Nature, Beauty & Jennifer Walsh

Today's episode features a 2-part interview with Jennifer Walsh, who talks about her years in the beauty industry, her deep love of nature and her mission to connect us to the natural world. The first part of our interview was recorded Fall 2019 with the intention of kicking off our 3rd Season this Fall. But with everything happening in the world today we realized Jennifer's perspective and love of nature is the inspiration we could use right now as we are all sheltering-in-place. So we talked to her again this April while she is sheltered in NYC, and we hope this conversation will give you the encouragement to find those moments to get outside into the beauty of nature. Please enjoy this episode of Serenbe Stories. 

Mentioned In The Episode

1918 Pandemic - Previously the most severe pandemic in recent history, caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Thought it is colloquially referred to as the “Spanish Flu,” it’s thought to have originated on an U.S. Army Base in Kansas and spread by soldiers during World War I.

Biophilic design - A tactic meant to increase connectivity to the natural environment through the use of direct nature, indirect nature, and space and place conditions.

Blue Zones - Regions of the world where residents have lower rates of chronic diseases and live longer than anywhere else.  

Global Wellness Summit - Annual conference hosted by the Global Wellness Institute that brings together leaders and visionaries to positively impact and shape the future of the global wellness industry.

Ketchum’s Wellness Council - A diverse group of influential industry leaders helping to tell brands’ authentic wellness stories. Jennifer is on the council and developed the Nature Green Print (NGP) program to underscore the importance of walking mindfully through nature to bridge the gap between nature and brain health.

Mother Dirt

National Retail Federation - Retail’s greeted advocate, standing up for the people, policies, and ideas that hep retail thrive.

Walks with Walsh - Jennifer interviews CEOs, founders, innovators, and philanthropists who are using nature in all that they do while also making sure to protect it. 

Transcript

Monica Olsen (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of Serenbe stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture their living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.

Monica Olsen (41s):
All right, now let's get back to Serenbe stories. Serenbe is a place where people live, work, learn, and play in celebration of life speedy. And we're here to share the stories that connect residents and guests to each other and to nature. This is Serenbe.

Monica Olsen (1m 23s):
This episode features a two part interview with Jennifer Walsh, who talks about our years in the beauty industry, her deep love of nature and her mission to connect us to the natural world. The first part of our interview was recorded in fall 2019, with the intention of kicking off our third season, this fall, but with everything happening in the world today, we realized Jennifer's perspective and love of nature is the inspiration we could all use right now as we are sheltering in place. So we talked to her again this April, while she sheltered in New York. And we hope this conversation will give you the encouragement to find those moments, to get outside into the beauty of nature. Please enjoy this episode of Serenbe stories. That first Serenbe stories is brought to you by the in it's Serenbe.

Monica Olsen (2m 5s):
The Inn is nestled in the rolling countryside, a bucolic Serenbe where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. You can relax by the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, play on the croquet lawn swings and in-ground trampolines connect with nature and each other all while staying in luxurious rooms on the, in grounds or within the community of Serenbe book your stay today at <inaudible> dot com. So I want to welcome everybody back today. I'm here with Steve Nygren good afternoon. Today. We have a special guest. This is Jennifer Walsh of walk with Walsh. She's here in Serenbe with us. She founded the first omni-channel beauty brand in the U S with the creation of beauty bar, which many of you may have heard of it consisted of a brick and mortar locations.

Monica Olsen (2m 52s):
About four of them all in Florida, a website and a weekly TV show. She launched this in 1998 years ago. Kind of back Steve, when you were barely even thinking about Serenbe sold it in 2010, and we're here to hear about her whole Serenbe story. Great

3 (3m 8s):
To continue the conversation at Jennifer. We are so honored and delightful to have you here and your voice walking the trails

Jennifer Walsh (3m 17s):
Of Sarah. I can't even tell you I'm so honored first of all, to be here and just thrilled to be back at Serenbe. I was kind of counting down the days to come back. I wasn't sure how I was going to come back, but I really wanted to be back and be in this like magical place. I tell everyone wherever I go, this is one of the most magical places I've ever seen in the world. We love, we love to hear that.

5 (3m 38s):
And we hear that so much.

3 (3m 41s):
And the sad part is the way we've been dealing with the built environment that this is magical yet. This is the way every place should be and how it was 50, 80, a hundred years. So you're

Jennifer Walsh (3m 50s):
So right. And was funny. I remember saying something to when I first met you and we talked was, I said, I think this is the most thoughtfully planned place I've ever seen. You said, no, it's just common sense, said, oh my gosh, you taught me something you're right. This is just common sense to you. Some more people I hope get into that same mindset. And I think you're actually spreading that message to so many people that need to hear it. So it resonated with me very deeply. So I'm thrilled to be back here again. That's great.

Monica Olsen (4m 16s):
So I would love to, for you guys to share how you first met and you came into our lives.

Jennifer Walsh (4m 22s):
Sure. I remember very, very well. It was actually just a year ago at the global wellness summit when we were in Italy. And it was a very first night, I think it was like cocktail hour and I met Dan Buettner or the blue zones. And we were talking about walk with Walsh and doing videos. You said, oh, wait, come here with me right now. You had to meet my friend, Steve Nygren and he dragged me over to you. I think we were just all getting there. And I said, tell me more about what you're doing. And so you gave me a little intro about Serenbe and I thought, that sounds great. You gave me a card. And I remember holding onto it saying, oh, I love to be on the card. And this sounds really interesting. And I have to remember to look into this when I get back to New York. And I remember just kind of following you a little bit more.

Jennifer Walsh (5m 3s):
And then January, I saw you again in New York city at Hearst tower at the releasing of the trends at the global wellness Institute and summit. And that's where I met Monica as well. So it was kind of all over the combustion happened. I said, okay, let's, let's do this again. Let's get together some other way. Great

3 (5m 19s):
Fun. And you know, I often think about great movements, especially in the art movement. And you read the history and you think, how did all those people know one another? Yes, isn't that curious? And now here we are in the environment and wellness community. And of course here, here, I am talking to the two great voices, that button or a blue zone and Jennifer Walls. And you can see because the communities are small. And so you do gather in these special places and conferences, and you get to know each other with like minded people and you see how movements that people do know one another. It's

Jennifer Walsh (5m 55s):
True. It's funny because Nancy Davis from the global wellness summit, everyone that knows global wellness summit knows Nancy Davis to be such a, such a force of nature. And she, the very first time I met with her, she knew I had been in beauty for 20 years. And she said, no, this is your community. This is your tribe. And I said, I want a tribe. I want a community that speaks my language and talks about nature and wellness and health and inherit as a year later. And my life has really changed after that. What's so incredible

3 (6m 23s):
Now is we're starting to look at various aspects of wellness that there's actually the research about beauty and how it affects our mental, which affects our actual physical. And so while that was sort of aha, in fact, I think it was, it was Nancy and Susie Ellis of global wellness summit that really had that a focus of a conference a couple years ago. And the, the beauty was a ma major topic.

Jennifer Walsh (6m 49s):
Yeah. Not surprised at all. Do

Monica Olsen (6m 51s):
You guys want to tell us a little bit about the global wellness summit and sort of how you both got involved with that?

Jennifer Walsh (6m 56s):
Well, mine was just a year ago. It was just my first, I'd always heard about global wellness summit and the Institute, but meeting Nancy Davis again, it's all through connections of I'm seeking people in this field. And then it was two different people in New York city. And they said, you know, you need to meet Nancy. And we did. And then she said, you know, you need to get to the summit. You have to find a way I can't get you there personally, but you have to find a way, and I'd already been doing some work with WeightWatchers WW, which is now called and Mindy Grossman. Who's also a part of the global wellness summit. She knew I led wellness walks in central park and she said, well, she in the team. So we want you to come on behalf of WW and host your wellness, walks with WW at, at the summit for all delegates.

Jennifer Walsh (7m 39s):
So I did that and I got to lead my wellness walks for whoever wants to walk in the morning. And then I also a talk, spoken a panel about beauty and wellness. So yeah,

3 (7m 47s):
Well, if anyone's listening and you do not know about the global wellness summit, you should really Google it or find out about it. They have a webpage, they have the big conference here in a couple of weeks in Singapore. And so they, they, they really all over the world and it brings thought leaders in the wellness space around, I first was introduced to them because someone who lived here, Claire Ammazza Renault was a head of a web MD at the time. And she had been invited to be a key speaker at their conference in India. Oh wow. And it was about wellness and really how the wearables were going to affect us. And now this is like six, seven years ago, I believe.

3 (8m 30s):
And so seven years ago, this was really a leading trend that she was talking to. And she started telling Nancy and Suzie about this place she lived, that was really about, you know, the environment and health. And that followed up that Nancy and Suzy decided to come see what this was all about. And I remember them saying, oh, now I understand wellness real estate. So I believe they were visited here is what really started them thinking about the research about wellness real estate, which has now been released and show it's, it's really the great trend, but they've been able to brilliantly put all these various pieces together under one big ball, the, that they're looking at.

3 (9m 16s):
And so now in the seven years I had been to absolutely every one of their conferences, because the people in the tribe that you start to meet there is incredible from the various areas. That's fantastic.

Monica Olsen (9m 28s):
And January was phenomenal because that was sort of an opportunity for us to go represent Serenbe, but also hear about the leading trends and research. And so what was interesting, Jennifer is that was one of the things that you did the research paper on. Can you tell me a little bit about the name of it? Cause it was focused on nature and sort of, how did that come about? Because you know, now this was six months later. Yeah. Tell

Jennifer Walsh (9m 49s):
Me about that was after the summit and meeting Susie and really spending time with Susie and Nancy and the whole team, they knew my love of all things nature. And they knew that I've been really studying and researching and spending so much time in it, not only as a practitioner, but really deep, deep in this research mode could a little nerdy when I start talking about the science behind nature, because I love it so much. And so Nancy said, we'd love for you to write the trend because you are so closely connected to it. So it was such a huge opportunity for me to really dive even deeper into something that I already love. So to have an opportunity said, yeah, I'd love to write this, this trend and then be able to present it to a lot of my peers because I am an immediate in New York and I write for numerous magazines and here I am at Hearst tower, the tower where I worked sometimes with some teams there, it was fun to be, there was so many people that are again like-minded, but also want to, there are outsiders that want to learn more about the wellness space.

Jennifer Walsh (10m 42s):
So that's how I got to be there.

Monica Olsen (10m 45s):
I love it. And that was a great joy to meet you. And you came down, then you said, oh, I'd love to interview Steve for a walk. And so that was the first time that you came, which I think was may or June of this year, April. Okay. And we did that walk. And then from that we had through another relationship, our really good friends at mother dirt said they would love to do something here at Serenbe. So we put you together with them and they're sponsoring your current walks that you're doing here. And so tell me a little bit about some of the few, the people that you're interviewing this

Jennifer Walsh (11m 15s):
Week. Oh my gosh. It's been so much fun. First of all, it's like you guys ordered up, the weather has been so beautiful. Not that it's never not beautiful here, but just the weather it's just been. So, you know, it's when you get to come here, just it's that the exquisiteness of peacefulness that you just kind of, it just flows right over you. So when you get here, it's just like, oh my gosh, I'm in a space where I know it's almost a sacred space. And when you walk in nature and you're here and you get to interview people that are like-mindedness, it's just a beautiful experience. So even like Kim Sieverson from the New York times is a fruit critic. And so we talked to her and she even said, I'm feeling like I'm in a spiritual place when I'm walking in nature. Oh my gosh, she's in New York times writer.

Jennifer Walsh (11m 56s):
And she's saying the same things that we feel. And we talked a lot about the food, the state of food and nature on our plate. And that was really interesting. And Carrie PEI, I mean, she's just, there's so many great people that were coming. So to have mother dirt, a beauty brand that I love from, again, being a beauty for 20 years, to be able to put this together with Serenbe to host these walking video series is so special. It's really just special to tell such great stories of people that are doing impactful and beautiful work in beauty and in nature and with nature

3 (12m 26s):
And, you know, nature is sacred. And when we build in relationship with it, then you feel that sacredness. Absolutely. And so many times we're building in an opposition to it. You're absolutely right. And you feel the tension when you're in their big cities.

6 (12m 42s):
Yes.

Jennifer Walsh (12m 44s):
I feel that way. Many days I'm choice. I always think that's why I had to try and start my days in central park, just so I can that's my meditative practice is really going to the park every morning. I try and go as early as possible, as soon as I wake up and some people do yoga and some people do some kind of meditation, but for me, the walk in the park is my meditation. And to be really, really quiet. And I love the different seasons too, to kind of hear the rustling of the trees or the leaves that are falling now. And then winter will come and it'll be so cold. And then just the crackling of the branches. And there's nothing else. It's just that beauty of it. So I love that time, because again, then I have to go up against all the honking horns and then the buildings and all of commotion. So it's, it's just a steadying of the mind and the soul.

Jennifer Walsh (13m 26s):
That's great.

Monica Olsen (13m 27s):
Can you say step back and share your larger history with us? I'd love to know more about the beauty bar background. We haven't really talked a ton about that when our time together. Can you share, how, how did you open it? Like what, what led you to open a retail store? Great question.

Jennifer Walsh (13m 42s):
I didn't know anything about retail. I knew nothing about retail. I knew I had this thought in might I was. I started out, well, I started out at Merrill Lynch, but on the side I was doing makeup artistry as a side job in like the mid nineties. So Merrill Lynch taught me a lot. I got to learn about finance, which was what I needed down the road. And the makeup started to take over. I remember telling my parents at one point saying, I'm leaving my corporate job. I'm going to start something. And they said, oh God, no, I won't do it because they just thought, well, again, this is in the mid nineties, late nineties, where there weren't many people going off to start businesses and especially not women. So they just worried a lot. And I had this love of makeup and I was doing more and more makeup for TV, movie stars and singers, Jessica Simpson, pink, Justin Timberlake, Destiny's child, before it was just beyond say you had all these different celebrities.

Jennifer Walsh (14m 35s):
And on a fluke, a friend of mine was a TV producer for morning for the news. And he said, my actually guests fell through. I need you to come on air tomorrow morning on there, forget it. I need you to come in tomorrow morning and bring your makeup kit and talk about the brands that you're using on the makeup on a celebrities. I said, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I can't get in front of the camera. I do the makeup for the people in front of the camera. I can't, I can't it just again, he said, please I'll owe you for the rest of my life. That was February, 1997. And I've been on TV almost every single month since that time. And it just kind of spiraled into this weekly segment that people were very interested in. They call the, the studio.

Jennifer Walsh (15m 17s):
So what was happening was I was talking to these brands that had never been heard of before. And I was bringing these brands up. People are like, what is that? Because this was Prisa fora, pre Ulta, pre blue mercury, and other retailers. And the department stores only is selling five or six brands such as Chanel, Estee, Lauder prescription or prescriptives and Clarence, maybe. So it's very limited. So here I am talking with these really crazy brands that no one ever heard of. So people were getting mad and they said, why are you talking about this? And we can't find it again. This is before the internet, which you remember, like in the nineties, there was no whatever. So I thought, well, if I had this conduit of education called TV, what if I can open something that people could come in and experience the beauty? And that's how I created beauty bar.

Jennifer Walsh (15m 58s):
Again, it was like 600 square feet of not sure what I'm going to do, but it was a beautiful little space. And it's such beautiful light across the street from the beach. And I just thought it's going to be something really special. And I had like $30,000 in savings and I wouldn't, I took furniture out of my house and put it into the store. What am I going to spend the money on? I don't know, have money. So it was just funny that I was hanging up, you know, wood, wood fixtures from home Depot. It was really scrappy, scrappy times. So that's how it started.

Monica Olsen (16m 27s):
That's great. What kind of brands were you covering at

Jennifer Walsh (16m 29s):
The time? So at that point it was limited. It was a philosophy was just coming out and QVC was just starting to sell philosophy. So philosophy, lox, Aton Kiehl's, and these brands, again, people didn't know of them, they really didn't hear them. So they didn't understand why I was selling products that were $12. Like, why are you selling soap? It's $12. I said, it's true. Well, milled from France, come on. I saw it as an opportunity to educate people a way that they had never been educated before. So, and I wasn't into the hard sell. I hated being oversold at department stores. So I thought if I could make this into a place of like coming into my living room and people could just be in my home and feel warm and invited and not a cold sale, that's kind of how I did it.

Jennifer Walsh (17m 14s):
So people were just come in and they stopped by because the coffee shop was right next door. And the local, small little wine shop was here and it was a big community. And very quickly I realized that I could have an impact on the community that I never thought possible. It's just the way I treated people. I thought, oh, I had no idea. This by simple actions could really make such a difference. And I tried to impart that with all my staff, as I, as I grew the business. And it was a really special time in my life. It was really great. And then of course then became the biophilic design. I didn't even realize I wanted or had. So I didn't even know there was a thing when I grew the business, then I said, if I want to make the next year with slate walls and I want it to be green and I want, I want beautiful wood features.

Jennifer Walsh (17m 58s):
And I was totally, I was only 28, 29, 30 years old. So all these bigwigs from New York were coming down and saying, you know, you should have it pink and you should, you should, you should. You should. And I'll be, you should, I could write a whole book about the, you should, but I didn't want to have chandelier's. I didn't want to, it wasn't me. I wanted everyone of any age, background, color, you know, demographic to come in and feel comfortable. I just want it to be warm and inviting. And that's how I felt best about it when I've had nature and big trees in the stores. And it's kind of how it rolled out. When

3 (18m 31s):
Did you identify the connection? Was it the biophilic design and

Jennifer Walsh (18m 35s):
Maybe last year, long after I sold it, but it was funny cause I never, I never thought about it. It was just kind of innately a part of what I felt. Yeah. It was already in me, what I've always, I've always been outdoors my entire life, even growing up in the Bronx, but it was always a part of how I connected to one another and connected to others was through the comfortable design of, you know, how does it make you feel if you're in here and like just nice music and just being so close to the beach and always wanted windows. And so I learned a lot about biophilic design just in the past 10 years. I'd say after I sold

3 (19m 9s):
It, you know, a hundred years ago, we were primarily an agricultural society and we were connected in to nature in a very real way. And so we didn't have to label it. Exactly. We just, we all knew it. And so that's what you're typing into. It's just that knowing,

Jennifer Walsh (19m 22s):
Right? Absolutely. It's funny how that, that happens. You just say, okay, this feels good. I just makes me feel good. I'm hoping it makes it feel good. And then when you treat people with respect and honor and, and care and empathy, I think then you get the same feedback from them to always want to be with you. And it's, it was a really fun time to also like grow a team that I never had before. So how do I grow a team from nothing and not really know how to do it, but always just lead by example, never told people what to do. I just wanted to, I wanted to be the first ones cleaning the toilet. Like I'll clean the toilet first, so I can show that if I do it, we can all do it. I'm going to clean the floor. Maybe someone else will do it tomorrow. You know, it's just, it was nice. It was hard.

Jennifer Walsh (20m 4s):
I'm not going to sugar coat it, it was really hard, but yeah, it was great.

Monica Olsen (20m 7s):
And so you ended up with four stores, a website, weekly TV show, and then you sold it all. Yes. In 2010, I did. And were you still in Florida, you moved to New York at that

Jennifer Walsh (20m 18s):
Time or I was still in Florida and I was, it was 2008 was really tough. The market was crushed me. So I was like robbing Peter to pay Paul because some, one of the stores was do better than the other. And it was just, I was learning a lot. And also at the same time found out by 2009, my CFO was not taking care of the bills. So it was really traumatic and very tumultuous time in my life. And I had to sell the company. So that company that bought me out was in New York and it was called Quidsi and Quidsi own diapers.com and soap.com. So they were already a hundred million, $200 million business by then. They brought me on board and they didn't want the stores. They just wanted the online space because now by that time, the online space was outselling, even the stores.

Jennifer Walsh (21m 3s):
So I moved back to New York, left everything behind and it was very surreal because I had like a 2,500 square foot house and I was married and had a stepchild. And all of a sudden I'm paired down to like a little 600 square foot, like going back to my first store. I was just like in a little tiny space in New York and starting kind of over again, but it was a whole new chapter and it was scary and exciting all at the same time. And I was going home because I'm from New York. So it was kind of like, Ooh, I'm going back to see my cousins and my aunts and uncles and friends in the past.

Monica Olsen (21m 33s):
So, and today you're still up there. You're still, still there 10 years later. And I know there's a fun story that you've told me about an annual tradition you do with your parents on the New Jersey shore. Can you tell me about this? It's very

Jennifer Walsh (21m 46s):
Cool. I didn't like it when I was a kid. So I love of course, learned to love it so much. So we have a tent. So I basically live in a tent almost all summer. My parents live in a tent the entire summer. They live in a beautiful home in a place called <inaudible> beach, Florida, and it's lovely and gorgeous gated community. And they leave that to go live in a tent and we've been doing it for 30 years. So there's a town called ocean Grove, New Jersey, which is a cute beach town. It's been around for 150 years. And when they first started the town there worth, they put up a thousand tents. So those thousand tents are now 114 tenths. And of course there's a beautiful Victorian town.

Jennifer Walsh (22m 26s):
That's built around it. There's actually Methodist church in the middle of the town. I we're like the only non Methodist in the city, but anyway, the road Catholics in the town. But anyway, we it's such a magical place because it's so much like Serenbe, I think I read something Steve, that you wrote saying, it takes me a half an hour to get my mail because you're so many people that you see along the way. And I think that's the ocean Grove story as well, because we live in these tents. It is maybe 20 foot by 20 foot canvas. But then the back of it is a cabin. So the cabin can be air conditioned and it has a kitchen and bathroom and some of them are really done up nice, but everything gets put even everything in the CA the canvas portion gets put into the cabin during the winter.

Jennifer Walsh (23m 12s):
So it's boarded up. So we don't have anything fancy in there. So when we then roll it out in may, so it's May 15th to September 14th, the tents are open. And it's just so much like Serenbe the fact that they're little tiny, like it's just, we're all so closely connected. You can hear each other's thieves. You say, God bless you through the tent. We have 10 voices. You have to make sure you speak kind of quietly at times, especially in the mornings, but we have all grown up there. So it's passed down from generation to generation and there is a 15 year waiting list to have one, because there's only 114 right now, because is so magical. And you really have to love to be around your family and close quarters. You have to really love each other.

Jennifer Walsh (23m 53s):
It's really, it's lovely. It's lovely. I'm thankful that I've grown up there for 30 years and it's right there on the boardwalk and you can, you know, I don't wear shoes pretty often. I kind of am in my biome. Like I think I'm Dr. Zach Bush all the time. I'm always like walking barefoot, which I've always done got my first job there, ice cream scooping, you know, but it's, it's really a beautiful way to experience the sounds. I can hear the rain and I love hearing the rain. The rain storms are my favorite and hearing the squirrels. It's just, you smell the sea breeze. It's just so delightful. So it's fun

3 (24m 25s):
Watching your eyes just light up. If you, as you've talked about these two key things, connecting to nature and connecting to each other as people, which now we're finding is, are essential ingredients to how we live yet. We've been building places that remove us from both.

Jennifer Walsh (24m 41s):
You're right. You're absolutely right. It was funny because when we interviewed Carrie PEI the other day, and she talked about her porch, she just kind of sat there with a glass of wine and then more and more people kept coming over and she had like 10 or 15 people on our porch. And she then said to them, this was the best birthday I've ever had. And they didn't even know it was her birthday, but she didn't want them to know. She just said, this, this is what it's all about. And you create this community here. That's so celebrating one another and of all ages. That's why I love it here. You see such young little infants and then, you know, eighties, nineties, it can go on. It's just fantastic because I feel the same way in ocean Grove. I could just sit next to my neighbor. That is almost 90. And then we have newborns at the end of the street.

Jennifer Walsh (25m 23s):
It's just delightful. It's delightful. It's the way to live. And we're going to come visit. I want to know,

Monica Olsen (25m 32s):
Tell us a little bit about what you're doing. Obviously you're doing the walks, which is fantastic. And we're going to continue doing that series here this fall, but what

Jennifer Walsh (25m 40s):
Else are you working on? Oh my goodness. There's so many fun things. And again, it's like one of those things when I started really for a while, until you really, honestly, I had my like business hat on for so long. So I was like running a big company for such, such a long period of time. Then I started another company. So I always had this business hat and I thought, no, one's going to believe me if I'm talking about nature, like that doesn't sound very business. Like, and I was going on. These business shows like, you know, on MSNBC or CNN or, and I always talk business. I thought if I start talking nature talk, they're going to think I'm crazy. And not think that I'm a viable business person. And I said, you know what, forget it, forget it. That's like the, again, the ego speaking and not really my heart speaking.

Jennifer Walsh (26m 23s):
And I had to speak to my heart and say, I really need to know what I know is right. And that's to get people back outdoors in nature. So I am leading wellness walks. I'm very in tune with the Guata forest, but forest bathing is and take people for walks in central park, whether it be corporations or schools, hotels, hotel, guests in New York, which has been great. I've even been doing them for brands that are launching new products that are based on nature. So I've been traveling around the country for different events to lead walks. And it's really interesting the feedback I get because they never say so how do you feel? But I get lots of feedback saying, you know, you just taught me exactly what I already innately knew, but didn't want to, I pushed it aside because life is so busy.

Jennifer Walsh (27m 6s):
So it's been delightful to kind of have those experiences with like the young and the old in central park and elsewhere. So the wellness walks have been great and doing this video series here at Serenbe has been so special to really, again, bring the focus back to people that are doing things in nature that are so impactful and so necessary. The conversation has to be about nature on our plate nature in our backyard nature, we are nature. So we have to remember without that we are nothing. So I'm really happy about doing that and working on a book, a whole bunch of different things,

Monica Olsen (27m 39s):
And a big thing. One of the people we're going to interview, you're going to interview is Barry Rafferty. Yes, who's the CEO first female CEO of a major catch him. And you just went on their board,

Jennifer Walsh (27m 53s):
This council. So there's a council. They're just, just starting. It's called the wellness council. And there are five of us, the first five founding members of their wellness council. And I get to speak to my area of expertise, which is nature, which is really delightful. I'm so excited to be a part of this and bring the conversation to a larger scale and international because Ketchum is worldwide. And I'm really excited to be able to share the data that I've accumulated in studied and learned to hopefully a broader audience and really bring it back to more brands and more people that say, oh, this is really, and it's really important in one of those things

Monica Olsen (28m 28s):
Was, you told me there was this NGP, which is your nature GreenPrint, is that right? But that I thought was super cool because that's a whole different side. It's sort of taking the walks.

Jennifer Walsh (28m 38s):
Tell us a little bit about that. It was an idea to take, okay, how do I then implement this for schools or for corporations or even individuals in their homes. So I, I called it the NGP, the nature GreenPrint. So something basic, but something that's so important. People say, oh, it is, you know, instead of just doing yoga or instead of just getting, you know, on a diet or whatever the fads are out there, if we're not in tune with nature, nothing else will work because we're out of tune. Nature is our center. So the nature GreenPrint is just a way to implement things in incorporations and also get outside. So it's a time to, you know, take time outside, but also how do we bring nature back inside in the corporate offices and integrate what people are using and make people healthier.

Jennifer Walsh (29m 22s):
So thanks for the question. Thanks.

Monica Olsen (29m 25s):
So, any other final comments or thoughts I know besides moving here? Well, we would love that.

Jennifer Walsh (29m 35s):
I'm, I'm trying, I, you know, it's, it's honestly like I don't want to leave tomorrow, but I'm excited about coming back and I love coming back, like, and just seeing so many new things that are just happening and it's beautiful. Well, and

3 (29m 48s):
You see all the new Yorkers that have second homes here, or some are primary homes here, even though their offices in New York, because the connection with our airport just connects you very close. I

Jennifer Walsh (29m 60s):
Get it, Steve, I get it. I know what you're trying to do in the Kool-Aid.

5 (30m 5s):
I didn't see the cost of living is so good to that. You could, that you could go back and forth and you're still

Jennifer Walsh (30m 10s):
Easier. I know. Give you so easy. You're right. I know.

Monica Olsen (30m 13s):
Tell us your quick Instagram story, the other day you were doing an Instagram story and you said you got three people from New York.

Jennifer Walsh (30m 18s):
Oh yes. So it was so interesting because I, I love Instagram to tell stories. I really, you know, people can say what they want about Instagram. I really don't care that much about whatevers, but I love telling stories visually and I love nature. And I think nature is such a beautiful storyteller in itself. And just like listening to the sound of the breeze or whatever. So when I posted some pictures and some videos, I have three different groups of people that I didn't even one I knew kind of know, but I don't know personally. And they said, oh, I have a house there. Oh, I I've heard all about this. Oh, I have I'm coming there. Oh. And I just heard someone else this morning, by the way that I've known from the university of South Carolina. Cause I used to have another company about college, but that's a whole other story.

Jennifer Walsh (30m 60s):
Her daughter is moving here. So she's leaving. I'm going to find out more when in the next few days, but she's actually going to be her next week. So I'm going to see her. When I come back, she works at university of South Carolina. She's a professor there. So her daughter's going to be here. So again, it's all these little connections. So the more I speak about it, the more I'd love hearing who and why they're here, because I love them all have unique stories of why. And probably

3 (31m 21s):
What you're finding out is the tribe. This is the place the tribe can come together. And people may at times said, well, who is that tribe? And I identified it is it's people

Jennifer Walsh (31m 30s):
With hope that sutures, Serenbe

3 (31m 33s):
B really is an example of that and all the things you're doing and, and people that, that have hope and are out there doing things this resonates with them. And so we kind of

Jennifer Walsh (31m 44s):
All, yeah, it's interesting. You say that. I love that hope. Hope is such a guiding force and guiding light for all of us. It's hard for some people. And I think one of the women that wrote to me about saying that she's moving here full time, because she has a house here. She said that she's had a lot of health scares and they're done with New York. And just that, that tension is just that trauma that we instill in ourselves by living there. And she said, we wanted a healthier lifestyle. And we knew that Serenbe was that answer. And I thought it was so beautiful. I just like, I felt it. I totally understood what she was saying. And I think more and more people will, will see and hear and smell and taste and activate all of our senses. But that's why I think also like being here, you're, you're activating your senses all the time.

Jennifer Walsh (32m 27s):
Really? Do you feel it? You feel, yeah, no. You

3 (32m 30s):
Many times, you know, you and especially some of the people like you, who helps share the stories. I know when, when I walk with the Audubon people on the, I feel that I have, I have see the forest in silence because they hear, and they can identify all those noises. Or I walk with one of our experts that, that knows the, all the wild plants and all that are out there. And suddenly, gosh it, have I been seeing the forest in black and white? Absolutely. And so with bringing voices like yours and others here, everything becomes much more.

Jennifer Walsh (33m 4s):
Hmm. I love that. So true. Well, I want

Monica Olsen (33m 7s):
To thank you so much for spending time with us, Jennifer and Steve. Of course. Can you tell us where we can find you on social

Jennifer Walsh (33m 15s):
Or on the web? Can you give her, my website is walk with walsh.com. Instagram is my favorite place. It's the Jennifer Walsh, T H E the Jennifer Walsh. And Twitter's behind the brand, but I'm mostly on Instagram for

Monica Olsen (33m 28s):
Sure. Well, wonderful. We will all follow you and follow us. Thank you.

Jennifer Walsh (33m 32s):
Thank you both. Thank you all for having me. I just, I love being here and it's such a special place and I just carry it with me everywhere I go. So thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here. Our pleasure. Thank you.

Monica Olsen (33m 46s):
All right. So Jennifer, welcome back, Steve. We spoke to you Jennifer. Gosh, six months ago. Can't believe it's been six months and we're recording this on zoom so we can all see each other. But we'll say that all of our listeners from our visuals here and Jennifer, you know, I saw you in New York, early February before this crisis with COVID sort of was really taking center stage in our lives, but we wanted to sort of catch up with you and find out not only what's going on today and how you've been affected, but really talk about, you know, what's gone on and what's happened since we saw you in the fall and all of the wellness walks are out.

Monica Olsen (34m 33s):
Now. It sounds like you've gotten great feedback on them. This has been wonderful. It's been such great feedback. Oh, I had such a great time at Serenbe and people actually spending people ask me all the time. Okay. Serum be as magical as you make it. Look and sound as well. The look and sound is Serenbe. I don't have to digest. Just show up. It's it is that magical. So yes,

7 (34m 55s):
It's been a wonderful way that really highlights some of the advantages here. So we thank you

Monica Olsen (34m 59s):
For that. Oh, you're too kind. Steve. Thank you, Jennifer. One of the things that you talked about on your interview was you had jumped on a Ketchum board for wellness. Can you tell us a little update on how that's gone or what's going on with that? Yeah, it was great. It was, it was for a short period of time. So, and so many things have happened since we last met, but of course, things have been put on hold for a little while, but the wellness board for catching was wonderful. I met some great people through it and we just shared our voices of how we, we come together in different aspects in wellness. Of course mine was spending in nature and that being be wellness attribute that people should really consider not just outside, but how we bring nature indoors.

Monica Olsen (35m 46s):
I saw you, we got together for a little bit of time in early February, God, like maybe the second or third. So two months ago now, and COVID was barely mentioned. It wasn't really in the U S at that point that we know of. And you were like, at the top of your game, you had just done a talk for the national retail Federation. You had been doing a ton of blocks. You had been got, you're going to a ton of dinner, parties, interviews rolling. They were rolling along really nicely. It was amazing. And then sort of the past two months, everything's kind of come crashing down. It's not just you it's everybody, but tell us a little bit, sort of like what happened in February, what happened in March and what's going on today?

Monica Olsen (36m 31s):
It's been surreal and I'll try and keep it as brief as possible, but it's been very surreal few, few weeks to be honest, because things were like the national retail Federation. Speaking of that, I spoke at a few other functions here in the city and we're planning to speak at other events in April and may. And of course that's all been kind of put to rest for now and we're going to be scheduled for later on later date. But yes, people are getting excited about doing more walks. They were having more to companies coming to me saying, Hey, we want to host company-wide wellness walks with you once a week, or can we do something once a month with you to really leverage the importance of spending time outdoors in nature, and to learn about the nature of fact and how it affects our bodies and our brains.

Monica Olsen (37m 11s):
So things were really, really great. And then the end of February came along beginning of March and everything was turned upside down because every week it kept changing, especially in New York city, the news where it was changing so quickly that all of us, everyone in business had to keep changing their message and what they were offering and what they want to help people get to know better. Especially in the wellness space. I know early March, you had put out a call, would you do for your wellness walks? And you know, I believe you had told me that something like within 24 or 48 hours, you had a quarter's worth of bookings because people were so interested in getting outside.

Monica Olsen (37m 51s):
Tell me a little bit about it's fascinating because it was all of a sudden it's like uptick of people say, oh, well, I want to get outside. I w I didn't think about that because now the gym started closing very quickly. Things started shrinking in terms of what people were allowed to do. And people say, oh, I didn't think about walking as a mindfulness, meditative practice. They were just walking to get their steps in. And they were trying to, when people visualize walking, they think of it almost like running and walking like that, and running is very different practice practice than doing a forest bathing kind of walk or a wellness walk. It's just a very reflective, mindful meditative practice. And people were just, I had every hotel group. I had hoped individuals, corporations big and small saying, can we come and do a person, a 20 person?

Monica Olsen (38m 36s):
I would try and max it at 20 people per group, but I was getting bookings upon bookings upon booking. So it was just fascinating, like overnight. And then just as quickly as, as that. So, but it was all really interesting because people all of a sudden start saying, oh, it was great feedback because people are like, oh, I always, I always neatly knew this was the right practice, but no one gave me no one gave me the, okay, that this was normal to feel this way. No one ever told me that I'm not crazy feeling like nature felt good to me. And why. So it was kind of fun to just lead that, that, that conversation. Right. Well, and I know that you also continued because I know in our interview, you talked about how that is a meditative practice for you to walk in the park every day.

Monica Olsen (39m 24s):
And so obviously you continue to do that. That was it. That was acceptable underneath, still is underneath. I think the shelter in place, I haven't kept up the past week. We're interviewing you in, you know, mid April right now, but you got some pushback because you continue to sort of document your walks and talk about them and how amazing nature was. But I noticed like I follow you on Instagram and Facebook and you got pushback from people. I had had quite a bit of pushback from people saying, you know, it's called shelter in place for a reason. Why are you outside? You should be using your voice for telling people to be inside. It's so foolish of you. Like they're really, really hitting home and pushing me to a way that I really appreciate the conversation because the governor's telling us we can go outside the man.

Monica Olsen (40m 9s):
I'm not saying anything that we cannot do legally. We should be spending time. They even said, go for your walks. Don't stop going through your walks. But I'm seeing that people I'm trying to give people reasons to go outside earlier in the day, I said, go out at 6:00 AM in the morning, six 30, it's lighter in the morning. Now in New York city go outside at seven, eight, nine, 10:00 AM. There's no one outside. I could go for a walk at nine or 10 o'clock in the morning from my apartment through the park. And I don't see anyone within a 10, 20 foot radius of me at all, period. No one on the streets, no one in the park. So I try and just say, you know, it's not that we shouldn't be going outside. We should, we need fresh air.

Monica Olsen (40m 49s):
So it's also been a great educational tool for me to say, this is why we need fresh air. Apartment buildings are known for bad, bad, bad air. They're like really bad. There's no circulation. It's kind of like being in an airplane 24 seven. So if people are not opening their windows, they're not going on their rooftop or just going outside. They're just breathing in this really unhealthy air. And then on top of that, we're using all these really toxic ingredients to scrub our apartments. And it's like, I think if you saw, like I said, it was like a recipe for disaster. Our immune systems are just being clobbered by all the bad things we're doing by being indoors all day. So I've been thankful to be able to, people have been pushing me back, but I've been able to at least share all the things I've learned over the years of why we should be going outside and why we need to look outside why we need to open our windows.

Monica Olsen (41m 35s):
So I don't mind the pushback at all. I don't mind. It's been an opportunity for me to share more and more scientific way and more like what happened during the 1918 pandemic, same kind of things happening now, where they discovered that in 1918, that people were getting healthier outdoors with fresh air and they called it disinfected. The doctors didn't know why fresh air was acting like a disinfectant for people. So I learned a lot, even from the people that were giving new some feedback that they said, you know, you shouldn't be doing this as well. This is why we should be doing it. Even in a city of 8 million people. It's important to spend some time outside or the parks still open there right now.

Monica Olsen (42m 16s):
Playgrounds are not. So playgrounds are not open, but parks are open. So thank goodness. You know, central park is still open. You can still walk the waterways. There's so much space to be outdoors. The parks in Brooklyn, all the parks are still open. Thank goodness. So I'm worried about these people that are still meeting in clusters. Like they did an aerial view yesterday on a helicopter flying over and seeing these groups of people like doing whatever, whatever kind of CrossFit workouts, kind of things like that, that were meeting a small clusters and working out together. And the governor came on and said, that's not how this works. We're not supposed to be doing that. So that's, I hope that doesn't ruin it for all the other people that are going out there just to go for their run or their walk.

Monica Olsen (43m 0s):
Cause when I, even, when I do go out in the afternoon for maybe a run, not necessarily a walk, I do see a lot of people just enjoying. It's a beautiful time of year in New York city right now, if everything's blooming and it's just spectacularly gorgeous out right now. Yeah. I know Steve and I were talking earlier that, you know, just the stillness and the peace and seeing those blooms come in. I'm so glad you said that. That's exactly it. I think, well, you guys know this as well. This is the first time in our history that we're able to hear nature versus man nature versus manmade noise. Like there are no cars. There's no, there are no airplanes or no people going to and from work very little or very few people are on the road.

Monica Olsen (43m 45s):
There's no traffic, there are no horns. It's just for the first time you can hear nature so loudly. And it's really speaking to us in such a profound way. Well, I know one of your Instagram posts and it wasn't particularly nature, but it was, I think you were, were you at rock center and it was the pinging of the, the flags. You could hear the flapping of the flags and the pinning of the metal that holds the flags in, in nothing else. There's no way you would have ever heard that on a regular day in the middle of Rockefeller center. Never. I've never heard that I've been there so many times in my lifetime. And just to be, it was like maybe five o'clock on a Sunday afternoon or five o'clock on a Saturday.

Monica Olsen (44m 25s):
I decided I was going for a long run down fifth avenue because there's no traffic. So I decided to take advantage of the fifth avenue, just ran down and I stopped at rock center and took a video. And the moment I was videotaping at the same time St. Pat's cathedral, the bells went off and I've never been able to hear the bells at St. Basket thedral, especially when it's two blocks away. So to hear the pinging of the flags with the breeze, it was just a surreal moment of understanding, like your place in time. And that very moment of, wow, this is, this is surreal. It's really surreal to hear these little microcosm moments that are beautiful. How

7 (45m 4s):
Do you think this will change us? Once things sort of go back to what you would think of as

Monica Olsen (45m 9s):
Near normal? That's a great question. I was just asking my boyfriend the same question. How do you think this is going to change us? And I really hope it changes us for the better. I hope that we are able to learn from what nature is teaching us. I don't know, Steve. That's a really great question. I keep wondering, how is this going to change us? And this is this going to open our ears to being closer to the earth because I'm seeing a lot of people now I'm cooking a lot more at home and they're harvesting a lot more food and their home gardens. I see a lot more people are gardening at home, which I love to see. So I don't know if this is going to be more of a connection to things that are closer to us, like a community like Sarah, being more into wanting to live in a community that's closer to, to the land and the closer to one another, obviously.

Monica Olsen (45m 57s):
So it's a great question. I wish I knew that answer.

7 (46m 2s):
We've talked before, about how many times in, in high rise buildings where people live so closely yet they don't know their neighbors. Have you seen that changing?

Monica Olsen (46m 11s):
Yes. Yes and no. There's a fear factor of being in, being in the building. So people aren't even leaving their apartments. That much. There've been notes in my party, behave. Anyone needs anything yet? When I leave my even just walking out my apartment, I live on the 11th floor. I put my mask and my gloves on just to go downstairs, to get my mail and my building, no one shares an elevator in my building. Everyone's still all way to the next one. Or they're taking the stairs down. I've seen nobody on my floor and weeks and weeks and weeks. So from March 13th to last Wednesday, I didn't see another human being, except for my doorman in passing.

Monica Olsen (46m 54s):
When he fling a package at me very quickly, I hadn't spoken to another human face-to-face and had been almost a month. So yeah. Yup. How does that feel? It's very isolating and New York city is like that. If you don't live, if you're not married, you don't live with somebody and you're not allowed to. I mean, I haven't seen any friends. I haven't seen my family. My family lives very close to me. We haven't seen each other, my uncles at least because we know how unsafe it is just to God forbid I was a carrier and I got them sick or vice versa. It's just, it's, it's been really challenged. I think the only thing that's keeping me sane have been my walks.

Monica Olsen (47m 34s):
That's really my only, that's the only time I don't feel alone when I'm in nature. So it really has been my time to just, just to be out there and just to listen, to smell and to touch like the blooms. It's, it's really, the only time I don't feel alone is when I'm outdoors going for my walks. Otherwise I'm in my apartment all by myself. And it's been challenging. It's been really challenging when you said that you've rearranged your furniture a couple of times, right? That's it. I feel you did. I get the EOS look, this might look good for a little while or this might look good and it's very surreal because every day I kept thinking, oh, I'll, you know, I'll go. So I'll go see someone later, I'll go this place. So, and so this time I think, oh, I have nowhere to go.

Monica Olsen (48m 15s):
I really have nowhere to go. But again, I'm walking so many places and the walking really helps me clear my mind always cool. And one thing that, that I think you're okay talking about, cause you, it was very public, but you, you kind of had a, you were out doing one of those walks and you sort of, I mean, not sort of, you had a very public breakdown on social media. That's I know been picked up a little bit, tell us kind of how that happened and what led up to it and what you've started taking over away from that. It was, I shared it. I decided to take the video and I got very emotional. I started taping it. I didn't expect to become so emotional. I thought I could either delete it or save it to myself or just share what I felt.

Monica Olsen (48m 55s):
And I thought I'm just going to share it. I don't know what's going to happen, but I was super emotional. So I was out for a run and I had heard that the they're building a, a field hospital in central park. I just didn't know exactly where. So I was going for my run and all of a sudden, you know, everyone's out kind of doing their own thing. It was the afternoon and I'm sorry, it wasn't after it was morning. And I was going for a run and all of a sudden I just kind of stumbled upon it. And there it was. And to think that's where I lie in the grass and just like relax. And that's where I, for so many days, just to just be happy. And I played in that lawn before. And just to think the beauty of all the people coming together to help one another and then to see it was that and the Cecile with people staring at it and like, they're very emotional looking at it thinking, wow, there's a hospital being set up in the park, but it was also so emotional is that nature is the world's greatest hospital and to think, oh my God, these people are going to be in a tent in nature.

Monica Olsen (49m 53s):
It's the most beautiful thing. But it's also surreal thinking that people there's a morgue. So they're building a hospital in a morgue at the same time. So it was just, it was so many emotions at once that just took over my entire body. And it got picked up by a few new stations and some people, and it was just very, it's a very raw, emotional moment. So yeah, that's what happened because the city is not the city. You know, when you moved there, 10, 10 plus years ago, I moved back 10 years ago. I mean, you know, it's everything, York's fabulous city. It's got everything you'd ever want. Do think that your relationship with it is changing. Do you have a sense if you want to like stay there or I don't know.

Monica Olsen (50m 37s):
I mean, I'm hearing from different people that they're really rethinking. Yeah. What they want during this. It's a great question. There are two parts of that. Some parts. I think God, I love it so much. I, I, I want to see everybody and I want to go to every restaurant I want to, at the same time, if the economy is being crushed and paychecks are being crushed, and I don't know if these businesses are going to survive and I don't know what's going to be there to go back to, we don't even know when we're gonna be able to enter out there again and see people. And it's, I'm kind of caught between two cars. I'm thinking, oh, that'd be so nice just to set up my life outside the city. So I could actually be amongst people, not even like close quarters, but just to like see people on the street like Serenbe, I'm sure at least you can see people six feet away and wave and that kind of stuff.

Monica Olsen (51m 25s):
But I don't know. There's a part of me that wants to build a garden in my backyard and be outdoors more thankfully central park. I'm able to go every day and I feel connected that way. So I don't really know. I'm kind of torn right now. Definitely. One of your very good friends that is now our neighbor is Susan O'Connor Susan. Yes. You know, she's here now. And she came through and had a moment where she was like, I'm done before COVID happened. She had come down and she just, you know, it just was finished. I'd want to say she moved in like two weeks ago. Yeah.

Monica Olsen (52m 5s):
Right before, like right before it all hit New York. I mean, I remember her coming. She's like, I need to sit with you. I need to have lunch with you. And it was like December. She said, I'm bringing myself a certain being, I'm going to get a place. I'm like, no, you're not just like that. She's like, yeah, I'm going to go. I'm gonna go. And I'm gonna go see, and I'm planning on buying a house there. And she did. She knew it. She felt it. So yeah, she moved down there two weeks before it all really happened. So they talk about timing, right?

7 (52m 35s):
I've seen her almost every day. She's either on her porch or out this, this afternoon, she was out gardening doing some things. I don't know what she was doing in her garden. It's just a whole different. And even though she's brand new people are walking by and waving

Monica Olsen (52m 52s):
And great. She loves that. She actually attend, you guys will love this. We did a little zoom, dinner, pizza and beer the first night she was there. So we had a little zoom pizza party for the kickoff of our first night in her house. And she was showing me around and we had pizza and chatted about the new life at Serenbeaches. And I love that everyone's coming by. I just got here and people already waving and she already, she did a video zoom, yoga classroom or new house. Right. It's so great. I love it. I love it. One of the things that you talked about in the interview, which I'm super curious, what's what, what's the, what's the status is your ocean Grove summer summertimes that you do.

Monica Olsen (53m 35s):
And usually you would open that up. What is that? May or June what's going on there? What's the, I mean, obviously it can't be opened up. Right? I don't know what's going to happen. They haven't said anything yet. So usually you can open the tents by May 15th timeframe. So if the tents were open right now, I'd probably go, I would most likely go right now and just being in a tent, I don't care how cold it is. I would just be there, but we hope, you know, pray to God, fingers, cross all that kind of stuff that we can go back in may or June. Yeah. At some point we, we, we, it has to be this summer. They'll figure something out. Absolutely. Yeah. Are you here?

Monica Olsen (54m 15s):
I mean, right. As we're talking to you, sort of, New York is heading into sort of what they're calling, I guess the apex and when this comes out, it'll be hopefully that apex a little past, and I don't know, Georgia might be in one, it'll be sort of in the late eighties, late April early may do they, does Cuomo have any updates for you guys or even knew what to do? Yeah. We all watch our daily Cuomo updates. Now I think it's a thing. Everyone gets excited to watch Andrew Como every day to find out how our lives are gonna play out for the next few weeks. But he said, you know, this, we still have another, at least till April 29th until we have to shelter in place.

Monica Olsen (54m 57s):
And then we figure out what's gonna be next and what can open next in may. So it's going to be really interesting time. And I'm just excited that I can still sit here and continue to build the walk with Walsh platform and to continue to do interviews on Instagram live or walk a Facebook live and the nature GreenPrint and teach me more people about the healing benefits of biophilia and biophilic design and doors. So people never really thought about their indoor spaces, not as much as they are now because now they're living and working from home. So now they're saying, oh, I didn't think about the power plants inside. I didn't think about the power of light and your circadian rhythm. So it's been really fun for me to just say, it's so important.

Monica Olsen (55m 38s):
Understand how much light you need every day and how much a pet impacts your life. So I've learned so much from our interview with Richard Lou talking about our relationship with animals and to see the boom of people adopting right now across the country. And you know, that's because of our relationship with nature and animals, we've always been there for, for so long. We, we blocked it off because we were too busy to accept animals into our lives. And here we are able to do it. I know we were saying, it's like our dog's best life right now because everybody's home. And he gets all this attention and walks all the time more than they ever did. And I knew that you had been looking for some volunteering to do. That's something that you've done in past crisis crises.

Monica Olsen (56m 23s):
And I know probably hard because there's sort of a push pull of being in groups. And how can you help? Have you been finding things that you're interested in doing or able to sort of participate? We even find out the next few days, if my boyfriend, I might do some feeding of the workers. So we're trying to get those finding out who needs, what, where, and that's the hard part because there's so everyone's so busy. So find the right people that can say, yes, we need food at this hospital, this hospital, this hospital, or these police officers need food. We're trying to see if that's still a need because there are so many people now descending on New York, which is incredible with a help. So we're going to find out by, in the next three to four days, if we are able to help in that way. And if not, then maybe we could just lend our hands and just drive around the city and bring meals or whatever we set.

Monica Olsen (57m 8s):
Great. Well, anything else you want to add? Definitely let us know. Where would we, where should we follow you? Instagram is about Jennifer Walsh. And of course the walk with wash.com is where all the current information is. So I just miss you guys. I really, I was supposed to be down there this past week. I know, and everything. I just thought, oh my gosh, this past Saturday, I had like a little tear just thinking, oh, I was supposed to be with you guys. I know. Well, everybody can watch the walks with Walsh to see you and all your amazing interviews, feedback, beautiful, sweet, and all, by the way, all the interviews are so important right now. It's incredible to watch them back and say, oh, everyone, that everything that was shared were so relevant to what's happening right now in the world.

Monica Olsen (57m 55s):
It's pretty cool. It's really cool. To

7 (57m 58s):
The next time you're down here, we can walk the trails.

Monica Olsen (58m 1s):
I can't wait. Steve. I'm so excited to see you. I'm going to give you all a giant hug when I see you next time, right? This way. Thank you for your time. Thank you for letting us catch up with you. No, thank you. I really appreciate it. I can't wait to see you soon. Stay safe and healthy. Thank you. You too. Hi Jennifer. Hi. Thank you for listening to Sarah stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please rate and review the podcast and make sure to email your questions for Steve Nygren to stories@Serenbe.com may even get to hear them on the podcast. More details about episodes and guests are available on our website.

Monica Olsen (58m 41s):
Serenbe stories.com.