Ep.242 Become Your Best Self with Ashley Vachon

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Welcome to Malet and Michelle. I'm Michelle, where I have a smile on my face almost always, unless I got too much Botox. And this is Steve, where he smiles at mountains and trees and shit.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Yes, I do. And have never had Botox. Lucky me.

SPEAKER_05 0:18

I'm gonna get I wanna I'm gonna come in here. I know people are doing their own Botox now. Steve.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Oh, get out of here. Yes. And there well, there's people that are doing stuff like implanting stuff in their own butt. So I know they're doing that. They've seen that, right? They put fillers. Well, there was a story about a lady that uh went to like Home Depot and got some like caulking for seams and injected in her butt. She died. What the?

SPEAKER_05 0:45

Okay, well, I'm sorry. Sometimes, sometimes the world just takes care of itself for injecting cock in the world.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

You're talking about me being outside. You gave me the sticker. It says, I love peeing outside, and that is so true.

SPEAKER_05 0:57

Yes, I do. I not I do. I don't like it. So let's pee outside. So with speaking of peeing outside, we can't do what we do without our advertisers. And we'd like to thank Deep Eddie Vodka Tating Room.

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SPEAKER_05 2:04

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SPEAKER_01 2:09

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SPEAKER_05 2:32

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SPEAKER_01 2:36

Especially with your uh with your dyslexia like Michelle, that is not 5'2, that is 5'5. Um, I want to before we move on to our wonderful guest that we're gonna have come in the studio. I want to remind everybody the Run by the Creek is back. Yes, I saw I was out there on Sunday. They're marking the course. So run by the creek.com, sign up today. I know they're they're not they've they're not filling up yet, but uh spots are going quite a bit. When is that? It's uh the first week of November. Oh I'm not gonna budget and tell you the first week of November. I think it's the first Sunday in November, but the run RunBytheCreek.com is where you can register. So today we're joined by Ashley Vishon, author of You Are Worthy of Happiness 31 Days of Encouragement, a book built around a simple idea that can sometimes be surprisingly hard to believe. You deserve a little happiness in your life. In her book, Ashley talks about shutting down the negative voice in your head, recognizing your own worth, and realizing happiness isn't something you have to earn. So, how do we stop being our own worst critic and maybe become someone we actually like hanging out with? Let's find out. Welcome to the show, Ashley.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

We're glad you're here, and you had to drive a long way to get here because you live very close. Yeah, but we always start the show off. How did you end up? You've had a life traveling around the world, how'd you end up in Dripping Springs?

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Well, um, it's kind of uh a long story, but the short part of it is um a job uh took me here. Um, and that was about a year and a half ago, and I'm still just getting getting to know Dripping Springs. My sister lives in Dripperwood, so I didn't spend a lot of time in the area. She's an artist. Oh, yeah. She's amazing. Well, we may have to have her on, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, and so yeah, so it's just nice that I have her here, and uh, she's close.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

So okay, and you grew up born in spring, north of spring. Yeah, so you're native Texan. I'm not remembered. There's two native Texans in here and not me.

SPEAKER_07 4:38

Oh, wait, where are you from?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Uh well, I was born in Scotland, actually, but yeah, I lived in California for a while. They found him under a rock.

SPEAKER_05 4:46

Yeah, yeah. He was a rock.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

After my lucky charm.

SPEAKER_05 4:53

Is that the right country? That's right. Okay, it's all great.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Nice try though.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

Okay, you don't be an A for effort, right? So I I heard also that you came back to take care of your mother. Oh, take care of your mom.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

Yes, yes. Actually, I was living in Chicago at the time. Um, we raised our kids in LA for 10 years and then moved to Chicago for 10 years for sort of a different life experience. And it really was a different life experience. We wanted our kids to be raised um with mid-west sort of southern values, and um, so that's why we moved to Chicago. But um, yeah, what actually took me back to Texas, Texas originally was uh my mom. Um I just had a gut feeling that I should be here for her, and I was, and she had a really, really rough year and a half, but I was there for it for all of it. And I'm I will never regret that session.

SPEAKER_07 5:49

Never, never. She's still with us? She is. Oh, good, good.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

Yeah, yeah, she's doing much better.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

She is. Being a caretaker takes a lot out of you.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

You lose a little bit of yourself. It does, especially because you know, there was a lot of big changes in my life at the time. I had recently gotten divorced, became an empty nester, I moved across the country, became a caretaker.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

So that's some big changes. Yeah. So let's go way back. You born in Spring, Texas, you become a model at 15.

SPEAKER_07 6:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

And you start traveling around doing all that. What was that like? 15 years old, you don't even know anything about anything.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

That's so true. It was crazy. Um, and I so my main thing, I always thought I wanted to be a soccer player. Like I played soccer, and soccer was my jam. And I was like, I'm gonna be a coach when I grow up, and I'm doing it, and that was my thing. And I started modeling, and I would come into these auditions, and they're like, You have scabs on your leg from modeling. Like, you can big strawberries from spy tackling people, and I was like, Yeah, it's so cool. And they're like, Yeah, you can't really have that. And I was like, Oh, dang. So I was thinking, I'm just gonna maybe just stick to soccer. But uh, my mom put me in this 17 magazine competition, and I became one of the finalists. I didn't even know that she did that.

SPEAKER_07 7:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Um, and so that's how it kind of all started. Um, but when I was 16 years old, I was with an agency in um New York City. They were like, Hey, we're gonna buy you here, and my parents were like, Oh, that's kind of crazy, and they're like, Oh no, we'll take care of her. Well, I get there, I'm 16 by myself, and I had a roommate and she was 18. Luckily at the time, I wasn't like wild, you know.

SPEAKER_06 7:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

But um, and being in New York City after being in Spring, Texas, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

That's a big change.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Yeah, it was crazy. And I just realized when I was 16, I was not ready for that. So I only I was only able to make it for a couple weeks. Then I was like, I need to go.

SPEAKER_05 7:42

Well, I I need adult supervision. I know from experience, my daughter started modeling when she was 14. She was in 17 magazine as well. And I know that I was like her on white on rice because the industry is so bizarre and so well the models are just a product. Well, they treat you like a product. In the modeling industry, I felt versus like the acting industry, like because she did some some acting also. You know, when you're when you're on set, there are there are teachers there, there are um guardians for these minors, but when you're a model, there's none of that. So they're like, here, go ahead. Bye. Yeah, bye, see what happens. Yeah, and so you're traveling all around. You also traveled around the country a little, I mean around the world a little bit, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

When I was 18, so a little bit different. Like, I think everybody was at that age, they're going up to college, starting their life, and so that was a little bit of a different experience. I was ready to go at that time.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Yeah, that's what was your favorite modeling event that you did.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Oh gosh, that's a good question. Um, I would say one of the best things was going to Italy and working in Milan, and I found a lot of jobs um that took me to some beautiful places over there, like Sardinia and the island of Spain, and it was beautiful, and just there were so many great experiences I had to have. And I mean, I was I was always alone, you know, so that was like the downside of it, but still it was such a great life experience.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

You so you weren't you didn't travel around with a bunch of other models? No, it was just you, you'd go to a photo shoot in Sardinia or whatever, and then meet a photographer and a lighting crew, and that was it.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Yeah, you got the photographer, the makeup artist, the hairstylist, the whole crew, and then you're hanging out with these people for however long it may be a week or two, and then you'll never jump to the game.

SPEAKER_06 9:32

That's wild.

SPEAKER_05 9:32

And taking care of yourself and feeding. I remember Kendall. We went into an event, she was still really young, and uh Kindle asked me to go get her a water burger, and all of these models are starving, and Kindle's sitting there eating this big old cheeseburger. So, did you feel pressure when you were at that age to just kind of not not eat a cheeseburger?

SPEAKER_03 9:52

That's a great question. Um, and you know, and I because I played soccer, like I think I had I it was sort of like I had a fast metabolism, so I didn't have to worry too much. But yeah, I mean I saw a lot of girls do a lot of crazy things to stay skinny. Um, it was it's kind of sad, you know. Like I mean, I'm not gonna go into those in much detail, but yeah, there would be people who would do weird things.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Yeah, and and and you gotta you've gotta learn at that young age to kind of be an advocate for yourself, also. And so you probably learned at a very young age to stick up for yourself and like, okay, I'm not okay with this, right? Whatever this is, I am not okay with this.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Right, right. Like I'm eating, I need to eat. Yeah, I um I will pass out if I don't.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah. So then when you were 20, you're the your full-time modeling, you're age 20, you have this auto accident. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Yeah, so my career was starting to take off when I was 18. I went to New York City and I was working and doing covers of magazines and traveling to Europe and uh Japan and sort of doing all these great things. So my career was taking off. And um, and then I got hit hit on by a drunk driver. Excuse me, and then I went through the windshield with my face. My ankle, my kneecap, my arm. So it was just kind of like it was pretty bad. Yeah, pretty bad. Where were you when that happened? I was actually in time in Macadosha, so I was visiting. I was home for the first vacation, and um, yeah, that's when that happened. So um, yeah, so then you know, that I thought for sure my model and career was over. I had hundreds of stitches in my face. Didn't have an eyebrow for a while, and I was banged up. And at the time I was like, you know, I'll just go to school and see what that's like with people my age, because I wasn't not having that experience. And so I thought, well, that well, that's fine. Like that's what my life took me to do. And um That's when you went to Stephen of Austin. I did, yeah. Okay, for a year. And you know, and then um got to have that experience, and then my agency called me up and they were like, Can you come back? Are you good? And I was I was like, Yeah, let's cry. And so when I went back to modeling after all of this had happened, I had a different perspective on life. Like I was just like, I'm I'm alive, you know, I can walk. And those are things you take advantage of. Like you don't even think about that um before something like that happens, especially as a young girl. And you're just so focused on how you look, and so so many young girls they get really super insecure. Yeah, and I was too. But then after that, I think it was just like I'm alive, and you know, and I'm just happy to be here and I'm blessed. And and I think that came across um in in photos and things, like I was just more confident. So I worked more surprisingly, ironically, I worked more after than I did before.

SPEAKER_05 12:40

Do you think they picked up on that energy from you? Because you said that most people would feel very insecure and you kind of had the opposite effect. Do you think that that was kind of from your upbringing, or was that something from within? It was something within, I think.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Yeah, it was something within that didn't exist before the accident. So some insecurities were just like, why would you be insecure about stuff? Yeah, those little minor things. Just minor.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

So uh, how long did you model? You you recover from the accident, you go back to modeling. How long did you model after that? Like, how many years did go by?

SPEAKER_03 13:13

Well, I just I stuck with it for for many years, probably until I was about 35, was my last time that I modeled. And then when I was 47, living in Chicago, I met with Ford Agency, Ford Models. That's amazing. When I was 47, and they were like, Yeah, we'd love to sign you. And I was like, Oh, this is so great, and I was so excited about that, but I never got to see that out because I moved back to Texas.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Was that uh meeting with Anne? Was that because you decided you wanted to get back into modeling, or did they approach you and go, hey, you should come back. We have a we have a spot for you.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Well, I had I was kind of in the place in life, like, what am I gonna do with myself? Like I raised my kids, you know, and um and a lot of friends were saying, Hey, you should get back into modeling. I was like, No, I'm too old, right? And they they were like, just try it. So I was like, okay, and so I was really excited about that. It was it was really fun, and I got new photos taken. It was just it was good because I took 15-year hiatus.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

And um is there such a thing as being too old for modeling? I mean, for probably for certain types of modeling, like no. You are too old for modeling. Oh, yeah, well, yes, I know. They approached me though, I haven't interviewed them.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

But you know what? Maybe they're looking for a depends actor.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

I'm the perfect fit. I'll do it with you.

SPEAKER_07 14:31

That's pretty muddy.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

So they yeah, the uh, but I I mean, I I see pictures in magazines and they're you know, 65, 70, yeah, 70-year-olds that are still modeling. I mean, there's obviously still a market for it.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

Well, yeah, it is, and I think you know, now there is more than there used to be. Like I feel like when I was modeling when I was younger, it was just like they were all focused on young. So now there's a lot more. Maturity is sexy, Steve. Maturity.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Yeah, thank you. I know. People tell me that all the time.

SPEAKER_05 15:00

I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do. They stop you at pig pen quite often.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Wow, you're very mature there, young guys.

SPEAKER_05 15:05

You're very mature. So um, I want to take go back to like your in your 20s, um, early 30s, you're traveling the world. And how did you end up in Hollywood? How did you like plant your feet down there?

SPEAKER_03 15:22

So when I was working in South Beach is where I work the the most, I was working there because a lot of Europeans were over and shoot there. Um and my ex-husband came there uh to South Beach for the Super Bowl in 1999. And we happened to be at the same well, we say we met at church, but we didn't know. We met at the nightclub and opening night at the nightclub. I was gonna church, that's somebody who's doing Sunday morning, probably. Um so yeah, we met there and then um we kind of hit it off, and then he lived in LA. And he was like, Why don't you move out to LA? And I was kind of like, okay, you know, because I would work out there as well. And so that kind of from there, that's how I got to the Hollywood.

SPEAKER_05 16:10

Is that where you um started having your children? Were they born in California? They were, they were. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

How did you like living in California? It was different I I lived there starting in uh the mid 80s through 2003, so we're kind of there at the same time. But how did you like it?

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Yeah, you know, okay, so I love the weather, um, it's beautiful, but you know, everybody I it's I we don't want to raise our kids there.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

That's exactly what happened to me. I uh my kids were like uh five, three, and one, and I said, I just don't want to raise my kids in this environment. And it's way worse now, but yeah, that was and we were looking around the country where we want to move to, and we thought about Austin and then came out here and somebody brought us to dripping, and we're like, this is a cool place, and then six months later here we will.

SPEAKER_05 17:00

I could see that your exposure though to California was a little bit different than a lot of other people's exposure. So your ex-husband is D B Sweeney, and and for people in our listeners, he was um he starred or one of the stars in Lonesome Dove and a lot of other um um uh genres.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

A lot of Texans, a lot of Texans love Lonesome Dove. Love, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:20

My it was my father's big yeah, it was absolutely my father's favorite, favorite show. So your exposure was Red Carpet and Hollywood and Premier's, and you know, you probably, I don't know, ran into Jennifer Aniston at Starbucks or something like that. So it was a little bit a little bit different than somebody's normal experience of just living in California.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Yeah, I mean, well, kind of, yes, um, we would get to go to red carpet events and um things like that. But at the for the most part, you know, we had had our kids, right? So we were just like our son was playing travel hockey, and so we just we were like parents, you know, and just a family more than that. The other things didn't happen as often as it as it seemed like. But yes, we would run into some cool people sometimes, you know, like um uh what's his name? Tom uh one of my best friends came to visit me and he was there in the coffee shop, and it was just like that's horse, that's more stuff over there.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

But when you get around those people, you realize they're just they're just people, they're just regular people, but then just buying a coffee, trying to get through the day, just like keeping up with the Joneses though is so different.

SPEAKER_05 18:37

Like I'm sure, like from you just even from Chicago, from LA to Chicago, keeping up with the Joneses is okay, hell, would you like to go to the amusement park today? Or would you like to go to Turks and Caicos for the weekend? You know, I mean, like the the income gap was like, okay, my kid's not gonna drive a Range Rover or whatever, you know, their first car.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

And well, that was that was one of the great things about leaving LA is because people, I mean, people can do whatever they want, no judgment whatsoever, but weren't we weren't gonna get our kids a Range Rover. Yeah, that wasn't our thing. But that's what a lot of other people like there'd be 16-year-olds, you know, driving that had way better cars than we did, and we're just like that was exactly my thought.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

I was in uh Costa Mesa and I was driving by high school, and this 16 Pimply faced kid pulled out of there in a brand new Mercedes convertible, and I thought, I bet his dad bought that for him. And I thought, I don't want to raise my kids because I'm gonna buy my kids a 20-year-old pickup truck for their first time.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

And it's gonna be so much fun. Yeah, and they're gonna name that car, and you're gonna have the best memories of it.

SPEAKER_05 19:37

That's right, that's right. So, did your kids how did they feel about moving from California to Chicago? Was their experience were they excited to become a old were they?

SPEAKER_03 19:46

They so my son was in going into sixth grade, my daughter was going into fourth. Okay, so they were still young, they were still young, and they were sad to leave because that's all they knew. Yeah, and their best friends were there. So, but you know what? They are Chicago kids, you know, like that's they grew up just with that uh mentality of just not being into all those things. Yeah, like they have their good, good, good kids.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Well, one's in I can't hope for anything better than that. One's in med school. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Yeah, well, she's got well, she's not yet. Okay, so she's gonna be she's gonna be taking her MCAT soon. Buckle up. Freaking out about it, but um, she's gonna be doing it soon and then applying to med schools.

SPEAKER_05 20:27

Well, how exciting for that though? So, what was their what was your first winter like in spring?

SPEAKER_03 20:34

Yeah, yeah. We were from Tech, Spring Texas and then living in LA for 10 years. Um, it was crazy. It was the polar vortex in 2013. Um so at first we're like, oh look, it's snowing, and we stick our head out the window and catch snow on our tongue, and then after like a month, we're like, this is horrible.

SPEAKER_04 20:51

It's still snowing.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yeah, that's the coldest I've ever been was in Chicago. I've never been colder than it.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

And people say that too, and it's true. Yeah, and there was like we we were breaking all these records, like the most snow, the coldest day in a row, there's no sun, and it was just like each time it kind of like each every day.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, and then the spring comes around, everybody's like, Yeah, and it's gorgeous there in the spring, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Yeah, it's beautiful, and it's so so happy.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

You know, there's a lot of stuff in the in the media about how broken Chicago is. Was that your experience?

SPEAKER_03 21:26

No, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Tell us the tell us the truth.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

It's a great city, you know. I mean, there's parts, there's every city has doctors tough times and hard and crime and things like that. Um, but we it's such a great city. There's so much, like just with all the sports and the baseball and the football and the hockey and everything, it's just so much fun. Um, and then there's so much to do there and the food is great. There's it's just a great place. It's a great place. And we weren't in Chicago, we were in the suburbs. So we would just take a train into the city.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Yeah. Um So do you have a house there that in Chicago?

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Yeah, yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Yeah, I every time I've been there, I went to I was downtown, which is nice.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

There's a lot to do down there, but it wouldn't be my favorite place to live.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Right. Yeah, my my son lives there. He just bought a condo because it was like that's where he grew up, sort of right. So he wants condo in the city, and I think he wants to come to Texas.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

I was gonna ask, like, so now you live in like you know, especially your children's age right now. Austin is this hip cool place. Like, my mom lives in Austin. So, I mean, are they driving to well he's been he has spent a lot of time here?

SPEAKER_03 22:33

My kids, you know, we see my family all the time. So my kids love Texas. In fact, the funniest thing about my son Cade, our son Kate, is that um when we were he was born in California and we went on a road trip and we let his feet touch soil for the first time in Texas. So he didn't ever touch soil in California. So it was like Texas is the first place he's actually touching the land.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

He's got Texas at his work, he feels it, he feels it here.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

It's a thing, it's a real thing.

SPEAKER_05 23:00

It is a thing.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

And so along the way, at some point you decided uh I am this thing is it stopped again.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Um sorry, I guess I can come in.

SPEAKER_05 23:11

You can take a drink. Yeah, um, the time is 23 right now here.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

I'm gonna um restart this. It stopped twice in a row.

SPEAKER_05 23:25

We're having some issues and he's waiting for his new computer to come in. It's a software that it's doing something weird. And so normally he just re he can just restart it and it's not a big deal, but um it stopped twice real fast. My son's in stock world.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Jeez, yeah, have him give me a call.

SPEAKER_05 23:45

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

I have tried everything and it's I think it's the computer's five years old. I think it's just it's run its course.

SPEAKER_05 23:52

It's as old as our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I got it just for this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

You should go and delete one of those uh an episode just to have that space because remember.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Oh, I've deleted them all back to like within the last year or two. Oh yeah, I don't I don't I'm not sure that. Well, let's let's just keep going. So I'll I'll I'll start in asking about the the book. So somewhere along the way, uh, through all of this, all the things that have happened to you in your life, you decided to write a book.

SPEAKER_07 24:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Tell us about how you decided that.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

Well, um, so I think just over the years, I had kept these little nuggets of hope and inspiration. And I just wrote them down all over the place. And I kind of changed the words, the wording to go to go along with what I was going through in my life. And I just recently, I mean, like just a couple of months ago, I was like, you know, I'm gonna put these into one place. I'm gonna write a book for myself. And I originally started off as doing something fun for myself, I can just keep in one place. Then I started thinking about it and I was like, maybe this can help other people. And you know, because life is hard, life is hard for everybody, it's unpredictable, and we don't know what life's gonna throw at us, and we can't, you know, all we can do is is control how we respond to life. Like we can't control what life throws at us, but we can control how we respond to life. And so, you know, I just I just thought maybe I can help other people. And the great thing is is people have been reaching out to me and they're like, oh, this has been really helpful. I'm like, oh, that's perfect, that's all I really wanted. It's pocket size too. You can stick it in your purse.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

You can't are you do you journal? Is that where a lot of these ideas came from?

SPEAKER_03 25:35

No, I don't. Like, I would just jot these little things down, like if I heard something and you just kind of I was like, Oh, I like this, and I just had all these notes everywhere. I'm just gonna put this into one place. And originally that's all it was for, it was just to so I can have it in one spot. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

And then how do you figure it out how to structure it? Because it's 31 days of happiness, 31 days of encouragement to be your best self, you're worthy of happiness.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

How'd you figure out how to structure we're gonna go through these every day, Steve? Okay, you and I. I'm gonna put it on my desk and you and I are gonna go over each one.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Um is it I mean, is there sort of a hey, you do this step and then this step, or is it just it's like this is the thought for the day?

SPEAKER_03 26:17

This is the thought for the day kind of thing. Um, or you know, you can just randomly open a page and be like, today, this is what I'm gonna work on how I roll sometimes. Okay, let's see what your day is.

SPEAKER_07 26:28

Let's see what it is. Let's see.

SPEAKER_05 26:29

It says your past does not diminish your future. So there you go, Steve.

SPEAKER_07 26:35

Read it again.

SPEAKER_05 26:36

Your past does not diminish your future. The experiences you've had do not define what you are capable of becoming. Every new day brings another chance to move forward and create something better. The future is not limited by where you have been. Your potential continues to grow with every step you take. It's for sure. So is the opposite of happiness sadness then? Yeah, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Um, sadness. Maybe not necessarily sadness, but maybe just like stuck. Stuck.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

You know, like that's a good, you're not feeling anything, right? Maybe a little numb. Yeah, a little numb. A little numb stuck, a little like, where do I go in life? What can I do with this? Like, I feel like often there's a lot of things that happen in all of our lives. Like, my my story is not special. Everybody goes through something difficult. So it's kind of like you can you can stay in a why me state of mind. Like, why is it happening to me? And you just stay there, or and you know, like if things go are sad, like process it, go through it for sure. I'm not saying anything like that, but don't stay there, you know, just go to the watch me instead of why me. That's where kind of around like, you know what? That negative energy that's coming at me and the why me, willing me, flip that switch and put it into the let's let's put this energy into watch me. What can I do to make me not stay in a stuck place?

SPEAKER_05 28:03

And people, I think, when you're around people that have all that always why me attitude, it they cannot find joy in anything. And so that's what I have tried to do is just find find joy in just little things, whatever it is. And it's hard, you know, when you're when you're raising your kids and you're like, you feel like you're in groundhog day and you're going to the same ding day over and over and over again. So how did you how did you come to that realization like, okay, what I've been searching for is happiness. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

And it is hard. That's the thing. And it's like it's very hard and it takes a lot of work, and you have to to work at it. Like if you have these negative feelings of like, oh, poor me, you're gonna manifest it, right? You are gonna be poor me. Yeah, and you're feeding that, so it's gonna grow. But you have to see you have to be very aware of your thoughts, and that's what takes practice. Yeah, that's hard to do. But if they if it starts going to a negative place, just be like, okay, I be aware and just flip it and go, what can I do? What can I do to make this better?

SPEAKER_01 29:05

I feel like you know, we're living in an age, this is probably the best time to be alive ever in human history. I mean, we're blessed with so many things, you know. We all we we can drive anywhere we want, we can fly around the world, we live in great houses, they have air conditioning when it's 100 degrees outside. It's a great time to be alive, even compared to 150 years ago. And some people just act like their life is absolute crap. Why do you think that is? Why can we not recognize when we're so blessed? On all levels.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

I agree, I agree. I don't know why. I think maybe it's just the way our brains are wired, and and maybe now there's like social media and there's things online that we're not meant to see. Like our brains can't.

SPEAKER_05 29:47

The outside noise is just telling you you're not enough, this isn't enough, you need a bigger car, you need a you need to be prettier, you need to carry this purse, you need to wear these shoes, and especially for the younger girls. Yes, the why can't we try to turn that off?

SPEAKER_01 30:04

I I feel like we should be able to go. It's like if you're drinking and you're drinking to excess, one day you're gonna wake up and go, no, this isn't good for me. But we're all on social media doom scrolling and seeing these things and thinking, oh, I don't have a yacht, you know, and and feeling like we're inadequate. I feel like we should all go, you know what, this is not good for me. I'm gonna turn it off.

unknown 30:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

But we don't.

SPEAKER_05 30:26

Maybe you need reminders. You need reminders like like like this little book right here to say, okay, what you have in your heart and what you have in your life is good enough. You don't, you don't need the big fancy cars, the big fancy houses. You don't need I we're in this phase right now, my husband and I. We like to joke around that we're spending our kids' inheritance and uh have true. But um, but yeah, no, like we want to find we want to enjoy our life right now.

SPEAKER_04 30:54

Love it.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Yes, take go to good restaurants to have food and taste the flavors and go look at the ocean and the lake, whatever. Just things will make you happy in your soul.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

You'll get 50 bucks and you'll be happy, damn it.

SPEAKER_05 31:06

You know what makes me happy right now? What that little grandbaby of mine. Wait, wait until you have a grandbaby. It's the best thing ever. It is so good. So, what what is something that brings you joy? Me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Yeah, oh boy, you should have told me you're gonna spring up on me. Um, yeah, uh the place I find the most peace and the most most joy is when I'm with my wife Polly and we are out just someplace.

SPEAKER_05 31:34

Mountains and shit, mountains and shit.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Just no, it doesn't have to be mountains, but it's someplace out where it's just her and me, nobody else, no noise. If my cell phone doesn't work, even better. And we just we talk and we laugh and we just enjoy each other. And if it's someplace beautiful like I just was in Oregon, yeah, even better.

SPEAKER_05 31:55

What about you? Where are you finding your joy right now?

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Um, you know, that's it's always it's always a discovery finding joy. Um, but right now my daughter's visiting me and my son's going back and forth, and my sister's close, you know, family, um the all those things, and just going for a walk. There's so many cardinals in my neighborhood. Oh, I love the cardinals and they make me happy, or if I'm looking at the sunset, small things like it's the small things that add up and just be like, I feel like I'm I'm blessed, you know. I'm blessed to be here and I'm blessed to breathe air and see these things.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

And yeah, yeah, that's huge.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

How are you liking like dripping springs? Like just you said you're still trying to get the lay of the land. And I mean, you know, you're you're shopping at H E B and you know, we've got by the way, Oakwood Market is opening back up. So yes, it is. I never got to experience oh well, you'll like that. And you were talking about the cardinals. You need to go over here to Wild Birds and go get you some yummy food, and you can get different types of animals.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

And I kind of just recently started to, so I need to know all the things because I want to do them.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Well, you can listen to our podcast because I think we've interviewed almost everybody that's out there. But actually, when you were going through the process of writing this book, um, what's one thing that people believe about happiness that you discovered along the way in the process of writing this that uh is not true? Like people seek out something and turns out that's not the way they're happy.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

Uh money. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. People are so fixated on financial things and money and like the cars and the whatever you're wearing, whatever you have, your designer, this or that. That's not gonna make people happy.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Yeah, well, I see that a lot.

SPEAKER_05 33:44

It'll make you comfortable, but it won't make you happy. Does it really though? Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, come on, think about like extreme, like if you literally don't have it. Think about when you were younger, when you didn't have a place to stay, and you're sleeping on somebody's some friend's couch, you're like, man, you know, if I just if I just made sweaking, yeah, if I just made $500 a month, I would be set.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Uh so yeah, I think you probably, you know, you get to a point where you have probably more money than you could ever spend, and you still have this nagging feeling like you gotta have more. You gotta you gotta have a little bit more. I gotta have, I gotta pad that a little bit because you know, we want to have that second house or whatever, and you're always scrambling for that next level. So I didn't get and no matter how much money you have. Maybe Elon Musk, he's getting a trillion dollars a year, he still gets up and goes to work. No, or sleeps in his office. Why would you do why would you do that?

SPEAKER_05 34:37

Yeah, sleeps in his do you think that your kids have picked up on what you're trying to teach about happiness?

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, they have for sure.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

Is your daughter, do you feel like your daughter's in a different place than you were at this age?

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Oh yeah. I don't even know how she came out of me. She's like, she texted me one day, right? She's like, I want to be a doctor. I'm like, wait, who are you? Because that was not my path, you know, but it's great, it's awesome. So, yes, in that sense, we're we're totally different. Um, but she's yeah, she's way more mature than I was at that age. Way more mature.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

What do you think made her want to become a doctor?

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Because I don't know. She just she wants to be a dermatologist and she's got beautiful skin. Um she just she loves math and science.

SPEAKER_07 35:28

That's amazing. I know.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

I I said the same thing about my son Tate, and I was like, You're going, what? I was like, your your girlfriends did all of your homework in high school. Like how, but you know, he comes from it's all about a servant heart, especially when you're in the second and third year and you're in the depths of uh med school. Like you really start to figure out your why and your why and your happiness.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

Yes. You know, she she's working in the ER in Knoxville and she's seen a lot of crazy things. And I thought that might scare her away, and it hasn't. She's really into it.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Yeah, if you're working in ER, you've got to have pretty you gotta be tough. Yeah, there's a lot of weird stuff that goes on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:10

So do you think coming from an industry where so much focus was on beauty, and then you had your accident at 20 years of age, and then you you got a little older and you had children? Do you think that that industry could are you starting to see a turn to where you talked about how that they're using more older models, they're using models of different sizes, of different genders. Do you think that industry is maybe indicative of kind of what we are all feeling? Like we're tired of seeing the cookie cutter wave thin model.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

Right. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody can appreciate beauty, like different kind of beauty. People, everybody has a different eye for beauty. Like if they think one person thinks that person is beautiful, the next person doesn't. And also, like beauty is within. You can somebody can like physically not look beautiful, but then they're awesome, like just an awesome person on the inside, and then they become beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Well, and that's because you're attracted to that. I've known many people like that. At first glance, you think, well, you know, she she's cute, and but then you get to know her, and you're like, Wow, that what an attractive person. I want to be around that person.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Yeah, I want to be around that person. That's what makes them beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Yeah. So when you were modeling, did you feel like that was something you could convey to the camera that you could convey that confidence and that that inner beauty? Was that something you could do?

SPEAKER_03 37:35

When I was younger, no, I didn't understand it at the time. Um, so but as I got older, maybe a little bit more.

SPEAKER_07 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

But now when I started when I got back into it and I was modeling in my late 40s, um, yes, yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

You can you can uh exude that or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 37:55

Well, beauty, I think, also can be more just about looks, it can be your inner. You know, like who yeah, who you are, and and uh you know, you think about like your mom caring for your mom. That is really beautiful that you chose to do that. But but yes, but it's your even though it is your mother, but there's a lot of people that wouldn't do that, you know, they just kind of walk away. When somebody says, Okay, just choose happiness. I always want to say, Well, that's cute because my life is currently on fire right now, everything is on fire. So, what is your advice when you're kind of in the depth of just like life?

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Yeah, because it's not rainbows and butterflies. No, and you want to say, Yeah, just choose happiness. It's a hard choice because sometimes life just keeps beating down. So it's work, it is work to choose happiness, but you get that choice, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Like you can feel sad and stay there, or you can just try to is there a little step towards that? Because like we have some mutual friends, and they are the most unhappy people I know. What so if they were sitting in here right now and we could say, Hey, hey, you do this one little step. You take this book and beat him over the head with that book, sleep with this book, yeah, but seriously, I mean, so you you you got 30 seconds with him and you say, Hey, you know what, today's the day you should, and then you tell him what would you tell them.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Yeah, and if they say if I say, What is you, what's your complaint for the day? Oh, yeah, that's really how they for the day. Yeah, whatever they say, they're like, Oh, well, um, my whatever the complaint is, and then just say, Well, how can you rewire that in your brain, turn it into a positive somehow? There's always, and I it's laughable sometimes because I something negative will happen to me and I'll try to change it in something positive. And I'm like, that's ridiculous. But it's kind of funny and it makes me laugh. And then I just change it.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

That's what I did yesterday, Steve, because I've been dealing with the wonderful organization called the Veterans Administration. And so yesterday I was like, I'm going to the VA today. And I said, No, you know what? I'm gonna say, I'm going to the VA today.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

I'm so excited to go to the VA. It was just changing good. And you're having laughed about it inside. I did. I really wanted to take my car and just drive straight through the well, Ashley.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

What about you know, you you're 20 years old, you had this terrible car accident. A lot of people would have just crawled into their show and never come out of that. But you that process, that experience allowed you to see the beautiful things in life that surround us.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

So now looking back, it was terrible at the time, was probably a blessing to you in the long run that that happened because it gave you some perspective, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:37

Yeah, and I guess it I wouldn't be where I am today if that didn't happen.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Without that perspective, yeah. So I think people sometimes forget that even the worst experiences, and sometimes it takes time, but yeah, but in the long run, you may look back at that and go, Oh, that's I'm glad that happened. Not glad, but you know what I mean. It was a good thing. I got something out of it. I learned something about me through that horrible experience.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

What part of you getting older have you actually enjoyed? Um, well, I think it's just where I am mentally, right? You know, there's um as as a young girl, you know, you're always struggling with insecurities, and then you know, just you know, raising kids and being a mom, and then now, like now, now there's just like a lot of freedom.

SPEAKER_07 41:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

And my kids are still they I still see them a lot. And then I don't want to shout out my son because I don't know if this guy on here earlier, but he's in software development. He's doing a great job. I did kind of mention that he got friends in Chicago, but he's doing awesome too. They're both they're both just such great kids, and I feel I feel like I did something great in this world. Isn't that wonderful? By my kids. Yeah. That's who they are. Have you taken all the credits, but DB gets some.

SPEAKER_05 41:50

Have you um experienced dating yet?

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Oh boy, just jump right to it.

SPEAKER_05 41:57

Yes, because I I mean I hear it's awful. I'm like, I'm already blushing.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Is it is it as awful as it or I mean it depends on what it depends on where you go. Yes. I think if you did try dating apps, um, which I did, I will say yes, it's awful. Um, but no, I did that like a while ago at the beginning of the divorce. So I'm like, I'm not doing that again. Yeah, check that off a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Yeah, well, there's a lot of places where you can go meet people in church. You know, like church.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

Maybe you can actually meet someone church again.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Pickleball.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

Yeah, pickleball is a good call because like a lot of people have been saying that. Um, I want to do that. I want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

It's funny. I have almost all of my friends play pickleball, and they've been trying to get me to go. I'm too busy, I got too many other things to do, but I uh they all love it when they start playing.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

My friends love it too.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Yeah, that's a good sound.

SPEAKER_03 42:48

It's very social.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you don't play, yeah, you don't play doubles with them again, anyway. Um do you have you thought about are you thinking about writing a follow-up to your book?

SPEAKER_05 43:02

Not yet. Not yet. Maybe it'll come to me. She's she's still living off the high of being happy about this.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Well, the reason I ask is because you know, we're just talking a second ago about getting older. One of the things that I've discovered about getting older is I care. I don't get wrapped up in the drama like I used to when I was younger. It's somebody will do something to me or say something about me and be like, I don't care. And so are you starting to get to that point in the life? Absolutely. I think that's a path to happiness in itself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

Yeah. I mean, there actually might be like a page in there talking about other people can't um take away your happiness. Yeah. Like you give that to them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

That is actually that is so true. When you give credit or you give weight to what somebody says about you, you you uh you give a part of yourself to that person. If you just say, I don't care what that is.

SPEAKER_03 43:54

Who cares?

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Yeah, I'm not married to them. I know I don't, you know, they're not my kid. I don't care. Right. It's like you have.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Your core people in your life in your favor, good people who you know were there for you, and some random person says something bad about you.

SPEAKER_05 44:05

Who cares? Well, Steve had a book at one point, it was like 31 days to being pissed off all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

So and then the follow-up to that was people I want to punch in the face.

SPEAKER_05 44:15

I actually got a book, and I could actually be I got him a notebook that says that it was pretty funny. Ashley, what do you think 20-year-old Ashley would think of where you are right now in your life? Oh, I think she would be proud. Yeah, I think she would be proud.

SPEAKER_06 44:30

I think so too.

SPEAKER_05 44:31

I think so also. Do you think there's a version right now of an Ashley that we haven't met? Are you gonna reinvent yourself and again?

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Oh gosh, who don't who knows what's gonna happen? But I do always have like a ADHD. So I have all these thoughts and all these things, and always my brain is always going. So when I did this, it was like I was hyper focused on it and spent hours and hours and hours like laying out the pages. It seems like it's a small little pocket. No, but it's gonna but it was a lot of time like to do the cover and like all of it was new for me and creating it and making the cover fit. Oh my gosh, that took me like a month to get it to be able to print on Amazon that like the cover doesn't fit the covers, yeah. And you know there's no person to talk to to say what's wrong. So I had to try it and try it and try it so you did did you self-publish on Amazon? Is that what happened? Yeah, so was that process a nightmare? It was tough, it was tough because I there's no person to talk to, so it just keeps rejecting it, rejecting it, and I changed it, and I reject change and reject, change, and reject. I almost quit on it, and my sister was like, you've been working so hard on it. She's like, Don't quit, don't quit.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

So well, I'm glad you didn't. What about your bucket list stuff? You were talking about, you know, your brain's always going thinking of the new things. What's on your bucket list? Things that you want to get done in the next few years.

SPEAKER_03 45:46

Well, something I would love to do. This is random, but when I think bucket list, I think um, I want to go to like Iceland or something and watch the uh northern lights.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

I just want to watch those. I would love to see the northern lights.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

I think that would make my soul very interesting.

SPEAKER_05 45:59

That would make a great first date, actually, for somebody to teach. Yeah, no pressure there.

SPEAKER_03 46:05

Yeah, maybe you can see them in Montana. I mean, you know, maybe you can go we can go somewhere closer. Yeah, we'll go Alaska. Alaska? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

My wife, uh my wife and I went to Alaska and we loved it. I'd like to go back. Did you see it? No, because you mostly see them in the winter.

SPEAKER_07 46:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

And I'm not sure I want to be in Alaska in the winter. Where it's dark all the time and 20 below. Yeah, I don't have enough clothes. I could wear every bit of clothing I have and still be cold.

SPEAKER_05 46:32

Yeah, is this your first summer, your first full summer back in Texas? No, so I moved in uh 2023. Okay, so you're not like experiencing this hundred and degree.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

And I grew up in it too. So I'm but it's still terrible. Yeah. And my kids, they were living with me in 2023 when the big hurricane hit in Houston. Yes. And we were out of power. And I was like, it's gonna be fine. We're gonna have hurricane parties. The next morning my kids wake up and they're like, Mom, you said it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

That didn't last long.

SPEAKER_05 47:03

I do like the heat. I I I very much acclimated. I'm a native Texan, I love it, but there are days when that that humidity will hit, and I'm trying to wrestle an 18-month-old, and I'm like, I'm too old for this. Oh, it was very hot. Actually, how does somebody how does somebody find your book on Amazon?

SPEAKER_03 47:27

Um search You're worthy of happiness, 31 days of encouragement, and then it has actually the shun on there.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

Go buy it right now. Yep, and it's $9.99. That you could take this on the airplane for a one-hour flight and and go through it cover to cover.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

Exactly. And probably less than an hour.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

It looks like there's some places to make notes and stuff. So you know, there's some places to think about uh pause and reflect.

SPEAKER_05 47:56

Yeah, Steve, if you're going through something, you matter. What does that say? Read that one right there. Read that.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

Okay, day 26. You matter, your presence in this world is important when you naturally bring it. Bring what you naturally bring to it has value. Even on days when it may not feel that way, your life still carries purpose and impact. Never forget that your existence matters more than you may realize. That's pretty deep. It is pretty deep. Actually, there are some days I think I'm just here just paying the bills, hogging the wheel. When I'm gone.

SPEAKER_05 48:33

Don't you know that Mayor Bill said he's gonna name Mercer Street after you and I?

SPEAKER_01 48:37

Is he?

SPEAKER_07 48:38

Yeah, he is. I just told him right now.

SPEAKER_05 48:41

I just told him.

SPEAKER_07 48:44

It's been fun. It's been really awesome.

SPEAKER_05 48:46

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. Well, we hope to see you around, and maybe when Oakwood Market pops back open, we will uh and I promise I won't let Michelle try and set me up on any date.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Oh, Michelle, that's a terrible idea.

SPEAKER_05 49:01

I don't know, there's some good-looking single cowboys out here.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Look, she's already doing it. Look at that. She may like Well, you'll have to double date with her if you're gonna do that. That's right. Be your safe space. But thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_05 49:13

Thank you so much, y'all. It's been so fun. I did too. I enjoyed listening to her story, and so not the um Hollywood type that you would think moving here from LA or California.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

She's very down-to-earth, super sweet. Very down to earth.

SPEAKER_05 49:32

Sounds like she has a good relationship with her ex-husband, and also sounds like she was a good mom, had some good kiddos.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

So her book is You Are Worthy of Happiness, 31 Days of Encouragement to Be Your Best Self. And you can get it on Amazon, and I encourage you to do it. Um, I want to point out a couple things going on right before we started recording this monologue. I my phone rang with another spam call. And uh, I can't believe France is actually beating us out on something. France is banning unsolicited teleunsolic telemarketing calls starting next week. So it is actually going to be not only in the United States, you got to get on that stupid do not call list, which we all know does absolutely nothing. I I I have there's zero effect that that has. It's gonna be illegal. And apparently in Morocco, there are an estimated 40, 40 to 50,000 people employed in Morocco. It's one of the biggest industries in Morocco to make telemarketing calls into France, and those people are all gonna lose their jobs.

SPEAKER_05 50:39

Well, too bad. So sad.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

You know what? Isn't it crazy that in this world where uh you know they can with AI and all the things going on that ATT and T-Mobile and Verizon can't figure out how to stop some guy from New Jersey from calling you and trying to sell you a car warranty or health insurance?

SPEAKER_05 50:58

Or when we've had like a listing that they want to take their house off the market for just a little bit and reset or whatever. Oh my goodness, the real estate agents that come out of the woodwork.

SPEAKER_01 51:09

Oh, yeah, it's bad. So I mean, they beat us out, uh, France should never beat us at anything. Um, but they I think they're on the right track. So you guys in Congress, listen to that. Let's make that illegal. The other thing I got real quick, and then I'll let you do your story. HE B, our HE B was on a list of 10 HEBs that uh were announced that are going to have um some updates.

SPEAKER_05 51:31

Um yeah, but I hear it's taking a long time.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

It is, and I read in through this, so the the biggest ones are gonna be the biggest updates are gonna be in Flugerville, Prosper, McKinney, Frisco, El Campo, and then Dripping Springs and Bulverdi are gonna go uh undergo minor interior remodels.

SPEAKER_05 51:49

So I did hear, I heard a little, you hear it, you heard it here first, that their original plan was they were gonna shut down the entire shopping center. Now they've decided to keep the shops. So your thundercrowd crowd.

SPEAKER_01 52:04

What are they gonna do with the build? Are they gonna they're they're taking the house that's next to it, they're building all oh, so where the parking lot ends now, where the Yeah, I don't honestly I don't know if they're like going to take the shopping center and they're gonna build up there and they're gonna put the shops on the side. My understanding, what I had heard was they were gonna demolish that and make this hole where H E B now is parking, and then they were gonna build a brand new H E B also with a strip center attached to it.

SPEAKER_05 52:32

A brand new H E B?

SPEAKER_04 52:33

Yeah, this H E B is only like 10 years old.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

That's older. I bet have you looked at our HEB?

SPEAKER_04 52:39

You know what? I don't shop there, I shop at my Metabrown HB.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

It needs to be redone, it's getting a little long in the tooth. I mean, the front of the building doesn't look great anymore. It needs some updating.

SPEAKER_05 52:50

Long in the tooth.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Yes, that's a that's a phrase. I've heard of it. That's a phrase new.

SPEAKER_05 52:54

I've heard of it old. I can't believe you've 10 years old.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

You could you could uh call this episode Steve's getting long in the tooth. Steve is getting correct. So but anyway, so H E B is paying attention to us a little bit, but I can't wait to see the new store. But we're for right now, we're just gonna get some minor upgrades.

SPEAKER_05 53:11

And you're not allowed to come to my store. Okay, stay out of my store. Stay out of my store.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

I wear I wear my store. I wear dark sunglasses, I wear a little fake, fake mustache, and I come in there. You are not allowed to cross. Nobody will recognize it.

SPEAKER_05 53:23

Just stay there. Well, since we are on the topic of happiness, Wallet Hub released its 2026 ranking of the happiest cities in America, and it looked at a total of 182 cities across the United States, and it measured everything from emotional and physical well-being, income, employment, sleep. I don't know how they measured sleep, divorce rates. They stand there in the bedroom and they watch you, community and environment. And the happiest city in America for seven for the seventh straight year is Fremont, California. Believe it or not. Fremont, California is yes, believe it or not, it's the right outside of San Francisco. It's the home of Christy Yamaguchi, also Pat Tillman. You remember who Pat Tillman is, NFL went to Army. Yeah. Um, it's this Silicon Valley hub. It's also known as the hardware side of Silicon Valley. Uh Tesla has a big factory there, or they did. But which I think is weird. I'm never, I'm not gonna ever, ever am I gonna tell you to move to California. I may tell you to move back to California, but I'll never tell you to move to California. But let's just bring this back home to Texas for a little bit. And the happiest city, according to their ranking, number 16 in the entire country. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Uh is it one of the large cities in Texas?

SPEAKER_05 54:41

No, believe it or not, it isn't.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

Uh then I will say uh Waco.

SPEAKER_05 54:46

Plano, Texas. Plano.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

Plano, and that's kind of dower.

SPEAKER_05 54:51

Well, Austin comes in at number 39. And apparently we're doing pretty well financially in Austin. We ranked number 20 for income and employment, but only number 97 when it came to community and environment.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

Um you know, I wanted to I'll I'll let you finish your story, but uh, what do you think is one of the jewels of downtown Austin?

SPEAKER_05 55:12

The jewels of downtown Austin.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

One of the things that attracts more people to Austin and just about anything else.

SPEAKER_05 55:18

I'm gonna think uh Ladybird.

SPEAKER_01 55:20

Ladybird Lake, Town Lake Trail.

SPEAKER_05 55:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

That trail now is so dirty, so dangerous that we're not running on it anymore. Really? We are we're uh Holly and Tiffany um went to go run there this morning, and there was some guy screaming underneath one of the bridges. Oh, that was me. There were three guys, looked like they were doing some kind of drugs. I it's it's sad to me that something so cool has been destroyed uh because of the city council that has removed all the policing and allowed that to happen. So now there's some great parts of Austin, don't get me wrong, but that used to be the coolest place to go, and it's not it.

SPEAKER_05 55:59

Well, I did the story on the library, how the library has become a lot of.

SPEAKER_07 56:02

Yeah, that's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:03

Yeah, well, here in Austin, so apparently we've got jobs, we've got money, but we're just sitting in traffic all day. But here's what really gets interesting. So researchers had questioned whether these kind of rakings, rankings, actually measure happiness because income, health, employment, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't necessarily mean you're happy, which is kind of what we've we were talking about earlier. And then another happiness study came out this week saying that maybe you don't need to move anywhere to be happy. Maybe you just need to hug somebody or hug on somebody, right? A new study published in it's called Plus One looked at 461 people from several different several different cultures and found that couples who showed more physical affection, things like holding hands, hugging and kissing, reportedly had a greater relationship or relationship satisfaction.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

I saw a video the other day that makes a difference. It was the one couple just kissing each other, sort of in passing, you know, how you're like, have a great day. And another couple where they looked at each other in the eyes and they get, you know, they thought about the kiss and gave each other a kiss and said, Have a great day. And I thought, yeah, that second one, that couple isn't a much better.

SPEAKER_05 57:14

We have 10 second hugs. We we hug each other for 10 seconds, and and like sometimes, like I like I need to get out the door and talk. Like he counts down eight, nine, ten.

SPEAKER_07 57:23

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 57:24

1,000 to so apparently happiness is not necessarily move somewhere else, make more money, get a shorter commute. It may be live somewhere you like, find some purpose, have some good people around you, and every once in a while hug somebody. And I'm sure it's okay for the same. Yeah, ask somebody. But uh, yeah, I I consider myself a generally happy person unless I'm anxious or stressed, and then no one is safe.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

Well, isn't that the truth?

SPEAKER_05 57:59

No one is safe.

SPEAKER_01 58:00

But I think, you know, kind of going off what uh Ashley said, I think happy real true happiness comes from within. You decide that you're gonna be happy and you figure out how to make it happen. And that's you know, you can live people live in crappy places and they're still plenty happy, and people live in really awesome houses overlooking the beach and they're freaking miserable.

SPEAKER_05 58:19

Well, I like to say, do you have a bad life? Was it a bad, you know, when you have something bad happen to you, do you have a bad life or was it just a bad moment? Was it a bad day or was it a bad minute? And so I try to I try to learn that. I mean, you know, I've gotten better in my older age and to try to remove myself. You and I were talking about this at lunch, just to try to remove myself from negative people and negative situations.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

I don't care. Yeah, and it's so free.

SPEAKER_05 58:46

And and people may not you may become the bad guy for move removing yourself. Who cares? Because normally they're used to you getting right back into it. Who cares?

SPEAKER_01 58:56

Let them. You know what? Let them your real friends will give you grace if you're being an a-hole. And the people that don't care about you that talk about you have your back, no matter what you do or what you say. You know what, Steve?

SPEAKER_04 59:08

I give you grace every day.

SPEAKER_01 59:10

Yes, you do. Um, have you ever been to the state fair?

SPEAKER_05 59:16

Yes, I have been.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

Did you have any of the foods that they serve? Like I think like a fried Snickers? Yeah, fried Snickers came out of there. I think fried Oreos came out of there.

SPEAKER_05 59:27

I'm not an Oreo fan.

SPEAKER_01 59:28

Yeah, well, yeah, I I actually like Oreos, but I don't want them fried. Uh it was announced this week that the finalists for the food choices for the Texas State Fair, which starts September 25th in Dallas, um, the the semifinal, the finals have been uh announced, and there's five cat or three categories of five foods from each one have been chosen, and then there will be one chosen from each of these categories. The categories are savory, sweet, and um sipper time. It's a drink. So there's sipper time. Sipper time. And uh I swear I think some of these they try and come up with the craziest stuff ever, and some of it sounds disgusting. So I just wanted to go through um so the the uh the the finalist will be chosen in each of those categories from, and here's some of them uh a burger chopped tater tacos. Fresh burger patty is seared to perfection, chopped and combined with sauteed onions and jalapenos, topped with mozzarella and American cheese. The mixture is is placed atop a bed of cheddar cheese tater tots, formed into a taco shell. They'll sell that. Oh my god, they'll sell that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:40

Oh, I'm sure they'll sell a ton of them.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:41

That's under the savory. I'm not gonna go through each one. Um Golden Crunch Melt. Get ready for the Ultimate Ultimate Texas Food Fair Crunch, a tortilla brushed in a signature, seasoned butter oil, and grilled. I'm not even hungry. This is making my mouth water, actually. To a crispy golden finish and packed with juicy marinated chicken pastor, fire roasted peppers, caramelized onion, smoky tip, I'd buy that. Melted. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:08

I'd buy that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:09

Flame and crunch pizza, which you can is a flaming hot Cheetos?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:15

Kendall would buy that one because she likes her flame hotels.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

These things sound like they're like 4,000 calories.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:20

So here's a couple in the You're at the Texas State Fair, though. You know what you need more at the Texas State Fair? You need a bulletproof vest now because the place has got furry dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:30

Here's uh the sweet finalist bury me in matcha, which sounds like matcha? No, I don't like matcha. Hand uh New York style cheesecake hand dipped in silky Belgian chocolate, rushed in rolled in crushed matcha cookies. No, thank you. Fernie's frozen espresso teeny bar, which is a espresso martini popsicle.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

Oh, I'd buy that!

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

Yeah, I bet you would.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:54

I'd buy that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:55

Deep uh uh deep Eddie? Drizzled with ribbons of chocolate shell hardened to a delic delicate crackable.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:04

Are you having a stroke right now? I think I am.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

This is Fletcher's this one's crazy. Fletcher's chocolate corny dog. Fletcher's chocolate corny dog consists of a smooth milk chocolate fudge hand dipped in Fletcher's famous original corny dog batter and deep fried to a golden perfection.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:21

And then and then there's a hot dog inside of it?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:23

No, there's no hot dog. Okay, it was like chocolate hot dogs? It's the uh, it's you know what the the outside of the corny dog is, but it's around a piece of it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:31

Do you call them corny dogs?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

That's what this says. Corny dog.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:34

Who wrote that in Yankee?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

I don't know. Some Texas food choice awards finals. Holy flawan, which is a flaw, yeah. And then a Texas praline cheesecake cone.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:47

Oh, I'd buy that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

A warm waffle cone, fresh off the iron, is dipped in white chocolate, rolled in buttery Texas pecan praline, crushed biscoff cookies, and freeze-dried strawberries, and filled with homemade creamy, scoopable cookie butter cheesecake.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:02

You'd but you'd eat that.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

I would eat that. I would have a bite. Here's some sippers. Cornflake shoppe. Oh, yeah. Creamy cornflake shoppe blends toasted cornflakes into a rich creation with silky dolce de leche.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:16

Dolce de leche is like caramel. It's like a creamy caramel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:20

Hot honeycomb lemonade shakeup. Okay. Sunset soft serve, which is a uh strawberry and mango margarita. It's like a tequila. Soft serve ice cream. Okay. And then Tropical Coco Fresca, uh, which is a layered pineapple, watermelon, agua fresco with chamoy lava, the pinch.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:41

Chamoy.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:43

So those are some of the ones that are considered for the finalists. And what's going to happen is the judges will pick one of each of those categories, and that's what you'll be able to go kill your arteries with at the Texas State.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:55

Well, I'm all about killing some more of a reason. No, I you know, I I like like you, I like to have a little bite. I just want a little bit of a little bit. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

Some of these is like uh the the first one here, it's this giant plate of these tacos, and I was like, I'd have a bite, but damn, I don't want to know. And I'll bet you it's like 35 bucks to get those.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:13

Oh, I'm sure it is. Everything is, and then parking is like, I don't know, 75 bucks.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

So you're spending two or three hundred dollars to go to and you got big ticks.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:24

Big ticks. Yeah, so um, God, are we hungry? We just had no, I just ate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

I can't believe it. It's still full.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:31

Yeah, so have you ever been to top notch?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

I never have. I never have been there. I I actually think I have run by it a lot of times and never really noticed it.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:40

So it's on um, so there's two top notches. Actually, there's one in Hutto, but the original, the OG, is on Burnett Road. And for those of you from from um other places, not Boston, it's called Burnett, not Burnett. Burnett. Burnett. They're famous for their fried chicken, onion rings. They opened in 1971. They also have hot rod shows. Same location, right? Same location. Um, they were owned by Ray and Francis. Oh my goodness, I cut off the back of her name. Stomp it's not Stommoth, they're not related to John Stommos. But anyways, they sold it in 2010. They were having some health issues, and both of them have since passed away. But they have just been named Texas's best local fast food spot, which is pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

That's I think wild. Of all the fast food places in Texas.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:28

I think it's a nostalgia thing. Um, so they were they were kind of cemented in history and they kind of put their place in history when Richard Link letter had his famous movie, Dazed and Confused. All right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:42

All right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:44

Um starring Matthew McConaughey. And they were also in the movie Varsity Blues, which is pretty cool. But um, yeah, it's uh it's have you eaten there? I have eaten there a long time ago. Um, but I think a lot of people go there because it is where Matthew McCaughey. Conhe, which was by the way, improv, where he said his legendary, all right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

That wasn't scripted in the movie. He made that up, right? Isn't that in his book? Uh uh he made that up. Uh what's the name of his book? Something something signs.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:14

It's oh yeah, I I didn't read it, I listened to it. And that I think is the only way to to listen or to read a Matthew McConaughey. But uh yeah, it said roughly 60% to 70% of the menu has ranked remained the same since top notch first opened.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:31

That's cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:32

Um, so I started looking at their prices. You know, it's it they're pretty reasonable considering it's Austin. I I still have a hard time paying over ten dollars for a hamburger. I really do.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:43

Those days are gone.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:44

Okay, let me tell you, okay, top notch. I'm gonna give you a little story time here. So I was leaving, do, do, do, do, so I was leaving work the other day and I had Navy with me. Where did I go? Oh, we went and set up for the high school convocation, which school starts tomorrow, and well, it started last week by the time this this releases, and I had my granddaughter. So I was like, Navy, do you want some french fries? And she says yes to food all the time. So went to uh Whataburger and I was just gonna get her French fries. But I thought, you know what? I think she's a little bit hungry, so I was gonna get a kid's meal with chicken nuggets. Order the kids, I think it's like I want to say it was like five dollars, six dollars, something like that. Maybe it was six dollars. And I said, Okay, and instead of the small kids drink, I would like a large Dr. Pepper for me, right? I'll give you the French fries, kid. You got you got water in your toy story cut back there. They said, that'll be $12. Get out of here. I ordered a kid's meal because I think, did I order two kids' meal? I ordered a kid's meal and a large Dr. Pepper. And they said, Oh yeah, because you ordered a toy, I didn't order a toy, you just and the drink, it's $12. And I was like, forget it. And so I took my goop goop two little sips of Dr. Pepper. So I I just have a really hard time paying over.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:00

You know, we uh we go to uh Swedish Hill Bakery on Lamar. We have been going there after we run, and Holly and I get a breakfast sandwich each, and I get a cup of coffee, and she she drinks water, and then she'll get a uh a uh croissant to take home. And last time we went with a tip, $52. I was like, are you freaking kidding me? I mean, it's good and I like it, and I love the atmosphere, and we we met the manager cruise, and he's a really great guy, but that's it wasn't like we had the full breakfast spread, you know, an omelet and potatoes and toast and you know, coffee and juice.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:39

It was fifty-two. But Todd and I have an unspoken rule that if we go eat somewhere and if I order coffee, he doesn't order coffee.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

Or if I order tea, you guys you share a cup of coffee. We skim.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:52

We skim off of well, yeah, because now you're gonna spend eight dollars for two black cups of coffee.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:57

It's four dollars and fifty cents for a to-go cup of coffee at Sweet Shot. Now it's good coffee, but four dollars and fifty cents.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:03

That's a better cheeseburger.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:05

I saw a story the other day that uh they asked a bunch of kids that were under, I think, 22 years old how much it costs for a burrito, and the overwhelming answer was twenty dollars. And they couldn't figure out why these kids thought it was a burrito. No, it's because they're all doing Uber Eats, and that's what it costs to get a burrito from Uber Eats because they're getting the food delivered. So you get a $12 burrito or $14 burrito, and you get it delivered and you give a tip, it's $20.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:35

That isn't that ridiculous. If I'm gonna order Uber Eats, I'm not ordering a freaking uh like one-way stop to the toilet.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:44

You can't say that about kids under 20. They're all doing that, they're all getting food delivered. That's the new way that they we've got food at home. Yeah, right. Yeah, well, yeah, I guess they're paying with their mom's credit card.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:56

Apparently, now um, I don't know if you know this, but having grandchildren, you now have McDonald's money, is what it's called. Because when my kids were little, I would always okay. First off, I would tell them that McDonald's burned down. I was like, oh, McDonald's burn down.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:10

Can't go get you a happy man.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:11

Or we didn't have enough money for McDonald's. Now Navy wants it, Navy gets it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:16

Navy gets it, yeah. Yeah. Well, you used to be able to take your whole family to McDonald's. We sound like we're a bunch of a couple old people sitting out. I'm sitting around the table. I used to be able to go to the movies for 50 cents, and I got popcorn and a coke. All right. Um, you know, we were talking about uh a second ago about uh telemarketing scams, and I wanted to point this out. This is a new scam that's going around, the jury duty scam, which has been around for a while, which is they call you on the phone and get you on the phone and say, hey, you didn't show up for jury duty, blah, blah, blah. But they're getting really sophisticated. And there's a story out of Tampa, Florida. This woman, um, Kimberly Fudge, who is a manager at a finance department.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:59

Her last name is Fudge.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:01

Yes. You couldn't help yourself. I couldn't.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:03

It was like it just went right in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:06

Yes, it's Fudge.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:08

Hey, Fudge, go pack. I just I couldn't, it was in my head and I had to say it.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:13

Okay, you had to say it. Okay. Well, Miss Fudge is 38 and she's a manager in a finance department. And she's pulling nuts. Oh my god, Michelle. She's a she works in the finance department of a government contract. This is not a this is not some woman that was fell off the turnip truck yesterday. There's another you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:37

Home in the tooth and turnip truck. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:39

Um, so she's a pretty smart lady. She gets a call at uh like 10 o'clock in the morning. She she just got a new phone and she hadn't uh updated all her contacts and everything from her. She got a refurbished Samsung phone and she hadn't updated her contacts. So she gets a call and it says unknown number. She's like, Oh, it must be one of my friends that I don't. So she answered it. And it's this woman says, Hey, I'm calling from the sheriff's department. Hang on, I put you on with the deputy. And the deputy comes on and goes, Hey, you were supposed to show up yesterday for jury duty and you didn't. And that it's a federal case, and the judge is really upset and he's issued a warrant for your arrest. And she said she freaks out, you know, because she's a rule follower and she says, Oh my gosh, what do I do? And he says, Well, you the bail is fifteen thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:25

But go to Target and give me a $500 gift card.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:29

But he says, But I'll tell you what, if you will pay the bail and come down and prove that you be it wasn't you that signed that you'd show up for drew duty or whatever, we'll just go ahead and refund you the $15,000 right there on the spot. She says, Well, all I can get is $4,000. And this guy, this would be the first sign, right? This guy says, Well, if that's all you got, that's enough. And then he tells her to take that money and go to an old gas station where the gas pumps don't work anymore, but there's an ATM machine there for crypto. And he tells her, You need to scan that QR code on there and put your four thousand dollars cash in the machine so it goes into this crypto thing and goes right to them.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:10

Because it's untraceable, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

That's right, that's right. So the meanwhile, they're on the phone with her the whole time, and at some point she gets suspicious and she starts looking on her phone, and the guy on the phone says, What are you doing on your phone right now? She had bought this refurbished Samsung phone and didn't reset it to factory settings, and they had installed spyware. They knew where she worked, where her mom and dad worked, they knew her social security number, and so she's she didn't realize that part at first. But this is the sheriff department saying, Look, we know your social security number. We really are the sheriff's department.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:46

Did it ever click with her?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:48

Not until she had given away $25,000.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:51

Oh, bless her, budged little heart.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:55

Yeah. She uh so what ended up happening is she put the $4,000 in there. Some other guy comes on, claims to be like higher up than the deputy that she talked to, and he's being really aggressive with her and says, Look, I don't know what my deputy told you, but he told you $4,000 was okay. You need $15,000. She does, you know, some creative banking and gets $15,000, goes back to this uh janky ATM, puts that in there.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:19

I could have told you how this story ended because you said she had a Samsung phone.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:23

Well, yeah, agreed. Uh, but the the the sad part of that, yeah, and it goes on all day. They just swindled her out of this money, and uh, she goes home and and uh tells her husband that hey, you know, I I think I've been scammed. And he said, you know, I'm just glad you're okay. Because she was in she was, I mean, she goes to this AT.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:43

I'm just glad you're okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:44

Yeah, that's what Todd has much more understanding, babe.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:48

I'm just glad you're fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:50

I know, I know. It's okay that you gave away 25 grand to a janky ATM. But I think she was probably scared because if she was gonna call her husband and go, hey, look, I think I'm being scammed, uh, you know, they would have known they would have been able to listen to the call because of a spyware. So don't, first of all, don't buy a Samsung. Don't buy a Samsung. If somebody calls you from any government agency, the excuse me, the IRS, the uh the court they don't call you, they don't call you and tell you that you need to give them money like that. They don't do that. That is a scam.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:21

Don't if Malida Michelle calls you, yes, tells you to meet me at Pig Pen.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

And the ransom is a million dollars. Yeah, but I I feel bad for her, you know. She must feel really stupid, and her family's out 25 grand.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:35

How old is she?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:36

38.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:37

Oh, she's dumb. I'm sorry. She's dumb. Okay. Okay, look, if it was if it was opposite, she was 83. That girl's stupid.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:45

Absolutely stupid.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:46

You know what? While she was on the phone with the sheriff's deputy, she said I could hear radio, you know, uh like uh police radio going on in the background, you know, uh Delta Ten Niner, uh, you know, whatever. And she said it sounded all the battle. That's right. But you know, she was convinced that it was legit and she didn't want to go to jail.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:11

She was 38 years old. I'm gonna I'm gonna do a Google. Give me, give me your give me your story. I want to see what her.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:18

While we were on the phone, I'm getting a spam call from New Rochelle. Let's answer it. No, let's answer it like no no, because then they'll know my number's real. I don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:27

Okay, next time if I ever get one, I'm we're gonna her name is Kimberly Fudge.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:32

Kimberly Fudge.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:33

Let's stalk her online right now. Kimberly Fudge. Let's see if we can find her. Kimberly.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:38

Did you know I learned this Florida, right? Yes, I learned this on Saturday. You'll get here's here's a little rabbit. There's a town called Uranus, and you know what their main employment is?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:51

Um uh colonoscopies.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:53

The fudge factory. So they they make shirts that said that says I got fudge from Uranus.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:02

Okay, so first things first, I missed this part where you said she was a finance manager. Yeah, she should be fired.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:09

I know. Can you imagine she's in charge of other people's money?

SPEAKER_05 1:17:12

Probably the she looks like a normal person.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:16

I didn't see a picture of her.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:17

Right there. That looks like she looks like a normal person. Click on that so I could see it's it's Wall Street Journal, it's gonna make me pay for it. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:24

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:24

Yeah, she uh if yeah, I don't have my camera hooked up. She didn't look like an idiot, but she brooded.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:32

I anybody out there listening, please just be skeptical of that. If you pick up the phone and somebody says anything about money or gift cards or wires, just hang up on it. You're being scammed.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:45

Well, I a hundred percent. Unless I call you for money.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:48

Yes, and then just wire it away. Yes, and by the way, our wiring instructions are oh yeah, I get called for wiring instructions all the time.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:57

Hey, you guys, go out and support local, support a local author, uh Ashley Vashawn, and you are worthy of happiness.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:06

I'm just gonna 31 days of encouragement to be your best self.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:09

Flip open one more. Okay, one life, just one. Run toward your dreams. Run, Steve. This chapter is for you. Run, force, run. That she remember she mentioned Tom Hanks. The dreams of your heart are there for a reason. Moving towards them doesn't require perfection, only the courage to keep going. Allow yourself to pursue what excites and inspires you. Thank you very much, Ashley.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:31

Okay, I'm gonna do one real quick.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:33

Trust that everything that happens is guiding you to a better life. Life does not always unfold the way we expect. Sometimes difficult moments become the very experience, experiences that guide us. Even when the path feels uncertain, there can be meaning in the journey. Trust that each step is helping shape a stronger and wiser version of yourself.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:54

And Michelle is always right.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:57

And Steve is stronger and wiser today than he was yesterday.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:02

Oh, that's maybe maybe, maybe thanks for joining us, everybody. Hey, I hope you guys got to see us on Facebook Live because this we tried this again. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:13

But make sure you follow us, please. We really need those follows and subscriptions on YouTube. It's it makes the world of difference to us.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:21

It will it makes Steve stop yelling at me to get more followers.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:24

Go get more followers, Michelle.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:26

Talk to you later.