I: There is a whole Monsoon world beyond Monsoon Market which involves the newest addition: Two Valley Girls LLC Podcast. I want to get into all of this but let’s get into the market first: the when, the why, and the how.

 

Michela: When was the fall of 2021, that was when we opened our doors for the first time.

 

Koral: The why, Mich started it. She called me and was like: I have this idea! 

 

Michela: It’s blossomed into so much more than I thought that little idea would but just something for Phoenix, you know? I was born and raised here and I’m so tired of hearing about how other cities were cool, and to the point where I believed it for a hot minute. Then I realized we have the opportunity to make it cool. You just have to put some effort in, so I was like, who do I know that likes to work hard and likes to have fun? Let me call Koral! 

 

Koral: That was kind of the why. We both are passionate people too and I knew we worked well together, we were working friends–that’s important. There was always an idea that we’d open a brick and mortar together and it was going to have a dope curation. The idea started out being very local, but quickly evolved into being a place where we actually wanted to introduce new things into Phoenix because there are only Phoenix people looking for their favorites that they already know about, but they need new favorites. We wanted to be a part of that discovery and showcase and presentation. Phoenix deserves to have cool things because it’s a cool place and there’s a lot of cool people here. Monsoon Market was a loose idea to open a shop that specifically curates food and beverage amongst a small amount of beer and wine and retail items, gifts, things like that. We then evolved into being a specialized bottle shop about a year later?

 

Michela: A year later, yeah.

 

Koral: It was created because it was a place we wanted to shop.

 

I: How did you guys find your groove with branding and the products you choose to carry? 

 

Koral: We were really loose with our branding and open to what Monsoon Market would look like because we didn’t have a lot of money to pay for a branding package, no matter how attractive those were. We were really bare-bonesing our branding, like what do we need to get open? Side of the building, that’s really it—and a profile picture! So we paid a local artist barely anything, looking back, to design just the one logo you see on the building front; that was the profile photo for a long time. It had a groovy vibe, there’s elements of our branding that we knew always existed—Monsoons, the movement of that and the colors of the sky inspired us. We knew if we just start there and let it evolve, let artists and creatives revisualize it with their eyes to come up with way cooler renditions of our branding than we could’ve ever thought of by allowing people to re-see it through their light. We don’t want a set brand color, a set brand font. We opened a space that was very open itself, literally painted all the walls white and there’s almost no other artistic element that we did in the shop other than the mural in the front which are Mac Miller lyrics that felt very connected to the name Monsoon Market, that song and the OutKast song: “You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather.” Those two lyrics when we were driving around the valley were so inspirational to us, that’s why we put it up on the wall. If you really think about it, this is just a blank white space. Everything in here was an item that was found and had some characteristic or personality, or was going to make a great place for something like a brand or a product to shine. It really is all about the people we love to work with, it’s about their aesthetic and their branding more than it’s about ours.

 

I: It is somehow the amalgamation of all the things that have created your brand itself.

 

Michela: That was a little bit a part of the plan though. Our branding holds hands with the brands’ we carry, right? Because we want those products to shine. The purpose of the store is to put people on to cool products and cool brands. So when we’re looking at brands we want to carry, that branding is very important that it’s attention-grabbing and we think it’s cool, it’s something unique and we’ve never seen before. A lot of it tends to play on nostalgia as well so we’re just showcasing that, and then that, as you said, becomes a part of our brand. 

 

Koral: The brands we tend to work with follow that same style of having fun and really expressing their personality of who they are through their branding. It’s usually not the most simple branding that you’ll find inside of Monsoon Market, it’s a bit more flashy and expressive. That is kind of, also, a little bit of the niche and aesthetic of the market. 

 

I: You guys are like 70s disco from the future. 

 

Both: Oooo

 

Koral: 100% It’s a little bit of a vortex, we’re always joking here, I don’t think time and space apply inside of Monsoon Market. 

 

I: What goes into the curation of what you feature in the store, in terms of brands, do you reach out? Have you recently found more that brands come to you than you do to them?

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Michela: Sure, over the course of two and a half plus years, we’ve definitely seen it go from us reaching out solely to brands to brands reaching out to us wanting to be in our shop, which is so flattering. We still do all of our own market research and we get inquiries often; so we’re fielding all of that, taking into consideration who makes the product, of course what is in the product, what does it taste like–we ask for samples of everything–and then, the branding itself. It is a very thoughtful curation and most of our brands that we curate are independent, small brands. So these are one-on-one relationships that we’re having with all of these different makers, and it does take a lot of time and it’s important to us to make sure those relationships are well maintained. 

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I: That’s really lovely, it also makes coming into here more special knowing that there’s thought behind literally everything you see because there are so many products in here.

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Koral: We can tell you who made the product you’re looking at and most of the time we’ve met them. A lot of the relationships we have are still mostly directly with the founders of the brands which is so cool, that’s the part about small businesses that is so dope. You usually get to know the people who really started the business, therefore their why is more clear because you’re closer to them. Intimacy is a huge thing for us in business, in the sense that we started Monsoon Market to stay close to it. We didn’t want to start this thing to ditch it and have it detach from us. That’s when you think about big corporations, they’re owned by conglomerates and a lot of different boards of people whether it’s purely to grow financially every single day. Anyways, it’s just an intentional thing that we wanted to do was to just be nearby and I feel like you feel that with everything that we do. 

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I: That goes into what you said in the first episode of the podcast, that you view the business as a person, as a friend. Does that allow you to have more freedom with the way you present the store, the events you have, and what you choose to sell?

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Michela: Oh yeah, it’s more dynamic. We’re not stuck in a box, it’s way more flexible. 

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Koral: People give people grace. Like I’m not giving Walmart or Amazon much fucking grace. Those businesses are different, the way in which they operate and the way in which they fit into our communities, into society in general is very different. 

 

I: So Monsoon, the person, what is their zodiac sign do you think?

 

Michela: That’s a good question! Is she a fire sign?

 

Koral: No, I think she’s a fucking Libra. Like it’s a balance.

 

Michela: Yeah!

 

Koral: I think that Monsoon gives Libra–

 

Michela: Virgo?

 

Koral: We’re all Virgo risings

 

I: I’m a Virgo rising

 

Koral: Are you serious?

 

Michela: There you go!

 

Koral: Virgo risings, rise up

 

I: But Libra makes sense, every Libra I’ve ever met is outgoing, funny, you like being around them so that would make sense.

 

Koral: Yeah, I think Libra’s too are a little bit–I don’t want to say unproblematic but I kind of think that they’re a place or a person that’s always enjoyable to be around, that makes you feel comfortable. I think of my coolest friends, they’re Libras. They’re never too cool though, they make me feel inspired, but they also make me feel comfortable, you know? With Monsoon, that was the intention behind it; we wanted people to feel cool when they were here because there were some places that were too cool to be there, like really high-brow places. I love having options for those types of environments but it’s not as relatable to everyone everyday, we didn’t want Monsoon to be like that. 

 

I: Everyone feels welcome, you’ll find something for yourself. So for the events, what are some stand out events you’ve hosted and what is your wildest dream event to hold in the future?

 

Koral: Music festival!

 

Michela: It’s the dream event, absolutely!

 

Koral: We would love to produce our own music festival.

 

Michela: We have produced drag shows, they have been at the top of the list.

 

Koral: Those have been my favorite. 

 

Michela: That, and we did a wine event with some out of town wine producers, here in Phoenix at an Italian restaurant that was like a takeover. It was epic, we booked out this whole restaurant, we had a Frank Sinatra impersonator. It was a Sopranos evening.

 

Koral: Pizza stripclub. I guess we can put everyone on. Avanti, which is right here on the corner, and it’s a restaurant from the 80s that’s a fine dining Italian restaurant but it is insanely designed. Checkered floors, mirror walls and ceilings, all black lacquer. Piano Man!

 

Michela: He’s 91 Years-old.

 

Koral: Shout out to Charles!

 

Michela: He plays piano every Friday and Saturday night.

 

Koral: We went there and thought it was the most incredible place to throw a wine party.

 

Michela: And we convinced the owner.

 

Koral: People were like, How did you do that? The owner is old. We just met him at the bar and were like, Hey! 

 

Michela: We asked him if he likes to party.

 

Koral: We did! We said, Do you own this spot? He’s like, Yeah. We go, Do you like to party? 

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I: He did not know what he was getting into.

 

Koral: The presidents have eaten there, movie stars. You walk in, it’s like pictures on the wall. Mich was wearing pigtails that day, it did really help.

 

Michela: I took one for the team.

 

Koral: Yeah, Angelo is a horny 80 something year-old Italian man. Honestly, thanks to him for letting us use his restaurant. He was in Italy when we threw a party there. He introduced his staff and said they’d take care of us. So we threw an epic wine release party for Wonderwerk and that is absolutely worth the call out. 

 

I: Well I hope he and Charles are at the music festival.

 

Michela: Charles!

 

Koral: I lost my train of thought earlier about treating Monsoon as a friend, does it allow us to have more fun? That is an example of that. We are not held to any specific expectation, people expect us to have fun because that’s what we keep showing them, that’s what we’re all about. People allow us and support us to do a bunch of crazy things. 

 

Michela: It’s really cool of them.

 

Koral: It’s so cool because that’s what we want to see in Phoenix, just more excitement, more fun. An option to participate in something or anything. Hopefully, something that just brings you joy and inspires you. 

 

I: I love that. The both of you have a plethora of ideas and a genuine excitement about growth, which brings me to Two Valley Girls LLC Podcast. What prompted you guys to create that? 

 

Michela: We finally found the right team to produce a podcast, something that people had told us in the past would be very cool of us to put out there. We don’t know anything about producing a podcast, it’s a lot of work. So, right time, right place; we’ve been manifesting that and tapping into the community–locals who have cool ideas, again supporting each other. Very much a collaborative built project, it’s not like we hired just a team to create our vision, they’re coming up with really brilliant ideas as well and so we feel strongly about this being the right time to launch it. And be able to storytell other cool things about Phoenix. 

 

Koral: Yeah, it’s like an inside look into what we get to see everyday. When we come in here everyday and sit on this couch, we get to have the dopest interactions. It’s so fun, you never know who you’re going to run into, what the fuck they’re working on, what inspires them lately, what they’re up to. We have so many amazing moments that we get to see, like we’re lucky to get to have the seat that we have, like what the younger generation of Phoenix is up to. We’re also listening to what they want to see. It’s so cool to be able to have that and as much as we could continue to put people on to Phoenix, that was our way to do it. That’s the point of Two Valley Girls LLC, it is to showcase Phoenix through the eyes of Monsoon Market, through the lens we get to have which is so fun. It does take working with the right people who have the same vision of what success looks like. You have to be aligned on your goal, having an independent small business with the intention to keep it independent and small is not aligned for a lot of people. You have to be willing to do a lot with less because you love it and because you’re passionate about it, it’s a story you really want to tell. We did find our team, C-Roll Productions for producing Two Valley Girls LLC and they’ve been absolutely amazing. We trust them to represent us because it’s kind of intimidating putting yourself out there.

 

I: It’s insane, I love the podcast so much because I love hearing people talk about everything and anything. The way you guys speak is so natural. Sometimes when you hear a podcast it’s a little bit like, oh this is definitely their first try. You guys are so natural and it was easy to listen to and to forget that there’s any put-together conversation. It felt like an insight, it was amazing and I'm excited for more.

 

Koral: We really appreciate the feedback. It’s been a big project and we’re really excited that it’s out. We’ve still got a lot of really exciting things to release up our sleeves. People think they know what Monsoon World is and I don’t think they actually know yet. The cat is not fully out of the bag. 

 

I: I’m not going to ask any more questions, I want to be surprised.

 

Koral: I just hope that everybody is watching.

 

Michela: Subscribe!

 

Koral: Shameless plug!

 

I: To round out this interview, tell us something in your life right now that you’ve been loving? It could be a song, a person, a product, or even an experience from the past week. 

 

Koral: Mine’s of course going to be Monsoon-related. I’m loving summer and the monsoon season is such an inspirational time for me. Every year I go a little bit crazy with ideas and I love it! I absolutely love that feeling of being swirled up inside and being like, you have so many possibilities you could be doing, but for some reason the stars are aligned to make them happen too. I think that, for me, I’m very excited that my stars have been aligning to allow me to act on my inspiration and bring some really big steps to some projects that I have been wanting to do for a while and also the birthplace of some new ones. There’s always something cooking and right now, I’m mad cooking.

 

Michela: I love mad cooking. The summertime flood of inspiration is real. Every year it's faster and faster that we come upon the new season and I’m like, okay here we go, it’s summer. The energy is there, Phoenix empties a bit with people. It kind of feels like a reclaiming of the city in a way. We’re not really much like a city that says, we’re the real locals, and kicks everybody out– it’s very welcoming. In the summer, it feels like this local-only vibe, camaraderie. How do we survive this together? Knowing I live here and will be here all summer, I feel the shift in perspective of how do we make the summer fun? Not just survive the summer but what do we do that is fun? Feeling inspired by creating the events we want to see happen, the activities, the outdoor things we can do. Just trying to put a positive spin on it before we know it, it will be freezing cold again. 

 

Koral: We’re loving the moment, we’re loving the moment we’re in. I think we’re big in-the-moment people. Monsoon has a big presence, it does have nostalgia but it’s right here and right now. You can only really be in the monsoon if you’re visiting here right now and we always say Monsoon get’s better everyday. It’s an infinite–

 

Michela: Vortex?

 

Koral: Infinite vortex, yeah!

 

I: And we’ll close it out on the infinite vortex. Thank you guys so much for doing this!

 

Both: Thank you!