Ideas to Income: Vendor Markets

Welcome to the Season Finale and Fifth episode of Ideas to Income, the podcast series where real entrepreneurs break down how they turned ideas into profitable businesses.

Ever wonder how vendors got their start? 

In episode 5 Ideas to Income, we sat down with Tasha the creative force behind Team Jemini Designs, a graphic design business making waves in the vendor market. Tasha shares her journey navigating the competitive world of vendor spaces, and building a brand that stands out. Whether you’re a creative entrepreneur, thinking about entering the vendor scene, or just looking for motivation to start your own business, Tasha offers practical advice, honest insights, and powerful encouragement.

Tune in to learn how to transform your ideas into income, leverage your creativity, and confidently take your first steps into entrepreneurship.

FutureU

Check out our next series Survival By The Book a podcast that is a practical guide to emergency preparedness tailored for residents of Harris County, Texas and surrounding areas. Learn how to understand emergency alerts, prepare for severe weather, and handle unexpected disasters with confidence. 

Survival By The Book airing April 22 — Because being prepared shouldn't be complicated

Created by the Podcast Team at the Harris County Public Library.
www.hcpl.net

Podcast Team Members include: Beth Krippel, John Harbaugh, Mary Mink, Dylan Smith, Sadina Shawver, Alinda Mac, John Schaffer, Jennifer Finch, Katelyn Helberg, Darcy Casavant, Darla Pruitt and Nancy Hu 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Ideas to Income, the podcast for dreamers ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Hosted by the Harris County Public Library, this show explores the stories behind successful self-starters, people who turned their passions into profitable businesses. Through candid conversations, trusted resources, and expert insights, we break down the real life challenges, wins, and lessons of building a business from the ground up. Whether you're just brainstorming or struggling to take the next step, this podcast is here to inspire and guide you toward making your business a reality. Sat down and talked with Tasha, Miss Tasha, who owns Team Gemini. Of course, Team Gemini is a design and clothing manufacturer, makes all sorts of amazingly cool, very interesting clothing that she designs herself. They met, believe it or not, at Comic Palooza, and she started out by making t-shirts for her daughter, who uh was into skateboarding, and she wanted some appropriate skateboarding apparel for her. And then uh with a few other uh sidetracks, she then had got a little money from some gambling winnings and uh decided to put that money towards her business. And well, the rest is history. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

So I'm here today with Miss Tasha. Tasha, welcome to our podcast. I first met you at Comic Palooza over the summer and was just so inspired and happy to see your merchandise that I had to talk to you and get your story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Oh, that's so awesome. Thank you for finding me and enjoying what I do at good old Comic Palooza. That's one of my favorite events to do.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Yeah, yeah. It's it's a great meeting ground of all types of Houstonians. So I want to first ask you about your products. They are just so full of fast and energy. It's almost like a personality on the on like a shelf that you can kind of purchase, and you're like this making statement pieces. So for listeners who are not familiar with your products and may not know about you just yet, tell us a little bit about your business and what you create.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Well, I like to say that my business is a pop culture influenced music movie steeped in all of that good little stuff, message with some positivity splashed on the side. That's what I do. I like sarcasm, I like a little cynicism, I like humor, I like fun stuff, and I still think that I make things for the 14, 15-year-old person inside of me, but just like on a grown-up level. I think we still like those things. I still want to put posters on my wall. I still want to watch my favorite movies and enjoy my favorite music, and I want to celebrate that. So that's what I do. And then I I have some messages about positivity and and and being yourself and encouraging you to be yourself and and enjoy life. That that's a part of it too. It's like the grown-up version of a teenager.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

No, yeah, uh very much so like a kiddult, but like yes, I I do a little bit of designing too. I actually design all the library merchandise. It's a small project uh for the the library foundation. So I I the products that I've been making for the library are always about like books and things like that and and literacy. And in I know you have like a line of that as well, too. So that's why I was like, ooh, so inspired by it. So I have to ask, what first like sparked your love for design and and making products?

SPEAKER_02 3:50

I actually tell people I didn't know I could do any of the stuff that I do. I have always been a creative person, even as a kid, I was always fairly creative, but it wasn't necessarily encouraged. You could be creative, but that wasn't gonna be your job. Like you had to get a root a real job. So that was always just something, things I I knew to do. Like if my friends had a band and they needed flyers, they knew they could come to me. I can make your birthday invitations, I can do that kind of stuff. So I I actually didn't know I could do any of this stuff. When I had children, my kids liked t-shirts. I liked dressing them in t-shirts. And I was like, How do you make a t-shirt? Like, how do you get your idea from your head onto its shirt? And I would I would literally go to like the stores and stare at the t-shirts and like look at them like real closely, like, how did they do this? Like, what is this? And I just started researching because I had ideas that I wanted to put on shirts, but I didn't know how you did that. So I just started researching. And my oldest daughter at the time was a freshman in high school and she was into skateboarding, but she couldn't find appropriate shirts for her to wear, like that revolved around skateboarding. I mean, she was only 14 at the time, she couldn't wear like a naked lady to school. So yeah, that was what was being offered out there. So I was like, let's figure out how we can make you some shirts and and get into your favorite characters on your shirts. And that's kind of where I started really trying to figure that out.

SPEAKER_04 5:13

So, what was your your first item that you'd made or designed?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Nothing to do with any of those things, actually. The first two things I did that made me say, Hey, okay, I can do this. A friend of mine turned 40, and he had, I don't know if you remember, if you're old enough to remember, you're probably not. There used to be a place called glamour shots. I don't know if we were glamour shots. He had glamour shots, and I was like, We have to do something with these because that's crazy. And I held on to them, I hid them from him and I held on to him for a really long time. And then I was like, Oh, your 40th birthday. And I made shirts for everybody, and he didn't know. We all he went to the bathroom, and when he came out, we all were wearing this shirt that I made that looked all 90s with the lasers in the background and all of that stuff. And of him, of his face, his glamour shot. Yeah, oh, that's amazing. And everybody's like, Oh my god, and it was really I I surprised myself because I I had had this the pictures for so long, I had no idea what I was gonna do with them. I knew I wanted to make a shirt for his birthday, but it was literally the day before, the morning before, that the idea came to me and I figured it all out and worked it all out. And I was like, Oh, okay, I can do this. And then we needed shirts for sports day at work, and I don't like sports. I always support players, not teams. I was hardcore into JJ Watt at the time and I made a JJ Watt shirt, and I had lots of people go, like, where'd you get that shirt? And how did you and I was like, I made it, that's so crazy, and they're nuts. And then people started asking to buy the shirt. So I was selling shirts for like eight dollars. Now we put the money in my car, and that was my coffee money for the week or whatever. Yeah, those are the first two things I did where I was like, Hey, is this a job? Can people do this as a job? That's crazy. So that's all wait, did you did you use a cricket?

SPEAKER_04 6:59

Did you like, you know, that was an iron on for the glamour shots photo?

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Um those two were iron ons. I I had have always been able to like figure out even yeah, I'm I did not go to school for graphic design. I have no real education in it, but I've always kind of figured out how this is how I wanted to look. Let me figure out how to do this in whatever program. So I I worked it out and the first two were iron on, and then I I went to a casino and won some money, like$400, and used that$400 to buy my cricket. And then the business started.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

What was the moment that you like really realized that like this can be a job, like an actual business?

SPEAKER_02 7:45

As I prepared for my first like vendor market, I didn't know we had vendor markets in Houston. Uh, I'd only gone to like the farmers markets where they're selling fruits and vegetables. I hadn't gone to one where they sold like clothing and and things like that. And I went to one and started talking to some people and realized they weren't rich. I thought everybody that had a business was rich, they that they just had millions of dollars. And and then I also thought they they all knew what they were doing and they didn't. And then somebody was like, Oh, yeah, this is what I do for full time. And I was like, This is what you do full time, like you don't go somewhere else. They're like, No, and I'm like, wow, I can do this, like that's I can do this, okay. And it just kind of never left. It wasn't like an immediate thing. I wasn't like drop everything and and start doing this, but it it never really left my mind. And as I progressed in business, it just kind of stayed. And then when I was invited to leave my job, I was like, Oh, okay, I know what I can do.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

Is Team Gemini your full-time job now? Is it running the site designing?

SPEAKER_02 8:51

I do have a job outside of Team Gemini, but I do still consider Team Gem Gemini my full-time job. I was doing it, I was doing Team Team Gemini and enjoying it, but again, the the voice was getting louder and louder and louder. Like, do you want to do this? You can do it, you can do it. Yeah, but I never thought I could just quit my job. Like, who just quits a job? I'd been there for 16 years. Like, who just leaves their job and just starts making t-shirts? That's nuts. And Hurkane Harvey came along and uh destroyed my job, actually. Like, took it out, and I still had a job, but uh I was like, hmm, this seems like a great time. And then, like I said, they decided this was an even better time. So I was like, okay, great. And that's what it was. And then I've always I did that for a full time from 2017-ish until uh 2022.

SPEAKER_04 9:39

So have the products during that time changed, or what's been the difference from when you were doing it full-time to kind of now where you're you're still doing it, obviously, but you still have another job to you know to to consider time-wise, like have things changed from that?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

You would think that they would have changed, like I do less. Uh-huh. I do way more. Like, my mentality is to get back to to that full-time thing. Unfortunately, that is manifested in that means you need to make more, and that's not really true, but I do. I have a lot of ideas, yeah, and I feel like I gotta get them out all the time. So yeah, I make way more things now than I did back then.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

Way so, like, so has kind of like coming from a designer creative mindset. I think you you have that mindset, even though you didn't go to school and study for that, like that's definitely present in all your merchandise in your in your store. So, kind of like stepping in from a creative side into business ownership, like what was the biggest thing you had to learn between either designing or like running your own business?

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Everything, everything. No idea. You know, you kind of learn as you go. I knew some basics on what I needed to do, but like for real, for real, know what to do? No, not at all. And I would just like much like I I approached designing, if there was something I needed to know, I would just be like, Google, tell me about this, like uh, or I'd ask somebody. It's unfortunately a little hard sometimes to find people to really share uh a lot of that information with you. Either they really don't know or they just don't want to really share, which is weird. Yeah, so I was really like finding things out on my own about running a business. I still still feel like I learned something all the time that I had no idea. I still don't understand most of it. Some of the ins and outs, some of the intricacies. Sometimes I'm like, what? I I pin a lot of emails that I get, and I'm like, I don't even know what that means, but um, somebody else will tell me. But generally speaking, day to day, I just kind of it's always a learning process, especially now as things change. You learn a little bit more, you gotta know a little bit more. I've learned a lot. A lot.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

What's something that you learned that like you think people who don't run a business or are wanting to start a business would want to know?

SPEAKER_02 11:58

I would say for me, the first thing that pops into my brain, two things along the same lines. First, save your money, hold on to your money, you've manage your money, manage your money well. Because the biggest thing that I learned was generally, I think generally when people start businesses, they're doing something and and sales are going great, things are going well, you know, everybody's loving everything you do, everything's happening, and it's all great, and you're on a the an upward trajectory. And then in my business, I don't know about other industries, but there's a uh there's a couple of slow months. Nobody told me there were slow months. And when those slow months came, I was like, oh my gosh, what's happening? Does everybody hate me? Nobody likes this stuff anymore. What do I do? So managing your money properly to prepare for those slower times is very important. Nobody wants to meet right, right.

SPEAKER_04 12:53

It in your line, I'm sure like Christmas, fall, it's ramping up, right? And then it's gone.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Spring spring, spring is great. No, I know. I got a hot like three months, and then I mean, I don't know when spring happens in other cities, but our spring doesn't happen till like March. So it's it's crickets usually. I mean, not super well, okay. Yeah, crickets until about March.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

Well, because do you still do vendor markets? Because I mean, for listeners who don't know, Houston has a lot of spring and fall action, but not so much in the summer like other places.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah, well, we do, but it's just hot and nobody wants to go. We have a lot happening in the summer, but nobody wants to go outside. It's too hot. We try to have a lot of stuff happening.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

So, how did you figure out some of those like things specific to your business, which is like merchandising? And you have a wide variety of merchandise. I saw you had obviously like t-shirts, but you have keychains and bags and all those things. How did you figure out things like sourcing and production and marketing? Was it guidance, uh trial and error?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Yeah, trial and error. I really started looking at other businesses that were that are similar to mine that did things that I enjoyed as well, and also things that I like. Like I don't I generally don't make anything that I don't use other than coffee mugs. I like making coffee mugs, I don't ever use a coffee mug, but I would look at what other people were doing, or or you know, there's a couple of businesses that I follow on Instagram and I really enjoy what they put out. And I'm like, okay, you know, how can I do that thing, but in my look or whatever? That was basically it. And again, looking, I I spend a lot of time looking at trends. I like trendy stuff, but I've never liked to follow the trend as it is. So I do that a lot as well. Like, what's happening? What do people like? Like looking at like those little laboo boos, like what would be the team Gemini version of a laboo boo? Like, what is that? So I said, okay, what can I do that's like that? And so now I do purse charms. I have a few purse charms.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

What was like your first big win that you felt like was the first big win that your business had momentum?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Uh my first big win, I don't know. Um, I think I think every win, every little win is a big win, even if it is nothing major. Uh, I have to because the the big wins don't come all the time, but the little wins happen often. But if I had to choose one thing where I said, okay, hey, this makes me legit, it would be the whole black and nerdy line. I have a whole line of black and nerdy stuff, and I actually own the trademark for black and nerdy. So that was that was like something I didn't plan on doing, but other people encouraged me to do. And when I got it done, I was like, hey, I own something. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

Your yeah, your brand is so bold and like very much so personality driven. Do you ever ever worry about how people might react when they see all the different things? Because you got some pretty fun, sassy stuff in there, which I I love. But you know, other people may be like, Oh.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yes, I do all the time. I try to make sure I'm doing events that where people won't be too shocked or surprised. But I'm worried every single time that somebody's gonna grasp their pearls. But I also when I started this, I had kind of a different vibe, but there were other things I wanted to say. Yeah. I started feeling more empowered to say those things and and and put those things out there. And once I did, I was like, you know, I can't turn back because it was harder for me to not do that stuff. So once I was like, this is this is it, this is me. This is this is what I do, this is who I am. If you talk to me long enough, you'll see that this is who I am. So I mean nobody's ever said anything to me if they have. What were some of the toughest challenges for you when starting out? Really, I I think knowing where the best place is to be. Because, you know, if if you you've had a a business, if you know, as a designer, everybody's like, oh, you can do that. Oh, you know, I heard about this thing, you can do that, or oh, I saw that, you could put that out there. And everything is not for everybody. So I I trying to make sure I was putting myself a try still, it's it's a progress, but making sure I'm putting myself in the right events with the right audience was a challenge at first because a lot of times, you know, you just do an event or you think you're reaching the right people and they're not responsive. And you know, the first thought is kind of like what you said your your immediate thought is, oh, it's me, I suck. But it's not really me. It's not that I suck. I'm just not in front of the right people. So sometimes when those things would happen, it would be a little discouraging, but with some perspective, I had to learn, okay, it's not, it's not you necessarily. Sometimes it's maybe.

SPEAKER_04 17:33

I mean, yeah, uh our area, Houston is is is so big. Like, and I I know like you're talking about like vendor markets. Um I'm sure you had to go like to the suburbs and you could be driving an hour and a half to some event and you know, be there for a long time and not have as much foot traffic or be misaligned with whatever the event is. Did you ever hit a moment where you're like felt like giving up? And like how did you kind of push through that?

SPEAKER_02 18:00

I feel like uh did you say a moment where I feel like Okay, one of just one time? No, it happens like like twice a month. No, you know, I I yeah, but I I've never really felt like I'm done. I I've felt discouraged. Like, what am I doing? I don't even understand what what I'm supposed to be doing anymore. Why am I doing this? I've had those moments, but I've never really felt like this is it. I'm tossed. I and you know what really encourages me, of course, is my my children, they're they're older, they're adults essentially, but they are kind of sideline supportive. They're like, oh, it's great, but they don't like come out and tell me all the time they they enjoy what I do. But it encourages them to live in their creativity and and explore their creativity. So I can't give up for because of them. And then when I look around my house at all the stuff that I have around my house, I'm like, Yeah, I can't give up because somebody's got to buy all this stuff.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

You have your inventory, you live with it.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Yes, I look around, I'm like, ah, yeah, I gotta get rid of all this stuff. I can't, I can't quit yet. But also, it's it's it's very rewarding to be able to be creative when you know you've spent so long not being creative. I didn't, like I said, I didn't know I could do this stuff. I didn't know where my creativity could go. So now that I do, I'm like, it's it's probably whereas it used to be easier to just be like, I'll just go to work nine to five, it's much harder to do that versus I I'd rather sit home and be designing stuff all day than go to work. So that that's fun to me. And it's rewarding. I feel like it's less stress.

SPEAKER_04 19:39

Yeah, it's like stress relief, really, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Yeah, and but you know, it's stressful thinking like I'm gonna create something in my brain and I'm gonna put it on a shirt or a sticker or whatever, and then I have to worry about whether or not somebody's gonna like it or if it's gonna, you know, sell anything, or if any if it's gonna resonate with anybody. That is not it is stressful, but it is not as stressful as my previous nine to five kind of job.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Looking back at from when you started the business and you're doing it full time to now, what's one mistake that you are kind of glad you made because you've learned a lot from it?

SPEAKER_02 20:14

I make a lot of mistakes, but I learned something from all of the, but they're all little things. You know, when you have your group of friends and your group of of people that you talk to about the stuff you do, I think one thing we as creatives, if you will, might not recognize right away is that everybody, again, is not our audience. So even though you're my my friend, my best friend, my husband, my wife, whatever, that doesn't mean you understand what I'm doing over here with this business and and what I'm designing. It may not, you may not like it. It may not be your thing. You're you're you may not be my target audience. So initially, I think the Gemini in me likes to sometimes share what I'm doing, or hey, let me show you this, and what do you think of that and and that kind of thing? And sometimes I would get like, ugh, I don't like that, or ugh, that's too much, or you know, that's boring or ugly or whatever. And it would discourage me. It started to make me feel like, okay, I'm I'm not doing it the right way, or I'm I'm doing something wrong. So I would hold back on what I was doing. And eventually, as I said, I realized, hey, it's not necessarily I'm not doing anything wrong. It's that they're not the people this is for. And that's okay. They're still my friend. Yeah. Just not the person that's for. So that, like I said, we won't call it a mistake, but it did hold me back from doing some designing for a little while. And then um, once I figured that out, I'm like, okay, I know who I can talk to about certain certain things as far as products. Like I know which friend's gonna like the shirt or it's gonna give me some good feedback on shirts, and I know which friend's gonna talk about stickers, and I know which friend's gonna talk about whatever other crazy thing it is. Cause they're not all the same.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

Yeah. Yeah, you have your board basically of like

SPEAKER_03 22:00

I have a committee. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 22:03

Um that's great though that you didn't let that like change your direction. You just learned to market that as an opportunity almost.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Right, right. It's the same in life, you know, in the world of business. Everybody that walks along and sees you at a vendor market or or sees you, you know, on Instagram, everybody's not gonna love you because you're not everybody's jam. So once you kind of figure that out and and don't let that discourage you, you'll be all right.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

I feel like your booth though is so eye-catching that like you must get a lot of food traffic at every market you go to. I'm good amount of markets. I feel like you it's it's it's literally so bright and like luring, you know.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Good, good. That's what it's supposed to be. Yay, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Yeah, yeah. So tell me what like what success looks like for you today.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Sometimes success doesn't necessarily mean financial, unfortunately. I would love to be rich. I am not nowhere close, probably in more debt now than I was ever before. But success now is being able to build a community and and resonate with people. A lot of things that a lot of the messages behind a lot of the things that I I make is to let people know we're all crazy, you know, we all have quirks, we're all unique and different, we all have an attitude, you know. And sometimes when people it it's it's very rewarding for me when people come to my booth and they say, Oh my god, I I think that too, or you know, again, things just resonate with them because most of the things I make are things that I thought only I thought. So now I'm like, Oh, somebody else thinks that too. Oh my gosh. And now you didn't know that somebody else bought that too. Now we're we're a team and and that that feels successful to me. That feels like I'm making a difference somehow.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

Yeah, yeah. You're really building kind of different communities, right? You're finding all these little different niche kind of communities that are really resonating with your with your stuff. That's great. Yeah, I hope so.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

I hope so.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

So what's what are your what are the products that you make or the phrases or sayings that you have that you think get the most attention or get the most responses when people when you or that you've noticed?

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Anything, usually anything that is kind of sarcastic. One of the my two best sellers are um my neck, my back, my anxiety attack, which I read somewhere and everybody knows the song that it's from. And the song is obviously, if you're familiar with the song, way more vulgar than that. But at our age now, people are like, Yeah, I got way more anxiety attacks than anything else. And in an effort to bring a some fun to that old saying of, you know, like, never look back, you're not going that direction, kind of phrase. That's how never look back unless you're throwing that ass came about. And people enjoyed that. I I've always liked pairing, even when I was younger in my clothes, like something really cutesy with something really not cutesy. So the cat and cat shirts, cat things make me laugh. So the cat on that shirt usually catches people a lot, people's eye, and then we're we're off. Then they look around and see everything else. And there's Pascal stuff, and then the prince stuff.

SPEAKER_04 25:26

So I gotta say, the the the my neck, my back, the panic attack um is the one that like like I think I caught that because it's just the design is so big and bold. Definitely, I would say you're totally right about those two being kind of the lore to your store. That for listeners who haven't checked out the website, which we'll mention that the the cat is like a vintage, fluffy, cute cat, like almost arista cat, but vintage looking cat.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

I have another one that I don't think anyone's noticed yet because I only have it on one thing right now, and it's a vintage-y looking poodle, like print priming herself in like a mirror, like very like arista cats, like you know, like with a little powder puff, but it says I'm magic motherfucker. I don't think anybody's magic.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

I like I like it. I I think it's a whole thing where you can be girly and you know, be be real. What advice would you have for someone who is like who has an idea, who has a creative idea, who's like really scared to make the first step?

SPEAKER_02 26:31

If you would have asked me 10 years ago, are you gonna own your business? I would be like, nah, never, not no. What are you talking about? But now that I do, I would say if you have an idea, if you have something you want to do, to just find a way to do it. You can do it on a small level. You don't have to quit your job, you don't have to sell all your stuff to do it, but find a way to get it out there. You're only doing yourself a disservice by not getting it out there. I mean, if you put it out there and it give it some time. Everything doesn't happen virally, unlike the internet likes us to believe it does. Give it some time, put it out there, put some love into it, let people see it. If it, you know, if you give yourself a deadline, you know, hey, if it doesn't happen in two, three years, okay, let it go. But try it. Don't don't sit on it. Let let it happen. Just put it out there. Don't don't sell yourself short.

SPEAKER_04 27:23

So, what's one thing you would wish more entrepreneurs would know or would need to know before starting a business, then?

SPEAKER_02 27:30

You cannot do it all by yourself. You're going to need a support system, meaning like not necessarily somebody in your business-wise to support you, but just a community of friends, people to support you and what you're doing, that encouragement. You know, it can be a lonely thing, especially if you don't have a circle of people who are business owners or creatives or whatever the field is that you're getting to getting into. It can be lonely when you're sitting out there and you're sitting in your house creating your stuff, planning your stuff, and you don't you're not able to go out and see that other people are doing it or that you don't have your product out there for people to see. You're just making stuff for yourself. I I feel like that often when I'm not doing vendor markets, it feels like I'm just making stuff for myself. And then when I finally get out there and visit some other markets, or I do a market myself, I'm like, oh, people do care. So I I definitely say that you you have to have some people around you who are positive and real. They're not gonna just be like, yeah, go ahead and make that crap that nobody you know.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

Feels like you put out something that they wouldn't wear, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Right, or don't buy not, yeah, not not those people, but you know, some good friends who will who will help you and support you.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

For you, was it Instagram first or website first? Or markets first, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

It was markets first, website, Instagram. I would suggest uh Instagram is nice to find other businesses. Yeah. It can be, you know, you get a little get into a little doom scrolling, but uh it's it's nice to see other other businesses and get ideas and and uh get your idea juices flowing, not take somebody else's ideas, but to get your your juices flowing.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

Yeah, have you have you come across that yet where your design has been uh stolen?

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Yes. A couple times, but you know, I'm real like knock on wood. Uh again, I don't do I do that a lot. Uh we're not talking, uh I don't feel like I'm losing anything yet. You know, um so that was actually part of why I bought the trademark for black and nerdy. It wasn't so that I could stop anybody else from using it. Is that somebody so no one else can stop me? Oh, I love that perspective actually. Yeah, so nobody else could come along because that's something if I am gonna throw in another little something to learn about. If you do things like graphic design or whatever, learning about trademarks and things like that, because people like in the creative world, like the the hobby creative world, they like to throw that out there a lot. I'm gonna report you, I'm gonna tell somebody that you're stealing my idea. That's not how copyright copyrights are or trademarks or anything. That's not how it works. So I didn't want anybody black and nerdy is not like some groundbreaking phrase, you know, like people were already using it, but I didn't want anybody to say I couldn't use it. So I'm like, guess what? Now nobody can but me. Haha.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

Yeah, I had I had like a support your local library shirt that I designed, but but in like uh metal uh lettering and like the white black and white, like a metal shirt that they said like yeah, but that's a support your local library, and like I mean, we've been selling it for like four years on the library, not the website for the library, but for our foundation website and to to staff, basically. And it I like just this past summer, I saw a Facebook ad for my shirt.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Some of them have been using a little bit more drippy font, but it's not easy to to to trademark things, it was not an easy, quick process right for me. So I don't know how it is for other people. It took me like almost, I mean, it I think it generally takes almost a year. So when people are like, I'm gonna report you, I'm like, who? To whom? Like there's nobody. There's you're not gonna call the cops, you know. Like, if you take one of my ideas, that's fine. Make it your own though. Don't just take mine. Like, I read a lot of things. I say, I see graffiti on the wall, I'll see, you know, slips of paper, whatever, some some something, some piece of what somebody said, and I'll save it and I'll I'll marinate on. I have a running list on my phone. And if it comes out to be something that somebody else has already done or whatever, I can guarantee you, I'm not gonna do it like that, but I'm gonna do it to fit me. Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

Is there was there like a resource that you use that you think other people would like that you would recommend, like a book or a movie or you know, a tool?

SPEAKER_02 32:13

I do, I did listen to a couple of podcasts. The Joy of Selling was a podcast I listened to. She was in the UK, but she was really very encouraging of using your creativity as a what as a means to make a living. But as far as like a specific thing, not really, just anybody who was out there hustling. I'm like, I need to follow you, I need to see what you're doing, especially here in Houston.

SPEAKER_04 32:36

Tell us about Team Gemini. Where can we find your products? Summarize your brand.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Team Gemini is pop culture influenced, mood-inspiring gifts and goods from the perspective of a grown lady with a splash of sarcasm and a side of positivity. Bam. That's me. And you can always find me on Instagram at shop team Gemini, and it's Team T-E-A-M, Gemini with a J. And my website is teamgeminidesigns.com. It's really long, I'm sorry. The Gemini with a J is also important too. Keep that in mind.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Yeah, tell me why.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Uh, because Gemini with a G was always taken. This was Gemini with a J has been my email address probably since I was in college. And the G was always taken. So, you know, when it came time to have a business name, I was I don't, I'll be honest with you, one day I might change my business name because I don't particularly like it. It doesn't fully express me, I don't think, but I had to pick a name real fast. And I was like, this is for all the Geminis, we're a team, and that's what it became. Yeah, but yeah, Gemini with a J. It's not Gemini and it's not my name.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Um, I was thinking with a J, it was kind of like the 80s cartoon gem, too. So I feel like you have that aesthetic too. So I was like, oh, I can hearken back to that as well. Like give you a tape.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

That is that is a part of it. So um a friend of mine uh helped me determine. I was like, what do I call my customers? Like, I wanted a name, and she came up with the gems. So as a customer, you're you're a gem with a gem. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

So finally, if you could sum up your like journey as an entrepreneur in one word, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Evolving. It's always evolving. You always evolve. I was gonna say chaotic, I was gonna say hectic, no. So many words. It can be that too, but really it's it's evolving, both me as a person and the business its itself.

SPEAKER_04 34:38

Where do you hope Team Gemini would be in the next few years? I'm tired of moving stuff around.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

So I would love to be somewhere where I and I am, I am actually in uh one of our local painted tree locations, but I would like to be somewhere where you could find me all the time. Whether it's here or honestly, Austin is an idea. Um but um yeah, someplace where you could find me like every single weekend or every single month or every single day if I don't have to be there uh and it's not in the city. That's that's what that's my hope for a team Gemini, or even, you know, I can continue on on the interwebs, that's fine too. But somewhere where people can find me all the time.

SPEAKER_04 35:16

Thank you so much, Tasha, for talking to us about Team Gemini and your journey. And we'll be definitely I I urge everybody to check out the website and check out her Instagram because uh and see all the awesome products and fun things and all the the messages that she has. Thank you so much again for talking to us. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Thank you for joining us for the season finale of Ideas to Income. If you enjoyed this series, please let us know by leaving a comment down below or by reaching out to your local HCPL library. Do you live in Harris County or the surrounding areas? And have you ever thought to yourself that you would like to be better prepared for disasters or emergencies that might come your way? Then mark your calendars because survival by the book is the podcast for you. Breaking down natural disasters and local weather threats to decoding the mysterious language used in emergency alerts to give you simple, practical steps you can take right away. This show is all about turning uncertainty into confidence, just clear, straightforward guidance to help you and your family be ready for whatever comes your way. So mark your calendars, get subscribed, and join us April 21st as we take preparedness one step at a time.