Hi, I'm Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

This episode has been sponsored by Book Hampton.

As the premier independent bookstore in the Hamptons, Bookhampton has a highly curated selection of books for readers of all ages,

unique, one-of-a-kind gifts, and exciting author events.

Browse their fabulous staff suggestions online at bookhampton.com.

I'm here today with Sharon Rowe. Sharon is an eco-p pioneer, founder and CEO of EcoBags Products,

Inc. She's the author of The Magic of Tiny Business, you don't have to go big to make a great living. She has spoken around the world about

building profitable mission-aligned businesses, from Sing Sing to Nairobi to Yale University.

She has been featured in glamour, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and her bags made an

appearance on Oprah's Earth Day episode. Sharon lives in the Hudson River Valley with her husband.

Her two grown children live out of state,

and her son actually illustrated this book

and is an illustrator for the New Yorker.

So welcome, Sharon.

Thanks so much for being on Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books.

Oh, I'm thrilled to be here.

Thank you.

So your journey is so interesting.

You were an actress, a young mother. You decided to start eco bags. You invented a new reusable bag to replace the plastic bags you saw flying around. Tell me how you went from being, you know, a crazy new mom moment to a successful entrepreneur. Yeah, well, they always say things happen when you least expect them, right? Or they all, like everybody moves when everything else is falling apart. So it's kind of like that. I was working a job job that was a position I had downtown and I was a sales executive. And I wasn't really into it it really. It didn't really matter to me personally.

I was making some money, but that was about it. And then I got pregnant, and I told my manager about that, and he said, well, when are you coming back? And that was the first signal that maybe this wasn't going to work for me. But I started working from home when I had my son. At the same time, though, I just started being annoyed by the barrage of single-use plastic bags.

I saw on the street and the trees and the river, and also the fact that when I would take one home,

it would break. It wasn't even useful for a second use. So I thought, well, I don't want to be part of this anymore. I don't want to use single-use plastic bags. And I remembered using filet in France,

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