Speaker 1: This is Conversationous with Olivia Jade and I Heart Radio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, it's Olivia Jade. No surprise here, Welcome back
Speaker 1: to another episode of Conversations Today. I have a very
Speaker 1: special guest and I want to let her take it away,
Speaker 1: give you her whole intro, because she does many many things,
Speaker 1: and um, I think we could all be very inspired
Speaker 1: and learned something from her. Socals. Welcome Jacy, Hello, Hello
Speaker 1: j c. H. Nice to virtually meet you. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. So nice to virtually meet you. You know,
Speaker 1: I am I'm really close with Amanda Clutes, no way,
Speaker 1: She's one of my girls, and so when I was
Speaker 1: watching her on Dancing with the Stars, I was so
Speaker 1: torn because I have such a fan of yours as well,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, go a man, wait now, Olivia, I
Speaker 1: was mocky rooting for Amanda too though she was so good.
Speaker 1: She's such a good dancer. Oh my god, in saying,
Speaker 1: she's also just like an angel of a human. I
Speaker 1: adore her. I adore her, our kids go to school together,
Speaker 1: like love her to death. She's the best. Oh that's
Speaker 1: so cute. How old are your kids? She's three and
Speaker 1: a half. Yeah, so cute. Well that's a great connecting
Speaker 1: point because she's the best. I love her so much,
Speaker 1: But meet you, I know, I agree. Um, do you
Speaker 1: want to maybe tell the listeners a little bit about yourself,
Speaker 1: who you are, what you do, just to give them
Speaker 1: an idea for those who don't know. My name is
Speaker 1: Ja C. Dupree and I have been a digital entrepreneur, influencer,
Speaker 1: blogger or whatever you want to call us for man
Speaker 1: over ten years. And I just released a book. It's
Speaker 1: called Liking Myself Back. It comes out on June seven,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty much about my history, um, you know,
Speaker 1: on the frontier of being what it means to be
Speaker 1: an influencer and kind of what that looked like in
Speaker 1: the early early days before you know, TikTok and Instagram, um.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of story about my journey of how I,
Speaker 1: um really learned to self love, you know, more so
Speaker 1: than relying on the acceptance of others on social media,
Speaker 1: which is a challenge. I'm sure we all faced the
Speaker 1: social media inmplemencers um. And so yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 1: my journey that's how I got here. I love that
Speaker 1: I actually can relate to that a little bit because
Speaker 1: I started my YouTube channel when I was fourteen, so
Speaker 1: that was almost like eight or nine years ago now,
Speaker 1: which is so weird. But it's so different than what
Speaker 1: it used to be like now, especially because I feel
Speaker 1: like I took a break from social media and then
Speaker 1: when I had come back, TikTok was a like a
Speaker 1: platform and I am so I'm still lost and I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to be like the same age as everybody that's
Speaker 1: making all these TikTok's. I just no, no, no, add
Speaker 1: I look at I look at your account. You're probably
Speaker 1: looking at others too. I mean that's kind of what
Speaker 1: we all do, right, we all learned from each other,
Speaker 1: and I don't think anyone really knows what they're doing.
Speaker 1: And I was like, you know, fake until you make it.
Speaker 1: But you're so right in that. The industry, I mean,
Speaker 1: technology just advances so quickly, and the industry is shifting
Speaker 1: so quickly that sometimes it's hard to keep up. UM,
Speaker 1: But I think it's good to take those breaks. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: What's like your thing that you do on social media
Speaker 1: and that you talk about, like, how did you start? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: I first started out just with my blog. UM. It's
Speaker 1: called damsel Indior dot com and I would literally just
Speaker 1: post like whatever I was into. Again, this was like
Speaker 1: ten years ago when blogs were like the thing. I
Speaker 1: didn't have an Instagram and at the time and UM,
Speaker 1: I just posted kind of like style tips, close beauty,
Speaker 1: just everything that I was into. I posted about our
Speaker 1: travels and eventually my followers who had a really close
Speaker 1: relationship with UM and they were very engaged at the time.
Speaker 1: I still are, thank god, and we have a very
Speaker 1: strong engaged audience. I am. I would like kind of
Speaker 1: post a little bit of myself, not too much, like
Speaker 1: I don't love being in front of the camera. Here
Speaker 1: I am always in front of the camera. So in
Speaker 1: the beginning I would just kind of sprinkle it and
Speaker 1: they were like, we want more, we want to see
Speaker 1: these outfits on you UM. And I just quickly learned
Speaker 1: that those posts would do the best, you know, they
Speaker 1: would get like crazy amounts of engagement and we would
Speaker 1: sell more products as a result through the blog. UM.
Speaker 1: And then eventually, you know, we started I started Instagram. UM.
Speaker 1: I started Instagram pretty late. Actually, my main bread and
Speaker 1: butter is my blog UM. But yeah, on Instagram, it's
Speaker 1: really now it's just kind of a document of a
Speaker 1: documentation of my life really and I share everything from
Speaker 1: what I'm wearing on a dayta basis, But I would
Speaker 1: say more it's now lifestyle, especially now that we do
Speaker 1: have a child. It's harder to get dressed every day
Speaker 1: and like show people who I'm doing that when you
Speaker 1: have like a three year old totally. Um, So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely evolved and grown and shifted over the
Speaker 1: past ten years, as as humans do and as businesses do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. I also relate to that a lot too,
Speaker 1: because I feel like whenever I think this goes across
Speaker 1: the board, and I think it has something to do
Speaker 1: with just our core human beings are a little bit
Speaker 1: nosy and we love to being other people's business and
Speaker 1: like see their lives a little bit. But I've noticed
Speaker 1: too on social media, Um, the engagement is so much
Speaker 1: higher when it's like personal stuff for me in front
Speaker 1: of the camera versus me like talking about something. It's
Speaker 1: like night and day. But you did grow up in
Speaker 1: a small town in Texas, correct, That's right, a very
Speaker 1: small town. So how did you was that? Were you
Speaker 1: surrounded by kind of like fashion and beauty and all
Speaker 1: of that are totally opposite at all. I was surrounded
Speaker 1: by cotton fields and a farm with animals on it,
Speaker 1: and no, not at all surrounded by fashion. My mom
Speaker 1: was really into it. Like for my high school graduation,
Speaker 1: she got me a Louis Bitan backpack, which was like
Speaker 1: a huge deal at the time. Nobody Batan in my
Speaker 1: high school. No one even knew what it want, like
Speaker 1: was I remember taking it to school like on my
Speaker 1: last day of school and I was like, I'm ready
Speaker 1: for college and all the girls at school were like,
Speaker 1: what is this brown backpack? Like wow? Well, I promised um,
Speaker 1: but no, it wasn't like a big deal back home
Speaker 1: to be into fashion. I actually fell in love with
Speaker 1: fashion style when I went to college in Chicago. Um
Speaker 1: My aunts lest had a store women's boutique on Armitage
Speaker 1: and Lincoln Park, and I worked for her store. And
Speaker 1: this was back when like Sex in the City was
Speaker 1: like the IT Show and she would have like all
Speaker 1: the brands that they would wear in the show in
Speaker 1: her store. And so I just kind of like all
Speaker 1: the pieces of the puzzle kind of started to really
Speaker 1: put like be put together at that point in my
Speaker 1: life because I was in a bigger city with more
Speaker 1: events and things to dress up for, like my sorority
Speaker 1: parties and stuff like that. And my girls that you know,
Speaker 1: took me under their wings and they were like, this
Speaker 1: is how you get dressed. Got it okay? So it
Speaker 1: was a little bit later in life for you to
Speaker 1: like really establish your love for fashion. It was in college.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like I loved playing dress up on the farm.
Speaker 1: I would always you know, play like Alice in Wonderland
Speaker 1: and play with like the flower girl dress that even
Speaker 1: at my cousin's wedding. Um, but I started to really
Speaker 1: dial it in in college. I would say, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: And that's when I'm assuming you started the blog then.
Speaker 1: I actually started the blog when I moved out to
Speaker 1: l A. After college. Blogs didn't exist back then. I'm
Speaker 1: a little older than you. You don't look it, and
Speaker 1: h l A, No, I didn't see my blog. I
Speaker 1: started in two thousand eleven, which was kind of when
Speaker 1: blogs were like becoming a thing. When I was in college,
Speaker 1: the board blog didn't even exist. Um, who were there?
Speaker 1: And all those sites like weren't a thing quite yet.
Speaker 1: People were still very much into traditional media magazines and
Speaker 1: things of that nature. There were a couple of um,
Speaker 1: like style websites, like I would write for Style Chicago
Speaker 1: because I was really into it, but it didn't quite
Speaker 1: exist yet. Um that would have been awesome. Howd it
Speaker 1: existed during that time would have been really exciting. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always think about that though, because I feel like
Speaker 1: this could be um at not controversial, but I feel
Speaker 1: like some people may disagree I and I think it's
Speaker 1: ironic that I'm about to say this considering my job
Speaker 1: as in social media and I'm like the generation of
Speaker 1: social media, I feel like, but I do sometimes wish
Speaker 1: that like it was kind of back, not back to
Speaker 1: how it used to be like before my time. I
Speaker 1: guess I didn't even experience it, but there's a part
Speaker 1: of me and I'm always curious to hear, like other
Speaker 1: people that are in the same industry, like their thoughts
Speaker 1: on it, um about just social media in general, and
Speaker 1: like where we're at now in two versus how and
Speaker 1: just how it affects you, I think, like on a
Speaker 1: more personal level and how much more reach we have,
Speaker 1: and like, I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on
Speaker 1: it because this audience has heard me blabble about this forever. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it is very very interesting, and I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be really cool and interesting and hopefully
Speaker 1: not scary to see how um this affects us like
Speaker 1: as a society in more years, you know, like, where
Speaker 1: are we going to be with social media? How is
Speaker 1: the technology going to change? I was literally just yesterday
Speaker 1: watching a Ted talk um with the CEO of Instagram.
Speaker 1: He was speaking and and he you was arguing that
Speaker 1: in ten years the technology is going to just shift
Speaker 1: so much that he's hoping that it it won't be
Speaker 1: as um like company driven, as like Emily driven. It
Speaker 1: will be more on the like the creators owning their
Speaker 1: relationships with their audience without getting like too hairy into
Speaker 1: like the tech side. I do think that we're in
Speaker 1: a place right now. I at least I think so
Speaker 1: with social media TikTok, Instagram, you name it, um, where
Speaker 1: people are smart now and they I think that they're
Speaker 1: more self aware of the impact that it has and
Speaker 1: the toll that it has on their mental health. At
Speaker 1: least I believe that they do. I know, I certainly do,
Speaker 1: But there were some growing pains that came along with that,
Speaker 1: right um, And maybe not everyone is like they're like
Speaker 1: my mom, for example, is not quite there. Right, we'll
Speaker 1: get there hopefully. Um, but I think your generation unlike mine,
Speaker 1: Like you guys, I think at least and might be
Speaker 1: speaking at a turn, but I feel like you know
Speaker 1: what you're signing up for. Like I didn't really know
Speaker 1: what I was signing up for when I started my Instagram.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that ment, Like my whole life is
Speaker 1: going to just think that people, you know, ten years
Speaker 1: fifteen years younger than I am, at least like my
Speaker 1: friends kids, because that's how old I am. They know
Speaker 1: what they're signing up for al right, Like if I'm
Speaker 1: going to post this on my Instagram or my TikTok,
Speaker 1: like I know what that means. You guys were like
Speaker 1: way more advanced and smarter than we are. No, not
Speaker 1: at all. I just think that times are are so
Speaker 1: different because even I remember when Instagram first came out.
Speaker 1: I was twelve, I think, and I had made an
Speaker 1: account and my mom wouldn't let me have a public account.
Speaker 1: I had to be um private. And then I remember,
Speaker 1: I remember this really clearly, and it's actually kind of
Speaker 1: freaky because I was twelve when I had made it
Speaker 1: and then I remember like kind of disobeying her and
Speaker 1: like going on public, and somehow, I guess some people
Speaker 1: had figured out that um my mom was on full house.
Speaker 1: So people were requesting my Instagram and I accepted all
Speaker 1: of them because I was like, hell, yeah, this is awesome.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know either, like what what that meant?
Speaker 1: It was it was a new platform, and I start
Speaker 1: accepting all these random people, and I remember like swiping
Speaker 1: down and seeing the follower account go up, and at
Speaker 1: such a young age, I was sitting there like this
Speaker 1: is awesome, Like look at all my followers go up.
Speaker 1: This is so cool, This is so great, and it's
Speaker 1: actually like now I think about it in my twenties
Speaker 1: and I think back to my twelve year old shelf
Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's really scary that even at that time,
Speaker 1: like it wasn't really around yet, but that's where my
Speaker 1: brain went to be like validation, more followers, this is great.
Speaker 1: So I think with all like the amazing things that
Speaker 1: come with social media, also is really freaky for like
Speaker 1: the even newer generation that's on it, because I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just so much more advanced now and there's so
Speaker 1: much more comparison and so many more people online to
Speaker 1: look at and like want to be like, and it's
Speaker 1: really wild to me. It's very, very wild, and I
Speaker 1: am I'm just like, oh my gosh, I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: my daughter and her joining is well, I'm like, what
Speaker 1: am I gonna do? But I think you know, that's
Speaker 1: when like your mom, like it sounds like she did
Speaker 1: a great job and trying to protect you from that.
Speaker 1: Probably yeah, I think she didn't even know what it
Speaker 1: was like at that point in time. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody really knew because I mean it hadn't taken off yet,
Speaker 1: even YouTube, like there were some big YouTubers and content creators,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't like a job. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was in the very beginning. I totally get that too,
Speaker 1: I think. And that's that's also like what to bring
Speaker 1: it back to the book, That is like kind of
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about in this book, and I hope
Speaker 1: that people will take from it. I mean, even girls
Speaker 1: that are like twelve fifteen, this is a great read
Speaker 1: for them because, um, I'm diving into my past living
Speaker 1: in Texas on a farm, feeling like that lost girl
Speaker 1: who didn't really have a place. Um, but I'm also
Speaker 1: diving into the negative effects that social media had on
Speaker 1: my life, my career, my marriage, my friendships. It really
Speaker 1: almost like it almost cost my marriage social media did,
Speaker 1: just because I got so wrapped up into this work,
Speaker 1: um and not really knowing where to draw the line
Speaker 1: and knowing where to draw that boundary on on what
Speaker 1: to share what not to share. Um, you know, how
Speaker 1: much to really rely on those likes? I mean, my
Speaker 1: big joke is that, like, I spent ten years trying
Speaker 1: to get peop to like me, and now I'm liking
Speaker 1: myself back, which is the title of that UM. So
Speaker 1: I'm really hoping that the younger generation will read it
Speaker 1: or at least hear about it and hopefully take something
Speaker 1: from it. And just knowing that this, you know, that
Speaker 1: that validation that you get from the likes, which I
Speaker 1: myself and I just admitted, was really strong power for me. Um,
Speaker 1: it takes its toll. And it's really all about you know,
Speaker 1: finding that self worth and that self validation from within
Speaker 1: that really matters the most in life. Yeah, I need
Speaker 1: to read that. It is your husband, Um, is he
Speaker 1: like against being on your social media? Is he like
Speaker 1: not comfortably being a public he used to be. When
Speaker 1: we met, he was like if you googled his name,
Speaker 1: he was not on Google. Like he was one of
Speaker 1: those people, like the mysterious creat That's awesome. I love it.
Speaker 1: I know now I'm like so jealous. What does that
Speaker 1: feel like? That's so cool, Like one of those people. Um,
Speaker 1: And that was really appealing to me. And so when
Speaker 1: I first started, no, he was like nowhere to be found. Um.
Speaker 1: And I talked about this in the book too. We like,
Speaker 1: as I'm growing and shifting and I'm traveling to like
Speaker 1: Paris Fashion Week and Dubai and like my career is
Speaker 1: starting to really take off, Grant wasn't really there and
Speaker 1: so it really like put a fork between us and
Speaker 1: it caused a marriage. And so when push came to shove,
Speaker 1: we like literally separate in the middle of the book
Speaker 1: as a result of all this stuff just like coming
Speaker 1: up and coming up. And so he basically made the
Speaker 1: decision and he's sitting over there, sorry, very involved. Now.
Speaker 1: He made the conscious choice to get on the court
Speaker 1: with me and play ball. You know, he's like, all right,
Speaker 1: this is a family business. I'm going to invest in
Speaker 1: it now. And he just knew the importance of not
Speaker 1: just being like in front of the camera, but really
Speaker 1: just participating in my life because this is my life
Speaker 1: on display, you know, So I have to be worried
Speaker 1: about hiding a piece of it, um, which I was
Speaker 1: for so long, So many pieces that I was hiding
Speaker 1: for so long. Um, it really starts to take its
Speaker 1: toll on on me physically, mentally, emotionally in my relationships.
Speaker 1: So I saw that he saw the writing on the wall.
Speaker 1: Like again, it wasn't about just like him being on
Speaker 1: my in my pictures. It was more just him being
Speaker 1: involved in okay with everything comfortable. And now you google
Speaker 1: his name and he's everywhere. Sorry, my bad, No, no,
Speaker 1: he knows. It's all in the book. Is so funny. Um,
Speaker 1: what about your daughter three is obviously really young? Is
Speaker 1: she online with you guys or do you keep that
Speaker 1: part a little bit more private? She's the first year
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm just gonna go with my gut
Speaker 1: on this. It feels comfortable. And then the second your
Speaker 1: birthday kind of hit and we were still like sprinkling
Speaker 1: her in. And now when she's she's just turned three,
Speaker 1: I kind of like I hit a hard stop one
Speaker 1: day where I went back and deleted her. But what
Speaker 1: it was, and honestly, this is exactly what happened, and
Speaker 1: it kind of freaked me out. She goes to school
Speaker 1: in l A. It's private school, a preschool. No one
Speaker 1: knows where she goes to school. I would never posted
Speaker 1: on social media and I had I've never told you
Speaker 1: for this out of publicist reach out to me and
Speaker 1: was like, hey, my client said that you go to
Speaker 1: the same school as her kid, and I'm like, how
Speaker 1: do they even know that? And it's because they saw
Speaker 1: June at school in the parking lot getting picked up
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, Like she was
Speaker 1: like getting recognized without me there, and it freaked me out.
Speaker 1: And this was like a nice woman. She's a jewelry designer.
Speaker 1: I actually love her jewelry. I'm a big fan of hers.
Speaker 1: But it's still like it was just a good wake
Speaker 1: up call. Wasn't a weird vibe thing, but like it
Speaker 1: certainly could have been, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: she goes to the grocery store without me, she goes
Speaker 1: to the park without me, Like we haven't nanny, We're
Speaker 1: working full time, and she's like out in the world
Speaker 1: without me. I would hate for like a stranger or
Speaker 1: someone to come up with her, which has happened with
Speaker 1: my friends in the past, influencers with their kids. So
Speaker 1: that was kind of a wake up call. We I've
Speaker 1: been posting her a little bit more lately. We kind
Speaker 1: of like tow the line where I'm like I could
Speaker 1: it's a slippery slope and she's my whole life. Of course,
Speaker 1: I'm just obviously obsessed with her. A lot of post
Speaker 1: about her, but I have to kind of remind myself
Speaker 1: that there's you know, a half a million people following us,
Speaker 1: and I don't know them all personally. No, Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: that's definitely something to keep in mind, i'd imagine, especially
Speaker 1: being a mom. But I also get it on the
Speaker 1: flip side, because, as you were saying before, like you
Speaker 1: have such an engaged audience, and I sometimes feel like
Speaker 1: with that, you want to share that personal stuff, and
Speaker 1: you want to share like the struggles and like the
Speaker 1: not so great stuff about being a mom sometimes and
Speaker 1: then the beautiful things, And so I get there's probably
Speaker 1: a fine line to walk, for sure. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 1: like done. Some people, some of my longtime followers like
Speaker 1: we love June, we miss her, like, how is she?
Speaker 1: And I feel bad you know that they can't see
Speaker 1: her like every day because I follow some of my
Speaker 1: girlfriends who have kids. They post them every day. Like
Speaker 1: my friend um Arial Turnis, She's something navy. She posts
Speaker 1: her girls all the time, and I'm so thankful that
Speaker 1: she does that because it's like my way of keeping
Speaker 1: in touch totally. But anyway, it's it's it's a line.
Speaker 1: You got to kind of learn how to toe with
Speaker 1: your mother intuition. It's hard to ye, I'm sure. I
Speaker 1: also don't want June to be like her name is June.
Speaker 1: I don't want her to be like ten or eleven
Speaker 1: and be like, why did you post me on your Instagram? Mom?
Speaker 1: I get that too because I think about that sometimes.
Speaker 1: I think about it when I was like a baby
Speaker 1: and I look at home videos. I if my mom
Speaker 1: had shared those online of me, these home videos, Like
Speaker 1: there's one video where my sister takes my gumball and
Speaker 1: I start scream crying, and I'm like, if that was
Speaker 1: like in a vlog format on some platform somewhere, I
Speaker 1: would I would kill my mom. Mom. I would be
Speaker 1: so upset. Yeah, I just wouldn't want that. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: I don't want that for her either. But I also
Speaker 1: think it's dependent on like person in a situation because
Speaker 1: I feel like maybe if you had asked me that
Speaker 1: I would have a different answer a few years ago.
Speaker 1: I think now I'm like extra sensitive to like what
Speaker 1: goes online of me, just from like what's happened in
Speaker 1: the past. But I feel like, so it is dependent.
Speaker 1: But um, you just don't know like where you know
Speaker 1: the world's gonna take you, or you know what's going
Speaker 1: to happen. I don't. Maybe June wants to be like
Speaker 1: I don't know a CIA agent. She needs to be
Speaker 1: her photos all over the other. Sorry, Yeah, totally. You
Speaker 1: don't know who she's going to become, and I don't
Speaker 1: want to, you know, decide for her. Yeah, I respect that.
Speaker 1: What would you say, like some of the biggest challenges
Speaker 1: you faced when starting social media and like, let's say
Speaker 1: somebody's listening right now that wants to get into this
Speaker 1: with blogging or YouTube or whatever it is. Um, maybe
Speaker 1: like some advice or what you went through that like
Speaker 1: you overcame or tips you learned. Is there anything that
Speaker 1: stands out? Um? I think honestly, like anytime someone approaches
Speaker 1: me and they're like, I want to start a blog
Speaker 1: or I want to start a YouTube channel, Like what
Speaker 1: should I do? Should I hire a team, joining an assistant,
Speaker 1: should I hear a videographer? I always just tell them
Speaker 1: to just start doing it. It doesn't mean you have
Speaker 1: to post it or share it by any means. But
Speaker 1: if you don't enjoy doing it, it's going to feel
Speaker 1: like pulling teeth, and it's honestly not going to be successful.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, I think you really have to love
Speaker 1: being a content creator in order to be successful at it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's not like it looks easy
Speaker 1: because you're good at what you do, but it's really not.
Speaker 1: It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot
Speaker 1: of confidence, and I think you have to really be
Speaker 1: excited to like video your off doing your makeup. You're like,
Speaker 1: this is so cool, Like I want to share this
Speaker 1: with people. For some people, that feels like pulling teeth.
Speaker 1: The idea of like being a content creator sounds so
Speaker 1: nice and glossy, but I think you really have to
Speaker 1: kind of have that um you know, that little piece
Speaker 1: that not everybody has, that little piece of excitement and
Speaker 1: joy and interest and curiosity to learn new things and
Speaker 1: share it with the world. Um, it's not for everyone,
Speaker 1: so I would I would honestly just tell people to
Speaker 1: start doing it. And if you want to wake up
Speaker 1: every single day and that's the first thing you want
Speaker 1: to do, then then great, and keep doing it and
Speaker 1: doing it, and then I would worry about, you know,
Speaker 1: making it all you look beautiful in your logo and
Speaker 1: like maybe hiring a web developer to help you with
Speaker 1: your site. Um in the beginning. My my biggest struggle
Speaker 1: I think was for me personally. It was having the
Speaker 1: confidence to like put myself out there, um and be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm doing. Because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people hear the word influencer and they think of,
Speaker 1: you know, I a nineteen year old blonde girl bopping
Speaker 1: around the world taking selfies and she's super self centered.
Speaker 1: Which is so unfortunate that that we have that stigma
Speaker 1: attached to you know, what we do for a living
Speaker 1: and when our job is titled, I think we deserve
Speaker 1: a better title than that. Though I was favorite word
Speaker 1: in the world as influencer. Influencer even mean I'm influencing
Speaker 1: people like Also, though I think you can relate to this.
Speaker 1: We didn't sign like. I didn't start social media to
Speaker 1: influence or as a job. I started my YouTube because
Speaker 1: I liked a camera and talking to a camera. That
Speaker 1: was never my intention. So I always think to myself,
Speaker 1: I'm like, please, don't rope me into this influencer. I
Speaker 1: just started it when I was fourteen for fun. I
Speaker 1: don't want to now be an influencer and leave me alone.
Speaker 1: I know I don't. I hate it too. I hate
Speaker 1: it so much, and you do so much more than
Speaker 1: just that, like entrepreneur, your your television personality, like your
Speaker 1: podcast host, like there's so many and god knows what
Speaker 1: else you're doing. Mind this nee is that we don't
Speaker 1: know about because I'm sure there's a ton. It's just like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's an influencer. You're like, yeah, I'm with you. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. And I think everyone could be called
Speaker 1: an influencer if you think about it. Like my guy
Speaker 1: that sold me these faucets on my kitchen counter, he's
Speaker 1: influenced me, like you know, um, But for me, I
Speaker 1: think it's getting over that. It's getting over what everybody
Speaker 1: else thinks um and just really not giving a damn
Speaker 1: and just going for it and being comfortable with my
Speaker 1: own skin, which is a lesson that took me many
Speaker 1: years to kind of learn and I'm still working on
Speaker 1: it every day. You know. Do you have any advice
Speaker 1: or like like a key thing to finding yourself worth?
Speaker 1: Would you say? Yeah? I think really and this is
Speaker 1: so cheesy, but it really does boil down to it's
Speaker 1: gonna it has to come from within, right, So I
Speaker 1: think finding things to fill your cup up on a
Speaker 1: daily basis that really have absolutely nothing to do with
Speaker 1: anyone but you, has nothing to do with your phone
Speaker 1: or what it's gonna look like or anything. For me,
Speaker 1: that's yoga and gardening because I'm old. I love gardening.
Speaker 1: I just kind of get lost in these activities because
Speaker 1: they're very meditative for me, and it kind of brings
Speaker 1: me back down to practicing mindfulness and gratitude UM and
Speaker 1: knowing what really, really, really at the end of the
Speaker 1: day matters. You know, to me, that's family, um and
Speaker 1: love and and that way. If you if you're practicing
Speaker 1: these things on a daily basis, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, um, you know, you feel like your cups
Speaker 1: being filled up in all the right ways and not
Speaker 1: the wrong ones and not getting to boggle down the
Speaker 1: Instagram's algorithm is often your last picture only got twenty comments,
Speaker 1: and you're like, what's wrong with me? There's that that's
Speaker 1: that stuff does not matter, right, But it's tough. I
Speaker 1: think it takes daily, daily practice. Yeah. I think it's
Speaker 1: really hard also for this upcoming generation to feel super secure.
Speaker 1: And I hope that people listening no, that that's like
Speaker 1: very okay and very normal because we're being flooded with
Speaker 1: so much amazing content all the time. But also with that,
Speaker 1: it's natural to want to compare yourself to people, or
Speaker 1: to look at this person's life or their hair or
Speaker 1: their body or whatever it is, and just feel like,
Speaker 1: why don't I have that, or why don't I look
Speaker 1: like that or something like that. Um So, I think
Speaker 1: that anybody who's listening who can like kind of relate
Speaker 1: to that, just know that you're not alone because even
Speaker 1: the people that are behind the scenes, like us posting
Speaker 1: it and showing the good aspects of our life, we
Speaker 1: also feel that way of looking to others. Right, Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, yes, I mean I beat myself up so badly,
Speaker 1: especially in the in the very end of my book,
Speaker 1: I mean all throughout the book, you can hear me
Speaker 1: my my inner voice, just beating myself up. And the
Speaker 1: funny thing is the pictures I was posting during that time,
Speaker 1: literally sitting first row at the d Or Fashion Week
Speaker 1: show in Paris, and I'm like having the worst day
Speaker 1: ever because I just don't feel good about myself and
Speaker 1: you just don't see that part, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: a shame. And hopefully, UM, my book will kind of
Speaker 1: pull the veil back, pull the curtain back people to
Speaker 1: see a little bit more of that, because I do
Speaker 1: think it's very important, um to not be too hard
Speaker 1: on yourself, especially in this in this industry. Totally is
Speaker 1: your book, um like different stories for chapters of like
Speaker 1: experiences or just like front to finish of like social
Speaker 1: media what you've been through all the Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: good question. It's it's actually front to finish, But it
Speaker 1: has a lot of stories, you know with them, but
Speaker 1: they definitely all tie in together. Um. The book starts out,
Speaker 1: um kind of in the middle of my journey, but
Speaker 1: we we do a lot of flashbacks in my upbringing
Speaker 1: to kind of um you know, teach the reader, um
Speaker 1: more about my background and why I struggle with PTSD.
Speaker 1: My dad was an alcoholic growing up, and so you
Speaker 1: kind of have to shed light on all those past
Speaker 1: experiences to you know, um, learn more about what makes
Speaker 1: us tick. You know, we all have things that make
Speaker 1: us tick in a good way in in a bad way,
Speaker 1: So we kind of shed some light on that. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that do your stories are in there. The fun fashion
Speaker 1: stuff is definitely in there too, you know, going on
Speaker 1: my first Chonnel show and all that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: is all in there, and how I got into those shows,
Speaker 1: and um, how I drew my following, and how I
Speaker 1: grossed a million you know finally in a year, which
Speaker 1: took me a couple of years to get. Um, So
Speaker 1: all the fun stuffs in there too. So it's also
Speaker 1: like somebody could read it and take away and learn like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's how she did that, so if somebody wanted, So
Speaker 1: it's not only just what you've learned about yourself personally,
Speaker 1: but also it could probably help somebody if they're interested
Speaker 1: in this. That's really cool. I grew my following and
Speaker 1: hired people and the growing pains and learning how to
Speaker 1: pay my taxes help work. The stuffs in there Basically
Speaker 1: everything I learned in the past ten years of being
Speaker 1: a digital entrepreneur. UM collaborations I've done, Um, the cattiness
Speaker 1: in the industry. There's stories there about the gossip forums
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff. This sounds very juicy because
Speaker 1: it gets a little juicy. That's really exciting. When is
Speaker 1: the book out? It's out on June seven. Oh, that's
Speaker 1: really soon. I know. That's so exciting. I know, I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm nervous, but excited. How long did that take you
Speaker 1: to write? It took me two years. Wow, So this
Speaker 1: is like coming up, but it's been something you've been
Speaker 1: working on. That's so exciting. A new child does look blondie? Wow?
Speaker 1: I just went dark. You inspired me with your hair.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, my hair is way too red. Literally,
Speaker 1: after this podcast, I'm going and dyeing the top a
Speaker 1: little bit more brown because I don't know. It went
Speaker 1: ne on red somehow. I don't know what happened. Thank you. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you go. But just to wrap up,
Speaker 1: I am curious to know as a mom and in motherhood,
Speaker 1: how are you keeping up with the trends? How are
Speaker 1: you finding out like what to post next? What is
Speaker 1: your secret. That is such a good question. Are keeping young, cool,
Speaker 1: hip girls around me taking assistance in the past who
Speaker 1: I'm still in touch with. Haley, Aaron and Nel Sydney
Speaker 1: are my girls and I love it. Guy. I was
Speaker 1: on the phone with Haley last night. What did she
Speaker 1: teach me? Grant? She taught me a saying that said,
Speaker 1: I'm I forgot what it was. Would you say, I'm
Speaker 1: my main my main character era, character era. You're in
Speaker 1: your main character era and I'm here for it. And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? So I gotta have my girls
Speaker 1: around you, keep them around and they will keep you young.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm probably the same age as them and
Speaker 1: I want them around me. Tea meal to be cool. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on, jac It was
Speaker 1: a pleasure talking to you, and I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: read your book. Everybody make sure to check it out
Speaker 1: June seventh. That is coming up like ging myself back.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me on, and I
Speaker 1: will continue to follow you. Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you soon already. Bye bye.