November 18, 2024 • 49 mins
Ask any Hallmark Channel fan and they’ll tell you Nikki Deloach is a Hallmark superstar. Featured in over twenty Hallmark movies, Nikki is that and much more. Besides her numerous acting credentials, Nikki is a philanthropist extraordinaire and a true Mom inspiration.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi, Welcome to Inside the Mom's Club, where being a
mom is the coolest place to be. Here in the
Mom's Club, we believe that what embarrasses you now will
make a great story later. And let's face it, you
don't laugh sometimes you're gonna cry. Join us in having
a good laugh together. I'm Monica Samuels. You are now
(00:35):
inside the Mom's Club, your private destination for all things.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Mom Monny, I'm right. Welcome moms.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Welcome to Inside the Mom's Club. I'm your host, Monica Samuels,
and I'm here with my co host, Julie Orchideo July.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So thrilled to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's fun to be here now. We have been traveling
so much. I mean I've been going from one trip
to the next.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And a few weeks ago, I was scheduled to go
to disney World because we have an annual trip with
my mother, sister, and niece to the Epcot Food and
Life that's so beautiful. And there was a hurricane coming,
Hurricane Milton. And I guess your daughter is in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So is she Georgia?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
You are working for a Universal Orlando.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
And what did you do when you heard the hurricane
was coming.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I was out Saturday night. It's feeling a little rough
on Sunday morning, not gonna lie rolled over and I
was like, oh lord, she's only twenty two, but she's
you know, adultine ish. And I called her. I said,
you're on a flight tonight. She goes, ah, I'm gonna
ride this out. Okay, you know, no one, it's gonna
(01:48):
you don't know what's gonna happen, and you need to
come home. I mean, your job is not going to
be going on. So I couldn't deal with it at
the time. I rolled over. I said, call me back
in an hour when you have your head screwed on
stream and she got on the flight.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And so while you were doing that, yeah, I was,
oh god.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I forgot looking at YouTube videos on how you get
through a hurricane at Walt Disney World, and then I
researched on ARII like, what do you buy to take
with you if you're going to a hurricane.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I envision you, like wearing the long yellow with the
hat like on the salt container going yeah, flying into
the hurricane, trying to have it first, get it done.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
The next day, my sister when it was we're supposed
to leave, and I said, how are we going to
do this? And she said, Monica, we are not flying
to a hurricane.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, take your eighty two old mona into a hurricane.
That sounds great.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So thank goodness had wiser people in charge of me.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
But I did reschedule, my true did go.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
And last the only person I know who owns these.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, I'm just saying Disney is upping their ear games. Okay,
Now this is a podcast, so for those on YouTube
can see. So if you're into food, this is the
doll whip.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Oh, I get it. I get it again. You are
the only right I know who has those.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh well, you want to know what's evenson?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Who?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay, talk about limited edition specially, I'm the queen shopper
of everything in America. Actually, Duni and Burke has come
out with these limited editions. I'm protecting these with those
were cheap. Yeah, no, so don't tell my husband.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I won't tell them.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I won't tell Leather Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I mean they're everything, Monica.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I mean, I mean I have to be. I'm a
little embarrassed wearing them right now because they don't match
my outfit.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
But aren't they great?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
They're fantastic. They came with their own case. I mean, yeah, yeah,
they're very special. So there you go for those to
be buried in those I think that's what I say.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
No, I don't think so, but but believe it or not,
there are people out there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
This is a big deal. Actually, I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I was kind of okay, Well, while you're gone, you're
Christmas people also called you.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
So when I got home, so I'd cut a special
deal with my luncare people that they would put my
Christmas lights in early and I'd get a ten percent discount.
So when I got home, my whole house house is
lit up. I'm the only one in the whole neighborhood
with Christmas lights on my house.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They're actually before Halloween.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
They're on, yes, very early. But then I thought about it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You know, we have a lot of friends for huge,
huge Hallmark fans, right, so I think I should just
have a big Christmas watching countdown to Christmas watching party
at my house.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You guys don't know, but Monica has a tree on
every floor of her house. And I mean it's not
like it's five floors, but when you walk around her house,
I think she should give kids tours at Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I could, I could, But anyway, I'm trying to just
a lot of fun. Maybe I should just put the
little Hallmark thing out front so it looks like people
can think, oh, oh, I see what she's doing, not
what kind of person puts Christmas lights.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Up in Well, the five of us also do something
at Christmas with Hallmark, and we watch big time.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yes, and so that is why we were so excited
to have with us our guest today. She has starred
as the lead in over twenty films across various Hallmark channels,
and she is part of that Upcoming or the Countdown
to Christmas lineup. Her upcoming film is Our Holidays Story,
which is airing on November two. She has reprised her
(05:35):
role as Goldie Berry in the fifth installment of the
popular Curious Caterer mystery series, Curious Caterer Forbidden. You and
I were talking about watching that as soon as we can.
She's currently the president of the Foundation the board of
Trustees for the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. She's a board
member of Mind What Matters and Putting These Mickey Ears.
(06:00):
She was part of the all New in the nineties,
the All New Mickey Mouse Club, where she starred with
Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Carrie Russell, and Christina Aguilar.
Please welcome, Nikki DeLoach. Welcome to the Mom's Club. We're
so excited to have you here.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Hi, we are beyond you thrill.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yes, I honestly meeting you from my mother, who is
a huge, huge fan. June is a huge fan. I
couldn't meet Elvis and she couldn't be more excited that
I was getting to meet you, so.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
So so kind. Thank you, and shout out to June.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Thank you. She will appreciate. Oh well, she'll love that.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Thank you, Adam absolutely will love it.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, tell us about our holiday story. So if I'm
gonna have a Chris Christmas countdown party at my house
with lights and everything, what can they look forward to?
What can my guests look forward to?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Feel good movie? Obviously, But I've done a lot on
the the Homemark Drama Mystery Channel where I grieve a
lot and I cry a lot, and I've done five
years of those, and so this year I said to
the network, can I please just do a comedy this year?
Just to feel good company. I've cried a lot. I'm like,
(07:19):
just I'm tapped out on the crap.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Like I got that covered on my own totally.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Yeah, you know, I always feel like I'm Holly Hunter
and broadcast news. I find a place to cry once
a day just to get it over with, you know,
because inevitably will happen. Yes, but yeah, So our holiday story,
it takes place in two different time periods, so present
day and then when myself and my husband met many
(07:46):
years back, So there's a period piece aspect of it
where the clothes got to change. It was the nineties
or early two thousands, actually early two thousands, and so
that was super fun to kind of go back in
time and take makeup off and put makeup on and
make yourself look older in present day and younger in
the past. And so it's really a story about serendipity
(08:12):
and faith and if two people were meant together, if
something is meant to happen, there's nothing anyone or anything
can do to stand in the way of that. So
it's yeah, and it's fun and it's funny. It's very quirky.
I've never Joa Batkin wrote it, and she's one of
my favorite Hallmark Christmas. She just writes beautiful Christmas movies
(08:33):
and she did a beautiful job with this, so I
was really happy to go and do it and kind
of be funny and cry. I mean I do cry once,
but that's different than crying for a whole movie.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I wondered if they ever cry. And the Christmas movies
at all are.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Sad at all too.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Yeah. Yeah. So there's the Hallmark Channel proper right, it's
more you know, comedy and more happy and that kind
of thing. And then there's the Hallmark Mystery or homework
drama channel, and they also do their own movies and
those are more dramatic in nature. They're meaningful, they're beautiful.
(09:10):
I'd say the movies that I've made that I get
the most feedback from from fans are the ones I've
done on that network. Five More Minutes, which was about grief.
The Gift of Peace was also about grief, a woman
who found a grief group because she was stuck in
her own grief after the loss of her husband. Those
movies have been the most meaningful for people, for sure,
(09:32):
and probably the ones I'm most proud of, you know,
some of the ones I'm most proud of on the network.
But this year, I just really just the world is
heavy and I just want I wanted to be weird
and silly, and I wanted to laugh and make other
people laugh.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, and the world wants Hallmark because you anyone I
know that loves Hallmark, that you can like my mother,
you can sit her in front of Hallmarks.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
He could stay there for four weeks and just never move, Yeah,
and be totally happy. And you know it's it's not
there's rare.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I know that joy like that. Oh no, well that's
the reason, you know. I did my first Hallmark movie
in twenty fifteen, and when I got the response from
my hometown because I had never watched a Hallmark movie.
I mean, of course I knew about the brand. It's
a massive brand. Yeah, you can't buy a card that's
not a Hallmark card. Really, I mean, they've been around
(10:24):
for so long, but I didn't know the world of
the movies that they make. And when I was with
people in my hometown and their response to the movie,
I was like, what is this? This is I've been
doing this since I was seven eight years old, and
I've never experienced this kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Response like intense loving feedback.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So passionately loving and hopeful and happy, and the joy
that just joy was the world that just like would
come out of them. I thought, I think I want
to be a part of that. It's like, of course
we want to make the secessions of the world or
TV shows like Deep and some of you know, but
(11:06):
to actually bring people joy and comfort and peace, especially
those that are going through really hard things. There's no
greater gift if you're doing what we do in terms
of bringing people content.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, you started your career bringing people joy because the
Mickey Mouse Club a Mickey mouse Club that is so fun.
And when I'm thinking the whole cast, I mean, if
you announced that cast right now, it's like, oh.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Wow, you know, all of you are so successful.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Julie and I went to a justin Timberlake concert and.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
A and he's coming back the recent one.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, the world wasn't great.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I'm just going to ask you. I'm sure you've attended
many this tour.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Hell and I've seen five of his shows.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The dancing and his backup dancers and the way I
think he's the greatest hard I mean, his whole his
whole team.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
People don't understand I have. I mean, he's family, so
of course I know what he does. I know how
hard he works. He's like the hardest working person I know.
And people don't understand what he puts into a show
to make it look like it's as effortless as breathing.
I was in a girl band where we sang and
(12:17):
we dance.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And mother managed. Is that right?
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Yes, Okay, let me tell you it is so hard.
Get on a treadmill and try to sing, and then
try to sing like he sings. Then you'll know how
hard it is. Like literally, get on the treadmill and
run and try to sing. And that's what it's like.
You're dancing, you're bouncing around, you're moving, and he's doing
it for two and a.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Half hours, hours whatever night, And.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
I just he is. He will go down in history
as being one of the greatest performers of all time,
all time.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
He's incredibly, incredibly talented. Yeah, but so are you. And
so I want to tell you that not only does
she have done all these movies, but you actually have
a podcast I do, and you guys actually bring even
though it's talking about you know, caregiver vers of you know,
(13:13):
you've had deeply affected by dementia Alzheimer's, And I'm fanning
hard because I'm a nurse and so I know.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I listened to the podcast and heard you say that
you were a nurse. What kind of nurse I was?
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Any?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Our nurse for fourteen years been really considering doing hospice nursing,
So of course I went cuckoo over Nurse Julie.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Not my name is Julie, but we have her in
our one of our episodes.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yes, I mean that's what I was listening to. So,
but I just want to touch base on that, because
what you guys are actually doing is bringing a little
bit of joy in the grief.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
That you have.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And what you said, they do this great dance party,
and what you said is it's really a love letter
to our parents, right, And I love the way that
you're honoring everything. So tell us a little bit about,
like mind, what matters?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
How did it all start for you that you got
interested in that?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Well, So my road or my philanthropy with Alzheimer's and
dementia started really in twenty seventeen. So my dad, my grandfather,
actually passed away with vascular dementia and that was its
own journey in and of itself. And then in twenty seventeen,
in the same week, I was pregnant with my youngest son,
(14:25):
who was diagnosed with multiple congenital heart defects and without
immediate intervention, he would not survive. And in that same week,
my dad was diagnosed with Picks disease, which is a
rare and aggressive form of dementia for which there is
no cure. So I knew I was going to lose
my dad, and I knew there was a chance that
I could also lose my son, A big chance.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
And yeah, So talk about those moments, those markers in
your life that it's like BC, you know, like before Christ,
like right before that that forever will mark my life.
It changed me on such a cellular level, and there's
been a lot of trauma and pain and heartache and
loss and grief. And also I always say this because really,
(15:08):
what other choice do we have if we want to
live a happy, joyful, full life. I want to get
to the end of my life and be like I
squeezed every ounce I could out of this. I can't
do that if I'm only resting inside of the sad
or the victimization. It's so easy for us to be
like why us, why us? Why us? Well, why not us?
(15:32):
It happens to people every day, hard, sad, bad things,
So why not you as well? Right? So what do
we do with that? What do we do? I will say, like,
you know, sometimes life gives you a hand, like a
pile of crap in your hand and you're looking at
it and you're like, this is steamy, it's steams, it's horrible,
(15:53):
and what am I going to do with this? Well?
How do we spin that into gold? Right? So I
got involved with our Alzheimer's Association at first as a
spokesperson speaking at events. I led the walk to in
Alzheimer's in Los Angeles for many years. Kicked off that
event and then the dance party specifically was started by
(16:14):
Kimberly Williams Paisley. Her sister, Ashley Williams and I have
been friends since our twenties. We grew up in acting
class together. And Kimberly was ready to hand the party over.
So she handed it over to obviously her sister Ashley,
and Ashley needed a partner and so they you know,
I think it was her brother Jay because there's three
(16:35):
of them. Jay suggested, what about Niki? Why don't you
ask NICKI? So that's how I got involved with the dance.
And this year we just had our event, the Halloween Addition,
and we raised in that night and we're still we
have another couple weeks of fundraising. It's still open. We
raised two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which is incredible,
and it all goes towards research grants. So really we're
(16:59):
focused on prevention. We now know because of the money
we have put into research in terms of prevention, we
now know we can prevent this disease. We have no cure,
but we know we can prevent it, and we have
ways in which we can prevent that. So this is
what we're not. I always say, nobody's coming to save you.
Now you have got to save yourself. Put your pants on,
(17:23):
get your shoes on. As you get put your shoes,
shoes on, get out there and do something about it,
because nobody's coming to save you. And then from mind,
what matters my friend who's become a dear friend? Elizabeth Humphries.
She this was a podcast that originally exitited isisted years ago.
She was caregiving for her mother who had Alzheimer's. She
(17:46):
was really just looking to talk to people to get
answers on how do you navigate this.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Her wildly unexpected and be a.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Caregiver young kids at home, she was taking care of
her mom, like how do you do this? And she
put it on pause because she had to take care
of her mom. And her mother passed away, not this
past September, but the september before that, And I had
a dream that we brought the podcast back, but it
was the two of us and we just focused on
(18:16):
caregiving and not just in the space of Alzheimer's and dementia,
because what I've noticed is we're all caregivers.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
In some way.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yes, as a nurse, for example, what I've watched these
nurses do at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and it makes
me emotional to think about they take care of our
children all day long. They save their lives. Literally, they
cradle these day, are their.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Hair, and when you cannot be there or when you're there,
and like even when you're their bedside, they're the taking
giving the meds, soothing them, doing all the things.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
And they're going from room to room to room to room,
caregiving all day long, and then they have to go home, right,
and then they have to give care to their kids
and their husband and their friends and their community. How
are we doing this? Women? How are we doing this?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
So with each other and with people like you, it's
really important because today when I was listening to you
that you really pointed out that the suck is going
to come. Embrace it, right, So you actually say something
and I think it's you that said, you know, you
never really heal, you recover, yes, And I thought, oh
my god, because what we've been dealing with our parents
(19:29):
this year. I've basically been running without any disrespect to
my parents and adult day care. Sometimes I'll take my
mom somewhere and she comes out and we're in the
parking lot and she goes, now what I do? And
I was like, you get in the car. And so
it comes and goes. And so what you're bringing light
to is amazing because it can you know, like MS
we work on a cure, and Alzheimer's were working on
(19:52):
a cure. So I really wanted to talk about your
podcast because the caregivers and want to help spread the
word about it, because the care givers need to know
that they're not.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Alone, They're not alone. Yes, it's called Mind What Matters. Everybody,
Please check it out. Thank you for thank you for
bringing attention to it, because it really is a labor
of love. And you know, for me and Liz, I mean,
I get anywhere between one and two calls.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
A week that this is happening.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
A lot of people I don't even know, like whether
it's children's hospital. They know what I've gone through with
my kid, they know I'm involved. They reach out via
Instagram my child needs a liver transplant. I don't know
where to go. How do I get into the hospital.
I got you, what's your cell phone number? Let me
take care of this for you or my dad. I
(20:41):
think was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but I'm not sure,
Like what's going on? Can you talk me through this
or both of us? And so this podcast is really
a way for us to talk about all of that
and so much more, but especially caregiving.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, critic quite is so.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Bad, and especially as our parents are living longer, it's
becoming more of an issue. And you just learned things
that you don't intuitively understand until someone says to you, well,
my parent repeats the same story over and over and
over again, or tells me something three times in an hour,
and initially your reaction is to correct that person, and
(21:21):
instead we're told, don't correct that person because that makes
them think, well, what's wrong? Totally yeah, and so, but
you learned so much about how to be compassionate, because,
let's all face it, someday.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You may be sitting in that seat, you know what
I mean, fond exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
So it's true, you know, with my dad, it's just
something I don't I innately knew how to do it.
I don't know if it's because I had a kid
that was very ill and for years and and so
caregiving was just something that I had to, Like, it
was like a crash course in it. Right, Oh, here's
this baby that just had open heart surgery that you
have to bring home from the hospital. And in that
first two years, we had three heart surgeries and it
(22:01):
was more hospital er visits than I can count. And
so when he said things like, you know, the sky
is purple, Yeah, Dad, that's the most beautiful purple sky
I've ever seen in my life, don't fight it, you know, like,
let the moments with them just be filled with joy and.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
And you're too like you want to be like, that's
not right. It's just like you got to embrace it,
you do, because it is an uphill battle on that.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, Well with.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
The children's hospital piece, so my son was in the
nick you So I was on bedrooms for two and
a half premature, he was premature, and so yeah, his
story is he was premature and so he was in
the nick you for like ten weeks and then he
had to have a surgery and all that, and then
later on in his life he had a bad accident
and had traumatic brain injury.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So like, how many lives does this kid have? And
he's still hanging in there and he's doing well. He does,
he does.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
But yeah, it's hard to you know, have your child
going through now watching your parent is difficult.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But what was that like for you?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's a lot to know your child is get born
in that situation and that you're going to face that immediately.
And we knew once I went into early labor we
were facing that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Yeah, I mean, you know it's brutal. It is so brutal,
and in fact, I don't know if you experienced this,
but you know, for me, I had a moment earlier
this year, so it's been seven years been. It just
turned seven in September, So this year, seven years ago
he was born. And earlier this year, I went to
(23:39):
meet a friend for lunch, and I'm helping families to
learn how to give a mission moment at Children's Hospital
Los Angeles. People who want to, who want to share
their story, who want to like support the hospital. So
I'm helping them kind of give them a template first speech,
like this is kind of how it looks, and this
is what you can talk about and share and you know.
So I had to put a speech together as a
(24:01):
template with audio or with video and pictures. And so
because I talk about the first time leaving the hospital,
I needed to find that video. I'm sitting there in
the valet waiting for my car, and I finally get
to the video, and I'm thinking, like, how have I
not seen this video? I've watched the second time we
came home and the third time we came home. How
(24:21):
have I not seen this video? And I pull it
up and I'm watching and then I just my body
just starts shaking, like I just start shaking and tears
start coming up, and I'm like oh my gosh, if
I lose it waiting in this line, Ballet thinks he's
gonna get it, Like, that's wrong. My car needs to come,
(24:42):
and I needs to come. And I get in the
car and I just I sob so uncontrollably, it cannot breathe, sobbing.
It has taken me seven years for my body to go. Okay.
Now now you can begin to recover. Now it's okay.
It's safe to recover because for so many years, you know,
(25:04):
every time you got sick, it was an er visit,
every time something happened. Every you know, when you have
a kid that's gone through something like that, it gives
you PTSD. You have trauma from it. Your hypervigilant brain
goes into it drives the truck. And what that means
is it's driving all the time, rs it's not giving
(25:27):
you the breaks that you need. So last year I
went into really intense trauma therapy and I was able
to take that part of my brain and not make
it go away. Because we are who we are, and
I think so many of us sometimes don't succeed in
recovery in therapy because we're trying to get rid of
(25:49):
these pieces of us that don't feel good, and instead
of that, we need to get close to them and
get to know them and embrace them. That hyper vigilant
part of who I am saved my son's life.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
It also saved my grandfather when he collapsed and we
didn't know what was going on and I sprung into action.
It saved my grandmother after she had two double strokes
on Christmas Day. It took care of my dad. That
part of my brain. I need that.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeh.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
She just doesn't need to drive the car all the
time to drive this off a cliff.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
So it was about really taking her, putting her in
the back seat. And because I was able to do that,
I was able to.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Have that moment.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
And now I'm back in traumatherapy really working on that
time within. I don't know how I did it.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
That's what our doctor told me at one point, because
I was going through all that with Jared, and finally
she said, take a break, take a breath, Monica. She said,
he'll be fine. You'll be scarred for life, but he'll
be fine.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Thirteen year old Dillar, She'll be fine, but I'll be
scarred for life.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
We have some moms who have some questions for you.
We have our Zoomer mom, So welcome Zooper moms. Welcome
to the Mom's Blood.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well, ladies, this is a very special treat, and it's
a special treat for you because you each get to
ask two questions. It's not usual that we do this,
so and don't you know, two very well thought out
questions because we only have a few minutes, So let's
start with Jan. Jan, tell us a little bit about yourself,
(27:27):
and what are your questions for Nicky?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You're on mute. You're on mute, Jan, She's like.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Someone push a button. Someone push a button.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I understand that.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
No, there we go there, yeah, I go all right.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Sorry about that, Nikki.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Oh it's okay.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Jan. I'm really glad to meet you.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
I had a limousine service here in Dallas for thirty years,
and I also sang with Patsy Kline's original band.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Many years, so I'm singer.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
And I also had my own service. But I was
so happy to hear all this about the Alzheimer's. I
took care of my mother when she had Alzheimer's for
I guess three and a half years, and now I
have an autistic godson that I care for and it
lives with me full time.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Bless you. Thank you for doing that.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
But I followed you for many years and I have
a girlfriend named Jenny Nolan who is addicted to Hallmark
on twenty four seven. She never changes it. And I
mean we took two trips to Hawaii last year and
it's on twenty four seves.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
You go to Hawaii and all you have is Hallmark on.
It's just crazy. She's so as addicted to it.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
I'll ask you, first of all, thank you for being
on the show today. And I want to ask you
about the Hallmark Christmas movie, Our Holiday Story.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Can you tell us something about.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Yes, well I can tell you. You know my co star
Warren Christy, who's a phenomenal actor and so wonderful to
work with, and it's such an incredible cast on this one.
And you know the thing is my character in Warren's character,
you meet us in the beginning of the movie and
we're in twenty twenty four. You know, we're aged up
(29:26):
a little bit, and he has a daughter in her
twenties and her boyfriend or the person that she's currently
dating shows up at the house and he unfortunately ask
us about our love story and how we found each other.
And the movie is about us telling that story and
(29:47):
going back in time and seeing it happen in real life.
And while this youngen is dealing with, like, well, his
own love story workout right. So that's kind of the
fun in it is that we go back and worth
in time. And you know, what I was saying earlier
is just some if people are meant to be and
if something is meant to happen, you know, there's nothing
(30:10):
we can do to ruin that. There's nothing that we
can do to make that not happen, right, And I
have to, by the way, I have to remind myself
of this all the time. I think the anxiety of youth,
so much of that is is having anxiety that things
are not going to work out that we wish or
that we dream. And my grandmother, my Nana, always used
to say when something didn't happen, she would say, well, honey,
(30:34):
it just means that it's either not meant to happen,
man's rejection is God's protection, or it's not meant to
happen now, not not today exactly. So it's you know,
it's a story that reminds us all of that. Yeah,
that's great.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
You know you just mentioned your grandmother, and your grandmother
was a very important part of your.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Whole career from what so I wouldn't have different?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, isn't that?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I mean, she tell just a little bit about so
she she moved you out here to LA to help
you with your career.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Well technically like I was going to do it with
her without anyone I was, so they figured they might
as well send an adult adult Like people ask me
all the time, like would you put your kids in
this like this industry? The answer is like, I would
never put my kid in this industry, But if they
were the kid that I was, which was come hell
(31:26):
or high water, I was doing this. If I had
to run away from home and do this, I was
going to do I wanted. I started at three, that
was all I wanted to do. And if that was
my kid, I would support them and give them the
tools and do whatever. And that's what my grandmother did.
Dance lessons, vocal lessons, you know, whatever, competition. She bought
(31:47):
my dresses for the competitions or for my talent competition.
She bought my outfits and she was.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Like, kid, I'm all in behind you.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
I won a talent competition that brought me to LA
and I was eleven at the time, and there was
a bunch of agents that wanted to sign me and
wanted us to move to LA and my mom was like,
I'm my daughter or not moving to LA.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
I don't tell you about you and in her Georgia exit.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
My grandmother kind of sidled up to one of the
agents and said, well, what can she do where we live?
And one of the agents said, there's going to be
auditions for the new Mickey Mouse Club. They're going to
be casting new members. If you have a local agent,
tell them to look out for that. And sure enough,
a year from then, Yeah, I was twelve years old,
(32:35):
got my first audition. But all the reason I have
a career and my biggest cheerleader in the world is
my grandmother.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So when you're up there giving give me your speech
accepting your Emmy awards, I.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Know for her, Yeah, I guess that. I mean, I
know we have another question, and I guess the support
I should be giving my daughter, Georgia is moving to LA.
In February, I had to kindly remind her she doesn't
have a job, but.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Go for it.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah. Yeah, well she said, she was like, you're just
a buyer. Yeah, she expects to doesn't have a job
or anything.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
I don't think I'll find that for that, but yeah,
I like that.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Angel, Welcome to the Mom's Club. Tell us a little
bit about yourself and do you have a question?
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 7 (33:18):
Thank you so very much, and I'd like to thank
your guests today for such an incredible story and being
so transparent. My background is in radio as well as television,
among some other things. But I do have a question
for you. Most people look at success or they want
to be on television, or they want to be in
the lights and whatnot. But is there a specific lesson
(33:39):
you've learned through your challenges with your family that has
shaped your view on success?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yes, got good question, Angel, I mean.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Way to bring it, bringing the ps you could even
look on the Instagram and says small talk survivor. Because
I do not know how to do I'll talk like
I just like I'm the person that's like who invited
this girl that wants to talk about grief and stuff
for the party. I love this question and the reason
I love it is it's because I struggled so much. Right,
(34:15):
My mother and I had a very complicated relationship and
we now have a beautiful relationship that we've worked so
hard for. But she was twenty one when she had me,
and you know, I chased I wanted her love so deeply,
and I just spent my childhood not getting that right.
And so when you're a kid that doesn't get the
love that she really needs, then you get into an
(34:38):
industry and you're chasing that love from the people in
an istry. You're constantly chasing love and acceptance and validation
through external sources. And you know where I'm going with this.
So I think as a society, it's not even just
about the entertainment business. I look at my son, who's
(34:58):
not in the entertainment business, who's eleven, who's constantly seeking
his self worth on the outside, and I'm constantly reminding
him that is an internal job. You will if you
are trying to get that outside of yourself, you will
be empty and you will be chasing that your entire life,
and you will never find satisfaction. And so I think
(35:20):
it's something that's relatable to everybody. My idea of success now?
Is am I a safe person? Am I a safe
person for myself? Am I a safe space for other people?
Am I a person that people can depend on? Am
I a person that people can come to and say,
this is what I'm going through? Can you help hold
(35:42):
this for me? And So my whole definition of what
success means it is not financial. It is not my resume,
It is not the things I've accomplished in terms of
awards or whatever. That is not real, right, And while
I love it, and while it matters because we have
(36:02):
to pay bills and health insurance and all of that,
So it's legit life and death in terms of being
able to support our families, true, but it does not
determine our worth. So yeah, it's changed a lot.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
I love that you've worked on your legacy.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
So I love this, I love it. I love it.
You know who I'm going to ride in for president?
From my ballance? I think I mean an inspiring person.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I do you think she wants the job?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I know, I know, but yes, you are. You are
because you're just so You're a problem solver, which I
love solving problems, and I think that's just amazing. I
actually may enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
She's also a judge. You do know this. She's judging
mister Christmas, which I need to know what the qualities
are to be mister Christmas.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
What is that?
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Angel? I don't know if you've heard of this show.
It's called Finding Mister Christmas. It's on Hallmark Streaming and
my dear, dear and Jonathan Bennett he hosted with Melissa Peterman.
And when Jonathan texted me and said, I need you
to come and judge the finale and I need you
to be a part of the finale. And I was like,
what was that? What am I doing? He's like, don't
worry about it. I tell you when you get here,
(37:12):
just say yes, just say yes. I got on a plane,
I showed up to set. He gives me this script
and I read it. I'm reading it. I'm reading and
I'm seeing that I'm doing the climax resolution scene with
the boys. So there's the remaining contestants and I realize
I have to kiss every single.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I was like, I have to ask her, what is.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (37:41):
You tell me to kiss all of them? And he goes,
You're welcome, You're welcome anyway. It's more than that. It's
really it's so fun and.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
So they have to be a good kiss there. That's
one of the qualities.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Part of the qualities is really you know, being able
to act in the scenes. But what they're really looking
for is like at Hallmark, and I think anybody who
gets to know the talent, it's so funny. We'll have
new executives come in, new people come in in terms
of leadership, and they come in with this like these
ideas right of like well, we're going to do this,
and we're going to do that, and like you know,
(38:14):
I have these people have been here forever and blah
blah blah blah, and they're not really family, you know,
they're not really they can't be like, I love each
other as much as they do. And then they are
with us for like a week and they go, oh wow,
everybody actually really does love each other. They are a
family like and so then their hearts are changed inside
(38:35):
of that, right because they're like, I love being a
part of this family, I mean. And so it really
is about like the show itself and Jonathan calling on
the family to come in and you have to kind
of embody. It's a feeling that you have to have
when when you work for Hallmark as an actor, it's
(38:56):
not just what you're doing on the screen, it's how
you live at your life and how you're showing up
up big open hearts, love, really appreciating the audience and
getting it, getting what we do, what we get to
do for other people.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Well, no cast, did I know? And I think you
do this with the Hallmark chan y'all did that tour
and at the East Coast and you went to Chop
We did. And Chop is a very special place for
those you know, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of
the best in the world. Yes, And so to do
that and get to live that and work that and
(39:32):
spread that, I can't say enough about the people you
work with.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Thank you. Yeah. We got to literally start in Washington,
d C. It was a grain child of Annie Howell.
I have to give her a shout out and Shane
Ray Julian who put together this entire thing. It was massive,
it was huge. I'm blown away by what they put together.
And we started Washington, d C. And did Christmas rallies
all yep and stopping at Chop along the way, which
(39:58):
was something that I I had really wanted to do
when they started.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Dreaming, You're a puddle through the whole tour that.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Day, like you got say, hug so many mothers and
that's the thing, it's like I've been that mother that
you know. Of course, all the focus needs to be
on the children, and of course all the resources and support,
and there needs to be a light that is shown
on the doctors and nurses and stuff and what they're
the amazing things they're doing at chop and also the
(40:25):
people who are forgotten inside of it, right are the
mothers that are at bedside day in and day out,
and they are terrified fired. I said, that's what I say,
that bone tired.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
That they get to see you, but they may not
be able to register that getting to meet you because
of the exhaustion mentally, physically.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Well, it is so true.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
That's another the caregivers because yeah, being the mom okay,
zoomer moms, Yes, you each get one rapid fire question,
So like what's your favorite call and whatever?
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Okay, jan question for Nikki.
Speaker 5 (40:59):
Nikki, I want to know about Mine What Matters?
Speaker 4 (41:02):
Oh great, okay, I.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Hate to watch your podcast, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Well, Mine What Matters nonprofit, which the podcast is now
an extension of it's a nonprofit organization where we give
financial grants to caregivers of loved ones with neurodegenerative illnesses.
So that's Alzheimer's, dementia, als Parkinson's, any newer degenerative illness.
And so it's a way for us to go because
(41:30):
caregivers sometimes need help, need help now, So what can
we do right? And Liz dreamed up this idea. She
founded the organization of like literally putting money in the
pockets of caregivers so that they can go to their
doctor's appointment, they can bring somebody in for the day,
for the week and say, can you help me with
my mom or my dad this week? Because I got
(41:52):
to go get my heart checked. I haven't had a
physical in two years. I need to get my hair
done because I haven't had my hair done, like whatever
it is. There was one woman that we were able
to give a care grant to. She has alopecia, and
she was able. Her dream was to compete in a
pageant where the women had alopecia. And she went and
(42:13):
she did it, and she put her dress on and
man did she look amazing. And because of the care grant,
she was able to go and do this thing that
had been a dream of hers for so many years.
Was just to take back and show the world like, yeah,
I might have this thing, but look how beautiful and
strong and courageous and brave I am. And it allowed
(42:36):
her to be able to go back to return to
caregiving with something in her motor. She did something for herself.
So that is the impact of mind. What matters nonprofit
and what?
Speaker 5 (42:47):
Well, thanks so much for your inspiration.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah that was I.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
Would love to talk about beets, but that she's from Dallas.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
She's from Dallas, hear. Yeah, anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
No quick question.
Speaker 7 (43:01):
Okay, I've got like a thousand questions. It has to
be rapid fire. Yes, I just want to know what
was your favorite role you ever played?
Speaker 3 (43:09):
And what great questions I would have to say.
Speaker 4 (43:13):
Lacey Hamilton on Awkward, I had the just the dream
of playing her for almost six years of my life,
and she was a totally ridiculous human being. I mean
I had, like, I like this contraption that made me
look like I had giant breast and I wore this
tightest little outfits and heels, and you know, her whole
(43:34):
story was that she had this. She's the most popular
girl in high school and had a fall from grace
when she was sixteen and got pregnant, and so her
daughter and her are so close in age, and she's
trying to live her life vicariously through her young daughter
who was so different from her and who was no
interest in being popular or any.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Of the things that she was terrifying.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
And so it's a comedy, but it's also Heartfeltlton Lauren
Uneric created it, and she just like, she just created
something so special and that role for me, will go
down in history is being my favorite. That's far.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
This is so great.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
You're you're truly, as we say on the Mom's Club
low amazing, not just amazing, the word extraordinary I would
put on you. You're I mean all the things you
do and you're so talented and so giving and so
I mean it's you.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
You glow girl. You blow, You really do, and I
know you're exhausted at you glow and you know all
the stuff that you have going on. You remind me
of my friend Lacey we had.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
On the show.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
She she has a clever podcast called Every Widow Thing,
and it's less deep less dark, less often and you
you know what I mean because you teach that through
your podcast as well, because these things are going to come.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Yeah, So we have to learn how to find joy
and cell great even when we're in the valley. We
tell ourselves all the time, well I'll do that trip
when I will go and do this thing when I
will do And there might not be a when. That
is what I've learned, because you're just there might be
(45:15):
another hard thing. And the more that we can learn
to find be comfortable and the uncomfortable, the more that
we can learn that we can celebrate and find joy
and find moments of happiness inside the valley, Like that
is the full life. That is what we're seeking. That's
what we're wanting and hungry for. And we can do it.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Say yes, and your dad would want you to do it.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
Yeah, Well he was the one, like I was coming
out of my first year of grief with him and
I after that first year, that first year anniversary, something
horrific happened to a really dear friend and she lost
her son and we had the funeral services on the
first anniversary my dad's passing, and I have never seen
(45:59):
that was the the most horrific thing I've ever witnessed
in my life. And I went and crawled in bed
and I didn't get out, and my dad came to
me in a dream and he said, baby girl, it
is time for you to get out of bed. And
if this can't wake you up and teach you that
you got to celebrate and find the joy and do
(46:19):
all the things, then nothing's going to So get up
and and and and so it was my dad who
did wake me up.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
We're so happy to see so many.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
People out there are as benefits.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Besides your film on Friday is Holiday Story. Where else
can our listeners find you? On social media?
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Oh yeah, oh yes, I always have a good social
media I'll tell.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Us because if you want to see a lot of
dancene a lot of silliness, come find me at Nick
DeLoach and I K D E l o A c
h to Loach And then our Holiday Story airs Curious
Cater will still continue the air on the Mystery Network
and also Finding Mister Christmas is on the Hallmark Plus
(47:08):
on our new stream watch shirts on lots of muscles,
holding puppies and taking pictures of firefighter I wonder.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yes, I'm definitely going to Actually is it's.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
Like every woman I know you want to watch all right,
all right, that's what I answer the question.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
We will definitely tune into that. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Well, we also want to thank our sponsored New Calm
because New Calm is the.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Reason that we're seating her friends, you know.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Because so we we sometimes have to share a hotel
room sometime on the road and New Calm this helps
us sleep better. It makes Julie calm, which is a
huge thing spending.
Speaker 4 (47:53):
It also has magnesium in it. I just want to say,
and you could do your own research, but magnesium is
really really really good for women.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Very yes, yeah, that's going to be another show I
think about all of that.
Speaker 5 (48:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (48:04):
Wow, So I can come and talk to.
Speaker 8 (48:05):
You about so spelled and you see a l M
and if you put Mom's Club in the code at checkout,
you're gonna get fifteen percent off every month of your subscription.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
I'm about sleeping all for the kind and being calling focused.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
It's it's that it's what you want to need. Moms.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Well, I cannot believe that we are we are already.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
I could do it all day.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Definitely, like just like watching Hallmark. I mean we could
just talk to her all day kind of thing. Great, Well,
thank you moms for being with us. We will be
next back next time with other extraordinary celebrities and moms
out there that are doing wonderful things. We know that
your meantime is precious and valuable. Thank you so much
(48:51):
for spending it with us. What's our motto, Julie though,
that's more important than anything. If you don't laugh sometimes when.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
We are going to cry, to cry, So don't cry.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Moms, keep laughing. See you next time inside the Mom's Club.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
Whoa
Hi, Welcome to Inside the Mom's Club, where being a
mom is the coolest place to be. Here in the
Mom's Club, we believe that what embarrasses you now will
make a great story later. And let's face it, you
don't laugh sometimes you're gonna cry. Join us in having
a good laugh together. I'm Monica Samuels. You are now
(00:35):
inside the Mom's Club, your private destination for all things.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Mom Monny, I'm right. Welcome moms.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Welcome to Inside the Mom's Club. I'm your host, Monica Samuels,
and I'm here with my co host, Julie Orchideo July.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So thrilled to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's fun to be here now. We have been traveling
so much. I mean I've been going from one trip
to the next.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And a few weeks ago, I was scheduled to go
to disney World because we have an annual trip with
my mother, sister, and niece to the Epcot Food and
Life that's so beautiful. And there was a hurricane coming,
Hurricane Milton. And I guess your daughter is in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So is she Georgia?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
You are working for a Universal Orlando.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
And what did you do when you heard the hurricane
was coming.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I was out Saturday night. It's feeling a little rough
on Sunday morning, not gonna lie rolled over and I
was like, oh lord, she's only twenty two, but she's
you know, adultine ish. And I called her. I said,
you're on a flight tonight. She goes, ah, I'm gonna
ride this out. Okay, you know, no one, it's gonna
(01:48):
you don't know what's gonna happen, and you need to
come home. I mean, your job is not going to
be going on. So I couldn't deal with it at
the time. I rolled over. I said, call me back
in an hour when you have your head screwed on
stream and she got on the flight.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And so while you were doing that, yeah, I was,
oh god.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I forgot looking at YouTube videos on how you get
through a hurricane at Walt Disney World, and then I
researched on ARII like, what do you buy to take
with you if you're going to a hurricane.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I envision you, like wearing the long yellow with the
hat like on the salt container going yeah, flying into
the hurricane, trying to have it first, get it done.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
The next day, my sister when it was we're supposed
to leave, and I said, how are we going to
do this? And she said, Monica, we are not flying
to a hurricane.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, take your eighty two old mona into a hurricane.
That sounds great.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So thank goodness had wiser people in charge of me.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
But I did reschedule, my true did go.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
And last the only person I know who owns these.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, I'm just saying Disney is upping their ear games. Okay,
Now this is a podcast, so for those on YouTube
can see. So if you're into food, this is the
doll whip.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Oh, I get it. I get it again. You are
the only right I know who has those.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh well, you want to know what's evenson?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Who?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay, talk about limited edition specially, I'm the queen shopper
of everything in America. Actually, Duni and Burke has come
out with these limited editions. I'm protecting these with those
were cheap. Yeah, no, so don't tell my husband.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I won't tell them.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I won't tell Leather Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I mean they're everything, Monica.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I mean, I mean I have to be. I'm a
little embarrassed wearing them right now because they don't match
my outfit.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
But aren't they great?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
They're fantastic. They came with their own case. I mean, yeah, yeah,
they're very special. So there you go for those to
be buried in those I think that's what I say.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
No, I don't think so, but but believe it or not,
there are people out there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
This is a big deal. Actually, I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I was kind of okay, Well, while you're gone, you're
Christmas people also called you.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
So when I got home, so I'd cut a special
deal with my luncare people that they would put my
Christmas lights in early and I'd get a ten percent discount.
So when I got home, my whole house house is
lit up. I'm the only one in the whole neighborhood
with Christmas lights on my house.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They're actually before Halloween.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
They're on, yes, very early. But then I thought about it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You know, we have a lot of friends for huge,
huge Hallmark fans, right, so I think I should just
have a big Christmas watching countdown to Christmas watching party
at my house.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You guys don't know, but Monica has a tree on
every floor of her house. And I mean it's not
like it's five floors, but when you walk around her house,
I think she should give kids tours at Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I could, I could, But anyway, I'm trying to just
a lot of fun. Maybe I should just put the
little Hallmark thing out front so it looks like people
can think, oh, oh, I see what she's doing, not
what kind of person puts Christmas lights.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Up in Well, the five of us also do something
at Christmas with Hallmark, and we watch big time.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yes, and so that is why we were so excited
to have with us our guest today. She has starred
as the lead in over twenty films across various Hallmark channels,
and she is part of that Upcoming or the Countdown
to Christmas lineup. Her upcoming film is Our Holidays Story,
which is airing on November two. She has reprised her
(05:35):
role as Goldie Berry in the fifth installment of the
popular Curious Caterer mystery series, Curious Caterer Forbidden. You and
I were talking about watching that as soon as we can.
She's currently the president of the Foundation the board of
Trustees for the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. She's a board
member of Mind What Matters and Putting These Mickey Ears.
(06:00):
She was part of the all New in the nineties,
the All New Mickey Mouse Club, where she starred with
Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Carrie Russell, and Christina Aguilar.
Please welcome, Nikki DeLoach. Welcome to the Mom's Club. We're
so excited to have you here.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Hi, we are beyond you thrill.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yes, I honestly meeting you from my mother, who is
a huge, huge fan. June is a huge fan. I
couldn't meet Elvis and she couldn't be more excited that
I was getting to meet you, so.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
So so kind. Thank you, and shout out to June.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Thank you. She will appreciate. Oh well, she'll love that.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Thank you, Adam absolutely will love it.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, tell us about our holiday story. So if I'm
gonna have a Chris Christmas countdown party at my house
with lights and everything, what can they look forward to?
What can my guests look forward to?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Feel good movie? Obviously, But I've done a lot on
the the Homemark Drama Mystery Channel where I grieve a
lot and I cry a lot, and I've done five
years of those, and so this year I said to
the network, can I please just do a comedy this year?
Just to feel good company. I've cried a lot. I'm like,
(07:19):
just I'm tapped out on the crap.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Like I got that covered on my own totally.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Yeah, you know, I always feel like I'm Holly Hunter
and broadcast news. I find a place to cry once
a day just to get it over with, you know,
because inevitably will happen. Yes, but yeah, So our holiday story,
it takes place in two different time periods, so present
day and then when myself and my husband met many
(07:46):
years back, So there's a period piece aspect of it
where the clothes got to change. It was the nineties
or early two thousands, actually early two thousands, and so
that was super fun to kind of go back in
time and take makeup off and put makeup on and
make yourself look older in present day and younger in
the past. And so it's really a story about serendipity
(08:12):
and faith and if two people were meant together, if
something is meant to happen, there's nothing anyone or anything
can do to stand in the way of that. So
it's yeah, and it's fun and it's funny. It's very quirky.
I've never Joa Batkin wrote it, and she's one of
my favorite Hallmark Christmas. She just writes beautiful Christmas movies
(08:33):
and she did a beautiful job with this, so I
was really happy to go and do it and kind
of be funny and cry. I mean I do cry once,
but that's different than crying for a whole movie.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I wondered if they ever cry. And the Christmas movies
at all are.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Sad at all too.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Yeah. Yeah. So there's the Hallmark Channel proper right, it's
more you know, comedy and more happy and that kind
of thing. And then there's the Hallmark Mystery or homework
drama channel, and they also do their own movies and
those are more dramatic in nature. They're meaningful, they're beautiful.
(09:10):
I'd say the movies that I've made that I get
the most feedback from from fans are the ones I've
done on that network. Five More Minutes, which was about grief.
The Gift of Peace was also about grief, a woman
who found a grief group because she was stuck in
her own grief after the loss of her husband. Those
movies have been the most meaningful for people, for sure,
(09:32):
and probably the ones I'm most proud of, you know,
some of the ones I'm most proud of on the network.
But this year, I just really just the world is
heavy and I just want I wanted to be weird
and silly, and I wanted to laugh and make other
people laugh.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, and the world wants Hallmark because you anyone I
know that loves Hallmark, that you can like my mother,
you can sit her in front of Hallmarks.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
He could stay there for four weeks and just never move, Yeah,
and be totally happy. And you know it's it's not
there's rare.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I know that joy like that. Oh no, well that's
the reason, you know. I did my first Hallmark movie
in twenty fifteen, and when I got the response from
my hometown because I had never watched a Hallmark movie.
I mean, of course I knew about the brand. It's
a massive brand. Yeah, you can't buy a card that's
not a Hallmark card. Really, I mean, they've been around
(10:24):
for so long, but I didn't know the world of
the movies that they make. And when I was with
people in my hometown and their response to the movie,
I was like, what is this? This is I've been
doing this since I was seven eight years old, and
I've never experienced this kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Response like intense loving feedback.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So passionately loving and hopeful and happy, and the joy
that just joy was the world that just like would
come out of them. I thought, I think I want
to be a part of that. It's like, of course
we want to make the secessions of the world or
TV shows like Deep and some of you know, but
(11:06):
to actually bring people joy and comfort and peace, especially
those that are going through really hard things. There's no
greater gift if you're doing what we do in terms
of bringing people content.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, you started your career bringing people joy because the
Mickey Mouse Club a Mickey mouse Club that is so fun.
And when I'm thinking the whole cast, I mean, if
you announced that cast right now, it's like, oh.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Wow, you know, all of you are so successful.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Julie and I went to a justin Timberlake concert and.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
A and he's coming back the recent one.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, the world wasn't great.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I'm just going to ask you. I'm sure you've attended
many this tour.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Hell and I've seen five of his shows.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The dancing and his backup dancers and the way I
think he's the greatest hard I mean, his whole his
whole team.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
People don't understand I have. I mean, he's family, so
of course I know what he does. I know how
hard he works. He's like the hardest working person I know.
And people don't understand what he puts into a show
to make it look like it's as effortless as breathing.
I was in a girl band where we sang and
(12:17):
we dance.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And mother managed. Is that right?
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Yes, Okay, let me tell you it is so hard.
Get on a treadmill and try to sing, and then
try to sing like he sings. Then you'll know how
hard it is. Like literally, get on the treadmill and
run and try to sing. And that's what it's like.
You're dancing, you're bouncing around, you're moving, and he's doing
it for two and a.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Half hours, hours whatever night, And.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
I just he is. He will go down in history
as being one of the greatest performers of all time,
all time.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
He's incredibly, incredibly talented. Yeah, but so are you. And
so I want to tell you that not only does
she have done all these movies, but you actually have
a podcast I do, and you guys actually bring even
though it's talking about you know, caregiver vers of you know,
(13:13):
you've had deeply affected by dementia Alzheimer's, And I'm fanning
hard because I'm a nurse and so I know.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I listened to the podcast and heard you say that
you were a nurse. What kind of nurse I was?
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Any?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Our nurse for fourteen years been really considering doing hospice nursing,
So of course I went cuckoo over Nurse Julie.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Not my name is Julie, but we have her in
our one of our episodes.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yes, I mean that's what I was listening to. So,
but I just want to touch base on that, because
what you guys are actually doing is bringing a little
bit of joy in the grief.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
That you have.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And what you said, they do this great dance party,
and what you said is it's really a love letter
to our parents, right, And I love the way that
you're honoring everything. So tell us a little bit about,
like mind, what matters?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
How did it all start for you that you got
interested in that?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Well, So my road or my philanthropy with Alzheimer's and
dementia started really in twenty seventeen. So my dad, my grandfather,
actually passed away with vascular dementia and that was its
own journey in and of itself. And then in twenty seventeen,
in the same week, I was pregnant with my youngest son,
(14:25):
who was diagnosed with multiple congenital heart defects and without
immediate intervention, he would not survive. And in that same week,
my dad was diagnosed with Picks disease, which is a
rare and aggressive form of dementia for which there is
no cure. So I knew I was going to lose
my dad, and I knew there was a chance that
I could also lose my son, A big chance.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
And yeah, So talk about those moments, those markers in
your life that it's like BC, you know, like before Christ,
like right before that that forever will mark my life.
It changed me on such a cellular level, and there's
been a lot of trauma and pain and heartache and
loss and grief. And also I always say this because really,
(15:08):
what other choice do we have if we want to
live a happy, joyful, full life. I want to get
to the end of my life and be like I
squeezed every ounce I could out of this. I can't
do that if I'm only resting inside of the sad
or the victimization. It's so easy for us to be
like why us, why us? Why us? Well, why not us?
(15:32):
It happens to people every day, hard, sad, bad things,
So why not you as well? Right? So what do
we do with that? What do we do? I will say, like,
you know, sometimes life gives you a hand, like a
pile of crap in your hand and you're looking at
it and you're like, this is steamy, it's steams, it's horrible,
(15:53):
and what am I going to do with this? Well?
How do we spin that into gold? Right? So I
got involved with our Alzheimer's Association at first as a
spokesperson speaking at events. I led the walk to in
Alzheimer's in Los Angeles for many years. Kicked off that
event and then the dance party specifically was started by
(16:14):
Kimberly Williams Paisley. Her sister, Ashley Williams and I have
been friends since our twenties. We grew up in acting
class together. And Kimberly was ready to hand the party over.
So she handed it over to obviously her sister Ashley,
and Ashley needed a partner and so they you know,
I think it was her brother Jay because there's three
(16:35):
of them. Jay suggested, what about Niki? Why don't you
ask NICKI? So that's how I got involved with the dance.
And this year we just had our event, the Halloween Addition,
and we raised in that night and we're still we
have another couple weeks of fundraising. It's still open. We
raised two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which is incredible,
and it all goes towards research grants. So really we're
(16:59):
focused on prevention. We now know because of the money
we have put into research in terms of prevention, we
now know we can prevent this disease. We have no cure,
but we know we can prevent it, and we have
ways in which we can prevent that. So this is
what we're not. I always say, nobody's coming to save you.
Now you have got to save yourself. Put your pants on,
(17:23):
get your shoes on. As you get put your shoes,
shoes on, get out there and do something about it,
because nobody's coming to save you. And then from mind,
what matters my friend who's become a dear friend? Elizabeth Humphries.
She this was a podcast that originally exitited isisted years ago.
She was caregiving for her mother who had Alzheimer's. She
(17:46):
was really just looking to talk to people to get
answers on how do you navigate this.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Her wildly unexpected and be a.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Caregiver young kids at home, she was taking care of
her mom, like how do you do this? And she
put it on pause because she had to take care
of her mom. And her mother passed away, not this
past September, but the september before that, And I had
a dream that we brought the podcast back, but it
was the two of us and we just focused on
(18:16):
caregiving and not just in the space of Alzheimer's and dementia,
because what I've noticed is we're all caregivers.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
In some way.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yes, as a nurse, for example, what I've watched these
nurses do at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and it makes
me emotional to think about they take care of our
children all day long. They save their lives. Literally, they
cradle these day, are their.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Hair, and when you cannot be there or when you're there,
and like even when you're their bedside, they're the taking
giving the meds, soothing them, doing all the things.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
And they're going from room to room to room to room,
caregiving all day long, and then they have to go home, right,
and then they have to give care to their kids
and their husband and their friends and their community. How
are we doing this? Women? How are we doing this?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
So with each other and with people like you, it's
really important because today when I was listening to you
that you really pointed out that the suck is going
to come. Embrace it, right, So you actually say something
and I think it's you that said, you know, you
never really heal, you recover, yes, And I thought, oh
my god, because what we've been dealing with our parents
(19:29):
this year. I've basically been running without any disrespect to
my parents and adult day care. Sometimes I'll take my
mom somewhere and she comes out and we're in the
parking lot and she goes, now what I do? And
I was like, you get in the car. And so
it comes and goes. And so what you're bringing light
to is amazing because it can you know, like MS
we work on a cure, and Alzheimer's were working on
(19:52):
a cure. So I really wanted to talk about your
podcast because the caregivers and want to help spread the
word about it, because the care givers need to know
that they're not.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Alone, They're not alone. Yes, it's called Mind What Matters. Everybody,
Please check it out. Thank you for thank you for
bringing attention to it, because it really is a labor
of love. And you know, for me and Liz, I mean,
I get anywhere between one and two calls.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
A week that this is happening.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
A lot of people I don't even know, like whether
it's children's hospital. They know what I've gone through with
my kid, they know I'm involved. They reach out via
Instagram my child needs a liver transplant. I don't know
where to go. How do I get into the hospital.
I got you, what's your cell phone number? Let me
take care of this for you or my dad. I
(20:41):
think was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but I'm not sure,
Like what's going on? Can you talk me through this
or both of us? And so this podcast is really
a way for us to talk about all of that
and so much more, but especially caregiving.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, critic quite is so.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Bad, and especially as our parents are living longer, it's
becoming more of an issue. And you just learned things
that you don't intuitively understand until someone says to you, well,
my parent repeats the same story over and over and
over again, or tells me something three times in an hour,
and initially your reaction is to correct that person, and
(21:21):
instead we're told, don't correct that person because that makes
them think, well, what's wrong? Totally yeah, and so, but
you learned so much about how to be compassionate, because,
let's all face it, someday.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You may be sitting in that seat, you know what
I mean, fond exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
So it's true, you know, with my dad, it's just
something I don't I innately knew how to do it.
I don't know if it's because I had a kid
that was very ill and for years and and so
caregiving was just something that I had to, Like, it
was like a crash course in it. Right, Oh, here's
this baby that just had open heart surgery that you
have to bring home from the hospital. And in that
first two years, we had three heart surgeries and it
(22:01):
was more hospital er visits than I can count. And
so when he said things like, you know, the sky
is purple, Yeah, Dad, that's the most beautiful purple sky
I've ever seen in my life, don't fight it, you know, like,
let the moments with them just be filled with joy and.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
And you're too like you want to be like, that's
not right. It's just like you got to embrace it,
you do, because it is an uphill battle on that.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, Well with.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
The children's hospital piece, so my son was in the
nick you So I was on bedrooms for two and
a half premature, he was premature, and so yeah, his
story is he was premature and so he was in
the nick you for like ten weeks and then he
had to have a surgery and all that, and then
later on in his life he had a bad accident
and had traumatic brain injury.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So like, how many lives does this kid have? And
he's still hanging in there and he's doing well. He does,
he does.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
But yeah, it's hard to you know, have your child
going through now watching your parent is difficult.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But what was that like for you?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's a lot to know your child is get born
in that situation and that you're going to face that immediately.
And we knew once I went into early labor we
were facing that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Yeah, I mean, you know it's brutal. It is so brutal,
and in fact, I don't know if you experienced this,
but you know, for me, I had a moment earlier
this year, so it's been seven years been. It just
turned seven in September, So this year, seven years ago
he was born. And earlier this year, I went to
(23:39):
meet a friend for lunch, and I'm helping families to
learn how to give a mission moment at Children's Hospital
Los Angeles. People who want to, who want to share
their story, who want to like support the hospital. So
I'm helping them kind of give them a template first speech,
like this is kind of how it looks, and this
is what you can talk about and share and you know.
So I had to put a speech together as a
(24:01):
template with audio or with video and pictures. And so
because I talk about the first time leaving the hospital,
I needed to find that video. I'm sitting there in
the valet waiting for my car, and I finally get
to the video, and I'm thinking, like, how have I
not seen this video? I've watched the second time we
came home and the third time we came home. How
(24:21):
have I not seen this video? And I pull it
up and I'm watching and then I just my body
just starts shaking, like I just start shaking and tears
start coming up, and I'm like oh my gosh, if
I lose it waiting in this line, Ballet thinks he's
gonna get it, Like, that's wrong. My car needs to come,
(24:42):
and I needs to come. And I get in the
car and I just I sob so uncontrollably, it cannot breathe, sobbing.
It has taken me seven years for my body to go. Okay.
Now now you can begin to recover. Now it's okay.
It's safe to recover because for so many years, you know,
(25:04):
every time you got sick, it was an er visit,
every time something happened. Every you know, when you have
a kid that's gone through something like that, it gives
you PTSD. You have trauma from it. Your hypervigilant brain
goes into it drives the truck. And what that means
is it's driving all the time, rs it's not giving
(25:27):
you the breaks that you need. So last year I
went into really intense trauma therapy and I was able
to take that part of my brain and not make
it go away. Because we are who we are, and
I think so many of us sometimes don't succeed in
recovery in therapy because we're trying to get rid of
(25:49):
these pieces of us that don't feel good, and instead
of that, we need to get close to them and
get to know them and embrace them. That hyper vigilant
part of who I am saved my son's life.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
It also saved my grandfather when he collapsed and we
didn't know what was going on and I sprung into action.
It saved my grandmother after she had two double strokes
on Christmas Day. It took care of my dad. That
part of my brain. I need that.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeh.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
She just doesn't need to drive the car all the
time to drive this off a cliff.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
So it was about really taking her, putting her in
the back seat. And because I was able to do that,
I was able to.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Have that moment.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
And now I'm back in traumatherapy really working on that
time within. I don't know how I did it.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
That's what our doctor told me at one point, because
I was going through all that with Jared, and finally
she said, take a break, take a breath, Monica. She said,
he'll be fine. You'll be scarred for life, but he'll
be fine.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Thirteen year old Dillar, She'll be fine, but I'll be
scarred for life.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
We have some moms who have some questions for you.
We have our Zoomer mom, So welcome Zooper moms. Welcome
to the Mom's Blood.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well, ladies, this is a very special treat, and it's
a special treat for you because you each get to
ask two questions. It's not usual that we do this,
so and don't you know, two very well thought out
questions because we only have a few minutes, So let's
start with Jan. Jan, tell us a little bit about yourself,
(27:27):
and what are your questions for Nicky?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You're on mute. You're on mute, Jan, She's like.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Someone push a button. Someone push a button.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I understand that.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
No, there we go there, yeah, I go all right.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Sorry about that, Nikki.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Oh it's okay.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Jan. I'm really glad to meet you.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
I had a limousine service here in Dallas for thirty years,
and I also sang with Patsy Kline's original band.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Many years, so I'm singer.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
And I also had my own service. But I was
so happy to hear all this about the Alzheimer's. I
took care of my mother when she had Alzheimer's for
I guess three and a half years, and now I
have an autistic godson that I care for and it
lives with me full time.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Bless you. Thank you for doing that.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
But I followed you for many years and I have
a girlfriend named Jenny Nolan who is addicted to Hallmark
on twenty four seven. She never changes it. And I
mean we took two trips to Hawaii last year and
it's on twenty four seves.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
You go to Hawaii and all you have is Hallmark on.
It's just crazy. She's so as addicted to it.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
I'll ask you, first of all, thank you for being
on the show today. And I want to ask you
about the Hallmark Christmas movie, Our Holiday Story.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Can you tell us something about.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Yes, well I can tell you. You know my co star
Warren Christy, who's a phenomenal actor and so wonderful to
work with, and it's such an incredible cast on this one.
And you know the thing is my character in Warren's character,
you meet us in the beginning of the movie and
we're in twenty twenty four. You know, we're aged up
(29:26):
a little bit, and he has a daughter in her
twenties and her boyfriend or the person that she's currently
dating shows up at the house and he unfortunately ask
us about our love story and how we found each other.
And the movie is about us telling that story and
(29:47):
going back in time and seeing it happen in real life.
And while this youngen is dealing with, like, well, his
own love story workout right. So that's kind of the
fun in it is that we go back and worth
in time. And you know, what I was saying earlier
is just some if people are meant to be and
if something is meant to happen, you know, there's nothing
(30:10):
we can do to ruin that. There's nothing that we
can do to make that not happen, right, And I
have to, by the way, I have to remind myself
of this all the time. I think the anxiety of youth,
so much of that is is having anxiety that things
are not going to work out that we wish or
that we dream. And my grandmother, my Nana, always used
to say when something didn't happen, she would say, well, honey,
(30:34):
it just means that it's either not meant to happen,
man's rejection is God's protection, or it's not meant to
happen now, not not today exactly. So it's you know,
it's a story that reminds us all of that. Yeah,
that's great.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
You know you just mentioned your grandmother, and your grandmother
was a very important part of your.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Whole career from what so I wouldn't have different?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, isn't that?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I mean, she tell just a little bit about so
she she moved you out here to LA to help
you with your career.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Well technically like I was going to do it with
her without anyone I was, so they figured they might
as well send an adult adult Like people ask me
all the time, like would you put your kids in
this like this industry? The answer is like, I would
never put my kid in this industry, But if they
were the kid that I was, which was come hell
(31:26):
or high water, I was doing this. If I had
to run away from home and do this, I was
going to do I wanted. I started at three, that
was all I wanted to do. And if that was
my kid, I would support them and give them the
tools and do whatever. And that's what my grandmother did.
Dance lessons, vocal lessons, you know, whatever, competition. She bought
(31:47):
my dresses for the competitions or for my talent competition.
She bought my outfits and she was.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Like, kid, I'm all in behind you.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
I won a talent competition that brought me to LA
and I was eleven at the time, and there was
a bunch of agents that wanted to sign me and
wanted us to move to LA and my mom was like,
I'm my daughter or not moving to LA.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
I don't tell you about you and in her Georgia exit.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
My grandmother kind of sidled up to one of the
agents and said, well, what can she do where we live?
And one of the agents said, there's going to be
auditions for the new Mickey Mouse Club. They're going to
be casting new members. If you have a local agent,
tell them to look out for that. And sure enough,
a year from then, Yeah, I was twelve years old,
(32:35):
got my first audition. But all the reason I have
a career and my biggest cheerleader in the world is
my grandmother.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So when you're up there giving give me your speech
accepting your Emmy awards, I.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Know for her, Yeah, I guess that. I mean, I
know we have another question, and I guess the support
I should be giving my daughter, Georgia is moving to LA.
In February, I had to kindly remind her she doesn't
have a job, but.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Go for it.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah. Yeah, well she said, she was like, you're just
a buyer. Yeah, she expects to doesn't have a job
or anything.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
I don't think I'll find that for that, but yeah,
I like that.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Angel, Welcome to the Mom's Club. Tell us a little
bit about yourself and do you have a question?
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 7 (33:18):
Thank you so very much, and I'd like to thank
your guests today for such an incredible story and being
so transparent. My background is in radio as well as television,
among some other things. But I do have a question
for you. Most people look at success or they want
to be on television, or they want to be in
the lights and whatnot. But is there a specific lesson
(33:39):
you've learned through your challenges with your family that has
shaped your view on success?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yes, got good question, Angel, I mean.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Way to bring it, bringing the ps you could even
look on the Instagram and says small talk survivor. Because
I do not know how to do I'll talk like
I just like I'm the person that's like who invited
this girl that wants to talk about grief and stuff
for the party. I love this question and the reason
I love it is it's because I struggled so much. Right,
(34:15):
My mother and I had a very complicated relationship and
we now have a beautiful relationship that we've worked so
hard for. But she was twenty one when she had me,
and you know, I chased I wanted her love so deeply,
and I just spent my childhood not getting that right.
And so when you're a kid that doesn't get the
love that she really needs, then you get into an
(34:38):
industry and you're chasing that love from the people in
an istry. You're constantly chasing love and acceptance and validation
through external sources. And you know where I'm going with this.
So I think as a society, it's not even just
about the entertainment business. I look at my son, who's
(34:58):
not in the entertainment business, who's eleven, who's constantly seeking
his self worth on the outside, and I'm constantly reminding
him that is an internal job. You will if you
are trying to get that outside of yourself, you will
be empty and you will be chasing that your entire life,
and you will never find satisfaction. And so I think
(35:20):
it's something that's relatable to everybody. My idea of success now?
Is am I a safe person? Am I a safe
person for myself? Am I a safe space for other people?
Am I a person that people can depend on? Am
I a person that people can come to and say,
this is what I'm going through? Can you help hold
(35:42):
this for me? And So my whole definition of what
success means it is not financial. It is not my resume,
It is not the things I've accomplished in terms of
awards or whatever. That is not real, right, And while
I love it, and while it matters because we have
(36:02):
to pay bills and health insurance and all of that,
So it's legit life and death in terms of being
able to support our families, true, but it does not
determine our worth. So yeah, it's changed a lot.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
I love that you've worked on your legacy.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
So I love this, I love it. I love it.
You know who I'm going to ride in for president?
From my ballance? I think I mean an inspiring person.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I do you think she wants the job?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I know, I know, but yes, you are. You are
because you're just so You're a problem solver, which I
love solving problems, and I think that's just amazing. I
actually may enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
She's also a judge. You do know this. She's judging
mister Christmas, which I need to know what the qualities
are to be mister Christmas.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
What is that?
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Angel? I don't know if you've heard of this show.
It's called Finding Mister Christmas. It's on Hallmark Streaming and
my dear, dear and Jonathan Bennett he hosted with Melissa Peterman.
And when Jonathan texted me and said, I need you
to come and judge the finale and I need you
to be a part of the finale. And I was like,
what was that? What am I doing? He's like, don't
worry about it. I tell you when you get here,
(37:12):
just say yes, just say yes. I got on a plane,
I showed up to set. He gives me this script
and I read it. I'm reading it. I'm reading and
I'm seeing that I'm doing the climax resolution scene with
the boys. So there's the remaining contestants and I realize
I have to kiss every single.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I was like, I have to ask her, what is.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (37:41):
You tell me to kiss all of them? And he goes,
You're welcome, You're welcome anyway. It's more than that. It's
really it's so fun and.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
So they have to be a good kiss there. That's
one of the qualities.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Part of the qualities is really you know, being able
to act in the scenes. But what they're really looking
for is like at Hallmark, and I think anybody who
gets to know the talent, it's so funny. We'll have
new executives come in, new people come in in terms
of leadership, and they come in with this like these
ideas right of like well, we're going to do this,
and we're going to do that, and like you know,
(38:14):
I have these people have been here forever and blah
blah blah blah, and they're not really family, you know,
they're not really they can't be like, I love each
other as much as they do. And then they are
with us for like a week and they go, oh wow,
everybody actually really does love each other. They are a
family like and so then their hearts are changed inside
(38:35):
of that, right because they're like, I love being a
part of this family, I mean. And so it really
is about like the show itself and Jonathan calling on
the family to come in and you have to kind
of embody. It's a feeling that you have to have
when when you work for Hallmark as an actor, it's
(38:56):
not just what you're doing on the screen, it's how
you live at your life and how you're showing up
up big open hearts, love, really appreciating the audience and
getting it, getting what we do, what we get to
do for other people.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Well, no cast, did I know? And I think you
do this with the Hallmark chan y'all did that tour
and at the East Coast and you went to Chop
We did. And Chop is a very special place for
those you know, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of
the best in the world. Yes, And so to do
that and get to live that and work that and
(39:32):
spread that, I can't say enough about the people you
work with.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Thank you. Yeah. We got to literally start in Washington,
d C. It was a grain child of Annie Howell.
I have to give her a shout out and Shane
Ray Julian who put together this entire thing. It was massive,
it was huge. I'm blown away by what they put together.
And we started Washington, d C. And did Christmas rallies
all yep and stopping at Chop along the way, which
(39:58):
was something that I I had really wanted to do
when they started.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Dreaming, You're a puddle through the whole tour that.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Day, like you got say, hug so many mothers and
that's the thing, it's like I've been that mother that
you know. Of course, all the focus needs to be
on the children, and of course all the resources and support,
and there needs to be a light that is shown
on the doctors and nurses and stuff and what they're
the amazing things they're doing at chop and also the
(40:25):
people who are forgotten inside of it, right are the
mothers that are at bedside day in and day out,
and they are terrified fired. I said, that's what I say,
that bone tired.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
That they get to see you, but they may not
be able to register that getting to meet you because
of the exhaustion mentally, physically.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Well, it is so true.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
That's another the caregivers because yeah, being the mom okay,
zoomer moms, Yes, you each get one rapid fire question,
So like what's your favorite call and whatever?
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Okay, jan question for Nikki.
Speaker 5 (40:59):
Nikki, I want to know about Mine What Matters?
Speaker 4 (41:02):
Oh great, okay, I.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Hate to watch your podcast, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Well, Mine What Matters nonprofit, which the podcast is now
an extension of it's a nonprofit organization where we give
financial grants to caregivers of loved ones with neurodegenerative illnesses.
So that's Alzheimer's, dementia, als Parkinson's, any newer degenerative illness.
And so it's a way for us to go because
(41:30):
caregivers sometimes need help, need help now, So what can
we do right? And Liz dreamed up this idea. She
founded the organization of like literally putting money in the
pockets of caregivers so that they can go to their
doctor's appointment, they can bring somebody in for the day,
for the week and say, can you help me with
my mom or my dad this week? Because I got
(41:52):
to go get my heart checked. I haven't had a
physical in two years. I need to get my hair
done because I haven't had my hair done, like whatever
it is. There was one woman that we were able
to give a care grant to. She has alopecia, and
she was able. Her dream was to compete in a
pageant where the women had alopecia. And she went and
(42:13):
she did it, and she put her dress on and
man did she look amazing. And because of the care grant,
she was able to go and do this thing that
had been a dream of hers for so many years.
Was just to take back and show the world like, yeah,
I might have this thing, but look how beautiful and
strong and courageous and brave I am. And it allowed
(42:36):
her to be able to go back to return to
caregiving with something in her motor. She did something for herself.
So that is the impact of mind. What matters nonprofit
and what?
Speaker 5 (42:47):
Well, thanks so much for your inspiration.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah that was I.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
Would love to talk about beets, but that she's from Dallas.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
She's from Dallas, hear. Yeah, anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
No quick question.
Speaker 7 (43:01):
Okay, I've got like a thousand questions. It has to
be rapid fire. Yes, I just want to know what
was your favorite role you ever played?
Speaker 3 (43:09):
And what great questions I would have to say.
Speaker 4 (43:13):
Lacey Hamilton on Awkward, I had the just the dream
of playing her for almost six years of my life,
and she was a totally ridiculous human being. I mean
I had, like, I like this contraption that made me
look like I had giant breast and I wore this
tightest little outfits and heels, and you know, her whole
(43:34):
story was that she had this. She's the most popular
girl in high school and had a fall from grace
when she was sixteen and got pregnant, and so her
daughter and her are so close in age, and she's
trying to live her life vicariously through her young daughter
who was so different from her and who was no
interest in being popular or any.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Of the things that she was terrifying.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
And so it's a comedy, but it's also Heartfeltlton Lauren
Uneric created it, and she just like, she just created
something so special and that role for me, will go
down in history is being my favorite. That's far.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
This is so great.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
You're you're truly, as we say on the Mom's Club
low amazing, not just amazing, the word extraordinary I would
put on you. You're I mean all the things you
do and you're so talented and so giving and so
I mean it's you.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
You glow girl. You blow, You really do, and I
know you're exhausted at you glow and you know all
the stuff that you have going on. You remind me
of my friend Lacey we had.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
On the show.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
She she has a clever podcast called Every Widow Thing,
and it's less deep less dark, less often and you
you know what I mean because you teach that through
your podcast as well, because these things are going to come.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Yeah, So we have to learn how to find joy
and cell great even when we're in the valley. We
tell ourselves all the time, well I'll do that trip
when I will go and do this thing when I
will do And there might not be a when. That
is what I've learned, because you're just there might be
(45:15):
another hard thing. And the more that we can learn
to find be comfortable and the uncomfortable, the more that
we can learn that we can celebrate and find joy
and find moments of happiness inside the valley, Like that
is the full life. That is what we're seeking. That's
what we're wanting and hungry for. And we can do it.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Say yes, and your dad would want you to do it.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
Yeah, Well he was the one, like I was coming
out of my first year of grief with him and
I after that first year, that first year anniversary, something
horrific happened to a really dear friend and she lost
her son and we had the funeral services on the
first anniversary my dad's passing, and I have never seen
(45:59):
that was the the most horrific thing I've ever witnessed
in my life. And I went and crawled in bed
and I didn't get out, and my dad came to
me in a dream and he said, baby girl, it
is time for you to get out of bed. And
if this can't wake you up and teach you that
you got to celebrate and find the joy and do
(46:19):
all the things, then nothing's going to So get up
and and and and so it was my dad who
did wake me up.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
We're so happy to see so many.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
People out there are as benefits.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Besides your film on Friday is Holiday Story. Where else
can our listeners find you? On social media?
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Oh yeah, oh yes, I always have a good social
media I'll tell.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
Us because if you want to see a lot of
dancene a lot of silliness, come find me at Nick
DeLoach and I K D E l o A c
h to Loach And then our Holiday Story airs Curious
Cater will still continue the air on the Mystery Network
and also Finding Mister Christmas is on the Hallmark Plus
(47:08):
on our new stream watch shirts on lots of muscles,
holding puppies and taking pictures of firefighter I wonder.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yes, I'm definitely going to Actually is it's.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
Like every woman I know you want to watch all right,
all right, that's what I answer the question.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
We will definitely tune into that. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Well, we also want to thank our sponsored New Calm
because New Calm is the.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Reason that we're seating her friends, you know.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Because so we we sometimes have to share a hotel
room sometime on the road and New Calm this helps
us sleep better. It makes Julie calm, which is a
huge thing spending.
Speaker 4 (47:53):
It also has magnesium in it. I just want to say,
and you could do your own research, but magnesium is
really really really good for women.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Very yes, yeah, that's going to be another show I
think about all of that.
Speaker 5 (48:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (48:04):
Wow, So I can come and talk to.
Speaker 8 (48:05):
You about so spelled and you see a l M
and if you put Mom's Club in the code at checkout,
you're gonna get fifteen percent off every month of your subscription.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
I'm about sleeping all for the kind and being calling focused.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
It's it's that it's what you want to need. Moms.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Well, I cannot believe that we are we are already.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
I could do it all day.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Definitely, like just like watching Hallmark. I mean we could
just talk to her all day kind of thing. Great, Well,
thank you moms for being with us. We will be
next back next time with other extraordinary celebrities and moms
out there that are doing wonderful things. We know that
your meantime is precious and valuable. Thank you so much
(48:51):
for spending it with us. What's our motto, Julie though,
that's more important than anything. If you don't laugh sometimes when.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
We are going to cry, to cry, So don't cry.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Moms, keep laughing. See you next time inside the Mom's Club.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
Whoa
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