Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Care Verikas of Downtown

We recently had the chance to connect with Care Verikas and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Care, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first 90 minutes of my day are always focused on my family. When we wake up, my husband and I always have coffee together – double espresso with milk and honey. We usually spend our time chatting about the what’s going on that day and spending time with our 8 furbabies. We have 3 dogs and 5 cats – all whom love to play and spend time together outside. If we can sneak it in, we will go for a hike with our pups but at a minimum, we have coffee together and just enjoy some quiet before the busy day ahead.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi there! My name is Care Verikas and I’m the co-founder of two small businesses – The Bristol Bazaar and Dusty Dude Woodworks. Both businesses were built from the ground up with my husband, Eric.

Dusty Dude Woodworks is a custom wood shop that my husband and I started in 2017 as a side hustle. We grew it from basement to basement to our garage and now in a 3,500 square foot shop. We specialize in custom furniture, built-ins, mantles and more recently have collaborated with J Brand and Co to now offer full home remodeling services under our umbrella. Taking this business from side hustle to full time jobs for the both of us over a matter of 3 years truly changed our lives. We learned so much about how to start a business, run a business and grow a business with zero experience. As we were living those growing pains, we realized that doing craft shows and fairs weren’t ideal for us with our wood products. Weather made it very challenging and it took a lot of time to be present at these shows every weekend. We wanted to be a part of something bigger, indoors and somewhere we didn’t have to be all the time. And that is where The Bristol Bazaar came into our minds.

The Bristol Bazaar is an indoor makers market that is open year round. With our recent renovation, we are now home to 80+ different small businesses. In addition, Yellow King Bristol is with us (a coffee cocktail lounge) plus we have a great event space which hosts workshops and private events. In the gift shop we focus solely on working with small businesses that make their products by hand, so you will only find handmade items in our gift shop. No MLM, reselling or antiques. What makes us unique is that we aren’t just a place where someone can rent space and walk away. We offer small business coaching as well as an event space for our Full Time makers to use at no additional cost. We help them to market their own events and become more known in the community. Our overall goal is to help someone take what is their side hustle to be their full time job.

My husband and I didn’t know that entrepreneurship was in our future. It truly just happened but it has been such an amazing experience. We are constantly learning and experimenting with new things. We have made wonderful connections with the State of Connecticut, local chambers, Economic Community Development teams & more, who have all made positive impacts on both of our businesses. I am now offering Small Business Marketing workshops and have launched a podcast called Small Business Social. I am always trying to find ways to share about small business struggles so that those just starting or who are in the thick of it, know that they aren’t alone.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I was always on the hunt to find a company that I could work for and truly be myself but at the same time I was the person who tried to fit into the mold just to get by. I bounced around from job to job for years after graduating college – never fitting in. Always thinking “this is the one!” and quickly finding out that it never was. In some way, shape or form, I had to change who I was, how I worked…something always had to give and I thought that I was the problem.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would say to always be yourself. Be weird…be funny…and don’t change for anyone or any job. You will find your path and the people you meet with be truly wonderful, loving and supportive. Keep growing. Keep asking questions. Be curious. It’s okay for people to think that you’re weird and don’t fit in. Feel all of the feelings that come along on your journey. But don’t ever change. Period.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
I can now say with absolute confidence, a resounding yes to this question. Over the last few years, I have found that those who tried to change me, no longer have an impact on me as a person, what I say, how I think or how I act. I can say with 100% certainty that I am who I am, the real me, all day, every day. There is no need to change or adjust how I am in public versus how I am at home. It is so much easier to just be the real me instead of having to concede and make adjustments depending on where I am or who I am talking to. If we don’t align – that is something that I’ve become very okay with. it just means that we weren’t meant to for whatever reason.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
After 5 years of being a small business owner, I can say that I am for sure doing what I was born to do. I always say to my family and friends that I was put on this planet to do good. Give back. Bring kindness and laughter to conversations. My creative mind needed a constant outlet and I thought that the world of corporate marketing was what I needed but I think what I was craving is the freedom that comes with small business marketing. Trying new things, being involved on a local level with our community – these are things that feed my soul and fill my cup with purpose. This is what I was meant to be doing from the start…I just had to go through some experiences to figure that out.

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