PhD in food science and that was a long time ago. That's what made it stand out. Wow. Oh, you were when I was going through, going through that.

00;42;57;07 - 00;43;16;29
Unknown
Well, I definitely want to mention your podcast because, I was super nervous when I asked you on the show, and then I realize you have your own podcast. I'm like, oh, man, I better have my best foot forward. And I listened to, several episodes. The main ones I love were the summaries of last year where it was kind of in the middle of the year.

00;43;16;29 - 00;43;41;18
Unknown
I think it was your first full year, and you summarized a lot of the things, and I love that. Like talk about your podcast and why you wanted to do it. So I we now have this process. Our process is called retreading lives. And it's the make up these five powers, time, time, community, openness. Of course I knew I would forget them because I'm a little nervous to talk about it.

00;43;41;18 - 00;44;00;21
Unknown
So the five powers and you invest in these in your life and you reach your potential. So we watched women go through hard things all the time, right? And they come out on the other side with complete restoration. And I was like, how do you do that? And we interviewed them and counselors and we came up with like, oh my gosh, here's the threaded process, and I want to help other people.

00;44;00;21 - 00;44;18;17
Unknown
Like, we all have hard things. Like no one is immune to it. Right. So how did these people make it through these hard things? And then how can we use these powers in our life to overcome and heal? So I interview people who've been through hard things and learn from them, and it's like changing my life to interview these people.

00;44;18;17 - 00;44;36;22
Unknown
So hard things not necessarily related to re threaded, but just all over. Yeah, just all over. Like one woman grew up at 12, she emancipated herself and moved away from her family and started a totally different life with her aunt and uncle. Wow. Six states away. And how did she do that? Yeah, right. Like all these amazing people.

00;44;36;29 - 00;44;59;23
Unknown
Billy Wagner. Yeah. Billy Wagner, like, interviewed him. And how do you use the most with your time? Right. Just. Yeah, we have amazing people in Jacksonville. There was a gentleman. I can't remember his name. Like his granddad was something to me about that. Josh Travis. Right? Yeah. What activist do you need to bring? Travis? Okay, okay. Travis runs.

00;45;00;27 - 00;45;28;18
Unknown
He's the CEO at, Lyft. Jax. Okay. The east side. So east side is the area near the stadium between the Springfield and the stadium, and they're it's they're doing community revival. And Travis grew up in that neighborhood. His family is multi-generational in that neighborhood. And now he's in charge of live Jax, of revitalizing the neighborhood. Yeah, and you have to listen to the podcast, but it involved him finding out the work that his grandfather had done.

00;45;28;21 - 00;45;51;13
Unknown
So he was starting to do without even knowing, without even knowing. That's like wild, full circle moment for me. Yeah. That's crazy. It's a good moment. You talk a lot. In the podcast, you're talking about themes getting through hard stuff and how they did that. And obviously that can help you talk to the people you ministered to or, or help, you talk about a threaded life.

00;45;51;13 - 00;46;13;25
Unknown
What does that mean? That means the complete restoration of all the hard things that happened. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Like it's taking whatever those hard things are, healing and those threads like, like we think of the ideas potential as, like, a sphere. So like when you go through hard things, it contracts your space to hold life. So let's heal.

00;46;13;25 - 00;46;40;29
Unknown
Let's take those threads and heal them and expand your ability to whole life to reach potential. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, definitely check out the podcast. Well, I wanted to mention to, you know, I'm sure you're modest, but man, there's just a string of awards that Reddit has gotten investing in you and award Jax Boldness Award, one Spark Award project one Ray All Stars, U.S. Senate Small Business Best of Jax 2023 I mean, there's got to be several more, I'm sure.

00;46;41;01 - 00;47;12;10
Unknown
So I'm so proud of it. It's your energy. We can definitely feel it. And, I love having you on the podcast. It really, I think I wanted to get to where we started, and reiterate that on trafficking is just not what you think it is, and it's more common than you think it is. Like, if somebody feels like there's a situation going on, how how could they how could they help, like, or how could they notify someone that even knows what to do.

00;47;12;10 - 00;47;32;07
Unknown
So immediately, if there's anyone in danger, call 911. Okay. The second, if you see something and it's suspicious, you can call the non-emergency police line and put in a report because people don't think that matters. It so matters. That's helping the police build case, right? There's a trafficker who wore, like this green jacket everywhere. And they kept getting these reports.

00;47;32;07 - 00;47;53;15
Unknown
This guy in this green jacket. Wow. So every time someone does that, it's a it's a it's a report. And then what I tell most people is like, human trafficking is a symptom of disconnection. So you have to invest in your community. You have you have to help the vulnerable like we have to do that or human trafficking wins.

00;47;54;03 - 00;48;13;23
Unknown
So that's, that's my word is like let's take care of each other, invest in the lives of kids. I mean be the best husband, be the best dad, right. Be the best version of who you are. Yeah, yeah. Take care of each other. Yeah. Now it's, it's touching and very important and a very serious topic.

00;48;13;23 - 00;48;37;10
Unknown
But I love how you've really taken your entrepreneurial spirit and make and taking this bad thing into a great thing. Your toffee, your gifts, your earrings, your the food. I mean, it's really incredible and a great lesson for a lot on some of the things that we brought up. So Kristen, thank you. Thank you. This was awesome.

00;48;37;10 - 00;48;45;23
Unknown
Thank you. And I really appreciate your time. Can I go down as one of the best ones and, look forward to keep following your progress. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

00;48;45;23 - 00;48;59;29
Unknown
The Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.