Women in Aviation & The Magic of a Serenbe Potluck with Crystal Barrois

When Crystal Barrois and her husband drove down to Serenbe in late 2016, they knew they were home - despite the pouring rain. Since then, they’ve started a family here and watched their kids grow up as free range children, exploring the woods and community under the watchful eye of fellow neighbors, co-parents, and co-grandparents. It takes a village, as they say. At her day job, Crystal serves as a pilot with Delta. In an industry where women make up only 6% of the workforce, Crystal has led the charge to make aviation accessible. 

In this interview, Steve and Monica learn all about Crystal’s path to Serenbe, the important work she’s doing to make aviation an industry for everyone, and we explore the magic of a Serenbe potluck. 

Show Notes

• Serenbe Events Calendar
• Historic All-Female Delta Flight Inspires Young Girls in STEM
• Delta Tik Tok for Women’s History Month 
• Propel Pilot Career Path Program | Delta Airlines
• United Aviate Academy
• Playing in the Woods | Life at Serenbe Blog

Key Words: Women in Aviation, Aviation, Women Led, Delta, Delta Airlines, Family, Raising Kids, Community, Serenbe 

Step off the treadmill of life and book a stay at the Inn at Serenbe. Use code Serenbe Stories when you book online or over the phone and receive 10% off your stay!

Serenbe Stories is a podcast about making an impact, building a better life, and the extraordinary power of nature and community. Follow Serenbe on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Transcript

1 (13s):
Crystal Barua and her family have lived in Sereni since late 2016 after she and her husband drove down for the day and immediately felt that sense of home despite the pouring rain during their visits. Since then, she started a family in the community and has watched her kids grow up here alongside friends and neighbors who all pitch in to co-parent and co-parent. It takes a village, they say at her day job. Crystal manages aircraft transactions at Delta and also serves as a first officer pilot, a profession where women make up only 6% of the workforce. In this interview, Steve and I learn all about Crystal's path to Serenity, the important work she's doing to make aviation and industry for everyone, and we explore the magic of a Cby potluck.

2 (1m 1s):
It's such a tight, awesome community of people and support and I feel like Cby has been a big part of our success in raising our kids and commuting and flying and being gone. There have been days when I've said I could not do it if I didn't live here.

1 (1m 21s):
Crystal, welcome to the podcast. How are you?

2 (1m 25s):
Good, thank you Monica. How are you today?

1 (1m 28s):
I'm great. Hey Steve. How are you?

3 (1m 31s):
I'm good morning. I'm good. Looking forward to the conversation.

2 (1m 35s):
Good morning Steve.

1 (1m 36s):
Crystal, you are in the office. You work for Delta, you are a pilot, but what I really wanna know is what is your cby story? How did you first find out about Serenbe and why did you move?

2 (1m 50s):
Well, first of all, thank you all for having me on the podcast. I'm very excited to be here. My Serenbe story, actually Delta brought us to Atlanta. I'm from Atlanta, originally, lived away for many years, married a Louisiana boy and we were actually living in New Orleans when I got hired at Delta as a pilot, like you said. And after a couple of years of commuting, cuz Delta doesn't have a base in New New Orleans, they used to, they don't anymore. After a couple of years of commuting to both New York and Atlanta, I begged him, could we please move back to Atlanta?

2 (2m 31s):
And he begrudgingly agreed because you know Louisiana, people love Louisiana and New Orleans is a really cool town. So in 2015 we moved back to Atlanta and we were living in the city and both of us agreed we could not live in the city. I had lived away from Atlanta for many years, but the number one, the traffic was awful and we just didn't really wanna start a family in the city. So we started looking around Atlanta and my parents actually mentioned Sury. We kind of were not really loving any of the neighborhoods that we visited around town.

2 (3m 14s):
And they said, well why don't you guys check out this place called Serenbe? So we drove down one day, it was raining, pouring down rain and drove around Serenbe and both of us agreed that it just felt like home. So this was at the end of around Christmas time of 2016 and we bought a house in Grange a couple months later. So here we are several years later and we've lived in multiple neighborhoods of Samy. Now we live in the crossroads and it's our home. We've got two kids and love it.

1 (3m 50s):
That's the Sammy way, right? To move around, move neighborhoods,

2 (3m 55s):
You have to try them all. They really all have a different personality. So all of them have been fun. We love living in all the neighborhoods happy in the crossroads right now.

1 (4m 5s):
Yeah, the crossroads is great. And your husband is also a pilot

2 (4m 9s):
That's right now,

1 (4m 11s):
Is that how you guys met or did you just meet in New Orleans just happenstance or was it through the industry and if it's a really, really terrible story, you don't wanna tell? No,

2 (4m 21s):
It's actually a great story. We met, so through the airlines, what the reason I became a pilot was because I wanted to travel and see the world. This was back in 2009. I took six weeks off work to go backpacking around Southeast Asia and I was in Thailand and a girlfriend was meeting me in Thailand to do a couple of weeks of backpacking and she actually met my husband on the flight on the way over to Bangkok to meet me and she invited us, she invited him to hang out with us while we were traveling around over there and he did and that's how we met. So we ended up backpacking together. I love that. For a couple of years. I'm sorry, a couple of weeks and that was it.

2 (5m 2s):
And he just happened to be a pilot too, so it was meant to be, I guess.

1 (5m 8s):
That's a great story.

2 (5m 10s):
Yeah, it was fun.

1 (5m 12s):
Yeah, definitely. Now what's interesting is that it's a very small percentage of women make up pilots in the industry, right? I think it's about 6%. That's right. Is that

2 (5m 22s):
Right?

1 (5m 23s):
So you wanted to travel the world, you wanted to sort of see everything, but did you ever start out wanting to fly? Was it something at a young age? Do you need to do, how do you become a pilot? Like if I wanted to go fly now, is it too late for me?

2 (5m 38s):
No, it's not too late. You might, I mean you might not want to start now cuz it does. It takes a few years to become a professional pilot. But to answer your question, no, I never considered flying. I didn't, growing up as a little girl, I didn't realize that women flew because to your point, there are so few women that actually fly planes. When I was a freshman in college at the University of Georgia, I met a woman that flew, she was an old lady, she'd flown in the wasp actually, which are the women Air Force service pilots. And they trained a lot of the pilots back during World War ii. And I met this woman and she was so cool.

2 (6m 19s):
She was, you know, this little bitty thing and she said, how do you go fly too if you want? And that really just sparked the interest. And so I took a introductory flight, I went to the local airport in McDonough, Georgia where I'm from and I took an introductory flight and realized that's what I wanted to do. So I ended up leaving University of Georgia to go to flight school in Florida and the rest is history. So 20 years later here I am.

1 (6m 52s):
Have you seen a lot of change over the years regarding women in the industry? Has that, is that 6% for commercial pilots? Is that sort of, now are we, this is a good number even though it seems really small or is it smaller when you started?

2 (7m 6s):
Shockingly no, there hasn't been a lot of change. That needle has not moved in over 50 years, 50 or 60 years. A lot of the work that I've done at Delta has been to figure out what is holding women back to getting into our industry and what is holding women back from coming to Delta. The women that are out there, you know, are women coming to Delta. And so a lot of the work I've done is just to figure out that problem. What is exactly is the root of the problem and then how do we solve it at Delta?

2 (7m 47s):
Yes. But also on an industry level because I'm sure as you know there is a workforce shortage throughout the country and the world really. But in the airlines in particular, we're really starting to see some pressure from talent shortage, just not enough people entering the pipeline. So it's really critical now that we start tapping into the 50% of the population that hasn't traditionally been attracted to our industry. So there is a lot of work around just advertising, marketing materials and making sure that women are present in marketing materials because you really do, I always say you have to see it to be it.

2 (8m 30s):
And if young girls don't see themselves in the role, then they're not gonna just like me, they're not gonna consider it as a viable career option for them. So there's a lot of ongoing work to try to attract women but then also retain them. So taking another look at schedule flexibility and maternity benefits and uniforms. Yeah, just sort of rethinking the way we've always done things so that we can start to attract women into the industry.

1 (9m 1s):
Tell me a little bit about that. So you've been flying, but at some point corporate or the, you know, I guess headquarters tapped you to start working on some of these initiatives and one of them I think maybe you even drove, which was maternity. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Cuz I think that's super important as a mom, we have two small kids, you personally saw and felt the constraints that were around that and that started with the uniforms.

2 (9m 26s):
Yeah, that's right. So I didn't really understand how the industry was designed differently for women or really without women in mind until I had a baby, till I had my first child. And it was a lot of things. It was, it was the, the uniform. So I didn't have a maternity uniform, I kind of had to cobble something together. And then pregnancy, I remember telling the company that I was pregnant and I felt like the first pregnant person that ever existed basically. And this is not just, you know, this is not Delta specific or anything, this is just the way it was in our industry.

2 (10m 9s):
You know, this was seven y or eight years ago. There just weren't a lot of resources, there weren't a lot of work rules and policies that really pertain to women. Once I had the baby, we didn't have a real maternity benefit or mater our time off. All of that was sort of piecemeal and figuring out how am I gonna get this time off? It definitely wasn't part of the policies that we were entitled to. We had to navigate all of that and then breastfeeding and just things that moms have to do. No, yeah, like flexible work schedules, all that stuff.

2 (10m 50s):
There was no infrastructure in place to perpetuate success of women. And so what we see in the industry is a lot of women exit aviation after they have children. We have the data on that and a lot of women actually do leave the industry because it's very difficult to navigate. And so the very first thing I did was I was about four months postpartum. I went up to New York and I spoke to our union because maybe a lot of people don't know this, but most pilots are unionized. And I presented with a, a small group of women on hey, we are not being supported and our union needs to go to the company and say please represent on our behalf.

2 (11m 37s):
We need pregnancy leave, we need maternity leave, we need proper fitting uniforms, all of this. And so that initial presentation is really what launched me into this whole other career path of, I was tapped by our senior vice president, Steve Dixon at the time, who later became the f a administrator. I was tapped by him to sort of figure out, hey, what just, you know, let's figure this out at Delta. Like we want women, we want women to be successful. How do we make that happen? How do we start turning that flywheel if you will? And so I spent a couple of years developing leadership programs for pilots. So that step one is you need women in leadership.

2 (12m 19s):
And we weren't really seeing a lot of that in the operational roles. Not just at Delta but across the industry. So how do we get women into leadership roles so that they're at the table helping make the decisions, you know, about policies and things. So we worked on leadership development and then, then I ran some of our pipeline, our pilot pipeline programs. We have a great program called the Delta Propel program. And so I worked on that team to help figure out how do we attract young people not only into aviation but into aviation careers at Delta. And so it was really this, it's a holistic approach to changing the cultural shift so that women want to be a part of the industry, you know?

2 (13m 4s):
And so I've had the opportunity to do a lot of that at Delta and it all started just having a baby and speaking up, you know, raising my hand and saying we could do this better. We could do this in a better way so that we do attract women. And then once we do, cuz it costs a lot to trade a pilot, right? And we wanna keep 'em once we have 'em. So how do we do that? A lot of the work that I've done has been to help not only at Delta but in the industry.

1 (13m 32s):
Are you finding that women are coming in from any particular place? Like are there any that, you know, I, I am a big believer, like college is great, but I think trade schools are really probably a huge way that we should be bringing people into the workplace. Like they don't need to go into four years of debt for a liberal college education if they are not really into school and they actually know what they wanna do. And you know, we've had a huge debate with our son who's going to college, but like he wants to go into game design, could he just go straight in? So I think that that's a really interesting track for people. Are there some schools like that or high schools that kind of can set you on that path in any locally?

2 (14m 15s):
Sure. So I agree with you and actually the industry is agreeing with you. When we had a large pilot surplus a decade ago and there were just thousands and thousands of pilots and not as many jobs, the college degree was one of those things to sort of weed out people, if you will. Now though, what we've realized is that a, and what the airlines have done is shift away from needing a college degree. It's still something that's nice to have and I don't ever wanna deter anyone from getting a college degree if that's what they wanna do. But to be a pilot, most of the airlines do not require a college degree anymore to work there.

2 (15m 1s):
And so actually Delta just announced last week, we have the Delta Propel Flight Academy and I don't know all the details of the Flight Academy yet. It's very new, just just launched. And the United Aviate Academy is another one where they don't require a college degree. And you go, actually the airline is overseeing a lot of the training and you're getting your pilot's licenses and then you're getting on a career path to the major carriers. Amazing. So that actually exists for most of the major airlines today where you can plug in before college or after. What we've seen with a lot of these are people that are changing careers and later into their thirties or forties they're saying, I wanna go be a pilot now.

2 (15m 48s):
And these flight academies are making it possible for them to do that without a college degree degree. So yeah, it's just one pipeline. It it, we have university partners through Propel as well. So Auburn University has a really great aviation school, Andre Riddle, which is my alma mater great aviation school. But you are paying for a four year college degree plus your flight training. So you're really starting out with a lot of debt or paying a lot of money to earn your flight ratings. And now today it's not necessarily necessary that you do that.

1 (16m 25s):
And do you see have the benefits, cuz I've had never thought about that. You know, you're a pilot, you've had a baby or you're pregnant and you're one, maybe you need yeah, different uniforms. So it's like, hey, I'm expanding, I don't fit into these pants, I don't fit into this shirt anymore. Give me something that's like, you know, I can feel comfortable in. But then once that baby's born, I mean breastfeeding like it was a second job and then pumping. And so what if you're on a transcontinental flight, how do you do that? Or where are the, not regulations but rules and guidelines around it, right? Because it's instead of like, oh, you'll find a minute and just pop into the bathroom and pump while your co-pilot flies.

1 (17m 7s):
But like actually having the policies around it, I had never thought like, what do you do? Or if you're a flight attendant, same thing, right?

2 (17m 16s):
Yeah. So traditional, I I would say historically the F A A, the Federal Aviation Administration, they are the government regulatory agency that umbrella that all of the air carriers fall under. And the F a A has been very hesitant to weigh in on these things. So companies have been left in, unions have been left to deal with these types of things on a case by case basis. And because the amount of women, the percentage of women so small, you might only see a couple of these cases every year. I represented Delta on the FAA women and aviation advisory board.

2 (17m 57s):
So we had, we ha actually had a dedicated board, the D O T appointed us to start giving recommendations on how we can solve this problem. And one of the things that we said was, well, if you continue to treat women like a small percentage, I don't weigh in on things like breast pumping and all this stuff. And you know, while you're flying, then you're just perpetuating the small percentages of women pilots. So we have to start thinking, we have to start designing a system with women and mine. So hey, we're gonna give carriers guidelines on this. We are gonna do a study or designate a, a work group or something to put together recommendations on how, how do women fly and nurse their, you know, feed their babies too.

2 (18m 49s):
So there are no guidelines right now. So it really is up to the carrier on, and we're still kind of doing these things on a case by case basis. And I know a lot of women have chosen to take unpaid leave if it's available while they're breastfeeding their babies because it's just a lot easier, you know, so there's a lot of ongoing work right now. But one of our recommendations was, hey, put together a work group to figure this out. We have to figure it out. If we're gonna attract women into aviation, women are biologically the gender that has the babies, we have to start talking about this.

1 (19m 31s):
No, I love it. Well, and I love that you are leading the charge there. That's so important, crystal.

2 (19m 37s):
Well

1 (19m 39s):
It's a lot of work. It's

2 (19m 40s):
A lot of work. It really is. And there have been moments where, and and I I thank you for, that's a compliment to say I'm leading the charge. I'm working with a lot of women across the industry who we're all very passionate about making this an equitable industry. It is such a fascinating, fun, challenging, rewarding industry. And we are very passionate about making sure that women know that if they want to be successful in aviation, there are opportunities for them. And so I love, I will take that as leading the charge because it really is a group effort.

2 (20m 23s):
You know, we all have to be responsible for making the change. So I will own that. And it is a big, it's a big complex problem, system of barriers, all of that. But you know, we just start chipping away at it. That's what we're doing right now. We're just chipping away one thing at a time.

1 (20m 44s):
Well, and one thing that you did, which I loved, and I think this is gonna be a year or two ago, was it an, it wasn't TikTok, was it an Instagram video?

2 (20m 52s):
It was TikTok. It was TikTok, yes.

1 (20m 54s):
Was it? Ok. Early days, TikTok, you were early influencer. So whose idea was this? So Delta put together, it was like a group of professionals. It wasn't just pilots, right? It was women though. All women in the industry at Delta. Right. And you guys did a TikTok dance. Tell us about this. Steve, have you seen this?

2 (21m 15s):
Steve, have you seen the TikTok video? I'll send it. We'll have to share it with you if you have it. I have

3 (21m 20s):
Not. That's news. I had not seen that.

2 (21m 23s):
We'll put

1 (21m 23s):
It in the show notes. Yeah, Steve gets to learn stuff on Seren b stories too. Tell us about this. I it, it was so fun. All of us, like the mo you know, all of us in our friend group just, I mean it was so fun to see you showcased. How did this come together?

2 (21m 40s):
So we have a very young, bright marketing team at Delta and I did not even have a TikTok account. And I said, when they asked me to come out and do this TikTok video, I was like, I think you should find someone else younger at least. Are you sure you have the right person? But we went out and we had a flight attendant and a ramp personnel woman and we, they made us learn this Beyonce Lady Gaga song and we went out and filmed this TikTok video and it, it's probably, I don't, I don't wanna claim this, but it's definitely one of the most watched TikTok videos that Delta has ever put out.

2 (22m 23s):
And you know, I think it, of course I, and I'm so embarrassed by, I'm so self-conscious about being on it, you know, but it really was a great showcase of women for young people cuz that's a platform that a lot of young people tune into. And so it really was an opportunity. Anytime I can be in my uniform in front of young people, I do that because it's important for them again, to see it, to see that they can be successful in the role. So hopefully maybe one little girl was inspired by that. It was fun. It was fun for me to do it. And I was very honored that Delta asked,

3 (23m 4s):
Well Monica, you'll have to put a link on the podcast.

1 (23m 9s):
We'll, we'll we'll find the link and put it into the podcast show notes because it's a lot of fun. And I do think thinking about how do you reach those younger women, you know, or just really anybody to start educating that women are pilots and that it's an option and a path that's viable. And I think that's a really, it was a really fun way to do it. And I always think, I mean, you know, Delta's like our hometown airline obviously, and Steve and I are about to get on a Delta flight this afternoon for New York. But I just think that Delta has this really warm, wonderful, inviting brand and I think that that worked so nicely in it. So I don't know, it sort of just continued my positive brand perception of it.

1 (23m 53s):
So I thought that was fun. And yeah, I do hope that it does change people's minds.

2 (23m 57s):
Me too. I hope so too.

1 (23m 59s):
I mentioned that your husband is a pilot as well and you have two young kids under, gosh, are they both under seven now, or six,

2 (24m 6s):
Five and seven. Yes.

1 (24m 7s):
Five and seven. So how has that been, and you know, you're both flying, have you been flying a little bit less, like I know with a lot of the work you're doing at corporate, but like how is that, you know, cause I don't think he was headquartered out of Atlanta. Was he still headquartered out of another pub?

2 (24m 25s):
Yes. So he's the United Pilot and so we juggle that. United does not have a base in Atlanta. So that's something that we have always juggled. And I was thinking about this last night thinking about this interview, and this actually goes back to Serenbe, how we've been able to make it work when our kids were little. I've always had nannies throughout the time they've been alive. And when our kids are little, we had a nanny who, you know, she was a local gal, wonderful, wonderful gal. And our kids hung out with other kids who also had nannies and all over Serenbe every day.

2 (25m 7s):
We have so many pictures of them. I, I think they had the most magical childhood of any children ever. They played in the waterfall and went on the trails and went over to the bus that's in the wildflower meadow and went to the pool in the summertime. I mean, they just had the most magical childhood with the nannies growing up. And then as they've kind of gotten older, you know, I've had to actually, my old nanny from when they were little, she's now a pilot, she became a pilot too. Amazing. I know, I, she, I was like, wait, you work for two pilots and you are inspired to be a pilot. Oh. So she actually just got hired at her first airline, so super proud of her.

2 (25m 52s):
But my girlfriends and I had similar age kids. We used to text each other and say, our kids live the most magical life ever when they were, you know, little bitty babies. And now one of the reasons that we moved to the crossroads was we have a carriage house and one of the neighborhood, my neighborhood girlfriends, her mother actually lives in our carriage house and is our nanny. And it's just like her grandson and daughter live in the neighborhood. And again, it's just, it's such a tight, awesome community of people and support and I feel like seren be has been a big part of our success in raising our kids and commuting and flying and being gone.

2 (26m 37s):
There have been days when I've said I could not do it if I didn't live here. And so it, it's just, it's such a wonderful network of support if you have little kids and, and really our kids live really good lives. They really do. It's so magical for them.

1 (26m 55s):
Yeah, we always say like, what are they all gonna do when they grow up? Like I have some on the older cohort, but there really is this insane gaggle of kids is, if that's a word, like in that sort of five to, I don't know, even 12 year old age right now. And so if you are that age and a kid, like it is so cool to live here because you just run around, you run around and the whole place is your playground. Yeah.

3 (27m 19s):
Free range kids

2 (27m 21s):
And your kids are safe. That's right. Free range kids, your kids are safe if your kid goes running off, which has happened, my kids have gone running off.

1 (27m 30s):
There's

2 (27m 31s):
Somebody is gonna, your kid, there's a few bobby stories, right? Since he was a little baby going and running off, but somebody is going knows your kid and like they're not lost. They're just free range. So it really has been a wonderful lifesaving place to have children. It really has.

1 (27m 53s):
Well, and that is pretty cool that you were, I don't wanna say you stumbled upon sort of a, a grandmother nanny, but here somebody's mom moves and you know, she's not working and it what a wonderful match that that kind of came together and how do we find that organically in this world today? We're pretty lucky, Steve, as the quintessential grandfather. Now, you know, I was with Cara is, you know, obviously we all know Cara the middle daughter and she was just saying how magical it is. Steve takes all the grandchildren, maybe not Ella Rose yet, but right. All five of the boys every Saturday night through Sunday morning. I mean, God, I wish I had had that. And the kids look forward to it.

3 (28m 34s):
And that's the nice thing about seren b if their grandparents don't live here, there are plenty of substitute grandparents all over the community. So it's

1 (28m 42s):
That's true. Yeah, definitely.

2 (28m 44s):
Parents and grandparents substitute family all over the place.

1 (28m 50s):
Oh yeah. That we all sort of parent each other's kids, they come together and it's cool, it's nice to know those younger kids. It's not just your kids' age group, it's, you have this relationship with everybody who lives here. So as we wrap up, you know, we're sort of walking into the question that we ask everybody. If somebody was coming to Sammy for the first time, what is one thing that you wanna tell them that they can't miss or it's your favorite or, or secret something?

2 (29m 21s):
Yeah, so my favorite thing, there's a lot of things that I love about c b I love Sunset Park and Sunday or having a burger at the daisy on the weekend or the veggie burger. But really my, I I've put a lot of thought into what is the thing that like really makes Seren be serenbe. And to me it's a potluck. So if you have the opportunity to go to a Serenbe potluck, it's not, it ain't your grandma's potluck, you know, It is the most, first of all, gorgeous thing you've ever seen because a and this is something that I think I I do take for granted sometimes is we put the effort to have the experience, you know, like we set the table, we pull out the linens, we make the food beautiful, not just, and, and it's healthy and it tastes good.

2 (30m 20s):
Yes. But it's also beautiful and it's fresh and it's from the garden or whatever, you know, a lot of times. And it's just such a community. It's something that we've all looked for. I mean, Monica, you and I have, we just went to one last weekend. I know, you know, so to me is the thing that I love about Sammy is that it, that's the representation of what I love. It's the potluck, the food, the beauty of it all, the taking a minute to appreciate each other and the moment just, it doesn't have to be for any reason, just a Sunday. But really, like, if you're gonna come for the first time, you should try to get yourself invited to one of those because it's pretty magical.

1 (31m 7s):
Well, and it happens, you could be walking down the street, you could be buying a bottle of wine at the general store and you strike up a conversation with a resident and they'll invite you over. You know, it sounds strange, but they will.

2 (31m 20s):
Yes they will.

3 (31m 23s):
If you see one carrying a dish down the street, stop and ask what they're up to.

1 (31m 27s):
Follow 'em, follow 'em to their house. But that's a great example like that last Sunday. It's like everybody just sort of came together and it showcased their creativity or their talent. They made whatever it is that they wanted to make. And you're right, it is, it's interesting, I tend to call it competitive potluck, but it's not competitive in the way that we think one upping each other. But it, you, you take in that you have fresh, you have access to all this great incredible fresh food, you know, that people really are interested in new recipes and new flavors. And so you start to cook that way and you start to cultivate that interest.

1 (32m 11s):
I think by being here, if you, you know, you may have had already interested in culinary and cooking, but it's sort of a different way to express yourself and then, or you're, you're challenging yourself. Like I always joke like eggplant season and you're like, oh my God, I got eggplant again in

2 (32m 25s):
The

1 (32m 26s):
Cher, I don't know what to do with it. But you know, maybe you figure out four ways to do some type of baba oosh. But I like that. That's a great answer. I don't know if we've had that answer yet. The potluck answer.

2 (32m 38s):
It's the most special thing that I've experienced at Cby and it, we continue to experience it week and month after month. It just doesn't ever get old. Like it's fun to be on the group chat and figure out what everybody's gonna bring and then just see this magical, beautiful spread come together.

1 (32m 59s):
Right. Come together. Exactly.

2 (33m 1s):
It really is. It's, it's pretty unique.

1 (33m 4s):
And you do wonder, Steve, like, is that somehow, obviously we have the farm here, so that sets the table, if you will, but your background in culinary and hospitality, that must seep through right beyond the restaurant.

3 (33m 19s):
It's part of the culture that started when we had six houses and eight houses. It was, what's everybody doing tonight for dinner? Oh, well why don't we bring an all out into the street to a table? And so I think that culture has continued just as waving at your neighbor has continued. And so it's part of ingrained in what Seren be's about and it, it does have a hospitality foundation.

1 (33m 42s):
All right. So when you come here next, look for somebody carrying a dish. Well Crystal, is there anything else you wanna share with us? I mean this has been such a great conversation and I always learn something fun about you every time we talk.

2 (33m 56s):
No, I, I really appreciate you guys having me and letting me talk about the things I'm passionate about, Seren be being one and the other, seeing more women in aviation. So no, I'm just really grateful that you guys good invited me on the pod.

3 (34m 13s):
Very interesting to hear all about it. That's great.

1 (34m 17s):
Maybe one more woman will become a pilot having listened to

2 (34m 20s):
This. Maybe so. Hopefully so. Yeah.

1 (34m 23s):
So thanks Crystal.

2 (34m 24s):
Bye guys. Have a good day. Bye.