Ep.242 Become Your Best Self with Ashley Vachon

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Where'll you be going? Texas. Damn, son, where'd you find this? Go on, make it happen. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

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_04 0:23

Yes, I do, and have never had Botox.

unknown 0:26

Look at me.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

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

SPEAKER_04 0:33

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 we can do that. They've seen that, right? They put fillers. There was a story about a lady that uh went to like Home Depot and got some like caulking for seams of injected in her butt. She died.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

What then? Okay, well, I'm sorry. Sometimes, sometimes the world just takes care of it because you're injecting caulk into your face. Yes, I do. I not I do. I don't like I don't love being outside.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

The secret's out.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

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SPEAKER_04 1:27

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SPEAKER_02 1:36

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SPEAKER_02 2:14

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SPEAKER_04 2:19

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SPEAKER_02 2:42

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SPEAKER_04 2:46

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 guests 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 RunBytheCreek.com, sign up today. I know they're they're not they have they're not filling up yet, but uh spots are going quick. We are getting it's uh the first week of November. Oh I'm not gonna fudge it and tell you the day. 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_01 3:57

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_04 3:59

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_01 4:11

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 to know dripping springs. My sister lives in Driftwood, so I did spend a lot of time in the area. She's an artist, so let me just put that out there. She's amazing. Well, we may have to have her on. Yeah, I think you should. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so yeah, so it's just nice that I have her here and uh she's close. So Okay.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

And you grew up born in spring. Born in spring, yes. So you're a native Texan. I mean, yes, I am. Always. There's two native Texans in here and not me.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Oh, wait, where are you from?

SPEAKER_04 4:50

Uh well, I was born in Scotland, actually, but yeah, I lived in California for a while.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

They found him under a rock.

unknown 4:56

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

After my lucky charms. Is that the right country? I think the pirates. It's okay. It's all good.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Nice try, though.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

You know, in A for effort, right? So I I heard also that you came back to take care of your mother. That's true. Y'all.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

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 midwest 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 decision. Never, never.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

She's still with us? She is. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

She's doing much better.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

She is. Being a caretaker takes a lot out of you. It does. 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. So that's why I was like, I need to find some happiness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

In a short period of time, yes. Yeah. So let's go way back. You born in Spring, Texas, you become a model at 15.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

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

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Oh, 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 slide tackling like you have big strawberries from slide 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_03 7:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

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

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Big change, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

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. And then I was like, I need to go.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Well, 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. They treat you like a product, right? 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, wish you the best. Yeah, 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_01 8:44

When I was 18, so it was a little bit different. Like I think everybody was at that age, they were going off 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_04 8:53

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

SPEAKER_01 8:58

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 had a lot of jobs that took me to some beautiful places over there, like Sardinia, an island off Spain, and it was beautiful, and just there were so many great experiences I got to have. And I mean, I was al I was always alone, you know, so that was like the downside of it, but still it was such a great life experience.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

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_01 9:33

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 talk to them again, never see them again.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

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

SPEAKER_01 10:02

It'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 hat fast metabolism, so I didn't have to worry too much. But yeah, I mean that 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 too much detail, but yeah, there would be people who would do weird things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

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. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

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

unknown 10:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

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_01 10:54

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 um Japan and sort of doing all these great things. So my career was taking off. And um, and then I got hit head on by a drunk driver. Excuse me, and then I went through the windshield with my face.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Broke my ankle, my kneecap, my arm. So I was just kind of like, it was pretty bad. Yeah. Pretty bad.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Where were you when that happened?

SPEAKER_01 11:24

I was actually in Nakadosha. So I was visiting some friends. I was home for the Christmas vacation, and um, yeah, that's when that happened. So um, yeah. So then, you know, that I thought for sure my modeling career was over. I had hundreds of stitches in my face. I 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 I, 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 try it. 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.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

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_02 12:50

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?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

It was something within, I think. Yeah, it was something within that didn't exist before the accident. Some insecurities were just like, why would you be insecure about so those little minor things? Just minor.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

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_01 13:22

Well, I'd I stuck with it for for many years, probably until I was about 35, was my 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_04 13:46

Was that uh meeting with them? Was that because you decided you wanted to get back into modeling, or did they approach you and go, hey, you should come back.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

We have a we we have a spot for your Well, I had I was kind of in the place in life, like, what am I gonna do with myself? Right. 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. And it was it was really fun, and I got new photos taken, and it was just it was good because I took a 15-year hiatus.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

And um Is there such a thing as being too old for modeling? I mean, probably for certain types of modeling, like You are too old for modeling. Well, yes, I know. They approached me though. I haven't interviewed it.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

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

SPEAKER_03 14:34

I'll do it with you.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

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

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Well, there 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, that it was just like they were all focused on young. So now there's a lot more diversity, sexy maturity.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

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

SPEAKER_02 15:05

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

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Wow, you're very mature there, young man. You're very mature for your age.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

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_01 15:28

So when I was working in South Beach is where I worked the the most, I was working there because a lot of Europeans would come over and sho and shoot there. Um and my ex-husband came there uh to South Beach for the Super Bowl of 1999. And we happened to be at the same well, we say we remet at church, but we didn't. We met at a nightclub, an opening night of a nightclub. That's kind of church. That's somebody's church. Somebody's church. Sweet of church into Sunday morning. Exactly. 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 area.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

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

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

How did you like living in California? It was diff 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_01 16:32

Yeah, you know, okay, so I love the weather. Um it's beautiful. But you know, ever but I it's I we didn't want to raise our kids there.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

That's exactly what happened to me. I uh my kids were like uh you know, 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 were.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

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 Death and a lot of other um uh genres. A lot of Texans, a lot of Texans love Lonesome Death. Oh, yeah. My father's big Texas. Yeah, it was absolutely my father's favorite, favorite show. So your exposure was red carpet and Hollywood and premieres, 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_01 17:50

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 yeah, we one of my best friends came to visit me and he was there in the coffee shop and it was just like Morris Golf Morser, but when you get around those people, you realize they're just they're just people, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 18:37

Just regular people, basically buying a coffee, trying to get through the day, just like keeping up with the Joneses though is so different.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

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 where it's like, okay, my kid's not gonna drive a Range Rover or whatever, you know, their first car.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

And well, that was pro 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 it there'd be 16-year-olds 50, you know, driving that had way better cars than we did, and we were just like That was exactly my thought.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

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 stuff.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

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

SPEAKER_02 19:43

That's right. 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 be kind of leaving?

SPEAKER_01 19:52

They so my son was in s going into sixth grade, my daughter was going into fourth.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

Okay. So they were still young. They were still young.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

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. You know, like they have they're good, good, good kids.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

That's well, one's in I can't hope for anything better. They're the best. One's in med school.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Yeah, I know. Well, she's got well, she's not yet. She's gonna be she's gonna be taking her MCAT soon. Buckle up. She's been freaking out about it, but um, she's gonna be doing that in soon and then applying to med schools. Yeah. Well, how exciting for that though.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

So what was their what was your first winter like in Chicago?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

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

SPEAKER_04 20:59

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

SPEAKER_01 21:05

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 days in the row, there's no sun, and it was just like each time it kind of like lowers you down and down each every day. Yeah. And then the spring comes around, everybody's like, flowers.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Yeah, and it's gorgeous there in the spring. It is, yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah, and it's so happy.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in the in the media about how broken Chicago is. Was that your experience? No, no, yeah. Tell us the tell us the truth.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

It's a great city. You know, I mean, there's parts. There's every city has pockets of you know, 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 um and then there's so much to do over in the suburbs. So we would just take the train into the city and um

SPEAKER_04 22:00

So do you have a house there then in Chicago? We did.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

Yeah. I every time I've been there, I went to I was downtown, which is nice. There's a lot to do down there, but it wouldn't be my favorite place to live.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Right. Yeah. My my son lives there. He just where he grew up, sort of, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:17

So now you live in like you know, especially your children's age right now. Austin is this hip cool place. Like, oh, my mom lives in Austin.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

So I mean, are they driving to Well he spent he has spent a lot of time here. My kids, you know, we'd see my family all the time. So my kids love Texas. In fact, the funniest thing about my son Cade, our son Cade, 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_04 22:52

So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

So he's got Texas at his heart. He feels it. He feels it here.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

It's a thing. It's a real thing. 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. Yeah. Tell us about how you decided that.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Well, um, so I think just over the years, I had kept these little nuggets of hope and inspiration. And I just wrote 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, 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 originally started off as doing something fun for myself that I can just keep in one place. And then I started thinking about it and I was like, maybe this could 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, because that's all I really wanted. It's pocket size too. You can stick it in your purse. You can't.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

Are you do you journal? Is that where a lot of these ideas came from?

SPEAKER_01 24:20

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

SPEAKER_04 24:35

And then the how you figured 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. So how'd you figure out how to structure it?

SPEAKER_02 24:47

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_04 24:54

Um 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_01 25:02

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. That's kind of how I roll sometimes. Like, okay, let's see what's tell me what you got.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

There you go, Steve. Read it again. 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. Isn't that true? It's for sure. So is the opposite of happiness sadness then?

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah, that's a good question. Um, sadness. Maybe not necessarily sadness, but maybe just like stuck. Stuck.

SPEAKER_04 25:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

You know, like you're not feeling anything, right? Maybe numb. Yeah, a little numb, a little 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 this happening to me? And you just stay there. Or in 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 I was like, you know what? That negative energy that's coming at me and the why me, woe is 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_02 26:44

And people I think when you're around people that have all that always whine, they cannot find joy 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 dang day over and over and over again. So how did you how did you come to that realization or like, okay, what I've been searching for is happiness. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

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?

SPEAKER_02 27:26

You are gonna be poor me.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

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 takes practice. Yeah, and it'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_04 27:42

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. Yeah. Why do you think that is? Why can we not recognize when we're so blessed? On all levels.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

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_02 28:24

The comprehension always is just telling you you're not enough. You're not 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 pressure. The pressure.

SPEAKER_04 28:42

I feel like we should be able to go. It it's like if you're drinking and you're drinking to excess, one day you're gonna wake up and you go, you know, 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, it's not good for me. I'm gonna turn it off. Yeah, but we don't.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

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 half true. But um but yeah, no, like we would have fun, we would enjoy life.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

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

SPEAKER_04 29:41

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

SPEAKER_02 29:44

You know what makes me happy right now?

SPEAKER_04 29:46

What?

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Oh, that little grandbaby of mine. Oh, you have a great baby. 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? Steve? Yeah. Oh, that's a good question. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:00

Oh boy, you should have told me you were gonna spring that one on me. Um the place I find the most peace and the most most joy is when I'm with my wife Holly, and we are out just someplace.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Mountains and shit.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

Mountains and shit. Just no, it doesn't have to be mountains, but it's someplace out when 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, even better.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

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

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Um, you know, that's an it's always it's always a discovery, finding joy. Um, but right now my daughter's visiting me and my son's coming 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 mean I'm blessed, you know. I'm blessed to be here and I'm blessed to breathe the air and see these things.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

And yeah, yeah, that's huge.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

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 and you know, we've got by the way, Oakwood Market is opening back up. So is that right? 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 things.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

I'm gonna need all these little tips because I don't know anything. Like I moved here and I kind of just was working and doing that thing, and I wasn't getting out and meeting a lot of people or doing the things, and I kind of just recently started to. So I need to know all the things because I want to do them.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

Well, you can listen to our podcast because I think we've interviewed almost everybody that's out there. But Ashley, 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 it turns out that's not the way of happiness is uh money.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

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

SPEAKER_04 32:20

Yeah, well, I see that a lot.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

It'll make you comfortable, but it won't make you happy. Is 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 this week, you mean yeah, if I just made $500 a month, I would be upset.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

Uh Ashley, 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. Yeah, 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, you can get Elon Musk. He's gonna get a trillion dollars a year, he still gets up and goes to work every day. Or sleeps in his office. Why would you do why would you do that?

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Yeah, sleeps in his office. Do you think that your kids have picked up on what you're trying to teach about happiness? Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Yeah, they have, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

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

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Oh yeah. I don't even know how she came out of me. Because she's like, she texts me one day, right? And 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_04 33:51

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

SPEAKER_01 33:54

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

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Wow, that's so weird.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Isn't that crazy? I did the same thing about my sentate, 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 a 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. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

And she she's working in 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_04 34:40

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 there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

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_01 35:26

Right. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody can appreciate beauty, like different kinds of beauty. People, everybody has a different eye for beauty. Like 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_04 35:47

Well, and that 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_01 36:00

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

SPEAKER_04 36:02

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_01 36:12

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_03 36:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

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_04 36:29

You can you can uh exude that or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Well, beauty, I think, also can be more just about looks. It can be your inner person. 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_01 37:11

Well, yeah, because it's not rainbows and butterflies. Like you, and you want to say, Yeah, just choose happiness. It's a hard choice because sometimes life just keeps beating you down. So it's a it's work. It is work to choose happiness, but you get that choice, right? Like you can feel sad and stay there, or you can just try to do the work.

SPEAKER_04 37:30

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 right now.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

And you beat them over the head.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

Sleep with this book, cuddle up and sleep with the book. But seriously, I mean, so you you you got 30 seconds with them and you say, Hey, you know what? Today's the day you should, and then you tell them what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Yeah, and if they say if I say, What is your what's your complaint for the day? Oh, yeah, what's your complaint for the day? And 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 into something positive. And I'm like, that's ridiculous. But it's kind of funny and it makes me laugh. And then it just changes.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

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, Bless you. And I said, No, you know what? I'm gonna say, I'm going to the VA today. I'm so excited to go to the VA. You did it. You did it. And you probably laughed about it inside. I did. I really wanted to take my car and just drive straight through.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

Well, actually, what about you know, you're 20 years old, you had this terrible car accident. A lot of people would have just crawled into their shell and never come out of that. But you, that process, that experience allowed you to see the beautiful things in life that surround us. So now looking back, it was terrible at the time. It was probably a blessing to you in the long run that that happened. Because it gave you some perspective, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:14

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

SPEAKER_04 39:19

Without that perspective. Yeah. So I think people sometimes forget that even the worst experiences, and sometimes it takes time. Yeah, but in the long run, you may look back at that and go, wow, 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_02 39:40

Aaron Powell What part of you getting older have you actually enjoyed?

SPEAKER_01 39:46

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 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_03 40:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

And my kids are still the I still see them a lot. And I'm I want to shout out my son because I don't know if this got on here earlier, but he's in software development. He's doing a great job. I did kind of mention he got a place 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. Just who they are. Have you I'm not gonna take all the credit.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

TV gets G did too for that. Have you um experienced dating yet? Have you done that?

SPEAKER_04 40:33

Oh my goodness gracious!

SPEAKER_02 40:35

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

SPEAKER_01 40:37

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 a like a while ago at the beginning of the divorce. Uh-huh. So I'm like, I'm not doing that again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:57

Check that off the list. Well, there's a lot of places where you can go meet people in. Church. Like church.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Maybe you can actually I need to go to church again. Or pickleball. 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_04 41:14

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

SPEAKER_01 41:23

A lot of my friends love it too. Yeah, that's true. Like it's so fun. It's very social.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:28

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

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Not yet.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

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

SPEAKER_04 41:47

Well, it the reason I ask is because you know, we were 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? Oh, absolutely. I think that's a path to happiness in itself.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Oh, it's just not caring what other people are. 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_04 42:20

That is Ashley, 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's like.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Who cares? Yeah, who cares?

SPEAKER_04 42:33

You can't marry to them. I know I don't, you know, they're not my kid. I don't care. Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

It's like you have your core people in your life and your favorite good people who you know were there for you, and some random person says something bad about you. Who cares?

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Well, Steve had a book at one point. It was like 31 days to being pissed off all the time. So that's it.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

Well, and then the follow-up to that was people that want to punch in the face.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

That could be a big book. That could actually be 50 more. I have 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_04 43:08

I think so too.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

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_01 43:17

Oh gosh, who don't who knows what's gonna happen? But I do always have like I have 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 book and it's but there's 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 and on Amazon. They're like, if the cover doesn't fit, the cover doesn't fit. 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.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

You did did you self publish on Amazon?

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Is that what happened? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

So was that process a nightmare?

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Or was it There's no person to talk to. So it just keeps rejecting it, rejecting it. And then I change it and I reject, change, and reject, change, and reject. I almost quit on it. And my sister was like, she've been working so hard on that. She's like, don't quit. Don't quit.

SPEAKER_04 44:12

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 new things. What's on your bucket list? Things that you want to get done in the next few years.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

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. I just want to watch those. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

I'd love to see the Northern Lights.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

I think that would make my soul very happy. That would make a great first date, Ashley, for somebody to take you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

No pressure there.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

Or maybe you can see them in M Montana. I mean, you know, maybe you can go, we can go somewhere closer.

SPEAKER_04 44:48

But we'll go to Alaska.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Alaska?

SPEAKER_04 44:49

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

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

And I'm not sure I want to be in Alaska. In the winter, no. I agree with that. Where it's dark all the time and 20 below. I don't have enough clothes. I could wear every bit of clothing I have and still be cold.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

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 the And I grew up in it too.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

So I'm hit in Houston. Yes. And we were out of power. And I was like, it's gonna be fun. We're gonna have hurricane parties. The next morning my kids wake up and they're like, Mom, you said it was gonna be fun. I was like, well, I tried.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Yeah, I tried. I do like the heat. I I I've 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. It's hot. Oh, it's very hot. Ashley, how do somebody, how does somebody find your book on to buy it?

SPEAKER_01 45:58

On Amazon. If you just um search You are worthy of happiness, 31 Days of Encouragement, and it has Ashley Vishon on there. That's the book. And it's got a little pretty cloud on it, clouds.

SPEAKER_04 46:10

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

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Exactly. And probably less than an hour. I put it on YouTube.

SPEAKER_04 46:22

It looks like there's some places to make notes and stuff. Oh yeah. You know, there's some places to think about uh pause and reflect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

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

SPEAKER_04 46:36

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.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

It is pretty deep.

SPEAKER_04 46:56

Actually, there are some days I think, nah, I'm just here just paying the bills. Cogging the wheel. No, but it's true. There, yeah, there are people that care about all of us.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

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

SPEAKER_04 47:10

Is he? Nice.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

I just told him right now. I just told him.

SPEAKER_04 47:17

It's been fun.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

Thank you so much for having me. It's been a lot of fun. I really appreciate it. 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 you up on any dates.

SPEAKER_04 47:32

No, Michelle, that's a terrible idea. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

There's some good-looking single cowboys out here.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

She's already doing it.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

She may like.

SPEAKER_04 47:39

Well, you have to double date with her if you're gonna do that. That's right. We will. Be your safe space. But thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 47:46

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SPEAKER_04 49:56

And we're back. Ashley Vishon, she brought it to the studio today. She was great. I I really enjoyed visiting with her.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

Yes, 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_04 50:14

Moved to LA, married an actor. You'd expect her to kind of be a little pretentious. She's very down-to-earth, super sweet. Very down-to-arth.

SPEAKER_02 50:21

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_04 50:35

And you can get it on Amazon, and I encourage you to do it. I want to point out a couple things going on. Right before we started recording this monologue, 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 tele unsolicited 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 have there's zero effect that that has. It's gonna be illegal. And apparently in Morocco, there are an estimated 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_02 51:27

Well, too bad. So sad. You know what?

SPEAKER_04 51:30

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 or cheese, community?

SPEAKER_02 51:47

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_04 51:57

Oh yeah, it's bad. So I 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 H E Bs that uh were announced that are going to have um some updates.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

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

SPEAKER_04 52:23

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 V and Bulverdi are gonna go uh undergo minor interior remodels.

SPEAKER_02 52:37

So I did hear, I heard a little you hear it, you've 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 thunder crowd crowded.

SPEAKER_04 52:52

What are they gonna do with the build?

SPEAKER_02 52:54

Are they gonna 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 out there and they're gonna put the shops on the other side.

SPEAKER_04 53:15

And then they were gonna build a brand new H E B also with a strip center attached to it.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

A brand new H E B?

SPEAKER_04 53:21

Yeah, we're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

This H E B is only like 10 years old.

SPEAKER_04 53:24

That's older than that. Have you looked at our H E B? You know what?

SPEAKER_02 53:27

I don't shop there, I shop at my Meta Brown H B.

SPEAKER_04 53:31

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_02 53:38

Long in the tooth.

SPEAKER_04 53:39

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

SPEAKER_02 53:44

I can't believe you've 10 years old.

SPEAKER_04 53:47

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

SPEAKER_02 53:59

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

SPEAKER_04 54:04

I wear I wear my hat. I wear dark sunglasses, I wear a little fake fake mustache, and I come in there.

SPEAKER_02 54:09

You are not allowed to cross it.

SPEAKER_04 54:10

Nobody will recognize you.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

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.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

They stand there in the bedroom everyone.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

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. 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, guess.

SPEAKER_04 55:26

Uh is it one of the large cities in Texas?

SPEAKER_02 55:29

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

SPEAKER_04 55:31

Uh then I will say uh Placo.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Plano, Texas. Plano.

SPEAKER_04 55:37

Plano and that's kind of Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 55:39

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_04 55:52

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

SPEAKER_02 56:01

The jewels of downtown Austin.

SPEAKER_04 56:03

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

SPEAKER_02 56:06

I'm gonna think uh Ladybird.

SPEAKER_04 56:09

Ladybird Lake, Town Lake Trail.

SPEAKER_02 56:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:11

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 any.

SPEAKER_02 56:47

Well, I did the story on the library how the library has become a homeless house.

SPEAKER_04 56:51

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:51

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_04 57:43

I saw a video the other day, and it makes a difference. It was 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 is a much better place.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

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 Todd's like, he counts down eight, nine, ten. I'm like, oh, 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 uh, it's okay for a preferably with a yeah, ask somebody. Somebody you know. 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_04 58:46

Well, isn't that the truth?

SPEAKER_02 58:47

No one is safe.

SPEAKER_04 58:48

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_02 59:07

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 are talking about this at lunch, just to try to remove myself from negative people and negative situations.

SPEAKER_04 59:28

Is it freeing when you do that? When you go, yeah, I'm not gonna make that my drama. I don't care. Yeah. It's so freeing.

SPEAKER_02 59:34

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

SPEAKER_04 59:45

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 behind your back, no matter what you do or what you say, you know what they talk about.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

I give you grace every day.

SPEAKER_04 59:58

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

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

Yes, I have been.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:06

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_02 1:00:15

I'm not an Oreo fan.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:16

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 or three categories of five foods from each one have been chosen, and then there'll 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 chop tater tacos. A 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 it. Oh my god. Oh, I'm sure they'll sell a ton of them. 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, and 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 chipotle, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

I'd buy that.

unknown 1:01:54

Melted.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

I'd buy that one.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:57

Flame and crunch pizza, which you can get is a flamethrower. Flaming hot Cheetos? It's a pizza with flamingos.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:03

Kitle would buy that one because she likes her flaming hot cheetos.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:06

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

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

So here's a couple in the You're at the Texas State Fair, though. You're supposed to watch it. You know what you need more at the Texas State Fair? You need a bulletproof vest now because the place has gotten pretty freaking dangerous.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:19

Here's uh the sweet finalist. Bury me in matcha, which sounds like matcha? No, I don't like matcha. A 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_02 1:02:41

Oh, I'd buy that.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:42

Yeah, I bet you would. I'd buy that. Deep uh uh deep Eddie? Drizzled with ribbons of chocolate shell hardened to a delicate crunch cra uh crackable.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

Are you having a stroke right now? I think I am. This is kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:55

Fletcher's this is what'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 professional.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

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

SPEAKER_04 1:03:11

No, there's no hot dog. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

I was like chocolate hot dogs?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

It's the uh, it's you know what the the outside of the corny dog is, but it's around a piece of.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

Do you call them corny dogs?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:21

That's what this says. Corny dog.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:23

Who wrote that in Yankee?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

I don't know. Some Texas food choice awards finals. Holy flawan, which is a flaw, yeah. And then a Texas praline cheesecake cone. Oh, I'd buy that. 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_02 1:03:50

You'd but you'd eat that.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:51

I would eat that. I would have a bite. Here's some sippers. Corn flake shope. Wow. Creamy cornflake shoppe blends toasted cornflakes into a rich creation with silky dolce de leche.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

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

SPEAKER_04 1:04:09

Hot honeycomb lemonade shakeup, uh Sunset Soft Serverita, which is a uh strawberry and mango margarita with vanilla vanilla sauce uh soft serve ice cream. Okay. And then Tropical Cocoa Fresca, uh, which is a layered pineapple, watermelon, agua fresca with chamoy lava, blah, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:30

Chamoy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:31

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_02 1:04:43

Well, I'm all about killing some more of the reason. You know, I I like like you, I like to have a little bite. I just want a little bit of a. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:51

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 eat all that. And I'll bet you it's like 35 bucks to get those. Oh, I'm sure it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:03

Everything is, and then parking is like, I don't know, 75 bucks.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:06

So you're spending two or three hundred dollars to go to the waving like those. That's big ticks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

So um, God, are we hungry? We just have to do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:17

No, I just can't believe it. It's still full.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:19

Yeah, so have you ever been to top notch? I never have.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:23

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

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

So it's on um, so there's two top notches. Actually, there's one in Huddo, but the original, the OG, is on Burnett Road. And for those of you from from um other places, not Austin, 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 Frances. Oh my goodness, I cut off the back of her name, Stum. It's not Stomos, 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_04 1:06:12

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

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

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. Alright, alright, alright. Uh 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 McConaughey, which was by the way, improv, where he said his legendary, all right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:54

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_02 1:07:03

It's oh yeah, I re 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 book. But uh yeah, it said roughly 60% to 70% of the menu has rain remained the same since top notch first opened. 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_04 1:07:32

Those days are gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:33

Okay, let me tell you, uh okay, top notch. I'm gonna give you a little little story time here. So I was leaving 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 we went through 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' meal, 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 cup back there. They said that'll be $12. Wait, wait, wait. I ordered a kid's meal because I think, did I order two kids' meals? 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 two little sips of Dr. Pepper. So I I just have a really hard time paying over.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:49

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 drinks water, and then she'll get a uh a uh croissant to take home. And last time we went with the 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 Cruz and he's a really great guy, but I was like, come on, it wasn't like 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_02 1:09:27

It was $52. 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_04 1:09:36

Or if I order tea, he's you guys we just you share a cup of coffee. That's pretty small.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:41

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

SPEAKER_04 1:09:45

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

SPEAKER_02 1:09:51

That's a good cheeseburger.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:53

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 $20. And they couldn't figure out why these kids thought it was a burrito $20. 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_02 1:10:23

That is no ridiculous if I'm gonna order Uber Eats, I'm not ordering a freaking uh like one-way stop to the toilet.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:32

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, if yeah, I guess they're paying with their mom's credit card.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:44

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 burned down. Burned down.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:58

Yeah. Can't go get you a happy meal.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:00

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

SPEAKER_04 1:11:04

Yeah, Navy gets it. Yeah. Well, you used to be able to take your whole family to make God we sound I've we sound like we're a bunch of a couple of old people sitting around. I remember I can get it on the table at the old. 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, 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 in a finance department.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:48

Her last name is Fudge.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:49

Yes. You couldn't help yourself, calling it. I couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:51

It was like it just went right in there.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:55

Yes, it's fudge.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:56

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

SPEAKER_04 1:12:01

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

SPEAKER_02 1:12:25

Hung in the dude that turn-up truck. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:27

Um, 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 numbers. 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'm gonna 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 then 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_02 1:13:13

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

SPEAKER_04 1:13:17

But he says, But I'll tell you what, if you will pay the bail and come down and prove that you 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 should 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. Uh. And he tells her, You need to scan that QR code on there and put your $4,000 cash in the machine. So it goes into this crypto thing and goes right to them.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

Because it's untraceable, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:00

That's right. So 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 the 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_02 1:14:34

Did it ever click with her?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:36

Not until she had given away $25,000.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:39

Oh, bless her fudge little heart.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:43

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 the phone.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:08

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

SPEAKER_04 1:15:11

Well, uh 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 ATM.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:31

I'm just glad you're okay. Yeah, that's what Todd would say.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:35

That's what Todd would have said, babe. I'm just glad you're fine. 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 going to 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 the spyware. So don't, first of all, don't buy a Samsung then. Don't buy a Samsung. If somebody calls you from any government agency, the excuse me, the IRS, the uh the core. 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. Don't scam.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:11

If Maladin Michelle calls you, tells you to meet me at Pigpin.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:15

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_02 1:16:23

How old is she?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:24

38.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:25

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_04 1:16:33

Yeah. Absolutely stupid. 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 109 or uh, you know, whatever. And she said it sounded all the same. Book a bad. That's right. But you know, she was convinced that it was legit and she didn't want to go to jail. She was 38 years old. Michelle, I'm I'm with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:02

I'm gonna I'm gonna do a Google. Give me, give me your give me your story. I want to see what her means.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:06

Well, we were on the phone. I'm getting a spam call from New Rochelle, New York. No, no, no, because then they'll know my number's real. I don't want to do it. Man, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:16

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

SPEAKER_04 1:17:20

Kimberly Fudge.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:21

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

SPEAKER_04 1:17:27

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

SPEAKER_02 1:17:39

Um uh Kolon Oscovies.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:41

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

SPEAKER_02 1:17:50

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

SPEAKER_04 1:17:57

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

SPEAKER_02 1:18:01

She looks like a normal person, but I didn't see a picture of her just right there. That looks like she looks like a normal person. It's it's Wall Street Journal, it's gonna make me pay for it. No, okay. Uh yeah. Yeah, she uh if yeah, I don't have my camera hooked up there. She didn't look like an idiot, but she pretty dumb.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:20

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 them. You're being scammed.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:33

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

SPEAKER_04 1:18:37

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

SPEAKER_02 1:18:45

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

SPEAKER_04 1:18:54

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

SPEAKER_02 1:18:57

Flip open one more. Okay, one life, just one. Run towards your dreams. Run, Steve. This chapter is for you.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:05

Run, force, run.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:06

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_04 1:19:19

Okay, I'm gonna do one real quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:21

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 experien 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_02 1:19:42

And Michelle is always right.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:45

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

SPEAKER_02 1:19:50

Oh, the 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. We'll see.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:02

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_02 1:20:09

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

SPEAKER_04 1:20:12

Go get more followers, Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:14

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:14

Talk to you later.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:16

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SPEAKER_02 1:21:43

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SPEAKER_02 1:22:19

Big mouth, small town.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:21

Follow us on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:24

Leave us a review or email us at Malitamichelle at gmail.com. I'm surprised we haven't been canceled yet.