This is Veronica's microphone. This is James's microphone, but I'm holding it. OK, Mandy Lenz, welcome to see the people. We had to pause, but we decided to keep the intro about you having James's mic.
Do you want to explain a little bit about our situation? We are perched with a really handsome cat in James. And there's a furry Sullivan lurking where he's staring at the window at a bird. That's awfully good dust on the side.
So I was saying to Mandy, I never record podcasts up in the office because it's really kind of like our cat room. And it takes a lot of vacuuming. And so I'm covered in hair. We're up here because Kathleen is on a call.
I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm covered in hair. I'm so sorry, but also I feel like this is fitting for you. It's fitting for us. We have matching cat-mom cute James.
You're our cat. You are James's godmother. Yes, hi, baby. And you also accompanied James and I to the emergency that in the middle of the night a couple weeks ago.
And even though that was difficult, we also found our way to laugh and die our time. We cried. We got there so much. And he was great in the end.
I felt like we were in a movie. We were. In the waiting room. On our film in their waiting room, which I didn't even think about till right now that everything.
All our movements were probably recorded. But that's fine for them. It's gone already. I mean, who cares?
Anyways. He's really also being an emotional support cat right now. He's so into it. I know how to happily even expose.
If you hear anything in the background, it's a cat. And we can just describe to you. OK, so I wanted to start by how we met because it's kind of funny. Actually, I hope I think Kathleen would be comfortable sharing the story.
I feel like I'll ask her. It's a good word in the story. But basically, do you want to tell? OK, so little context.
When Kathleen and I met, she was intrigued by me. But trying on a self journey, a journey of self discovery. And at the time, she's actually best friends with Mandy before Mandy started to date her brother. We need a drawing.
We need a flow chart. But yes, I feel like she has webbed so many great relationships together. Yes. Just by being her.
She's a little bit. I think she's a little bit. I think she's a little bit. Screw Charlotte.
Charlotte didn't do anything. Fuck Charlotte. Charlotte's shitting shit. So tell the funny thing about how one time Tre was like, I feel like something's wrong.
OK, so Tre my husband, who's Kathleen's brother, he noticed that Kathleen and Veronica were hanging out a lot. And he mentioned something to me about this. But I had known already that they were seeing each other. So I just brushed it off and kind of, you know, I guess the term now, they're using gas lighting.
I might have castled him a little into like, I don't even know what you're talking about. I think, you know. Because you were keeping a secret. I was interested and hosed before bros.
So even if the bro is the guy that you live with, you're still not betraying your hoes for him. So he then, eventually, obviously, when Kathleen was telling her family about your relationship, I came home from work and he could not wait to tell me, guess what? I knew this all along. You know, that I thought that these two were into each other.
And they are seeing each other. And I said, yeah, I know. And I mean, I thought it was enthusiastic because I love you guys. But I definitely didn't match his energy.
And he looked thoroughly disturbed and just really kind of annoyed. And I reminded him also that Kathleen and I have had a relationship far longer than him and I. So I was certainly not going to be saying anybody's business. So we love that about you.
He continued on a couple times in situations with him. And he's been like, really, you knew this. But that is just, I like to be the vault for the people that I love. So we love that about you.
And so the first time I met you was actually in your salon, which we're going to get into. But I've been really lucky and blessed that now you're officially my sister-in-law. I love you so much. I mean, thank God.
I'm a family. I really are. By blood. I know.
OK. So going back, what made you want to own your own salon instead of working for someone else? And when did you know you wanted to do that? So I was always a worker.
I loved having a job. I had my first job when I was 14. I was a sandwich artist at Subway. A sandwich artist?
TM. That's their term, not mine. What is it for? I'm going to be printed on our shirts.
What's TM? Trademark. Oh, I don't want Subway coming after us for this. I'm not going to come up with that phrase.
So that was printed on our shirts. It's my first job. And I always had a job since I was 14. Sometimes I had a couple of jobs.
I just liked working and being around people. Sorry. I just realized the TV's on. It is.
Do you think they can hear you? No, probably not. But I'm just going to do something. You keep telling this to be about sandwich artists.
I'm going to know more. Well, the problem with being a sandwich artist is that you'll never like the way anyone makes your sandwich. So I am actually like a Hawkeye at Subway, which is terrible. Because I'm judging.
I'm sorry. All those new new be sandwich artists out there. But you can still eat at Subway even after working there? I actually feel like because I worked there for so long, I feel better about it.
Oh. Because I know the food is fresh. I know how much mayo is in the tuna. It's a lot.
But they said there's not even tuna in the tuna. Oh, it's tuna. It's flake tuna. So then was that a lie?
It was like the pink slime thing. Oh, I know. I know. So in any event, I started off there.
And all my jobs included just interacting with humans. And I've always just loved people. I'm an only child. So I don't know if just spending all the time with adults growing up and having friends around.
I just am a people person. But I do enjoy humans. So I ended up going to beauty school because I tried college for a hot second. It was not for me.
And luckily my parents supported me trying something else. So I graduated to beauty school. I had an apprentice position at a really nice salon. And the people training me were all amazing.
And I had a really great first job in my salon. And I've always kind of had this like what's next energy, which ironically in my life now has tamped down to a really healthy point. At that point, it was probably too much. I never regret being that kind of person.
But it prevented me from stopping on smother roses, like I should have in my life. I missed. There's a lot of things I don't remember that happen. I was always on to the next thing.
So ultimately, the salon I was working at, I had the opportunity to take over the lease. I was 22 about to turn 23. I had way bigger balls than I would have now. Like now me would be like, oh my god, girl, what are you thinking?
Have you done the math? Do you know how to do it? But I always felt like if you're doing the right thing, the right thing's going to happen. That's a gem from Bob Lenz, my dad, shout out to him.
But that really just motivated me to move forward. I had the opportunity to just take over basically two years of this lease. So I was jumping in feet first. I want to work for myself because I want to cultivate an environment that I want to be in.
And I had some great bosses over the years. I had some not so great ones. But it all kind of formed me into how do I make a place that I want to be every day. It doesn't feel so worky.
It's somewhere I love to be. And teaching the other people ultimately around me. We can create our space and we can be happy in it. And that was kind of a subconscious venture.
Looking back, I realized was part of it. Yeah. Wow. OK, so I wasn't going to ask you about this later.
But how do you think being an only child influenced your independence or wanting to be a boss? So funny that it tied in. I think that being an only child, you end up paying attention a lot to what's around you and kind of looking upwards. So I was always looking at my mom and dad and experiencing things my mom and dad were experiencing and going places with them.
And it exposed me to a world that was almost like a little wider than the classic little kids world. I would go to work with my mom when my mom was working and get to see the things she did. And I think that having that solitude is something that makes me really comfortable. I like alone time.
I like to be by myself. I can handle being alone. And I see that sometimes they struggle for people that have siblings. They need that companionship.
And they want somebody around them. When you're able to have that comfortable solitude, you're also able to make decisions based on what's thoughtful and not emotional. It's not reactive. So that was definitely forming me to be able to do something a little bit bigger for myself in my future.
Yeah. When you were growing up, did you ever wish you had siblings? So I remember distinctly asking my parents for a little brother, which is funny because I think I would not really do a little brother. Maybe I would.
I don't know. I just always liked earlier things. But maybe I would have been OK. I learned some boy stuff as a kid.
But I asked my parents for a brother. I think I had to have been somewhere on like five or six. We could find that out later. But I wonder about the play with.
And my mom and dad said, OK, we're going to have to share your stuff, you know, bedroom, toys, whatever. And I said, oh, that's fine. I don't care. OK, well, you know, you're going to have to share your food, whatever it was.
OK, I don't care. And none of that bothered me. And then my mom got me because she said, well, if we have a baby, you're going to have to share me and dad with this child. And I was like, oh, no.
Hell no. You're my mom. You're my dad. Nobody coming between us here yet.
And they did not want another child. So she knew how to get me. And I really give her props for that. But that was my thing.
And funny enough, I always tell people if they only want one child, if there's such a negative connotation around only children. And I'm like, there's older children have issues, middle children have issues, baby children have issues, whatever. We're all going to have some pecking order thing that happens. But deciding only to have one kid doesn't necessarily mean your kid is spoiled with things.
But you might spoil them with love and the way that you love them the time you spend with them. And I was spoiled like that. And so I'm still close to my parents. I've never lived more than a mile from them.
I am obsessed with them. And it'll make me tear up because they're just like, my favorite humans. But I really value that. And so when people are only children that grew up and wish that they had a sibling, I'm always like, oh, man, I'm sorry.
Because maybe they just didn't get to spend as much time with their parents. So they felt lonelier. But I don't feel like that at all. Why do you think there's is there a negative connotation about only children?
Being only child, you always hear that. Really? So people will say, oh, you must have been so spoiled. They're only children.
We're like, we're home-school kids or something. Oh. Sorry, home-schoolers. That's the name.
Judgment getting passed. Why are you so weird? Don't tell anybody. Yeah, it's one of those things you just end up hearing when you're only child.
Or your parents are then always being told, well, don't you think they need a sibling? And you're there. You hear it. So it's just say that to people.
But what I'm understanding at my 37, almost 30 right page is people project all the time what their comfort is, or they're doing to get other people to do it. So they're not alone in their decisions. Those parents were probably like, wow, you're so smart. They were for shy.
Also, do you know the math of how much one child costs, then two, then three, then four? The math will make you a bro pitch. Yeah. I'm just thinking of all the only children I know.
Well, two of my favorite people in the world, you, my friend Tyia, who made the intro for my music therapist. She's an only child. So I'm sorry you had to deal with that. Well, I used to feel worried about it only in what would happen when I was older.
And I think that's the interesting part about what people's perception is. Well, what's going to happen one day when your parents are gone and who are you going to be around? Same reason why people pressure you to have children if you don't want to. Right.
And I think that assuming your family members are built in for every people, that is unfair pressure to put on everybody. But it's also not the right reason to make sure that you have more than one child. Yeah. So I just, I don't know.
I kind of tend to think that that that's part of the problem where people is like, they can't conceptualize that. But I worried about that because people made me feel worried about that. Yeah. And then when I married Trey and he has his two sisters and you and I'm like, oh my god, I have sisters.
Yeah. My sisters, I love. And my cousins, we call each other sister cousins. Yeah.
We are all really tight. Love each other. And so when you choose siblinghood with people that are your people, it's actually amazing. And that's not to knock a sibling bond.
I'm just like, I don't know what it's like to have that. But I don't feel like I lost anything. No. I feel like I got like everything plus.
So did you feel overstimulated at all when you first? Oh, I just feel like she's wearing a freaking patriot jersey. Until we die. OK, she's wearing a Z-ox workout.
OK, so just bouncing out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what's up? Oh, bad bunny.
Yeah. OK. Getting better. Getting better.
OK. When you first came into a big family with an already established dynamic, did you feel overstimulated at all? Or was it just like, I just love chaos? Yeah.
I'm like a minion of chaos. The only time I love chaos, as you know, is in my home. I like my home clean pristine ready for a magazine. Do you always say that?
No, I just made it up. Right. I'm a words girl. I love that.
Clean pristine ready for a magazine. I know. Clean that. Which is why I am.
You're an honorary lesbian. Thank you. Yeah. I do think we're all little by everybody.
That's why you love coming here, too. OK, got it. But that's why you love coming here, too. Oh my god.
This is where I'm going to live ultimately. That's not this room. I could be covered in hair for the joy of this place. But yeah, I did not feel overwhelmed.
I love the huge family dynamic. And just the welcoming that Art-in-Laws gave us gave us was really special. I think a lot of people doing my job as a hairstylist, I talk to so many people. Yes.
And that gives me so much good perspective. It also gives me a lot of gratitude for the things that I have. And the challenges that I've had, I have people to bounce that off of them on through really nice. But just knowing how many people are tortured by having to be around the people that they're married into those families is a bummer.
Or they're in a big family themselves. And they're just like, I'm not into any of this. And that's their thing. It's OK.
I just love it. I love humans just all together, jamming out. And my family, holidays growing up, are very special to me because everybody was just together everywhere. And that felt really good.
So I love that. I was actually going to ask you, I would think like having so many clients in a day, a week, hearing so many different things, always having to be on. How do you not let that infiltrate into your own? Like, how do you protect your bubble?
Having quality conversations with people that I'm comfortable with those conversations and not riled up is definitely important. I think in life when you start to get heated in the conversations you're having with people that you need to kind of maybe exit those because those are the battery drainers. Talking to people all day in a comfortable private setting, like my suite is, in some ways, is actually really nourishing because it's getting me out of my own head. There are definitely times I'm tired when I get home.
I'm sure my husband would say there are times that I don't really talk. When I get home or I'm maybe crabby by the time I get home, but that's usually something is a mess. But I used to take a lot more on the experiences of the people coming into me. When I was a younger stylist, I felt like my empathy button was getting snapped because I would really be heartbroken for things that were people were experiencing.
I'm talking about, luckily I've never had any horrible situations with clients that weren't something that we could laugh about later or I could tell my friends or family, this was wacky shit that happened. But I don't usually feel drained about it. But I also, it's a symbiotic thing. I'm cultivating a space for me and my client to have comfortable, happy, sad, hard conversations and places and trying to keep my own peace level with that so that I don't feel so interrupted like emotionally by the time I get home.
Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And you are really, like clearly you're walking in your calling because it feels that way. You feel very present when you step into your suite.
And I wanted to ask you, obviously you went from having your own lease. I know there was like a whole journey to where you are now, but how has your definition of success changed over time? This is a great question because when I first started my salon and I ended up having a lot of employees and then I opened a second business. So I had two businesses at once.
So the blow dry bar. That I think at one point I had 14 employees between both places. Now I also did not have a spouse or step kids. So my focus was 100% on my business.
So that definitely helped with all that. But I had all these big things and everything was bigger and we were winning awards and best of the Valley and all this stuff you want and it's great. And I was doing a lot of traveling and educating for a company that I still blog for. And again, the concept of everything was like bigger and more and bigger and more.
And then I started to think to myself, especially once I met Trey, I could still be good at what I do and still love what I do and not have it be explosive and 24 seven. Because I think you can only handle that stamina for so long. I mean, I could go to work for 12 or 13 hours. No problem.
Doesn't bother me. People say all the time, how can you stand all that? I love it. I don't have people sit all day, honestly.
Maybe it's like I'm a little cracked out that I need to be moving, but it made me realize once especially COVID happened, I only had one business after that. So that made me think, okay, well, now I have a little more time, a little more mental energy. And even when I relocated my original salon downtown, so both my businesses were there, I moved into a smaller space. I had less employees.
And people looked at that and asked me, like, is everything cool? Are you okay? You're working in a smaller space now. You have less people, like that shrinking your load of stuff that you're doing was a negative down to the point now where I work by myself and my clients.
So that concept of like more and bigger is going to be success. It didn't really get anywhere for me. I didn't really feel any better. I feel like I made less money.
I had less time. I felt burned out more. And even though I enjoyed all of those years, my success is now doing the job that I do every day, doing hair, being with people, letting people physically do things to their hair and faces if we're working on brow things and letting people letting me into their lives, me sharing myself with those people on that small micro scale, having people in the suites I still collaborate with, but also having a life. And I think in a lot of ways, I was running away from having a life by just making work my entire life because I didn't know what that was going to look like for me.
I was never like a kind of kid with a defense girl, but I don't know what else that meant. So being able to have the balance, but finding peace and peaceful times and sticking to my truth and being who I am, regardless of the things that are happening around me, those are successful moments for me. That's how I feel like I'm here. Like I got here.
Hell yeah. I think you literally have a white picket fence. Do you? No, it's a black wrought iron.
Perfect. So much more money. That's my vibe. That's me.
It's actually a good kill someone if you land on it. Yes, they're spikes. Perfect. It keeps the birds away.
What would you tell someone who wanted to be doing what you're doing now? What advice would you get? Like being in a suite or just owning their own business. Yeah.
Be a people person because if you own a business, you're going to go with humans unless you're doing some tech startup, which I can't give people advice because that's not my jam. You need to be able to have a structure that you follow that is really unshakable. Your foundation needs to be there. Whether that's your morals that you're willing to say, this is the kind of awesome it to be.
This is the kind of worker I want to be at the place that I'm owning. You have to have that structure and you need to know going into it what your expectations are of yourself and be open to criticism because that's only going to make you better. You have to be able to have people tell you what you're not doing right hopefully in a nice way and be able to also be what I always say is comfortably confrontational with other people. You need to also speak up for what you want.
Even that's with a client. Somebody might be treating or talking to an away or they're uncomfortable or upset and you have to resolve that. You have to be okay with confrontation and people really don't like that. People don't want to be confrontational toward each other because it has such a negative aggressive tie in.
You just have to have that firmness and foundation. The other thing that I think is huge is being aware that at the 11th hour all the plans you've made and everything you're doing might not work out. There's always going to be a reason why that is. I think people hate cliches like everything happens for a reason but it does.
The problem with that, just like karma, is you don't see it right away. It can be really frustrating because you just feel why. Why this? I worked so hard and I wanted to be exactly this way but if you're able to adapt and pivot, you're going to find later on why the things went the way they did.
It's going to lead you where you need to go. I think that being adaptable is huge. Yeah. How do you deal with people in this political climate if they are saying things that you vehemently disagree with?
It's interesting because so many of my clients might have great political conversations and they are like, wow, you know, kind of same thing. How do you deal with this? Or you don't have anybody that doesn't think that treating humans is wrong. I'm like, no, I have people that don't agree with that but they're willing to look the other way.
I find that a lot of people are shocked at that because in this job, as long as I've been doing it, which is almost 18 years, you end up really attracting people like you enough. They want to be around you. You want to have those conversations? It's intimate.
It is. I have some favorite clients of mine that have said some really borderline shit and I generally like to change the subject to make it obvious that I don't agree. I think the subtleties of things move farther where you're not going to get inflamed. I hate when people say things to me to put me in a box.
You're liberal and you're a bit, I'm me. My spiritual beliefs are my own. They don't fit anywhere. Too specific they might draw from things.
I think politically what I always say to people is being a good person. I'm going to vote for that. Treating people like shit. I'm going to hate on that.
I don't have to 100% agree with anybody. I think from a political standpoint, we need to see evolution and adaptation. Often what I'll say if somebody gets pretty straight up about something is really something to try and get them to understand themselves. I don't always want to bring in what I think as much as I want somebody else to think about the way that they're thinking.
So smart. Saying, well, you don't feel comfortable with things that are hurting people. A person's like, no, I don't. We at least know that.
Do you have things that you believe in because you actually know what's going on? Are they something that's trying to understand that if I'm comfortable enough with that person? How they got there? I had a really interesting conversation with a client about Israel and Palestine.
We really did not agree. We still got through the whole conversation and I've known this person forever and I really like them as a client. There was times where I felt it could have gotten probably a little more uncomfortable, but when you're having people in a space that you're working on them, you owe it to them to steer that ship into a positive enough direction. I think as a whole, nobody gets anywhere by just snapping at each other when they don't agree.
And it was a time that I truthfully had a problem that I could not get out of. It was in like 2021 and I had a client make some remarks to me about trans men or women using bathrooms for their gender that they're transitioned into and identified as. And I couldn't really move past that in an artful way without saying, you know, people are just going to the bathroom to use the bathroom. And if you think that, then lesbian shouldn't be allowed in women's rooms and gay men shouldn't be allowed into men's rooms.
And that I couldn't even hold that back because what she had said was so transphobic. So luckily the things that people say I think because I have a good relationship with them usually don't cross that line. And I can have either a comfortable enough segue into like you be a little more thoughtful about what you're saying or change a subject in a way that's so awkward, it makes me laugh because you can tell the person's like, oh, okay, right, which shocks me that they wouldn't assume. I agree.
I'm almost offended when somebody says something to me that I'm like, you think I would be down with that? Yeah, I'm not fucking cool with that. I don't know what about me is giving you that impression, but it's that ain't it. And I guess in some way though, I feel super proud that I can have a space that is so neutral.
Right. They feel comfortable and they don't really know that much about me. Right. But being in a suite, I can have more difficult conversations.
They're a little bit less antagonistic. I think once you're really one of them, someone's looking you in the face and you're sitting eye level with them and your demeanor and your body language is not riled up, you're going to get somewhere. Yeah. But going that other route, it's just we're all like squawking at each other.
And I've cared about politics since I was 16. I've not seen a single thing change in the arguments of the standard abortion, immigration, gay marriage, all these things have been just discussed and they don't, it's irrelevant. These things, these are things that happen. These are things that people are just living their lives doing.
The big problems don't get solved or resolved because everybody's stuck and hung up on these like argumentative topics. So I just am so tired of all that. And that's basically what I tell people if they try to get a little too political with me. I'm like, I just want to see some progress.
And I'm really tired of hearing for 21 years the same shit. Yeah. So. Yeah.
Who was running for president when you were 16? Oh, and you know, I got to say what I miss that man. Shoken on a pretzel looking innocent. I know what the fuck was going on.
He was an angel. And it turned out that he really is like a sweetie. He's actually a gem. But you don't know when this is a grass is not always greener situation.
So yeah, I do. I think about that and how that was I was so righteous at that time in my life. And so like he's the worst in blood, like he wasn't the worst. No, he was a really moderate dude.
Yeah. Same thing. I'm so John McCain. I really actually respected him in the late and but he picked a dumb, dumb, dumb for his running me and think I that woman was not the first woman representative in office of, you know, the presidential offices.
But yeah, I definitely I care a lot about politics, but I also don't care about something that isn't changing and having those arguments endlessly. And I watch people get so consumed. Sadly, I see a lot of the and I hate to name call generations because you know, we all like show other generations, but like the boomer level age group really consumed by all this, but not proactive. Right.
And that's so suffocating for people. Yeah. Badly to see people so tortured and don't know where to go with it. And so those kinds of things often even people that I agree with just constant like harping throughout a whole appointment.
I'm trying to pull people out of that. Yeah. You got two hours here to not be stuck in the law. So let's let's yeah, the shit sucks.
You know what volunteer somewhere sign up to do some stuff phone bank do whatever. But like what else are you doing? What else is great? Right.
So trying to pick people up like that and just be like, we don't have to always send a negative space. Even if shit sucks. Tap out for two hours. Just take a breather.
Tap out. That's it doesn't mean you're being a grand or you don't care because you're not so consumed, but you don't have to be eaten alive by something for it to matter and to be able to care about stuff. It just doesn't have to be so extreme in like taking over your whole personality. So let's just say you have like a last minute cancellation, you have free time and you're sitting behind your desk and there's an knock on the door and it's a gentleman and he's wearing a make America great and he says, hey, do you have time for a walk in cut.
What would you do? I would do it. Yeah, for sure. I have a prison by hanging in my windows when the sun hits it rainbows are in my room and I love when those land on people that wouldn't necessarily support a rainbow.
I have two little stuffed cherries that hold hands. That's my nod to my gaze. Like their little cherry stuffies on my retail shelf. So my impact, it reminds me of a client of mine who I really love.
She is a Muslim woman and as she's been raised that way and grown up into adulthood and become a parent, she has a lot more loose views, her own views. She still follows her religion, she still wears a headscarf but she isn't super closed off like she was raised and she told me when she wears her headscarf all the time because she wants people to have positive interactions with a Muslim woman who's wearing a headscarf. And I'm like, what an amazing sacrifice to the other things you might experience when you're wearing a headscarf. Yeah, the majority of the things you might experience.
The way people will treat you and judge you but to do that and again her looking at that as a positive way to influence people, I want the person that doesn't think and just blindly goes to come in and be like, oh, this person isn't what I am. And I love that and I love this person and I have a client like that who has extremely evangelical beliefs and always says, you know, I knew this person was a Christian, they were great because they were a Christian and I always say to her, like, but you love me so much and I'm not. So like, don't forget that. So I think that having the opposite person around you reminds us they're humans even though some of them are monsters.
But I also want those people to know like, don't be judging everybody else that's not like you because you're gonna come in here and you're gonna fucking love me. Just so you know, if I be ready. Okay, this is a little bit of a we're gonna change the subject. What's something that you're proud of that you don't talk about often?
Ooh. Mm hmm. I would say that I am proud of being able to be a parent to kids that aren't my kids. And I don't talk about that a lot because I think that that wasn't their choice and it can be hard for kids to have a third parent or an extra parent in their life and just like share that love that you have for your mom and dad with somebody else.
But I'm really proud of how much I love them. It's gonna make me choke it. Want some grape aid? Okay.
Which I think is so jay. And that they matter to me the way they do because I know a lot of people that don't look at their stepkids like that. And it's hard to be a parent. It's really hard to be a parent to people that you didn't necessarily know you were gonna end up doing it for.
But I love them and I love seeing them grow up and I really care and I'm proud that I care about them like that. And that I'm grateful that they let me. But I think that being objective because I don't have any ego tied into them, they're not my children. So I don't feel like their mistakes are mine or my fault.
I just feel very happy and able to look at them objectively and say I want you to be amazing people with amazing lives. And sometimes that means I'm gonna do hard things and I'm not gonna do things you like, but I'm doing it for you. So I'm proud of that. You should be.
Thank you. You're such a good person, Mandi. I'm like the world's freaking best sister-in-law. Oh my gosh, I just love you so much.
I mean, I just feel like we have an amazing family, but we really bring the fun. You're the fun people. There might be some bus killings out there in the world, but it's not us. We live it up.
We laugh, we have a good time. You could have brought some wet blankets in, but no. No. Those Oswalds say good pickers.
They know how to pick them. Yeah. They know who's gonna bring a good time. Let's go.
I know who's gonna drink Babrie's is. Yes. We taught, so this is a shout out to our father-in-law. He had never really had a Malibu Babrie's.
Maybe he did, but he didn't have the right one, or he didn't have it with the right people. I don't know how it came up. He wanted something sweet and fruity, and you're like, oh, try this. I just don't have the world's best orange juice.
It's like that. It's like Uncle Matt or something. I've heard of it, but I want it because I'm drinking this Tropicand. No, you need to get it.
It's like $9. That's worth it. It's really good. I love that.
We made him, and now he's obsessed. That's really cute. It's really cute. Honestly, I will always drink those and feel connected to him even if he's not around.
Even if I'm somewhere else, and I'm like, I'm not the Babrie's. I'm like, the other thing too, to give our mother-in-law a shout-out. She had so-noss these really cool quilts that fold into a square so they could be a little cushion or a frow pillow. They're called quillows.
What'd I call that? I didn't even know that. Quillows. That's way easier to describe than what I just said.
She made us some quillows. She made us some quillows. Veronica and I had a little mini photo shoot with them, and still in this pop up on my photo memories, I'm like, I fucking love us. We are so happy.
We're laying on the floor in one of them. Our hair is spread around, and then we haven't wrapped on us. We've got to, I actually need to print some of those. We've got stockings the same year.
It was the year we got to the stock we added to the mantle. I'm just really grateful that you're on the sister-in-law journey with me. We're in this together. We're in this together.
Those are all my questions for you. I'm going to tell you something I've been thinking about a lot before we're done. Honestly, it was like, spurned by I watched Jane Goodall on famous last words. Did you watch it?
Are you going to tell me I can't release this until you die? No. I hope that it's not your otherwise, what have you done? I'm like in the vault.
I hope that we're all going to be immortal with our kitties. Like, James, you have to release it. You got it. We got to teach you how to boop it.
We're both croaked. We're just so happy but we croaked instead. We're like, we've got to start. So Jane Goodall, there was a famous last words documentary with her, which if for anybody that doesn't know is only released after you die.
I'm not laughing at her death. I'm just, it's Veronica putting this in the vault is making me stressed. Sorry, no, it's coming out. But she talked about these little things that she does because in this world that's heavy and scary and that's really from a climate and conservation standpoint also politically.
All these little things that she does staying in a hotel and not using the plastic trash bags, stuff like that. And she was like, if thousands of people do this, it makes a difference. And so we always look for everything in our life to be super impactful on these huge levels. Myself included, I always have a goal sheet of all these things I want to do.
I'm not getting them done because I can't commit 100% and we don't have to do that 100% but doing micro movements. That's my new vibe of life is micro movements of things, tiny little things, even when someone's buying a coffee for the person behind them and that pay it forward and you hear about it and it becomes viral. In your life, if you have something very tiny and small that you do for someone else, for yourself, whatever motivation that's for, so many tiny things add up and make so many differences. And so I just think that of a lot of the things that we've talked about, micro movement thought is what is going to move us all forward.
It's going to make your life better on the daily but also I think as a society, if we look at that and we look at those tiny little opportunities, it's going to change things. It's going to make us feel like we matter and we make a difference. So that's what I wanted to share. I love that.
Thank you. And I will release this before we so excited. Try to keep it with the listen. Yay!
Hey, try that. Well, it's no surprise that it felt easy and I didn't get nervous at all. I'm going to have a good one. You're the best.
I love you. I love you so much, Mandy. And we love James. Do some ASMR in his belly.
She's rubbing her microphone against James's. Okay, everybody. Thanks for listening. Bye.
Bye. Bye.