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New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

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So as some of you know, we've started a new series of online video conversations where each week, I talked to founders and entrepreneurs about how they're building resilience into their businesses right now.

And in case you miss these conversations, when they happen live, we are posting excerpts right here in your podcast feed.

And today, we're bringing you two conversations. Later in the show, you're going to hear from Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, the CEOs of Cliffbar. But first, we'll start with Christina Tozi, the founder of Milkbar.

Milkbar is a chain of bakeries with 18 locations in the US and in Canada. And when Christina opened Milkbar in 2008, the country was crumbling in the midst of a recession.

But Christina was confident that her cookies were good enough to sell, and she was right. For $2 a piece, New Yorkers would line up to buy her cookies even in those scary, unpredictable days.

In those instincts, the ones that have pulled Christina through the recession and Hurricane Sandy have prepared her for this moment.

Since March, only five of Milkbar's 18 locations remain open for pickup and delivery. And three of those locations are being put to work as online bakeries, where Christina and her team are sending cookies and cakes and pies to anyone around the country, including health workers.

Christina spoke to us after a shift at Milkbar's commissary in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she's going in every day to make sure that cookies are getting made and that her employees are taking care of.

So, um, just give me a sense. I mean, you're in Manhattan. Are you still hearing like ambulance sirens all the time? Like what? What's the vibe like for you when you just go outside?

The vibe. The vibe is strange. It's strange. There's not a lot of people around, which for New York City is incredibly jarring in a way.

There's ambulance sirens. There's not a lot of people and at 7 p.m. every night for two minutes straight. People cheer on doctors and nurses and people that are on the front lines is healthcare professionals.

So, there's this really interesting juxtaposition of solidarianist that comes with sort of a heft and a weight and a strangeness and perhaps a feeling of being scared.

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