Brian: 0:09

All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast. We are back here with Audrey and Mike at the Seahorse Lane Boutique and we're excited to get into this next part, and you guys have done awesome. We have really enjoyed sitting with you both, getting to know you more and know more about your story, and I just want to encourage anybody out there, if you're shopping and you're downtown in Vero, downtown Vero which part of downtown Vero is this? Because like I said there's multiple ones on Monday.

Audrey: 0:37

We're on 14th Ave Main.

Brian: 0:38

Street. Main Street, Vero Beach there you go, make sure you stop by here and see Audrey.

Mike: 0:44

Or really if you're in any of the towns surrounding. It's not that long of a drive, it's worth it.

Brian: 0:48

All right. Why did you choose Vero Beach? It's home.

Audrey: 0:52

It's home, like there was no other place we wanted to be. I was born here at Indian River Hospital. I grew up in Vero. I went to Osceola Magnet School, went to Gifford. One part of my story that a lot of people don't know is that I went to high school in Mississippi. So my dad's job. He got transferred out to Mississippi so I went to high school in Mississippi. Can you imagine transferring from Vero to the middle of the Mississippi Delta? So shout out to all my Mississippi friends, do you?

Brian: 1:29

hear the little accent come out right now.

Audrey: 1:32

That's where I really started developing a love for small boutiques. So in Mississippi we really only had Walmart or you had your downtown shops and I just loved going down there after school browsing the different stores, finding something cute different stores, finding something cute and I was met with just a friendly and welcoming face and they knew what you liked and where you were going and what you needed your outfits for. And I think their one store that I really liked in high school was called Mud Puddles. So Cleveland, mississippi, is where we lived and they still have a fabulous downtown.

Audrey: 2:18

I actually have multiple friends that own stores down there and they are doing so well. Their downtown is amazing, and actually two of the girls that I was friends with in high school own boutiques in Mississippi. How fun. So shout out to Mod and Proper and H Squared so that was my Mississippi connection. And proper and H squared, so that was my Mississippi connection. So my dad let go from that job in 2007, 2008, during that recession period right. A lot of shifting around in the economy.

Mike: 2:49

He moved back to Vero and Vero was home. Yeah, vero is definitely home. As Audrey said, we have roots here, a lot of family and friends to support us. I mean, that's been a big part of this, as we mentioned in the first episode, having our parents here just to watch the kids so we can get some work done occasionally. You know what I mean. Having free babysitters, like come on.

Brian: 3:12

Shout out to free babysitters.

Audrey: 3:14

Yes, yes, why would you live anywhere else?

Mike: 3:17

But you know, we went off to school, we came back, we got married. There really hasn't been even the slightest thought of moving anywhere else. We love this place.

Brian: 3:29

I get it. If I would have been born here, I never would have left either.

Mike: 3:33

No, don't get me wrong. We love vacationing, you know, and checking out other places and getting inspired. I think that's what Audrey was getting to with Mississippi. It was like she got inspiration from that and she's been able to now recreate that here in downtown Vero and give that small town friendly atmosphere. You know, yeah, we absolutely love this place. We spend most of our weekends this time of year. I mean, we're getting over to the beach, you know, these days with young kids it's pool parties and you know that kind of stuff, family events. We have a. Audrey's parents have a little bit of property out west and we've got a little farm out there, and so it really is it's home. What's not to love? One of the things that we've been talking about getting into here is the Vero Initiative, and I think it's that love for Vero and feeling like we've gotten a lot from Vero. We've always felt the need and the desire to give back to Vero.

Brian: 5:08

Talk to us about the Vero Initiative, because that was a big surprise when we reached out and I had no idea that that was you, and so tell us a little bit about that.

Audrey: 5:17

I think it was in 2016. So we've had the storefront about one year and I just really wanted to create a t-shirt that said Vero. That was cool. Like a local would want to wear it, a visitor would want to wear it A guy would want to wear it.

Audrey: 5:35

I kind of wanted to create something that wasn't super touristy but that represented our hometown right, and the love that we have for Vero. So we designed the logo. It's very simple. It has the X with V-E-R-O and our R is at the bottom. And yes, I did try to put the R where the O is. Okay, if anyone asks like why does it just go like clockwise? Well, like, aesthetically that didn't look as good. I promise I tried it. Y'all like, jot it down yourself and try it. Grab a napkin it. Y'all like, jot it down yourself and try it.

Audrey: 6:15

So we made our first round of shirts. It was about 40 shirts and I was like, oh my gosh, this is a lot Like. I'm so invested here. Remember, like, driving back to the store with all these shirts in my car, I told my dad I was talking to my dad. I was like, dad, I got all these Vero shirts now but I just I feel like I need to do something more than just sell a Vero shirt, like I, I want to give back with it. And he said, well, that's great, do whatever you want Like, pick whoever you want give, give something back. Well, I want to pick the women's refuge and I didn't know a ton about them at the time, but they're like a local nonprofit in town that helps women out of tough situations and they do a lot of really wonderful things, and so I sold the shirts and wrote them a give back check.

Audrey: 6:57

And they were so thankful and grateful and I was thankful and then we kept doing it month after month. We would pick a different local nonprofit to partner with. So we did it monthly for like the first three or four years. Yeah, then we realized, this is this is a lot of work, a lot of work back and forth.

Mike: 7:18

You know we were reaching out to nonprofits. You know building out this whole plan around. You know what month they're going to have. How are we going to co-promote it? You know all that to that to maximize the benefit. And then we realized to really maximize the benefit to the nonprofits that we're working with, we should probably extend the amount of time that we're focusing on them. So I think now we do it quarterly. Is that right?

Audrey: 7:43

Yeah, so we do it quarterly and we actually have it mapped out through 2025. It's nice because I can go ahead and set up the partnership and we have it set up through the rest of this year. So we are looking for partners for 2026. It's a short application. I got it online now, y'all.

Mike: 8:04

And I think that was the challenge early on is that there are so many good ones in Bureau. Yeah, I think the numbers are up to like over 27 grand that have been donated back through these partnerships, but I want to be clear that that's not really about us giving that back.

Mike: 8:22

It's about the customers coming alongside this initiative to buy these products and support these nonprofits. I mean, that's what this story is all really about. Is a community like showing their local love, showing that love for these nonprofits by buying these items? So many of these decals are on the back of some cars, you know, and then people see it and it's just this snowball effect of just more good happening in the community. I mean, I think there's a, there's a rally around. You know being able to identify that, you know you're from Vero and you're proud of that.

Audrey: 8:57

I always say the Vero logo to me is a symbol of like, love and respect for our hometown.

Brian: 9:02

What a blessing and it was just a blessing wrapped up for us when we met with you, audrey, and, and started hearing this story, and I was excited to hear more of it, because we think that's what really makes Vero, the Vero community, so important, such a beautiful place to be, and we're glad that we're able to call this Vero Beach our home now.

Mike: 9:21

I think kudos to the folks that have been here before us and that have done a lot of the planning around here to keep this local beach town vibe that makes it so special.

Brian: 9:34

And the most beautiful way to do that, to keep it this way, is for everybody to support local, to really get out here and support your local businesses, the people that are making this community so great, and it's not just the business owners, it's everybody, it's your neighbors, right? That's what this whole podcast is about is helping us meet our neighbors, the neighbors in Vero Beach, and actually, at the same time, learn the stories of the heart behind the people in Vero and how can we come alongside them and support them. So, audrey, mike, I want to say both of you guys, thank you so much for being our guests on the podcast. This has been awesome. What would you say is coming next for you guys? Oh man.

Mike: 10:11

Yeah, we're kind of waiting to see what God has in store. In a lot of ways, we've got a couple of kids. Maybe there's a third at some point down the road. I don't know, you know this is not a reveal.

Brian: 10:24

No, no, it is. It's not not a reveal, no no definitely not no, we're in.

Audrey: 10:29

I we're just really deep into parenting right now and we didn't get into that too much in this whole podcast, but we're very into learning to balance business ownership, parenting like you know, motherhood and fatherhood and creating really good rhythms to set our family up and ground us in this season, because I do think, like you know, we were talking about this the other day when you're faithful in the little things, god can bless you with more right.

Audrey: 10:56

Like he wants to right. He's a generous Father. So right now I feel like we're really grounding in to be faithful in the little things, and the little things I mean like our children right now. And so for Seahorse Lane I'm always kind of open-handed and prayerful in what I choose to put in our store and I think that's the season I'm in now. It's like really like curating. You know what we want here so that one day, if you know God willing, right, if he does want to grow us into a bigger presence online or another location in another town or something new altogether, like we want to be ready for that.

Brian: 11:41

Well, I love that. What I hear a lot, what you're saying about the future is really making sure everything that you're doing is dialed in and is purposeful, Purposeful and meaningful behind everything that you're doing, the decisions you're making, and that's a beautiful thing, Well, hey. Well, thanks for joining us and thank you guys again for sharing your story. I know it's going to be a blessing to many people in the community and they're going to get to know your hearts more. So, thank you to our neighbors that are listening. We want to thank you for tuning in.

Brian: 12:12

If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you leave us a review Every time you click review. That's supporting your local podcast as well, so hit subscribe so you don't miss more of the amazing stories that's going to be told here on the Vero Beach Podcast.

Mike: 12:24

Okay, see you next time, neighbor.