Running a Hardware Store and Supporting A Community With Christy Degenhart

Posted on November 21, 2022

Tad and Christy Degenhart don’t just own the local hardware store, they take care of their Central Texas community. Keeping a well-oiled machine of happy employees comes easily to this couple, and they do their best to support the rest of the Wimberley community as much as they can. Christy joins Steph Silver to share how they used their ACE Hardware franchise to give back to the people, particularly after the 2015 floods devastated this area. They did not only donate money, time, hard work, and hardware, but they also spent countless hours feeding those whose homes were lost or in complete disrepair. Christy also shares tips for aspiring female entrepreneurs, striking the best work-life balance, and hiring the most responsible people for your team.

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Listen to the podcast here

How To Build A Community Using A Hardware Store With Christy Degenhart

Our guest is Christy Degenhart, owner of the local Ace Hardware store and gift shop. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

I’m glad to talk to you. I don’t know if you know this, but we put it out on the Wimberley Facebook Community Forum what people’s favorite businesses were. You and Wimberley Cafe were by far the highest.

That’s nice. I did not know that.

You were already on my list to call. I got to do it now. Thanks for coming. Thank you for all the support that you give to the community.

Thank you.

Let’s start off by you telling us a little bit about who you were before you purchased Ace Hardware. How did you get to this place?

That is a tough one because I don’t remember who I was before Ace Hardware. My husband and I met in the summer of ‘92. It was the summer after I graduated from high school. He just had finished his freshman year of college. He was back working at Ace for the summer. I was there with a mutual friend. She sat down at the snack bar where he was taking a break. That’s how we met. Pretty much from that point forward, Ace has played a part in my life since I was eighteen years old.

About a year later, we started dating and saw Forrest Gump on our first date. Ace has been a part of my life for many years. I had friends that worked there all the way through high school and college. It was a place where we would all meet up and leave cars to go out and that kind of thing, grow as a teenager. Moving on, it’s always been a focus of our lives.

You were from Texas. Born in Denton and then moved far away.

I left part of the story out because it might be boring. When I was nine months old, we moved to New Jersey the first time. We lived up there two times. The first time we moved outside of Princeton to a little town called Cranberry, my dad worked for a chemical plant. The corporate office was in New Jersey. We moved up there because he got promoted. We lived up there for five years and then he got another promotion, which moved us back to Texas. We lived in Grapevine. The economy fell in the ‘80s. My dad lost his job at the chemical plant, and then he got a job with a company that made 55-gallon drums in Houston.

We moved to Houston. We were there for three years. He got promoted. Their corporate office was in New Jersey. We moved back to New Jersey. I was there from 6th grade through 11th grade. Summer after my junior of high school, we moved to Wimberley. Tad graduated from Wimberley in ’91. I didn’t move here until after he graduated. I was a senior the next year and didn’t know him. Even though we went to the same school, we didn’t go together. It’s funny, a lot of people think we were high school sweethearts, but we didn’t meet until after I graduated from high school.

Maybe you would’ve been if you’d been a couple earlier, or maybe you would’ve hated each other.

That’s possible.

Describe a little bit of what Wimberley was like when you came back and when you moved here for the first time.

It’s quiet. Everything shut down at like 5:00. All the stores closed. The lights turned off when it got dark. There was nothing. It was a big change for me from living on the East Coast and it was constantly something going on and everything’s open all the time and there’s all these things to do. You moved here and there wasn’t a lot to do. It was the most welcoming and what could have been the worst year of my life because it was my senior year, which should have been a great year. It could have been a terrible year, but these people welcomed me. They included me in everything. They treated me like I’d been here forever. That’s what grabbed me and made me want to be a part of Wimberley forever because they made me feel like I had been. In a time when they could have made me feel like an outsider, they never did.

Hardware Store: Wimberley is a most welcoming community. People will include you in everything and treat you like you have been living in it forever.

I felt that way as well. I won’t get into politics, but one of the things that I find interesting about Wimberly is it’s this wide breadth of different types of people, incredibly artistic. The ag industry and political spectrum is huge. We all still commune and love each other in a unique way. Ace was in the center of town. There wasn’t much beyond it at that point.

They had a gas station then. That’s where I went to get my gas, which was new for me because Jersey girls don’t pump gas. I had to get my own gas. I felt comfortable at Ace Hardware. That’s where I went for my gas every time. That’s how I started going there. I had friends that were also seniors that were working there. I would hang out at the snack bar and eat candy and drink soda. It was good times.

That’s fun. Small town Texas, perfect little story. How did you come to be Ace Hardware’s owner, from hanging out at the snack bar to being head?

That’s funny. Tad started working there in high school. He knew from the get go that was what he wanted to do. He always knew that he wanted to own the hardware store, he wanted that store, and he loved it. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I went to Texas A&M. I got a degree in Kinesiology. I was looking into cardiac rehab as a job and didn’t take that path right after graduation. My parents had a company in San Marcos. They needed somebody to come work with them. I’m like, “I’ll go do that.” I did. Ten years later, I was still with them. I started having kids. Tad and I had gotten married. We moved to Wimberly.

We’d been living in San Marcos. We moved back to Wimberly full-time and started having babies. I needed to make a little extra money. I started working part-time at the store, helping in the gift department. He would get home from work at 5:00 in the afternoon. I would immediately walk out the door and go work the store until about midnight. We had a night crew back then. I suddenly realized that I had this passion for retail. It was fun. I loved doing the buying, setting the product out, helping customers, and helping them find the perfect gift and the thing that they were looking for.

That was so much fun. I loved interacting with all the people. Especially being a stay-at-home mom before that with two young kids that were a year apart, it was refreshing to get out and be around people. That’s how I started getting involved. In 2003, we opened a store in Canyon Lake with the previous owner of the Wimberley store. We were partners with them in that store. That’s how that all came about. We became partners in the Canyon Lake store. When the previous owner was ready to retire, we bought him out of both stores. Here we are.

Do you and Tad run it together? How is it working with him?

We don’t see each other a lot because he does all the important things and all the financial stuff and the insurance and all the stuff that I have not that much interest in. He handles all that. He goes back and forth to both stores every day. He’s back and forth constantly. I’m gift department, which in events and all that thing. I handle that for both stores, but I have a great team of people that work for me. They do a lot of the hard stuff. We aren’t working together that much. We have breakfast a lot together at the snack bar. We’ll see each other in and out of the store. We do talk about Ace a lot. It’s the majority of what we talk about at home if it’s not about the kids. It’s not a stressful thing because we’re separate from what we do. Every now and then, he’s got to rein me in on some of my crazy ideas, but otherwise, it’s all good.

When you purchased the Ace here in Wimberly, were there changes that you had to make or wanted to make, or did you just roll into it?

We just rolled into it. It’s been such a great environment from the get-go. The store itself is many years old. The feel that the original owner, John King Ray, built within the company kept going. It’s like a family that works there. We all have fun together. We support each other. It was that way from the get-go and hopefully still is, even though we’ve gotten a lot bigger. We do still have a good time together, I hope.

That was one of the questions that I wanted to ask as well. Being a business owner and working with business owners of all shapes and sizes over the years, the most difficult thing is hiring the right people and then keeping those people engaged and happy. One of the things that sparks my interest in getting people to come in to the show is when I go into a restaurant, a store, and it seems like all of the employees are happy and engaged and want to be there and not just doing the minimum and counting the hours until their shift is done. The Ace here in Wimberley always feels like everybody’s happy and excited and helpful. I know that the corporate tagline is the helpful place. How do you go about keeping that, whether it’s in hiring? Do you have any particular practices or cultural imperatives that you put in place?

Obviously, there is training that goes into when anyone’s hired. They go through a process of learning about we’re the helpful place, “How can I help you today? What can I help you find today?” and all that. Everybody feeds off of each other. It’s a trickle-down effect. If you’ve got miserable people up top, you’re going to have miserable people below. Tad and I are not miserable. We’re happy. Our managers are amazing people. They’re hard workers. They’re dedicated. They have fun. They do engage with the employees and try to include them in things. All of our staff, they do different aspects of the business. They’re going to see things that I don’t see or that our managers don’t see like a cashier sees a different side of Ace than I see on a daily basis.

To me, it’s important to get feedback from those people, like, “What are you experiencing? What are you hearing?” They’re just as invested then if they are able to give back their own feedback of how the store is going, including everybody in that. We laugh and have a good time a lot at work. There’s a lot of silliness that goes on. I promise we do work, but there is a lot of silliness. That helps, too. We try to make it a fun environment.

It does seem that way. Do you have regular meetings?

There are weekly manager meetings. I don’t always attend those. They have weekly manager meetings at both stores to get a feel of everything, talk about what’s coming up, go over events that we have coming up, sales that are coming up, make sure everybody’s on the same page, discuss how that information is going to be dispensed throughout the store to all the employees and staff. That’s how they stay on top of everything.

Is Ace the franchise as involved in their communities as you guys are in this one, or is that a personal choice or both?

Ace is a co-op, which is a little different than a franchise. We have a little bit of ownership within ACE as a whole. Each owner store owner has a little bit of ownership within the corporation. They are big into service. The corporate Ace’s number one service is the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which ours would be Dell Children’s Hospital. They’re all over the country. That’s what their number one fundraising is for that. For us personally, all the things that we do for the community is important to us because we have been supported by this community most of our lives. Me and Tad and then our three kids have been supported. It’s important to us to support the community right back because a strong community builds a stronger community, which builds stronger businesses and families. It affects everything within our world. I want our world to be strong. That is why we do what we do.

Hardware Store: A strong community builds stronger businesses and families. This affects everything within the world.

How do you choose what to get involved in? Do you ever say no? It seems like every time I turn around, Ace is involved in something in a beautiful way.

I’m not sure that we’ve ever said no. There are a few instances where we’ve had to say no. We don’t do a lot of individual sponsoring of any kind of athletic stuff. It’s all teams and it’s local. We try to keep everything as local as possible. That’s super important to me, especially like our roundup at the register. Our community is generous. It’s amazing to me how generous they are. I know they also want to know this money that I’m giving this $0.32 or whatever is going directly back to someone in our community. That has such a strong impact on everything around us. I try to keep it local. We’re doing Brown Santa as our roundup at the register. That’s Hay County in general. It’s through the sheriff’s department.

It’s a little broader scope, but it’s an important program. I wanted to reach out and help with that. We try to keep it local. We don’t say no. It’s hard to pick and choose. Obviously, we can’t always do everything, but the roundup is the hardest because you have to say, “This month is this one.” Whereas if it’s five events in one month, I can do different donations for five different events. When it’s something that’s just one option, that’s a little tougher. We have a list going. We are constantly getting emails from people asking to be put on it. All we can do is add them to the list and then go from there.

Thank you for all of that. It’s seen and noticed. How do you go about choosing your team members? Do you have a particular hiring process to ensure that they fit into that fun and playful?

We have an HR in the store now because we’ve gotten so large. She handles all of the interviewing processes. She’s got a good feel for it because she’s done great. When it comes to my gift department, I have mostly relied on people I already knew that would fit in. It’s a small group. I’ve got Brittany, who has been at the store since she was 16 or 17. Anna was a good friend of mine. She’s the assistant manager in the gift department. She is phenomenal and a hard worker and does great work for me. We’ve got two part-time teachers that come in and help when they can. They were also friends of mine. I knew that we would all work well together and that these five people would reach the goal of the gift department.

It’s one of the benefits of being in a small town. What’s been the biggest surprise or the thing that you look back on and don’t think that you would learn or experience in being a business owner?

It’s not much of a surprise, but it is something a lot of people don’t think about that, as an owner, you don’t get to go home and check out ever. There’s never any checkout. It is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, dealing with something or knowing that at any minute, it could be something. That’s probably for me and Tad over our many years of marriage and working within retail, that has probably been one of the hardest things for us because I always laugh when people say things like, “I don’t want to work on the weekends. What’s a weekend? I don’t even know what a weekend is.” When you’re in retail, you don’t have that. That has been one of the hardest things to deal with as a business owner is that’s 24/7.

How do you manage your personal life when you know it is retail? It’s a lot of holidays you’re working or you’re asking your employees to work. Obviously, you do close for some holidays, but you personally are either in it or thinking about it.

Christmas is the only day of the year that we are closed. We’re open Thanksgiving if we can get enough employees to volunteer to work. They’re being paid, but we put a signup sheet. If we get enough people, then we will be open. We get a lot of complaints about being open on Thanksgiving. I will tell you we have come to the rescue for many Thanksgiving holidays when something has been needed. We stay open until 2:00. If we ask our employees to be there, then Tad and I are going to be there. We usually do that. It’s been a part of our lives since before we had kids. Our kids don’t know any different. To them, it’s normal that mom and dad are at Ace on Thanksgiving Day.

Same thing with all the Christmas stuff that goes on. That’s part of our lives. My parents have had to learn to deal with that part of it. That’s been a little hard. It’s deciding what you want that life to be. This is the life we chose. We’ve accepted that it will come with some sacrifices and know that’s part of it because it’s a great life. We have a great life. We have to work on some Saturdays and Sundays. During the pandemic, we worked 16 weeks solid 7 days a week and never quit. That’s part of being an owner. It was hard, but in the long run, it’s worth it.

Hardware Store: A business owner’s life comes with some sacrifices, but it is a great life. You may have to work on weekends or throughout the pandemic, but it is worth it in the long run.

With that, you’re running the business as a family. Did your kids ever work?

Yeah.

Did they like it? Did they grow up thinking, “I want to work at Ace for a while?”

No. When the two older ones were in elementary school, I’d have to work. On the days that they didn’t have school, I would take them up there and we would find something for them to do. They learned to cashier when they were 7 and 8 years old. With Mary, who has been with the store, one of our longest employees, she taught them to cashier. They would clean the candy section or they would find something to do. They thought that was cool. When they got to junior high and they got cellphones, we said they had to work two hours a week in order to keep their cell phones. I don’t think that was a big deal. It was a big deal to them, apparently, but they did it.

Now I’m not going to lie, our youngest, our third, we probably haven’t been strict enough with her. She does come in and work some. She’s still learning to cashier. They did not grow up wanting to work in Ace. Now our son, he’s a sophomore in college. He’s spent the whole summer working at the store and plans on working over Christmas. That’s what he wants to do. My oldest daughter went to market with me on the last three trips, which was so much fun. The input of a nineteen-year-old at the Dallas market for buying was eye-opening for all of us because we’re so far from that part of life. That was fun having her be a part of that. She enjoys it. I don’t know what the future holds for them with Ace, but they do enjoy that connection.

Did you ever think you were going to be an entrepreneur or a business owner before you started this?

I went into kinesiology thinking I always knew I wanted to help people. I wanted to do something that would benefit people. I never thought it would be in retail. That sounds funny because what am I doing in retail to help and benefit people? Because of our success at the store, I am able to, in turn, help within the community. That’s where I find my greatest joy at the job.

That is a misnomer of business that I find for a lot of people that they think that you’re either in business for good, like you’re saving the world, or you’re in business for-profit. John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, I don’t remember the quote exactly, but he said that there’s no reason that any business can’t do both successfully.

I’ve seen that you guys have done that incredibly well. You were talking about the time in the business and that you have to be available and sometimes work 7 days a week or 16 weeks in a row. Since you have such a great staff, do you guys feel comfortable going on vacation and leaving for a full week or two weeks?

We do. We went to Disney World for two weeks. We’ll tell them like, “Let us know if there are any problems. You’re not going to be bothering us. If we don’t want to be bothered, we will not answer the phone.” They do not bother us unless it is something major. We have an incredible staff. They take care of us. I came home and there was nothing to worry about. Everything was wonderful. I never worried the whole time that we were gone. That’s a good feeling.

What has been your greatest feeling of success in all of this other than your kids?

My greatest feeling of success was I was excited when we finally purchased the store so that we were the sole owners. I was excited for my husband to see this dream that he had had since he was sixteen years old to come to fruition. That was amazing. After that, I would say, it’s not success as a business, but after the 2015 flood, when we were able to help with the community with getting people out to help in damaged homes and all of that stuff, being in a position to be able to do that to me felt successful. That, to me, was success. I’ve gotten to a point where I can accomplish something where I can help people

On a multitude of levels, time, finances, and staff. There was a lot to be done and you had a lot to offer.

At one point, we were sending out 2,000 meals a day from the store parking lot. The volunteers were coming in. It was a huge undertaking, but it all came together because Wimberley is amazing and is an incredible community that supports each other. If I look back on anything, that would be my proudest moment as a store owner for sure.

That’s beautiful. Thank you for all of that. What would you say has been the hardest decision that you had to make?

That’s hard. Probably during the pandemic when we had to change things around so much. That was a difficult time for everybody across the board, obviously. Within the store, there were many difficult decisions to make regarding how do we stay in business, how do we continue to support our employees, and when do we decide to finally cancel something? Those were all overwhelming decisions because, at the same time, you’re dealing with your own personal decisions, like with my kids and how we were handling all that. Those were difficult times. I have asthma. My three kids all have asthma. When COVID first came about, I was terrified because I know how the flu makes all of us feel. It’s miserable.

Hardware Store: There are so many difficult decisions to make when it comes to supporting your employees, especially if you decide to finally cancel something or how to stay in business.

We made a decision as a family, and this was probably the most difficult decision ever, that Tad would move into our RV and would not be around all of us so that he could work 24/7 mm-hmm. He would come over at the end of every workday and sit about 15 feet away from us outside in the driveway. Despite it being a difficult time, I will say that was also a neat time for all of us because the five of us sat together every single night because we couldn’t be together all the time. That was a difficult decision to make that sacrifice so that he could be at the business all the time and we could stay healthy. I know that sounds more personal than business, but there’s not a line for us.

I always encourage people to talk about their personal lives as much as they feel comfortable because there isn’t a line when you are a business owner. Especially if you have kids and they have to learn how to live through your business while you are doing the same. How many employees decided not to come back to work immediately? Do you remember?

I don’t remember. Between the two stores, maybe five. It wasn’t that bad. They all wanted to work. It was a matter of figuring out how to make it safe for them and for everybody. Those were the difficult decisions at that time.

You were considered essential, correct?

Yes. Hardware was considered essential.

Is there anything that you would go back and do differently now that you’ve had the business for such a long time?

Probably relax a little more, have a little more faith that things would all be okay as long as we kept making good decisions and worked hard. I would relax a little more, maybe enjoy it a little more. I look back to some of the earlier years, especially the first few years when I started working. I was so much younger. I wish I could go back then and have the energy that I had then. Being the store and place I’m in now, I would relax a little more and soak it all in.

It’s interesting because that makes me think about how much a business is like a family.

Doing both is exhausting.

Sometimes as a female running a business, you have your heart so much into everything, your heart into your family and your time. You want to give to all of your employees and take care of them. The decisions seem harder. Most business owners and entrepreneurs have a little bit easier of a time delineating like business is business. Women are generally so much more caregivers. That separation of business and life tends to be a little bit harder. Have you seen that?

Tad has got a thicker skin than I do when it comes to the business because he’s been doing it for a long time. You can have an opinion on how we’re doing it, but he knows what he’s doing. His opinion is you don’t know what’s happening, so your opinion doesn’t matter. It’s the social media aspect. Every now and then, we’ll have some people outspoken and say these nasty things on social media about us or the business. I take it personally because there is no line for me. The employees are family. That is our family business. You say negative things about that, it affects our kids. Especially when all three of them were here and in school and people were talking negatively about our business, they heard it at school.

Everybody’s talking about what’s going on on social media. I take it personally. Tad’s like, “Let them say whatever they’re going to say.” I wish I could be more like that. There’s that difference. If I see somebody say something negative about an employee, my mama bear kicks in and I’m like, “No, you didn’t.” Tad’s like, “They don’t know. That’s not right. We know that’s not right. Let it go.” Everybody knows I’ve said things on social media I probably shouldn’t have.

It’s like with your kids when you’re in defense. Anytime, if you operate from a defensive standpoint or an offensive standpoint, if you’re in that heightened state of emotion, then it’s not the best time to make decision.

That’s what he tells me all the time, “Put the phone down, Christy.”

Your kids, now that they are a bit more grown, do they have a sense of pride in the store and in you guys and the family, or was there a feeling that the business took too much?

I don’t know. I worry about that because we did work so much when they were younger. We had to. I do worry that one day they’re going to be like, “We missed out on this or this because of work.” We have tried hard from the beginning. When Tad and I got married, we decided that he knew what he wanted to do and I did not know what I wanted to do. Even after we got married and I was working, I still didn’t quite know what my plan was. We were going to invest in his dream because his dream was real and mine didn’t even exist. When the kids were sick, I was the one who took the kids to the doctor. When we were building the Canyon Lake store, he was gone every day, all day, dealing with all that.

I took care of the kids. I don’t think that they’ll remember that he was gone that much then because they were so little. As I got more involved in the store, we became an even greater partnership. For example, this interview right now, Tad knew I had this interview. If our youngest daughter had something, because she’s in eighth grade, if something had come up for her and she needed to go to an appointment or something, he would’ve taken her knowing that I had this obligation. We are at that point in our family and our marriage and our business that we are capable of taking different responsibilities as needed and taking over. The kids are proud of the store. They love being a part of the community and the way that it is.

They’re funny about different events we’ve had that I need to keep doing exactly the same as they’ve always been for their entire lives and that kind of thing. They’re big on tradition. The two oldest are in college. I know they miss things they are going on here. I’ll post something’s going on at the store and they’ll message me like, “I didn’t know that was happening. When did you get that in?” They’re still connected and they miss it, that’s for sure.

Being a part of the community through business does get you even more connected. Where did they go to college?

My son is at A&M. He’s a sophomore. My daughter is a freshman at Blinn. She is hoping to transfer to A&M.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

You’re welcome. That’s exciting. What advice would you have for someone thinking about starting their own business or pursuing their passion?

It needs to be a passion because if it’s not your passion and you don’t love it, then giving 24/7 to it is going to be hard. In the beginning, 24/7 is what you have to do. You have to always be prepared, whether it’s in 1 or 5 years or 20 years, to be back, giving it 24/7 because you are the last one standing. When everything else starts falling apart, you’re the one that keeps that business going. You have to be prepared to give it everything. Business ownership, a lot of times, can be seen as, “I get more free time because I’m the boss,” but it doesn’t always work that way, especially in the beginning. If you want to build a strong business, you’ve got to give everything you have. It has to be your life, not just your job.

At some point, hopefully, you will get to the point that you can take that vacation and be gone for a long amount of time. Our kids are in college and we’re getting to that point. It’s not an early-in-the-business thing, I don’t think. Obviously, it depends on the business and the size of the business, but it’s a 24/7 commitment.

I like what you said that in the first couple of years, you have to put it in 24 hours a day. Even when you’re not on the computer or at the farm or whatever your business is, when you’re not there, you are still putting your time and effort in. You never know when that 24-hour need is going to come back, whether it’s the economy or something that happens with an employee or a crazy pandemic.

You’ll always be prepared. You don’t want to lose touch with how it’s run daily. I have never done a lot of the upstairs stuff, the office stuff for the store. I can cashier but not well. The day of the flood in 2015, Tad and I opened the store at 6:00 AM. It was me and Tad and a whole bunch of teenagers that had been at our house. I was able to cashier that morning, but not very well, but I could do it.

What does that mean not very well?

If you need something for the low yard, you’re going to need to go to another line.

I don’t know how to do that.

If you come to my line and you got something from the soda fountain, you’re going to get it for free because I don’t know how to ring that up either. Those are the little things that I don’t do well. If I can scan it, it’s all good, but anything else is questionable. It’s that connection to the business that you don’t ever want to lose. You don’t want to lose touch of how the bills are paid and the processes of opening and closing and all that stuff. You need to always stay in touch with that because you could be the only one doing it one day. Can you do it? That’s important. Tad has never lost touch with any of that. He started cleaning toilets at Ace when he was sixteen and could still do it now. You don’t get to let go of where you started just because you get a lot farther down the road.

Staying in touch with your employees, too, so that they know that they can talk to you about. When things aren’t running smoothly, they’re not afraid to talk to you. You don’t feel like this shining person behind a glass door. You’re always available.

There are no pedestals in owning a business.

If you do, you’ll find out too late that you’ve lost it.

If you’re too far away, then you don’t know what’s happening. That’s when you can get in some real trouble.

You have the two stores. Anything in mind for the future, or are you pretty happy with where you are?

I’m happy with where we are. We’ve talked about a third store. It’s hard right now. We have two kids in college. Our focus right now is getting them through college and paying those bills. Down the line, it’s possible. I’m not ready to be out of the game, that’s for sure. I know Tad’s not. We’re enjoying it and we love it. What the future holds? I don’t know. It’s all in God’s hands.

It always is. Having faith and not stressing too much, but always thinking at the same time.

It’s a difficult balance.

Is there anything else you want to share with us?

I’m super proud of my husband and the continuous many years that he’s been with the Wimberly store. We’ve got our big Christmas event coming up at the end of November 2022, which is my most favorite thing that we do every year. That’s on November 29th. Thanks for always rounding up, people. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Christy. Thank you for everything that you do for the community, you and Tad and Ace. For all of the smiles we all get when we walk into the store, it’s a testament to how you run the business and your commitment. We appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me. This has been fun.

It has been fun. Thank you so much. Thank you for reading. If you liked it, tell your friends. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn. The mission of the show is to dig deep into the lives of true leaders so that others can follow, knowing that the path isn’t always easy, but the journey is worth it. Enjoy the day and live with passion.

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