Creating Connections: Inside Gals Need Pals with Kinley and Lauren

Let’s dive into the world of Kinley Schmidt and Lauren Trivison, the passionate founders of Gals Need Pals, a community for women based in Spokane Washington.

During our conversation they share their experiences, favorite places, and the journey of creating a space for women to connect, support each other, and enjoy meaningful experiences.

Gals Need Pals: Crafting a Community of Connection

The spark that ignited the Gals Need Pals events is turned into a blaze of vibrant experiences with events like the Bridgerton-themed brunch, creating a welcoming haven for women. The pride in working with local businesses, from hosting events to social media collaborations, radiates through their stories, detailing the heart and soul behind their community-building efforts.

Creating Vibrant Experiences and Expanding Horizons

The journey continues with an inspiring look at their event series, expansion plans, and the potential nationwide reach of Gals Need Pals. Their thoughtful deliberation on selecting new locations and collaborating with vendors reveals not just a business expansion, but a deep commitment to creating meaningful and inclusive experiences for women across the country.

In a rapidly changing world, where human connections are often strained, the tale of Gals Need Pals resonates deeply, offering a guiding light for anyone seeking meaningful connections and heartfelt experiences.

As the episode draws to a close, the deep impact of community, friendship, and shared moments echo vividly, urging all listeners to seek out their own Gals Need Pals space, wherever they may be.

Gals Need Pals Episode Transcript

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. All right. Well, welcome to this episode of the exploring Washington state podcast.

Scott Cowan [00:00:29]:

I’m sitting here today with Kenley Schmidt and Lauren Trivison. Did I do it? Did I do it right?

Kinley Schmidt [00:00:33]:

They say, oh my God, I

Scott Cowan [00:00:35]:

did it twice, folks. So this may be the first time in history that I’ve gotten the names right. The first time, Kenley and Lauren are the founders of gals need pals. And, I’m gonna kind of read the bio that was given to me from the PR company that sent it to me. And so it’s regardless of your transplant or hometown hero, making friends is a 20 to 30 something, can be extremely difficult. News flash try being in your sixties, to Washington Cowan are taking matters into their own hands, leveraging the power of social media to create a community for women that’s taken off both online and in person. So that’s kind of the super high level question. Got more important question for both of you.

Scott Cowan [00:01:14]:

You both have to answer. Fantastic. Why Cowan earth Spokane?

Kinley Schmidt [00:01:20]:

Oh, well, you can you can start you can start on that 1.

Lauren Trivison [00:01:23]:

Yes. I love Spokane. It’s the first place for me that’s ever felt like home. I grew up in Olympia, Washington. So I’ve been in the state my entire life and ended up coming here for college and just fell in love with all of the big city amenities, but I didn’t have to go terribly far to do anything fun. And then, of course, I was that lovely college class of 2020. So graduated 6 week 6 weeks into the plague as Kinley likes to say, and went back to Western Washington. I was like, this is so much traffic for no reason.

Lauren Trivison [00:01:55]:

So expensive. I don’t know.

Scott Cowan [00:01:57]:

It was just it was going to be a

Lauren Trivison [00:01:58]:

bit much, and there’s just something that my heart always said, go back to Spokane. I felt like my time had been cut Scott. And ever since I came back, I feel like my life has just taken off exponentially. And it’s just so fun to hang out here. There’s just a great community of people. Making a business of friendship has been genius because there’s just so many kind women out here that I’ve been fortunate enough to meet, including Kinley and so many of our gals. And I don’t know. I just feel like this is where I belong.

Lauren Trivison [00:02:28]:

You get to be a big fish in a small pond. I just kind of float around every day. And, I mean, you can’t really beat that.

Scott Cowan [00:02:36]:

Alright. Couple of questions. You went to school in in Spokane. Yep. Where’d you go, where’d you go to school?

Lauren Trivison [00:02:42]:

I am a Gonzaga alumni, proud Zag.

Scott Cowan [00:02:45]:

So go, go, cougs. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

Kinley Schmidt [00:02:50]:

That’s okay. We we support them, kind of.

Lauren Trivison [00:02:53]:

Yeah. That’s where my sister went. I’ll go to a football game here and there, but the Zags are really

Kinley Schmidt [00:02:57]:

where it’s at.

Scott Cowan [00:02:58]:

Doesn’t have football, so it’s not like you’re being disrespectful to a program that doesn’t have that.

Kinley Schmidt [00:03:03]:

I think that’s exactly.

Scott Cowan [00:03:04]:

Okay. So you went to Gonzaga. What did, what did you major in?

Lauren Trivison [00:03:07]:

I was communications and marketing, so worked out very well to be now just sitting and yapping with people on a podcast.

Scott Cowan [00:03:15]:

So you heard up in Olympia, what high school in Olympia?

Lauren Trivison [00:03:18]:

Good old Olympia high school. It’s basic.

Scott Cowan [00:03:22]:

Okay. So why, when going back to when you were a high school student and you’re thinking about college, why Gonzaga?

Lauren Trivison [00:03:30]:

At the time I was looking for just a nice Catholic husband. So I looked at the Catholic schools in the west coast and Gonzaga was the 1 that you worked out.

Scott Cowan [00:03:45]:

Amazing. We, when I was in college, which is many, many, many, many years before you, we called that the MRS degree. Oh, yeah.

Lauren Trivison [00:03:54]:

Didn’t pan out, but that’s it’s still it’s still called

Kinley Schmidt [00:03:57]:

it’s still called the MRS

Lauren Trivison [00:03:59]:

degree. Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:03:59]:

Is it still called? All right. All right. I don’t know what you, what you kids are calling things these days. No. Okay. So, so you went to Gonzaga, you want, so you wanted to go to a Catholic Scott.

Lauren Trivison [00:04:07]:

Yeah. At the time. And then funnily enough, I left the church by the end of it, but you know, that’s how it

Scott Cowan [00:04:11]:

goes. Okay. Okay. So, and I I’m I’m with you. I I grew up in the Puyall area. Oh, yeah. And, I went to school at Central, which is why I can say go Cougs or go Huskies and pick on either with, you know, cause I’m, I went to central living. Who cares? And, we moved back here to Wenatchee about 7 years ago, not back here, but we moved to Wenatchee from the Tacoma area.

Scott Cowan [00:04:35]:

Cause I was commuting from basically Puyallup to Olympia every day for work.

Lauren Trivison [00:04:39]:

Got you.

Scott Cowan [00:04:40]:

And, is you know, that commute just it’s it’s too much traffic for no reason. So it kinda I that totally resonates with me why you would pick Spokane.

Lauren Trivison [00:04:47]:

So for many years, I did the reverse going from Olympia to to Tacoma to work at the Nordstrom there. And then I moved to Tacoma, which I don’t recommend. I did that for a few months and then hit the skids. See, I

Scott Cowan [00:04:57]:

got this I got this love love hate relationship with Tacoma. There’s some really cool stuff happening there. There really is. And yet I left. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, Kelly, how did you, how did you end up in Spokane? Are you a native or, what brought you to Spokane?

Kinley Schmidt [00:05:17]:

I am not native. I’m actually originally from Lubbock, Texas. And then I went to school at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, but my father is a Spokane native. My parents have a love story that should become into a rom Scott because it’s incredible. My mom was a flight attendant, and my dad was a and my mom

Lauren Trivison [00:05:41]:

is yes.

Kinley Schmidt [00:05:41]:

So my mom is originally from Lubbock, and my dad, ended up taking over our family company there. So they moved to Lubbock when my brother was 6 months old, and my brother’s 3 and a half years older than I am. And so I was born and raised in Lubbock and then went to school in Utah. And then when I graduated high school in 2015, 2016, my parents moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which is about 45 minutes away from Spokane. And, we I am a mama’s girl. I always have been. And I knew that once I graduated, college, I wanted to go closer to my family, but I wasn’t quite ready to be in a in a town of 40, 000 people

Scott Cowan [00:06:33]:

and

Kinley Schmidt [00:06:34]:

or less in the winter.

Lauren Trivison [00:06:35]:

Right.

Kinley Schmidt [00:06:36]:

Especially without any young people. I was single at the time. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t know a single soul actually moving to Spokane. But I got a job and that’s how I ended in up in Spokane.

Scott Cowan [00:06:50]:

Alright. So everything to me is about towns across the United States. It’s like, what college was there? I know Lubbock’s got a school. What’s what’s school’s in Lubbock?

Kinley Schmidt [00:06:59]:

Texas Tech. Go red Raiders.

Scott Cowan [00:07:02]:

Okay. That’s right. Okay. And so what did you go to college for?

Kinley Schmidt [00:07:06]:

So I actually originally went to the University of Utah for the ballet program. I was a classically trained ballerina, and the University of Utah has 1 of the top ballet schools in America. And it specifically had a ballet school that, had an emphasis on teaching. So I always knew I always knew that I wanted to have some teaching background because I loved children. I always worked with children. Growing up, I was always called the baby whisperer. I fell out of a crib at 4 years old trying to get a crying baby out of their crib, realized I couldn’t, broke my arm. Like, it was a whole thing.

Kinley Schmidt [00:07:50]:

I knew I needed to work with children at some point. And so I wanted to As

Scott Cowan [00:07:54]:

a child, you knew you needed to work with children. Okay. Got it. Okay.

Kinley Schmidt [00:07:57]:

Yes. And, but after my sophomore year, I was just burnt out. I mean, ballet is very, very difficult. So I just went into the teaching program at the University of Utah and I got my degree in education and then I got my master’s in integrating the arts into the classroom.

Scott Cowan [00:08:21]:

So I know nothing about Utah

Lauren Trivison [00:08:24]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:08:24]:

Nor do I know anything about ballet, so I’m perfectly qualified to make this statement. Perfect. Who who I would in all seriousness, I would have never guessed. Had you asked me, you know, I was a ballet major. I went to what Scott? No school from Utah would have ever, ever come out of my mouth. It’s just not what IWI would have been guessing things in New York, maybe Chicago.

Kinley Schmidt [00:08:48]:

You know, it’s actually interesting. It’s like Indiana, University and Butler University are also

Scott Cowan [00:08:56]:

the 1 of the top ballet schools. Nothing in New York

Kinley Schmidt [00:08:59]:

is like considered top ballet. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t a top dance school, but specifically classical ballet is.

Scott Cowan [00:09:06]:

I would have never connected the words ballet in Utah in the same sentence. I just would not have done that.

Kinley Schmidt [00:09:12]:

Well, because the LDS faith is very, very, huge advocates for the arts. So I think that Utah, Utah has a lot of dancers, like a lot.

Scott Cowan [00:09:26]:

Trust it. So that gives me, that gives me some context that I would. Okay. All right.

Kinley Schmidt [00:09:30]:

And so don’t quote don’t quote me that on that. I’m I’m almost positive.

Scott Cowan [00:09:33]:

Well, no, we’re quoting you. That’s good. That’s gonna be the headline of the show. That’s gonna

Lauren Trivison [00:09:36]:

be the headline of

Kinley Schmidt [00:09:37]:

the show.

Scott Cowan [00:09:38]:

I know

Kinley Schmidt [00:09:38]:

nothing really about the LDS church, but other than I’m pretty sure that they were strong advocates for the bar.

Scott Cowan [00:09:44]:

Okay. So you both in your early twenties moved to a town of in Spokane. That’s gotta be careful what I say. Because very early on doing the show, I made a less than complimentary remark about Spokane. And I actually had people writing me really annoyed with how I was just trying to be funny. I wasn’t really trying to be cruel. How about I help? But as a kid, let me, let me go. I got, let me go with this.

Scott Cowan [00:10:19]:

Okay. So we moved to Cowan answer. Like I said, 7 years ago, we, my wife and I would both like to see live music. Living in when asked you were about equal distance now between Seattle and Spokane. Spokane wins every time. If the same act is gonna be in Seattle or Spokane, we go to Spokane. I’ve had so much fun in Spokane over the last 7 years, doing things that that community has changed drastically. And it’s really, it’s got a great food scene.

Scott Cowan [00:10:47]:

It’s you’ve got a lot of great coffee shops. There’s a lot of things really thumbs up for Spokane. Seriously. The problem for me was Spokane is its location physically on the map. It’s if Spokane doesn’t have what you wanna do, where are you going? Boise? Seattle? It’s a long it’s a long trek to go somewhere else if Spokane doesn’t deliver on that thing. That’s my only objection to Spokane. But you both moved there in your early twenties, single.

Lauren Trivison [00:11:19]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:11:20]:

It’s you tried. You you went to college for that, but you didn’t you didn’t get the you didn’t get the you didn’t get the diploma.

Kinley Schmidt [00:11:25]:

I started.

Scott Cowan [00:11:26]:

And you moved here because your parents moved to the resort community that’s outside of Spokane. So you didn’t really you had a connections with your college alumni that might still be in town.

Lauren Trivison [00:11:36]:

But you

Scott Cowan [00:11:36]:

moved there, you moved to a town of what, about 250, 000 people there now in the city.

Lauren Trivison [00:11:42]:

Something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:11:43]:

Okay. And you mean you just didn’t make friends instantly? I

Kinley Schmidt [00:11:48]:

didn’t know a single soul and I ended up here in the heart of the plague.

Scott Cowan [00:11:54]:

You’re making excuses. Come on.

Kinley Schmidt [00:11:57]:

No, I was going to

Scott Cowan [00:11:58]:

help you out and

Kinley Schmidt [00:11:59]:

say that Spokane was really, is really hard to, it’s a great city, but it’s very cliquish. It the natives stick with the natives. My dad is a Spokane native, and he’s still best friends with the people you went to high school with. Like, they are very loyal to their their tribe, and then they don’t branch out after that. So coming here not knowing that

Scott Cowan [00:12:23]:

I’m teasing you because what you guys have established with this gals needs Palestine was you built it because you needed it. Yeah. And that’s really Cowan. That’s really cool. I’m not, I’m really not trying to pick on Spokane. I’m just kinda,

Kinley Schmidt [00:12:37]:

so it’s okay.

Scott Cowan [00:12:39]:

Kenley, you’re a, you’re a school teacher. I can’t believe you don’t want to hang out with the kids after a fun day of, of, Are you still teaching 3rd grade?

Kinley Schmidt [00:12:49]:

I actually officially resigned for my position as a 3rd grade teacher at the end of this school year to work on Galsney Pals full time.

Scott Cowan [00:12:58]:

K.

Kinley Schmidt [00:13:00]:

It was very excite thank you. It’s very exciting.

Scott Cowan [00:13:04]:

Okay. But I can’t believe you didn’t wanna hang on 3rd graders after school. I

Kinley Schmidt [00:13:08]:

mean I mean

Scott Cowan [00:13:09]:

Come on.

Kinley Schmidt [00:13:10]:

I love that. School, but

Scott Cowan [00:13:11]:

after school snacks, cartoons, video games.

Kinley Schmidt [00:13:16]:

They’re more in, like, the TikTok YouTube era now, but, yeah, cartoons

Scott Cowan [00:13:20]:

are out. Really? Yeah. I don’t know if they’re missing. Okay. So, Kenley, you started this correct. How long after you got to Spokane did you, before you started this site, this, this organization?

Kinley Schmidt [00:13:39]:

I moved in may of 2020 and I launched on Instagram September of 2022. So 2 years.

Scott Cowan [00:13:50]:

That’s quite a long wait. Oh, yeah.

Kinley Schmidt [00:13:52]:

I was struggling. Okay. I as I say, you know, being a teacher, my colleagues are predominantly older than I was, so meeting friends in the workplace wasn’t necessarily an option for me unless I wanted to just be friends with a 50 year old mother, which I did. I love them, and I got along really well with them. But there wasn’t like I was single at the time. I wanted to go, you know, meet people. I wanted to go to the bars. I wanted to live my life as a, you know, early to mid 20 year old.

Kinley Schmidt [00:14:28]:

And I think I so I taught actually at a Catholic school. It’s it’s attached to the Gonzaga Corporation. It’s Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, great school. And in 2021, they told me to go to this Catholic women’s group. And I was like, great. I need to make friends. I’m desperate. I at this point it was either I made friends in the next 6 months or I was gonna move Seattle where my cousins that are my age live, and I had a community there.

Kinley Schmidt [00:15:02]:

So that was it.

Scott Cowan [00:15:03]:

Give you another option. 6 cats would have helped.

Kinley Schmidt [00:15:06]:

Yeah. I have I have a dog.

Lauren Trivison [00:15:09]:

So Oh, no.

Scott Cowan [00:15:10]:

Dogs dogs don’t dogs dogs are dogs are naturally friends for everybody. You could have just gone on the, the, the crazy cat lady thing when it went early. It taken it on, embraced it.

Kinley Schmidt [00:15:21]:

Yeah. I really could have. I did it.

Scott Cowan [00:15:23]:

Okay. And that’s kinda glad.

Kinley Schmidt [00:15:26]:

And then I, ended up meeting 1 person at the Catholic women’s group, and she’s the 1 that actually started Galsney Pals with me originally. She stepped down when she she got pregnant and she had a baby. So she, stepped down from Galsney Pals, and that’s where Lauren kind of came in. But Mhmm. It, yeah, it took it took a while. And that it was that summer, 2021 or 2022, summer of 2022. I think the Catholic women’s group was at the end of 2021. We were at a bar.

Kinley Schmidt [00:16:00]:

I ended up I was walking past a girl at this bar, and she kept complimenting my outfit. She was like, I like your boots. I’d walk past again. I like your shirt. Walk past again. Just anything to to find connection. But because women have such a hard time approaching each other and having the confidence to just say, hey. You’re complimenting my outfits a lot.

Kinley Schmidt [00:16:29]:

Do you wanna potentially be friends? So that didn’t happen, but I ended up I was with Mallory and we were with her friends, her husband and his friend. And his friend actually knew the girl that kept complimenting our outfits, and we ended up going out that night together. And we were the ones planning the the night, you know, later, the girls’ night out to mingle and create friendship. And so that’s why we’re like, why don’t we just create something for all women to feel safe to make friends? Because I think it is really a huge need. And, thankfully, due to that night, Gal’s new pal started, and she became a very good friend. Her name is Katie, and she introduced me to my fiance.

Scott Cowan [00:17:21]:

Alright. There you go. It’s all because of the boots. Started with the boots. It was all because of the cowboy boots. Shout out to my Texas roots for those cowboy boots. So your first gals, did you call it gals need pals at the very beginning? Cause I’ve been okay. So the first time you, you know, raised your hand and said, Hey, we’re doing this.

Scott Cowan [00:17:41]:

Who wants to join us? How well received was it?

Kinley Schmidt [00:17:46]:

It was actually an incredible response. So we launched our Instagram and that was where we, you know, as 20 something year olds, we’re like, hey. How do you contact someone? The easiest way to contact someone and contact a huge amount of people. It’s Instagram for us. And so I was like, okay, I’m gonna create an Instagram and I’m just gonna post like aesthetic looking pictures and just kind of tease it until we have an an event. And at that point, we already had like I mean, for starting on Instagram, we had, like, 300 followers. And K. In October, I launched our first event, and 75 women signed up to come to this event.

Scott Cowan [00:18:34]:

Wow. Okay.

Kinley Schmidt [00:18:34]:

I think only 40 about 50 ended up showing up because there was no monetary responsibility. It was free. And but it was truly I I think I cried that night. I think I was just overwhelmed with the fact that this many people felt the exact same way I did, and it was an incredible response since day 1.

Scott Cowan [00:19:01]:

That’s I mean, those are really high percentage numbers for, you know, and, you know, if you have 300 followers, 25% of them say they wanna show up. And for almost 75% of that, they raise their hand to show up, show up. That’s that’s really, really good.

Kinley Schmidt [00:19:16]:

Yeah. That’s pretty amazing.

Scott Cowan [00:19:17]:

That’s very cool. All right. So Lauren, how’d you get involved? What, which besides living in Spokane and wanting to make friends, but so but what brought you on board?

Lauren Trivison [00:19:29]:

Yeah. So literally the week that they launched their first event, I had moved back to Spokane. And I am, like, a influencer content creator by trade, always on social media. I’ve been doing it, oh, gosh, over 5 years now. And I’m like going through my new followers and I’m like, oh, this thing called galaxy pal. Just follow me. What is this? So I click on it and I’m like, wait, this is so cute. Unfortunately, I had like prior engagement the day of their first event, so I wasn’t able to make it.

Lauren Trivison [00:19:55]:

But I just started talking to the girls because I was like, wait. This is such a cute idea. Like, I just work from home literally talking to myself all day. That’s pretty much my employment. And so, you know, that could get a little lonely, and, I don’t wanna end up, like, in an institution or anything. So I was like, I should probably go out and make some more friends. So I asked them or they asked me somehow we got connected and went out for drinks the following week. And I got to know Kenley and Mallory a little bit, and I was like, oh my gosh.

Lauren Trivison [00:20:21]:

I need to come to your next event. So I started going to some of the events in the winter, and I was like, wait. This is so smart. And so I was just kinda like, you know, casual attendee and everything. And, I was in therapy at the time too, and I was talking to my therapist. And I was like, wait. This is, like, such a smart thing that, like, I’ve been going to, and I’ve been kinda lamenting that I wanted to get more involved in, like, the business community and just the community of Spokane at large. Because at the time, I really had, like, 2 friends from college that had stuck around.

Lauren Trivison [00:20:48]:

And I just felt bad going over to the house since all the time and be like, okay. It’s probably, like, spread myself out a little more because I was very single at the time too, and I just knew I needed a little bit more community than I had. So I think it was about February ish of 20 what would have been? 2023. I was like, hey. Can I help them, like, get involved in some way? Because I have more of the business and, social media background, whereas they were oh, no. My network is struggling. Okay. Kinley and Mallory were more like educators in the medical field, and I was like, I’d love to just come on board and see what happens.

Lauren Trivison [00:21:23]:

And then everything just kinda worked out that I was able to step up, and we were able to really take it to a new level that I never would have anticipated.

Scott Cowan [00:21:33]:

So this may be a hard question because you may not know it off. It’s not intentionally hard, but so as of June 2024, how many followers do you have on Instagram?

Lauren Trivison [00:21:44]:

Over 15, 000. And I think when I joined in

Kinley Schmidt [00:21:50]:

March 100 something?

Lauren Trivison [00:21:52]:

Something. Yeah. I think when I joined on, we’re do we even have a 1, 000 at that point? I don’t think so.

Scott Cowan [00:21:58]:

Yep. Yeah. So you’ve got let’s just say 5th we’ll just call it 15, 000. Yeah. Or that’s close enough. Right? If it’s 49 or 59, it doesn’t matter. 15, 000 people following you.

Lauren Trivison [00:22:09]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:22:10]:

Primarily Spokane?

Lauren Trivison [00:22:13]:

Now it’s become a large number of Seattleites just because we had a viral video out there, which just still blows Kimley and I away. It just hit a 1000000 views this past week, and that really just took us from just being this little spoken community to now a Washington state premier women’s event group.

Scott Cowan [00:22:34]:

I miss the premier women’s event group video. So what what wasn’t? And why do you think it went viral?

Lauren Trivison [00:22:41]:

So I had been in Seattle for, like, this little fashion thing because I’m a fashion blogger. And I was like, okay. I’m gonna get some content because Kenley and I, at that point knew that we wanted to expand to Seattle later this year.

Kinley Schmidt [00:22:54]:

And so I

Lauren Trivison [00:22:54]:

was like, alright, Kenley. I’m gonna get a couple little clips while I’m out there. You know, feel like I’m being productive on this adventure. So I’m standing at the corner by Pike Place and just get literally, like, a 4 second video clip. I usually tell people have, like, a 7 second clip, something with a little bit of, you know, meat to its bones, but it’s just this brief clip. I find this random audio on Instagram because I’m always scrolling, seeing what’s going on. And I just say, are you looking to fill out the Seattle or are you affected by the Seattle freeze? We’re here to thaw it out. And that just, like, took off, like, nobody’s business.

Lauren Trivison [00:23:32]:

The comment section went insane, and we were just like, oh my gosh. This is happening. Because we were expecting our launch to be like, oh, kind of get lost in the sauce. Oh, no. Seattle embraced us with open arms.

Scott Cowan [00:23:48]:

Cell showed up? Yeah. Yeah. So I gotta, I gotta ask you, cause you, you know, you’ve identified as an influencer and you made a comment that just, I don’t disagree with you. So I don’t, I’m not like trying to argue, but I am going to ask you what on earth has gone wrong. You said it was like a 4 second clip. And you said, normally you tell people to get like a 7 second clip. Something with a little meat on it. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:24:15]:

7 seconds. I mean, come on. That’s just have, have we all become goldfish?

Lauren Trivison [00:24:22]:

Oh yeah. The attention spans of people have gone down significantly. It’s kind of concerning

Scott Cowan [00:24:28]:

blows my mind. It’s just absolutely when you said it like that. And you’re like, it’s just, this is, this is how my brain heard you. You know, well, I found this 4 second clip and I tell people it should be 7. Sometimes it’s a little meat on it. I’m like,

Kinley Schmidt [00:24:42]:

Wenatchee we have been trying to push it to 30 seconds. Oh, my gosh.

Scott Cowan [00:24:47]:

Slow down. Don’t, don’t stress us out. No, it’s just it, it cracks me up. It’s like. And no disrespect. There’s there’s nothing. This is not me. Okay.

Lauren Trivison [00:24:59]:

I’m like,

Scott Cowan [00:25:01]:

oh my gosh, what on earth have we come to? Yeah. It’s just baffling. Imagine

Lauren Trivison [00:25:08]:

being a

Kinley Schmidt [00:25:09]:

teacher during that attention span time. What?

Scott Cowan [00:25:13]:

I don’t

Lauren Trivison [00:25:13]:

know how you do it.

Kinley Schmidt [00:25:14]:

I thought you’re being a teacher. Absolutely. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:25:17]:

My wife is a testing coordinator at a middle school here in Wenatchee, and I hear, I hear lots of things from her Wenatchee in a great while. I’ll go to a teacher’s gathering after school. And honestly, it’s exhausting to listen to them, complain about the same 6 kids that they all share through the years. And it’s like, I wouldn’t want to be friends with if my, if my friends were teachers, I wouldn’t want to be friends with them just because I don’t want to talk work with my friends. If you, you know what I mean? It’s like, oh, yeah. A little Timmy. Oh yeah. You’ll have him next year.

Scott Cowan [00:25:50]:

You’ll have fun time. No, I don’t want

Kinley Schmidt [00:25:53]:

to. So that is what we do,

Scott Cowan [00:25:55]:

but you picked. For props, you picked a phrase, the cell freeze, you know, that was, that was optimal that you, you, you, you went that direction. And so when did you push, push that video out?

Lauren Trivison [00:26:09]:

So we launched that in early March of this year and we did like 1 whole teaser video. Like, oh, something’s coming because I have a bit of an audience still from, like, when I lived in the Seattle area, and people are like, Lauren, are you moving back? I said, no. Not at all. And that 1 did, like, decently well, but I was not expecting that other video to go completely viral. And we’re like, okay. But then it was kind of a weird position because they’re like, we’re still several months Scott. Like, hold

Kinley Schmidt [00:26:38]:

on. I’m coming back. Questions. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:26:42]:

Well, that’s good though, to build to build anticipation and buzz. I mean, and that’s although when you only have a 4 second attention span, they’ve forgotten it already, but III can’t.

Kinley Schmidt [00:26:52]:

Don’t worry. We post every day.

Lauren Trivison [00:26:53]:

Oh, yeah. We we keep bugging them.

Scott Cowan [00:26:55]:

You have to. It yeah. Yeah. It’s just so anyway, we could go down that rabbit hole for the rest of the show. So you found Seattle then to be embracing the idea.

Lauren Trivison [00:27:07]:

Oh, yeah. Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:27:08]:

Okay. Let’s flash forward to to current day. How often are you running events?

Lauren Trivison [00:27:17]:

Once a month in the city.

Scott Cowan [00:27:21]:

Once a month. Once well, that’s a tough thing to say. Once a month in each city. Okay. The G have you had an event? This is late June when we’re recording this. It’ll probably maybe be late June when it comes out, but early July, The June event in Spokane, what was it?

Lauren Trivison [00:27:38]:

We did a little bridgerton brunch. So we had this amazing luxury picnic gal come in, decorate everything for us. It’s Luxury Picnic Spokane, and she did an incredible job. We had a couple of vendors come, and then we went to inland Pacific Kitchen just in the heart of downtown Spokane in this gorgeous historical building. All the girls just dressed up to the nines in, like, the most beautiful dresses, and we just had brunch and chatted and hung out, and it was so magical.

Kinley Schmidt [00:28:07]:

Yes. It was really fun.

Scott Cowan [00:28:08]:

Couple of questions. So how much how much did that event cost?

Lauren Trivison [00:28:12]:

We did, like, I think, $50 a ticket.

Scott Cowan [00:28:15]:

$50 a ticket. Okay. And brunch was included for that. Okay. So reasonable in today’s day and age, is a And

Kinley Schmidt [00:28:22]:

it was family style kind of all you can eat. So we all were very, very full by the end. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:28:28]:

Okay. Now you said you partnered with, with the luxury company to do the food, but you said a couple other vendors. What were the other vendors?

Lauren Trivison [00:28:37]:

Yeah. We had a permanent jewelry gal. I think it’s Infinite Love Jewelry, and she did, like, rings and bracelets for the girls. So then they have kinda, like, a little memento that they could wear. And then we had 1 of Kinley’s friends who is a photographer and does cards for, like, greeting cards and different occasions.

Kinley Schmidt [00:28:57]:

Okay. And she’s KKT designs. Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:29:00]:

And so you’re working this kind of from both angles. You’re you’re putting women together, but you’re finding vendors that would benefit from that audience as well.

Lauren Trivison [00:29:08]:

Oh yeah, of course.

Scott Cowan [00:29:09]:

That’s really, I like that. That’s, that’s really cool. All right. What’s the July Spokane event gonna be? You gotta already have it planned. Right? Oh, yeah. I’m not putting you on

Lauren Trivison [00:29:18]:

the spot.

Scott Cowan [00:29:19]:

Okay. So what’s July?

Lauren Trivison [00:29:20]:

Napping things out last year, we would plan, like, 10 days in advance, I’d tell people, and now we’re, like, months in advance. And it’s a lot more of our relaxed lifestyle. But we’re doing a Cowan who wine event, and it’ll be at the tipsy wine Wenatchee bar here in Spokane Valley. And girls are gonna come in. There’s gonna be a flight of different roses, I believe, just like summery wines, very seasonal. And we’re also gonna have some meats and cheeses for the girls to eat. And they can just mingle, hang out. We’ll have permanent jewelry from Swank Boutique doing bracelets, necklaces, charms, and the girls can just have fun and get a little tipsy.

Lauren Trivison [00:29:58]:

Minkum.

Scott Cowan [00:30:00]:

The bridgerton event. Yeah. How many how many attendees were there?

Kinley Schmidt [00:30:03]:

We This 1 was pretty small.

Lauren Trivison [00:30:06]:

3 days with 24 women. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:30:09]:

And the July event’s gonna be?

Lauren Trivison [00:30:11]:

35.

Scott Cowan [00:30:13]:

So are you typically doing 2 to 3 dozen attendees? Are are you trying to is that what is working well? Or do you just do you want are

Kinley Schmidt [00:30:22]:

you aspiring

Scott Cowan [00:30:22]:

to go bigger?

Kinley Schmidt [00:30:24]:

It depends on the venue. Yeah. So we it kind of we always, we always try to work with local businesses. That’s 1 of our biggest things. And it’s just however many they can fit into their venue or a venue space at their venue, is how many we took tickets we sell sell out. But we did have an event in May, which was a prom it’s adult prom, and it was actually both it was open to both women and men, and, that 1 was almost a 150. It was a 100 150 people.

Scott Cowan [00:31:05]:

Okay. Somewhere around there. Well, now the Seattle events, once again, it’s venue venue dependent, but what are you trying because Seattle’s a bigger community. Are you trying to do a little bit larger events? Are you gonna maybe do 2 events instead of 1? What’s the what’s your strategy for the bigger metropolitan area?

Lauren Trivison [00:31:23]:

We’re hoping to do just, like, slightly bigger events than Spokane just because I’m sure there’s gonna be a little bit more space for what we have planned out. And then we also do something we call mini events here in Spokane. We’ve been taking a little hiatus just because we’ve been traveling so much. And those are up to, like, 15 women come to those. And so we’ll probably do some more of that as we get further established in Seattle as well, but definitely see that being a bigger place. And we’ll do, like, some 100 plus people events a couple of times a year. So it really just depends and whatever we kinda have cooking up. Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:31:59]:

Remember COVID? Yeah. Go back to Spokane. Remember the good old days of COVID? Davenport. Yeah. Davenport put those igloos outside. Yeah. Downport hotel. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:32:13]:

Do they still have those during winter? Did they decide to keep those?

Lauren Trivison [00:32:16]:

Yeah. They do like Valentine’s day things and

Scott Cowan [00:32:19]:

that could be kind of fun to have an event in Igloo or 2. I mean, I just think those are, I just thought the Davenport, that was a cool idea. My, my wife and I, our anniversary is in January, almost traumatic month of the year. And, here in Wenatchee, we went out to dinner on the little steak houses and to try to expand, seeding, they used greenhouses. No, it really wasn’t that bad execution. Anyway, I was just thinking, cause the, I, we did some content on the downpour about the igloos and I just thought those, I was the way they did. It looked like it was really kind of like, it could be fun. Like you could have a, you know, use that space in a good way.

Kinley Schmidt [00:33:05]:

I’ve actually done the igloo’s at Davenport before.

Scott Cowan [00:33:08]:

Yeah. And how were they in reality?

Kinley Schmidt [00:33:11]:

They were great. It was really fun. I, it was actually during COVID. So

Scott Cowan [00:33:15]:

Right.

Kinley Schmidt [00:33:16]:

I just had it was me and my girlfriends from college. They came to visit me, and we we just sat in there. It was a little bit chilly.

Scott Cowan [00:33:23]:

Mhmm.

Kinley Schmidt [00:33:23]:

So we definitely dressed warmer. I did not dress as warm as I should have. But it’s really fun. And, actually, our prom event was at the Davenport as well.

Scott Cowan [00:33:32]:

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Davenport’s cool. Those hotels are cool. Very cool. Because, you know, small business is fun. Everything goes perfectly.

Scott Cowan [00:33:42]:

You know, there’s never a bad idea or an idea that flopped. I always like to ask what, what hasn’t gone well, because I think we learned a lot from these things. So did, have you had an idea you thought, well, we’ll do this. This will be cool. And it just wasn’t well received.

Lauren Trivison [00:34:02]:

We had, like, 1 Scott event last year where we thought we’d have more people than we did, and we’re like, where is everyone? And it’s always rough sometimes too when there’s, like, last minute cancellations, and people don’t end up showing up.

Kinley Schmidt [00:34:15]:

Right.

Lauren Trivison [00:34:15]:

But for the most part, people have really shown up for us. And, I mean, we plan everything far enough in advance now that it’s kind of just a well oiled machine. We know what we’re doing. We’ve been good about, like, talking to the local businesses and saying, oh, this is our way of doing things. Everyone’s on the same page. And, yeah, small businesses have always just been incredible. And, oh, thank you.

Scott Cowan [00:34:38]:

That you’re partnering with local small small businesses because it’s a win for everybody.

Lauren Trivison [00:34:42]:

Oh, yeah.

Kinley Schmidt [00:34:43]:

Yeah. For sure.

Scott Cowan [00:34:45]:

So you’re you’re trying to plant your flag in Seattle and, you know, you’re, you’re going to grow that market plans beyond that.

Kinley Schmidt [00:34:54]:

We would love to expand to as many places as we can. The the biggest thing about Gausney Pals is, yeah, eventually, hopefully 1 day it will make us some some money, but that’s really not our number 1 goal. Our number 1 goal is the fact that this is a need. Women need connection, and I think it’s a need everywhere. So we would love to be able to expand our future. Plans or to probably just expand in the northwest for now. And then we’d love to expand nationwide because we do get messages from all over the country asking us to bring Galsney Pals to them. We’ve had someone reach out to us from overseas asking us to have a Galsney Pals, you know, branch in London or wherever they were in the UK.

Kinley Schmidt [00:35:48]:

And, we definitely feel that it is something that every city could really benefit from, or at least every, you know, surrounding area could benefit from. And that would be our number 1 goal is to to get Gausney Pals out there to everyone so that women can feel that they have a safe space to meet and mingle and create friendships.

Scott Cowan [00:36:15]:

Putting you on the Scott, where’s the 3rd location going to be? What would you what would you say? You guys book in? I know I have a reason for asking this very pointed question. So I don’t care what the answer is. You can make it up. You can say, you know, Paris, I don’t, it doesn’t really matter. But seriously though, where do you think you think would make sense for the way you’re working, the way the markets are? Where do you think a good next location would be?

Lauren Trivison [00:36:42]:

I’m thinking Portland, Oregon. Because it’s not too far for us.

Scott Cowan [00:36:47]:

Right. I kind of thought that’s what you would say. So you picked those these are 3 metropolitan sales huge. Okay. Spokane’s good size. Portland’s bigger than Spokane, but not as big. Portland, Spokane together probably So how small of a community do you think your organization that’s, that’s why I was asking the question. I mean, could, would it work in Olympia? Let’s say,

Lauren Trivison [00:37:12]:

I was thinking that too, since I’m from there and we definitely want to keep some distance between chapters. So don’t expect, like, a Tacoma version just because it’ll it’s so close to Seattle and Olympia. And we definitely wanna No.

Scott Cowan [00:37:26]:

No. We both know that the traffic, it’s 3 days between Tacoma and Seattle. It’s it’s close, but it’s not that. You could you could have a Seattle chapter and a Bellevue chapter in there. No. I’m just kidding.

Lauren Trivison [00:37:38]:

Yeah. But, yeah, definitely could see, like, Olympia just because we get, like, the Centralia traffic. You Cowan even have people. I bet you $5 people as far as Aberdeen might come into town and go to an event. We’ve thought about even, like, the Tri Cities and stuff and, just definitely some sort of metropolitan area, even if it’s, like, couple surrounding communities, because there are so many needs of people. And as long as there’s enough businesses to kinda go around and people are excited enough, I don’t see why not. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:38:14]:

I think Tri Cities is much larger than we give it credit for it’s like 300 some thousand people living there now in within the the 3 cities. And it’s like 500, 000 if you go to the little outside. It’s not counting Walla Walla. It’s bigger than Spokane. Yeah. Yeah. And I find that very shocking and jarring. So you’re probably looking though it’s city Spokane size, Portland size.

Scott Cowan [00:38:41]:

That’s kind of probably the, the, the, the pool that you need. Like Boise would be a good, I think Boise is big, but Boise would be a good pool. Salt lake city would be bigger than that. But Lubbock, how big is Lubbock?

Kinley Schmidt [00:38:56]:

Same size as, Spokane.

Scott Cowan [00:38:59]:

Okay. So things like Lubbock. Okay. That’s okay. Alright. What type of the vendors that you work with do you have, like, goals, aspirations of who they are? Like, do you have like this type of vendor that really works well for you? That you’re a good complimentary fit with?

Kinley Schmidt [00:39:20]:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean really try to work with a Cowan, like, owned business or, women vendors. I think that we we have had really great luck with permanent jewelry because it is a kind of a fad right now. We really loved working with Heart of Gold Jewelry. She’s based kind of Coeur d’Alene area, but she’s incredible. She’s also a young woman, and she was she’s also a teacher. So just she is incredible, and we have loved working with her.

Kinley Schmidt [00:39:57]:

We’ve had her at a couple of events now. And Okay. But we do really just try to stick with a women owned business.

Scott Cowan [00:40:07]:

That makes a lot of sense to me. That that seems like a lot.

Kinley Schmidt [00:40:10]:

Women supporting women.

Scott Cowan [00:40:12]:

Right. No. No. Totally totally makes a lot of sense. Frequency events once a month in Spokane. Is that is that enough? Could you go to twice a month? You can do twice a month and

Lauren Trivison [00:40:26]:

2. Yeah. We’ll do, like, our bigger 1, which is usually 20 plus people, just kinda again, depending on venue. And then we’ve been doing some mini events as well, which are the 15 ish group, and those have been really fun because the girls some people are like, we want something more intimate. It’s It’s a little hard to, like, make friends in a crowd at times, which totally understandable. So that’s been really cool. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:40:48]:

That is that’s this is a really cool concept. And it’s so it’s so glaringly obvious when it’s laid out in front of you yet Why it, cause you, the, the, your complaint, it’s hard to make friends is been said for years, way before you said it, you know, when I was your age, it was hard and I’m sure it was hard for my parents when they were my age back when, you know, fire had just been invented. So it’s funny though, that this is it’s take it’s taken this long to kind of gel into this idea and the idea of, of chapters, in a, in a community makes a lot of sense. So what else about gals need pals? Do we need to talk about what else? What haven’t I asked you? What, what does my audience need to know about you and your organization?

Kinley Schmidt [00:41:51]:

So our first event in Seattle is July 27th at rapport in Capitol Hill.

Scott Cowan [00:41:58]:

What is rapport?

Kinley Schmidt [00:42:00]:

Rapport is a wine bar. I think it is a self serve wine bar.

Lauren Trivison [00:42:06]:

They work like an option there. Yep. I know that they have, like, little stations. I’ve been there once before, and then you can also go up. And we’ll have, like, flat stick or flatbread pizzas. We’ve got, couple vendors showing up. We’re doing a couple of raffle items, so it’s gonna be a party.

Scott Cowan [00:42:23]:

Okay.

Kinley Schmidt [00:42:23]:

Yeah. We only have 10 tickets left.

Lauren Trivison [00:42:27]:

Oh my

Scott Cowan [00:42:27]:

gosh. Well, in our show notes, we’ll put a link to your website because they can get the tickets on the website. Right? Is

Lauren Trivison [00:42:31]:

that Correct.

Scott Cowan [00:42:32]:

So we’ll we’ll do that. All right. So when you’re not building this, what do you like to do? Like, so couple of questions I ask every every guest. So I’m gonna ask you both. You both get to answer, And please don’t disappoint me. But like I’m a big coffee fan. So like if I go to Spokane, I’m always looking for coffee. So do you drink coffee? Are you both coffee drinkers?

Kinley Schmidt [00:43:01]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:43:01]:

Okay. Tell me a good coffee shop, coffee bar, whatever you want to call them. Coffee shops just sounds kind of like, you know, Denny’s or something, but, but like where’s a great place to get good coffee in Spokane. Kimberly, you go first on this 1.

Kinley Schmidt [00:43:16]:

How’s that? Okay. Okay. Great. I am a big fan of Endava coffee, coffee, coffee, Endava has multiple locations in Spokane, so that’s it’s easy for us. But delicious coffee. Great.

Scott Cowan [00:43:32]:

What’s your go to drink? What’s your what’s your go to drink when you go to Indaba?

Kinley Schmidt [00:43:38]:

I’m as they call a basic, you know, bad word. And I do just get the same thing every time, which well, actually, I switch up sometimes, but it’s a skinny vanilla latte. So it’s sugar free vanilla non pot milk or a matcha latte. I’ve been getting into matcha lattes lately. Really?

Scott Cowan [00:44:04]:

Okay. Alright, Lauren. Coffee, Spokane.

Lauren Trivison [00:44:08]:

Oh, man. I had to go through the Rolodex because I go out to coffee way too often here, but I think Thomas Hamrick No.

Scott Cowan [00:44:14]:

No. There’s no there’s no such thing as way too often. Okay. I I mean, there’s just

Lauren Trivison [00:44:19]:

Thank you.

Scott Cowan [00:44:20]:

I thought yes. For that misconception. Yes. Yeah. No.

Lauren Trivison [00:44:22]:

Okay. Yes. Thomas Hammer is my girl. I’ve been going there since college. They had 1 on the Gonzaga campus, and they have this thing called a fizz with the works. And it’s like a carbonated coffee, which sounds weird and gross, but I’m telling you, it is the best thing ever. And they put, like, cream and vanilla, And it is just joy in a cup. And every single time without fail, that is what I’m getting.

Lauren Trivison [00:44:45]:

Most coffee places, I’ll try different things. Now every time I Thomas Hammar, I visit the works.

Scott Cowan [00:44:53]:

Interesting. Yeah. So in the late nineties, I worked for Starbucks in the corporate offices. And before I started at Starbucks, Starbucks had a partnership with Pepsi and they put out a a beverage called Mazatran, which was a coffee soda. Oh. Carbonated coffee in a bottle. No longer were carrying it when I started there. And it’s kind of a I was 1 of the first non store managers to get a job in this it department.

Scott Cowan [00:45:25]:

So I think it was kind of almost like a college hazing prank. They, they gave me a bottle of this and said, here, drink it and tell us what you think of it. And thinking that I would spit it out because a, it was didn’t sell very well and B it was old. And I actually really liked it. And I think everyone was really disappointed. So you’re saying carbonated coffee and I’ve Scott to go. I gotta check that out. That’s actually sounds pretty cool.

Scott Cowan [00:45:49]:

Alright.

Lauren Trivison [00:45:50]:

Highly recommend.

Scott Cowan [00:45:52]:

Okay. I my go to in Spokane currently is, either first Avenue Coffee, which was just recently sold, or roast house. I don’t know exactly what neighborhood roast is because they’re in an industrial park. It’s not exactly a retail location, but roast houses, the coffee roaster for first avenue coffee. I liked first Avenue coffee because I walked in there and I geeked out all over all the expensive equipment that they had. I thought it was a cool space. And really when I met the owner and, that very, very cool person, just I, I like first avenue. I have not tried Thomas hour.

Scott Cowan [00:46:30]:

I haven’t tried it. I have been doing Daba. I like the Daba is a solid, solid choice. But I’m going to have to check out the fizz. That sounds cool.

Kinley Schmidt [00:46:39]:

That sounds so good.

Scott Cowan [00:46:41]:

But also, you know, because I drink too much coffee, I always have to eat. And so I always try to ask the question of like, when I get to Spokane around lunchtime, where’s a great place for lunch? So Lauren, I’m gonna ask you to tell me your your your recommendation first.

Lauren Trivison [00:46:55]:

Okay. So it used to be Soulful Soups, which if you’re there during the weekdays, still cannot recommend enough, but they’re closed on weekends. So they’ve kinda been demoted from my list, unfortunately. So now I have to recommend Hynooneer. It’s this little sandwich shop. And, I just moved, and there’s 1 right up the road from me. And they just have the biggest, just most delightful sandwiches. And you can’t beat a fresh, good sandwich that you did not make yourself.

Scott Cowan [00:47:23]:

So for you wanting fizzy coffee, what sorry. Now I’m gonna expect you to have kind of a weird sandwich taste too. Okay. What’s what’s your go to sandwich?

Lauren Trivison [00:47:33]:

Just like a club sandwich with turkey, bacon, cheese. Amazing.

Scott Cowan [00:47:38]:

Okay. Solid. Alright. Kenley, what, how about lunch recommendation for you? From you?

Kinley Schmidt [00:47:44]:

Okay. I feel like I’m going to cheat a little bit. I’m really sorry. I’m gonna give you an answer, but it’s not my fully honest answer. So I’m gonna give you my fully honest answer second. So I was a teacher for the last 4 and a half years. And Right. Which means I did not eat out for lunch.

Kinley Schmidt [00:48:06]:

I ate at my desk for 15 minutes, and then I go get my students. So I didn’t go out to lunch. So I actually was talking to Lauren about this because I was like, I don’t know any good lunch spots in Spokane because I wasn’t going out to lunch. I will say love sub subdivision. It’s a great sandwich. So it’s right next to Saint Iles. It’s incredible. They have great sandwiches, lots of vinegar on them.

Kinley Schmidt [00:48:32]:

That’s great. But my true honest answer is a place in Coeur d’Alene because I spend my summers here, and it is the fisherman market, and the fish market has the best lunch. It has incredible sandwiches, incredible homemade fries. That’s by far my favorite lunch spot, but subdivision in Spokane. See, I

Scott Cowan [00:49:01]:

like you, so I’m not going to make fun of you, but whenever I have a guest on this, like say from Spokane’s got quarter lane across the Scott across the state line. Vancouver’s got Portland across the state line. You get the idea. I I’ve jokingly said before that Portland’s Oregon’s dead to me. Portland’s dead to me. I’ve just, I’ve just basically just like air horn I almost gave you the air horn when you said cordialene, but, I’m going to let it slide

Kinley Schmidt [00:49:28]:

only because I didn’t have lunch anywhere.

Scott Cowan [00:49:31]:

No, that’s fine. I’m teasing you. Don’t don’t take me seriously.

Kinley Schmidt [00:49:37]:

Yeah. I’m going to go to more lunch.

Scott Cowan [00:49:39]:

Check back with me and give me some more connections. Alright. Okay. I will. So when you, when you’re not organizing events, what do you 2 like to do? What do you guys do? What’s fun for you in Spokane? What what’s are you outdoorsy? What do you like to do?

Kinley Schmidt [00:49:54]:

Lauren looks like she’s thinking, but I haven’t.

Scott Cowan [00:49:57]:

I have to describe Lauren is looking off camera up to the sky going, help me.

Kinley Schmidt [00:50:01]:

I have nothing to say.

Lauren Trivison [00:50:02]:

I have too much to say. It’s hard to decide and narrow it down.

Kinley Schmidt [00:50:07]:

All right.

Scott Cowan [00:50:08]:

I’ll let, we’re going to let Lauren. We’re going to let Lauren overthink this Cowan Can we, how about you? What do you, what do you, what do you, what do you and the fiance like to do? What do you guys

Kinley Schmidt [00:50:17]:

what are

Scott Cowan [00:50:17]:

you guys doing for?

Kinley Schmidt [00:50:18]:

Yes. In the nice summer months, I’m a lake girl, 100%. I love the lake. I want to be outside. I’m a water baby It’s born. My birthday was yesterday, actually. And

Scott Cowan [00:50:32]:

so Oh, happy for me.

Kinley Schmidt [00:50:33]:

Thank you. So I’m a water baby, water sign, everything. Love the water. So that’s my number 1. Number 2 is I’m a big foodie. I love food. So although I didn’t get to go to lunch very often, I do love to go to dinner. So, Ben and I love to go try new restaurants, go out to dinner, find a good patio, have some drinks.

Scott Cowan [00:50:57]:

So what’s a currently what’s a current place that’s kind of in your rotation that you’re like, yeah, we like going here. Like, this is working right now. What do you got for a recommendation there?

Kinley Schmidt [00:51:06]:

Luna on the south hill. Luna? Going there tonight for my birthday because Ben was on time. So, yeah, Luna is incredible. It is the cutest restaurant ever. The the vibe in there is incredible. The food is amazing. They always serve you fresh homemade sourdough bread at the beginning, and it is some of the best sourdough I’ve ever had. And delicious food, incredible cocktails.

Kinley Schmidt [00:51:33]:

They have a little cute outdoor area. 10 out of 10.

Scott Cowan [00:51:37]:

Alright. So I know I’ve never asked anybody this question before, so you’re gonna be the first person. You said incredible cocktails. What’s your cocktail of choice?

Kinley Schmidt [00:51:46]:

Always tequila. I’m a tequila girl. Have had

Scott Cowan [00:51:52]:

How do you like your tequila?

Kinley Schmidt [00:51:54]:

I will take it any way. Cocktails, I like a good cocktail. Spicy is typical for my choice, but my go to tequila drink is a ranch water, and it’s Topo Chico, a lot of lime juice, and tequila. So west Texas thing. My grandfather made me a ranch water back in the day, told me about it, And I said, all right, this is my drink. So Lauren,

Scott Cowan [00:52:29]:

before you tell us what your activities are, what’s your cocktail of choice?

Lauren Trivison [00:52:33]:

Oh, geez. It’s either a tie between an Aperol spritz because I got to study abroad in Italy, so that always takes me back to just being in Europe and traveling. And then I’ve really gotten into espresso martinis lately.

Kinley Schmidt [00:52:49]:

Have you had an espresso martini with good tequila?

Lauren Trivison [00:52:54]:

No. But my friend has gotten it with tequila, and then the bartender made fun of her. So now I’m a little hesitant, but I’m more of a botanistole overall.

Kinley Schmidt [00:53:02]:

Then that bartender is not a very good bartender because coffee and tequila go hand in hand because they’re both Mexican based ingredients. So that bartender is an all very good bartender because if you get a good bartender, they will actually be like, wow. Good for you for doing tequila. That’s

Lauren Trivison [00:53:20]:

Okay. Better. You’ll have to take me off to

Kinley Schmidt [00:53:21]:

But he has to have, like, a vanilla based tequila. So something like a reposado.

Scott Cowan [00:53:28]:

Interesting. All right. So Lauren, when you’re not debating cocktails with your business partner and I’m really passionate about

Kinley Schmidt [00:53:36]:

tequila. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:53:38]:

I could tell. I’ve been pressed. Yeah. Like, okay. What do you, what, what do you, like, what do you do? What’s Spokane? What interests you in Spokane?

Lauren Trivison [00:53:48]:

Oh gosh. See, that’s the problem is I love so many different things, and I can be doing a ton of different activities in Wenatchee. And that’s what I love about Spokane the most is there’s always something going on. So I mean, I am a Gonzaga alum, so I love going to, like, Gonzaga basketball games. I like going to our hockey games, baseball games. They tried a soccer game. Those are actually pretty fun. I’m not a big soccer person personally, but if you sit up high enough, you can watch them kind of bounce the ball on each other’s heads, and it was great.

Lauren Trivison [00:54:17]:

So love going to, like, all the sporting events, mostly for the food, but, like, the vibes overall. Love going out to all of our different restaurants. Like, the food scene, as you said, in Spokane is just top tier. I have a never ending list of new restaurants to try. I am always going to somewhere new to continue checking off that list and trying out, like, bars, cocktails, all the good things, and, of course, different cuisine. I also love, like, our arts and the local theater. So I go to a lot of the musicals and things that come into Spokane and really just soak up all of the culture that this place has to offer because there’s a lot more than I realized when I was a college student.

Scott Cowan [00:54:57]:

And there’s a lot more than than I realized as a, you know, a snooty Westsider for all those years.

Lauren Trivison [00:55:03]:

Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:55:03]:

Spokane Spokane does have a lot going for it. It it really truly does. Please don’t send me any more hate mail. It really does. Alright.

Kinley Schmidt [00:55:11]:

They’re also really great farmer’s markets currently happening. Like the Kendall yard night market is amazing. That’s 1 of my favorite things to do. So,

Scott Cowan [00:55:21]:

Right. So I think we’ve covered a lot and we’ll put a link to your website or where, where would you like us to direct traffic to Instagram or your website? Where’s a good place for somebody who’s interested, in finding out more where’s the best place for them to go? Oh,

Lauren Trivison [00:55:40]:

it’s their website or Instagram. It’s galsneypals.com. We’re we’re at galsneypals on all social media. We’re on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. Okay. Wherever you hang

Scott Cowan [00:55:50]:

up. AOL?

Lauren Trivison [00:55:51]:

I can’t say that. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:55:56]:

Alright.

Kinley Schmidt [00:55:56]:

Maybe if

Lauren Trivison [00:55:56]:

it was 20 years ago.

Scott Cowan [00:56:00]:

More than that.

Kinley Schmidt [00:56:01]:

More than

Scott Cowan [00:56:03]:

that. So last question, this is, this is the most important question, and it’s really unfortunate that you’re going to both hear it at the same time. I really wish we could like mute you, like, you know, mute 1 of you so you can’t hear it and then have to answer it without knowing how the other 1 answered. So please play along. Each answer is individual. It’s gotta be truthful. So this is a very simple question asking the same question of you both. And you have to tell me the reason why you answered it the way you did.

Scott Cowan [00:56:31]:

Okay. So who wants to go first?

Kinley Schmidt [00:56:36]:

I’ll go first.

Scott Cowan [00:56:37]:

Okay. Lauren’s going first. Cool. All right. Cake or pie and why?

Lauren Trivison [00:56:45]:

I’m a cake girly because I love frosting. And when I was in college, I realized you could just buy little pieces of cake out, like, Safeway, and you don’t need to have a birthday or anything. And so that kind of became my thing, and I would just get, like, little slices of cake. And, my best friend in college realized that we were gonna be best friends when I pulled out just, like, my Cowan a little, disposable fork in the car. It was just eating it after, we were leaving the store 1 day. And I mean, it’s like having a cupcake or something. You don’t need a formal occasion for cake. And I’m also the type to go to Costco and get like the half sheet for my birthday, even if I don’t have a lot of guests coming to the party.

Lauren Trivison [00:57:28]:

So definitely a cake girly.

Scott Cowan [00:57:31]:

All right, Kenley.

Kinley Schmidt [00:57:34]:

I definitely pie. I am not a big cake person. My whole family is not a big cake family. We didn’t have cakes at our birthdays or anything like that. Cake was not our go to. I feel like it’s too heavy. I don’t, like, like the it’d have to be a really, really good cake for me to like it. I don’t like the frosting and all of that.

Kinley Schmidt [00:58:00]:

I’m a big, but I do like pie. We are a big pie people down in Texas. So, like, a crust pie or my favorite pie is coconut cream.

Scott Cowan [00:58:10]:

Oh, okay. Okay. Laura, what’s your favorite cake? I should’ve I should’ve asked that. What’s what’s your go to?

Lauren Trivison [00:58:16]:

Usually a good chocolate cake. I’m a very big chocolate person with either a good buttercream frosting, not any of those weird, like, fluffy frostings. I’ve been burned too many times by those fish cake, or I love a cream cheese frosting. So either 1 works well.

Scott Cowan [00:58:35]:

Alright. So interesting the answers that people give. Some people, it’s super easy. Like, it’s cake and everybody else is wrong or it’s pie or, you know, just adamant, like, I’m in camp cake. The rest of you are wrong. You, you know, we, we can’t discuss this further. And other people are like, you’re asking me to pick which 1 of my children I like better. I can’t, you know, and, and, but Lauren, I gotta say, I’ve probably asked this question now, 150 times, private, you know, and I think at the, your answer made me laugh.

Lauren Trivison [00:59:05]:

I’m so glad.

Scott Cowan [00:59:06]:

And I, I, because of the, because of the way you just described, I I had my disposable fork and I was eating it in the car. I was just like, oh my God, that’s awesome. That is, that’s just so kudos to you that you you’ve in college, you learned that you could buy slices of cake for no no special reason other than it’s Tuesday or it’s

Kinley Schmidt [00:59:25]:

It don’t take.

Scott Cowan [00:59:26]:

Friday. It doesn’t matter. That’s awesome. That thank you. That was that was the best answer for cake and pie yet. That was more fun for me than watching people squirm when they can’t decide.

Lauren Trivison [00:59:41]:

I’m so glad.

Scott Cowan [00:59:43]:

I also noticed though that it is kind of a family thing.

Lauren Trivison [00:59:46]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:59:47]:

Kimberly, you grew up in a pie family. You weren’t exposed to cake. Lauren, were you as a kid, cake or pie in your family?

Lauren Trivison [00:59:55]:

I mean, we were more or less equal opportunists when it come to cake or pie, but definitely a little bit more on the cake side. I come from a very Croatian family, and so when we went to Croatia when I was younger, my great aunt was serving, like, cake for breakfast. So I think we kinda lean a little bit more that way. And I was like, this is my kinda country. Love that.

Scott Cowan [01:00:21]:

That’s awesome. I’ll leave you with the, basically with the last word. Is there anything either of you want to share that we haven’t touched on that needs to be said? You know, what do you

Kinley Schmidt [01:00:34]:

got?

Lauren Trivison [01:00:39]:

Just don’t be afraid if you are gonna come to Galsy pals and you’re going by yourself because we know it can be a little bit intimidating, but now you’ve just listened to us ramble for the last hour. Hopefully, you feel like you have 2 built in friends already. We’re always here to make everyone comfortable, and it’s gonna be awkward at first, but we promise you you will leave making some sort of connection by the end of the night.

Scott Cowan [01:01:01]:

Alright. Yeah. Kinley. Yeah. We think

Kinley Schmidt [01:01:03]:

Yeah. If any businesses are listening, we’re always open to working with the businesses, and we’re looking always looking for sponsorships and ways to fund Galsney Pals. We would love to be able to make content for you on our social media or, host an event at your venue. If you would like to ever work with us, please hit us up on our, social media, or you can email us at, galsneyapals@gmail.com.

Scott Cowan [01:01:33]:

Awesome. Kinley, Lauren, thank you both for taking the time to sit with me today. This was a lot of fun for me. I think what you’re doing is very cool. It’s not for me, obviously, because, you know, hey. But I’m not offended.

Kinley Schmidt [01:01:44]:

It’s okay.

Scott Cowan [01:01:45]:

But I I do really think you’re you’re you’ve you’ve found a, I, it’s not a niche. It’s, it’s way bigger than a niche. You, you found a, there’s a gap in the market, if you will, and I think you’ve you’ve identified it. And III like the way you’re, approaching, addressing it. So kudos to both of you, and, I really wish you both great success.

Kinley Schmidt [01:02:08]:

Thank you so much.