The Real Story Behind It All (Pt. 2)

Part 2 of the Bizzy Girl Era Q&A.

In this episode, I talk about my experience working a 9 to 5, the moment I realized it was not for me, and what it actually looked like starting a business from scratch.

No perfect plan, no overnight switch, just figuring it out as I went.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey guys, welcome back to Busygirl Era. So this is part two of the QA. There was just so much good stuff to talk about in the last episode, and I felt like I was going to maybe have to cut some stuff out if I did decide to do one super super long episode. This one, the it also, we just got super deep. I feel like because I was recording so long and had so much to say, and was also extremely tired and also extremely caffeinated. I got really open and vulnerable as the episode goes on, and it's feeling really good. I love that I'm getting more comfortable doing these, and I feel like starting with a QA, I don't know, it's giving sleepover vibes. Like it's making me nervous because it's you guys are just seeing such a different side to me. If you do follow me on Instagram, TikTok, it's I I'm really just excited to see how my content's gonna change also as the community that we build together grows. It's it's just so exciting. So I'm really excited for it. And if you guys missed the last episode, that's part one to the QA. You guys had so many good questions. I'm so excited to do more of these and to hear what episodes you guys want to see next. Should we go into guest? Should we? I I honestly don't know if I am ready for guests. So I I think I do take that back. I think I want to do one more, at least one more solo episode. But if you guys are like, please, please, please, we need to see a guest ASAP, let me know who you want to see on. I have some ideas cooking in my noggin, but I I also want to hear from you guys so we can build this together. Like, do we have someone wellness on? Do we have a health person, an owner of um a business in town, out of town, someone in my family? Like, there really are endless options, and we are building this together, so we can do whatever we want. So let's hop into the episode. Next question is how did you know a nine to five wasn't for you? What led you here? I feel like when it comes to nine to five, a lot of the times people are like they make you pick a side. Either you like a nine to five or you freaking hate and despise a nine to five. I think there is a happy medium. If you like your nine to five, you like your nine to five, and I think a big part of life is surrounding yourself with good people. So if you're at a nine to five where you are rocking with the people there, you're having a good time, you like what you do, and you feel valued, I think that's a huge thing. Feeling valued at your workplace, that's great. Well, how did I know it wasn't for me? I knew it wasn't for me because I constantly had ideas in the back of my head, and I just felt like I had so much more to give. Like how I talked about in the first episode, not putting myself in a box, I felt like that's what a nine to five was kind of trying to do. Remember, I always wanted to learn about the other parts of the like the not the job, the other parts of the place I worked at too. In any job I had, I always wanted to know like what the owners were doing, what the founders were doing, what the people in sales were doing, what the people in HR were doing. I wanted to know every aspect of the business, and especially the place that I was working at. They I mean that's nor I guess that's normal. You know, like they wouldn't allow me to explore that. And I just hated that I was forced to stay in only one position. That's just not my maybe it's my ADHD brain. I don't know. I just I wanted to try so many different things, and I also am not a morning person. I was so late to work every single day, um, and I ran out of excuses. Like I was like, it sucks that I have to go into work right now and I can't say I can't say I'm just tired, you know, and and I I'm I'm just a night owl, and sometimes it was really hard because I was trying to, you know, do my nine-of-five job, and then I was also trying to create content after work so I could try to pursue my influencer career, and then on top of that, I'm trying to make time for my boyfriend, my friends, my family, and I was just um what do they say? I was burning the candle at birth both ends. It was awful, it was so hard. Also didn't like the idea that this sounds lazy, I know, but just the fact that I had to show up every single day no matter what was going on in my life. I remember it was really hard too when um both my grandparents had gotten sick at the same time, and my mom needed help babysitting kids, and there was just so much on my plate, and still work was taking up so much of my time, and I regret that a lot because when you're in it, it's kind of like a talkative relationship. Well, I guess depends on the place that you're working at, but I feel like sometimes jobs are you know a talkative relationship because when you're in it, you don't see this outside world going on around you, you know. Your job can feel like everything sometimes, and that's how it was feeling for me. There was so much important stuff going on and feeling that I needed to be there for, and that honestly, both my grandparents over sharing moment again, when they did pass, that was a big eye-opener for me because there was so much time that I was giving to this job when real life was happening, you know. I get their company's important, I I totally get all that. It just felt like I was missing so much life, you know. We're getting TMI again. I have serious like doctors actually don't fully know what I have. They think I have endometriosis, which basically means I have the most painful periods ever. It's awful, and I'll have cramps so bad that sometimes I'll pass out. And it's gotten a little bit better. There's some that are better than others, but growing up I had I had terrible cramping and I would pass out constantly. And I hated the fact that I couldn't call out of work due to painful periods. Like, first, that's a whole other tangent. I think menstrual cramps that need to be pay time off. That's like a whole other someone needs to pass some bill on that. Like, that's insane that we as women have to go through that in workplaces. That's it's freaking insane that we have to go we have to go through bleeding, we have to go through bleeding out our bodies and still go to work. Well, these men don't have to. And also, in minute periods, these tampons would be free, and we know that. We know that. So that's my gripe of the day, but yeah, there was just too much, there's too much um constriction, restriction? I don't know the difference between those words. There was there's too much of me trying to be in a box when that's not who I am. I feel like I had so much more to offer. It it also kind of sucked because like the people on top make the most money. And yeah, I could maybe get promoted, but I could also get fired. And that's really scary to put that in someone else's hands. It just didn't feel right. Like every day I felt so exhausted and tired. My acne was the worst it's ever been. My mental health was the worst it's ever been. I would come home every day and I would be a bitch. I'd be a bitch to my boyfriend, I'd be like mean to my family. It was really hard. Like looking back now, I feel like a totally I feel like a totally different person. Like, don't get me wrong, I still got my mood swings, but I just felt like I would come home every day exhausted and just knowing, oh my gosh, it would loom over me. I think this is when I like I really knew there's no way that everyone feels this way, especially on Sundays. You're like, oh my gosh, I have work tomorrow. Like it would be looming over my head the whole entire day and be like, oh my gosh, like that many hours until I have to be at the office again. And it was always like looming over me. And I don't think that's normal. I think if you like your job, then you're not thinking about those things. I mean, maybe some days you are, but yeah. It also just sucked that I had to show up at the office every day, and and again, maybe this is just a me thing, I had to show up and be happy. Like some days you're not in the mood to do that, you know. And especially at when I got hired, I remember a few months later people started getting laid off a lot, and I was like, oh shoot, like, well, I don't think they're gonna lay me off if I'm the nicest, happiest person here, which is not a healthy way of look doing that, you know. Like if I had to change the person I was to be at a job, and I'm not saying this is how it was, like this could this part could be like all be in my head, you know. But I I told myself that I'm going, I'm gonna try to be like the nicest, happiest. I'm not gonna if I'm having a bad day, I won't tell anyone about it, you know. I won't I won't show that I won't show that to anyone because then I'm not going to get laid off, you know. Like I'll be last on their list to get laid off. I yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I had that mindset, and I'm not saying that's healthy by any means, but you should do that, but that's how life works sometimes, especially in corporate America. Like, you think one of the first people they're gonna go after is someone who they've never had an issue with? I don't. So I think it was smart of me. In the end, I obviously still did quit, but yeah, there was also something unsatisfying to me. I'm not saying this is wrong, like this makes sense while the people at the top make the most money, but it just was unsatisfying to me that no matter how good I did in my job, I would always get paid a set amount hourly. Again, I get that's how jobs works, like that's what we sign up for, but that just seemed very unsatisfying to me long term. That matter what idea, let's say I create a video and that gets so many likes in and it makes the product get sold 200 times more than the a regular product does. I wouldn't that wouldn't change my income, and that just was unsatisfying for me, you know. I don't know, I just I didn't like that I didn't like that part about it. So that's when I knew that 9 to 5 was not for me. What jobs led you to where you are now? Hmm. I think more than jobs that led me here, it was it was hobbies that led me here, like creating those silly YouTube videos when I was a child and different creative outlets like that. I remember even on my flip phone, yep, flip phone, they had like a stop and play feature on there, and my sister was working on a school project with these like pipe cleaner stick figure people, and I would move them and I created a little video out of that, and that was so fun. So I think I now looking back, I see that that was like low-key a calling because of how passionate and how good I was at it. So the jobs that led me there are definitely like things like that, and then also I was starting my first business when I was 16. A lot of people weren't utilizing social media like I was, and I would come up with new and fun post ideas. I think Canva, I had just realized what it was and was going crazy on Canva. I loved it, still do. And when I was creating stuff on there and posting on my business social media, uh their local businesses were like, Oh my gosh, who runs your social media? Like you're doing such a good job. And I told them that it was me, and they asked if I would be open to run theirs, and if they paid me. So that was like my first job where I got to test out different things to see what people resonated with, what they liked, what they didn't like, and that was really cool. And then when I was in college and during COVID, I got a job as a marketing assistant at CSUB at the SRC at their um it's a student rec center, so it's like their gym on campus, and I worked there and got to meet some really cool people and friends that I'm still close with today, so that was a really cool experience. Um, because I got to work more like collaboratively, so I've just been in a du d a bunch of different fields like that, and even in high school, I had a job of like working for a photographer as his um like part-time video editor and photo editor and random assistant jobs where I feel like I just learned a whole bunch of random things, and then also got to see what it was like running businesses too, because all these jobs that I was in, I got to be so close. Well, I'm just thinking about that now, actually. That's really cool. All these jobs that I did have, I got to be so close to the business owners and founders, even of these huge companies that I was working for. I got to hear their story, and that was always my favorite part about it, is hearing how they got started, and it always it's always like lit something up in me. I'm like, if they can do it, I can like what's to stop me from doing something, you know? The only thing stopping me is at the time my passion for something, and now I have like an overwhelming amount of passions that I that fuels the fire, you know? Those jobs definitely had a role in leading me to where I am now. And if it all flops and fails, then it's gonna be a funny story. So either way, it's a win. On to coffee-related stuff. This is about Busy Bean, my coffee company that I'm launching. How did you come up with the your brand name, Busy Bean? Well, well, well, well. I tried. Here's the full story. I tried to ask AI when I first had the idea about Busy Bean and um what I wanted it to be, canned latte, and I could like picture it. I was missing the name. And trying to ask AI, honestly. I put in a bunch of things about me, about the brand, what I wanted to be, and I was like, give me some names to choose from. And I was like, I'll probably just pick one of them. Except, surprise to no one, the names all freaking sucked. They were the worst names I've ever seen. And I was like, that's awful. Give me some more, give me some more, give me some more. And they sucked and they sucked, and the names sucked and they sucked. And then I just you know try to do it the old-fashioned way and use my noggin. I was thinking about things that encapsulate me. And I was like, what is some things about me that I could tie into the brand? I thought about how busy I am, honestly. I was like, who do I want this product to be for? And also who am I? At the time when I was creating the product, I was also especially busy. I was working my nine to five and trying to be a content creator on the side and all these things. I was like, dang, I'm just I'm just so busy. And then I thought about busy B. I love a good alliteration, so I thought it was cool to like a little play on words of spelling busy a different way, and then also instead of busy B to do busy bean. It yeah, it kind of just came to me randomly, and then I just kept saying it over again and again and again. And I wasn't even for sure about the name at first. I remember I wrote it down and looked at it and thought about it, and now I feel more comfortable saying it. I was in an entrepreneur like business class, and they were like, you need a name, you need a name. I was like, Oh my I don't have one. I was like, okay, uh um I'll put a filler one in for now. Yeah, I wasn't even for sure on the name, and I'm so glad I wasn't because I think if I was really for sure on the name, then I thought I'm probably gonna change it in the future, and never did. So, yeah, it just stuck. Next question is will there be a limited edition slash seasonal flavors? Gosh, I hope so. It better, they better have seasonal, they, me, we better have seasonal flavors. Right now I'm really trying to come out with this first one because you know it's been rough, like we've talked about. There's been a lot of ups and downs with it, specifically downs. I do have a lot of different ideas for seasonal flavors. Like, I want to do peppermint mocha ones for Christmas, I want to do pumpkin spice lattes, like uh, I have so many ideas. It's really just the resources and the money that I am working on. Next is lifestyle and wellness questions workout routine. I've been doing a lot of matte pilates outside and I love it a lot. For one, I'm really cheap. It's hard for me to spend money on a gym membership because then that feels like a job to me. Like I'm I don't know, I'm I'm spending money on it to go to a gym. I don't know. I played around with a whole bunch of different things though. When I was working at CSUB, I would go to the gym there a lot, which was nice, but grew up dancing and miss it a lot. I think the closest thing I found to dancing or dance classes is Pilates, like a pop Pilates. I'll go on YouTube. I love looking up Move with Nicole, and even if I only have 10 minutes, I'll put on like a 10-minute yoga or 10-minute Pilates, and it feels really good, especially when the weather's nice outside and it's sunny and the air quality won't kill me. Love it. I love doing it outside, and it feels really grounding, and also it makes me feel good about myself. Even if I used to feel guilty or I used to feel bad when I'd be like, Oh, I'm only doing um a 10-minute class today. Now I feel great. I'm like, wow, I did a 10-minute class. That's amazing that I made time to do a 10-minute class, especially on when I have a really, really busy day. Today, I didn't, I can't even lie, I didn't I didn't work out today, but that's okay. I try to do it like three to four times a week. If I'm having a really good week, I'll do like a 30 to 40 minute one every single day. But most of the time that doesn't happen because life happens. And also sometimes there's a week where I don't work out at all, but I do love going for walks. Even when I was working my nine to five job, and I I barely had the energy to work out. I don't know how people with full-time jobs do it, like huge praise to you guys. When I wouldn't work out, I would just go for walks, my breaks, and I would notice I I would feel I would just feel a lot better about my body, and it just feels good to just get up and move. I had to film this episode over the entire day because it's been so you know busy. So if you are watching on YouTube right now, I am sorry for how dark it is getting outside. I'm doing my best here. It's hard having a crazy, never ever changing schedule because I plan to record one day and then something else comes up. And you know, yesterday could I have recorded absolutely, but I felt ugly, so I didn't. And now we're here. Next question is what do you do for self-care? I'm really bad at self-care, honestly, guys. I really suck at self-care. I've been trying to get better about it. That is like one of my goals for this new year, is just like literally to make time to relax. I like taking long showers and meditating in there. I'll put um some sound bowls on and I'll just pretend that I'm at the spa or I'm at my future mansion with like a steam room going on, and yeah, that feels really relaxing, and I like to meditate a lot too. Even if it's just like a five-minute meditation after I work out in the morning, I I keep telling myself I'm gonna start implementing meditation and like throughout my day or in the middle of my day, but I'm quite bad at doing that, so that's another goal that I have because I think mental self-care stuff is equally as important, and I'm trying to get massages more too, especially because I have jaw pain, my jaw locks all the time, and I've noticed if I do get massages, then it feels a lot better. So that's another self-care thing that I think is really important. Um, it's just and I don't know if you guys are like me, it's just so hard to schedule the self-care stuff. Like, that's another thing that's hard for me to spend money on because I don't see it as a necessity, which is not good, like it it is, and every time I do something self-care, I'm like, I feel great, like I did deserve that. And again, it's crazy what I'll spend my my money on, because I'll spend my money on a good meal, but then I will say I'm not gonna spend money on a massage or a facial or something that is just a fun experience. Like, if you've never gotten a facial before, I hadn't gotten a facial in like my 24 years of life until I think last year. Yeah, I think last year was my first time ever getting a facial, and I was like, This is so nice. Why do I not do this? Why have I never done this before? Like, just at least try it to for the experience, you know, set aside some money for self-care stuff. I think that's a really cool thing to do is like every month choose something different to to do for self-care. Um, I have started getting my toes and nails done more. I have like a membership at um a spa in my town that I get pedicures and manicures at. Even that though, if you look at my nails right now, if you're watching on YouTube, they look busted, they look not good, and even that is something that I don't make time for sometimes. But getting membership has forced me to use it more. Um, because then I'm in that use it or lose it mindset. Not healthy, but yeah. How do you plan family time? Honestly, I'm not very good at planning family time, um, because I am so close with my family. Family time like does happen naturally, but not as much as I'd like it to. It's hard, like all of us are always so on the go a lot, and I think that is a toxic cycle that me and my entire family is in, is where we work so hard because we do have so many different passions. So, yeah, I'm I'm really not good at planning family time. Even dates with my boyfriend has been something that has been hard to plan, especially because a lot of my content, well, I guess not as much anymore, but when my content first started, it was me forcing him to go places with me for to do videos on cute date spots and stuff. So it's hard now to go to a restaurant and just like relax or you know, I think planning family time is really important, and that is something I would like to do even just a few times a month because life is so short and our time with our families is so limited. So I not to get all depressing, but I think it is really important to plan out these these family times. I do get to hang out with my younger siblings a lot though, which is really really nice. I don't know, honestly, I do need some tips on that. Like, how do you guys spend time with your family? How do you guys plan it? Do you do like weekly dinners, monthly dinners? So I keep trying to think of a good answer for it, but I don't think I have one. Do you eat clean or have skinny jeans? That's funny. Um, I think I do eat actually like pretty clean. My mom grew like grew us up on lots of like quote healthy meals, you know, a lot of greens and vegetables, and we would always try weird diets, not for weight, we would just try. Um, we had really me and my sister had really bad acne growing up, so we would try going gluten free, we were Try um doing the keto diet. We would try cutting out cheese for a few months. We always would try different things to see what would help our skin, and a lot of things didn't literally nothing to it. We just we would go on these crazy things. We do juice cleanses, we tried so many different things. Um, so it did get me into a really good habit early on of eating the right foods and vegetables. But your girl does love to eat, and because of that, I do prioritize working out a lot more because especially as I've gotten older, and yeah, I noticed that metabolism it do be slowing down sometimes the older you get, and especially when I was working my nine to five job. I remember I would feel just not good when I wouldn't work out for a bit and I wouldn't be taking my breaks to walk around the block even for 10 minutes. I feel like it would have a negative effect on my body, just how I felt too like not even as much how I looked. I I feel like I felt uh like I looked worse than I did because I wasn't working out. I think mental um like body dysmorphia stuff had a bunch to do with it because I I was being extra hard on myself because I I did I wasn't working out, or maybe I skipped going for walks that week. So now I try to put more of a focus on how I feel instead of like a set goal of how I looked, especially. It's hard because I grew up dancing all my life, and then I was dancing in college, I was on the dance team, and I was just constantly doing cardio, whether it's at practices or at games we were performing at, and then one day that just stopped. You know, I graduated college, I wasn't on the dance team anymore, and I didn't have that I didn't have that express about let which sucked, but on top of that, I didn't have that fun cardio. Like I I didn't have to make a time to go work out, I didn't have to that's a lot of self-discipline of which I realized when I had my nine to five to make time to work out because it was always a part of my everyday life. Like growing up, my mom put me in dance classes and was paying for those things, obviously. And then when I got to college, that was just a part of like being an athlete was being on the dance team, and and it was always fun to me too, so I didn't really think about it as oh, I have to go to work out right now, you know. And dancing, uh I just I really really really love dancing and I really miss it. And I wish we had more studios in town that had adult classes. A lot of the ones I do see, and I could be wrong, I don't do a whole lot of time researching, is like adult ballet, and I'm like, oh, I want a fun class, I want to do some hip hop, and I also don't want it to be a super beginner class because sue me, I'm picky. I don't want to do that, I want to be challenged. Uh again, I haven't done a lot of research, so if there are some out there, hit me up my DMs and let me know about them. I I think it'd be really fun to get back into. I'm even thinking, I've I've been thinking for a while now, again, like trying new things. Life is too short, and I want to take more classes in LA. I grew up doing that a lot during um junior high and high school. My mom would drive to LA with me and my sister to take dance classes, and I really miss doing that. That was so fun. So I I'm scared and I'm nervous, but that also kind of excites me. I think that'd be really cool to just go take a random dance class at a dance studio in Los Angeles. That'd be so that'd be so fun to get back into. I just need to get rid of this expectation that I will do as good as I did years ago because I haven't taken a dance class in so long. The cardio it takes, damn, you won't realize how much until you are until it's been a while, you know. Um, so yeah, anyway, all that to say, I have been trying more recently to not focus on getting a specific body image, but just like feeding myself with good healthy foods that I do enjoy. I don't think eating healthy has to be boring. I used to think, oh I'm gonna grow up and I'm gonna eat all these different junk foods, da da da da da. Because I've I've just always loved food. That just shows you how much I've always loved food, even growing up. And now that I'm older, I'm just finding new recipes and ways to make them healthier, and have gotten a lot of inspiration from dinners my mom made growing up, and I think TikTok also has unlimited recipes and resources of different foods, and no matter if you're dairy-free, gluten-free, there's just so many good ones out there. Tonight I'm having salmon bowls, and I'm so freaking excited. I used to hate salmon, and now it's one of my favorite meals. Like, there's just so many new ways to cook things, so I don't go back to I try not to go back to old videos of myself when I was in college and look at it from a comparison mindset. Because again, that steals my joy. If I look back on it and I think, oh, look how good my body looked. Okay, I'm older. We we live, we learn, we thrive, we grow. Our bodies grow, like we change, and sometimes I'm 10 pounds heavier than I am the next month. Like it's always up and down. I don't own a scale. My mom has never had a scale in our house growing up, and I will never have a scale, especially women's bodies. We are constantly changing and in different cycles in our life, and I know if I had a scale, I would be checking it nonstop. If you have that issue, highly recommend throwing your scale away because it all comes down to how you feel, and a lot of that is like in our noggins, you know. So I think that's that's step one. As a small business and young entrepreneur, who do you go to just talk about ideas with? Such a good question because a lot of the times I don't go to anyone for a while, and I think that's a really important point is knowing when to talk about your ideas with someone. Like the coffee idea. When I had the idea for starting Busy Bean Coffee, I think there's nothing worse than when you tell someone your idea and they automatically shoot it down or tell you, tell you all the ways that it could fail, and all these well, what if it doesn't work out? What if this? Da-da-da-da-da. I think that automatically shifts your energy. At least for me, it does. I can I can feel it when I tell someone something I'm excited about and they hit me with a oh negativity. You know, it's like the thing I talked about in the beginning of this episode in my pet peeves, is just that closed-mindedness and that negativity. It it I can feel it in my soul, and automatically it makes me start doubting myself. So I try to like sit and simmer with the idea in my head for a bit, and I started to think about the logistics. I try to think of the the pros and cons to it, and if it's something actually worth pursuing, and I can't think of like a better phrase than what I'm about to say again of like does it light me up? You know, when I thought about the coffee idea, I felt lit up. I got so excited and hooked on the idea, and it just wouldn't leave me, it wouldn't leave my brain alone. I just kept thinking of new and fun ideas for it, and it was weird because when I did have the idea, I remember it felt almost like if I don't do this, someone else will. Like I just felt like I I feel this is like this we're gonna get woo-woo again. I feel like God gave me this idea, God, the universe, whatever you believe in. I feel like I was given that idea, and I was like, shoot, if I don't use this, someone he's gonna the higher power is gonna send it to someone else. So I I was like, I need to like put some steps in motion, otherwise I feel like it's gonna go to someone else. I don't know. That's just that's just what I believe. Back to that though, who I talk to about it, I really sit on it before I talk about it with anyone, and then I start like putting feelers out. Like I remember when I first had the idea of busy being, I was already pretty confident that I'm going to start it, and I remember bringing it up to my mom. And don't get me wrong, now she's really on board with the coffee idea. Like, she comes to me with my business meetings sometimes, like we got a good thing, we got a good thing going. But when I first told her about it, I remember that and I had let it I had let it simmer in my head for a bit before coming to her, but I remember that when I first told her about it, she was like, Oh, it's it's scary going into the food and beverage industry, you know. Like that's that's a big liability when you're giving someone a project to ingest. And I think if I didn't simmer with it already in my head, I think I would have been terrified by her telling me that. She saw like how serious and passionate I was about it, and then very quickly did hop on board with supporting me with it. But and I and I do get it also, like that it is a scary, a lot of money that I am putting into it, so I completely get where she was coming from. But again, if I didn't let that idea sit inside me and I didn't trust myself and the passion that I had behind the idea to have it succeed, which is a lot of talk right now for a product that's not even out yet, but like I genuinely believe in it so much, which is why I'm I am comfortable saying this. I think if she told me that before I thought about it too, before I thought about the idea and all the logistics already in my head, I think I I could have been persuaded a little bit to be like, mm-hmm, maybe, maybe it is too scary to start. And I'm really glad I didn't. I'm glad that had sat on it for a bit before this, and then I kept playing around with the idea too. I kept visualizing the packaging and coming up with new ideas. And I have always gone to like my mom and sister with advice on business-related stuff, and have always kept me level-headed. No, they won't just tell me what I want to hear, and I never know what I'm gonna get from either of them, which is also so cool. Like I when I told my mom about the idea, I thought she was automatically gonna be on board and be like, Yeah, let's do it. I remember telling my mom about it and be like, oh dang, I thought she was gonna be more on board for it. And then I remember telling my sister about it, and she was like, Oh yeah, like here's some different um like she was she was just really helpful in helping me find people and was really on board with it and like helping give ideas. And it's really awesome to have both of their perspectives and that I have access to this. Sarah Blakey, Blakely, Blakey, I think Sarah Blakey, the founder of Spanx, she actually says in one of her podcast interviews that she had an informal board, which was like her family and friends. I think it was like two of her friends or something, and she would ask them advice on different business ideas. So that's kind of what I like to think that I have too. If I'm going into a business meeting or something, I like I'm so lucky that I have their opinions to bounce ideas off with, and they're super open and honest, so it's gotta be someone whose opinion you trust, but also it really comes down to what you think, and you gotta trust yourself first. Why did you start this podcast and what do you envision it will do for listeners? Uh huh. I actually was on a podcast earlier today. It was my first podcast being The Gaston, which was really fun, and they asked me a similar question, and it um it stumbled me. I said, I was like, why did I start this podcast? And again, it I like I talked about in the episode before, I don't have a set answer. And I think that's okay. I don't know what this podcast is gonna grow into, but I'm so excited for it because we get to do this together. And I really mean that. I mean I know I keep saying that a lot, um, but it's because of the community that I've we have built, not I, that we have built on Instagram, on TikTok, with your guys' comments, with your guys' DMs, with you liking my videos even. It all has had such a butterfly effect to turn into this podcast. So I I'm aware of that, and that's what I want this podcast to be. I really want to listen to you guys and what you want it to turn into. What do I envision it will do for listeners? I wanted to encourage you guys to start whatever venture you want to do and reinforce the idea that it is not cringe to try. It's not it's not cringe, it's only cringy if you let it be cringy. If your friends judge you, drop those freaking friends. Those aren't your friends, those are not your friends. I will say that so many times. There's still people that judge my content. Actually, men, like I talked about before. And that says so much more about the people judging you than it does about you. Because you don't want to look back at your life and think I should have done that. That that is what keeps me trying these different side hustles and hobbies and anything, is that fear is huge for me that I will look back and regret not trying something. That's that's so terrifying. I don't know if that's a healthy reason to try things either, but I know that it feels good at least right now in this moment, so I'm gonna keep on doing it. What are three places in Bakersfield, California you think everyone needs to try at least once in their life? At least once. Ooh, I got a really good one. Again, none of these are paid. They're just generally my favorite places. One is El Taco Loco. I have to start with that one because that has been my number one burrito place for so so long. A carne asada burrito from there, everything on it. They load that sucker up, I get it cut in half. Their red salsa of their red salsa, I'm addicted to it. It's so good, it's so spicy. Honestly, confession hour. Sometimes after I finish the burrito, if there's some salsa left, I'll take little like little sips of it. Um, it's that good. It's so good. But then my mouth is on fire, and then I beg my boyfriend for ice cream. I'm like, oh, uh, I need I need ice cream. But that's how you know the salsa hits. Two more places. I'm trying to think of like my favorite, favorite places. I love El Puesto. Sometimes it's a little too loud in there for me. So sometimes I'll call ahead and be like, hey, do you guys have mariachi tonight? Because it's fun for a little bit, but I get so overstimulated when I'm eating sometimes. If there's loud noises going on, I I don't know. I don't want to be diagnosed with like whatever reason I I have that issue. But I hate when there's loud music when I'm eating, even if I'm eating alone. Like it's not even that I can't enjoy the conversation with the other person. That is part of it, because I do like going out to eat places when I can't have a good conversation with someone. So it's definitely a part of it. But even if I'm alone, I hate loud music when I'm eating. It's just like I feel ugly I don't like it. I'm going back and forth on if I even want to do a food place. Going between two. I want to say locale for the food, for the vibes, for the ambiance. So cute in there. Love the owner, she's amazing, and one of my close friends. But I also want to say, so I'm gonna say for, sorry about it, the Well Comedy Club. Uh they have opened up their downtown location recently, and I haven't been to the new location, but I really like the owner behind it and his story. I think he's really cool. I'd actually love to have him on the podcast, so stay tuned. I'm I I obviously, based on my lighting right now, if you're watching on YouTube, I need to figure out some of my own logistics. I think it's so cool that we have a comedy club here now. Okay, guys, those are all of the questions. This episode took so much longer to film than I thought. Otherwise, I would have started it at 6 a.m. No, I wouldn't have. I'm not a morning person. But I really loved all the questions and I I appreciate everyone that did send them in, so I wanted to take my time in answering them. I tried to go kind of quick. Obviously, I didn't. But if there's any that you guys want me to expand more on, then I would love, love, love to do a bonus episode so we can like really give a deep dive into anything you might have questions on. But I'm sure you guys, if you don't, we'll figure out some more things to expand on in later episodes. So yeah, I am loving doing this podcast. Since I am in my busy girl era, has been hard for me to find a good time to consistently record these, but I will put it higher on my priority list. This was eye-opening. Again, if you're watching on YouTube, it is so dark. And because I'm I decided to film in a car and not the studio, it also comes with um this lovely lighting as a result. But like I said, I want to keep it open and natural and honest and vulnerable and all of those things, so that means that means sh showing this. I don't showing me in my dark car right now. I kind of like the vibe of this because it reminds me of like late night COVID car rides that I used to do with my friends during COVID where we would just drive around um because there's nothing else to do. So I'm actually not super mad about the vibe. I'm just I'm mad that you guys have to go through this awkward lighting. I'm again so thankful for all your questions and again the positive response on the first podcast episode. I saw that it has over a hundred views on YouTube, and I don't know if I know people are gonna be like only a hundred. That's huge for me, guys! Like I put this first episode out not knowing anything, and I think that's even a little celebratory mo moment because I I didn't I didn't know who was gonna listen, so it's been really cool to hear all your guys' positive responses has been amazing. I'm yeah, I'm I'm really in awe about it. So thank you for listening. If you're listening on YouTube, watching, feel free to subscribe for more episodes every other Tuesday. I I can't wait for the next episode. I'm so excited, and let me know what you guys want to see in the next episode, or maybe even who you want to see. We are in our busy girl era, and I'll see you guys next time. Bye.