Hi, I'm John Cadillac Seville, and welcome to What's Good with John and Joyce.
And Joyce is not here today.
She's on special assignment.
So it gave me a chance to give a call to a dear friend of mine.
We're going to be doing a fundraiser together,
in the next few days, and looking forward to that.
But what an accomplished young lady.
I'm going to say.
I know you have a business in Branford,
and she does so many good things in the community.
She is an absolute giver.
And that's kind of like the premise of this show.
What's good being kind to other people.
Elaine, welcome to What's Good with John and Joyce.
And today it's what's good with John and Elaine.
Thanks, John.
I really appreciate you having me.
So tell me a little bit about you, you know.
Yeah, a little bit
about you and your business and how you got from point A to point B.
Well, currently, I'm the co-owner of Gracious
Gibson Home with my daughter Zoe.
But my background started in corporate marketing,
and then I had another small business of my own.
But I still work in residential home organizing and move management.
Organizing.
I can use that.
Yeah, I know most people can.
It's it's great to be able to help people, even in your job.
That's that's the part that I love.
And that was almost 20 years ago that I did that. Wow.
That. So, it's been a long journey.
And your husband does
has a very successful business here in the shoreline as well.
Stu. Yeah.
He, works for a small company on the New Haven Hartford.
Right. Terminal.
So he's been there for 40 years.
40 years, and people that starts a job and never.
It is because I remember my dad, when I was growing up,
used to work for the old UI company, and he. Yes.
And he was there forever.
But more and more people are transient nowadays.
You don't really stay in the same spot too long.
Something. But, he found it, I guess.
Yeah, apparently.
So. Tell me a little bit about you.
What you do in the community.
That's what really attracted to me.
Initially, you gave me a call.
Why did you do some kind of a benefit?
You have a fashion show coming up and asked if I would be the MC for it
not to be one of the fashion models, but to actually emcee it.
And I'll just,
But I got these big size 14ft.
I'm not the most, you know, I'm a little bit clumsy at times.
Yeah, yeah.
So. Well, to be honest with you,
when we started, and opened the gift shop,
I had, toned down my organizing business.
And while I say I had more time, I don't really think I did,
but I think when you have a small business in a small town,
it's very important to, connect yourself in the community.
And, I've been living in Brantford my whole life,
and so certainly I'm connected to my community in a variety of ways.
But it was time to maybe start giving back in different ways.
So, I was asked first to,
join the board of directors for the, Branford Festival.
And that's coming this weekend.
That's the 15th, I believe.
Saturday, the 15th.
So big festival weekend.
But, that's where I started.
And then it's I have I have a feeling that once you start
getting involved and people know that you have taken
a position on the board of directors, suddenly all of the of course,
of course, it just seems to be the law all of a sudden one.
Then it just kind of like metastasizes and it keeps going on and on.
The, organization that is sponsoring the fashion show that you mentioned,
few moments before is the Branford Arts and Cultural
Alliance, or Baka Gallery on Main Street in Branford.
Right.
And, we run the business primarily on, all of our fundraising,
the gifts of, you know, our generous donors and,
of course, by grants, if you can find them and get them.
But that's that's more and more difficult, isn't it?
To get those grants is in writing a grant proposal.
Oh, yeah.
Yes. It is, but, we have this idea of
how could we have a smaller fundraiser, but to involve
and engage the community and the other businesses on Main Street.
So we came up, our committee came up with the idea of a fashion show,
and we have, some other small businesses from town.
We have, first off, our, generous, underwriter for certain part of it is.
Yes. Yes, we
have splash, which is Karen Aragonese.
Yes. Hey, Karen.
Yeah, yeah.
Lane, the owner there, we also have
a, we have Illusions boutique, which is Francine Piscatella.
She's got a, salon and boutique down in Long, right.
And, the last one we have is actually out of North Haven,
but it's camouflage clothing, and, someone had a relationship with them.
We figured why not? You sure? Include them.
Yeah, exactly.
So it's taking place at the Pine Orchard Club on Sunday, June 22nd at 430.
And we've got quite a few tickets sold, but I think it's going to be a fantastic
event.
Go. You see local models.
All of the models are local from Branford and the surrounding areas.
So if nothing else, it
you have an opportunity to come out, have some good food, good music.
You're emceeing our event for us
and to just have a nice relaxing afternoon watching the fashions.
It seems like a lot of fun.
And Pine Orchard, you know, I do a lot of weddings and parties there as well.
It's just picturesque down by the water.
But I love the fact you're doing something with the community right now
and doing your part to kind of spotlight a lot of these businesses,
because since Covid, a lot of them have been hurt.
Some of them haven't really bounced back the way, you know, they like to in many,
many cases.
And I like the fact that you're doing your part
because it's something not just local, but even across the country.
I think it's a trend that more and more people
are trying to do events that help a lot of local businesses.
John, or even ten years ago, did you ever hear
the term shop local support?
Small business I don't, I don't me neither. No.
And I think with you know
Amazon it's a great tool when you need it.
But if we continue with buying online
and not even going into the larger stores in our town, you're going to see
you know, they're just won't be any small businesses anymore.
And there is room for both.
As we all know, there's room we can coincide, coexist with each other.
But you're right.
When my wife and I decide to go to a restaurant, we're going local.
I mean, I prefer not to do the chains.
With all due respect, there are a lot of good chains out there.
But if I have a chance to go local or go to a local gift shop,
you know, or a local coffee shop, I want to support that business.
Absolutely.
And that's another way of building relationships in your town, too.
You might see somebody you know, but you know what?
It's if a family or an individual has decided
to open a business, they don't just do it.
Matter of fact, I don't think many people do it to make money.
They do it because they have a desire to be in their community.
It's not just about opening a business and making money and,
you know, going there day in and day out when you decide to open a small store
in a reduced economy, in a time when we do have the ability
to buy online, it's an extremely scary proposition.
So you're doing it for a lot of other reasons.
And we did.
We opened our business for other reasons as well.
And now what are those other reasons?
Well, my daughter has some special needs and a lot of people know that know me
because, we were featured
pretty prominently when we first opened because it was unique.
But, as a result, college
wasn't something she was going to do or interested in doing.
So we took some money that we had for college and we said, well,
we want to make an investment in her future.
So, we gave her an opportunity to choose what she might like to do.
Wow.
I have a lot of background in business building, so I've been teaching her
the last few years about how to build a business and how to, you know,
make relationships, you know, be less anxious
when she's speaking with individuals and making those connections.
And, you know, it's it's been great for her.
We call it the College of Life.
I love it, and I love the fact that you're investing in your children.
I suspect students the same way, but so many times
people say, okay, just go out there and swim.
You get on your own.
I understand that everybody is equipped to be able to do that,
but I think some people might be and they just don't think of it.
Right.
You know, because if you think your child
is going to go to college, you probably have stash some money home.
And if they don't, I'm sure not.
The last thing on their mind is starting a business with that.
Sure.
But you were going to give it away to the, institution anyway.
So even if we never make any of that money back,
it doesn't make a difference because we've invest it
in what my daughter has learned in the last 3 or 4 years.
I love the fact you have a plan because so many people go to business plan.
We didn't just do this.
I get that feeling with you.
But I mean, I mean, you're organized that way too.
But so many people go through life without a GPS,
and then they wonder why certain things happen.
You really have to be intentional, don't you? Yes.
And kind of just to piggyback and then I know I've talked a lot, but no
this fascinating. Yeah.
So going back to supporting local, we,
have merchandise in the store that's created by local artisans.
And if we decide that we want to bring something in
that I can't find, an individual who makes it locally,
I seek out of Branford or out of the shoreline.
Sometimes it's even across the country.
But it might be somebody who just is a small town.
But they're not here.
But we're still supporting, yes, all business efforts.
So it's a small business supporting other small businesses.
And of course, we have to supplement with some of the larger,
wholesale items as well.
But we do our best to support local.
And the thing is, even though this podcast is going global
and we're talking about local in our own backyard here, this I think, resonates
with people all over the world about supporting your local community.
Wouldn't you agree? Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah, there wouldn't be there wouldn't be a small business Saturday
during the holiday. That's right.
Yeah.
And that's one of those things I really look forward
to promoting when I'm on the radio as well.
I mean, just you have your, your Cyber days, your Cyber Mondays,
but promote those small business because your small businesses,
so many people think if you own a business you're raking in the money.
Not so much. Right?
Right. Elaine?
Not so much.
You know, some that are very, established.
Maybe they are some newer ones.
I can attest to the fact that they're really not, but, you know, I always say,
stop in to a local business first if you don't find what you're looking for.
I don't think anybody expects you to buy
something that you really don't want or need.
But I think that if you have a moment to stop in and look at a local store
first, you could be doing so much more good than you realize.
Absolutely.
And the thing is, if you don't have it, you can say, listen, I don't have this,
but I know another store that does that all the time.
And we could piggyback, right?
Send people all the time to the other.
Don't you love doing that?
I love it, and they'll call me so-and-so said that you sent them here.
I said, well, of course I did. I didn't.
We don't carry right?
And I love doing the same thing, even with my businesses, too.
If I don't have a DJ available for a certain event or something,
all my guys are booked up.
I'll send them to another company, and I freely share my information.
If I'm mentoring young people, I freely share because it's not mine to
to kind of like, you know, I want to be able to
it's a gift and invest in people, help them.
There's plenty to go around, isn't there?
For all of us. It really is.
So again, you know,
just, talking about you and your background getting you from A
to B, some of the other things you've done in your past to get you where you are.
Right now to kind of set you up for success.
I'm always fascinated about that.
As you were a teenager, you know, going, oh, right.
So this just popped into my head, my background, I'm Greek Orthodox,
and if you know anything about, you know, the Greek Orthodox
churches, mostly we are a huge, very tightly knit community.
That's right.
The Bible was originally written in Greek.
It was.
However, one of the other things is we're an extremely, cultural group.
And when you share a culture within a community, a church community,
it becomes more than just the place you go to worship.
It becomes the place that you go for
relationships, camaraderie.
So I was blessed
to have had all of this through the Saint Barbara Greek
Orthodox Church that was initially on Dwight Street in New Haven.
We're now on, Race Brick Road and.
I grew up in my church.
I always had two sets of friends.
It was the school friends and the church friends.
And many times I would mix them together.
But what being a part of a community like that does is it
teaches you from a very young age
about being a part of something.
And then we had, you know, our church
started a enormous Greek festival about,
oh, it's probably going on 47, 48 years ago. Wow.
And so then, you know, as teenagers, you're volunteering, right?
You're running a booth. Yeah.
In the prep, you're learning to be an adult running the errands. Yep.
You're picking up the trash.
Yes. Whatnot.
And so from a very young age, it was instilled in us to be like
the worker, right?
Drones at a very young and to serve, to serve, to serve.
And so I think I don't think
I know that's the foundation of,
you know, where I learned to love to give back.
And the church has been a stable force in my life as far as giving back.
You know, there have been ebbs, you know, where you're raising your family.
Maybe you pull back a little bit
or you're caring for a parent, you pull back a little bit, but
people know that you just need to be asked,
you know, if they really and truly need your help
when you're not right there giving the there's no better feeling than giving.
And when we do that each and every week with our church as well, we just had
serve our city recently and, in the town where we're broadcasting from now.
And it was just so cool to bring people together.
And the lessons
when you get families together, like you were saying, with what you do with church,
and you have grandparents working alongside their kids and their grandkids,
it also what you're learning
from working alone. Yes.
Or individuals who are far older than you and generations of people will.
Now you're you're learning,
the recipes, how to cook, how to culturally dance.
Right.
Well, that's something I'm still trying to learn
how they, you know, we're all taught how to do breakdancing.
That we all passed down to our children if we're still involved
now my husband is not I was not born Greek Orthodox but
he embraced yes culture and we have passed that along to our children.
And so you know my son, he's at the church as often as he can be with his schedule,
and he's doing what he can do, you know, when he can do it.
But that festival is now in, you know, third generation. Wow.
I worked it.
And, you know, now my children are working.
It is amazing.
You mentioned your Greek.
You know, my wife and I had our wedding in Athens, Greece, back in 2008.
We were married over there. I went over there with my.
Yeah, it's just beautiful. The people are so wonderful.
That's where I had my first taste of gelato.
Some of the best gelato I know.
I know you didn't,
but I had some of the best gelato to this day, even though you didn't invent it,
it was just amazing.
The food over there is so good because you don't have the preservatives in it.
Phenomenal, right? Italy.
Same thing.
I mean, in most of Europe you're going to get outstanding meals,
but, in Greece, absolutely.
Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit about your travel too,
because we were talking before we went on air today about travel.
You said, I love to travel.
Yeah.
When I was in college,
my first semester, junior year, I begged for my parents
to be able to take a semester overseas, in London. And,
they had no problem agreeing.
I did my best to make my contributions, but so did my family.
Yeah, right.
So made happen.
And, while I studied for about six months in London,
I had the opportunity to travel to quite a few countries
on weekends or breaks and whatnot, and I just.
Wow. On weekends you get to travel the countries for breaks.
Oh my goodness, I love it going.
You know, it's like I was going to Florida, right?
Right. And you're in a whole other country.
I love it.
Throughout the years I've maintained, my travel
two years ago I went to Thailand with, college friend of mine,
and I just got back from two weeks, we went to with the same, friend.
We went to, Prague and the.
I was watching vicariously my wife Patty and I.
Oh, my God, that trip was so beautiful.
And the architecture and the structures, the churches and the buildings.
Surprisingly, Budapest,
Hungary turned out to be my favorite city of the three that we visited.
Wow, now you say, surprisingly.
Why? Well, I had no expectations for Budapest.
I hadn't taken the time to really look into it,
but that's a very common trio.
When you travel and you do just the cities ride very popular trio of cities.
Prague was beautiful.
Yeah, beautiful.
The architecture.
I don't know if you know this, but Prague was one of very few cities
that was not destroyed in any way, shape or form during World War two
because Hitler loved.
I never heard that before they came in.
Everything preserved thing they did everywhere else,
but they destroyed nothing. Wow.
So, that's one of the reasons
why it still stands and still looks as beautiful as it does now.
You've done a lot of traveling.
Your favorite, favorite place you've ever been?
I know it's it's tough, but if you had to pick one place,
you could only go one more time.
Where would it be?
Why not?
Because I'm Greek in Greece.
And three times. Wow.
And every time I say oh I don't need to go back I've seen enough.
I haven't even seen a
my last trip was many years ago,
three weeks traveling the whole country by car with my son and
his cousin.
Now what are they experience?
Wow. We went from the islands all the way up to the Mykonos
and all those way to the Salonika.
And, I didn't realize how diverse the topography and the areas of Greece are.
Yes. That the dry areas, the mountainous areas, the, you know,
the beaches, the coast, the islands is
you can almost never see enough of it.
So that's my favorite book.
But there are a lot of
exotic countries out there too, so it's hard to pick, you know?
My favorite city, though, still is Istanbul.
And really.
Wow. What did you like so much about it? Yes,
it's like parts of Canada when I've been up there very, very clean.
They vacuum the cobblestones.
Really like big industrial vacuums, you see.
They really do that?
Yes they do.
Wow. And, the food is outstanding.
And, the city is just probably one of the most unique cities.
The people are real friendly.
They're fine. Okay.
Not friendly.
It's as you know, there's an enormous cultural difference between,
you know, Muslim in America. Sure, sure.
So there's no hostilities.
I think it's just that,
I don't know that it's like going into another country
and people are walking up and saying.
And everything, but no issues whatsoever.
I would recommend any person having the opportunity to go there once.
It's like over in Iceland, everybody's so friendly.
There.
Yeah, I, I just had a buddy get back from Iceland recently
and he said it's worth it.
I've never been there is on my bucket list.
But he says John you need to get there.
He was there for ten days and loved it.
He said it was a different weather system every day.
Most unique place you may ever get really, of any place, Place I bet.
And you've been to a lot.
Yeah.
And, we had this wonderful tour guide.
We went to Iceland, and what I loved the most was his. His.
He must have had six masters, right?
80 of things.
But he said, as we were traveling along, he says, you are looking
at the bottom of the ocean floor right now.
And as soon as he said that,
you started looking at everything different,
because, you know, Iceland rose up from the bottom of.
Yes. Right.
Yeah.
And, it's very geological.
There's almost no green anywhere.
One of the reasons eating in Iceland is extremely expensive.
You mentioned fresh and everything is sure nothing is fresh.
There it comes. Everything comes from simple.
Everything that you eat comes from some place.
Right?
So, it was still good, right?
And it was fresh, but it was expensive.
Now what?
Where else would you recommend? Because I.
I'm trying to put a bucket list.
I love to get to Ireland.
I get to Ireland. Okay. Yeah. Ireland.
I've talked to so many people that have been there.
They said just with natural beauty, incredible, you know, cliche.
All the shades of.
Sure, sure.
I mean, you know, Italy is outstanding.
I like the older countries, right.
That really have, you know, the ancient history.
And when I go, I'm not going just to look, I want to be there,
you know, right in the front row. Right.
And I want to hear everything, and you want to absorb it
all, all kinds of questions.
That doesn't surprise me.
But you know what? Everybody that's good, that's good.
I think it's great.
So, but, you know, one place I, I,
I know that your spiritual
Israel.
I would love to go to Israel where Jesus
walked the stations of the, of the.
Yes, yes, it is about as moving as anything you'll ever see.
I've heard that from so many people, Elaine, but that I was.
And it's just so sad that there's just so much disarray over there
and where Jesus, you know, walked in, came from.
But I know that's another story, but we just, we pray for that region.
You know, a quick comment about that.
I was in line to, stick my arm in a hole.
That is where, you know, where Christ's, cross was found.
And, you know, somebody behind me, his wife, and he says,
how do they know that's where them you know, Christ was found.
And, he was a little, you know, he was a little glass half empty.
Hmhmm turned around and I said, you know, it
probably isn't the exact spot, right?
This is the spot that we have chosen to venerate. Yes.
For considering the spot.
He had a whole different outlook after that.
And, you know, that was a very diplomatic way of handling that.
Yeah, because I was probably thinking the same thing.
Right.
But that's what I said to myself so that it meant more. Yes.
When I said, what am I feeling down in this hole?
Yeah.
That's where faith comes in.
You just have to have faith, you know, that to happen.
So let's just, talk one more time about the event coming up
this Sunday, this coming Sunday week from Sunday.
But when this when this broadcast is on, it's going to be this Sunday.
Yeah.
So it's going to be this Sunday over the Pine Orchard Country Club.
And tell us a little bit more
about that event and, and what people can do to get tickets.
So, the event again is a fashion show featuring fashions
from a variety of different, local shops.
Between Branford and North Haven.
And, we have a lot of local, models who are going to be showing off their stuff.
And, we have shoe designers and local jewelry designers,
and they're providing the accessories, but they're brand for people
who have either designed or, you know, actually made those accessories.
It's at the Pine Orchard Club for for the love, the Pine Orchard.
Yeah, yeah.
And, you're going to be our armed.
That doesn't mean you don't have to come now.
Come on. Don't let that dissuade you. Pick the energy.
Yeah, yeah.
What about that?
And, tickets are available either at the Bunker Gallery
or online at Branford arts.org Branford arts.org.
So it's coming up on Sunday the 22nd right? Yes.
And can't wait to see you there.
And Elaine, you've been an absolute joy to have on today.
Filling in for Joyce, who is on assignment right now.
But I'm John Cadillac Seville.
This is what's good with John and Joyce.
You can catch us on all streaming platforms.
We appreciate you.
If you need a pick me up,
this is the place to be 30 minutes every week and tell your friends about us.
You have an amazing day and bless you and your family.
I am John Cadillac
Seville from What's Good with John and Joyce.
And a little advice from the ocean today.
Be sure of yourself.
Come out of your shell.
Take time. The coast.
Avoid peer pressure.
See life's beauty.
Don't get tied down.
Go out there and make some waves.