Sewing For Living in Bali | LAYC61

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Ladies and gentlemen and travelers of the universe of Lift

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As You Climb, I am very delighted to introduce my guest Marion Hook.

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You couldn't have two people, almost opposed geographically

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and chronologically than we are.

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It's 6:00 AM where I am, and 7:00 PM where she is...

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Here in Canada, and Marion is in Bali, Indonesia.

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This is a true honor for me to be interviewing her for

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the Lift As You Climb podcast.

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As we explore how you can live your legacy, and have an impact, make a

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positive difference for others in your life, and people you don't even know...

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Even when you don't have lots of zeros in your bank account, or even the experience

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of having created something before.

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Just a little bit about Marion...

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and there's a lot in her life.

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We'll take some of the examples, but in our show notes, I'm gonna

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include more details about her background and her biography.

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She has lived in a lot of different states in the United States, but also in

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fabulous places like Jakarta, Indonesia, and right now she is in Ubud, Bali,

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Indonesia, where she intends to stay.

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Based on what I know so far about Marion, never say never.

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Her educational background includes a degree in English Literature,

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Drama, Journalism, and Education.

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she laughingly says that she's studied applied linguistics

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at graduate school level...

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Longer than anyone needs to.

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She's been employed as a high school English teacher, a professor of

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communication skills at community college, and has been the director

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of several not-for-profits.

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So now we have a bit of a hint of how she gained some of her experience.

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She'd been a consultant for boards and always very much, lifting and

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climbing in the not per profit sector.

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She was the co-owner with her late husband Jim, of the Adobe Rose Bed

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and Breakfast in Tucson, Arizona.

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I've heard marvelous things, but never had the pleasure to stay there yet.

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She's a writer, and a volunteer, obviously, and she was on the advisory

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board of the Enterprising Women Magazine.

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She served on both the small minority and women owned business

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commissions for the city of Tucson.

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She was on the advisory board of the School of International Business

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at Duquesne University and the Pima County Small Business Commission.

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Now, I also know, that Marion has been active for a long time in Rotary

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International because that's how she and I came to know each other.

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Although I have never met her in person, I've met her on many a Zoom

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screen in the last couple of years...

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And because of a fellow colleague in Rotary, Gina Murphy- darling of Mrs.

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Green's world...

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I became involved in a project that Marion was spearheading in her

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community with her rotary group in Ubud.

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Today, I am so pleased to be able to start off this season with Marion...

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Talking about how you can take a passion, even something that's just

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kind of a little smoldering idea...

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Get it started, and add a little oxygen...

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And make that flame grow brighter.

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You might do that on your own, or you might do it with the help of others,

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or in a group that you are involved.

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What I really want to convey to you is that...

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You should start, and you don't have to wait until you think that

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you have all of the pieces aligned.

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You don't have to have a big bank account.

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You don't have to have prior experience.

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You don't have need to know yet how to write grants, et cetera...

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Just get started.

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Leverage everything that you already have within your own personal life

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experience, and network, and get going.

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Marion, you started something that has become a global impact now.

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You started something very local in your community.

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Would you please give us the origin story of Sewing for Living?

Marion: 00:06:06

I certainly will.

Marion: 00:06:07

First of all, this was not my idea.

Marion: 00:06:10

Oh, it was.

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Our rotary president's idea, , Kartika Dewi.

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Our rotary club is both local Indonesians and local expats or expatriates.

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Tika called me up one day and said...

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I'm gonna help Indonesian women, and told me exactly...

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This was in October of 2019...

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She said, I need to write a district grant for Rotary, and I don't know how to do it.

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And I don't think my English is good enough.

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I thought it was good enough, but she didn't.

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So we sat down, we talked and I wrote the grant.

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And we got enough money for a couple of sewing machines.

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We were going to teach women how to use sewing machines because Indonesian

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women make your life look easy.

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No matter how many jobs you do, they have more.

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They're in charge of the children, they're in charge of the elderly, they're in

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charge of their family, they're in charge of the community that they live in.

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They are in charge of their temples and there are at least 10 temple

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ceremonies a month, and they make the offerings that go into those ceremonies.

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I'll have to send you a picture of one to include, because

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they're beautiful and intricate...

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Which prohibits them from working outside the home if they have children...

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Because there just isn't time.

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But Tika said, if they learn how to use a sewing machine, and we

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make sewing machines available...

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Then they can work from their homes and they can do piece work for

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factories that assemble clothing.

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And we thought...

Marion: 00:07:55

Yeah...

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That's a good idea...

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So we got a couple of sewing machines, thanks to a Rotary Club in Australia,

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and we started teaching them to sell.

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I was not involved actively at that time, just the grant writer.

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Then COVID came along, and Indonesia shut its doors for two years.

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So many of the factories that would've used our skilled women shut down,

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and they couldn't sell anything.

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So...

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Tika came to me and she said...

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Marion...

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Do you know how to crochet?

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I said...

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Yes I do.

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And she said...

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Well...

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Teach the women how to crochet.

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So I started teaching the women how to crochet and still we had a problem,

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there was no place to sell this.

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Well, I have a connection in Rocky Point or Puerto Penasco, Mexico, who works

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with impoverished children there...

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And I had worked with her, so I said, Deb, I promise the kids I'd send

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them Christmas presents every year.

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How about if I send them winter hats?

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So I bought the hats from the women so they didn't get discouraged because

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there was no place to, uh, to sell them and, uh, kept their hope up,

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uh, and, uh, fed their families.

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Then slowly things began to open, uh, in April of 2021.

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So they'd gone two years with no real strong markets.

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Our strongest market was, uh, the Christmas market in Cologne,

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Germany, believe it or not, uh, through another rotary.

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Other connections.

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So I hope you're beginning to see a pattern here.

Marion: 00:09:52

Tika called me...

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I called Deb down in Mexico, somebody else called a guy in, uh, Germany.

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And uh, we've had a business going and nothing warms your heart more than

Marion: 00:10:09

buying a hat for about $2 us and...

Marion: 00:10:14

Having the woman say something to your friend Tika in, uh,

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Balinese, which I don't understand.

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And when I asked Tika what she said....

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she said, Good!...

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I'll be able to feed my kids tonight.

Marion: 00:10:28

It, uh,

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I...

Isabel: 00:10:29

I'm sorry, Marion, would you just repeat what you said please?

Marion: 00:10:36

I bought a hat from a woman who was learning to crochet...

Marion: 00:10:41

Um, To send to Mexico, and when I paid her about $2 US...

Marion: 00:10:48

Uh, She looked at my friend Tika and said something in Balinese,

Marion: 00:10:54

which I don't understand.

Marion: 00:10:56

Uh, it's different from Bahasa...

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Indonesia.

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So I asked Tika later, What did she say?

Marion: 00:11:03

And Tika looked at me and said, she said, Good, I'll be

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able to feed my kids tonight.

Isabel: 00:11:10

Thank you.

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I felt it was very important that everybody heard how that one item had

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such a major impact in a family's life.

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And that's why I'm saying that a Lift As You Climb doesn't require

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you to have a big infrastructure.

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To have an impact.

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It's the beginning of that...

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each individual action.

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So thank you.

Marion: 00:11:43

I'm Shameless.

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I, I tap all my connections.

Marion: 00:11:46

The first thing I did, um, was call my daughter who lives in Tasmania, Australia

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and say, uh, can you get to a store called Spotlight and buy me some yarn?

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I'll pay you.

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She goes, You don't have to pay me back.

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So she went to Spotlight and started sending yarn because we had no money, we

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had to find alternative ways to supply the women with, uh, the tools to work.

Marion: 00:12:17

Right.

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So, um, my other daughter sent.

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Uh, yarn, uh, some guys I know in, uh, Milwaukee, Wisconsin sent some

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yarn and, uh, we began getting the tools for the women to work with.

Marion: 00:12:35

Now what I laugh about is...

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For my 75th birthday, I went out on Facebook and said...

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Look, I'm gonna be three quarters of a century old.

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Please help me celebrate!

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Send me a ball of yarn.

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Thinking...

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Oh, I hope I get 75...

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I got 683 balls of yarn for my birthday!

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Woohoo!

Marion: 00:13:01

Again, I have to pay the import tax on it, but that's minimal.

Marion: 00:13:06

For those of you who are knitters and crocheters, you

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know how expensive yarn can be...

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So again, using connections, and I encourage people who do you know

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who might be interested in this.

Marion: 00:13:20

The first person I asked was someone I met at the National

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Association of Women Business Owners.

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Mm-hmm.

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. I hadn't seen her in years, but I said, Hi, Lisa.

Marion: 00:13:30

I just read on Facebook that, uh, you're a Rotarian.

Marion: 00:13:33

So am I.

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Let me tell you about our new project.

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And, uh, her first comment was, Is it sustainable?

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And I said, Yes.

Marion: 00:13:44

It was in my mind, it was on paper.

Marion: 00:13:46

Why not?

Marion: 00:13:47

Yes.

Marion: 00:13:48

Well, Work club donated $350, which allowed us to buy, uh, another sewing

Marion: 00:13:54

machine and some crochet hooks.

Marion: 00:13:57

And now Lisa is a member of our club.

Marion: 00:14:01

Thanks to te.

Isabel: 00:14:03

So then you don't have to live where you live

Isabel: 00:14:06

to be a member of your club?

Marion: 00:14:09

Thanks to Zoom and other things?

Marion: 00:14:11

No, uh, because of Covid, right now we have five members.

Marion: 00:14:16

Uh, two of them are in the United States, Three of them are in Australia because

Marion: 00:14:21

they had to leave when Covid came.

Marion: 00:14:24

I chose not to leave.

Marion: 00:14:25

I chose to.

Marion: 00:14:26

When I say they had to leave, they had to leave Indonesia.

Marion: 00:14:29

They had the opportunity to leave

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Indonesia.

Isabel: 00:14:32

Well, I had not anticipated this, but perhaps we could talk after the

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interview about representation on the membership from Canada, um, because,

Marion: 00:14:45

uh, we would certainly welcome you with open arms.

Isabel: 00:14:49

Well, just as an explanation to our audience, I was a member for.

Isabel: 00:14:54

Like, it's just about two years of the Rotary, uh, Sunrise

Isabel: 00:15:00

Club in Tucson, Arizona.

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Hence my connection with Marion.

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But after moving one year ago back to Canada, I have

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not found my Rotary home yet.

Isabel: 00:15:14

Maybe it isn't around the corner, maybe it's across a

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pond, or two or three ponds...

Isabel: 00:15:20

I guess.

Marion: 00:15:21

Yeah.

Marion: 00:15:22

Uh, we can start out with Lake Ontario.

Marion: 00:15:26

Uh, no.

Marion: 00:15:27

We, we, uh, all of our meetings connect to Zoom so people can keep in touch and

Marion: 00:15:33

we also connect everyone through what's.

Marion: 00:15:36

If you're listening to this from the States, you guys really don't use

Marion: 00:15:41

WhatsApp as much as the rest of the world.

Isabel: 00:15:43

Um, no.

Isabel: 00:15:43

The US is, doesn't, isn't as aware of WhatsApp as, um, as I am, certainly

Isabel: 00:15:50

because I have family around the world and also in my, um, business owner role.

Isabel: 00:15:58

I had business clients and staff in China, So I'm, I'm more familiar with.

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Opportunities to communicate in different ways for little

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or no cost and stay in touch.

Isabel: 00:16:12

So, yay, and I guess, you know, as one of the positive strategic, uh, side effects

Isabel: 00:16:19

of Covid, the pandemic, we've all learned a lot more about how to stay in touch.

Isabel: 00:16:25

How to, you know, really, uh, network and make a difference and be part of,

Isabel: 00:16:30

and get to know each other better, uh, via digital or whatever they call

Isabel: 00:16:36

the technology platforms today, right?

Marion: 00:16:39

Right.

Marion: 00:16:40

I have a family.

Marion: 00:16:42

Um, my family's on three continents.

Marion: 00:16:45

Yes,

Isabel: 00:16:46

you have, you have family in Australia, United States.

Isabel: 00:16:49

I have definitely, Yep.

Isabel: 00:16:50

And, and you in Indonesia.

Isabel: 00:16:52

That's fantastic.

Isabel: 00:16:54

Um, just, just because, you know, I don't know that a lot of people are

Isabel: 00:16:58

familiar with where Indonesia is.

Isabel: 00:17:01

Could you, could you just give me a little perspective for the audience?

Marion: 00:17:05

It's, it sits on the equator and it's between, uh,

Marion: 00:17:10

India and it's an arch pego that goes, So I'd have to look at a map.

Marion: 00:17:16

I'm from a child of the 1960s.

Marion: 00:17:19

Geography wasn't taught all that well.

Marion: 00:17:22

Um, we're near Singapore.

Marion: 00:17:24

We're near born.

Marion: 00:17:25

Well, Borneo is part of Indonesia, but it shares the island with

Marion: 00:17:29

Malaysia and, uh, Brunai.

Marion: 00:17:33

I'm trying to think what else is close.

Marion: 00:17:35

Yeah, I'm

Isabel: 00:17:36

envisioning it.

Isabel: 00:17:37

I'm, correct me if I'm wrong here cuz geography was not my strong suit ever.

Isabel: 00:17:41

Although I have a great love of traveling the world.

Isabel: 00:17:46

Uh, you're kind of in between India and Australia, right?

Isabel: 00:17:51

Yeah.

Marion: 00:17:51

Yeah, yeah.

Marion: 00:17:52

That's a good way to put

Isabel: 00:17:53

it.

Isabel: 00:17:53

If you put a diagonal between, between those.

Isabel: 00:17:56

Right.

Marion: 00:17:57

Okay.

Marion: 00:17:57

So, and it's, it's 18,000 islands, 9,000 are inhabit.

Isabel: 00:18:03

That is incredible.

Isabel: 00:18:05

Well, if I'm going to visit them all, I better get started soon

Isabel: 00:18:08

because I'm 68, but you know, that gives me, you know, another 30 or 40

Isabel: 00:18:13

years to work on it, so it's good.

Isabel: 00:18:16

Okay.

Isabel: 00:18:17

So I can see now how you started with, um, TCA's idea, the president of your

Isabel: 00:18:24

rotary club at the time and Right.

Isabel: 00:18:28

That was pre the pandemic.

Isabel: 00:18:31

But it had, it was started in, um, empowering women, uh, to stay

Isabel: 00:18:39

within their, their cultural, um, values and, and you know, what's

Isabel: 00:18:46

traditional for them, but also to be financially autonomous by working from.

Isabel: 00:18:54

So got got that, and it started simply with a couple of sewing machines.

Isabel: 00:18:59

And then unfortunately the pandemic hit and it became a much more

Isabel: 00:19:07

pressing need to provide these families with income to buy food.

Marion: 00:19:13

Is that about two 85% of Bali's economy is reliant on tourism?

Marion: 00:19:19

So 85% of the people who work on Bali had no jobs for two years.

Isabel: 00:19:28

That's just lightening, and there is,

Marion: 00:19:31

there is a very, very, very slim safety net and it really

Marion: 00:19:37

didn't save too many people.

Marion: 00:19:39

So there were a lot of people working together to help each.

Marion: 00:19:43

But there was literally, there were no jobs, there were no

Marion: 00:19:49

tourists, there were no hotels open.

Marion: 00:19:51

There were few restaurants open, and people were starving.

Isabel: 00:19:56

So give me, give me some idea, some context around the cost

Isabel: 00:20:01

of living in how much the purchase of one of these items, uh, has

Isabel: 00:20:07

an impact on a family life there.

Marion: 00:20:11

Well, it depends on the family, like anywhere else.

Marion: 00:20:13

Certainly Indonesia has some very, very wealthy.

Marion: 00:20:18

Um, their investments have paid off.

Marion: 00:20:21

They're invested in other countries.

Marion: 00:20:24

Uh, the middle class, I first came to Indonesia in 1982 and

Marion: 00:20:30

there was almost no middle class.

Marion: 00:20:32

There's a solid middle class now, but if you're solid middle class

Marion: 00:20:36

involved, someone who worked as a manager at a four or five star hotel

Marion: 00:20:41

and that hotel closed things crash.

Marion: 00:20:45

Right.

Marion: 00:20:46

Um, you can buy food, you can buy a meal that consists mainly

Marion: 00:20:53

of rice for about a dollar.

Marion: 00:20:56

It, uh, but that's the low end of the income scale.

Marion: 00:21:01

It, uh, if I wanted to go out and buy a Thanksgiving

Marion: 00:21:04

Turkey, I probably could do it.

Marion: 00:21:05

It would cost me well over a hundred.

Marion: 00:21:08

So it depends on what you're eating and where you're living.

Marion: 00:21:12

Uh, it's like anyone else except low here is lower.

Marion: 00:21:16

And I'm willing to bet that the high is higher than in a lot of places.

Marion: 00:21:21

And the middle class is small.

Marion: 00:21:24

Yeah.

Marion: 00:21:24

But they are.

Isabel: 00:21:26

But when you don't, when you don't have a job, when there's no

Isabel: 00:21:30

income, it doesn't matter whether.

Isabel: 00:21:35

Uh, whether there's a, you know, scale for wages or social

Isabel: 00:21:39

services or anything, right.

Isabel: 00:21:41

It's just ingenuity now has to become the,

Marion: 00:21:46

the first people were selling their motorbikes.

Marion: 00:21:48

They were selling their cars, they were selling their land.

Marion: 00:21:52

Yeah.

Marion: 00:21:52

Uh, it, it, it was awful.

Marion: 00:21:57

. Isabel: So take me, take us a little

Marion: 00:22:02

what I hear is that, so we've got local people involved through the club and other

Marion: 00:22:08

connections, um, and you so brilliantly, uh, have woven your connections from

Marion: 00:22:18

your past life, your travel, your family, your friends and others into.

Marion: 00:22:24

Um, well, isn't that interesting?

Marion: 00:22:26

Sewing for a living and what you're actually doing, it's the

Marion: 00:22:30

foundation, is you're weaving a tapestry of connections, right?

Marion: 00:22:35

Connections are everything, Isabelle.

Isabel: 00:22:37

Yeah.

Isabel: 00:22:38

Connections are everything.

Isabel: 00:22:41

And you know, Maya Angelou said people may forget what you said and people

Isabel: 00:22:47

may forget what you do, but they will.

Isabel: 00:22:50

Never forget how you made them feel.

Isabel: 00:22:53

And I guess those connections of yours must have felt pretty good.

Isabel: 00:22:57

Well, I hope so.

Isabel: 00:22:59

Yeah.

Isabel: 00:23:00

All right.

Isabel: 00:23:01

And then to be able to give them an opportunity to add their connections

Isabel: 00:23:06

to this tapestry is, is also fabulous.

Isabel: 00:23:11

That's the way the world works.

Isabel: 00:23:13

It it does truly.

Isabel: 00:23:15

And I, I, I find that is more.

Isabel: 00:23:19

So more obvious in the community of women?

Isabel: 00:23:23

Uh, not, not exclusively, but certainly I think as women, we've become, I grew

Isabel: 00:23:29

up in a farming community and, and so I'm, you know, I, I associate memories

Isabel: 00:23:35

of quilting bees where the women gathered together, uh, Quilts or, uh, to gather

Isabel: 00:23:43

together to make the meals when a barn was going up or, or there was, you

Isabel: 00:23:48

know, a crop had to be taken off because the family member was unable to do so.

Isabel: 00:23:55

Good morning.

Isabel: 00:23:56

My, my raspy morning voice.

Isabel: 00:23:59

Uh, and so this opportunity for women to get together is when they start to

Isabel: 00:24:04

think of other things they can do to help communities in each other, and it's, it's

Isabel: 00:24:10

a beautiful thing, what you're creating.

Isabel: 00:24:13

Well,

Marion: 00:24:15

We, we hope so, and we hope it keeps being beautiful

Marion: 00:24:18

because it's blossoming.

Marion: 00:24:20

It's been so exciting for me to start off with a crochet hook and a ball of yarn.

Marion: 00:24:25

I had cook cooking, kicking around my, uh, living room and, uh, I was just

Marion: 00:24:31

supposed to teach the ladies to crochet and now I'm teaching them how to be

Marion: 00:24:35

business women, and that's exciting.

Isabel: 00:24:38

I would like to hear more about that because as a, as a businesswoman

Isabel: 00:24:46

myself, and also the, your earlier comment about is this sustainable and

Isabel: 00:24:55

I was a member also of, uh, of Noble, the National Association of Women

Isabel: 00:24:58

Business Owners when I lived in Arizona.

Isabel: 00:25:01

Uh, it's.

Isabel: 00:25:03

Very interesting to see that evolution that's happened with sewing for a living.

Isabel: 00:25:08

And it isn't now just about creating a product, but it's also having

Isabel: 00:25:14

confidence and knowledge about the skills to run a business, right.

Isabel: 00:25:18

Is that correct?

Marion: 00:25:19

Well, this is, this is very interesting because, uh, the

Marion: 00:25:23

ladies were just crocheting their hearts out and I was their only.

Marion: 00:25:29

Well, I could not sustain that.

Marion: 00:25:31

That's when we began looking to other clubs.

Marion: 00:25:35

Uh, in fact, the club in Tucson bought some products and sold them at

Marion: 00:25:38

their, uh, their district conference.

Marion: 00:25:43

Um, but when we found out that we could actually sell the products to Germany,

Marion: 00:25:50

to Cologne and make money that way, we began to look for other markets.

Marion: 00:25:56

And it was hard because everything was closed right?

Marion: 00:26:01

Then one of our other projects in our rotary club, we have an

Marion: 00:26:06

environmental project in Montan.

Marion: 00:26:08

Uh, Montan is the Indonesian part of Borneo, uh, where we are working to

Marion: 00:26:15

preserve what's left of the rainforest.

Marion: 00:26:19

One of the lungs of the world, so to speak, and to preserve what's

Marion: 00:26:24

left of the orangutang population.

Marion: 00:26:27

So we began crocheting, orangutans.

Marion: 00:26:31

Half of the money that you get for an that we get for an orangutang

Marion: 00:26:35

goes to the woman who made it.

Marion: 00:26:37

And the other half goes to the, uh, Long Sam project, which is,

Marion: 00:26:43

uh, in reference to land that surrounds the Kalie River in Montan.

Marion: 00:26:49

So, okay, we had a new market and we had a purpose, not just sewing for living,

Marion: 00:26:57

but we had an environmental purpose and people began buying orangutans.

Marion: 00:27:02

They're really cute.

Marion: 00:27:03

I sent you a picture.

Marion: 00:27:05

And, uh, we thought, All right, and we began publicizing.

Marion: 00:27:11

If you look at our, PowerPoint presentation for Sewing For A Living,

Marion: 00:27:16

you'll see one of our, one of our threats is that, uh, we're limited in market.

Marion: 00:27:22

Well, now that things are opening up, my ladies can't keep up.

Marion: 00:27:26

It's a great problem.

Marion: 00:27:27

They can't keep up.

Marion: 00:27:29

It's a great problem to.

Marion: 00:27:31

, but we have a population who knows nothing about running a business.

Marion: 00:27:36

So we've started on ground zero and we're, we're working to get

Marion: 00:27:42

people to understand, uh, quality control, uh, to understand deadlines.

Marion: 00:27:49

I mean the very, very basics of business.

Marion: 00:27:54

Plus, I know Western business, Western business and eastern

Marion: 00:27:58

business are two very different.

Marion: 00:28:01

It.

Marion: 00:28:02

Uh, I can tell you about Western marketing.

Marion: 00:28:05

I had a woman stop by one of the shops and say, Oh, you need

Marion: 00:28:10

to display this differently.

Marion: 00:28:11

And I'm thinking, Really?

Marion: 00:28:14

I said, But who is the market?

Marion: 00:28:17

Are you displaying for a local market or are you displaying for a tourist market?

Marion: 00:28:23

Because there are two different things.

Marion: 00:28:25

Isabel, you'll appreciate that.

Marion: 00:28:26

Think of the difference of way things are displayed in Tucson and the

Marion: 00:28:30

way things are displayed in Portco.

Isabel: 00:28:33

Yes.

Isabel: 00:28:34

Yes.

Isabel: 00:28:34

Very good analogy.

Isabel: 00:28:37

. Yeah.

Isabel: 00:28:37

We would have

Marion: 00:28:37

guests come back from, uh, Porto Pinco and we'd have show

Marion: 00:28:42

and tell, show me what you bought.

Marion: 00:28:43

And some people say, I didn't buy anything because I, I, I, it was overwhelming.

Marion: 00:28:48

There were just too many things.

Marion: 00:28:50

So we have to teach sort of a hybrid of marketing.

Marion: 00:28:57

Mm-hmm.

Marion: 00:28:58

, and then, um, how to set a price.

Marion: 00:29:02

We're still working on that.

Marion: 00:29:05

because if you have no money, 10 cents is a lot of money.

Marion: 00:29:09

Right?

Marion: 00:29:10

And, um, they don't have to pay for the yarn.

Marion: 00:29:15

So it's very confusing if you've never done it before.

Marion: 00:29:19

So we're working on all kinds of very basic entrepreneurial skills.

Marion: 00:29:25

But thanks to Nabo and Enterprising Women Magazine, I.

Marion: 00:29:30

Had a lot of people help me along.

Isabel: 00:29:32

There's that connections theme again.

Isabel: 00:29:36

Yep.

Isabel: 00:29:37

Yeah.

Isabel: 00:29:37

How fabulous.

Isabel: 00:29:39

So can you, uh, think of a particular individual, uh, that one of the local

Isabel: 00:29:48

women that started off in the program?

Isabel: 00:29:50

Cuz I thought it was interesting when you say, If you don't have

Isabel: 00:29:53

money, 10 cents can sound like a very desirable thing to go after.

Isabel: 00:29:59

And if there's no, if you don't think that you have any, uh, cost in the

Isabel: 00:30:04

goods and you perhaps don't value your own skills yet, uh, as much as they are

Isabel: 00:30:12

worth, then how did you begin to teach?

Isabel: 00:30:19

Market value for what they were

Marion: 00:30:21

creating?

Marion: 00:30:22

Well, it's been interesting.

Marion: 00:30:25

Um, a lot of the women had part-time jobs, uh, in tourist shops.

Marion: 00:30:31

And I'm thinking of one woman in particular who is

Marion: 00:30:34

an excellent prosha of me.

Marion: 00:30:35

I had, her name is Santi, uh, Santi crocheted, and,

Marion: 00:30:42

uh, would sell things to her.

Marion: 00:30:44

Uh, but we sort of let the women at this point choose what they're comfortable

Marion: 00:30:54

with because there's no sense in saying, Well, that's worth 75 US dollars, which

Marion: 00:31:00

it may be in the US market, but if you're selling it to your neighbor who

Marion: 00:31:04

has nothing, uh, Not going to work.

Marion: 00:31:08

So they began to see the value of what they made by why,

Marion: 00:31:13

what people would pay for it.

Marion: 00:31:15

And now that the tourists are coming back, they're understanding they can

Marion: 00:31:19

charge the tourist market more and they can charge the German market even more.

Marion: 00:31:26

Uh, the, Here's a cross cultural story.

Marion: 00:31:29

The Germans and Cologne celebrate.

Marion: 00:31:33

And one of the things they do for Carnival is wear something called a naron cap,

Marion: 00:31:38

which is a dense cap in a certain shape.

Marion: 00:31:43

So they asked us if we would make them, and we said, Yeah, but we don't know

Marion: 00:31:48

what they are, what they look like.

Marion: 00:31:50

So we found that out.

Marion: 00:31:51

So I have Lineese.

Marion: 00:31:55

Making German dance caps for carnival in Cologne out of

Marion: 00:32:00

fabric that came from Florida.

Isabel: 00:32:03

Truly a global

Marion: 00:32:05

initiative.

Marion: 00:32:07

And then the lady said, Oh, these are kind of plain, Do you

Marion: 00:32:10

mind if we put beads on them?

Marion: 00:32:12

And they hand beated them, so they are selling them.

Marion: 00:32:17

Um, At about 15 euro a piece, which is a lot of money.

Marion: 00:32:25

That's remarkable.

Marion: 00:32:26

And they sold, they sold 50 of them, five zero.

Marion: 00:32:31

So slowly they're learning and they're learning that the local

Marion: 00:32:36

market won't take the price, but the international market will.

Marion: 00:32:40

Mm-hmm.

Marion: 00:32:41

. So now we're looking for international places.

Marion: 00:32:45

Um, By happenstance, our Rotary Club met for its strategic annual meeting,

Marion: 00:32:53

had a place that, uh, sells items to home goods, TJ Max and, uh, peer

Marion: 00:33:04

one and places that I used to shop.

Marion: 00:33:07

So when we get.

Marion: 00:33:11

Over supplying the Christmas market in Cologne and get to catch our breath.

Marion: 00:33:16

We'll approach them and say, Are you interested in boutique

Marion: 00:33:21

bags and boutique place mats?

Marion: 00:33:23

Because I happen to know what those stores will buy.

Marion: 00:33:26

So, uh, of course we're looking for different things.

Isabel: 00:33:31

I know that, that we've taken this a bit more of a turn

Isabel: 00:33:34

towards the business part of.

Isabel: 00:33:38

Of this impact, but also as a business woman at you, and I know we understand

Isabel: 00:33:43

that if you don't treat a not-for-profit like a business, it can't do good.

Isabel: 00:33:51

You know, even, even United Nations recognizes that with the sustainability,

Isabel: 00:33:56

sustainability goals, you have to do well in order to do good.

Isabel: 00:34:02

So this is, I always.

Marion: 00:34:05

I always tell people that a not-for-profit business is a business.

Marion: 00:34:10

Yes.

Marion: 00:34:10

Major difference is taxes, taxation, and the fact that you can't take

Marion: 00:34:17

what profit except not for profits.

Marion: 00:34:19

Call that profit surplus.

Marion: 00:34:22

You can't take the surplus and do anything but plow it right

Marion: 00:34:27

back into the not-for-profit business, and that's the only.

Isabel: 00:34:32

I'm glad that you brought that back up.

Isabel: 00:34:34

So it's assured reinvesting in the enterprise what, whatever that

Isabel: 00:34:41

activity is, so you can do more.

Isabel: 00:34:43

So it, it's wonderful.

Isabel: 00:34:44

It's like, it just perpetuates if you have good management and,

Isabel: 00:34:49

and, uh, passion to keep it going.

Isabel: 00:34:53

Good.

Isabel: 00:34:54

So tell me now, what are your, what are your next steps?

Isabel: 00:34:57

Uh, what do you think?

Marion: 00:35:00

Uh, the next steps for the Sewing For Living is to

Marion: 00:35:06

really clarify what we're selling.

Marion: 00:35:10

I know we're selling crocheted and sewed things, but who is buying what, Uh, we're

Marion: 00:35:17

finding that our new local customer wants.

Marion: 00:35:21

Little stuffed animals, little stuffed bees.

Marion: 00:35:24

We have the orangutans I mentioned.

Marion: 00:35:27

Mm-hmm.

Marion: 00:35:28

. And we're beginning to make dos that are dressed in traditional

Marion: 00:35:32

Indonesian temple costume.

Marion: 00:35:35

Uh, and those are selling very well.

Marion: 00:35:38

Um, the Norin cabin looks like it's going to be a hit.

Marion: 00:35:43

Uh, we'll see if we get a repeat order next year.

Marion: 00:35:47

Um, So we look at what's selling on the market, um, and we look at what is being

Marion: 00:35:56

carried in the markets here, uh, which does not necessarily come from Indonesia.

Marion: 00:36:03

Uh, and if the Western market is buying, what is it?

Marion: 00:36:09

Buy.

Marion: 00:36:10

Uh, and it's going to be a refining process that every business goes through

Marion: 00:36:16

it, um, and a continuing education of how do you run a business and make a profit,

Isabel: 00:36:26

right?

Isabel: 00:36:27

I can't help but think, Marion, as you're talking, that everything that

Isabel: 00:36:31

you're discussing and that you've.

Isabel: 00:36:34

Done and learned and improved along the way, uh, for our audience.

Isabel: 00:36:41

You don't have to be somewhere else in the world for that to be relevant.

Isabel: 00:36:45

You can do that in your own community, right?

Isabel: 00:36:48

Yes.

Isabel: 00:36:48

You could do it at home.

Isabel: 00:36:50

So this is not, um, not a conversation or a model for something.

Isabel: 00:36:58

International, or, you know, life changing.

Isabel: 00:37:03

This is a model for how you can have an impact, make a difference

Isabel: 00:37:09

with an idea, and going forward.

Isabel: 00:37:11

So I wanna thank you for that and I, I certainly believe that.

Isabel: 00:37:16

Well, I would like to come back and revisit this conversation and see what

Isabel: 00:37:21

else you've learned along the way.

Isabel: 00:37:23

And thank you in advance, , uh, if you'll agree to do that because your evolution

Isabel: 00:37:31

with this project, your experience in learning could help so many others.

Isabel: 00:37:35

And, and after all that is lifting as you Climb.

Isabel: 00:37:39

Right?

Isabel: 00:37:40

Right.

Isabel: 00:37:41

But I didn't ask you specifically.

Isabel: 00:37:45

When I asked, reached out and said, Would you be on the Lift As You Climb podcast?

Isabel: 00:37:50

What did you, what did that mean for you?

Isabel: 00:37:52

What did it trigger in your thoughts?

Isabel: 00:37:56

Um,

Marion: 00:37:56

it triggered, um, memories of all the people who, who helped me along the

Marion: 00:38:01

way, and some of them don't even know it.

Marion: 00:38:05

Yeah.

Marion: 00:38:05

I think of, I think her name was Julie Rockefeller when Rockefeller was,

Marion: 00:38:09

um, the governor of West Virginia.

Marion: 00:38:13

His wife started, uh, communal sewing groups of women who sewed things

Marion: 00:38:22

like quilts and, and other handcrafts and sold them for the same reason.

Marion: 00:38:29

I'm doing that with other women here.

Marion: 00:38:32

Uh, they had a talent, they had a skill, um, that wasn't

Marion: 00:38:36

being used but could be used.

Marion: 00:38:39

She's always been a role model for.

Marion: 00:38:42

Um, I think of the women that I met at Enterprising Women, we, I sat on their

Marion: 00:38:48

advisory board and we'd get together and I'd sit there going, When they

Marion: 00:38:53

find out I own a bed and breakfast and have a stone mix, they're gonna

Marion: 00:38:56

burst out laughing because they're running construction companies and.

Marion: 00:39:01

Asphalt companies in Washington, DC and all these things that are

Marion: 00:39:05

bringing in millions of dollars.

Marion: 00:39:07

And, um, I found out that they didn't, They were intrigued and I found out

Marion: 00:39:13

that regardless of the size of your business, we all have the same problems.

Marion: 00:39:18

, maybe the scale is different, but they're all the same problems.

Isabel: 00:39:22

I absolutely confirm that from personal experience.

Marion: 00:39:27

Yes.

Marion: 00:39:27

And that was just such a revelation to me.

Marion: 00:39:31

Um, I think of the women in Nabo, uh, particularly in, in Tucson, because

Marion: 00:39:39

they struggled too, and it was very interesting for me to find out.

Marion: 00:39:44

How they dealt with those struggles and how they relied on one another not to

Marion: 00:39:49

buy their products, but for support.

Marion: 00:39:52

Mm-hmm.

Marion: 00:39:53

, it's, um, and I find that with my, my women here.

Marion: 00:39:58

Um, Language is very interesting, uh, because I don't speak

Marion: 00:40:04

Bahasa Indonesia very well.

Marion: 00:40:06

My brain is, is far too old to acquire it with any grace and dignity.

Marion: 00:40:11

And I know two words in Boies.

Marion: 00:40:14

Uh, literally two words.

Marion: 00:40:17

Um, English skills on their side is, , but how do you teach a skill

Marion: 00:40:23

to a group of women who don't speak the same language you do?

Marion: 00:40:28

And the answer is technology.

Marion: 00:40:30

YouTube is wonderful and they are the ones who discovered that.

Isabel: 00:40:36

Ha

Marion: 00:40:37

it I, I said earlier, I'm a technological Tera, Doctor , and it never

Marion: 00:40:42

crossed my mind, even though I knew.

Marion: 00:40:46

Those crochet lessons were out there, but they learned, um,

Marion: 00:40:50

how to follow them in English.

Marion: 00:40:52

And uh, so I have, uh, a substitute teacher who does quite, quite

Marion: 00:40:59

nicely, so, and they share this information with each other.

Marion: 00:41:04

It's a communal society here in Bali and they share information.

Marion: 00:41:10

There isn't that, Well, I'm not telling her because then she'll be

Marion: 00:41:13

able to do something I can't do.

Marion: 00:41:15

There's none of that, which makes it very nice.

Marion: 00:41:18

Me,

Isabel: 00:41:18

I uh, and there again, they are living the Lift As You Climb model...

Isabel: 00:41:23

helping each other, learning from each other.

Isabel: 00:41:26

Lifting.

Isabel: 00:41:27

Oh, definitely Lifting each other.

Isabel: 00:41:29

Lifting the entire community.

Isabel: 00:41:31

Right Marion...?

Marion: 00:41:32

It's part of their culture...

Marion: 00:41:34

It...

Marion: 00:41:35

Alright, so tell me just a little bit about that.

Marion: 00:41:39

I recognize it's late at night for you, but that's a, If I could sprinkle

Marion: 00:41:46

more of what you just said around the world, I would like to do so.

Marion: 00:41:50

So, The cultural aspect of helping each other.

Marion: 00:41:55

It, uh, it stands to reason.

Marion: 00:41:58

the best example I can give you of that is, I have a granddaughter who is

Marion: 00:42:04

now 13 months old, but when that baby was born, her feet were not allowed to

Marion: 00:42:11

touch the ground or the floor for 105.

Marion: 00:42:15

That's three months on the Bolonese calendar, which is

Marion: 00:42:18

reliant on the moon, not the sun.

Marion: 00:42:21

Uh, and you think, Well, what difference does that make?

Marion: 00:42:23

And so on and so forth.

Marion: 00:42:26

Well, that child was passed.

Marion: 00:42:28

If mom was busy, then Dad took the child, or grandma took the child, or

Marion: 00:42:34

one of the cleaning staff took the child not expecting payment for babysitting.

Marion: 00:42:41

It was a baby who was in.

Marion: 00:42:43

And that was it.

Marion: 00:42:46

Um, if the community knows of someone who needs food, the community

Marion: 00:42:52

gets together and helps that person, uh, as much as they can.

Marion: 00:42:57

If there's a family who's having difficulties, they sit down with the

Marion: 00:43:03

leader of the community and he mediates.

Marion: 00:43:08

The women help one another.

Marion: 00:43:10

It's, it's really quite amazing and one of the reasons we moved here.

Isabel: 00:43:16

All right.

Isabel: 00:43:17

So many more questions I have to ask of you, Marion and and I, I hope that

Isabel: 00:43:23

we will have that opportunity soon.

Isabel: 00:43:27

And I have two right now that are absolutely priorities

Isabel: 00:43:32

and one is, what can we do?

Isabel: 00:43:36

What can we as our audience do to help?

Isabel: 00:43:42

Lift more of the women that you are helping send

Marion: 00:43:47

yarn, which is not inexpensive.

Marion: 00:43:50

Mi um, shipping costs have skyrocketed.

Marion: 00:43:54

It scared us to death, but people keep coming through, um, or send money.

Marion: 00:44:02

It's easier to send money.

Marion: 00:44:04

The money will buy sewing machines.

Marion: 00:44:07

The yarn that we can get is not the same quality.

Marion: 00:44:11

And one thing that's a selling point for us is the quality of the yarn we have.

Isabel: 00:44:17

All right.

Isabel: 00:44:18

So, uh, that's a, that's a shout out.

Isabel: 00:44:21

That's a call to action for anyone who is listening, uh, to this episode.

Isabel: 00:44:27

Check your cupboards and drawers and craft baskets for the things that you

Isabel: 00:44:32

are not using and put them to use.

Isabel: 00:44:35

And

Marion: 00:44:35

it doesn't have to be a full scan or a full ball.

Marion: 00:44:38

It can be leftovers.

Marion: 00:44:40

In fact we get leftovers from, uh, Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona.

Isabel: 00:44:47

Well, I was, that was gonna be my next, or go to your local charity shop

Isabel: 00:44:52

or thrift store or Goodwill organization, and there's lots of people that are

Isabel: 00:45:00

Marie condoning lives right now...

Isabel: 00:45:03

Downsizing,

Isabel: 00:45:05

I know in Tucson, uh, my dear friend and yours, Gina Murphy Darling and her husband

Isabel: 00:45:11

James, they made great hauls regularly.

Isabel: 00:45:15

Uh, But let's, let's talk about Goodwill Industries, and something you shared

Isabel: 00:45:20

with me when we were off the air...

Isabel: 00:45:21

and, and give them a shout out.

Marion: 00:45:24

It, uh, Gina, our mutual friend, went to the director and...

Marion: 00:45:30

Look, this is what's going on...

Marion: 00:45:32

Because when people say, Well, I wanna send yarn, what kind do you want?

Marion: 00:45:36

And I say, Any kind, in fact, go to the Goodwill, buy the yarn there.

Marion: 00:45:42

It's less expensive for you and it helps them.

Marion: 00:45:47

So you get to help charities abroad and at home.

Marion: 00:45:50

Absolutely.

Marion: 00:45:51

So Gina took it one more step and went to Matthew and said,

Marion: 00:45:56

Matthew, this is what's going on.

Marion: 00:45:58

And he said, I'll send yarn from the 20 stores in Southern Arizona.

Marion: 00:46:03

We're very excited.

Marion: 00:46:04

I can't wait till the first group gets here.

Marion: 00:46:07

Now my daughter did something, um, she's a research scientist for the

Marion: 00:46:12

Australian government and she put a large box in the office, break

Marion: 00:46:17

room and said, My mom is collecting yarn to teach women how to crochet.

Marion: 00:46:23

So people who.

Marion: 00:46:25

Listen to I, it was one of the big US papers who said, If you have to spend

Marion: 00:46:31

time, why don't you take up knitting?

Marion: 00:46:33

And people thought, That's a great idea.

Marion: 00:46:35

I'll take up knitting.

Marion: 00:46:36

And then they thought that they, they went out and bought

Marion: 00:46:38

beautiful yarn and hated knitting.

Marion: 00:46:41

Um, so the box got filled.

Marion: 00:46:44

Um, and grandma may have liked to crochet, but daughter hated to crochet.

Marion: 00:46:50

So, uh, we, we get our yarn from.

Marion: 00:46:55

Various and sundry sources.

Isabel: 00:46:58

All right, so question, Um, yarn and crochet, is

Isabel: 00:47:02

that called cotton or thread?

Isabel: 00:47:04

Is it still called yarn?

Marion: 00:47:07

Um, here it's all called string.

Marion: 00:47:09

Um, but the crochet cotton is for lacey, lacey things.

Marion: 00:47:14

Okay.

Marion: 00:47:14

Uh, the toys and so on...

Marion: 00:47:16

Just go with your regular yarn or bulky yarn or baby weight yarn.

Marion: 00:47:22

Any weight, what we would call yarn.

Marion: 00:47:24

In England and Australia, they call it wool.

Marion: 00:47:26

Whether it's acrylic, it doesn't matter, it's still wool.

Marion: 00:47:30

And like I said, here, everything is referred to as string.

Marion: 00:47:34

We will take all.

Isabel: 00:47:36

All right.

Isabel: 00:47:37

In the show notes of this episode, I will include the instructions, the

Isabel: 00:47:43

address, and just a list of, um, what you could donate, uh, and how to, so

Isabel: 00:47:49

the address to send it to, but also if, if what you'd rather do is send money.

Marion: 00:47:57

And I'm like, Oh, I can send you directions to how to do that too.

Marion: 00:48:00

Yeah,

Isabel: 00:48:00

we're gonna provide all of that because that is also very easily

Isabel: 00:48:04

done, and I encourage you, uh, get your clubs, your churches, your

Isabel: 00:48:11

neighbors, your office colleagues.

Isabel: 00:48:15

Involved in this.

Isabel: 00:48:16

It's so easy and it's so fun.

Isabel: 00:48:18

I, I'm, I'm thinking back to our, uh, Rotary Club in Tucson, Sun

Isabel: 00:48:24

Sunrise, where Ginger, Ginger Garcia, with her insurance agency

Isabel: 00:48:29

office, she had a collection box and.

Isabel: 00:48:33

Not only did our staff contribute, but neighboring businesses and clients,

Isabel: 00:48:39

uh, and or their organizations.

Isabel: 00:48:41

So it's easy to get some momentum going and then make sure it's clean and

Isabel: 00:48:49

packaged up to transport and will provide you the instructions and all of that.

Isabel: 00:48:57

All right.

Isabel: 00:48:58

So excited by this.

Isabel: 00:48:59

I hope this inspires others.

Isabel: 00:49:01

Gives you ideas on on how you can Lift and Climb and start something that

Isabel: 00:49:08

will have sustainable positive impact.

Isabel: 00:49:12

And you don't have to have it all figured out first.

Isabel: 00:49:15

Just get going.

Isabel: 00:49:16

Like Marion and her Rotary colleagues did before.

Isabel: 00:49:23

I let you get off to your evening, Marion...

Isabel: 00:49:27

Would you share something that we haven't already talked about...

Isabel: 00:49:32

That we probably can't find on Google about you?

Marion: 00:49:37

Let me see.

Marion: 00:49:39

It must have been in the early nineties, in the early 1990s.

Marion: 00:49:46

I, uh, cooked and served lunch for the then Minister of Technology of

Marion: 00:49:53

Indonesia in Pittsburgh, and that was BJ Habibi who became president.

Marion: 00:50:00

Amazing on a houseboat going up and down the three rivers in Pi.

Marion: 00:50:06

He had come to see Rockwell International.

Marion: 00:50:09

It was still headquartered there and Westinghouse to talk about.

Marion: 00:50:14

I, I'm not sure, I was never privy to what they talked about, but it had something

Marion: 00:50:19

to do with technology and the party person at Rockwell International called

Marion: 00:50:26

me because of the job I had at the time and said, I need an Indonesian cook.

Marion: 00:50:31

And I said, Well, good.

Marion: 00:50:33

because there are no Indonesian restaurants here.

Marion: 00:50:36

Well, there are Indonesian students.

Marion: 00:50:37

And I said, Yes, there are, but trust me, if uh, if you can send your child

Marion: 00:50:44

to the United States to go to college, uh, he doesn't know how to cook.

Marion: 00:50:49

Uh, he has a cook.

Marion: 00:50:51

Um, but she would not let up.

Marion: 00:50:55

And I finally said, Look, I'm the only person I know who cooks Indonesian food.

Marion: 00:51:00

And she said, You'll.

Marion: 00:51:01

Wow.

Marion: 00:51:02

So I ended up on a houseboat on the Monongahela River, um, and

Marion: 00:51:07

the Ohio and the Allegheny Rivers.

Marion: 00:51:09

Uh, cooking lunch for soon to be President.

Marion: 00:51:13

BJ Habibi, his wife and his entourage.

Isabel: 00:51:17

Oh, that must have been nerve-wracking.

Isabel: 00:51:20

Oh, fun.

Marion: 00:51:22

It was fun.

Marion: 00:51:22

And of course he told me it was delicious because his culture wouldn't

Marion: 00:51:26

allow him to say anything else but

Isabel: 00:51:28

Well, so I'm curious, did he ever reciprocate and invite

Isabel: 00:51:32

you to the, to the presidential mention for a meal afterwards?

Isabel: 00:51:37

No.

Isabel: 00:51:38

Oh, darn it.

Isabel: 00:51:39

Darn it all.

Isabel: 00:51:42

All right.

Isabel: 00:51:43

Anything else that you would like to share today, or perhaps

Isabel: 00:51:48

Any tips that you have for anybody who would like to follow in your footsteps?

Marion: 00:51:53

Well, I really don't feel comfortable with anyone

Marion: 00:51:57

following in my footsteps.

Marion: 00:51:59

They can walk beside me, and will support each other along the way, so that we

Marion: 00:52:04

can do what, what needs to be done.

Marion: 00:52:07

Um, we all need help, and we can all help one another.

Isabel: 00:52:12

Very well said!

Isabel: 00:52:15

Thank you Marion...

Isabel: 00:52:16

And I would very much like to walk beside you!

Marion: 00:52:20

Thank you.

Marion: 00:52:20

Oh, good, good, good.

Marion: 00:52:23

And I'll be in touch to see how I can apply to be a member of your Rotary club.

Marion: 00:52:31

For now to all.

Marion: 00:52:33

Uh, I hope that this has lifted you and inspired you, uh, on how you can

Marion: 00:52:41

go out and make a difference in the world, small way or a growing way.

Marion: 00:52:48

For now, thank you everyone.

Marion: 00:52:50

Goodbye, Marion.

Marion: 00:52:51

Talk soon.

Marion: 00:52:53

Talk soon and

Marion: 00:52:54

I'll get those addresses to you first thing in the morning,

Marion: 00:52:56

my morning, your afternoon,

Isabel: 00:52:58

and they will be shared.

Isabel: 00:53:00

And please if you're listening...

Isabel: 00:53:03

Make sure you share this episode.

Isabel: 00:53:05

Let's really have a, a positive tsunami effect by letting more people

Isabel: 00:53:12

in the world know about Sewing For A Living and the other great causes.

Isabel: 00:53:18

And that this started not only as a local community thing, but now has an

Isabel: 00:53:23

impact helping to save the rainforest.

Isabel: 00:53:27

So you just never know where the journey will take you...

Isabel: 00:53:30

But just get on board and go!

Isabel: 00:53:32

Right?

Marion: 00:53:34

And think about buying one of those cute little Orangutans.

Isabel: 00:53:37

Oh, I'm, I'm doing it for sure.

Isabel: 00:53:40

. Okay.

Isabel: 00:53:41

All right.

Isabel: 00:53:41

Thank you.