ASHLEY EVERETT - Self Love Soup - Eating While Broke

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very
special guests. World renowned dancer in the Building and founder
owner of wellness brand be Greater Than in the Building,
Ashley Everett. Yeah, yes, thanks for having me girl. Yeah,
I was here. I was excited. I was on a

(00:21):
phone call with a friend and he was like, have
you had Ashley on the show? And I was like, actually,
what what? And then I heard a little bit of
Beehi was involved. I said, yes, we gotta have her.
We gotta find out what your story is. I think
just saying you started with Beyonce. Yeah, we should never
ever scratch that narrative that never doesn't exist wild right.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, but seventeen at seventeen seventeen.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Oh my god. I can't wait to get into this story.

(01:11):
But before we get into the story, I must know
what you're gonna have me eating today.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh my gosh, girl, we are making iconic ramen noodles iconic. Yeah,
but it's elevated.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
It's elevated, yeah, because you know, we don't allow just
ramen on the show. We are anti ramen. After what
seventy five episodes. No, you can't just submit ramen and
beyond package. I literally send an email back like no, no, no, no,
what are you doing to the rock? Yeah, we're elevating,
So what are you doing to elevate your ramen.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
We're adding some chicken. We're gonna like, grill it up, well,
skill it, skill it up. And then we're gonna add
a harboiled egg if you like eggs. I like to
add a little green and they're a little vegetable of
some soor either cabbage or spinach. And then we have
some corn. I love corn. I hear there's no benefits
to it, but I love corn.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I absolutely love corn. And every time someone tries to
tell me how terrible corn is and how it doesn't benefit.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Us and do anything, first, it's not bad for us.
So either it's not good, not bad, and just I.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Guess it's good. It goes in and out the same way,
but or the whatever, not that we want to think
about that right now. But I will say that after
living in La, the way LA does corn is very unique.
I remember the first time someone did the corn with
the mao and the butter and the parmesan cheese. I
was like, y'all crazy. I took one bite and I say, well, Craig,

(02:33):
I know, I get another one.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I know. And it's so popular out here. It's so popular.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
I literally like there would be days where I'll be
driving through the streets like where are you? Where are yo?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yo?

Speaker 1 (02:44):
And I always tell people like never to haggle the
street vendors, because if you do the research on those
street vendors, they're not even making like one hundred dollars
iron profit, Like they're really struggling.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I know. So I'm always looking it for the passion
and yeah, should I get started?

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yes? Started? Okay, got started. So while you're making this
elevated ramen, take me back to either when you was
eating ramen before it became elevated, you know, before you
became the chef of you know, I've had ramen so
many times I gotta elevate it. Take me back to
what was going on then.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Oh my gosh, well, I mean I've been eating ramen
noodles probably like my entire life. You know, I'm a
dancers before like anything, you're an entrepreneur before model, actor,
any of that.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I'm a dancer. I evehancer since I was two.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah. See. And you know the reason why we're doing
ramen is because a lot of people think, like when
you're on tour with a superstar and like life is
like all this glitz and glam and luxury all the time.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
That's what I'd be thinking. I'd be like, what should
mean natal show? But like they give you like a
don't they give you what do they call it? The
little budget?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Every day? Oh?

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Per dimn per dim? Yeah, do you get those?

Speaker 2 (03:52):
But you but it's like that's for breakfast, lunch and
dinner for you to feed yourself every day. So you know,
it's like depending on where you are, like a norm
p dem is like seventy five to maybe one hundred,
maybe one hundred and fifty if you're like overseas somewhere
a day, you know, so breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
So they're like simple meals.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know. Everything else is on your own. And we
eat a lot of ramen. We're on tour buses a lot.
We're like backstage a lot, but we like live on
the tour bus on the roads.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Oh my gosh. And you're limited there, girl.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
We don't have all this. We don't have a stove,
We only got the microwave, and like, you know, whatever
couldie get into the fridge, you know all that. So
I ate a lot of Ramen noodles in my early
tour days. Wow. So and then as we got older
and all that, Like once we got home, I still
liked Ramen noodles. You know, that's like a quick go
to meal line. But we learned how to like elevate it. Yeah,

(04:44):
started adding the kitchen of course. Of course I love
hearing people's remakes on ramen.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah. So you started dancing at the age of two.
I started when I was too. I'm guessing your mom
or who who was the one that was like, we're
gonna put your little booty in ballet.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
My mom yep, put me in ballet at two two
and a half. And she like comes from the art
she I say, she like vicariously lives through me. She's
like my biggest fan. She's gonna start following you after this.
She's gonna be all over reposting everything like she's I
love that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Okay, So are you an only childer?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
No, I'm the only girl though, okay, and I'm the
baby okay, Okay. That's also like why I'm a little tomboyish,
you know, Okay, but yeah, so she put me in
dance because she always like wanted to dance and wanted
to sing, dance, act all of that. I took her
to the Michael Jackson musical, which is here.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
In La Shall see It? Is it really good?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's so good, girl, and she loved and she was like,
if I could do this right now at my age,
I would get up there and sing and dance in
this ensemble.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
I'm like, oh, I love Dang. I don't even know
that's happened. I'm gonna look. I'm gonna look it up now.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, you gotta go see a girl, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Should I start with this? Yeah, go ahead, start start
with the chicken. And I'm yeah, you guys, we're just cooking.
We're just we're cooking. We're like too homegirls. Yeah, hang,
is this on? I don't know did you turn it on?

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I did turn it on.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Okay, it's for me. It's electric, it's I know, I
don't have that fire girl. Yeah, that's the fans stuff.
This was originally when we designed the table, I thought
we were just gonna pop up on people's backyards with
the table and shoot at they houses and stuff. I
didn't really have a full plan on how we're gonna
do eating while broke. I just knew we needed a
cook top, and uh, that's how we did that. But

(06:26):
we're making it work. So your mom's having you do
all the arty things.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah. She put me in dance when I was young,
and I just like fell in love with it. I
started with ballet, and I was like that quiet girl,
the student, just like focused, you know, paying attention, like
wanting to learn. I loved it, and I think I naturally,
like was decent at it. And then when I was
like when did I start traveling around like thirteen, No,

(06:55):
maybe it was a little younger, like twelve, I started
doing summer intensives and that it's like really in ballet
or in ballet modern. I did competitions like growing up too,
So that was like where the hip hop and the
jazz and the tap and all the other styles came in.
So I would do nutcrackers during the winter and competitions
during the spring, and that was like my dance life,

(07:17):
like reality, you know, it was like my job as
a kid.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
And your mom was fully invested in taking you around and.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
From that Yep, to stay at home mom just in it.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
You know, she was in it. She was invested invested.
Was it ever hard on you dealing with a mom
that was like really that in it?

Speaker 2 (07:31):
No, she was never like a crazy dance mom like
the abby knees and all that. Yeah, she was never
crazy like that. Okay, I'm gonna do just like a
few little pieces, okay are.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah you could it for both of us.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
They didn't tell you. Yeah, yeah, I mean I don't know.
You might be like vegan or something grown now on
the one egg so well, that's what I say.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
It's that hard boiled egg. So I've pre boiled that
right before you came to I was trying to help
you out. But no, I get to rate the it's
just this, oh lord, yeah, not rating. It's funny because
I look at I have a two year old daughter,
and I know her little best friend at school does ballet,

(08:11):
and I'm like, are they old enough to really understand
it that age what they're doing? Yeah, at ballet, you know.
But it's interesting you started.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
It teaches you like discipline, you know, and like how
to follow, and like I just think, yeah, I just
think it teaches yah, that's what you know. I have
this conversation a lot because I have nieces and nephews.
I don't have any children, but nieces and nephews, and
I feel like they're older. They're like in their teens
and stuff like seventeen fifteen, and I feel like they

(08:42):
don't They're like if they're not into anything, they're like,
it's it's crazy, girl, Like they need to be involved
in something, you know, so like I already here to
tell me that at the other day early or like
a sport or whatever teaches them discipline, like and then
once them. I feel like that that's why I'm so disciplined,
Like and I can like I know how to like

(09:03):
make myself disciplined or like, you know, I'm a hard worker,
like I will work hard and blood, sweat, tears, you know,
like all of that.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
So I didn't know, did you did you ask your
mom like was it like she saw you dancing? I
know I'm getting all stuck into the details, but I'm
genuinely curious. Did she notice you were into like music
and then she puts you in or was it like.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
No, I want to just put me in it, Okay,
Hoping I liked it okay, and I did awesome.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
You know. So you're doing all these competitions and you're
doing different types of dance.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yep, this is like all in my younger years, is there?

Speaker 1 (09:39):
And were you watching the like, say the Last Dance,
Oh my god, all that because those boys would make
you want to dance, right.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Save the Last Dance was like wanted, like I that's why.
So I don't know if you know this, but I
was about to go to Juilliard. Julia was like a
dream of mine, and that's like the story of Save
the Last Dance. She like wants to go to Julliard,
but then like starts doing hip hop and like all
this was like a ballet girl. And I'm like that
was me because I was like a ballet girl. But
then I like would do hip hop. Two and I
went to Juilliard summer intensive when I was sixteen.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
I auditioned for the college.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
When I was seventeen, I got accepted, and then I
auditioned for Beyonce's tour and went on tour at seventeen
and I was like, oh, okay, so we still in
high school. I was still in high school. I went
to high school in New York City called Professional Children's
School that like it was all professional children like ice skaters, actors,

(10:30):
ballet dancers, you know, musicians, and they like allowed us
to leave school to work. And so I got that
job and it was like alignment, girl, like boo picked alignment.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Did you have the job before you went to the
school or did y'all?

Speaker 2 (10:46):
I moved to New York at sixteen. My parents put
me in private school for the first time ever. Professional
children at school, well made them want to move. You.
They saw my potential and they took when they moved,
the whole family. Yeah, my well, my parents are in
real estate, so just my mom and I moved. My
dad like came with us, set us up, and then
he moved back home and like kept raising my brother

(11:09):
who was eighteen but just had like graduated from high
school and stuff. Okay when I was sixteen, And so
it was like the sacrifice of the family for my career.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
And they really believed in you. Did you feel any
type of pressure with that level of belief in you?

Speaker 2 (11:24):
You know, I don't think I realized I did, but
maybe I did now looking back, you know, And that's
why I like phil like if these kids now I'm like,
y'all need to be in something. Don't you want to
make us proud? Like, yeah, they wanted to make my
parents proud because they believed in me so much. And
now that we're having this conversation, I'm like, oh, maybe
I was like pressuring myself. Even still, I'm like, I

(11:45):
owe them so much.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, are you getting a most rye? You're now like
I can't watch people die. That's the way because I
thought about parents growl be like I waited so much
for me. That's so sweet.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Well, cooking and crying, this isn't it. This is a
show girl cooking cry.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
I love when it sounds terrible, but I love when
people cry on the show because I think there's it's
like you're taking it because you said it before, and
I was like, but I think it's because you're like
the cool thing about the whole eating while broke experience.
It's like, I'm trying to get you back into that
like seat of the beginning you are. Really here's a
little tissue.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
I know, girl, I know I started to thank you
so when you started.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
So you get into this school, your parents get you
into the school, A team effort gets you into the school. Yeah,
and they and a book Beyonce. Uh, how what year
was that? What what Beyonce album was going on at
that time?

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Because I this is the B Day album. That's like
when I that was.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
The whole to the Left to the Left, No, then
the box is irreplaceable. It was. Yeah, I think there
was a bunch of great records.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
It was.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
I'm a diehard jay Z fan. So and my twin
sister is a die hard Beyonce fan, which is kind
of weird because they're together now, but like, I was
always a diehard Jane and then he gets with Beyonce
and now she's like, you ain't listening to Beyonce record.
I'm like, you ain't listen to day Z record?

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah? Did you guys go to on the Run?

Speaker 1 (13:10):
On the Run? No, I mean I've only been to
one jay Z concert. That's it. I mean, I'll be
having money. My money is always funny.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Girl. One of the things that I like love the
brag about is like I can say I was a
jay Z dancer, Like that's.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Cool to me because hell, yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Have one of the coolest people. I named my dog
after him, like his name is so really Yeah, I
think it's like one of the coolest people ever really,
so yeah, he's like just so smart too, and like
really nice, like a really nice guy.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
So yeah. Yeah, and always like been consistent consistent you
mean consistent in character. Yeah, and like with me to
me personally, because really speaking personally. But yeah, you know
I have I brag about I say this on almost
every episode, but I have an original, one of a
kind painting of jay Z in the lobby, oh my
little tiny lobby. You'll look at it afterwards be like, oh,

(14:01):
that's true. I got it customized. I got it custom
made when I was like twenty four. Yeah, it's huge
by who my mom. I was like, Mom, I'll pay
you whatever if you can make this painting on a
five foot canvas for me. And then she didn't ship
it to me till like four years later after I
bought my first house. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so shout
outs it's it's one of a kind. She always calls me,

(14:23):
you know, Jay would buy it. I'm like, Mom, this
is I don't even got real quick. Yeah, yeah, you
fast with it.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
I'm only doing that amount of chicken how much you
want you want some none of I.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Mean it's okay. It's okay because you know what we're
going to be hearing your story. You got you. It
sounds like you have a lot of stories.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
I'll be like, what are YOUULTI tasking girls? Sometimes I'd
be like, scatter right.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Where are you when you find out that you? First
of all, where are you when you I want to
know what's going on in your head when you're auditioning,
But I also want to know where you were when
you found out you booked it.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
I was at home when I found out I booked
at home meeting in New York because I had moved
to New yor sixteen end of six I'm.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
And they knew you were a seventeen year old.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
They eventually knew I was seventeen year old. I don't
think like when I was first auditioning, they knew once
they like wanted to book me and stuff. They like
asked me how old I was, and like, you know
what my situation was because I lived in New York
and they first they asked me to fly to LA
and shoot a bunch of music videos and that was
the B Day album, my first music video ever in
my first job, like with her was they Get Me

(15:29):
Bodied music video O Kaind of that song.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
How does It Go?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Oh? Were doing me tonight?

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I never hurt nobody. I remember that video.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I'm in that video. And then
like two days later, I shot the green Light music
video and they put me like right next to her,
and I remember on set everybody kept just saying, like,
you guys really like resemble each other. Our hair was
slicked back in a bun and were like standing like
at side by side, like or like in a line profile,

(16:00):
and everybody was like, you guys just resemble each other,
Like are you related? And said whatever and so, and
I remember her mom saying that she was like on
set that was when she was doing wardrobe and stuff
like that. And yeah, I just remember them my saying
yeah about me on that set. And so after those
music videos, I went back to New York and got

(16:21):
a call to be a part of the tour. That's
like how the tour stuff like started. And then I
went on tour. This is at the top of seven,
my senior year of high school. But I went to
the professional children's school that allowed me to like leave
school and work and go on tour. I came back
in June. I graduated, walked in my class, caught up
on my school work, went back on tour, and then

(16:44):
dropped out of my dream college because tour.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Was oh dream college of Juilliard.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Juilliard, Yeah, get.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
The freak out.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Dropped out because I was enrolled, girl, I was enrolled.
I was supposed to start like September seventh or something.
I remember like very vividly, and I dropped out like
the first, like literally a week before. I'm not mad
because the spot actually went to a friend of mine
who also was another dancer in New York, and I
was like, great, that's cool. She is also black. I
was like okay, because that's only like one of us

(17:12):
at the time. It's always like one little token. And
then I went back on tour for like a month
and then was like, now what with my career? Now?
What do you do? Oh?

Speaker 1 (17:23):
What were your parents saying too? When you're like, were
they involved in the discussion of you possibly leaving Juilliard?

Speaker 2 (17:31):
And yes they were, you know, and that was like
my first like adult decision. They were like, we support
you either way. We're here for you. You know, whatever
you want to do, we support you, you know. Juilliard
is great, great option, Beyonce, you want to keep touring
and start your career also great? Eh.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
And let's go back to that first. So your first
time working with her, what are you? What are your
thoughts when you're standing next to her? Are you nervous
at all? You just like I got this in a bag, Like, oh.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
My gosh, the first time working with her, I mean
I was just like so green and like didn't know
anything about the industry a but also like coming from
the ballet, we're all very like, you know, like discipline,
so like.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Ballet requires a lot of discipline. Huh my god.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
What girl, maybe like hitting you with rulers and stuff
and you're like like tighten up, you know, like it's
very like okay, like Russians and stuff.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
So yeah, and when you were going to ballet and
all that stuff where they're kids that look like you.
When I say that black and you know, you know
what I'm trying to say, No, are you her mixed? Right?

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (18:43):
What are you? Black and white? Black and white? Okay?
I'm black and white, do you? Oh? I'm Josh and Jamaican.
I have a white father.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
I have a white dad too, Okay, okay, cool, which
is like it's very rare. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
I always get the opposite.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah yeah, if there was a little I would put
a lid on.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
But there's a lid in the back. But it's okay,
it's okay.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
So just gonna let her simmer down on This is
so funny because I know when you're like not cooking
in your kitchen, everything's a little different.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah yeah, and you're you're trying to keep it like
tidy and all that, and it's not. It's going all
over the place. Look at me, see Okay, so you're
so take me back to the first time you're working
alongside her, like what are your thoughts? Clearly you're very
your posture and everything's on point. Actually, and you did
practice before, like they make you practice a lot before.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, okay, yeah, we do a lot of rehearsals. And
she this is back like in the beginning of her like.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Branching off from the Destiny Chong.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Chow and all that. So she was like involved and
included in a lot, you know, like always in rehearsals,
like there all day with us, just like involved a
lot and even taking you back a little bit further
before I even auditioned. I was training at Alvin Ailey,
if to Alvin Ailey before. It's a modern company, like
black modern company New York. It's one of the most

(20:06):
famous ones. And I was that's the school I was
like dancing at, and I thought I was going to
be like in the company there. I thought they were
going to recruit me while I was like before I
graduated high school or whatever. And Beyonce was rehearsing at
the studio because it was one of the nicest, most beautiful,
like bigger studios in New York for people to rent

(20:27):
out and rehearse at. And she was rehearsing for some
awards show at Radio City in New York, and her
choreographer was outside of the rehearsal room and he stopped me,
like just based on my looks. I was in a
leotardan tights, girl bun whatever. But everybody had heard like
Beyonce was there. Yeah, there was a security guard standing

(20:48):
out like you know where gets around, especially like a
dance studio or whatever. So everybody was like kind of
like whispering. I had like a class down there, so
I was kind of just like, oh whatever, and the
choreographer stops me and it's like, excuse me, Can I
talk to you for a second. I'm like yes, And
he's like, you're very beautiful, Like do you do more
than ballet? I see you do ballet. I'm like, yes,
I do ballet of monter, jazz, hip hop, tap, you know, lyracle,

(21:11):
everything I'm training.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
You're like, here's my whole rest man. I'm like, what
do you want?

Speaker 2 (21:18):
And he invited me into the rehearsal space and that
was like my first time meeting her ever. And she
she was so sweet, so sweet and so like just
humble and like she looked like a dancer, you know.
Her hair was down and big, and she had no
makeup on, she had no shoes on, she was barefoot,
just like regular rehearsal clothes and sweating and just working

(21:41):
like all of us in that studio, you know, and
it was just beautiful. That was like my first like
actual meeting with her. And I was like, oh, this
is so nice, you know. And then he took my
information and told me he would call me and never
call me, very like my introduction to the NDAA. I
was like, ah, this is what it's like.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
What was he? I hate to ask this, But do
you think he was like trying to holliway low key
or was he just like a professional?

Speaker 2 (22:06):
No? No, no, I think he was actually like genuine
because he is like known in this industry for kind
of finding and discovering talent.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
He is still I say, like responsible for discovering me
because he's like a mentor of mine.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Kandfather came full circle in the end. Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
So I the like months later, they're having open call
auditions and like all my friends are like, oh, let's go,
let's go Beyonce auditions whatever. And the line is literally
like down the block, round the corner. This is in
New York City, Yeah, six blocks, you know, and this
is in November. It's freezing.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
I'm like, I'm not standing in this line, Like I'm
not doing it. My mom's like my biggest thing.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
She like, you all stand in his line. We got
the hook.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
She's like, girl, we didn't move all the way to
New York for you not to stand in this line,
So you go ahead and go and stand in this
line like whatever. She always would say, what do you
have to lose? And I still tell myself that to
this day, like anytime I like, am wanting to do
something or like taking your risk or like a little scared,
and it's like what do you have to lose?

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Nothing, you know, if you have nothing to lose, then go.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
So I went. I help with some friends stun line
for three hours. Still girl freezing. But when I got

(23:28):
in there, he Frank Gatson, the choreographer, recognized me from
that time in the dance studio. Oh wow, and he
was like I know you, and like he's that guy
he remembers faces, he like remembers people and all of that,
and he's like he kept me to the end. Everybody
else was getting cut left and right. Girl like bye.
Think it because it was an open call. It was
like people off the street like beyoncely audition, Okay, I

(23:49):
want to go, like you know, like Grandma's like.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Let me tell you, I tried dancing for like one
I tried dancing out. It was like I was going
through a break and I was like, I'm gonna try
all the things that I was always interested in that
my parents couldn't have. And uh, let's just say dancing
is is just you? Definitely, I don't know. It's maybe
built for some and not for all, but then you're terrible.
This looks like you gotta start at the kindergarten level.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
And I mean, you know, it can definitely be taught though,
but yeah, I get it. Some people are naturals. And
then somebody knew it.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Was some girls that was killing it, and I said, oh,
but I couldn't remember stuff. My memory was bad. Uh.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
A lot of people ask that, like how do you
remember all the steps? It's a muscle in it memory,
is it. And then I think you also have to
be very comfortable in your body because I'm like always like,
even when I see girls do squats and they stick
their asshole out, I'm like, I don't know if I'm
comfortable doing.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
It, being like all the way right for the position
to go to the squad?

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Do you hit the squad right? You thought was right form, Yeah,
But when I see girls do it and I'd be
like I try to do it, I'm like, yeah, I'm
not doing that. I'm not doing that.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
I feel it, but I feel like this is like
kind of okay, Okay, I know, looks raggedy, give me
your ball, okay, a little bit.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
So you so you so you make it to the
end of the audition, then what happens?

Speaker 2 (25:10):
And then I get that call to come to LA
and do a bunch of music videos or like you know,
basically audition. It was like a big audition in LA
of like fifty dancers and she was shooting ten music
videos and they didn't know who they were using for what,
so like that's what it was like. I came and
I stayed for like a week, and we did a

(25:31):
bunch of rehearsals and I shot two music videos.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
And then and when you're doing this, is your parents
have to pay out of their own pocket or is
it like on their time? At this point?

Speaker 2 (25:41):
At that point, I think I think they did ask me. No.
I actually think they flew a group of us from
New York out and we stayed at a hotel. Yeah, okay,
I stayed with I met this other girl. She was
in New York too, have like a roommate and all
of that. But a lot of times they will ask
you if you're willing to to come out as a local,
which means okay, yeah wow, And and when you're.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
You better serve yourself a plot too, Yes I am,
I am.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
And then we have like other like siracha if you
want to add who spice? And then the garlic pace also,
that's something I got from the restaurants. Okay, at a
little garlic in there, isn't it be.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Mm hmm bomb? So you uh so, after you make
let's let's skip forward to like your after the tour
ends for a month. I hate to skip around on y'all,
but we're gonna do it. After you're on tour, you've
done the videos, you bail out on Juilliard, you're off tour,
You're sitting there like, what's next, chicken? Uh So tell

(26:45):
me what happens next?

Speaker 2 (26:47):
So then I'm like real life, you know, like here
we are, like what do we do now? Because like,
tour doesn't mean you're guaranteed a full time job.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
You're you know, but they didn't tell you. Did they
tell you it was only going to be a month?

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah? They said I was getting extended for like another month,
and I was like, okay, I'm willing to take that risk.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
So after that, girl, I mean, I like, I'm very
blessed and grateful because I have had a great career
of a dance career, especially of consistently working.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, and you've worked for a lot. So what happens
after the tour ends?

Speaker 2 (27:30):
So after the tour ends, I'm back in New York.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
I go home.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
And I think, I think I'm like auditioning for stuff again,
just like back to you know.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
But now you have Beyonce on your record. I'm on
your resume, sorry record.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
So now my agents, now I get I'm starting to
get a little dose of what it's like to get
a direct book, you know, and not have to audition.
They're like, oh, we want her in the music video
because we recognize her for Beyonce. Okay, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
And then you're saying agents and managers. So at this
point after her you get an agent and a manager.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Before, Yeah, because I didn't have an agent before.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Okay. And then how did they get How did they
find you? They just from the video. They just reach
out and say, hey, I.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Went to them. I said, I just got off tour
with Beyonce. I need I need representation, you know whatever. Actually,
I think I got an agent like while I was
on tour, more than for them to make sure everything
was right, because you know, we were doing DVD deals
stuff like that. We needed like just people professionals who

(28:33):
knew what they were doing. That's what I learned as
I got in the industry. I was very thrown in
the industry. You know. I didn't know about agencies and
auditions and all that. Like clearly I went to an
open call audition. I needn't go to an invited call.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
So yeah, I learned by just being in it. But yeah,
after tour, girl, So after that first tour, I'm in
the grind now, like learning about these other jobs.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
I'm still living in New York at the time, so.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
I think I actually after that first tour, the year
after I did the Radio City Rockets, I was back
at Have.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
You ever seen that show?

Speaker 2 (29:09):
No?

Speaker 1 (29:09):
But I feel like I need to I need to
stay in tune with all the shows with here's a
list of all the things you need to check out.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Okay, the Rockets are the girls who do the kick lines?

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Oh oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Women okay yeah, yeah, like Candy Cane kick Yeah, people
like refer to that.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
So I did that for one year and I still
to this day say that is like one of the
hardest jobs of my life.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Really, why is it?

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Because of the rehearsals, the rehearsals and the shows. We
were doing four shows max, four shows a day, four
four and night.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Oh my gosh in one the first one. And were
you eating Ramen Journey these days too?

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Oh yeah, that's crazy. So there's like, that's crazy because
you have this crazy workout ethic, but are you really
fueling your body at the level that No?

Speaker 2 (29:55):
I mean most like athletes, dancers, you know, especially dancers,
Like maybe athletes probably take better care of themselves. Yeah,
so like because they got like coaches and stuff, like
we don't.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
We just be making it work, you know, stretching. And
I'm curious in regards to By the way, out of
all the dishes on this show, this by far looks
more the most restaurant, doesn't it look at that? I
don't know if the cameras I try to like give
it a little seat, like literally with all the I

(30:28):
don't know what's going on with my mic By the way,
it's like looking like it wants to fight me. But
this dish looks like you could bite at a restaurant.
I don't know. It's so pretty. It's got the green,
the yellow, the chicken looks all seasoned. I can't wait
to try this. I feel like I'm loving your story,
like absolutely, like live for stories like this because it's

(30:50):
like you're carrying me through it. There's a million and
one questions I can ask, and yeah, I will trust me.
I love it though, I will.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
We did, we've even gotten anywhere. I know, we're like
twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
I can't wait. I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
All right?

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Oh yeah, so let's try this amazing looking dish. It
looks good. Let's see if it tastes good. Know what
it's gonna like. Yeah, this is not my kitchen. I'm
gonna hate a little bit. Yeah, okay, it tastes great.
I than the corn. I fucking love corn. I don't
know why I don't add corn. So all my dishes
with the spinach works. Okay, you over cook the noodle.

(31:28):
I know I left them in, but that's because I
was talking to you.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
I looked over and I was like, these noodles, they
soaked up all the water.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Oh yeah, you didn't even dream, right, you know. Yeah,
let me tell you some noodles are definitely overcooked. The
spinach in the corn. Now that corn has that little crunch.
The spinach too. It's just I'm gonna take like two
more bites and I can question you a lot. I
want to try the chicken.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Too, see, And you know, normally we'd be adding like
a lot more season hangs and things and there.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
But you know, I love when you kept it's simple today.
I promise you Guess will come on the show, oh
and they'll start questioning like they're cooking skills. And sometimes
it's really good, like this is really good. But Ramen, Yeah,
I mean it's like elevated. It's not just some noodles
chicken you dig right know you know what saltmn pepper
on chittiness in that band.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, especially if you're trying to be healthier. So and
on his longer pieces like this, that's it's not even
al I can kill this whole dish. I'm not la.
I'm so glad you like it.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Seecram well, now you know how to make it. That
is a great way to make ramen. Chicken thinly slice
salt pepper, you used alibol and vegetable that used olive oil.
Hands down, amazing Ramen ten out of ten.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Even noodles as long as I did the spinach I
think really adds to it. I don't know why. I
never thought of that, and you just put the spinach
in the water while I was boiling. Awesome. I thought
you were gonna sell tape for some strange reason.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
I actually was thinking you would saute and it would
already be saute in here, so you know, I don't had.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
It in But you know, the only help you got
from me he was boiling that one egg. I don't
know why I.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Thought stuff was gonna be like prepped and I just
like put it in the plate. No, we're gonna be like, no,
you gotta cook a girl.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
I'll like it. I'm gonna try to stop eating. Those
people get annoyed and were like smacking on the mic,
but I know I'll be trying. I don't know why
it's so delicious. Doesn't it feel delicious to you?

Speaker 2 (33:25):
It does, and it's like am I starving?

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Or is it really delicious? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
I think it's like the weather all too, and it's
just like it's.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Perfect, great dish. It looks like restaurant quality, amazing upgrade
on the ramen. All right, now, let's go back to
your story. I wanted to ask, actually, so when you're
you were talking about you were doing the not the Candygate,
the radio, the radio City rickets. Yeah, and that was
the hardest soul. What is your money looking like while

(33:51):
you're doing all these projects?

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Well, girl, I mean, first of all, like my first tour,
like I said, I had no representation. I went to
an open call, like I didn't have anything to compare to.
So my first like tour rate was much lower than
what it ever should have been.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
But I didn't know that, you know, But I was
so new, Like you know, do they do tears like
the newer you are versus the older you are? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Like as as I came like dance Captain, and like
you know, by my last year or whatever, I was
at like my highest rate awesome and like highest paid
dancer because I've been there the longest or whatever. You know,
But you gotta fight for the money, girl, every little.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Do you have to fight for it? Every little now? Yes? Now,
do you go to your team and tell them to
push back or do you.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
Oh yeah, damn, that's what the agents are for.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
You ask them.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
But you know, as I developed a personal relationship, I
guess and say it could be in conversation with the
right people, but you know, that's what the agents are for.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah, because I've seen some be your managers and agents
to be brutally honest, Like I feel like some of them,
I don't want to get caught up in this one
carefully worded. Some of them kind of just take the
first offer, and I'm like, you're lucky to have this offer,
so we're gonna take it.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah, So I've seen that side.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
And I have too. I have too, and I've been
told that, and I have been that. I've been the
grateful I'll do it for free.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, that's how I am still to this dam. I'm like, oh,
you're gonna okay, thank you Jesus. I know I kissed
the pinky ring.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
I know. It's like we're like traumatized a little bit
from the way that we were taught to always like
be grateful. You're replaceable. You should you know, like yeah,
like you are replaceable. That's what I was definitely taught,
especially as a dancer, Like you are replaceable. So don't
you step out of your line, you know, like shit,
we will replace you in a heartbeat, and if you
don't take this rate, we'll find somebody who does.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Like yeah, kidding. I feel like that's the industry. That's
how the industry moves. Yeah, but you know, I don't
know if you saw that thing with Taraji where she
was like crying, Yeah, I was great, but I didn't.
Gabrielle Union was saying it long before her, like how
they starting to just collab on text like we're all
a group, stick to this ring.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, and its Ray always says, like, you know, you gotta.
We always are like trying to like work with people
who are like up here, up here from us. We
have to like collab across you know, across the table
instead of like trying to work with Jeff Bezos and
stuff like he's not We're sitting here together, so we
should be working together, you know what I mean, Like
you gotta collab across the table.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
When did you realize that you had to start using
your voice when it came to like your money and
like saying I want more?

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
When when was that moment when you did it?

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Like I mean, way more recently than what it should
have been, honestly, Like you know, honestly, but I would
say more so like during the pandemic, I really like
started owning my my what my rate should be you know,

(37:02):
like and learning that people will pay it, you know,
the right people will pay it.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
So, yeah, are in the pandemic. The pandemic wasn't everything
like shut down for you.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Yeah, but that's like when I, like, I started doing
a lot more social media stuff during the pandemic, and yeah,
I just was paid my rate. Like that's like when
I started learning like that my rate could be better
in situations.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
You know, it was like, oh, what did your parents
say when you had the epiphany that, like you wanted more?

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Well, my parents, I mean when I wanted more. I
think I've always just wanted more. You know. I've always said,
like I don't want to be a dancer forever. I
don't want to only be a dancer. I don't want
to you know. So my parents have always been supportive
through like everything. I'm very grateful for their support. They're
still married, I take it, okay. Yeah, Yeah, the few

(37:57):
that made it, I know they're hanging in there. They are.
Not that it's been easy, but they are my whole
life too. It's been great. They're a great example for sure.
Definitely want that. Yeah, you know, I think we call
want it.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, I don't know if it's really gonna happen in
the New Age, because I feel like the New agees
I know for it.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I know, And I'm like, are we like leaning more
into like the never get married era?

Speaker 1 (38:20):
That's what I think. I tell my twin. I'm like,
by the time our kids are old enough, marriage is
gonna be Do you have a twin? I have a twin. Yeah,
that's why I said. I said. She likes Beyonce and
I like Jay and it's weird because we band it
up together. That's so cool. But uh so sorry, I
don't mean to bounce around your story. So let's go

(38:40):
back to when you're doing the Rockets. Yeah, okay, so
you're on this strenuous schedule at this point. What's your
next biggest play?

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Well, okay, so I did the Rockets. I did one
tour with Beyonce. I did the Rockets Tour, and that
gave me like a very diverse resume. You know, It's like,
oh wow, she can do a lot of different things.
So that was great, a great look for me, I
feel like. But yeah, money was always coming and going,
you know, because the projects come and they're they're great,

(39:10):
but they only last so long. And then you're like,
where's it coming from next?

Speaker 1 (39:14):
You know, are you budgeting, living like a budget life,
or are your parents just kind of helping the offset?
What's going on?

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah, my parents were in real estate, so the place
I was living in at the time, I didn't have
to I didn't have to pay rent, you know, so
that was a huge thing. I didn't start paying rent
until I moved to LA at twenty one.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Okay, damn, you're all so young. Geez damn, you're making
moves for twenty one. You done been around the block
at this point.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. I mean, yeah, I'm so
grateful that, like, like I said, my parents support and
then like being able to support me in that way,
you know, and so I could save because I was
actually my first door. I was really good girl. I
used to have like a stack of that pretteem like
could they used to could stap it?

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yes, I love having Like I was young, I was
like I was seventeen, but this is my first like
real job.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
You're like, I live off ten dollars a day.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
I got this Literally, I'm like, I'm just gonna use
my card when I need it, and I'm going to
collect this cash. I came home and brought my family
like a stack of my I'm like, look at the
cash that I accumulate. This is the extra. And they
were like, you're so good at saving. Great job. And
then as you, like, you know, time goes on, then
you're like, I guess I'll buy this bag. I deserve it.
I've been working hard, you know, and start treating yourself

(40:27):
a little better. You get your nails done, you know whatever,
and you grow up and then you spend your money.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
So yeah, you realized and you realize you're not really.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Getting paid that much. You're like, hold on, your bills
get higher, everything is and you're like, wait a minute now, Yeah,
so it all one in La. I moved to La
when I was twenty one. This is after I did
I did Beyonce Tour, I did Rocket Tour, and then
I shot actually while I was on tour with the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
It's so crazy, So.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Right before I went, this is the thing people don't realize,
like the the sacrifices and the like crazy shit that
you have to do sometimes in order to make your
career work. So like when I was about to do
the Rockets, I I was we were getting ready to
shoot the single Ladies music video.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Okay, oh yeah, famous thing, infamous.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Single Ladies music video. But I was like a part
of like the creative, you know, workshop process of the video.
I didn't know I was going to be in it.
I like basically kind of auditioned a little bit like
the rest of them. Like I I like, well, we
were like auditioning people that could match me and her,
and then if it didn't work, they were gonna go
with short girls and I was gonna be out. So

(41:40):
I was like, Okay, well hopefully a tall girl comes along.
That makes sense, you know. And so once they decided
on another tall girl and that I was going to
be in the video, I had to pretend like I
was sick girl for the Rockets because I missed like
the first three days of rehearsal.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
And the Rockets do not play like they're.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Like, oh it's you drop out, you can never come back,
you will X, Y and Z. So I literally had
to play like Beyonce was in on it. I've told
this story before, so we.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Want to hear he told us it.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
I know it's crazy though, because like I know the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
If you said Beyonce was in on it.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Beyonce was in on it. Like I would get calls
while we were rehearsing for single Ladies, and I knew
that it was like radio city people calling and I'd
be like, you guys, it's STEMP and they and Frank
like had a doctor, like write me a note and
all that, and they would like.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Go take the call.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Take the call. They cut off all the music and
I pretend like I was sick in bed and I'd
be like, hey, yeah, and I think I'll be able
to come in a day or two. Like the girl
was crazy.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
It was crazy.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
And then as soon as we wrapped that music video,
the single Ladies' music video, it was like a twenty
hour shoot. It was like three in the morning or
something when we wrapped and I got in a car,
went straight to like Pennsylvania or wherever we were rehearsing
somewhere on the East Coast, but not in New York,
and started rocket rehearsal the next day. And everybody thought

(42:57):
I was like recovering from an illness, and I was like, yeah,
m hm. I was exhausted because I just shot the
music video, the single ads music video of the night
before and then like cut to like a month or
something later. The video comes out while I'm touring with
the Rockets, and everybody's like, is that you with Beyonce?
And I was like, oh yeah, we shot that a
while ago. Yeah. I was like, oh yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
They're like, when did you shoot that?

Speaker 2 (43:21):
I'm like right before, like you know, like a while before.
Here crazy, that's funny.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
So that iconic video came out while I was on
Rockets tour, and then after Rockets we go straight into
another tour rehearsal because she dropped the song single Ladies,
she dropped other singles and then the album I Am
Sasha fears Wow.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
So we got another tour and then I moved to
LA after that tour. Okay, and at this point you
and her camp are like just obviously family at this point.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah. Well, that like second tour that I did, that's
when I got like promoted to dance Captain. That was
like my first little like money promotion.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
And what is dance camptain mean as dance just for
people like met I don't know.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, well, like the dance captain is kind of like
the the leader of the dancers.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Like if he the one with the ruler kind of
the rule, you know what I'm saying, Like, you know, yeah,
but man, I get that step right.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah. I make sure everybody's like on their p's and
q's while we're on the road, because people can get
lazy or like do their own thing or you know,
like change it up, like do what the job is,
you know. But also like if there's any issues, like
the voice for the dancers, like oh, okay, come to
me and we'll I'll go to management or like, you
know anything if management needs to talk to me, your

(44:34):
dancers need to X y Z, you know, like the voice,
because it's a lot it became a lot of dancers.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
As time went on, it was like low was the
best part of being on the road.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Mmm. I mean I would say, just like the fans
and like the performances, you know, the crowds and the
travel experiences. Like I love being in different cities and
experiencing the culture and exploring you know, the vibes of
the city. So I love that. But the crowds, girl,

(45:05):
are like insane. There's nothing like.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Is there ever any drama on the road of course,
like do people like cook.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Up and yeah, Oh my god, there's all tour mances.
There's tour mancesances, that's what it's called tour mances. There's fights,
there's arguments, there's people who don't get along.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
You know, like whatever, freak out.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Yeah, it's like college, that's what it feels like. It's like, yes, something,
I know. I'm like, I cannot believe a reality show
has not shot a tour, Like, I can't crazy because
no one wants to expose like the Honestly.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
I do like that. Beyonce has been releasing these first
of all, I want to say, she's like one of
the first to do it, like where she's doing, like
the visuals, the visuals behind. I haven't been able to
see The Renaissance one yet.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
I haven't seen the film either, but I went in
at the concert Yeah, and she shouted me out. She
was like Ashley, Hey, Gary, we love you, Ashley, and
you were like I was like hey, and everybody who
thinks there's drama, there's not, so there you go. Yeah,
because everybody thought there was drama, girl, and I didn't
do this tour. They were like, you got fired and
even Beyonce, Beyonce hates you.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
I'm like, do you I have this sick thing like
if people comment negative stuff for whatever reason, I look
at it like I feed off the negative. And then
like if someone says, like nice stuff, I'm like whatever,
but like negative.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Does it like drive you?

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Like you comment back? I don't comment back. I just
kind of chuckle because you know, no, I mean goative too,
because they don't know nothing nothing.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
They don't know nothing. I know how to laugh it
off too, But girl, it can get wild. So take
me back to all right, so you moved to LA.

(47:02):
Moved to La. Yeah, and that's when I was like.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Okay, really, and your parents aren't with you at this now?

Speaker 2 (47:08):
My parents aren't with me. But girl, when I first
went on tour, like at eighteen, once I turned eighteen,
my mom moved back to California with her husband and
her other kids. You know, she was like, I'm going
back home. So I was in New York like those
last couple of years by myself. You must have liked that, Yeah, yeah,
it was nice.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
I like grew into an adult out there.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
So you're out here twenty one in Calli at this
point in Kelly, We're gonna go over time. Jared and
we had even got halfway to the store. I'm so sorry,
but but yeah, twenty one moved here.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
That's like really when I really like started expanding, because
at first I thought I was gonna move out here, girl,
and I was like, I'm gonna be Bi Colstal. I'm
gonna still have my New York place, and I'm gonna
come to La like when work needs me, girl. I
never I never went back to New York. I like
work kept me out here. I was like, oh, I
guess this is where I'm gonna be living. So eventually,
like I told you, my family owned the condo in.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
New York, Yeah, they sailed it.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Oh shoot, so was sad because now I wish we
still had it. I'm like I would use it now. Yeah,
but I was ungrateful when I was twenty one, you know,
and I was stuck out here. I was working.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
I was a workaholic. Girls, and you're taking care of yourself,
no parents help, You're living on budgets. I'm assuming yeah,
and yeah, I mean I kind of wasn't really living
on budgets.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
I did a good job, like saving you know, I
had did a couple of good tours and back then,
like touring was where you do save your money, and
that's like the biggest.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Thing, oh, because on the road you're not really spending
your money.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Right yeah, And I didn't have like I wasn't like
paying rent or anything, so like, yeah, you could just
save save, okay, and then if you save your pretty
m you can spend that he has your little extra stuff.
But you spend your money easily on the road because
you want to like whine and die in yourself and
shop in the different cities and stuff like that. But
when I was very young, I was better at saving

(48:55):
more money because I was like stingy, yeah you know,
but I wasn't. I still really wasn't making a lot.
I just was saving better. Yeah, moved out here, wasn't
really budgeting like that, you know. I was kind of
like enjoying my life.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
And I started.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
I had worked with like a bunch of different artists
out here, worked with like Neo, toured with him, Usher,
another artist, I toured with Sierra, and then every other
year basically I was going on tour with Beyonce. So
again like on the road, not home, you know whatever,
And that was my reality girl up until twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Okay, and then what happened in twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Twenty eighteen was the last tour that I did, and
then twenty nineteen was I wasn't on tour. I worked
on TV shows and other personal things.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
And then when you're say TV shows, what were you
doing on the TV shows?

Speaker 2 (49:54):
I did a TV show called Hit the Floor acting.
I was like acting and dancing. Yeah, I had a
role called Peyton, but I was a dancer on the show.
And then I think I did like Dancing with the Stars,
and you know, just other award shows or like TV
appearances like what is this that the Morning Show? I

(50:18):
shot an episode of that, like just televised stuff that
requires dancing.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
You know, That's what I do.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
When I'm like when I wasn't on tour, it would
be like a year on tour and then a year
at home doing like TV commercial films.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Are you able to have like a dating life or
a personal life or.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
Is that I you know, I have always kind of
been in a relationship actually, so yeah, from like when
I moved to LA I got in a relationship pretty
much right away, and that was until twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
And then in twenty nineteen I turned thirty so I
was like, can't bring damn girl thirty.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah, you're good, all right, god go think I was
trying to figure out.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
I wonder I'm like, how old is?

Speaker 2 (50:58):
I know? It?

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Just like all right, even away, No, that's good. I'm
approaching forty.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Oh I don't know nothing like it.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
It's because the braids, man, they just pull your head
back a little bit, snatch it all up.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
I know. Same at the bun give me life, pull
it back.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Yeah all right. So you so then twenty and twenty
or what have you? Were we at two.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Thousand, yeah, twenty eighteen or something?

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Well actually okay, so let me give you this little tea.
In twenty sixteen, that relationship I was in, he jumped
on stage.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Girl. You can look it up if you just type
Beyonce proposal. I think I remember that, gone, that was me.
Oh he proposed to you on stage. I remember that.
I saw it a couple of times. What you talk about?

Speaker 2 (51:43):
That was you?

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Okay, So what happened to day.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
And then we broke up in twenty eighteen? Girl? Oh yeah,
because that whole proposal I mean in general, he did
that for him, not for me, Like I'm not even
that kind of girl who wants that kind of attention.
You know, he was desperate times called for desperate measures.
I guess, you know, it very for him. What was
the beginning?

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Was it like when I was like when Opset jumps
on stage recorded me and does the grand and she's like,
was he like retrying to coop a mess up or
something like trying to make up.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
For I think he was just trying to get attention,
Like Okay, Literally as soon as it happened.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
He was like, we went viral. We got to capitalize
off this. I said, Oh, that's what you want to
got it?

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Shit?

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Yeah? So it was like that, like you know, and
then it was like the next year, everybody was like
when's the date? And I was like, I can't even
envision myself setting one. So wow, it was very much
the beginning of the end, but it was the best,
Like I needed that, needed that for it to end
that relationship. Because then the next year, like I said,
I was turning thirty.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
That was like the year I poured into myself and
did you do the whole like love yourself thing? Yes? Girl?
Like was it hard?

Speaker 2 (52:51):
And nineteen was like the year of transition for me.
It was great though I needed it. And then twenty
twenty I the pandemic hit and I loved it. I
was like, yes, we could stay at Oh, it's amazing.
And then I just poured more into myself and I
was like, I love it.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
I love it here and I love it here.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
I think it's like the self love thing. I even
paid this. This is really embarrassing, but I remember I
actually paid for her course online. They never said it
to me on like how to.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Do self loving?

Speaker 1 (53:18):
That's how ghetto. I was desperateirl, So my brand being
greater than yay, look at that pivot go on, please period,
We're gonna bring it fold. So this is how God works,
because I literally I promise you I paid. I don't
I paid. There was like a self love course. I said,
I gotta pay for that because I don't. I'm studying

(53:39):
this and I don't.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Know coming how to do it.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
March, we're doing.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Yeak. We did a soft launch in November Girl in Atlanta,
and it went over like better than we could have
ever envisioned. You know. Ever, imagine like people were like
I didn't know how bad I needed this, Like when's
the next one.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Where can we more so, what can people expect for
be greater than? And like what was the thing that
made you create it?

Speaker 2 (54:07):
The thing that made us create it. So it's three
of us, three friends who were all on this like
self love journey. You know.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Oh I love that you guys were all on the
same boat together.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, and everyone's like timing was a
little different. I feel like I started it like before
everybody else, and then they saw some things change in
my life and like how great it looked. And then
they were like I need to love on myself more,
you know, and like it inspired other friends and these
these are like close friends of mine who are like family,
you know. So once they jumped on their self love journey,

(54:38):
I was like, yes, I'm so proud of you guys.
And that's like really where the idea started from. The
Jazzmine Harper, she's like another founder, one of the other founders,
and Randy Bonds is the other one. But Jazz is
like a little sister of mine. We dance with Beyonce together.
She danced on So you think you can dance?

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Actually? Oh okay, Oh that's okay, So that's okay.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, b grand then yeah, yeah, yeah,
she yeah, so she was from the show she We
did Beyonce together, like have been through a lot together,
you know, and she was like, I really want to
do something for myself, like something that I own, something
that I am a creator of, the founder of Da
Da Da Da. And she's like, I know, I can't
do it alone, like I need I need you, like

(55:20):
I need your help whatever.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
I was like, I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Let's do it, and then we just started exploring. I
brought in Randy. He's a publicist. He's been a friend
of mine since the beginning of my Beyonce days since
nine basically it's when we started working together. We were
both nineteen. He found me on Facebook and he was like,
I see like your stardom as not just a dancer
and he was like, I want to do pr for

(55:42):
you and I yeah, okay. And so I've had a
publicist also. That's been like something very different about me
than like most dancers. I've had like a publicist or
like a manager, you know, most of my dance career,
and that has put me in like magazines or like
in people's faces that most dancers wouldn't be in their face,

(56:03):
you know, like allure or you know, I can't even
think of these the magazine's essence and you know, just
like tons of outlets, tons and tons of outlets. So
that's been like very helpful, I think, and for my
career as well and getting my name out there. Where
was I?

Speaker 1 (56:21):
So we were talking about the inception of be Greater
Than Yeah, I'm so curious now, you know, it might
have to be like a hundred questions, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
So me and Jasmine, she she brought it to me,
and I was like, let's bring Randy in. He's on
this journey too, Let's talk ideas. He's publicist, blah blah.
And so the three of us like just explored and
you know, talked ideas, and it was it was going
to be called be Greater Than Humble because we were always,
you know, talking about how we are told to be humble,

(56:51):
and we looked up the definition of humble.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Have you ever looked up deaf?

Speaker 2 (56:54):
No? What is it?

Speaker 1 (56:55):
I feel like Kanye talked about it at some point.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
But yeah, other like rappers and stuff have because it's
like technically not like something that should be praised. It
almost it's basically saying to make yourself less than for
others to feel better about them.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Is that what humble is?

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Yeah, And it's like so you can feel comfortable.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Basically I used to do that, to be honest, when
for a long a long time, even being a twin.
To be honest, I'm just sure it's like, you know,
you want to make everyone feel comfortable, so you know,
And I started doing it in relationships guys, would you?
I would like plaques, shoe story And I remember the
guy we were engaged, and I just knew he started

(57:37):
to hate my accomplishments.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
That's why we moved engaged in relationship was too.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Girl and I started to be like anytime there was
a plaque or an award, I would literally there was
a closet and I would hide it and I just
got in yeah, And I remember throwing out all my
like like my dad started saying like, you need to
start putting your stuff on your wall because you seem
to forget all your milestones and I have big posters.
And I remember just throwing him in the trash and

(58:02):
his brother being like, why are you doing this? And
I just remember being like, well, clearly, it's starting to
become a problem. In my relationship, so I would I
got in the practice of dimming my life. Well after that,
I was like an next relationship, Man, I just want
to be me. I just want to be able to
be like this is who I am.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Like, you know, it should celebrate, Yeah, it should heighten that,
you know, and like brighten my light, not dimn it.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
So you guys were looking like you got girl. I'm wet.
I'm still learning, but I remember, just I remember there
was a I did something for nick Can and I
did the whild out like booklet that went into all
the CDs or stores, and I remember just hiding it
from him. I remember asking for the sea looking at it,
and like when he came home, I threw it in

(58:47):
the trash. I was still mad to this day that
I threw it out. But I was so scared of
him seeing these accomplishment. Yeah, because it just became ub Yeah,
of my relationship. That's crazy. Sorry, Yeah, but I love
the fact that you guys took the initiative to even
look up be greater than because when you first said
it be greater than be's like be greater than what?

(59:07):
But I love that you eliminated humble.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Yeah, it's like, be greater than your insecurities, be greater
than your traumas, be greater than your childhood, be greater
than your mistakes, be greater than yesterday, be greater than anything,
you know, like anything, it's limitless. So yeah, and that's
the brand. It's a lifestyle brand. What you can expect
at So far, we've only had one soft launch live activation,

(59:31):
so they're Me and Jasmine. Since we come from the
dance world, we did a little like dance moment, but
it wasn't even like four dancers. It was more so
so you can build your confidence and you know, learn
how to like hold your shoulders back and stay with
your chest out and be proud, you know, like more
of like self confidence Mooster. We had a guy come

(59:52):
in who's like a martial arts specialist who taught people
how to like break through your traumas. And they kept
pounding on this thing until they released their traumas. They
had to repeat a saying. I don't know what they
were saying. I was we were teaching the dance class
at the same time he was doing that, so I
don't remember what they were saying, but they had to
keep saying it, and everybody girl, people were breaking down crying, like,
you know, in a great way. They were just like,

(01:00:13):
oh my god, I felt so.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Good, Like I needed that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
We had a woman come in who led us through
breath work and taught us about the importance of just
breathing and remembering to intentionally breathe. You know, we just
sit around and like, see, like, I think that's really great, girl.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Yeah, thank you, same because it's so important, and you know,
we really started this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
I can't see people crying girl either, because that makes
me go. But like we started this because we pour
so much of ourselves into our jobs, our careers, other people.
We forget about ourselves. We forget about ourselves, and it's like,
don't forget to pour into you. We have the power,
We possess it all whatever we want. And I'm sorry

(01:00:57):
this episode people are gonna be like, we can't even
understand you. Stop getting here each other.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
But yeah, don't worry about yourself, you know, quarantine you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
So they So that's some of the stuff. And you
guys thought through every different angle from traumas to confidence.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
Yeah, self confidence to breathing to feeding yourself from the inside.
Out with healthy things. We had a girl's share her
juices and her recipes and the reason why she's vegan,
and you know why we should go on fast every
now and then and just take breaks from meats or
you know, processed foods or whatever. Just education, you know,

(01:01:38):
and inspiration and relatable people like just people, you know,
not somebody who we like look up to and feel
like we can never get to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
That level, you know, just like every like.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Yeah, so it is it a couple of days or
how it was one day? The one in March we're
planning for one day as well. It was like an
eleven to five o'clock kind of thing, I'll.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Know, And how do people sign up for it? We're
gonna I want gonna be I'm gonna be on the list.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
Yeah, you're gonna be on the list. But we're gonna
sell some tickets.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Yeah you know, no, no, no, I'll to buy a ticket.
I just make sure I get to buy one before
it sells out.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Yeah, we got you, grown, But yeah, we want we
want people to be able to like have access to
this and pour into themselves and you know, remember the
importance of that. And it's a community, you know, and
we'll continue to hold each other accountable and our other
dreams and all of that, and same with holding each
other accountable, you know, be greater than once to eventually

(01:02:37):
expand into like clothing and you know, like online courses
and stuff like that too, but one thing at a
time because it's a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:02:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Yeah, so yeah, that's awesome. And then so the next
one will be probably in March.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
In La yep, yep in La mm hmm, and we're
doing it in women's history months, so it's gonna be
for the.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Women, but everyone. Now, have you gotten sponsors that have
tried to get be a part of it or.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
We have not yet? Girl, because we did that stops
watch just like we were like, we'll just invite like
ten people, and then like because we like knew some people,
it became maybe like twenty, but it was great. And
then we have like press and stuff. So now we're
going to like get put it out there. But we
have not gotten sponsors yet, but we plan on yeah,

(01:03:24):
plan on it. Yeah, and I think that people will.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
Align with it. Is it is it going to be
just for women or is it going to be for
It's for everybody? And we eventually want to do it
for kids or like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
You know, yeah, I think it's a start early, right,
we need this, Like I feel like we're all learning
this too late, you know, like if we were doing
this in our twenties, Like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
I realized, like I I'm very rarely ever single, you
know what I'm saying. Like, I'm like, I think the
longest I was ever single was like barely made it
a year, and that was me going I was still
technically dating pub this is lose. We don't have the title. Yeah,
I could make it a year, but yeah, it's like
you're constantly distracting yourself from yourself in a way when

(01:04:07):
you're in these relationships or you're taking on some you know,
I don't drink or smoke or do any of that stuff.
I'm not saying it's bad or anything. I just it
doesn't do anything for me. Never has. Yeah, But I'm like,
you know, maybe this is this scape that's not benefiting
me at all at this point. Maybe I need to
like me myself and I so and that's kind of

(01:04:28):
the road you came to, right Yeah, Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
I mean, yeah, I was in long relationships and yeah,
God in relate felling them, you know, like that's how
it turned into yeah or whatever. So by when I
was turning thirty, girl, I was like, I need to
pour in to me, like self love first. Whoever doesn't
align with me loving on me gotta go. Okay, you

(01:04:53):
know like literally my whole circle of friends changed.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Even your friends changed. Uh huh yeah, I'll my whole
sirg Now, did you ever struggle with boundaries or anything?

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Yeah? Of course, okay, of course, I'm I still work.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
On I'm like, uh, my producer shout out to him,
like he's reading books. I don't mean to put your
business out there. I love my team. Yeah, but yeah
he's like reading books and I'll be, oh, let me
you know, like yeah, I'll let you trick it out afterwards.
But like I love that he's at his age, like
even reading books on boundaries of stuff and like just
even learning that word. Yeah yeah yeah. And I heard

(01:05:28):
with little kids when they're little, you have to be
careful because kids organically have boundaries. But then we as
adults who are like, well, no, allowed this or share
this or did it and just like really shouldn't do
that with with their they got their little voice. Even
though we're looking out for them. But that's kind of
where the boundaries start.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Little starts a childhood and then we have to like
reteach ourselves everything in our adulthood.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
And it's that's why it's called a journey, you know.
It's constant, girl, constant. Your journey was constant. So take
me back to the pandem So you enter the pandemic single.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Technically, actually no, okay, So twenty eighteen, I left that
relationship where it was at twenty nineteen, I'm pouring into me.
Part of pouring into me is personal training, and I'm
now in the gym. I'm working out fall in love
with fitness, and then.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
I actually can't fall in love with fitness. I keep
trying to convince myself that, but gone.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
I think you can, Yeah, you definitely can. And you know,
for me, I feel like it was really like the
mental benefits, Like it put me in such a better space,
you know, and it made me make better choices throughout
the rest of the day, you know, and just have
more inspiration because it was me pouring into me, you know.
And then everything else from there helped remind me to

(01:06:50):
pour into me, you know. But during that I met
my current boyfriend now because he's a personal trainer. Okay,
so it's crazy because he was so professional too. I
like we were like literally just client and and trainer
for so long. And then I would like ask him,
like what do you do out here? Like do you
have friends?

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Do you hang out? Do you have fun?

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Do you do anything at night? You know? You want
to come out with me and my friends? Like whatever?
So I like had to drag him out. Basically, I
invite him out like three times he always turned me down,
and finally, like that third he came and hung out
and like that's when we like started our friendship, you know,
and then.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Eventually it became a relationship.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
Okay, nice, but he you know, he's I feel like
he was like sent to me because yeah, he helped
me the timing and everything, and he has always been
like an advocate of me, pouring into me. You know,
it's nice. I like it. I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
And then and now we take you up to here
where you're writing this be greater.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
Then be greater than company business.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Now are you are you still dipping your toe every
once in a while into Dan still or yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
I am, I am, But I pick and choose where
you know, Unfortunately, I still feel like dancers are like
the like lowest paid and the least respected in this industry.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
So it's.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Hard, like you know, like sets and stuff sometimes that
we have to be in our situations that it just
makes it hard for me to be like, yeah, I
want to go do that. Now I've done it also.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
Bajillion times of the negative side, yeah, I mean like
just like, how did you see that interview recently where
the cast of The Color Purple was talking about and
co signing with Taraji about how they didn't have like
dressing rooms or anywhere to like sit down, and they
were like that like where they had to like she
had to ask them for like a ride to set

(01:08:43):
or some.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
Food or whatever, like we don't have any food in
our rooms?

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Can we get snacks?

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
And you're on set, locked it on all day, you
can't leave, right, Yeah, Dancers get treated like that a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
You know, we don't have if we have a holding room,
there's no chairs where we're just on a dusty, dirty floor.
You know, there's no snacks, where's the water we're dancing,
we're sweating, you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
Know, like wow? And then are they usually contractors so
there's no like labor laws or anything, right because it's
contract work. Get the freak.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
That's why television, that's why I started falling in love
with that too, because that's sag. There's a union, there's
a representation, you know, like people look after you, there's rules,
there's you can't if you work overtime, you're paid for it.
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Like but now when you're a dancer and you're on
contract and you have rehearsal, do they consider the rehearsal?
Do they help nothing?

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Like it's scary out there because you look at these
dancers in the videos and you look at them on
tour and you're like, that's amazing, what an amazing opportunity.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
But you don't think them like sitting in a room, yeah,
just starving to daddy of be eating one thing or
like yeah I'm not drinking water or freezing maybe all
day or something like depending on the settings.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
And then yeah, it's all based on like those kind
of contracts if they're not a set like music video rate,
like rehearsal rate is this, and then the shoot rate
is that, and the eye out is that you can
negotiate whatever. You know, if it's a tour rate and
you're like I want three thousand a week, like you
can negotiate that. But a lot of times they're like
we only have X, yeah, and it's either take it

(01:10:16):
or leave it, you know. So the industry is crazy.
It's crazy, and a lot of times they'll take that
main rate and cut it in half for rehearsals like that.
Then that's your rate, weekly rate, no, well like daily, yeah,
you rate.

Speaker 1 (01:10:34):
Yeah. So I'm going that people are starting to speak
out about it because it's starting to like humanize, Yeah,
the industry for all these people that are on looking
like you're a turagi or you're you're.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
No, yeah, And that's why like even me myself, like
I'm like I'm in the working smarter not harder era,
you know, Like I've been a dancer for professional dancer
for like twenty years almost and I've done literally everything,
worked very hard for it, and like we shouldn't have

(01:11:04):
to always work that hard, Like we should be taken
care of. We shouldn't have to beg for water, we
shouldn't have to beg for you know, certain things or
like a seat or a cushion or like not dance
on concrete or something, you know, like, but it happens
all the time. And then like social media comes around,
and you know, the rates are crazy and brands are

(01:11:26):
paying influencers crazy hundreds of crazy amount of money, treating
them like superstars, flying them out to this place in
that place, and it's like, wow, we can't even like
get that in the industry.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
You know, I got some friends that are influencers in
the money they make is crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
I make more as an influencer than a dancer or
an actor or wow.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Wow. Yeah, the world has definitely flipped. Yeah, it's definitely flipped.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Crazy. That's a big reason why I didn't go on
this tour. Yeah yeah, you know, it's like work smarter,
not harder, guys, It's not always and I think too
in this age, like people are getting caught up in
the likes and the followers. It's like, oh, I have
three hundred thousand. It's weird. It's like some people don't
even have that much in their bank account and they're like,
I'm a superstar because I have fifteen thousand followers. Like, yeah,

(01:12:16):
I wouldn't say humble yourself, but do live in reality.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
Do live in reality, Yes, and be aware and yeah,
have a sense of humility.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
You know, but definite in reality. I always tell people
before you look at your likes and your followers, like,
also assess. Also assess your bank account along with it. Yeah, sorry,
because you have to.

Speaker 3 (01:12:37):
You have to.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Your bank account still matters at the end of the day.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
It does, and you have to be smart. Like rich
people are where they're at because they were smart with
their money. You know, a lot of them, Yeah, unless they.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
It was just this is kind of random, but I'm
I'm deathly curious. Do you read a lot? I know
we're almost done. I don't know if they're that's not
even for us, But uh, what books do you read?
Are you a reader?

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
You know, I am not a big reader, but I
am trying to be so if you have recommendations, I'm
a reader because I'm that's the era I'm in now.
I'm like, I need to learn, and like you know,
I'm always telling people be a sponge, like always learn learn,
learn from everyone, So please, I'm a booker.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
I'm a booker. But well, i'll tell you off camera.
But there's a couple of favorite books I have. But yeah,
I definitely like to read if I have an opportunity
now that I have a two year old. Every time
I open a book, she like rips it out of
my hand and she's like reading. I'm like, that's for me,
and then it's like the rip war and so she

(01:13:40):
wants to read it. Yeah, so unless it's like the
bear and the squirrel get along, like I basically have
to hide my books.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Yeah, you like a physical book too. I like the
audible love physical.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
I've been getting into audio lately with her because otherwise
there won't be that much reading. But I've been doing
more of a like it's you know, I used to
be all into business books, but now I'm all into
like self help, please save me from myself, well and your.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Mom, you know, And that's you know. Jasmine also has
a two year old who I'm her godmom, and that's
what made her pour into her was having to prioritize
her daughter and herself better and not be like a
dancer who's just like jumping around from rehearsal rehearsal at
someone else's time whenever they asked for you. Like, she

(01:14:27):
had to like prioritize her daughter and like work different,
you know, and like so she was like, I want
to create something that makes sense for me as a mom.
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
Yeah, I remember I try to get all these like
books on like stay at home mom work or how
to balance your schedule. But I think having I was
married going through a divorce, but one of the things
I learned was like I was taking care of everyone
but me, and like I was always the last. It
got to the point where I'm making my daughter's lunch

(01:14:57):
and I make it like psycho level. I'm that parent
that's fruit, vegetables, snack.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Cheese like layers.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
They open the lunch box and they're like, your daughter,
for one, doesn't eat out of this stuff. But I'm like,
you never know what mood she's gonna be. Yeah, but
then I'll have all these healthy options for her. Right
And as many times as I do her thurrows chips
and I'm eating none of this stuff that's in the house,
and I'm like, do you know what I mean? Like
what about you? Like why can't you eat a blueberry
or BlackBerry or cutting out eat some of the apples

(01:15:26):
you're cutting? Yeah, you know, And I realized that I'm
everybody else and I'll work thirteen million jobs to make
sure that every bill is taking care of and everyone's comfortable.
I mean, not only sucky addiction kind of is I
like to drive nice cars, like my only thing. That's like,
but you know, once she's okay, yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
They all have that's not a bad one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
It's literally the only thing. Like I switched them out
like every three years. But I will say that, like,
it's still not enough to just be like, Okay, I
got the car that I want for the next three
years or however long you know, the new one comes out.
But that's not really enough to say I'm taking care
of myself. That's just like, that's just that's a.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
Nice luxury thing girl that you just that's like it's
like like like you deserve that, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
But but where can people keep up with? Be greater
than and and shout out how people can keep up
with Ashley.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
Be greater than is on Instagram, be greater than Underscore
and then myself Ashley C M. Everett Yeah, on all
social media platforms.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
All right, So guys, if you want to keep up
with Ashley, go ahead, and thanks for listening to another
episode of Eating While for more Eating While Broke from

(01:17:00):
iHeartRadio and the Black Effect, Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

All Episodes

ASHLEY EVERETT - Self Love Soup

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

The Nikki Glaser Podcast

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}ASHLEY EVERETT - Self Love Soup