In this year of “the pivot”, many entrepreneurs have reconnected with their passion and purpose, while meeting some struggles along their path. Joining Susi Vine in this conversation, Laura shares her story of creativity and finding solutions that lead to even greater potential!

In this episode they discuss:

•  The importance of sustainability and resourceful gifting,
• The lessons shared in the books The Go Giver and Giftology,
• The powerful impact of ‘the butterfly effect’,
• Opportunities in clearing clutter and repurposed gifts,
• Creative problem solving and partnerships,
• Unintended gifts & blessings

Explore the treasures available or learn about custom gifts and giving projects at The Gifting Closet: https://www.thegiftingcloset.com/

Or explore sustainable, clean-crafted wines and gifts at Scout + Cellar while supporting the mission of The Gifting Closet! https://scoutandcellar.com/?u=perfectlysaltylaura

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Watch the episode here:

The Power Of Sustainable Giving

Laura Bucholtz created The Gifting Closet as a way to continue her mother’s legacy of generosity and resilience. The repurposed and sustainable gifts she creates brings new life to old treasures, and provides a way to show thanks to those deserving our gratitude. Her alliance with another company rooted in sustainability allows her mission to have even further-reaching effects.

I’m so glad you’re joining me with Laura Bucholtz. She is a giver at heart. You’re going to love her story of coming through a devastating loss, and turning that experience around to carry on her mother’s example of generosity and resilience. Through the creation of The Gifting Closet and in the spirit that we are in a pivot, Laura made an order to help her mission of giving, helping people to give gifts. Also, helping people to help those who are deserving to receive gifts by aligning with a company that is also doing good work in the world and supporting people with a terrific mission. Enjoy this story. Take a little inspiration and let this kindle your spirit of generosity. Thanks for joining us.  

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I am happy to introduce you to Laura Bucholtz, my friend and neighbor here in the San Diego area. Laura started The Gifting Closet project in 2019, inspired by the lessons her mother instilled early in her life. They are principles reinforced by one of her favorite books, The Go-Giver. Laura created Perfectly Salty, a boutique bespoke gifting company that provides one-of-a-kind upcycled gifts for everything from special events to corporate clients to luxury weddings. She has now incorporated her unique product line into the offerings of The Gifting Closet.  

Inspired by her extensive background in business development and project management, Laura oversees gifting operations and processes from concept to completion. Including branding, custom personalization, production and personal decor from clients ranging from luxury brands, entrepreneurs and wineries to leaders and hospitality and event planners. A devoted wife and mother, Laura resides in San Diego. Like her mother, Laura is committed to making the most of every day pursuing her passions and finding the beauty in the people, places and circumstances that surround her. Thank you, Laura, for joining me. I’m so glad you made time to be with us.  

Thank you, Susi. I’m so appreciative of all you’re doing. You’re amazing. 

Thank you. I know when we first met, we resonated in this sense that there are solutions that people need to be finding in sustainability, resourcefulness, giving, less waste, and making the most of things in situations as well as the things that we find in our lives. I love the story that’s brought you to this place. I know that your mother was a tremendous influence. Can you tell us a little bit about her path and how that’s shaped your own? 

Thanks for asking. Growing up, she was a big inspiration because she always had a heart of gold and was thinking of every day as if it were a gift. Growing up, she had an infamous gifting closet that we would go to and find that special something for that special someone. Let me give you a little backstory of how it came to that. She instilled in me those hidden gifts in life despite her losing her mom, her dad, her brother early on when she was 16 and 17. Instead of being a victim, she found a way to be a giver regardless of those circumstances. She basically loves to find that special something.  

She became a self-taught designer later in life after going through a lot of hardships early on. She also was impactful in the way that she had this ability to fill the voids of her life with love and gratitude. Gratitude has always been instilled in me in that way. She made everything look so easy. I don’t even know how. I look back and I go, “How did she do that? How did she make everything easy?” It was amazing. Fast forward, I packed my bags to head to Los Angeles to undergo a routine procedure. She told me, “Everything’s going to be fine. You don’t need to come.” I was going to come to help her through that.  

I vividly remember the night before taking off her necklace that I’m wearing now and she said, “Everything’s going to be fine.” I didn’t have any intuition of something bad coming. I realized that was the moment when I was like, “I’m not going to have it forever.” This is something that is going to occur in the future. She was 73 but every day to her was a gift because of what she had been in the past. She was like, “I can’t believe I’ve lived this long. It’s amazing. I’m 73.” The next morning, she went in for the procedure, and the surgeon came out and said she had Stage IV uterine cancer. I didn’t come home for three months. We spoke every day and multiple times a day. It was obnoxious. I was the only daughter and two brothers. Everyone’s like, “What are you guys talking about? How could you possibly talk so much?”  

In her final days, we had some unforgettable moments. She had moments of alertness in her final days, she would say, “Go grab this for this person. Go grab this for that person.” She had these beautiful but also challenging moments. She basically went through that process and I went through this very cathartic and difficult at the same time. Fast forward to when COVID came into the picture, I was doing some personal wedding gifting. We were doing events and things like that. I was upcycling and repurposing things, doing Perfectly Salty, which now lives inside The Gifting Closet.  

Basically, we had been an up-track hill because I spent a year and finally got featured in a wedding magazine, we were making progress. I was all excited. I had a 3,500–event coming on and numerous things. When the pandemic hit, everything got canceled. It was a disappointment. I had a fellow mompreneur reach out to me and say, “I’d like to do some gift sets for the nurses and some neighbors in the community that we’re helping as a give-back project.” That ripple effect of positively affecting the lives of others and the gift itself. It was much of a full circle and I call it the butterfly effect. It’s touching more things than one. I realized then that maybe this can be something bigger.  

After these unprecedented times, I was forced to take a step back and re–evaluate everything that matters. I found it was something that possessed a sense of gratitude, humility, a way to give so I created The Gifting Closet, which includes many of those things that were going to otherwise go into landfills and storage bins and be wasted. We gifted to nurses, Amazon drivers or anyone that wasn’t an essential worker. Sometimes there was a person that lost a son that I saw. They post something and I’d go to the mailbox or post office and mail things off. To get your whole show about stress, that was a stress reliever and a way for me to honor a lot of different things. It was a major pivot creating The Gifting Closet.  

To be honest, the website is a work in progress, but then it came into another company that I realized having financial backing, marketing, scaling and eCommerce that this was going to be a challenge to do everything myself. The mission of this other company was all about sustainability, supporting small farmers and this great passion. We tied into what my mission and passion were trying to be. We also have inside The Gifting Closet, crafted wines, supporting sustainable farms and being able to give in a better way, and all of those things also for ourselves and for others. We do custom projects. This is another way that we can tap into that. That is the way this whole thing transitioned and I wanted to give a little backstory on that. We have other sustainable eco-friendly items as well. Thanks for letting me share the story. I appreciate it. 

I love how her positivity through many different types of adversity through her own childhood, adult, and raising you and your brothers to always come back to giving. I’ve heard it said and I believe it and I’ve seen it demonstrated many times that we get so much more happiness from giving and supporting other people. What a powerful lesson to grow up in that example of, and find joy in running to the closet and finding a treasure that’s perfect for someone or some event. 

Also not being a victim and instead of looking for those gifts. I would say, “The hidden gifts in life are nature, people and trying to find that gift and whatever the pandemic.” The gifts and all of these things that we’ve all been going through. I didn’t get into a lot of other challenging things that happened on my side but I’m trying to find that gift whatever it is. 

It’s the power of finding value and things that other people might not have. You and I have talked about my experience when you were sharing about your process of then clearing out your mother’s home. In my experience working with Senior Move Masters, I had to help a lot of our clients who were in the process of moving to downsize and declutter, and let go of things that had value for them, maybe because of the item itself, or the person who gave it to them. We attach a lot of meaning to items and sometimes that weighs us down. It’s beautiful when we have the opportunity to give it a whole new life. It’s like a double solution. 

It’s overwhelming that clearing process. That was another therapy and stress reliever. It was a way to carry on some of those so we took some of the jewelry, we upcycled the bottles, and we were repurposing them. That leads to a legacy side of the business. If anyone ever wanted to have a family reunion or for the services of a past one now in these times to do a special project, we can help with that. We could take something and make it into something else. That’s the beauty of it. 

That’s so powerful too, to give something a whole new life outside of its original design, shape or intention. 

Upcycling and repurposing are sustainable. Those are more of the custom projects, but we then still have an option for something practical. Not everyone wants to do that so there’s a nice gift set which is consumable. It’s not sitting on a shelf, it’s not something else they have to think about too clear later because as you and I know, sometimes that’s not always the right gift, and it depends on the circumstances so everyone can have the choice. 

I’m sure you might agree that through your lifetime of experience with your mom, some of those things that you might have received from The Gifting Closet would be special, but those times that you shared together were so much more powerful, those shared experiences.  

We can all have a glass of healthy clean wine and share experiences. Sometimes it’s over Zoom.  

We can still get connected.  

It’s connecting, I love that. That’s one of my mottos, “Connecting good people to good things.” That’s always been one of my mottos. 

You mentioned the butterfly effect and that’s powerful. Sometimes we can plan the way we want things to move out to impact the world, but these unintended gifts and blessings are sometimes so much more powerful. You thought you were in a track and you had it all dialed in with your own boutique custom line. It’s like what we’ve talked about before, that would have been beautiful and a wonderful opportunity, but difficult to grow beyond what you yourself are able to do, the hours that you have in a day. Whereas this act and pivot that you had to make because suddenly these opportunities evaporated open doors that you didn’t even know you’re looking for. 

Creating the mission, the vision, having to pivot, and finding something else that can tie in with that with some other types of support all naturally happened, but yet with a lot of work. The butterfly effect is all about impacting more things than what’s obvious sometimes. The receiver, the giver, the environment, Mother Nature and all of it are supporting in full circles. 

Giving stronger livelihood to the farmers who were sustainably managing their land and didn’t have this opportunity to reach as many people and now they do. They’re part of a passion project. 

It’s awesome and being able to support the boutique vineyards. What’s interesting is I didn’t know that only 15% that are vetted and scouted only make it through, which is fascinating. I never knew all the stuff that was in mass-produced wines before. It was quite fascinating. I always felt yucky but I never knew why. Everyone is different and every body is different. The sulfites affect me but might not affect someone else but they’re able to add up to 250 chemicals and mass-produce wines, which is shocking. 

This whole opportunity and experience that you didn’t know you’re looking for, and now you have this whole new outlet and method of support in health and in people who are doing good work in the world. 

It is the butterfly effect. I know that it keeps coming up. 

I also know that you’re passionate about, and you’ve mentioned several times when we’ve talked, I’m afraid I haven’t read The Go-Giver and Giftology is the other book that you love. 

The Go-Giver is a great little story about the Law of Giving and Receiving, and that whole reciprocity cycle. It’s almost a lot like a law that you can’t break. A lot of people I know aren’t always good at receiving. It talks about this great little simple story. It’s a quick read or pop in your Audibles. I love it because I have had friends in the past, to relieve stress, sometimes it’s good to receive too. People want to offer help. It’s okay to receive but it’s also okay to give. There’s that whole if you break it, that channeling gets broken and you’re taking that present away from someone by not receiving. You have to be a little more open that way, which is not easy. I have friends that say that’s not comfortable for them and I would say, “You’re breaking the Law of Giving and Receiving.” You’ve got to read the story. It’s good. 

That’s a beautiful lesson to take away because you’re right. Things as simple as compliments that we feel. For some reason, we have to shrug that off or say we don’t deserve that compliment for doing good work, for showing up and for giving. It’s something we feel drawn to do. We love to give and how can we not recognize that by not receiving, we’re taking that opportunity away from other people. 

You don’t think of it that way but you have to read the story. It gives a lot of scenarios of that and how it affects many things by breaking that and not receiving it. It’s not an easy thing to do. I’m still guilty of it. Sometimes you brush it off and I’m like, “Stop, stop.” It’s fascinating when you start paying attention, and also the stress thing with your show, happiness and stress. Put it this way. By not receiving, you might be putting more stress on that person. Think of it that way. It’s another health-filled benefit.  

Speaking from the side of helping people to declutter, if perhaps they have their own gifting closet and they would like to share with you a treasure, you might be doing them a much greater and indescribable service by accepting that treasure. 

Even if they re-gift it, it’s fine or they donate it to Goodwill, someone else will love it. I keep going back to the butterfly effect. It’s always going to touch something, and someone somewhere will appreciate that. It’s okay if the receiver doesn’t necessarily. Speaking of, I wanted to point out one thing we do. The way this started was a pass-through option. If someone or a company or a financial advisor or an accountant wants to do a giving project, they can sponsor a project and we will do that for them. That’s another big point in that Law of the Butterfly Effect.  

It doesn’t necessarily have to be, “I want this for Mary.” It can be a pass-through option as well. You want to give a gift but you’re going to sponsor the cost of that giving project. That’s another way. It can either be direct or the pass-through as well. That’s cool to be able to do that if you have the means to do that. Some people, companies or professionals like how awesome it is to say, “I’m going to deliver 50 gifts to the nurses. I’m going to do a project for,” whatever it is bringing this close to your heart.  

You are able to facilitate that and they get that satisfaction and contribution.  

That’s how this started. Before I had the website, that was how it was originally started. If anyone wanted to sponsor the shipping cost or a gifting thing like the girl that reached out to me and that’s how it all started. That’s when I had that epiphany. I’m like, “This can be something more. I don’t have to do everything myself.” People might want to have this great way of giving as well and care about the environment, Mother Nature, health, wellness, and a full circle picture. 

I love that that’s an aspect that people can take advantage of. If they don’t know how to give or exactly who can be receiving, you can be the matchmaker from the giver and the receiver. 

It’s connecting. That’s always been my dream. I want to figure out who’s going to get gifts. That’s my goal. 

Who doesn’t love it? Who doesn’t love to celebrate their birthday and open a package and know that they were thought of and they’re regarded that they deserve a special something? 

It’s the Maya Angelou quote. They’re not going to remember what you said but they’ll remember how you made them feel.  

That’s beautiful, I love that one. In terms of how you envision this growing and going forward, how do you see the incorporation? I know that you’ve said that they have some gift packages with this company that you’re working with now, so you can have gifts in addition to. 

It’s basically eCommerce, so it’s simple. If you do ten or more during the holidays, I’d love to help you. We can do one process and one order for you. It’s a concierge and we do that for you. If you have a gift here and a gift there, then it’s a direct link. We have everything from $39 to $79. It’s a COVID clean in more ways than one delivered to the door, so you’re not having to go through a custom project. If you have a custom project, we can look at that as well. 

Especially in this time of being aware of health, and paying attention to the interaction between our health and sustainability, the planet, supporting everyone in their livelihoods. It’s finding something that you can get behind everything from the passion of the leadership, to the cleanliness of the product, to supporting organic processes and health along with the celebration. Your timing is perfect. I love that this is an opportunity that people can take one thing off their list. 

I’m going to be honest, there are wine snobs that think, “There’s no way it’s going to taste good.” It is actually from vineyards all over, so you get small batch of amazing lines. You can do from $20 bottles up to $80 bottles. There are movie stars buying some of the bottles. I am going to be honest, at first I was like, “This can’t be good,” but if you think of the farm-to-table experience, it’s farm-to-wine. It’s farm to the clean crafted without all the stuff in it. It’s grapes and that’s it. Other wines have added sugar, sulfites and chemicals. It’s unbelievable and the FDA approves that, through being able to add up to 250 different things which you learn every day, but it’s fascinating. You could have organic wine called organic wine even if they own organic grapes. Even if they only used organic grapes, but in the processing, they can add them back in and call it organic. That was quite fascinating and they get second party tested, meaning they’re not doing their own testing. It’s tested at UC Davis, so you know that it’s been stringent in that process and only 15% make it through, so you know what you’re drinking is clean. You don’t have to try to figure it all.  

This information is hidden. You can’t read the bottle and know. 

That’s why she was an attorney that vetted and scouted all these farms and started getting to the bottom of it. It was smart and I realized what was happening. I’m not to say every winery is the same. I’m saying a lot do have it. 

We ended up in this place because personally, I’m passionate about the products that we use in our homes in addition to the cleanliness of the food. It’s on the consumer to inform themselves and there are a lot of latitudes for producers to be able to hide information that doesn’t serve them. If they’re not bragging about it’s healthy, clean and natural, you can probably count on it not being the case. To your point, even if they’re saying it’s organic grapes, you never know what’s happening after that crop leaves the farm. 

There’s a lot of information out there. 

It’s beautiful to find the sources that help you not have to do all the homework. You can have confidence in who you’re working with, and they have that spirit of transparency and obligation. They stand behind what they’re doing.  

The pivot had to happen only because of the scalability and being able to provide in the COVID situation. eCommerce was an industry that’s growing so fast, as you might know, so I had to be able to pivot and move that way but still not letting go of what I’m passionate about.  

That’s what I love about this balance that you’ve been able to find. You found a way to support your passion project with something that is beautifully aligned with it, so you can satisfy yourself on all levels and keep giving without reservation. 

Also, still be able to find a way to receive a little bit to support college, family, life and San Diego. We have to sometimes be a little realistic as well. 

Sometimes the solution is not what you think you’re looking for going in at the top, but the solutions appear in time and on time. 

We hope so. It was funny because I gave up wine because I didn’t feel so good and but again, back to the stress. I love my glass of wine. It helps me with my stress but it’s nice knowing I’m not going to feel like crud. In Italy, I can walk a million miles across. I felt amazing. In Italy and France, they don’t put that stuff. They don’t process their wines that way. That’s why I figured out later, that’s why I felt great. It’s interesting. 

Until we get tuned in and find ways to align with the companies that share our values so we can start voting with our consumer dollars, we’re blindly supporting a machine that’s continuing the same problem. That’s not helping us be healthy. It’s weighing us down in ways we don’t recognize. I talked about that stress bucket. That might be the sneaky stressors. We don’t realize we’re carrying the hay fever, the headaches or the fuzziness until you realize you don’t need to pick those up and how much better you feel without them. 

Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know until you know. It’s interesting.  

The beauty of the butterfly effect. Sometimes the solutions you don’t know you’re looking for are on their way into you. You have to be open to receive. 

There you go, it’s the giving and receiving. It’s the Law of Giving and Receiving. Back to Giftology. All that was is that it’s a cool book about the value and why the whole giving is also important in life and people in business. It’s more practical. The Go-Giver is definitely a great story but the Giftology is for someone that wants to go, “Why should I share? Why should I do something for someone that’s referred me a great big account? Why should I do this for my clients or the people who I’m coaching and paying a lot of money?” Whatever it might be, it shares a little bit of the backstory of how that has a ripple effect. 

If people need that education if they weren’t so lucky as to grow up with the example and influence that you did, or that I was able to write where we can relish the act of giving because we get such joy from seeing people receive. If you need a little spark, if you need a little encouragement to get that flow of energy moving, then that sounds like a great little read too, Giftology. I’ll have to check those two out. 

Giftology is a little more practical. It’s more of a business book to be honest. It’s the business side. The Go-Giver is a business book too. Interestingly enough, they both have a business side to them. They’re good books. There are many great books. 

Sometimes I think I might have to start a book club. You’ll be one of my charter members, I hope. 

Thanks, and I love audiobooks because it’s a savior. You can be out in fresh air and listen to books or do something. It’s nice to move and listen to that. 

Here’s something I discovered. I don’t know if I might have shared this with you when we’ve been talking back and forth. This was news to me that you can turn any Kindle digital book into an audiobook if you use your Alexa app on your phone and you tell Alexa to read the book. There’s a little time-saving hack if you want to read when you can read, but time doesn’t permit you to get right back to it. 

That’s cool. I go back to the Audibles but I know some people who swear by books, and I get it. Everyone’s different, to each his own.  

That’s my Fantasy Island, to all the time read all the books that I would wish to catch up on in the world. 

Me too. Mine would be with my headset on, hiking and walking trails. That would be heaven. Beautiful scenery and beautiful listening. That would be great. 

Laura, thank you for sharing your special story with us and for providing a little bit of inspiration for people who feel a little stuck who want to move a little energy, whether that’s repurposing things they have or ways in which they can get that giving energy going. If people can come and check out and see what’s available, they want to sponsor a gift and if they want to treat themselves to a gift or to some clean libations, you can check out TheGiftingCloset.com. 

Thank you. To clarify also, inside TheGiftingCloset.com if anyone for some reason doesn’t have a link or they can’t remember, if they find themselves directly at the Scout & Cellar Clean-Crafted site, they could just put my name. Sometimes you’re out and all they have to do is put Laura Bucholtz in. It all supports The Gifting Closet.  

Keep that mission alive.  

Thank you. I appreciate it.  

It’s been a pleasure. Thank you, Laura, for your time. 

You too, and you’re amazing what you’re doing and I love it. 

Thank you. I look forward to future collaborations.  

Thank you. Yes, for sure. 

Take care. 

Important Links: 

• The Gifting Closet 
• The Go-Giver 
• Giftology 
• Scout & Cellar Clean-Crafted