Solopreneur Secrets, Life Updates, and Hard Conversations

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, y'all good, We're good. I know you look
so pretty.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you. Jamil did my whole lighting thing because I
was like sitting in the dark, and he figured it
out how to get me to not look so dark.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Are you in the closet?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, I'm in my bedroom.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
But that's right. You saw her a little cute setup. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I have another little setup in the closet, but that
one is so tight. So I'm in my bedroom, but
it's a little brighter.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Now what camera are you using?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
What is this camera?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
What is it called? Why cam?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well, I just got a new computer, so I'm feeling funky,
fresh and free, and I'm using my computer's camera. I'm
not even using a Oh it looks good.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
That's a really good camera. What did you get?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I knew you were going to ask. I got a computer.
It is a device on which you compute things. And
it is made of some kind of metal material and
it is is that a keyboard? It is of the
fruit variety of variety. So this is just gonna trigger

(01:10):
my rage again. I've been telling hey, ba fam so
I was telling I was telling all and Nelly and
Chris that I'm like, really struggling with like fits of anger.
That's just like I'm sure, I'm sure I'm not the
only person, but just like frustration, I just need a
whole like reset of my house and of my office
and of all my stuff in my life. And they're

(01:31):
just never time to do it, you know. But anyway,
my laptop has been beaten up, just like my phone
was last month, I was without a phone for a
few days. My laptop has been getting really beaten up.
The screen was super cracked. I took it to the
Apple Store, and you know, they're like, it'll be your
firstborn child or your left leg, or you can just

(01:52):
buy a new one. But this time, while I was there,
and I was there for my phone and my computer
because both of the screens were cracked. And then this
nice gentleman at the Apple store was like, are you
a business owner? I forget how it came up. I
probably had, Oh I was. I was in the middle
of recording an episode or editing an episode or editing
a clip or something they saw riverside, and he was like, oh,

(02:14):
are you a small business owner? We actually have like
some financing options for business owners that we don't advertise anywhere.
And I was like, yes, me, give me something. Yeah,
so I think everyone's used to with Apple, you can
do zero percent financing if you get the Apple card
for their products. I did not do that. They I
applied for and was approved for a leasing program. So

(02:37):
I'm leasing this bad boy. So I got like a
creme de la creme. And while I don't think I'm
a good candidate for leasing a car, I do think
leasing a computer made sense for me as a business owner.
I didn't even know you could lease equipment.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean, I get part of that.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
So for the computer, so you can bundle a bunch
of stuff in it. They wanted me to bundle my
phone into it as well. That would have been nice.
So it's zero percent financing for or sorry, it's it's
a lease, right, So there's no financing, but it's it's
I'm leasing it for thirty six months and then after
that I can get a brand new one. I just
lease that, which is great because I'm I'm pretty much

(03:15):
getting new equipment like a new laptop and stuff. I
use the hell out of this thing because it is
my whole podcasting studio, y'all know. Yeah, So I it
did take a minute I had to first. I had
to apply for a Don and Bradstreet number. Do you
guys have a Dun's number? I don't know you heard
of it?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
I know what that is?

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Really okay, so I only I must. I only knew
about it because I used to do the most like
esoteric in the weeds personal finance content when I was
running content at lending Tree and Magnify. But a D
and B number is like a business credit score or
a business credit report. So yeah, but you have first
you have to apply for it, apply for a number,

(03:55):
which is free. They're in the guy at Apple. He
was super cool, actually very chill. He does not take
I don't make commissions by getting He told me that
right off the bat, because my spidery sense was like,
what are you trying to tell me?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Boy?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Like, I'm like, this seems us. But it ended up
being fine, and he was pretty chill. He told me that.
He was like, don't don't buy one, because there are
some sites that will make you think you have to
buy it, But you just go to dun and Bradstreet
and all you need is you need you do need
an EI N so a TAXI D number for your company,
which of course I have. So I used that and

(04:29):
then with I think they say give it thirty days,
but it took less than a week to get my
d n B number. Once they had that, I go
back to Kyle. He's now my my dude, We're emails.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Back.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
He's like, he works at the Apple Store. He's like
a producer, he does audio, he loves podcasting, he's side hustling.
Okay for real, Like I'm a business owner too, but
Apple so they do this for like solo preneurs especially,
That's what he said. He was like, we really, you know,
we want to work with local small business owners like
who are doing their best. And I was like me,

(05:03):
I I'm doing my best out here, out here, I
need help. So I got my DNB. I email Kyle
back and then there was a credit application. It still
requires so the leasing is run through US Bank, and
I did need to so with my DNB number, Kyle

(05:24):
said they'd be looking. Basically, he was like, if you
have a pulse and your business has been around for
like a couple of years, you should be fine. And
I was like, oh yeah, ba's almost our ei n
our business is like almost ten years old. I still
had to provide a personal guarantee. So they did have
to do a soft credit poll on my personal credit report.
That was an extra step. So whatever they saw on

(05:45):
my business credit file, they didn't like all of it
for whatever reason. So they were like, we want you
to do a personal guarantee. That basically just means that
if the business you know, fails to return the laptop
or you know, stops paying this like little thirty bucks
a month or whatever it costs that Mandy Woodruff, you're
personally liable, personally liable. And I was like, great, So

(06:07):
just like normal in my life, I am on the
hook for it all.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Literally, But gu it's probably because it's the first time
you've used the DMB number. I imagine, like imagine going to
use your personal credit and it's the first time you've
ever had a credit poll. They're going to be like,
you know it's a risk, so get a co signer. Yeah,
you got guaranteed your for your business. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's like when you're eighteen you're trying to get your
first apartment and they're like, where's mommy, get out of here,
excuse me, where's your mommy and daddy?

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Right?

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Uncle cousin somebody, somebody both signed for you.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yes, So once that was done, now that probably I
had to the application was like kind of rudimentary, all
said and done. I think this was all happening around
my birthday and I had got the new laptop on Friday.
So it's like three weeks nice, a three week period,
and I'm so high. It's back to what it is again.

(07:02):
It is a computing, computational device.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I have. It is a computers, a big boy.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's a fifteen inch MacBook Air. And oh yeah, because
as I was talking to you, I was looking at
my receipt. I was more. I wasn't. I wasn't concerned
about the name of it. I just wanted more power baby,
because it needs to be able to control. I use
it for my ring light. I use all these little ports.

(07:36):
I wanted more ports this, you know, I wanted like
I still wanted a headphone jack. I was like, I
want these things. At least I know what I want.
I mean in a laptop now, and I know what
to in a man man man top. And yeah, so
far from so far, so happy. I like her. It's

(07:56):
midnight Blue, yes, and so now you know if you're
a solopreneur or Apple has secret financing. Let him know.
I told you.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Tell them Kyle sent you tell him Kyle.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
At the West stuff at the West. Just them all.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
No, that's amazing. Honestly, it's weird that they don't promote that.
I guess they just don't want people abusing it because
everybody in their mama wants to have an LLC now.
But at the end of the day, I feel like
that is hugely helpful, especially as a solopreneur when you're
just doing everything for your business on your own and
financing things is expensive. It adds up, and you know,
for something like a computer, which now with all this

(08:32):
tech stuff, with all the GPUs and all the stuff
they're coming out with, like computers, technology and tech is
just going to change so quickly, so like once you
buy something three four years later, there's a much much,
much much better version. So it's kind of hard to
like spend all this money on one thing that you know,
you already know in a few years there's going to
be a better one. So I feel like leasing something
like that with your business makes sense rather than buying

(08:55):
and then like you know, four or five years later,
you're going to buy another one anyway, so that even
sooner than that exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
And now I just know I can keep rolling over
and getting a new one and I don't have to,
you know, we'll see. Hopefully I got Apple Care this time,
because I'm like, okay, it's time. Two hundred dollars makes sense.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
And it's it's for the business. This is not like
it's just you taking pictures of your babies. I mean,
I'm sure you'll have some of those on there, but
it's mostly for business, so that makes sense. That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
I was gonna say too, like how did you break it?
But I forgot you kids, So.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
So my son Rio jumped on it a while back,
caught the tiny crack and it was kind of giving
like Technicolor squiggle lines in like an L formation, which
I was kind of like, I was fine with. I
was like, oh, I could just move this browser to
the I can read, you know, just got to move
this little browser to the left or right so I
can read the full sentence on things. But then he

(09:48):
did it again in another freak summersault accident. The computer's
just out here, like what, I'm a mom purdeer, like
I got my shit everywhere. The lines are blurred always
you can have it that, it doesn't matter. I won't go.
But yeah, he summersaulted on top of it, and that
was the death knell. It was giving black, it was
giving we are and it's exactly the same thing that
happened to my cell phone. Just finally the screen stopped.

(10:12):
It was like, we got nothing for you. So yeah,
yay children.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
You know, yeah, all that energy, they gotta put it somewhere.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, what about y'all?

Speaker 3 (10:23):
What's new?

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Updates?

Speaker 2 (10:26):
What I was gonna say, that was probably shortly after
you were last here in Miami, probably because you were
around here for your birthday recently, when you got the computer.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Right, that's right, Well, when I got my new phone.
The computer just came on a Friday. That started out
my saga.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
The phone that you almost lost right after you got it.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
I don't know why we need to bring that up, girl.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
So Chris, I went down, sir, just go get Mandy.
And then we came out to my apartment and she
couldn't find her phone. I'm like, girl, you just had
it because you called me when you were in the lobby.
Sure enough, was at the lobby, and thank goodness the lobby.
It was in the lobby, like but thank goodness at
the front desk. Girl, she was like, I saw it,
I put it. I'll put your stuff right here, because
you walked away without it and I had it right
here for you. She was very sweet and she held it.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
But she probably would have called after me if she
wasn't ordering her lunch. I heard her. It's her whole order.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Girls, gotta eat those. She's been at the desk all day.
Oh man, No, you know what what's new? Jamil and
I are trying to make a big life decision because
our apartment lease, since you just visited, Mandy, our apartment
Lise is going to be up in twenty twenty six,
and we're trying to think ahead, like do we want
to renew and just keep renting the apartment that we're in,
which we're very comfortable in, but we've been here for

(11:38):
five years or will be by the time the lease ends,
will be five years. And we're the kind of people
that don't really like to just like settle for like
a comfortable place and five six years later, like I'm
still here, Like we're very much no more nomadic than anything,
And so we tried a bunch of places in different
neighborhoods in New York. We lived in New Jersey over
the summer during COVID. We came down to floor and

(12:00):
stayed in one of his parents' properties in Naples, Florida,
and that was kind of a little taste of like
the sun every day, beautiful weather like, so that kind
of made us feel a little motivated to move to
a nicer weather. So we ended up moving to Miami.
But since then we've been here. So now we're kind
of like, should we what did we do? Should we
try another neighborhood in Miami? Should we try a different
city all together? Like what should we do? Because yeah,

(12:23):
we're both just like very flexible. We're not tied to anything.
We don't have, you know, we didn't buy a property,
we don't have kids, we're not you know, so we're
very much to the point we could just pack up
and go anywhere and do whatever we want. So now
we have to decide what we want. And that's hard.
It's hard because like literally the should have problems, but
you know what, I'm happy to have these problems because

(12:44):
we worked hard to get here, you know, and now
we can now the kind of literally, this guy's a
limit of like where do we want to go? What
kind of life do we want to create? Where do
we want to live?

Speaker 1 (12:52):
So that that's what everybody else.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
I'm saying, though, I mean, Barcelona is one hundred percent
of our favorite city. It's been our dream city to
live in. Like if we ever were like for real
we're leaving the US, no doubt we would go live
in Barcelona. But I don't know we're ready for that yet.
But I mean, you know, when are you ever really ready?

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Right? You have dr citizenship?

Speaker 2 (13:12):
We don't, but my parents have duel and so I
feel like it would be pretty easy for me to apply.
And he also his parents are also have the same.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Maybe you could get because I mean, you should talk
to Gigi the first. So she was just on the show,
such a great conversation. I had not even known she was.
I just come out, I live in for Helona now.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
But she doesn't.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
She doesn't live in Barcelona at all. I just like
saying it somewhere.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
And she doesn't Spain yet a little more north.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
But she she and my favorite way to get updated
by her friend. She was like, yeah, girl live in Spain.
Now here's a podcast episode. Go listen to it then,
and it was great. It was like a voice note.
That's what podcasting is. A long voice note really is though,
it really is. But she so I had her on
the show. She told me the whole process. But because
she's a Mexican, she went and got Mexican citizenship. Her

(14:06):
parents set her up for that for that. But she
was saying, how if you're the citizen of a country
that was a former Spanish colony, then you could qualify
for That's one of the reasons why she was able
to get her was dr Spanish colony and that's not
up okay, right, so that you could get the special

(14:27):
solo preneur tourist or not tourist visa, but solo preneur visa,
which is what her and her husband did.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Nice breath. I mean, it's your reason or visit. Come on,
these are all options, you know, I'm saying. That's the thing.
It's like, because everything's on the table, it's so hard
to choose. It's like decision paralysis, right, It's like, ah,
I got too many choices.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, y'all just go start traveling and just see.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, you know, there was a point where before we
moved to Miami, like right after COVID was kind of
slowly starting to calm down and people were kind of
going back outside again where we were really down the
rabbit hole of like, uh, van life, and we're like,
let's do it. Let's get a van, let's calm put up,
and let's travel all around the US and like, but the.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Problem is I don't have a driver's license, so so
it would literally be Jamil driving all the time, me
just making content in the back of the van with
like a startlingk or something to get Wi Fi.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
I don't know, But eventually I think we moved away
from that because I wouldn't really be able to help
him drive, and poor guy, like he would just be
on his as driving all the time. So but yeah,
we literally explored anse I could. Yeah, I should be.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
The highways out there and wherever you be going.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Right, that's probably the easiest way to practice, Right's probably
the easiest way to practice driving is to take road trips.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Right, Yeah, yeah, that would be practicing on a road trip.
But you know, maybe first.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
For the first time, but just once you get driving
under your belt, it's a good way to just get miles,
you know, just go drive.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
When's the first thing I thought of when you said
van life was that Gabby Potito story.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Who's Cabby Potito?

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Almostad that white girl who got killed?

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Oh see, I don't know if it was her boyfriend mom.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
That was like during COVID. That was like the white
girl in a vand she was doing she was in
a van. They were doing van life.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
Oh no, no, no no, and.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
She lost her life. So he was like, anyway, go
look it up.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
There's lots of documentaries, and I guess it'll make you
go crazy being in a tight space like that with somebody.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
But don't justifying on the side. Remember that's perspective.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Sometimes when he'll be dropping me crazy and we have
a two bedroom so imagine if we were nowhere to
go between you and that's wild.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Any major life updates for you, Chris.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
B Mmm, major life updates?

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Well you know updates, business updates.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Uh, family of dates, little boys in the world. I
know you hate him, you didn't you hate it on his.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Boost?

Speaker 3 (17:03):
He is I got to go hang out with them
and be a He would just like to take care
of two kids, And I was like, you know what,
I already have respect for parents. After this, I'm like,
I don't know how y'all do anything. I watched them
by I watched two kids, a three year old and
like a three week old, for or what like six
hours one night by myself, and I was like, I'm

(17:25):
so I told them to go to the movies. I
was like, here, you guys, they've been wanting to go
to the movies, my brother and my sister in law,
and they said we'll never get to go to Like, look,
I'll babysit tonight. You guys go out and watch a movie.
And I was like, oh, it would be cool. I
got this. I've watched my niece before, but it's something
about two even though one can't do anything but cry.
I was like, I'm like, oh, I got to get

(17:46):
you some food. Oh you're crying. Oh go get your pajamas.
You don't know where your pajamas are white? I know
you know where your pajamas are white. And so it was.
I gained so much more respect. I was so tired,
but it was a lot of fun. It was. It
was really cool getting to hang out with them again
and see the new the new little life over there.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
I feel like if they did like a cortisol level
check of like what's what's the kind of like really
stressed out prey in the Sahara, Like what's always being
chased by something?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Like I feel like those gazelle's.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, a gazelle or like a little a little deer
in the wilderness, Like I feel like that prey and
me would have very similar cortisol levels, like regularly my stress.
It ain't no thing joke, but it's very sweet if
you don't offered a baby.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
And you got a little taste of fatherhood for the day.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
I was like, I was like, if you're a single
parent more than one kid, you got one, but yet
more than one. I don't know how you're doing that
day after day. So much credit in respect because that's
a lot of that's a lot of work. And I
was just there for a week and I was like
a lot of work.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
He was ready to tap out to help with.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
The girl with the baby, with the little girl right
because how old is she? Like four?

Speaker 3 (19:02):
She's three and a half. And so it was nice
because I don't, you know, my brother and my sister
in law, they do a great job of like you know,
really talking to her make sure. She just get like jealous.
And so I was like, you know, here I'll take
for my sister in law. I was like, here, you're
still recovering. I'll take my niece because the baby is
easier because he just sits there. I think money we
would just go places. So we would just go, like
leave the house. That way, she wouldn't be you know,
asking twelve thousand questions and all, you know, trying to

(19:25):
touch it.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Can I hold it?

Speaker 3 (19:27):
I always try to touch a soft spot. Like her
hand immediately goes right. She's like it she was just
asking for it.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Oh no, oh, She's like, can I get some peace?

Speaker 3 (19:37):
Exactly. She's always trying to like here, trying to take
this passifier put it back in real quick. I'm like,
come on, man, you need to relax. You're doing too much.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
You think it's a baby doll exactly.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
I hope that they have a village and a very
strong relationship. Good luck too.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah, I know you need it. I see it. I
see it. You need it because truly, truly, I know
that was a big and uh oh, other than that,
I told you about having new podcasts. I'll be launching soon.
I don't think I told you about this. It's coming
out in maybe a couple of weeks and we'll kind
of get everything done.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
But another one, I was gonna say, what's happening with
popcorn finance? Is it on the It's.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Been on a hiatus, but I'm all working on bringing
that back. But I have a okay, not permanent. I
do want to bring it back. It's just depressing, as
you know, working on it.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's depressing.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Well, you know, it's more so like because you it's
about personal finance and they have to kind of dip
into the world and see what's going on, and so
much of the personal finance news is about what the
person who's leading the country is kind of changing and
doing things, and it's like it's always something. It was
really hard to kind of dive into it at times
because you're like, you try to keep some type of
peace going on in your brain. In the moment you

(20:45):
open up any news, you're like, oh, this is this
is what's going on, and I kind of find myself.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Oh, you're gonna love today show.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Oh I saw it. I was like, oh, thanks, Mandy,
this is the most.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Well y'all need to make it because I'm going there
because I'm we're not We're not skipping the big news.
You're gonna be fine. I think the problem with doing
a show like Popcorn Finance and even Brown Ambition when
I was on my own, well, I wasn't really on
my own, but even with just just me and Tiffany,
it sucks to have to read stuff by yourself into
Like I think that's my challenge too.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
It is.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
I think a lot of us are like scrolling on
our phone and looking at the news and reading it
on an individual basis. By talking about difficult, challenging topics
here on Brown Ambition, like I'm really just inviting y'all
like you Chris and Yanelly and also be a fan,
just like hold hands and let's just look at this
shit together because they do think we need to.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Write yep, yeah, because you have to know what's going on.
But yeah, but it is right. It's so much easier,
I mean, if you can call it easier, but talking
about it with other people versus in that isolation, because
it's so easy to kind of just like it kind
of overtakes you a little bit when you're by yourself
in it.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
It was hard to pulling podcast space either, where like
I don't. It also can feel stressful, maybe because of
the work that we do. Sometimes when you talk about
this kind of stuff, you feel like you need to
be an expert on it before you open your mouth.
And I feel like the approach now that I'm I'm
like giving myself a lot of grace to just talk
about things that are happening and not feel like I'm

(22:14):
not capable or like I'm not worthy of discussing it
until I can like give you an expose on it.
I really just want to bear witness. You know, we
can talk about how we're feeling about it, and we
can also just give Brown Ambition, like give y'all a
safe space where you're not the only one you're not
going to open up your Instagram and see shit, you know,

(22:34):
like the like when I logged on yesterday and saw
what I saw, Some man got shot in the chest,
you know, outside of a kind of tourist attraction on
the West was it Seattle? Without the Instagram warning it
was no this this image may distribute. It was just boom,
here's a man getting shot in the chest, like this
Brown Ambition, Like, I'm hoping we can we can talk

(22:55):
about some stuff I do want to get into what's
going on in the world and your pocketbooks and your finances.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yep, that makes sense with Wait, so, Chris, you said
you were going to put out a new episode of
this next podcast. Tell us about that.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Oh yeah, So the one thing I've been thinking about
was that I think I told you about the sleep podcast.
It's this thing you used to fall asleep, and it
kind of came I did came to me because I
got the endpoint in life. I I was feeling like
really like down and like you know, Manday and I
talked about this, like being like like that depression starts
to can like overwhelm me and so it makes it
hard to go to sleep. And I was like, what
if there's like I started finding things to listen to
to help me fall asleep, would just be like random podcasts.

(23:32):
I didn't really I'd already listened to you or whatever
it was. And then I found out there was a
whole like genre podcasts that do this, And so that's
why I've been kind of like working on over the
past couple of months. It's like these different ideas, testing
them out, and I kind of finally narrowed down the concept,
a few tests, and so now I'm getting ready to
actually officially launch it. So it'll be coming out next
like i'd say, like a couple of weeks is my
goal for like the first episode to kind of hit
out there for everybody.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
So, yeah, what's it called?

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh so the name which started out as a joke
and then people are like, no, just name it this.
It's called Talk Sleepy to Me is the name of
the podcast. Oh.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
I hope we have a trailer up in the next
like by this week, have the trailer out at least,
and then the first episode in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Nice, how are you going to get the word out
of the trailers? Just putting us all to sleep?

Speaker 3 (24:16):
I know that's the proof. If I can put you
to sleep in like two minutes and you're like, Okay,
this is not bad.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
This listen people struggle so much of falling asleep. I
really do feel like this is necessary because even now,
like I listen to some meditation podcasts when I'm going
to sleep, but it's just like sometimes it'll it'll start
making me think about things, because like what she's saying
will start making me go down the rabbit hole. I

(24:43):
need something that is really literally just going to make
me go oh, fall asleep immediately rather than going down
thinking about things. So I'm excited for this because I
feel like I'll use it and then I will immediately
post me back and let you know, because I'm always
looking for something to help me fall. I'll listen to
audiobooks and stuff, but then i'll put the sleep timer.
But I don't want my mind to be thinking about,

(25:05):
you know, these characters and their problems, like I'm trying
to This is something that is brainless. I'm going to sleep,
you know. That's that's what I need.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, what's it going to be?

Speaker 1 (25:12):
What are you going to say?

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Oh, it's a little sample people sample. So essentially it's
like these first person stories of you going through a space.
So it's meant to be very calm and relaxing, like
it's not you don't have to think about it too much,
and where it's just you going through. Maybe it's like
a field or a garden or by the lake, and
it's going to describe what you're coming across as you go,
so as you you know, you see something, and then

(25:36):
there's sound effects of like the water or the wind.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Or uh a, you're gonna like have sound effects.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah. My whole thing is I want to do a
lot of sound design around it, so it kind of
puts you in the space. So it's like some calm
background music and then a few sounds. That's what I've
been testing out, like what sounds are actually calming and
which ones are like now it breaks me out of
this and I'm like this is too jarring. So it's
kind of like figuring it out that balance between everything.
But yeah, it's supposed to be something that's like interesting
enough that you're like, Okay, I want to hear what's
going on, but not so interesting that you your break.

(26:04):
Like I was saying, your brain's going and you got
to wake back up to pay attention. So try to
find that balance in there.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Nice. I'm excited for it. I would definitely be a
test user, an early user. I'm gonna tell you right now.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
I'll sleeping to me. I don't know, I'll see it
might because I'll just feel just be like your voice
and I'll just be like dude.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Man.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Chris right now, like they're going to sleep.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Well, I'm excited for a new Yeah, like something new
and fresh and different, and we could all use more
sleep honestly.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Oh yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
I'm about to get a sleep study in a cup
and a week or two? What day is it? A
week or two? A sleep study? Yeah, I might need
to get one of them seepap machines.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
The way they have them now, you can barely even
feel them or see them or hear them, so really yeah,
Like one of my coworkers did a sleep study and
ended up needing a PAP and then when they get
to see PAP machine. The first early ones were like
those big on your face and it makes all this noise.
But now they have ones that are like minimally invasive.
It's just literally like a little clear strip that goes

(27:07):
under your note or like a clear too that goes
right under your nose. It just like pushes the air
into your nose, so you're not so you're it doesn't
really make any noise. You barely feel it. It's not
like this giant thing, so it doesn't really affect if
you're coo sleeping your partner and like barely makes noise.
So I feel like they've come really far, so I
wouldn't be worried about Oh, I'm gonna have this whole
seat path. No, the ones they have now are like, really,

(27:29):
you can deal with it.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
I'll take them. I just want to sleep. I just
want to sleep. I need it so bad, I think honestly,
my level of irritation and like snippiness is so tied
to the fact that I am not sleeping well. So
whatever it takes, baby, I need to sleep, sleep and
self care. And this is how we take care of ourselves.
This is how we like become stronger and more resilience

(27:54):
against all the shit that's going down.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
People always do the wrong thing too. Like my boyfriend,
he's really big until like sleep, health and longevity and
all that stuff. So he had an Orra ring. Like
before it was a cool thing to do. And on
the oral ring it tracks in the app every time
when you're going to sleep, what are the behaviors that
you do. Obviously you have to put it in, but
he realized right away if we go out to dinner

(28:17):
and you have a glass of wine that night, your
sleep quality is significantly decreased versus a night where you
didn't have anything to drink before but a couple hours
before bed, or even like at all during the day
when you exercise, literally, your sleep quality improves so much
because you hit the bed and you're just like you're out.
So it's funny because a lot of people will go, oh,

(28:38):
I really want to sleep better, so I'm not going
to work out because them men have to get up early.
So instead I'm going to sleep in a little longer
and get extra sleep. It's like, actually, you're making your
sleep worse because you're not working out. And then the
other thing is, oh, I'm going to have a glass
of wine because it helps me chill out and fall asleep. No,
the wine is actually going to make your sleep worse.
So oftentimes we do things that are counterintuitive le we
think is counterintuitive. What we're doing is actually working against

(29:00):
the ability to get better sleep. And a lot of
it is actually just your routines, which I know sucks
because it always comes back to the consistency of it.
But like going to sleep at the exact same time
and waking up at the exact same time every single day,
that alone is like enough to drastically improve your sleep
quality because we crave that like same time every night,
same time every morning routine, and especially if you're going

(29:23):
to bed early enough that your body can wake up
with the sun. I'm not there yet, but I'm working
on it. But that also has a huge impact on
your sleep. And then the last thing I learned from
him with the our experimenting with the our is the temperature.
A lot of times for me like I need to
be real warm when I'm going to sleep, He's like, no,
you need to be cold. You need the room has

(29:44):
to be cold, your space has to be cold. It's
okay for you to be under covers, but if the
room is too warm, your quality of sleep decreases drastically,
so you actually have to be in a cooler room,
like under seventy, like sixty eight, sixty nine degrees. That
to me is like torture. But apparently that's what works.
So he's throwing that out there if anybody wants to
try these things out.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
All the advice I know, but it does not.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Apply to me, doesn't work for me. None of it.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Not a damn one.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
And we'll see.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
I said, I'm gonna have a two year old smacking
me in the face with my with my c PAP tube. Mama,
what is mama toy? I want one. I'm a spider
Man mask boom, We'll see. Pray for me. Take that.
I know it's tough. It's so tough. Well, should we
get into some what's happening in the world. I know, Chris,

(30:34):
you all the way over there in LA. Not in LA,
but in California. But here on the East Coast, we're
falling apart.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
I would some videos.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Uh yeah, so we're gonna talk of the DC takeover.
I was trying to It's only week two of Trump's
what state of emergency unleashed the National Guard take direct
control of the police force in DC. We're on week two, Okay,
else has been raining. I dipped my toe into I

(31:04):
wanted a bit more context and like just the clips
I was seeing on TikTok so, I actually got onto
YouTube and there's a lot of actually great like street
reporting happening from organizers and community activists. But just to
update y'all, there's fifteen hundred National Guard troops now in DC,
including federal agents from FBI, ICE and DEA. I have

(31:29):
a family member who works for the ATF and he
actually told me that they offered him time and a
half to go to DC. And he was like, you
just had a baby. He's like, yeah, I want to go,
and I was like cool. So we're adding a cash
incentive on top of that.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
Yep, exactly. You know, we're trying to save money right.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Right costs by paying people more to do the things
that we really don't need. Make it makes sense.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
So they're citing the issues that they're trying to fight crime, homelessness,
and so it saw some really sad images of like
I don't know what kind of who knows which like
law enforcement group it was, but people kicking tents over,
you know, tents from unhoused people, and it's all again

(32:16):
to fight crime, homelessness and violent crime in DC, which
is actually at a historic low.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
You don't fight homelessness by kicking tents over, you provide housing.
I just you know, it just doesn't. It doesn't in
what world does it make sense? Like it's deja vu.
It's like over policing majority black populations in cities, and
it feels, especially as a Latina with immigrant parents, like
this is exactly the type of authoritarianism that we like

(32:43):
migrated away from by coming to this country. And it's
it's like the most bizarre thing because it's time and
time Again, if you look throughout history, over militarizing does
not yield the result that you think it does. It
actually ends up leading to more crime, to more poverty,
to worse results because you're not actually addressing the root

(33:03):
causes of those things that you claim to be trying
to alleviate by over policing. So it just it's the
most frustrating thing to hear, Oh, we're gonna address directly
homelessness by coming in and kicking people's tents over when
what you need to do is provide affordable housing. I mean,
in what world do people like hear this news and
like celebrate that as the right approach, Like it just

(33:25):
it's so bizarre to me because I know there's millions
of people, but you know, I live in Florida. A
lot of people over here who see this and celebrate
it and think that it makes sense, And I don't.
My brain can't fathom how it could make sense to you, Like,
it doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Awesome. I mean, I'm not gonna paint with a broadbrush,
but there's definitely people from my husband's family, and like
I've heard people on the news from immigrant backgrounds who
are like very pro Trump.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Came in the right way. Everyone else should to one
hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
And it's not even just I came in the right way,
because there's a lot of people who didn't come in
the right way who still support it because they now
are unquote safe. So it's really selfish as hell. Also,
anybody who's curious about this, especially in light to like
a lot of immigration issues and Latin American countries and
the history with authoritarian dictatorships, I would highly recommend reading

(34:14):
the book called Defectors. It is so good it really helps.
It helped me understand why so many Latinos in the
US have been supportive of Trump. One of the main
ideas that stuck with me was how much of this
like in my mind, I think back to Dominican Republic.
We had a really bad dictator, Druhido, who was extremely

(34:35):
racist and anti black, and so a lot of times
when people talk about, oh, well Dominicans they don't like
being called black and stuff, you have to understand that
this stuff is deeply rooted and been passed down from
generation to generation because of this dictator through Heido, who
would literally send troops out into the streets to question
you about your pronunciation in Spanish if you looked black,
if you were you know, black feenal type, and then

(34:57):
if you couldn't pronounce it properly the Spanish way, they
would they would kill you in the streets with machetes. Okay,
this was this is literally the history that we So
when you, when your great great grandparents grew up in that,
they're going to say anything they can to not affiliate
themselves with blackness, because they can die if they claim
to be black or if they're associated with blackness because

(35:17):
of thru Hidio. So anybody who wants to learn about that,
highly recommend you search it up online. It's called the
Parsley massacre because the word Parsley in Spanish just pronounced
pete Hill. And if you can't say bedehiel the right way,
quote unquote right way, you you would there was literally
a massacre for it. There would just be dead black
bodies on the street to show people this is what

(35:38):
happens when you're when you're not Dominican, when you're not
Spaniard enough, when you're not whatever through Hidio wanted people
to be, and that has been ingrained generation to generation.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Is fear.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
So people will say, oh, but why y'alls anti black?
It's like it is a fear that was literally that
you would were going to die if you are associated
with blackness. So that is huge in dr but let
alone think of other countries like Colombia Venezuela, where there's
there's so much history of anti blackness through violence and
authoritarian like dictatorships. So that book helped me at least

(36:12):
understand where some of it, not saying that it's justifiable,
not sying that I agree with any of it, but
for my brain to be like, how the hell did
this happen? How did we get to this? That book
really shed light on kind of like the thought process
on that side and how they identified Trump as like
a leader who they are familiar with that type of
leadership because it looks a lot like what they've seen

(36:33):
in the past in their home countries.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
America is a very safe place to be anti black,
Like we make it very hospitable, hospitable to the racists.
So yeah, I can I think that if that's the like,
if that's the way that you sway, then you're going
to find your people, You're going to find your enclave
you're going to find your communities and it's it's a
fucking tragedy but it's sad, sad but true.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Yeah, but thanks for mentioning that I saved all that
step ago read later.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yes, yes, yes, And if you want to talk about it,
hit me up because I've been like trying to see
who else is reading the factors so I can talk
about it with people because I'm like mind blown.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
I might share with my husband because yeah, the number
of times my mother in law has said some bullshit
to me, I don't boundaries.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yes, the author for that book is Paola Ramos if yeah,
she's blown up on Instagram right now because she's doing
a bunch of interviews with like news about the book.
But yeah, Defectors by Paola Ramos highly recommend it.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
So there was one sort of bright spot that well,
not really a bright spot, but I was trying to
find I found some like joy from watching it. Started
out when I saw a TikTok of like a young woman,
a young black woman with like multicolored braids. She had
like the I'm so sorry, what is the scarf called
from Palestine? Do you know what it's called?

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Oh, the checkered one. Yeah, I know you're talking about it.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, I'm blamed. She's waving one of those. But she
was released from she was leaving a courthouse. She had
been held overnight in jail, and they were all like
chanting her name and she and I was like, what
happened to this girl? Like why is she? And she
was being lifted up by the crowd, And anytime I
see a black girl being happy, I was like, I
need to learn more. So it turns out her name
is afeni and Afeenie was arrested. She's actually a community activist.

(38:25):
She works with this nonprofit called Harriet's Wildest Dreams, and
so a lot of Harriet's Wildest Dreams members they have
like big beautiful earrings with Harriet's face and that iconic
silhouette on it. So they had been because of the
curfew installed in DC. They were Harriet's Wallowedest Dreams volunteers

(38:47):
were like hanging out at the metro stations to see
if any youth were going to be arrested or like,
you know, just to like have be witnessed to any
interaction between the police or these other law enforcement national
guard whoever and the youth and so she was watching
these three young kids being cited for fair evasions. I

(39:09):
guess they were trying to jump the turnstile and she
was filming them, and in the process she swiped her
past to get through the turnstile. The police then tackled her,
sprayed her with pepper spray, and arrested her. Said she
was resisting arrest, which if I've been pepper spray, I
probably would have been not so happy either, And they
arrested her and it was all caught on camera, and

(39:30):
they were trying to say that she was evading. She
was doing she was committing fair evasion even though she
had swiped a pass. There's some like, there's some rumblings
that the past she swiped was like a youth pass
and she was a little bit older than the path
past technically required. But nonetheless she was like brutalized and

(39:52):
thrown to the ground while trying to just witness, you know,
and protect some young kids, some young black kids, who
are being cited for fair evasion. But she was released
and she gave like a statement, and I want to
play a clip of that right now. I want to
play a clip of just the chance and the excitement
of her being released, and she does not give her

(40:15):
last name, which I think is pretty safe. But I
can tell you TikTok thinks that she is Tupac Shakur's mother, apparently,
because that is Tupac Shakur's mom. That is not her.
Her name is not a Foenie. Secure, just give just
calling her a fenie for her own protection. But now
I'll play clip with that now. Yeah, well, the one,

(40:50):
I guess. The other silver lining is like this is
not necessarily going to be happening across the country. Like
DC is special because it is the seat of the
federal government, and like Trump is able to do this,
he can't do this. He can't just call the National
Guard into any city against their consent. But still, like
the mayor of DC is suing. Isn't the mayor of

(41:10):
DC issuing him over this whole ordeal because it just
sets like a really dangerous president does.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Yeah, it does. And even see like the governor of Maryland,
he just came out and was like, I will not
be authorized this as the commander chief of the National
Guard here that he won't allow because I think he
said these former military So it's like it's you see,
people who are former military, being like, this is not
what we Isn't that what we serve for. Isn't that
what we spend on same way for our family to do,

(41:38):
to walk around and just cause problems and be in
places that they're not even needed because they know they
know it's not like it's just a show. They know
it's not there for a real reason or need.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Yeah, I just feel like anytime you have more cops
coined these neighborhoods, black and brown bodies are going to
be injured, torture, damage, arrested in some way, Like it's
just gonna happen. I don't see if anything. I mean,
they've arrested hundreds of people already, Like even law enforcement
himself have been like targeted by people because it's just

(42:13):
causing like tension anxiety. No one likes like these images
that we're seeing of like these people in like all
this riot gear and this stance of you know, when
when I was trying to think of my favorite synonym
for Trump, I think cheeto dust Mussolini. I think that's
credited by Lovey I Ja love her cheetah dust Mussolini.

(42:34):
But seeing his that whole like military parade that he
had back around his birthday. Yeah, and how this is
just another He's literally a big fat toddler, like playing
with his g I Joe's and just wants things to
go boom boom, like the way that my kid really
wants to play with NERF guns but I won't let him.
He just wants to, you know, feel powerful and play

(42:56):
with his toys, and unfortunately it's going to cost lives
and livelihoods in the process.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Yeah. I mean we've all seen those videos like growing up,
and how much time have we see those videos from
those dictatorships, authoritary and governments where they have been military
or brades and you're just like, that's wild, that'll never
happen here. And then here we are, here, we are
in a situation where you have this. I don't know,
it's just it's so chaotic and like you're saying, it's
so nerve racking for you know, like, thankfully it's not

(43:26):
too bad where I'm at right now. But I think
about where I grew up in the large Mexican community,
and we have like the whole ice rays we're kicking
off over there, and I think about all my friends
and family people in the neighborhoods I grew up in,
and it's like you just have this fear now that
at any point in time someone could just come up
to you and just bother you. And the thing is
like with their face covered. And to me, that's the
worst part, is like you're not even bold enough, brave

(43:47):
enough to show your face. You have to cover your
face up, and people supposed to just complying with that. Like,
why would you feel comfortable with someone with a group
of people with their faces covered coming up to you
telling you to get out of your car? Why would
anyone feel comfortable.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
On These images are so scary.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
I think people from other states feel comfortable. People like
my family in Georgia who did vote for him, my
mom's side, the family, I think they're going to be
like they'll because they feel removed from it until it
happens in there.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Yeah, that's the thing, because when it comes into your neighborhood,
I mean, who really truly feels safe and protected when
troops come into the neighborhood Because I've honest you, it's
not us like I you know, when I travel outside
of the US, that's when I really start to see it.
But recently It was so scary because it happened recently,
like last two years ago. For my birthday, we took
a trip to Mexico City, and it was so cool

(44:35):
to be mexicost beautiful. I love Mexico City, but I
definitely noticed the like policing is so much heavier, like
just people walking around with big, old like guns shotguns.
I'm like, what is going on? These are like military
weapons and they just standing in the park just like
standing guard. Like kids are running and playing and these
people with these giant guns. I'm like, this doesn't look

(44:57):
this doesn't look right. But I realized that that is
is so normal outside of the US to see people,
you know, police guarding a park or public area with
military grade weapons and it just looks it looks normal
to them. To me, it was so jarring to see.
And recently I was at the airport, probably a couple

(45:18):
of months ago now, and it was when they first
started really pushing to the transition to real ID real ID.
Oh you have to have a real idea or you
can't fly. Oh my gosh. So the first time I traveled,
I didn't have my passport on me, but I had
my my Uh what is the little card for Global Entry.
I did Global Entry, so I had my little Global
Entry card, which it looks like a passport card, but

(45:38):
it's not a passport. It's a Global Entry card, which
I thought it's issued by the federal government. Global Entry
is a federal program. So I was like, oh, that
should be like a real ID. The person gave me
a hard time, was like, this is not real. I
d compliant. I was like, I swear when I researched it,
it said it was that's the only reason I impact
my passport. Long story short, they were like no, and
they gave me this red piece of paper. I think
I still have it in my closet or it's a

(46:00):
real red piece of paper that says next time you travel,
if you don't have your real ID, you will be detained,
like you will not be able to travel. And so
it was like a warning of red paper that was
like a warning. So since then I've had my passport.
But the point of my story is I was getting
on a plane. Usually you see like the TSA agents
and like all the officers, like when you're putting your
bags in through TSA and then once you go to

(46:21):
get on the plane, like that. That's pretty much it.
You just see the people that work for the airline. Well,
for the first time, I was walking onto the plane.
I'm walking down the runway getting on the plane, and
there's two agents right there, like standing, I've already gone
through TSA, I already scanned my boarding pass, I'm about
to step my foot onto this plane, and they're standing

(46:44):
right by the entrance to the plane, just leaning against
the wall there, just the most intimidating presence, just to
be seen, like hey, we're here. It was so blaming. No,
it was in I kind of want to say Georgia,
but I feel like you put that in my head now.
It was downside. It was definitely in south. It was
either North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, because I do travel a

(47:04):
lot to southern states, especially for financial education work I'm doing.
But it was, yeah, it was down south. And I
was just like, do you.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Think it was because you were flagged at security for
not having the real ID.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
I don't know, it might have been that, but they
looked like they were just stationed there and like they
had They were there before I got there, they were
there after I got in the plane. Like it was
just I think they just started to assign them to
stand there so that if to look for what, I
don't know, suspicious behavior, people sweating people. Now, I don't
know what are they looking for exactly. Peace already got
through TSA, you already got through, you're on, you're about
to get on your plane and get in your seat.

(47:35):
So at that point, what exactly are they looking for? Like,
I just think it's like this, I don't know what
it is. It's like to put it in our brains
that like they're everywhere and they're watching and you can't
get away with anything. Like I just think it's just
just a weird shift that has It's not been a
very American thing up until like all of a sudden,
now it's trying to be normalized.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
I just it's really, well, you're not going to see
them Amar a Lago, You're not going to see them
at the you know, uh, the the Trump Links over
here in the Bronx, you're not gonna hear. You're not
gonna see them, and the Hampton's foray not going to
see them, you know, in these like very you know,
rich Tony neighborhoods. I can assure you of that, but

(48:14):
you will see them in black and brown neighborhoods. You
will at our own detriment. Hey, ba fam, We got
to take a quick break, pay some bills and we'll
be right back. But moving on, there was a story
that really it like sent shivers down my spine a
little bit because this is one of my biggest fears
as a homeowner. I just had this, like I would

(48:36):
say before, it was like unjustified or what the irrational
fears that there's like some piece of paperwork somewhere that
I'm going to lose my house over, or that like
it's not really mine. I don't know, just like this,
it just never really felt real. I guess now it does.
But it's really sad story. There's a man in Brooklyn.
His name is Phil Moore Brown, which just come on now,
mister Phillmore, not mister Fillmore. A Brooklyn homeowner. He spent

(48:59):
decades paying off his mortgage and his home was valued
at eight hundred thousand dollars and he lost it to
foreclosure because of an unpaid water bill. It was a
debt that he says he never knew about.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Y'all hear about this story, No, I read about it
when he sent me this on the link, and so sad.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
So the city so this was an unpaid water bill,
which the city runs the water. So there's the city
had a lean against his home because of this water debt,
which is somehow he did not understand it. I was trying.
My husband was like, well, didn't he get letters in
the mail? Like, didn't he know? I'm like, I don't know.
Whatever reason he didn't know. He had set up a
new water account that he was paying and he was

(49:40):
current on, but the city still had him as owing
five thousand dollars. So they sold that debt to a trust,
which then triggered a foreclosure when that debt went unpaid.
So Brown he continued, was paying his current bills and taxes.
He never saw warnings about the old bill. Tell me,
this man found out about this when strangers with legal

(50:01):
access they had legal paperwork for the house, came with
tools and tried to enter his home.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
And so now he's trying to fight back, and I
hope that he gets some kind of relief. I hope
that there's like New York is supposed to be the
toughest place to kick renters out, like squatters rights and
all that. But to see a homeowner who's been like
paying his taxes, Yeah, can he get a refund of
all his damn property taxes?

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Now?

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Come on?

Speaker 3 (50:30):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
It's so sad.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
And the fact that, like it's not even a lot
of money. Water bills in New York are not that high.
Like my dad's water book for this house in Brooklyn,
he has a two family home, is only like a
couple thousand dollars a year. So even if he hadn't
paid it for four or five years, we're talking about
what six thousand, seven thousand dollars, Like you lose an.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Home equity to cover it.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Like, as I'm saying, the value of the home is
millions of dollars and the debt is less than ten k.
Make it make sense that you would lose a multimillion
dollar home for less than ten thousand dollars dead, Like,
it's just wild. And to me, it's one of those
things where it's like taking advantage of older people that
happened so much in brownstone buildings in Bedsty because so

(51:15):
many of those brown stones are older black family like
grandma and grandpa who live alone who don't have anybody
there to explain to them what's going on, and they
get taken advantage of and they end up losing their
property to stuff like this where people just show up
and say, oh, look, my name's on the deed now,
and what are you supposed to do. You don't have
money to hire a lawyer. You don't really understand even

(51:35):
what's going on. Like it is the most heartbreaking thing,
this one. I didn't know about this story until you
sent it to me, but I was like, oh, because
it's in Brooklyn, Like I'm from Brooklyn, and I feel
like my mom and dad would be victims like that
because they wouldn't understand like all the systems or the
notices coming. They wouldn't know, you know, like there's so
many older people that just get taken advantage of because
they don't understand a lot of these systems. They're lucky

(51:57):
enough to have even like gotten a real estate property
name early on, and now they're kind of, you know,
like easy targets for these predators that are looking for
people to take advantage of when it comes to these
places like Brooklyn, where properties back back when I was
born in the eighties, late eighties, a property in Brooklyn
that was like fifty sixty k today easily worth two

(52:17):
million or more. So that kind of appreciation that happens
so fast like that and at crazy rates. It's an
easy place to go and you know, be a predator
because you know that these properties are worth so much
and they're probably older people living there who don't really
understand what's going on.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Yeah, and the fact that unpaid what was that five
thousand dollars worth of water bills? Like, how does is
that enough to make you completely lose your home and
not get any real seats from it? I see, I
guess it was like you taking a court to get
five thousand dollars okay, but the result being oh, you
have to sell your house. We're going to We're going
to just take your house and sell it and get
way more than they might we need. That didn't seem

(52:55):
like that makes it any sets at all.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
I know.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
But that's the thing with those legal loopholes. It became
a lean on the property. Once. Once there's a lean
on the property, that's right, all bets are off, Like
you can lose the property just because of the lean.
But it just it's seemed like there has to be
something that like within the mathing math and like they
should take it from the equity or like you know,
negotiate with him where he has to take a heelock

(53:17):
or like something. But like he could pay it. It's
not that And he said he would have paid it
if you knew.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Yeah, he probably had an in savings. That man took
care of his finances. That man had a house that
was paid off. He was paying his bills, he was
paying his taxes, He had a more you know, he
had the mortgage paid off. But we all know in
New York, you're still paying them.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
I asked property, you.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Know, like he and or at least like once the
community finds out we're raising five thousand dollars for mister Fillmore,
like come on now, like it's not that much money,
but it I don't know. Have y'all bought a home
before they bought not me, not in my name. So
the word lean was was something that I mean, I
knew of it. But then when I was buying my house,

(53:58):
they do a title check when they whether the person
who's buying the home, typically will do the title check.
I forget which one of you pays it someone pays it.
But that's a very thorough search of county, state, local
records to see if there's any leans on the property
before the bank, because the bank does not want to
loan you money, as if you're getting a mortgage. They
don't want to loan you money for a home that

(54:19):
it could just be taken away from you and then
they made never get their money back. So they do
this title check. But I was like, other than that,
how does a person find out if there's any leans
against you? So and it's actually pretty convoluted, like the
most obvious way that you may find out if you
have an old, old debt on your record, it may
be on your credit report. That's not always the case.

(54:41):
I know when I got my first place in New York,
I had an unpaid water bill from my place in
college that me and the girls just lost sight of.
My name was on it. That wasn't showing up on
my record until my land my future landlord did a
check and on his end, he's like, oh, you have this,
like you have this debt back in Georgia. And there's

(55:02):
third party search tools that you you could check for liens, So.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
You're just gonna wake up one day and go, let
me just check today to make sure I don't have
a lien on my product.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Just check one.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Let me just check today to see if I have
a lian. You never know I might have a lien.
Let me just check today real quick. Like who's gonna
wake up and think to do to check.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
For a leak?

Speaker 3 (55:19):
Like?

Speaker 1 (55:20):
But the real these like property, these investment buyers, these
and these you know, real estate investors quote unquote whoever's
buying these foreclosed properties. They sure are, and they're like,
oh goodie. They see opportunity. They don't want to go
knock on a door and find out mister Fillmore lives
there and give him a heads up. Hey, mister Fillmore,
did you know that your house came up on this
search and just for five thousand dollars you could save

(55:40):
yourself your home. No, they're like, oh, we're gonna get
a great deal on this. Fuck mister Fillmore, you know
that's what they're thinking. No one's doing that for these
poor people. In New York specifically, there's something called the
Automated City Register. This is a great The acronym is
acris A c R is the Automated City just information

(56:01):
system where you can search property records in Manhattan, Queens,
Brooklyn and the Bronx. You could again this costs money,
like you have to hire a title search company. You
can ask a real estate agent to do you a solid.
You can check your credit report and then just hope
for federal leans like this is usually tied to tax debt.
You can go to the IRS dot gov. Good luck,

(56:21):
because they've laid off like a bajillion of them. We'll
find out. I feel like we need to do.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
It, really is though. I feel like what the investigative
journalism piece of this is is for us to figure
out who exactly is the trust, who's in that trust?
Who are the group of investors who bought the home
at the auction in the foreclosure, because they're the ones
that bought the debt right from the city. If I

(56:50):
am understanding this correctly, right like the home was put
up there, so then they're the ones who have the
opportunity to take corrective action and undo the injustice that
was done, even if they didn't purposefully or intentionally seek
to harm him. They once they understand that they did,
and once you have a bunch of film crew people

(57:10):
up in your face with cameras and microphones, asking did
you know that this is what you're doing? Do you
know that unintentionally this is what you're doing to him?
Are you going to help fix it? Are you going
to take the steps to do it right? Then if
all this pressure is on them, the problem is it
seems like it was a trust, so they do trusts
to like basically not make it easy for people to
find out who whose name right, because it's a trust,

(57:31):
it's not an individual. So investigative journalists need to go
up in there and find out whose names who are
the investors who own that trust, so we can you know,
not I don't want to say shame them, but like pressure,
positive peer pressure.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Some people need to be shamed.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Use it the right way, but yes, but shame them
and positively pressure them to do the right thing. On
field more brown behalf come on, like it's just doing
We just need to do the right thing. It's getting
ridiculous with these real estate things that are like go
viral on TikTok, people taking advantage of loopholes and putting
you just like really, this man could be your daddy
or your granddaddy, Like come on, have a heart, just

(58:09):
do the.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Right thing exactly. I mean, this is like, I mean,
one of the many reasons why for me, like housing
should never have even gotten into the investment territory, right,
that should never it should never be considered this is
a way to make money, Like I get it. Like
you know, maybe you had a house and you moved
and you want to rent it out, like okay, maybe,
But then when it becomes the thing where it's how
many properties can acquire how can I maximize them the

(58:31):
most profit out of these properties? It turns something that
is just a thing that we all need, an essential
part of being alive, is a place to live, and
it turns it into something that becomes a way to
make money. And once you do that, it completely changes
the way it's seen and completely takes the humanity out
of it, because now it's not about people, not about
just a service a place at home. It's about money

(58:54):
and it changes everything here.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Yeah, that's a great point.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Well, mister Fillmore, I'm gonna be following your story. I
hope you get some kind of relief. I'm glad that
the local news is covering it. You shout out to
our local journalist. I had dinner with a whole bunch
of metro reporters in the New York Times. I know
they already probably know, but I'm gonna email them. What
can y'all do?

Speaker 2 (59:14):
New York Times moaning?

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Get them moan it all right? Are y'all whiskey drinkers?
Tea cup?

Speaker 2 (59:23):
I was in Kentucky recently. Apparently Kentucky is like the
place to go for whiskey.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Right, yes, apparently apparently.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
I was in Kentucky and everybody was whiskey here, whiskey there. Oh,
you have to have whiskey you're in Kentucky. I was like,
whiskey and Kentucky are connected. Okay, I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
I didn't. Miami girl, you work out. I was like, okay,
well what about you, Chris, you like a little whiskey
in your teacup.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
You know, I don't drink very often, but when I do,
I do like a whiskey or bourbon every now and then.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Classy madly. I have way too many bad hangovers from
the dark liquor, so I try to stay away from
the dark liquor, and I don't really drink in general. However,
I do follow black owned business controversy and news and
the founder Fawn Weaver, who is the founder and CEO

(01:00:14):
of Uncle Nearest Whiskey. So this is a whiskey brand.
Have you heard of Uncle Nearest? It's the big, big brand.
Has a really incredible backstory. The name Uncle Nearest came
from a formerly enslaved man called Nathan Nearest Green and
he was formally enslaved. And he's the first known African
American master distiller. He actually taught Jack Daniel, Yes of

(01:00:38):
the whiskey fame, how to make whiskey and never got
credit for it. Of course, So Fawn Weaver, who founded
Uncle Nearest, discovered his story and then founded the company
named it in his name. And what's going on? What's
going on now? Speaking of debt going unpaid, So a
lender for Uncle Nearest has filed lawsuit against the founder

(01:01:02):
of the company saying that Uncle Nears defaulted on over
one hundred and eight million dollars in loans and misrepresented
its barrel inventory and yes, and also claims that loan
funds were improperly used to purchase property in Martha's vineyard.
So now Fawn Weaver and her husband Keith, their backs

(01:01:23):
are up against the wall trying to deny these allegations,
but they suffered a huge loss in court. A judge
has appointed someone who's called a receiver, who is taking
operational control away from the Weavers, which means they can't
sell company assets. And while things are sort of frozen,
this receiver, who's like a babysitter for their finances, essentially,

(01:01:45):
is gonna play a big role in deciding what are
they going to have to liquidate to pay back this
one hundred and eight million dollars now Fawn Weaver. She
actually came out on Instagram. I want to play a
clip of Look am I playing my clips?

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
So to a girl?

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
So Morning News coded.

Speaker 5 (01:02:02):
Y'all know I'm under a gag order because so many
have reported it. But here's what I know. I can
say two points and make sure to share this since
lies tend to spread faster than the truth. Number One,
keep clearing the shelves. Every bottle you move, tells our
distributors and partners the same thing. We've built one of
the strongest and most resilient brands in American history. Number two,

(01:02:23):
don't believe the fake news. Some reports claim I no
longer own Uncle nears that I'm not running it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Let me be clear. I've built this company. I own
this company.

Speaker 5 (01:02:31):
I run this company, and my leadership team, who have
all been with me for six to eight years, are
right here building alongside me. Our team remains unshaken and unmoved.
That ever changes, you'll hear it directly from me, and
I know you will respond accordingly. All major challenges are
inevitable in ownership. That's why so many tap out. And
my number one piece of advice to would be entrepreneurs is,

(01:02:54):
if you are of the quitting kind, don't start, because
entrepreneurialism will give you one hundred reasons a day to quit.
But strong leadership doesn't pan it. It keeps a steady
hand and moves forward.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
But I saw her statement just came out yesterday on
IG and she's she's standing on business. I mean, she's
very much like, this is some bullshit. We had a
terrible CFO. He's the reason that this happened, apparently, and
that she's using the hashtag, the hashtag clear the shelves
and asking fans of the brand that this is just

(01:03:26):
a part of entrepreneurship. And she says, if you're the
quitting kind don't start. Entrepreneurship will give you a hundred
reasons to quit every day. Well, and she's got one
hundred and eight million reasons to think about quitting. Now.
This is bit, this is bad.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
So basically you're saying her CFO kind of just did
them dirty, essentially.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
That's what. Yeah, So she's saying like it's behind the
scenes and that yes, they're blaming it on the CFO
who's no longer there but buying property, you know in
mar this vineyard which Martha's Vineyards having a moment right now.
I don't know if you guys it is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
I am, first of all, I was supposed to go
to Martha's Vineyard for my birthday this year. Oh really
because Okay, randomly, Jamil and I found out about this
twenty five for twenty five challenge from Jet Blue, which
is you have to go to twenty five new airport
destinations on a Jet Blue flight operated flight between July
first and December thirty first of twenty twenty five. And

(01:04:26):
so we fly Jet Blue a lot just because like
Caribbean up and down the Eastern seaboard and so and
we live in Miami. For Lardoe Airports, So like we
just travel Jet Blue a lot. I have the Jet
Blue credit card. So I was like, oh, we should
do this because like it'd be easy for us. It
wouldn't cost more than like two thousand dollars. And the
result of it is if you hit those twenty five
destinations in that timeframe, you get twenty five years of

(01:04:47):
mosaic status. So like bottomless drinks on planes meals first
priority boarding, free check backs, Like all of those.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Get lounge access. Do they have lounge I mean we
get launched the airport, free food.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Yeah, it's all this great drink.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
So I got to you gotta lounge access, Chris, gotta
get one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Now with all these cards, with all these credit cards,
I feel like I feel like people have lounge access
way more now with all these all these different credit
cards that give you access. But anyway, long story short,
we had booked our flight to Martha's Vineyard for my
birthday and then my good friend from college told me
she was gonna be in Nantucket and she got a
house for like a week and was like, hey, girl,
like we're gonna have people coming and going. Would love

(01:05:26):
for you to join us. So we switched our trip
from Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
Wait, when's your birthday?

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
August thirty? First, I'm a Virgo baby, Oh you're.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Also an August baby. You didn't tell me no.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
Ate August virgo. Literally, if my mom had pushed me
out like two hours later, I would have been a
September virgo.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
But I was born late night August baby. Yes, well,
you would have missed the black ay, black, black black
Martha's Vineyard. That's that's everyone. I think this this news
hitting the Martha's Vineyard like the blackady black blackness. It
hits like early August. There's the African American Film Festival,
there's the African American Book Fast of Martha's Vineyard Book Festival,

(01:06:04):
which is brand new. It's only been around a couple
couple summers now, manifesting my invitation for twenty twenty whenever
the hell my book comes out. I don't know, but
my dear friend is there right now, and I keep
getting invited to Martha's Vineyard events. But until somebody's copying housing,
I don't have a family home. And on the on
the vineyard saying don't come from an old beautiful black

(01:06:27):
wealth unfortunately, but I do love to see people living
their best black luxury lives. So the fact that this
came out and that they specifically mentioned that they allegedly
use corporate funds loan funding to purchase a property on
the vineyard, it's just like an extra like little It's embarrassing,
even if it even if it's you know, whether or

(01:06:49):
not they're in the wrong, or it's really the CFO
who did it? Like all that, Sometimes I do feel
like like, am I wrong? Just just thinking of this
as they took out a lot of loan month, they
took out a lot of loans, they did not pay
them back on the on the schedule or whatever, and
they need to file bankruptcy what they need like they're

(01:07:12):
getting a receivership. Maybe this is like one step before bankruptcy.
They're not. They're not pulling that lever yet. But god
damn our own president filed bankruptcy? How many times?

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
How many times? And how many other businesses have been
bailed out?

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
And many tell me why Toys r uss is back
after what dying? How many debts by banker?

Speaker 6 (01:07:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Yes, players is back. Sears. I heard an ad for
J C. Penny JC Penny is back.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
You're like, meth bye still in business?

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Did you say Series is Sears back?

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
The girl you said Sears?

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
I used to work at Series back in the day,
and I stopped.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
Sears Catalog when I was little.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
But this is, like, it's a part of business. Like
businesses leveraged, they don't pay it back, they go into bankruptcy,
they come back all the time. But am I wrong?
And just kind of it's just it's a big headline,
it's a it's a beloved brand, and there's so much
like affinity for this brand and what it stands for
and all that, and it just sucks to see this happen.
But I'm like, if we elected a bankrupt like sexual

(01:08:22):
assault sexual assaulter and a felon, and we made him
our president, like you, we give von Weaver like a
little bit of a break here, like for her to
untangle this mess.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Right, I mean, I think everybody deserves a chance, right like.
And I feel like if her, if the business, if
what she's saying is true about that MESSCFO, which is
honestly very believable. I you know, I my book that
I published in twenty twenty three was through a hybrid
publisher called scrib Media. When I was going through the
process of doing my audiobook recording, they had a massive,

(01:08:57):
like scandal where they ran out of money and we're
essentially to shut down the business and a bunch of
people who were putting their books out with Scribe, We're
like wait, what, Like they just left authors in limbo,
people who paid thirty four couple one thousand dollars. It
was massive. Somebody came in and bought the business and
just revived them, like just gave them a second chant.
Like now the business is up and running. It's totally normal.

(01:09:17):
Like nobody even associates them with that scandal anymore. Now
they have like all these big name authors putting books out,
and you know, some people had to pay a little
bit more to finish their projects, but like, you know,
they're fine now. And I feel like this happens with
business all the time. And that particular scandal, it ended
up coming out that the CFO was the reason why
all of this happened, because he was like lying and

(01:09:38):
manipulating people and like moving money places shouldn't have gone,
and like personally benefiting from the business. Like all kinds
of scandalous messy things. So for her to say, like, look,
we had a really messy CFO, like, I believe that
is very believable. I would say it's worth saving and
giving them a second chance. Now if it happens again, okay,
then I don't believe in third This is all I'm

(01:10:01):
gonna say. But I do think it's worth an attempt
at really like bringing the community together for what the
company represents, especially with the story behind the brand and
what it represents, especially in alcohol and distilleries. We're such
a white dominated industry. So I feel like it's worth
a chance. And then you know, of course what happened
if it was just a one time thing and that
was a mistake, and hopefully they hire genuinely better people

(01:10:23):
moving forward and learn from that mistake. But with businesses
at that scale, yeah, it's really it's really hard. I
honestly would give the benefit of doubt and say, like,
people come together, say the business.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Sellency, even if she even if they did use the
loan cap the loan funding for a home, like the
way that like even when with my laptop, for example,
when you get into business, you find all these loopholes,
all these little like yeah, all the time, all these
little you know, and Mario the little green tunnel, do
do do do do like, and you know, go down.
I go to our kids.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
Espectually pretty good and you just.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Go to like things and you go to these different
portals and there's like all these coins and grab them all.
No one knows about this deal. And it's like if
you have these cheat codes, they can and they can
be and there they sometimes they try to market them
to every day people. People will be like, go buy
a van and find get an LLC van and put it. Oh,
put that new iPhone, put the new car on your

(01:11:16):
company business. It's a it's a write off. Like there's
all this misinformation and you know, information that applies in
some cases, and I think it and the more the
bigger you are, the more money you have, the bigger
the falls can be, the bigger the f ups can be.
And but I can absolutely see how someone gave some
bad advice, one made a bad judgment call. They were

(01:11:37):
told it was legit, and then you know, only to
find out maybe it wasn't so kosher that they did
it this way. I think a little room just the
order that the order, the errors are just very very expensive.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Yeah, I mean I don't I don't know enough about it,
and I definitely want to learn more because I feel
like if there, if if it makes sense and there's
just some wrong doing on behalf of the former CFO, like,
then I would say that deserves a second chance. But
if it's a little bit more than that and you
try to look and there's really no justification and what
was done was clearly shady on multiple people's party and

(01:12:11):
there's really no cleaning it up, then in that case,
like Okay, y'all were shady, and now you got to
come up with the money, liquidate whatever you have to liquidate.
That's the name of business. That's just how it goes.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
But I feel like, maybe they can be president one day.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Listen, it wouldn't be.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
All no, maybe they'll be the ambassador to Europe, to
the UK, to Russia even why not?

Speaker 3 (01:12:32):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (01:12:34):
But you know, it's like I think it's it's like
one of the reasons why it's so tempting to want
to outsource, like the like the like your money tasks. Right,
I think this is like a business huge scale, but
even on a personal level, I think so often like
people hear I'm saying even sometimes I'm like, I don't
want to do this. I wish someone would just do
this for me. But then the further you remove yourself
from that information and knowing what's going on, you're still

(01:12:56):
gonna be held liable for it, right, And as that's
the hard part, like yourunning a business, I'm sure it's
I can't even imagine running a business of that scale,
how difficult that is and how much stuff you have
to do on a day to day basis. But if
you also aren't tapped into what's going on with your
finances and you're letting someone just run everything, it's like
it puts you in such a vulnerable position where now
you can be caught off guard, like saying that's what happened,
saying they didn't know anything about this, and they but

(01:13:19):
they were clearly like trusting this person. And that's when
it's like you got at least keep you know, a
little bit of yourself in on what's going on, and
maybe they weren't. It just it still wasn't enough. They
need to know even more. But that's the danger and
letting someone else run all the financial science.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
You've been victimized by someone you hired to help you,
and you really just want to.

Speaker 3 (01:13:38):
I've had an accounting man, I'm cleaning up stuff in
an accountant from like three years ago, messed up because
I trusted them. I was like, didn't seem right, but
I was like, they said this was right. And then
I'm still cleaning it up. And yeah. It's like you
when you when you let go of the reins and
someone else you trust someone else to be like, oh yeah,
they got this.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
That's why I have trust issues, y'all. That's why I
have trust issues.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
I think trust issues are a healthy shall have a
few trust.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
Levels, very high Gazell level.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
Gazell level. We'll see how this continues to play out.
But Fan Weaver ain't going down like that on her
In her post, folks always want to play mondanight Monday
night quarterback, she says, But until they get on this
field and help create the touchdowns, how do you verbalize
monkey covering eyes? Monkey covering you know? Evil? See there

(01:14:27):
you go?

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Okay, monkey covering eyes?

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
Well, if I drink with ye, I go get a bottle.
But I don't, so y'all, y'all go do that for work.
Clear the shells has should I clear the shells.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
It's just the timing is off. If it was like, oh,
maybe Labor Days coming up, my people might do Labor
Day for Labor Day, barbecues, cookouts, bring bring up bottle
on Glenaras.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Yes, that's such a good I Yes, Labor Day is
coming up, and Nellie's birthdays coming up. I'm saying, all right,
next up. I wanted to do a quick This was
pretty sad, y'all know. I have been and on these
internet streets and on this own podcast talking a lot
more about Gaza, and this was a really sad update
because the one like source of comfort for me has

(01:15:10):
been reading gofund me camp's. This sounds weird, but there's
many to try to like cope with the heaviness of
what's happening in Gaza. I've been going on GoFundMe and
just reading the stories of victims who have been injured
and their families who've been transported to like Europe and
usually in the US as the ones that I'll read,

(01:15:30):
you know, and they'll end up in these like in
the Midwest. I sent my mother one because this family
had ended up in Saint Louis and the daughter who's
like three had, you know, had amputations of both legs
and one of her arms. And but you'll read their
stories and you'll see that the least are getting medical
care here and able to find some kind of reprieve
from the war happening in their home, which of course

(01:15:52):
is devastating. But in a sad update, the US State
Department has suspended all visitor visas for people from Gaza,
which includes Palestinian children who are in urgent need of
medical care. And they've said that this is so they
can do a full review of the visa issue one's process,
particularly with visas concerning temporary medical slash humanitarian aid that

(01:16:19):
had been granted in recent months. And the suspension has
come after criticism from of course, far right activists who
claimed without evidence that some Palestinians receiving these visas had
ties to terrorist organizations and it sounds like the same
justification they have to bombing them in the first place.

(01:16:39):
Medical humanitarian groups have condemned the suspension, and the freeze
affects all visitor visas from Gaza while the State Department
evaluates procedures. And yeah, and this means that there's children
and there are dozens who are awaiting medical care that
them and their families are probably stuck in Jordan or
Egypt or some other hopefully safe but still in need

(01:17:02):
of care, surgery, rehabilitation. They have buns of.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
Stuck in mid transit, stuck in purgatory.

Speaker 6 (01:17:12):
Yeah, well, I hope there's I hope there's groups that
will that will go there and rush to the aid,
like you know, go to Jordan, go to these places
where they're because I just feel like this in the past,
at least has been like a bunch of like doctors
without Borders and groups like that that've been like, Okay,
let's rally and like bring people where they're needed. And
I feel like there's this fear of like going into gassap.

(01:17:33):
But if you know that there's now pockets of folks
that were stuck in mid transit and need help, like,
maybe that's an opportunity for people qualified medical professionals who
are looking to do that kind of humanitarian.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
Work to go there. It just it feels like there's
an opportunity to provide help. But it's just heartbreaking because
no matter what the policy changes are, you're going to
have people who are going to say, oh, it's justified, Oh,
we're doing this for this X y Z reason, and
it's impossible to get them to admit that with the
real reason why you know, they're doing this even even
to babies, which is like you know, I the other

(01:18:06):
day I was like looking at a video on Instagram
of this mom who was like she was just sitting
down eating a plate of food and her baby was
sitting next to her, little tiny little baby, like not
a toddler, like a baby in diapers, And every time
the mom would take a bite, she'd like make eye
contact with her baby, and the baby would just giggle
and they would both just crack up, and then the
mom would go take another bite, and then the baby
would look at mom and they would laugh again. It

(01:18:27):
was the cutest thing in my mind. I just kept
picturing like like why do people watch these videos hurt
them like them coming, Oh, this is adorable, but then
they can't understand that that's exactly this kind of peace
and love that mothers and gods that want to be
able to provide to their babies. Like why is it
that we lose our humanity when we're looking at certain
babies or certain mothers or certain people but like I

(01:18:49):
see that video and I see there's no difference between
that mother and baby and her mother and baby and Godsend,
Like there's literally no difference. So it just like it
breaks my heart to hear this, and I just I
hope creates an opportunity to be able to provide help
in places that are not maybe you know, that are
mid transit for these folks and not like right in
the place where a lot of people don't want to
like you know, go right to where the chaos is,

(01:19:10):
but like maybe tertiary or secondary locations around it can
still get some aid and some help and support.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
Just what is the hole that Israel has over the world?
Like what is it? What the what is it? Yeah,
it's you know, And I'm willing to just like say
the wrong thing here because no one's going to tell
me that I'm I'm an anti semi. You won't tell me
that because I know for sure my heart and that
I'm not. And my kids, you know, they will learn

(01:19:41):
about the Holocaust and they'll learn about what's happening in
Gaza too, and I'll have to find words to describe
and help them understand, and you know, and I I'll
do my best. I think like all of us will
to like try to put words to what's going on,
but it just makes it makes such little sense. And
I feel like I definitely grew up and went to school,

(01:20:05):
went through journalism school all that, always kind of feeling
like and like there was this message being funneled like
fed to us. And I'll never forget Tanahassei Coates's book
that came out last year. I'm blinking on the name now,
but it was all about It was a lot about
what's happening in Israel and Gaza and the war there.
And he really put words to my experience, which was

(01:20:26):
that we just had this like feeling I just grew up,
like they really brainwashed you into thinking that it was
way too complicated.

Speaker 2 (01:20:33):
Well yeah, he says that in a lot of the
press interviews too. The book is called The Message. He
talked a lot about that in his interviews too around
the book, where there were a little bit of controversial
interviews where people put him on the spot like do
you really feel like because you spent four days in
the Godza strip that now you're qualified to talk about this?
And he was like, I look, I am just calling
it what it is, and it's like you can spend

(01:20:55):
four years there, four days there, doesn't matter. When anybody
who goes and sees what's happening, you can you can
call out in justice when you see it. And I
mean that book was incredible. I listened to the audiobook
version of it, but yeah, definitely highly recommend it. And
I think no matter how much controversy people say that
like he created with that book, like I think it
helped a lot of people see that. The message point

(01:21:17):
in plan and clear is that we've been convinced that
we shouldn't talk about it because we're not informed, we
don't understand. It's so layered, it's so complex, it's too
complex to talk about. And he was just saying like
that is BS just calling BS on that that specifically,
and that's it, which I think is very powerful.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
I just see pain causing more pain. I see fear.
I think of Israel. Israelis as so deeply afraid of
having another Holocaust and at willing to do at any
cost to protect themselves. And I think it was what
you're saying earlier on Elli about like understanding the psychology
behind why someone's done something. But that doesn't justify it, right,

(01:21:58):
I think we feel a lot of things. I mean,
it's it's not lost on me that Miss Rachel was
out here, you know, doing the day, like holding the
weight of the emotion and the feelings of you know,
witnessing all of this on her on her shoulders and
doing such a beautiful job. Love you, Miss Rachel. But
you know she talks a lot about regulating feelings and
helps kids understand their feelings. And i'mlike, someone needs to

(01:22:20):
sit down do this for adults, sit these with our leaders,
with these leaders, and help them work through their feelings,
because feelings are not always fact. And the justification of fear,
like the justification for brutality is it's then it's it's
it's nothing. There's there is no justification for what's happening.

(01:22:41):
None that sits right with me. Not revenge, not protection,
none of it. There's there's no excuse for it. And
I wish, goddamn there was a march. Yesterday. I was.
I had to. I had to drop my kids off
at Grandma's, which for me involves getting on an eight
am flight to Saint Louis and flying those those baby
kids all the way to Saint Louis and then flying

(01:23:03):
right back to New York. So I missed there was
a march in the city for Gaza, but I will
post a link again in the show notes, y'all to
where there's a great organization that I've been following. And
their acronym escapes me now, but I've been following them
on ig and they do a really great job of
posting anytime there's going to be a protest or march.

(01:23:23):
They do all they do noise rallies, they do virtual
like zoom meetings where they'll have hundreds of people join
these zoom calls. And I highly recommend too go on
go fund me, and I just donated to a family
from Gaza, who Oh my God, and have someone hold
your hand while you're looking at these they're really challenging.

(01:23:44):
When you see babies missing limbs, and you see babies
crying and babies you know who have lost dozens of
their entire family in these airstrikes. Like it's very challenging.
But with one people say what can I do? What
can I do? Yes, we can protest, but I also
think if there's there are these beautiful communities and small

(01:24:05):
pockets of America right now, who are welcome welcoming these
people into their homes and being host families and providing
for them and helping them find some semblance of comfort,
and so if we can support that in any way,
GoFundMe does, I think a pretty decent job vetting a
lot of these fundraising efforts, but definitely do your due
diligence and look into them and make sure that you

(01:24:28):
know that they're legit before you make your donation. But yeah,
that's just something I've been doing recently.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
Yeah, same, It's so hard. I wish I could just
like give all my money to all these charities. I
feel like there was a time when I had like
quarterly donations set up to an organization and then all
of a sudden, this thing started happening, and I was like,
oh my gosh, I can't like watch and do nothing.
So I like I felt so bad, but I was like,

(01:24:58):
that's how much money I budgeted to like get every
quarter to donation. And so I had to call that
other charity organization and say, I'm so sorry, I'm gonna
stop these contributions. And then when you do that, if
anybody's ever given to like any or you know, Save
the Children or like Planned Parenthood or any of these.
They'll ask you, you know what, can we ask you
why it is that you're stopping the contribution. And I said,
I'm gonna use this exact same donation and move it

(01:25:20):
to to give it to At that time, I was
doing International Rescue Committee and they were like oh, and
then they immediately try to explain to me how they're
also using these donations to funnel money to families and
god they need. And it's like, I just feel you
just feel so badsin like there's so many I want
to be able to give all of y'all money. I
don't want to have to be like pick and choose,
and it just like breaks my heart. But yeah, I mean,

(01:25:40):
do your research, because I definitely have a few friends
who have called out some organizations on their social media
saying these are scams. They look like they're doing good work,
but they're not. You really got to like do your
due diligence when you're choosing where to donate your money,
because worst case scenarios, you've been giving money and then
all of a sudden, some scandal works out the money
never actually reached the intended people. That's why really like
gofund me because you can actually you know, see who

(01:26:02):
you're giving it to, a real people receiving the money
most majority of the time. Obviously they could be scams
on there too, but also just.

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
You know, it did reponize making my donation. That GoFundMe
has some kind of like guarantee, which doesn't change the
fact that people are and it could be potentially like
a small sliver. I don't want to like disswaye people
from donating, but could be enriching themselves, you know, wrongly,
But that they offer like a guarantee. So if you
do find that you've donated money to a scam, then
they will like refund you or redirect.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
The funds to direct the money.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
Yes, a legitimate fund. So you mentioned i r C.
That's a great organization. I've heard lots of I mean
I've they go way back. I used to volunteer with
them in college. Say the Children's another one, and then
the pc RF Palestinian Children's Relief Fund they are pc RF. Yeah,
they're the organization I've been following because I've been worried

(01:26:56):
about these babies.

Speaker 2 (01:26:58):
Babies.

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
Yeah, that's really that's a real feeling, Chris, do you
feel that way, like the overwhelm of I think we're
probably all feeling that way. It's like like you were
saying earlier, decision paralysis, analysis paralysis, like where I have
these like fifty dollars where and the world's on fire.
This is like a tiny this is not even a
drop in the bucket. This is like molecules, right, But
still like to break through that noise and just make

(01:27:20):
a decision, just send it somewhere and make peace with
you not being able to do everything.

Speaker 3 (01:27:26):
Right because I feel that too, you know, sayings like
you just there's all there's so many things you want
to support, especially in the time where now, whether it's
supporting the people and guys, and whether it's trying to
keep PBSS support PBS or NPR or any of the
just so there's always something that needs some support. And
I think it is really hard to find where to
put that that effort. But I think, like you said that,

(01:27:47):
you just got to find something, you do something, You
do one thing because we're all as individuals, we all
have restrictions on what we can do financially, and you
got to just find one thing and then not beat
yourself up for not being able to help everyone, because
I mean, if I think, if you're a good person,
if you have any empathy, any type of heart, you
obviously feel when you see these things, you feel the pain,

(01:28:08):
you feel like you want to do something, but you
will have those limitations. And I think it's important but
difficult not to beat yourself up for being able to
do something small and not being able to do everything,
because that's just the reality. And even if it's something small,
you're doing something right. It's better than nothing at all.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
I just hug your people, hug your babies like you're
both auntie and uncle. You' all know what it's like
to have these like tiny humans and like they're no
different just because they speak a different language and like
look differently and they live somewhere else. It's yeah, it's
thanks for thanks for holding my hand virtually while I
went through that. It actually wasn't as scary and painful.

(01:28:47):
I mean, it's painful, but I'm not catatonic with crying,
which is a good thing.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
Yeah, we do what we can, that's the thing. Even
if it's like a hyper local Like I have a
good friend out in SF who's like il he's like,
I step outside and I see so much pain in
my own neighborhood. So like I stopped contributing to these
international organizations and I just started going to the restaurant
nearby and getting extra takeout boxes. And every time I
prep my meals, I prep extra meals, I go outside
and I just hand them out. It's like, whatever small

(01:29:15):
thing you can do, right, it doesn't have to be
like I'm going to save the world, because like, ultimately
that's how you end up crying in a corner because
you feel like you can't. You can't do what you
set out to do. You can't save the world. But
if you set these micro goals and go, like, you
know what, I'm going to make a difference in this
person's life. I'm going to make a difference putting this
small donation to work, that can actually make you feel like,
all right, I'm doing my part. I'm what I can right,

(01:29:35):
what I can with what I can, and that's really
all we can ask of any individual person.

Speaker 1 (01:29:41):
Yeah, and thanks so much to Bafan too for supporting me,
because y'all know I was I was not worried about
like getting pushed back because Honestly, I know this community
is so amazing. I wasn't so worried about talking about
this kind of stuff more. I was worried about y'all
wanting to hear it. I was worried about y'all like
being okay with letting me go there on a show

(01:30:04):
that is really meant to be you know, it's meant
to be about us and empowering us, and yes, helping
to build wealth, and yes, helping to build security. But
I mean, if we don't have basic human rights, health safety,
clean food, water, drink like, you know, a shelter, these
basic then what are we even talking about? Like how

(01:30:25):
is anybody going to be free if we aren't all free?
And so y'all have been so supportive, and I did
want to point out one listener, Paalanda, who sent me
a message and she said, thank you for using your
platform to speak out on what's going on in Gaza.
I have no words for the anger and frustration I
feel as I watch this country continue to fund and

(01:30:45):
encourage this genocide. And that's just that's just like a
sample of some of the messages that I've gotten from
y'all BA fans. So I feel better just having y'all
here to talk with me and to do this with
versus doing what I was doing before, which was like
deeply depressing and by myself and doom scrolling and kind

(01:31:07):
of feeling like what do I do? And this is
the answer. I've got a platform, freaking use it, lady.
Let's talk about it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:14):
And helping people realize that we're not all like we're
not insane, Like you're not insane. If you're sitting at
home and you're like what the hell is going on?
You're not alone. Everybody we're all into like when we
commserate together and like wonder together, like there's just you
just feel so much more in community rather than being
at home by yourself wondering what is there is everybody
else wondering? It's like, yes, everybody else is, and you're

(01:31:35):
not insane at all. You have a heart and everybody
else is thinking the same thing. And it's weird to
let some like social pressure to not talk about it.
So I respect Mandy that you literally gone on social
media just like cried to your heart out, just be
like what's going on, like as a mom, but also
just as a human who cares about other humans. Like
we need more of that. And honestly, I think that

(01:31:55):
that's why be a fan goes so hard for you,
because it's like genuine and outpour of how much you
care about people, and honestly, you can't. You can't fake
that shit. You just can't.

Speaker 3 (01:32:07):
No, No, I mean so many of us are doing
that like on our own right, like it at home,
just like struggling with it. And I think when you
open up like that, you you create a space for
other people to be like, Okay, I'm not feeling alone
and like just sitting there talking with you two, like
I feel it's not like I'm like, oh, the world's
amazing now, but you feel that kind of like Okay,
I'm not saying by myself, yes, it's still crazy, so crazy,

(01:32:29):
but at least it's not crazy. And then I'm by
myself thinking about this. It's like it's it's so important
to make those connections.

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
Yeah, a little bit of hope for humanity.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
We're we're auntie uncles and Mama's like, we gotta. I
think it's important because the kids one day are going
to ask us, what did you do? Chris? What are
you going to say?

Speaker 3 (01:32:46):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
Well, I was on Brown Ambition here.

Speaker 2 (01:32:50):
Don't listen to this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
Close to this episode, I'm going to post a link
to everything I've talked about in the show so far.
I'm also going to post a link to I think
John Stewart did a really beautiful interview with an actual
Palestinian advocate. I think he was a writer who had
on this show. They did, I mean a really beautiful interview,
and I thought that was really incredible. John Stewart himself
being Jewish and creating and using his platform to actually

(01:33:17):
bring a Palestinian voice and ba fam. I'm also working
on getting a Palestinian We've had a Palestinian guest on
the show before, but it's now it's been two years
into this war and it's still ongoing, so we'll try
to spotlight some more voices on Brown Ambition as well.
I did want to talk a little bit about the
statistic that I've been seeing in the news about there's

(01:33:39):
this number. I don't know if you guys have seen it.
It's all over my feet about how three hundred thousand
black women have lost their jobs in just the past
few months. And I was trying to find out, like, Okay,
where's this data coming from and it's actually it's coming
from the labor department, and I wanted to I wanted
to bring it up because I've seen a lot of it,

(01:33:59):
and I do think obviously black women like we are
so much more susceptible to losing our jobs during economic downturns.
We just tend to over index in the types of
roles that are easily cutable, you know, service industry roles.
And during the pandemic, we saw this. We were in
food and beverage and tourism and you know, but even

(01:34:21):
more so today in these corporate roles that are being slashed,
we over index and DEI organizations at corporations, which have
been very easy targets. Yes, there's also fewer working mothers.
There's been a steep decline in the number of working
moms who've left the who've left corporate nine to five life,
which yeah, I did it. It makes sense as companies

(01:34:48):
have issued more return to work orders.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
And I just wanted to know support for working mothers,
let's call it what it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:54):
Is like even little like none, literally none. But I
did want to use this as a chance to just
say that there is something that we can do about
three hundred like, and the number is actually not three
hundred thousand. It was just updated. I know we talked
about the Labor Department data that came out. It comes
out each month, and then they get the data so

(01:35:15):
quickly that sometimes the data is not fully accurate because
not all companies have reported how many jobs they've added,
so they try to just they try to like estimate
how many jobs were added last month. So this the
jobs numbers that came at the end of July actually
updated for May and June, and there was even fewer
jobs that were added, so it was even worse than
we had thought. But I wanted to just say, if

(01:35:38):
you're hearing this and you're wondering, okay, three hundred thousand
women of color, black women, who are you know without jobs?
And I know women who have been unemployed for months
and are so talented, it's so tough be a referral
for someone like go to your network. I think we
need to stop expecting the candidates, like job seekers, to

(01:35:59):
be the one to put all their business out on
LinkedIn and to be pouring their heart out police begging
for assistance. If you work, if you are fortunate enough
to work for a great company that is hiring and
you have or even if you do, or you don't
have an internal referral process or a formal process, or
even if you don't get a referral bonus. Like one

(01:36:21):
thing that you can do that's entirely free is tell
your network, Hey, I work here. Here are the jobs available.
I am happy to be a reference or a referral
for any qualified candidates. You can email me directly, because
we need help breaking through that brick wall of the
job market right now. And I mean I've seen it,

(01:36:41):
Like I'm working with women every day and it has
never been more challenging to be a career coach than
it is right now. Although I feel like none of
the advice I've ever given changes at a time like this,
it just becomes harder to implement because there's fewer opportunities
out there. So what I really would love to see
is way more people telling me from my community that

(01:37:01):
they are sending people cold dms and asking for referrals
and actually getting a response, Like y'all need to be
checking your LinkedIn inboxes, you need to be telling your network.
You need to especially be looking for women of color
in your network. And if they're struggling. If you see
that they don't have a job, or you see someone
on LinkedIn who has been brave enough to tell their story,
like offer whatever assistance you can. It doesn't cost much.

(01:37:24):
And I do think that there's you know, small things
that we can do to lift each other up during
times like this, and women like we are just less
likely to have access to the network that can lead
to great opportunities to have to get our foot in
the door in the first place. So like, any help
you can give in that regard is amazing, It's welcome,
and this is the time to do it. Like five

(01:37:47):
alarm fire bell, if I had it, I would be
it'd be going off because I'm really really concerned.

Speaker 2 (01:37:53):
Bye, anybody who has a community, an audience, or like
even just something like a blog or a newsletter, like
at a section for job openings, Like I feel like
that's a big thing where we have we already have,
we're well resourced, we already have so many connections and
so many but we're just not putting the information out

(01:38:14):
there right Like for me, that's an easy one. Like
if I add job openings to the emails that I
send out, like boom somebody might you know, just putting
it out there, and it doesn't take me a very
long time. I get a bunch of people sending me
stuff on linked sending me stuff you email. What takes
me five minutes to copy and paste all those links
into one section and add it to my social media

(01:38:34):
or add it to a newsletter. Like it's the visibility
is the problem because oftentimes these types of jobs, or
these connections career moves, Amandy, you say this all the time,
is like somebody making a referral. It's a warm intro,
it's you have to know somebody. So putting those things
out there for people to find, usually they're not they're
going to be like high internal high, or like oh
we didn't really post it, we're going to hire somebody,

(01:38:56):
or even if we posted it, we're still going to
hire somebody that we want that we already had an
eye on for that job anyway. So we really have
to go above and beyond to make sure people are
seeing what's available when it is, because it's already so
hard making those connections. But yeah, I think I think
you're absolutely right. Like being the one who reaches out,
I have not done that, and I personally know for

(01:39:19):
black women girlfriends of mine who are without work right now,
for in different completely different cities, completely different cities, some
from college, some from high school, like friends. It just
it's it's all happening. And it's not even just black women,
like I know a lot of black men also. I've
got an email to emails recently from two of my
black male friends, one from undergrad and one from another

(01:39:41):
a teaching program, that both sent me an email saying, hey,
if you have any opportunities, you know, I was my
position was shut down. I'm not returning to work. So
it's like, it's just let's be here for each other
because the reality is it's very hard. People go to
a dark place when they lose their dog. There's a
lot of shame in it. I'm not gonna be like,
oh okay, everybody, that's my job, who's gonna help me

(01:40:01):
find the next one? I'm going to be like feeling
really insecure about that. And a lot of people just
rather not put that information on blast. They don't want
to tell anybody. So it's much easier for us to
go out there and say, hey, here's job opening, there's opportunities,
let me know rather than us expecting them, like you said, Mandy,
us expecting them to be the ones to say, hey,
any help, you know, help me out, because there's a lot.
There's a lot behind.

Speaker 3 (01:40:22):
That, it really is. I've had a friend who's he's
been looking for work for over a year now and
it's just and I'm being here in San Francisco. Fact
I'm in like layoff Central because every day I come
across somebody else who just got let go and they're
trying to find work and it can be so disheartening.
I say it with my friend, like it's like it's

(01:40:42):
hard to keep your spirit up and like the energy
of like, oh, yeah, I'm searching for a job. After
you do this for six months, I can understand why
you're just like, you know what, I'm over this, even
though like you gotti find work, but you just feel
you feel done because that's that's hard.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
Yeah. Then you're bringing that energy into an interview if
you're lucky enough to get one, and then it's like, oh,
I don't know, they didn't really fit the culture, like
they don't have that Jean sa like what do you expect? Yes? Absolutely,
and thank you all. Yeah, I think that if there's
it's just a call to action for anyone listening. If
you're lucky enough to be employed, like turn around, Like

(01:41:18):
even if you don't think that you don't have to
be a CEO. You don't have to be a director
or senior director. Even if you're just like entry level
mid level, there can't there's someone that you can help.
You can like whether it's like going back to your
alma mater and saying like, are there any you know,
graduating seniors who are looking like I may have some
leads for some entry level positions, or like going to
a networking event, like we all have something to offer,

(01:41:42):
but we need it to be coming from both directions,
especially at a time like this. Yeah, And I do
feel like it is because of that shame and because
there's so much of it, like it can kind of
start to feel you see the post and like it
doesn't hit you the same. But I'm just saying, like,
look at those posts like talk to your friends and
and and thanks you all for sharing about your friends
that have been unemployed. I get the same messages and

(01:42:03):
it's like I've had a friend who bought a career
coaching session with me for a friend as a gift.
I have not even heard from that friend, and I
know why I've had you know, it's really sad. I've
had people offer to pay for sessions with my coaching
for me, for the friends who have been unemployed, just
out of the goodness of their heart and they're trying
to be a good friend. But more often than not,

(01:42:26):
the people who end up getting gifted a session never
take advantage of it. And I my guess is that
when you're in that situation, it doesn't feel good to
have someone like have to pay, you know, someone else
to like help you out. Like it can be like
a pride thing. It can be a shame thing.

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
Like I don't need no sponsor. I'm going to figure
this out. I got you know. It hurts.

Speaker 1 (01:42:50):
Yeah, yeah, it can hurt. And I think so the
way that you offer help, like offer it with compassion
and like even and they may just want that you know. Ever,
girl can go a long way, yeah you know, or
I saw this opening for you can go a long way.
Let me sit down and help you with your resume
and cover letter, this that and the third like there's
something that you can do.

Speaker 2 (01:43:10):
Also just like doing it alone, like I you know
I if I offered that session to my friend, I
would also offer my time. I'd be like, hey, I'm
going to book this session. Do you want me to
come with you want to do the session together, like
a group of three of us, we can two heads
are better than one, Like let's all jump on this
zoom and like help you out, girl, because it just
it just feels it feels already. Let you're so alone

(01:43:31):
and you're it's like such a negative environment. Then you're
by yourself, and then it festers, and then you also
have to like be brave enough to like hop on
this zoom call with this coach that somebody else paid
by yourself. It's like by yourself again. It's like I
think it's really nice if you offered to pay for that,
but also join them, if they are open to having
you join the call too, because then it feels like, hey, look,

(01:43:52):
all of us are here to do this thing with
you and for you because we love you, care about you,
like we're gonna figure this thing out versus like, okay, girl,
I booked it for you. Go ahead and figure out
when you're available, jump on there and do that thing yourself.
Like it just feels to be who So yeah, just
be there for your people. Be there with your people too.

(01:44:13):
Don't just be there for them, be there with them, yeah, because.

Speaker 3 (01:44:16):
That can be hard, right, I think sometimes to just
having that conversation because my friend who's been dealing with that,
like he didn't even want to bring it up, and
so sometimes I can't have to be the one to
introduce the topic. But you can't do it like in
a judging way because he probably don't tell the story,
but I'm telling. Anyways, we were in a group chat
with another friend and we were talking about like his
job search and like what he been doing. We're giving
some tips on his resume and his LinkedIn profile. And

(01:44:38):
then the next day that other friend was like, oh, hey,
if you do this, if you apply for a job,
I'll do this type of thing. And he was like,
I don't need you to babysit me. He got like
angry because obviously, like you're trying to like talk down
to him, like yeah, and I think to be really
careful because already in a very sensitive spot. You brush
your tea right right, I'm not a child, So it's like,

(01:45:01):
you know, you got to be careful, like you don't
like you may want the best for this person, but
you also have to remember they're an adult and you
know they got they got feelings about this, and you
have to be you know, thoughtful when you talk to
them about this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:45:12):
Yeah, it's your livelihood.

Speaker 1 (01:45:13):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:45:13):
It's like you feel raw, like you're like uh oh,
like everything. You can be extra sensitive around that time.
So you have to be like offering and saying, hey,
what whatever you feel like you need, like throw out ideas.
But you really do have to be like extra sensitive
because this is such a raw time. It's like raw,
I don't feel like doing anything. I just want to
be alone. I don't want to tell anyone. I don't

(01:45:34):
want anyone in my business. There's so much it's loaded,
and so we have to be really considerate of all that.

Speaker 3 (01:45:40):
For sure, I really do.

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
Well. Hopefully you guys have friends as good as Chris
and Yannelly.

Speaker 2 (01:45:47):
Try my miss, I'm a lucky girl.

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
I'm a lucky girl. Aba, fam. We got to take
a quick break, pay some bills, and we'll be right back.
All right, y'all? Should we do brown boost break?

Speaker 2 (01:46:00):
Let's do it?

Speaker 1 (01:46:02):
She thought about it. I'm gonna go first. I think
that's best. So y'all have some extra noodle time. You
can pretend like you're listening to me. You don't have
to the usual. It's fine, even though I did give
you seventeen extra minutes by not knowing where my microphone was.
I don't know what you're doing at time, Christopher. I'm

(01:46:23):
going to do a boostand a break. I want to
do a quick break and I'm not going to go
on to it because who needs to give this woman
anymore shine than she already has? But I could not
help but notice that I saw a headline that Iggy Azalea,
yes the Iggy Azalea, Australian hip hop wanna be Black
culture co opting flop, has decided she's going to rebrand

(01:46:44):
herself as a business girly and is launching her own cryptocurrency's.

Speaker 2 (01:46:49):
Three years late. Like, what are you doing? People were
doing that alone, that's yesterday's news. What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:46:54):
Girl? Her best? She's her best. Maybe the Australian economy
also is bad if she even still lives there, So
that's that on that. The boost I want to do
is for my nic Landrians.

Speaker 2 (01:47:12):
This is really a boost right now. This is really
a boost right now?

Speaker 1 (01:47:15):
I can't yes, listen no for Nick? Alandria should I
don't need to do the backstory, do I? If you know,
you know, if you don't give.

Speaker 2 (01:47:23):
A little, Chris is like remind me again, I.

Speaker 1 (01:47:28):
Don't know how to stop myself. Okay, fine, but you
invited me Love Island, which, yes, it wrapped probably a
month ago. Now it's season seven. It's been enough time
that I should be over it by now. The reason
it's going to come up ris this couple Alandria and Nick,
who didn't but they were the runner ups. They did

(01:47:48):
not win the season, but it doesn't matter because they
are winning the economics of Love Island battle. Like if
there is a competition for the best leveraging of the
platform that a reality show can get of you, like,
they would be winning it because they have mona tie,
they have so many brand deals. They didn't even win
the show, mind you, they didn't even win the show,

(01:48:09):
but they are both so fucking lovable and adorable and
what you've seen.

Speaker 3 (01:48:18):
I remind myself.

Speaker 1 (01:48:20):
Because they were Jimmy fallon last week. Like, so it's Nick,
who is this like Fort Lauderdale Miami boy and he
has fallen in love with this Alabama queen Olandria, and
their love story just unfolded. And don't even if you
don't have to go back and watch the show, you
can watch so many edits on TikTok. But nicke Alandrian's

(01:48:41):
they were they were a niche ship on Love Island,
and I was one of the early adopters. But now
there's a whole Nicolandria economy. Okay. So they have a
brand deal with this bikini company, Kulani Kulani Kini's, Kulani Keeney's.
They're filming. They filmed the whole ad can Pain in
Greece in the way that these marketing teams are on it,

(01:49:03):
like the girls are working to get nick Alandria paid,
and I love that for them. So they have a
bikini line with Koulani Kini's already. They have an agua
to Keffer. I don't even know what this is. I
don't know if it's a coconut water, if it's a kombucha,
I don't know what it is. Keffer is giving like
like you know, that's the kind of like yogurt drink

(01:49:26):
that you get whatever. But they have they have a
brand a beverage deal with Kefer Augwa to Keffer. Landria
is modeling for the New York Times. She has modeled
for They have a So the whole thing is so
Nick is white, Landri's black. If you didn't get it,
now you get it. And the show became a writing
joke that when they would make out on the show
and they.

Speaker 2 (01:49:45):
Had this sexscus.

Speaker 1 (01:49:48):
That Nick would walk away looking like he had chocolate
on his face because he had her whole whip como
on his face.

Speaker 2 (01:49:54):
And anyway, it was very cute.

Speaker 1 (01:49:56):
And he started to reveal and press interviews that he
was carrying around on her lip combo because they love
each other so much, they're always kissing, get it, And
so he would carry around her lip combo to have
it ready for her. And so then she revealed her
lip combo was by that brand NIX, like the drug
store brand, not anything fancy. And now they have a
whole campaign and she has a lip combo brand, a

(01:50:18):
lip Celandria.

Speaker 5 (01:50:19):
Okay, I see what they did there, and it.

Speaker 1 (01:50:24):
Just brings me so much joy. And I have not
bought a bikini. I haven't bought the lip combo. I
don't even know what the water is. I don't care,
but I just think that they're really setting I think
an incredible example of how you can be a reality
star who can leverage brand deals but not be an

(01:50:44):
asshole about it, and still like they've never lost sight
of the fan base that has given them this platform,
and they are both so humble and so sweet and
are constantly talking to us on the internet, and I
just love it so much. I am, however, pulling back.
I got a little bit too into it. I was
a little bit. I was almost I read one fan

(01:51:05):
fiction oh and I said, it's too much. Pull it back, girl,
you have a whole book to read. I could feel
myself really using the parasocial have y'all had like a
parasocial relationship at all, Like where people on the internet
become so yeah, so real that you are like you

(01:51:28):
get upset, like you are like if they have a
bad day, you have a bad day like that. I can't.
I got kids, I have too much going on. So
I have pulled back, But I am finding a lot
of joy in their success and for a dark skinned
black woman like Alandra to be getting finally the opportunities
and to see the way that Nick loves her and

(01:51:49):
has been such an incredible example of a man who
can stand behind, next to alongside his woman and like
really help propel her career. Is just so cute, Daniel Nicolandria,
if you ever want to come on the podcast, You're
always welcome. I don't know why you showed up on
Miley Cyrus' mom's podcast. That was so random.

Speaker 3 (01:52:09):
Cyrus mom podcast. I don't even know who her mom was.

Speaker 1 (01:52:14):
She's a birde stoner and that's what she talked about
a lot. She taught that. You know, she was real
country with Landria. It was weird, but I'm just saying.

Speaker 2 (01:52:21):
Landry was like I like a country man, not a
country stoner.

Speaker 1 (01:52:25):
Random, so polite though I don't know. She was probably like,
why am I this one?

Speaker 2 (01:52:30):
Why y'all book? She was probably like, agent, where are
you at? Why y'allook me on here? Why y'all do
this to me?

Speaker 1 (01:52:37):
She signed with an incredible like management team. Now they
though they styled her within an inch of her life
for their press tour, they have been stopping them.

Speaker 2 (01:52:45):
I've been seeing that for both Shelley and and Olandr
have been looking freaking fly Like I'm not even gonna lie,
they look like money everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:52:54):
Start to step it up. I don't know what she's
cooking up over there, but I'm hoping because Landry and
her need to be raised.

Speaker 2 (01:52:58):
The problem is that the problem is that Love Island
is about love, right, So like the fact that she
left with a couple, where's a at ace left poor
Shelley for to be by her own lonesome. It's hard
to get these deals there where the union he had
to get back to us, okay, but I don't see
him with her out here in these streets the way
these other couples are, you know, like when you see

(01:53:19):
Brian and Amaya, they everywhere together holding hands, doing ads,
doing this, and that you see Nick and Olandria the
same thing. Shelley's out here by herself all the time.
So it's very hard, I think, for her to get
those type of deals because it's not a couple from
Love Island the way. You know, it's hard to do
by yourself. Although I will say one of them an
got no shame in doing the hoodies out here about

(01:53:40):
her damnself making money, So there's a way to do it, but.

Speaker 3 (01:53:43):
It's hard question for you multiple seasons, okay, So there's
multiple seasons, right, so what is what season seven?

Speaker 1 (01:53:50):
Seven?

Speaker 3 (01:53:50):
Yeah, this seasons? How long is your shelf life after
your season? Like, do people just forget about you after
when the new season comes out? Or do you still
are you still going to be doing it now?

Speaker 1 (01:53:59):
They haven't. They've they're turning it into a franchise. Now
they have Beyond the Villa.

Speaker 2 (01:54:03):
Because the thing is, look for you, Chris. This show
was never this like obsession in the mainstream media until
season six. Season six was really when the cast members
became influencer, celebrities status, like truly it was season six.
So then season seven they were just like, oh, we're
just gonna do it all over again what happened in

(01:54:23):
season six. So you know, it's just very recent these
last two seasons where these people are getting brand deals.
They're straight up influencers, celebrities, creators all that like from
the show. So they now created the Beyond the Villa
for the cast members of season six. They're probably gonna
do the same thing with season seven, right, but it's new.
It's all new. So it's kind of hard to know
about the shelf life situation because it kind of still

(01:54:45):
just running on season six, and season seven.

Speaker 1 (01:54:48):
I will just raise you a Kardashian. I a single
three minute sex tape. I don't know how long it
was I made that up. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:54:56):
I was like twelve, you don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:54:58):
I don't truly I was like twelve, but it was.

Speaker 2 (01:55:02):
Just one Kardashian. It was like five of them after.

Speaker 1 (01:55:04):
So it's like we know, but like there's like love.
I mean, I don't care, Like I think it's how you.
I think anyone has the potential to be a Kardashian
if they get like a huge enough platform, you just
have to be able to leverage it. I mean, like,
I'm not saying that Kardashian hasn't done it perfectly. I'm
not even a fucking fan of them. I was like whatever,
But I'm just saying, like, with this reality show, I

(01:55:25):
think if you you can make fun of them and
say that they're a joke and they're one hit wonder
and that they're just a reality start blah blah blah.
But I think the way that Nick and to bring
it back to Nick Landria as I will, I think
that the way that they are approaching it is with
that in mind. It is like we're building. We are
this is, this is this could be a viable career.
We care a lot. We don't want to f this up.

(01:55:46):
We want to do it thoughtfully, We want to take advantage.
I mean, Nick is out here traveling, like talk about
leaving Landry alone. Here, He's in, He's in Seattle, he's
in he's on the East coast, He's going back and forth.
He's a different He's like doing all these like DJ
parties and stuff, and he's still like supporting her. It's
like insane. They're going so hard. Orlandria has familyators.

Speaker 2 (01:56:07):
I really do feel like that's the Serena and Cordel
template though, you know, because like Serena and Cordell, Cordell
talked about it. He talked about getting a brandial with
jees Its then got a brandyo with Jesus and it
was like a joke. It was Serena was making fun
of him for that, and then now he got a
brandyal with cheese It. Like, I feel like Serena and
Cordell had every brandial in the books, Like they had

(01:56:28):
makeup brands, clothing brands, they were doing travel content. Like
I feel like they created the template and now we're
seeing it like used by other cast members who like
have that genuine like appeal to younger audience.

Speaker 1 (01:56:41):
But I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:56:42):
I feel like we got to give credit words due,
which is Serena and Cordell.

Speaker 1 (01:56:46):
I didn't stand them as hard as Nicolandrias.

Speaker 2 (01:56:49):
I just like Serena and Cordell.

Speaker 1 (01:56:51):
I love them too. I'm so glad they could be
on the Villa. I forgot how much I love them.

Speaker 2 (01:56:55):
I haven't watched The Villa, but I might just for
just for Serena and Cordell. They were just so cute.
I like them a lot more than these season seven people.

Speaker 1 (01:57:03):
But that's just me, even Niclandriu.

Speaker 2 (01:57:08):
Yeah, even because here's my opinion. I told you this
is my hot take. I don't think they actually really
like each other like that. I think Nick likes Orlandria
on birthday. I think Nick Nick likes Orlandria way more
than Orlandrio. She ain't checking for him. She said it
on the show that her type is a big black

(01:57:29):
buff man from the South. She said it, and it's
the opposite.

Speaker 1 (01:57:35):
His type is brunettes.

Speaker 2 (01:57:37):
Okay, and all the girls he was kissing was brunettes. No,
but this girl dirty blonde brunette saying whatever, but they
look the same. It's different when you describe a whole
man that is the opposite of the man that you girl,
that's not.

Speaker 1 (01:57:51):
But I think, no, no, no, no, she's only twenty seven.
But I think if you ask a lot of people
what their type is, the fact that she's mature enough
to go outside of that type that she thought she
wanted and.

Speaker 2 (01:58:02):
Step outside of my.

Speaker 1 (01:58:06):
Like Decater, Alabama, there's no white guys checking for like,
you know, she said it really thoughtfully. Whenever her interview,
She's like, she wasn't sure. She was so weary of
Nick in the beginning, because where she's come where she
comes from, if a white guy likes you, he's fetishizing you.
He likes you because you're a sex object, like and
she she she is sexy af like and she's serio

(01:58:27):
of that. And I think that that No, I think
that I think I completely understand why it may seem
that way. She's like, so, you know, a little bit
like reserved about it, and it's like a slow burn.
But he like their love story. And this is the
not the delusion. This is the level of like intensity
that I have followed their relationships since they left the villa.

(01:58:48):
Trust me, girl, they're going all the way. There will
be I hope.

Speaker 2 (01:58:55):
So, but I doubt it. I feel like when it
doesn't happen, I will be like, I'm not even gonna
say I told you so. I'm just be like I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:59:00):
I can't to prove you wrong. Okay, let's have a
bet when they get married, when it's their wedding day,
you have to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, but what
do you set my kids for the day?

Speaker 2 (01:59:12):
Okay, happy to But then what happens when they get divorced?
What you're doing for me?

Speaker 1 (01:59:16):
Oh wait? I thought we're just saying are they going
to get married or not they break up? If they
break up, a.

Speaker 2 (01:59:23):
Big fancy wedding gig, that's going to.

Speaker 1 (01:59:25):
Make it get married. If they get engaged. How about
they get engaged and married, then you got a babysit
my kids for the day. If they break up, I
will I will force myself to visit you in Miami.
That seems like a punishment.

Speaker 3 (01:59:39):
I mean, that's a punishment.

Speaker 1 (01:59:44):
I will punish myself. I will come stay with you
for free.

Speaker 2 (01:59:46):
No, you're gonna have to pay for us to get
a hotel on the water on Miami Beach, mid Beach,
not not South Beach.

Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
I'm way more expensive in the night of babysitting.

Speaker 3 (01:59:56):
I mean, think about emotional toll babysitting.

Speaker 1 (01:59:58):
Though usually a babysitter you can't drugs.

Speaker 2 (02:00:05):
You make an exception for me. You're desperate.

Speaker 1 (02:00:09):
Think about it. I will, I'll do something.

Speaker 2 (02:00:13):
Yeah, we'll have to figure this out. But there's a
deal in the works. There's a deal in the works
because I feel strongly that it's not real, genuine love
at the root to the core. But look, I hope
that they are. I hope they're in love for real,
but I feel it in my gut that they're not.
But you know what, you might be right. We won't see.
We will see. That's the deal in.

Speaker 1 (02:00:30):
The making here so much.

Speaker 2 (02:00:33):
Okay, wait for my brown booths. You' all ready for
my brown booths.

Speaker 1 (02:00:36):
Never should have asked that question. I got so much.

Speaker 2 (02:00:40):
He's like, she's like na seeing for who she really is. Okay,
my brown booths. I finished watching a show that I
had started a little while ago, but I didn't finish
it because a bunch of stuff came up. It's on Netflix.
It's called Forever, So we were talking a little bit
about Martha's Vineyards having a moment especially for by culture.
Forever if you have, i'ven't seen. It came out a

(02:01:01):
little while ago. It's not like a new Ish show.
But when I tell you, my heart was so full
just watching this show. I feel like there are shows
on TV that highlight black like families or black people
in black culture, that are genuinely like about that, and
then there's some that are like, it's like they're on

(02:01:23):
a stage performing blackness for a white audiences. I don't
know how to explain that, but I don't know. I
grew up in Bushwick and bestI Brooklyn, where, like you know,
a majority of the community was black, a little bit
of Puerto Rican Dominican in there too, but majority black.
So I feel like when I'm watching these shows, like
for example, Going Back in the Day, Living Single, Okay,
that's genuine blackness. That's not a performance for a white audience.

Speaker 1 (02:01:45):
Right. I'm terrified about this line of your where you're going,
but I'm happy.

Speaker 2 (02:01:50):
But bosth of y'all can probably think of a show
that feels like that, feels like it's for black people.
But it's actually just performative for white people.

Speaker 1 (02:01:58):
And I.

Speaker 2 (02:02:00):
Hate to say it because you know, I love Tracy
Ellis ross thru to my core, but it just doesn't
feel like it was the same as Living Single and
the same as Forever. Okay, so back to Forever on Netflix.
Long story short, go watch it if you haven't seen it.
It's so beautiful. If you are a millennial, it's so
beautiful if you have like nostalgia for like millennial times.

(02:02:21):
Also if you have like a teenage niece or a
teenage nephew, or like a child who's like a preteen
or teenager. The story essentially, the story goes that the
girl in the film, the relationship is like a really sweet,
innocent first love type of thing. High school girl and
a high school boyfall in love. It is like young
black love. But she had a little bit of a

(02:02:41):
scandal where you know, a picture of her got or
video or pictures.

Speaker 1 (02:02:46):
I haven't heard. Is this like the first episode?

Speaker 2 (02:02:49):
Yeah? But the point is you this brings up this
really important topic of conversation that I think a lot
of young people today need to be talking more about,
like and having honest com stations with an adult they
trust about this because there's so much pressure to like
take a cute picture and send it to your boyfriend,
or send me a nude or send me a this
or that, And yet it feels like we're not talking

(02:03:10):
about it as I don't know, it's weird, but maybe
that's just me because my niece and nephews are a
little bit on the younger side. But anyway, I feel
like if I wanted to talk to my niece, she's
a little young, but when she's the a of age,
I would want to invite her over. We're gonna have
a sumber party for the weekend and we're gonna binge
watch forever because it allows us to talk about this
topic in a really wholesome way, in a way that's healthy,
I think. And it is just such a beautiful representation

(02:03:32):
of like Black Americans. They go to Martha's Vineyard, they
highlight like they showcase, like you know, they're black vacation.
It's just so beautiful. I just feel like for me,
I just got to sit back and like really enjoy
a beautiful display of black love, like young love. It
a little bit nostalgic for like, you know, growing up
around a certain time. And also it addresses really relevant

(02:03:53):
issues that I think we need to talk about with
like technology and social media today. So that's just my
little plug for forever. I finished watching it and I
give it a ten out of ten highly recommend. It
was so cute.

Speaker 1 (02:04:04):
I love that on my list. I have to the
kids are away for two weeks. I need. I have
so much to catch up on.

Speaker 2 (02:04:09):
You. You're gonna binge it like you're gonna live the episodes?

Speaker 3 (02:04:12):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (02:04:13):
Oh man? How many episodes? And let me look it up.
You're gonna love it. I'm telling you, you're gonna be
like legge.

Speaker 3 (02:04:18):
Let me see.

Speaker 2 (02:04:20):
I have a friend who's on the Gilded Age, my
friend Tiffany. She went to high school with me. She
was in Hamilton. She was the bullet in the SF
Bay cast and I had her on my podcast a
while ago. But yeah, she is in the show. I
saw her on her social media. On her Instagram, she
posted behind the scenes and all these things. I was like,
look shot after who gets the pad? Okay, wait, how

(02:04:45):
many episodes?

Speaker 1 (02:04:46):
So does everybody know yan Ellie went to the Fame
high school.

Speaker 3 (02:04:48):
I didn't know this information.

Speaker 2 (02:04:54):
Yeah I did. It's the age is it's like, it's
the show, It's the the show. The original play Fame,
and then the movie Fame was based off of the
high school that I went to, which is Laguardi.

Speaker 3 (02:05:08):
Were you were you in the.

Speaker 2 (02:05:11):
I was not. I was an art major, but everyone
thinks that I should have been a drama major, and
I think so too.

Speaker 1 (02:05:17):
You're doing it now, I mean, yeah, kind of.

Speaker 2 (02:05:20):
I feel like I've always been a performer because I
was always in a performing arts environment, but my major
was like was visual arts. For whatever reason, I just
always did art. Oh eight episodes, so each one is
like an hour, so eight hours. You could do that
in two three days.

Speaker 1 (02:05:35):
Terrible.

Speaker 2 (02:05:35):
It's just super cute. I'm telling you, like, I'm still
thinking about it and I finished it like four days ago,
but it's just like it's just I kind of want
to rewatch it because it was so cute. I just
feel like it's such one of those feel good shows
and it's very rare to find a show with really
good writing acting, like you know it just I think
everything was just done really really well. So Plug for

(02:05:55):
Forever on.

Speaker 3 (02:05:56):
Netflix almost like the show reckon Dation.

Speaker 2 (02:06:01):
Don't tell Nobody, I said, don't tell nobody what I
said about Blackish.

Speaker 1 (02:06:04):
Though that you know, I never loved I loved the
characters in Blackish than I loved. I loved Diane, and
I loved Racey Yellis Fross, I loved the rest I
could oh, oh my god. And Jennifer Lewis.

Speaker 2 (02:06:20):
Jennifer Lewis I love in everything. I love her and everything.
I just still feel like.

Speaker 1 (02:06:23):
The breastfeeding episode, if you know, you know, oh my.

Speaker 2 (02:06:26):
Okay, also good. I feel like they had all the
right ingredients and when they mix it together, it just
didn't make a good tasting dish. You know what I'm saying.
I don't know. I don't know how to explain it.
But anyways, forever doesn't disappoint just saying.

Speaker 3 (02:06:41):
Okay, well you know my my brown boost. Then it's
kind of in vain. You got to let me right
into it. So it's not a TV show, it's a movie.
But you're talking about Hamilton. I came across this show
a while ago. You know this movie a while ago.
It's called A Nice Indian Boy and it stars Have
you seen this? Have you have you seen this movie?

Speaker 1 (02:07:00):
My girls? Darna guard gonna say.

Speaker 3 (02:07:03):
She was in the movie You have a Karan Jathan
played the King and King George and Hamilton the original cast.
Yeah or no.

Speaker 1 (02:07:15):
Was he was f Yeah, the dude and Frozen.

Speaker 3 (02:07:19):
I had no idea. I've never seen Frozen.

Speaker 1 (02:07:21):
Sozen you baby said you didn't watch Frozen? She was?

Speaker 3 (02:07:27):
I think she was young for it. So I've seen
I Sa. I've seen ma Wana like ninety thousand times, Okay,
and now I've seen Kpop Demon Hunter about twenty five times.

Speaker 2 (02:07:35):
Now you've got to watch Frozen Frozen. You'll get Jonathan.
You've played Christophe. He's so good.

Speaker 1 (02:07:42):
There you good?

Speaker 3 (02:07:42):
Yeah, Alice fun He's in this movie. It's amazing. It's
like one of the movies. It seems off the bat
like it's gonna be cheesy, but yeah, so much hard.
It's such a fun story. It's an interesting story, so
well acted. I can't say enough about it.

Speaker 1 (02:07:56):
He played the nice Indian boy. We should shout him out.

Speaker 3 (02:07:59):
Koran so I think I'm sorry I from pronounce his
name correctly. I've seen him in most recently in Deadpool.
He was in all the Deadpool movies. He's hilarious, funny
and everything I've seen him in. But He's great lead
in this movie. You have to deal with the dad
eamics of like the pressure of him needing to get
married but also being gay and not knowing if his
father is going to accept him, dealing with the concept

(02:08:21):
of like arranged marriage and do they his parents really
love each other and how does he feel about that?
You deal with, you know, uh, dating outside of your
race and the complications that come with that, and how
his family accepts it, and his sister's in a relationship
that she didn't really want to be in, and you know,
it's it's there's so many layers to it. The acting
is so good. I love this movie. It's one of
the movies. When I finished it, I was like, I
didn't know anything about this movie, and I loved it.

(02:08:42):
One of my favorite movies.

Speaker 1 (02:08:43):
I don't know people do that's brave. It's hard to
get me to watch new ip and like, un you
know something that is new and yeah something.

Speaker 2 (02:08:52):
It's a risk, but when it comes highly recommended, I
give it a chance. I jotted down because I'm always like,
if Jamie and I will be watching something, we'll run
out of episodes and then we'll be like, oh, what
are we gonna watch next and then we just like
will scroll and be like this is so risky, Like
should we just should we just click something and watch
it without a recommendation, Like I can't do it.

Speaker 1 (02:09:10):
I have to.

Speaker 2 (02:09:11):
It has to be recommended to me by somebody, because
I've been burned watching stuff that I thought was going
to be good and it's just just waste time.

Speaker 1 (02:09:18):
The same movie.

Speaker 3 (02:09:20):
It's a movie, it's on Hulu. It's it's like a comedy.
It's to say it's a rom com. I put it
in that category.

Speaker 1 (02:09:25):
Yeah, it's just adorable. I could just love, you know.
And then you can watch Zarna's comedy special before or
after it. It is hilarious, so good. That was my
latest date night. We got to go see a screening
of it with a bunch of white folks on the
Upper East.

Speaker 2 (02:09:42):
Oh okay, not all right?

Speaker 1 (02:09:46):
An interesting crowd. What is it now? I have anxiety
when I get into a room and it's just white people.
Now I've lost it. I've lost my my tolerance for it.
When I got on the flight yesterday I come into
New York from Saint Louis, and I was the very
last person to because CPE time and I board as
a plane and it was just a sea of you know, faces,

(02:10:11):
and I was so uncomfortable. Oh what is that?

Speaker 3 (02:10:17):
I think you do kind of lose it, Like I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (02:10:19):
Go to any of my Wisconsin family reunions anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:10:22):
You gotta get reacted, you gotta get reacclimated after if
you spend that time where you like the only black
person or only brown person, after a while you kind
of like, Okay, this is what it is.

Speaker 1 (02:10:30):
Talk to us all day. It's really nice.

Speaker 2 (02:10:32):
Yeah, does it come and go? Does you do you
feel like comes in waves or like your tolerance or
do you feel like it just like I just clock it.

Speaker 1 (02:10:40):
So much more now. I think when I was in corporate,
I was more used to it, you know. But even
in corporate, like my team itself in New York, we
were very diverse. So i'd go to when I went
to Charlotte to our head to our headquarters, I would
feel it. But like, yeah, maybe now I'm just like
because I know that, it's just it doesn't feel safe.

(02:11:00):
That's what I feel. I feel a lack of safety.

Speaker 2 (02:11:02):
Yeah, you don't know that.

Speaker 1 (02:11:05):
There were so many I mean, every single eyeball, every
on me, every single one. It was deeply uncomfortable walking
down that aisle.

Speaker 3 (02:11:13):
I do have a question. Did you make a plane
late where you like so late that No?

Speaker 1 (02:11:17):
I saw the plane itself was delayed, and they said
we had enough time to myself over and I found
a corner to do the edit a show in edit
some clips.

Speaker 2 (02:11:25):
But she was gonna say she went to get something
to eat.

Speaker 1 (02:11:28):
Of course, No, girl ate for free at the land
my podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:11:34):
That's why you were late.

Speaker 1 (02:11:35):
I was editing some clips. They said come back by
four ten. I got back at three forty five. I
didn't know they were done boarding.

Speaker 2 (02:11:41):
I thought it was well, you know sometimes when they
say there's a delay and then they end up moving
a little faster, so you always got to play a
little earlier.

Speaker 1 (02:11:49):
Yeah, it was. It was. It was odd, but I'm
so glad you showed her that movie out the Crowns.

Speaker 3 (02:11:55):
Great movie. I highly recommended. And it's a comedy so
it's not that long too. So yeah, a big time.

Speaker 2 (02:12:00):
And shout out to Zana Guard because I love her.

Speaker 1 (02:12:03):
Oh my god, that's she's the best. She's like the
most delightful human.

Speaker 2 (02:12:07):
I love her so much.

Speaker 1 (02:12:08):
I bought I was such an awkward person fan when
she invited She was so kind to invite me to
the screening of her special and I before I went,
I was like, I have to get a her gift.
I went to Home Goods and I bought her So
if you read her book, I don't have to listen
to her book.

Speaker 2 (02:12:25):
It's okay.

Speaker 1 (02:12:26):
Listen to it. The audio book, y'a on Nelly, Oh my,
I have a I mean, if you wanted to read
it in her voice, yes, she reads it. Oh yes,
and Jennifer and Jennifer Lewis you want to talk about
a good audio book?

Speaker 2 (02:12:40):
Jennifer Lewis, I read, oh so good.

Speaker 1 (02:12:42):
Her first Yeah so? But Zarnagogue anyway, her is her
book is This American Woman and Anyway. In the book,
she tells a story of her daughter buying her this
like water, fancy water picture from like for like spa
water you put like your cucumber slices in it and that,
and she bought her this gift and instead of putting
like beverage in it, her daughter filled it with notes

(02:13:02):
of courage and inspiration from her friends to get Zarna
to pursue her career as a comedian because she's only
been a comedian for like five years, which is insane.
But anyway, so I was like, I'm going to get
her a little picture, and so I got her like
a little water jug, like a little tea infuser, like
you put the tea. It's so cute. It's pink and
had a gold lid. Anyway, handing a gift to someone

(02:13:27):
that you don't know in a green room of strangers
is like one of the single most awkward experiences.

Speaker 2 (02:13:33):
Oh my gosh, you're probably like.

Speaker 1 (02:13:36):
Like I've all crinkled because I've driven it down from Westchester.

Speaker 2 (02:13:41):
But it's also a good gift because you read her book,
so it's kind of sweet.

Speaker 1 (02:13:45):
You didn't know that yet. I was like, I promise
it's not weird when you open it, you're.

Speaker 3 (02:13:50):
That's a great way to answer a gift promise.

Speaker 1 (02:13:53):
Handed her a piece of garbage, I was like like,
and I was like asking her to throw it away. No, No,
she was sweet about it. She was like she was
just like, oh, a gift.

Speaker 2 (02:14:01):
You didn't have to give me a gift, like I
think she.

Speaker 1 (02:14:03):
I could think she was anxious about it because she's like,
oh god, this woman has probably given me something terrible,
but she DMed me later she said she loved it
so like thank Gussie, that was a good so sweet.
But even if it weren't for that, like her her
book This American Woman, and go listen to her interview
on the show if you haven't yet, y'all.

Speaker 2 (02:14:22):
I'm pulling up the Libby app right now because I'm
about to get that on my list.

Speaker 1 (02:14:26):
Oh I wonder if it's available.

Speaker 2 (02:14:28):
That's what I'm literally checking right now.

Speaker 1 (02:14:30):
Love a lippy all right, ba fan, This was a
doozy of an episode and I just got an error
from riverside saying that my video didn't record, so who
knows if you'll see it on YouTube or now. This
is an audio exclusive exclusive. Thank y'all so much for
spending time with me. All right, ba Fan, until next time,

(02:14:52):
we will see you when don't I see you on
Friday for the ba QA, on Sunday for the wash Day.
Wou saw almost every other day. I'm here in your
You're welcome. I hope you're liking it. Also, if you're
not liking it, please tell me because this is a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:15:05):
Of works so much.

Speaker 3 (02:15:08):
It is a lot of work that's doing a lot
of episodes.

Speaker 1 (02:15:10):
I love it so much. I do. I'm doing the number.
I'm trying to hire an intern. I don't even have
time to hire an intern. I need help, y'all. My
summer intern's done. I need a fall one. I need it.
I could probably, I think, I genuinely if I had
the money, I would have two full time staff, like
just helping with the show. There'd be one on clips,
there'd be one on production, maybe even three.

Speaker 2 (02:15:34):
No, seriously, the more the better because there's so many
parts of it, the admin part, the logistics, and there's
also like the just sit up in hard work like
pull out clips. Although I do use AI a lot
for my short clips now and it's so much of
a time.

Speaker 1 (02:15:46):
Saying frivor side AI is t it's very good.

Speaker 2 (02:15:51):
I've using clap AI and restream AI and they both
have been awesome at taking like a one hour and
a half long video and just turning it into like
eighteen one minute reels or bites or clips. It's amazing
and it puts capture on it and everything so worth it.

Speaker 1 (02:16:05):
Okay, what are those called again?

Speaker 2 (02:16:06):
Clap k lap clap dot AI and then restream if
you use restream or Riverside and restream are similar where
they let you stream, but restream one automatically creates little
shorts when you're done.

Speaker 1 (02:16:18):
Oh nice, Riverside does it? Two? Riverside is not that?
Are those free apps? Or are they No?

Speaker 2 (02:16:23):
I don't want to say they're free, probably like one
hundred and something dollars for like the subscription.

Speaker 1 (02:16:27):
Oh okay, gotcha, that's about Riverside.

Speaker 2 (02:16:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:16:29):
I'm always down to share with the BA fam. More
places to get clips if you need yourself. What's it
like to not have to do everything and put on
the internet? The other day?

Speaker 2 (02:16:41):
I know we wrap it up, but I have to
say it. The other day, I Jimial and I hired
this woman to come into our apartment and clean everything,
deep clean for us. And she was here for four
or five hours. She got here at nine thirty in
the morning, she left at three pm. And when I
tell you, it was under two hundred bucks. She was amazing.
And all that time she was cleaning, I got so
much work done. And then I was like anxious that

(02:17:04):
morning when I woke up because I still had to clean.
I had all the stuff that I had to do,
and just being able to cross that off the list
and open the microwave and see no crust, no sauce, Like,
oh my gosh, she cleaned everything. It was like amazing.
I was like, this woman, she changed my life. So
I'm definitely going to keep doing that. And I feel
like the return on that investment is so worth. It
saved me five hours of time, and the money that

(02:17:27):
I could make in five hours is much more than
the cost of her cleaning for five hours, So that
just makes sense mathematically. So I'm never going back, never
going back.

Speaker 1 (02:17:34):
I'm just shocked your place even took five hours. It
was it To me, it felt immaculate.

Speaker 2 (02:17:38):
It was like clean on the surface, you know, like
when I wipe everything and clean it up. She went
into the crannies and crevices. Okay, she got the dust
from places I didn't know there was dust collected. She
did that type of cleaning.

Speaker 1 (02:17:50):
Yeah, yes, it was amazing. All right, let's wrap it up.
Mama's hungry to eat something. Get the food all right,
y'all until next time, fan Bye, okay va fam, Thank
you so much for listening to this week's show. I
want to shout out to our production team, Courtney, our

(02:18:11):
editor Carla our fearless leader for idea to launch productions.
I want to shout out my assistant Lauda Escalante and
Cameron McNair for helping me put the show together. It
is not a one person project, as much as I
have tried to make it so these past ten years,
I need help y'all, and thank goodness I've been able

(02:18:32):
to put this team around me to support me on
this journey and to y'all bea fam I love you
so so so so much. Please rate, review, subscribe, make
sure you sign up to the newsletter to get all
the latest updates on upcoming episodes, our tenth year anniversary
celebrations to come, and until next time, talk to you
soon via bye.

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Host

Mandi Woodruff-Santos

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