Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Hi, I'm Al Neely. I've spent most of my life asking, " Why do people behave a certain way? Why don't people understand that most everyone wants basically the same thing? Most everyone wants their fundamental need for peace of mind, nourishment, shelter and safety."
What I have learned is that because of an unwillingness to open one's mind to see that some of the people you come in contact with may have those same desires as you do. We prejudge, isolate ourselves, and can be hesitant to interact, and sometimes we can be belligerent towards one another. This is caused by learned behavior that may have repeated itself for generations in our families.
What I hope to do with this podcast is to introduce as many people with as many various cultures, backgrounds, and practices as possible. The thought is that I can help to bring different perspectives by discussing various views from my guests that are willing to talk about their personal experiences.
Hopefully we all will learn something new. We may even learn that most of us share the same desire for our fundamental needs. We may just simply try to obtain it differently.
Sit back, learn, and enjoy!
Listen Up with Host Al Neely
How Fashion, Music, And Community Power Hampton Roads
Fashion doesn’t just live in New York or Paris. It thrives wherever creators take the risk to build a stage. We sit down with Ann Ward Lester and Jennifer Lester of Splash Entertainment Group to trace how a model management experiment became Virginia Fashion Week, why they aligned this year’s showcase with Timbaland Way, and what it takes to turn a local runway into a real creative economy in Hampton Roads.
Ann opens up about the early vision shared with stylist Ron Cook and the late, beloved Cookie Dabney, and how that collaboration set a professional standard for fittings, lineups, and show flow. Jennifer reveals the moving parts you don’t see: model calls, designer coordination, communications, and the 48‑hour scramble before lights up. Together, they map a pipeline where first collections evolve into paid work in New York, Paris, and Dubai—and how those alumni circle back to teach, mentor, and vend, keeping the ecosystem alive. We talk candidly about sponsor realities in a military‑leaning market, the rising tide from Pharrell’s Something in the Water, and why honoring local music on the runway turns a fashion show into a cultural salute.
You’ll also hear beauty and skincare wisdom from Ann’s channel, Fabulous Life 101—practical routines for midlife skin health that complement the runway’s artistry. From vendor curation that favors actual makers to collaborations with Team Lamb, the episode offers a grounded blueprint for building a scene: focus on craft, elevate community, and let fashion, music, and film amplify each other. Join us, grab tickets via VAFashionWeek.com, and help push Hampton Roads further onto the creative map. If the episode resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to support the artists shaping our city’s future.
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YouTube: Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Hello everyone, I'm Al Neely and I want like to welcome you to Listen Up Podcast. We're in season four where our focus is going to be on the arts. And today we have Ann and Jennifer Lester with us. They are uh fashion promoters and agents in the Hampton Roads area. Ann, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_02:I'm doing great, Al. It's so good to be here, really and looking forward to this.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And Jen, thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_01:And so glad to be here. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Um, you've such a beautiful space, and you've such a wonderful podcast that you do.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, thank you very much. So let's get right down to it. So I met you guys at a meeting and we were there's an event that were coming up, and had the opportunity to talk with you. And you started this organization, is Splash Entertainment, is what it's called.
SPEAKER_02:Right, Splash Entertainment Group. That's okay. The company, I started the company in 2006. We had the initial focus was model and talent management. We kind of shifted a little bit more towards the show production now.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Just events and what's uh gotten the most interest from the public, I guess. But the VA Fashion Week is sort of our main event that we try to do every year. We've missed When is VA Fashion Week? We're not doing a full week this year. We're just doing one main show, and that's gonna be October 19th. It's gonna be at Mocha. Uh VAFashionweek.com has all the information, as well as uh we have tickets on Eventbrite that are available right now. Uh we're excited because this weekend we've been asked to sort of partner with or be a part of the Timberland Way weekend. And of course, I'm a big fan of all the music that's come out of Virginia over the past, what, 25 years or so? Yeah. And Timberland has been such a significant contributor to that. So I was thrilled to find out that he was being honored. And unfortunately, he won't be able to make it down show because he has to fly back out after his he's is honored.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, the show is that Sunday. The show is that Sunday.
SPEAKER_02:He's gonna the on the tribute to him is gonna be on Friday and Saturday.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:But we're hoping, you know, some of the team will be there, and we're gonna feature a lot of his music during the fashion show. So we're really gonna salute the music of Virginia as well as the fashion.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Jennifer, how long have you been uh well, you've probably been helping your mother for a while. So how do you, in what capacity do you help your mother?
SPEAKER_01:Let's see. I am sort of her assistant, her VP. I um help her with everything that she does. I help coordinate the shows. I'm sort of her other set of eyes and ears. Okay. Uh, when we have shows, because there are so many different places that you have to be, and there's so many different um tasks that have to be taken care of on the day of the event.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I also just help organizing the model calls, organizing the communications with models, designers, other talent who are involved with our events, and just with the planning process, the production process. It's all something that I've been very excited to do and I've been very interested in since I was a little kid.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Are you the main um originator of the fashion week in this area?
SPEAKER_02:There's uh the other person involved in this that's been my partner from day one is Ron Cook.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Ron is now based out of DC. He is a really international fashion stylist. He's worked with a lot of different celebrities. Um as a stylist as well as a runway producer. He was up in New York producing a fashion show during Fashion Week.
SPEAKER_01:He, you know, traveled, really has traveled the world doing fashion. He has done shows in Germany, um, the Virgin Islands, um, France, I think, just from all over the world. He's amazing work.
SPEAKER_02:He knows how to keep it together. You know, he's the one that he's backstage, handles all the fittings, the um lineup, and just he he keeps he keeps us cool. He's been doing this for so long. He he just keeps us cool during the entire thing while we're kind of sometimes running around a little bit crazy. Why is it this person here yet? What what's going on with this? Why, you know, isn't this set up yet?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you guys are hurting cats. He's got focused.
SPEAKER_02:He's focused. He's got all everything that's going out under the runway, he's got under control.
SPEAKER_01:He's done this a million times, so like nothing can shock him, nothing can can freak him out. You know, he's done this so many times, uh, so many different places that he's seen it all.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha. So um, you've also been involved in some acting. So to talk about your organization. So you've been doing this for 18 years now? Right.
SPEAKER_02:About I think 19 years since I 18 years since we started the fashion week. Yeah. Our first fashion week. 19 years since I started Splash. And it was right after when I was starting it and just managing models, and I met Ron's sister, Cookie Dabney, this a beautiful, vivacious woman who uh was in all of the shows. She was just stunning on the runway. Um, she uh passed away suddenly of a brain aneurysm in 2014. Oh my god so that was a big blow to our team, and we had to really reorganize. That was, of course, around the time that Jen was sort of coming of age, so she was able to take over a few of the things. But Cookie's presence is still very much missed, and we always pay tribute to her in some way with everything that we do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So do both of you or either of you have a background in modeling or acting?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, she does. She modeled in the 1980s.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I did a little bit of modeling in the 80s and 90s, and well, mainly the 80s. And I've done a few TV commercials, and back when they had the investigation discovery channel shows going on, I was a regular in those as well as casting other people, helping the working with the casting directors.
SPEAKER_01:She never got to play the murderer or the dead body.
SPEAKER_02:I know. I was disappointed. Disappointed.
SPEAKER_00:Never got to be the killer, but so now you have to put a production on where you can play the murderer.
SPEAKER_01:I guess I could, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha.
SPEAKER_02:Well, she's been involved.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I was I was in one too. I was uh the uh daughter of a victim. That was when I was about 13 or 14. Yeah, she and I played the daughter of one of the murder victims, but in one of those shows.
SPEAKER_02:But she's also does is been involved with 48-hour film festival a lot where she's written and acted and some. Oh, we gotta talk about that.
SPEAKER_01:So 48-hour film festival, it's a competition. Um, they have them all over the world, but there's a wonderful group uh here in Hampton Roads um that do a um film festival where you are given a character, a prop in a line of dialogue, yeah, and you have 48 hours to make a movie. And um, it's it's a short film, but it's still in massive, massive undertaking to throw something together in 48 hours. And I've been team, I've only been team lead once, but I've participated in it several different times the last few years. And it's a it's a really fun project to be a part of. And I feel like my background with the fashion shows and having done events uh makes me well suited to be able to throw something together in 48 hours because while we don't throw our fashion shows together in 48 hours, there's usually a lot of stuff that has to get done in those 48 hours, you know, right before the show or during the show. So I've I've have some experience with that.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I I see. So tell me, um, what inspired you for to create your your group, Splash, and then this area. Um are you from this area?
SPEAKER_02:Right. I grew up. I actually grew up in Suffolk. Okay. Uh went to William Mary. She did many years later, and then I lived in Virginia Beach pretty most of the time. I went up in Northern Virginia for a few years, but most of the time I've been back here.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And um, I think part of it is just around that time frame, 2006, 2007, I was really keeping up. That was when the internet was really starting to explode. Okay. And I think back then it was my space. But I just by being online and all of it, I became aware of all of the different fashion events in other towns about the same size as ours. Okay. For example, Charleston, South Carolina has a great fashion week. Um, we had been in Arizona in 2006, I think, because my husband was on a short-term IT job there. Okay. And Scottsdale, Scottsdale had a fashion week. And I noticed cities all popping up all over with their own fashion week, focusing on emerging designers from that region. And I knew this area had emerging designers. They had a lot of, there was a lot of talent here. So I just basically, we were sitting down at my friend Cookie's dining room table one day. I just was went over to visit her and we were having coffee at her table with Ron and just chatting. Wouldn't it be fun to start something like that here? And they said, We're in. You know, if you if you, you know, want to do it, we're in. So I um put together a package and initially we had a radio station involved that helped us promote it the first season. And then later it just became our organization, and we would have each year we, you know, have to go through the problem the process of finding a venue and finding sponsors, and uh, you know, is realize just how much work it all is, in addition to just putting the stuff out on the runway. But it's been it's been fun, it's been rewarding. I've met and made friends with some of the most incredible people along the way, which I think is the biggest blessing of it all, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I and this area is I we probably do what we're doing for the love of the area. Um I'm trying to focus mainly uh on things that are taking place in this area. That's why I wanted to have you guys come on. But it's grown. And where do you see um it right now in relationship to other areas in the country?
SPEAKER_02:It's kind of frustrating because that for a while I was really thinking, we can become a big fashion center, but uh the the area is so focused on other things. You know, you you get more support from businesses if you're doing a truck show or a gun show than you will if you're doing a fashion show. I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, the military is such an important part of the region. And I I think it's just somehow I say more masculine energy than feminine or I can see that a little less metro. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, it's growing towards that area that I think is going towards that now. And you can actually see with the development taking place um in the city or down at the ocean front. What were you thinking, Jay?
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say, yeah, there's been a lot, I think a lot of it credit can be gone to, you know, it's gonna be Timbaland week and Timbaland's cousin, of course, is Pharrell. And Pharrell and what he did with something in the water, I do think maybe has given us more of a glimmer of what kind of arts community this area really can be. Yeah. And there is something wonderful because I do believe all of the arts kind of go hand in hand. Fashion, music, um, visual art.
SPEAKER_00:I do too.
SPEAKER_01:Writing, film production, they all go hand in hand. You can't do one without the others.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. If you watch the red carpet at any of the award shows, the VMAs were just a few weeks ago, and of course the Grammys and the American Music Awards and Emmy, the Emmys. But you know, the you can see how much the fashion plays a role in all of the artists' form of expression. And I think, you know, the music, of course, uh, really brings to life the fashion show. So this year, being able to incorporate music from this area with the fashion that we're showing on the runway, I think it's gonna be especially exciting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So let me ask you this do you think the arts drive culture, or do you think it's more of the other way around? Because I I have a belief.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's both. I think it's they feed off of each other. They feed off of each other, right?
SPEAKER_00:So fashion is definitely part of the arts. And you you could see that, and even with the music, that is an expression of um culture.
SPEAKER_01:And there is a big element, I think, in this area of when some people succeed, when you have people that do really succeed in their area, like Pharrell and Timbaland. And um I mean, there's been just a lot of talent from this area, like going back to like the 70s and 80s, even. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, it it helps LA the clips, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it just lifts, I think it does lift the community up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um so talk a little bit about what you have going on. I know you were talking about Fashion Week coming up in October. Uh, but what else do you have planned? What are your plans for um the rest of the year?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I I'm hoping we'll get some amendment off of Fashion Week to um maybe plan s uh of an event in the spring.
SPEAKER_00:Also Do you have a lot of people that continue to sponsor? You s are your sponsors are uh a lot of the same people and organizations?
SPEAKER_02:Or is it very it varies from year to year. Um I'm really excited this year because we have a lot of really strong, solid vendors, and they're all entrepreneurs or creative people, a lot of people that make their own jewelry or their own soap or candles or skincare products. And uh, because uh I know a few years ago when we were getting vendors, we kept getting the same MLNs, you know, the multi-level marketing people. Oh no. And this year we're we're kind of we done just kind of drew the line and said, let's want, let's get the creative talent. We want creative talent everywhere. So we have an amazing group of vendors that are very creative that are gonna be there this year, too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So Jen, you how long are you gonna uh you continue to help your mom and carry on? You're just gonna take over.
SPEAKER_01:I I don't really know. Um we're I I the way that this job works typically, it's not like a full-time job. So I also do some consulting and I work on some other projects as well. Oh, okay. But this is always something I'm gonna be involved, as long as she'll have me, this is something I want to be involved with.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm sure she would.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we we have such a good I mean, in addition to being mother-daughter, we're like best friends now that she's grown up and I have a lot of respect for her creativity and she does for mine. So we feed off of each other really well. And then we when you throw Ron into the mix too, and he has a you know different perspective and so much um so many connections to the fashion industry that I think we we really make a good team.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. How many events do you usually put on per year?
SPEAKER_02:Uh it's usually usually just one main event. Occasionally we've had smaller shows in the spring or summer.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, actually, most most years what we do for Virginia Fashion Week, it's uh several different shows. This year it's only one show because we're throwing it together. It this is this one's a little bit more of a um sort of speed run, getting this planned, getting this scheduled. Um, but typically we have one show on the weekend, and then we have like two or three other shows, either that we produce or sometimes we work with other people that produce shows. Um, for instance, there's one great group, uh Team Lamb, that we've partnered with in some in the past. They have an amazing following. They are designers as well as just general creatives who, you know, work with the music community and the fashion community. And um, they're going to be showing at our event this year. Um and last uh last year they actually had their own show and they put together some wonderful stuff. So we have a history of partnering with other fashion shows and sort of collaborating with other um fashion designers and producers in the Hampton Roads area.
SPEAKER_02:And yeah, this year's it is a little different because with the Timberland Way weekend, we want to, you know, we're we want the focus to be on him for the Friday and Saturday, for the early part of the week. So we're just doing the final the show on Sunday, and that's our main thing. And we're gonna we're offering our support to any one of the Timberland Way team that may need us to help out in events prior to that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Do we have a lot of designers in this area?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, we do. We have some great um some really uh what what has been fun to watch is designers that come and they show you their very first collection with you. When uh, you know, I know there was one girl who was right out of college and she showed her first collection.
SPEAKER_01:Macasa La Charles. And she's now the William Mary alum, like I'm she's also a William Mary alum.
SPEAKER_02:And she now, um in fact, around the time we met her, was when Jen was starting at William Mary. And um, you know, she had Makasa had recently graduated. She did a small collection, then it grew into a bigger collection. She's shown outside of the area. She now has her own sketchy dreams academy where she teaches uh sewing and design to, you know, high school and middle school kids. So that's I think that's great to see people go that way. Another girl that started off as a model with us went decided she loved fashion so much. She went to design school. She's now living in New York, working for a company that manufactures makes like pajamas and lingerie and stuff, and she's like a key designer with them. So she's working as a professional designer now. And, you know, some other models that have started with us that a couple of my took to New York. And one of them worked in um Paris and Milan, and and she's still in New York. Uh so it's it's really oh another one of our uh designers has shown in Paris and Dubai and other places. So it's really fun to look back on the shows and think of these people that you met and you've become friends with and you've gotten to know and respect and see them really going amazing places w in this field.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Do they come back to help or a lot of times they'll come back and they'll show like Makasa, where uh she did not do a collection yet. I think she's gonna have one for next year, but this year, because she's been so focused on the academy, but she's gonna be a vendor, you know, talking about her academy and things. Um and several of the others are returning to show again with us. So like Latois, who she actually came to a model call and La La Trois Fashion Collection. She um is showing with us this year. She just showed in New York, got back from showing in New York Fashion Week. So it's always nice to have you know the designers that who have branched out come back here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Are you are you still helping to place models?
SPEAKER_02:I I'm hoping to after this year, you know, the ones some of the ones that stand out in the show, maybe doing a spring trip and going up to New York and making some intros. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that sounds interesting. Uh-huh. So, Jennifer, talk about um how uh the the filming has kind of got me a little intrigued. How did you get into that?
SPEAKER_01:That's something is just going back to like when I was in, I don't know, middle school. I was always interested in like theater and acting. Right. And as I got older, I got actually more interested into the the writing aspect. So I looked for any sort of opportunities for me to do writing. I love to do really comedy and horror.
SPEAKER_00:And in combination or separately, or uh either way. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, some of my favorite products we did actually were like more like black comedy type of things that had elements of both. And so that's something that I've always been just really interested in. And honestly, growing up in the fashion world, I got a lot of more knowledge about like shooting video, editing video through some of the things we've had to do through the fashion shows. And I'm still not an expert in those areas. I'm still more of a the creative person than the technical person, but it's definitely given me an interesting skill set or even things like lighting. Like I very kind of intuitively have known on sets and stuff a little bit more about lighting than most people would just because of you know the background growing up, doing fashion shows, doing photo shoots. Photo shoots sort of were interesting transition because you're doing a lot of the same things that you do uh on a film set when you're doing a fashion photo shoot. And we've done, we haven't really done the um physical print media as much anymore, but we used to do actual a print magazine for all of our fashion week. So we do a call at Virginia Fashion Magazine, and we would have a like a keynote photo shoot um for each issue where we would take our best models and our best designers. Um, usually we would find like a really cool place to shoot, either um in Hampton Roads or in Richmond, and do a sort of signature photo shoot each year.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um so which one do you like the most?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that is hard. That is really hard. Because to me, they're they're related in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:It's hard to sort of separate, but I guess I'm always gonna pick fashion. Okay. I'm always gonna pick fashion over everything else. Like that's just that's number one.
SPEAKER_00:So Anne's happy to hear that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:To me, I I love it all as well. You know, fashion, film, uh theater, art. It's it just it all goes together and it's all just part of, you know, I I'm glad when we're doing this because this year, because it's it's really got my creative juices going again. Yeah. And that's always fun for me is to be in the middle of a production and to in sort of individualize, sort of visualize how it's gonna come through and then, you know, see what actually takes place. It's usually a little different from what we imagine, but it usually comes through really well. And hopefully a lot of happy people come out of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So I'm I'm looking forward to it. That's a that should be a great week, and there should be quite a few people in town to do it. So um I'm glad I had an opportunity to run into you guys to to talk about that. So you have that coming up. How do people get in contact with you?
SPEAKER_02:The best way is the website, because that has a link to the email as well. Okay. Uh VAFashionweek.com. Just V-A-F-A-S-H-I-O-N-W-E-K dot com. Okay. And that, and also we're we are on I'm on Instagram as myself, Ann Ward Lester, and as VA Fashion Week. Uh, you know, she's Jennifer Ann Lester, and I'm on um I'm uh actually I actually do a uh YouTube and a TikTok channel as well. I do odd YouTube. Oh, really? I do videos on makeup and skincare and as well as some things to talk about covering out shadows and all that. How long have you been doing that? Actually, that could it's a funny thing. It started during the pandemic when we really couldn't get out and couldn't do a lot.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I, you know, shopping was mainly ordering stuff online. And I would just test an eyeshadow palette or test um, you know, a new foundation or something, and just started doing that on YouTube. And it's grown a bit. I know I have a little over 15,000 followers, which is nothing compared to the people that have millions, but it's it's getting there.
SPEAKER_01:Fabulous life 101. Fabulous life 101 on YouTube.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So uh obviously, um I would imagine some men are, but definitely people as we get older, we're more concerned about how we look. So if you're advising that, I'm pretty sure that's a big following for that.
SPEAKER_02:Is for women like, you know, 40s, 50s, and 60s, you know, dealing with what's good for your skin, you know, as you get older and and looking good. Because I think a lot of my fan people, my uh followers are people who are, you know, midlife or whatever, and who still want to look young, dress young, and feel good about themselves. So that's kind of the whole a attitude about it. Just be your most fabulous.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's always um I think it's great that people when it when they get older, they want to continue to take care of themselves to make that investment. Um things are just different, you know. People from the 40s and the 50s and the 60s, they look beyond their age.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's and now since the 2000s, I mean, you you can't really someone that takes care of themselves, you can't really tell.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What age they are.
SPEAKER_01:It's amazing how many celebrities that are like in their 50s or their sixties that look like not a day over 35, some of them, you know. Yeah. Like you see on the red carpets women like J Lo and Sandra Bullock, and um oh god.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Thinking about what is there, there's some Angela Bassett. Oh god, yeah, Angela Bassett. I remember when she did um American Horror Story Coven and she was about 55 and she looks 30.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, like just fantastic. She still looks like she's 40 anyway.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, she does not look like she's 40. She looks like she's in her 30s, like to this day, and she's I don't even know how old. Yeah. In her 60s, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I I think that's a testament to learning how to eat, um, your environment. Um, we live near the ocean. So one of the things I do notice is being in the salt water a lot helps my skin. Yeah. And um just being in salt water and moisturizing helps a lot with just um the way you look.
SPEAKER_01:So moisturizer is like the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You gotta moisturize in the morning and night. Yeah, moisturizer, sunscreen, um, retinol, vitamin C.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. All right. So there we go. So those are all the things that you talk about.
SPEAKER_02:I talk a little bit about all those things, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So what is the name of the podcast or the channel? It's a YouTube channel.
SPEAKER_02:YouTube channel, Fabulous Life 101, and I think it's TikTok is the same thing. And I've, you know, the um on Instagram it's Ann Ward Lester, which is my name, and also VA Fashion Week of my two Instagram channels.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Don't do you have any channels or anything that you're doing, especially with your productions and on I'm on Instagram, um, socialist socialite.
SPEAKER_01:Um, that's the main thing that I I I'm not as big. Uh I I will help with social media for the business and for the, but I'm not like trying to be, I'm not, I'm I'm not a big on TikTok or YouTube in terms of me posting stuff. I watch stuff, you know, yeah, compulsively watching everyone else's, but I don't really put out a lot of that.
SPEAKER_00:So your mom's the influencer.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, she's the influencer in the family.
SPEAKER_02:She we have done things together. Occasionally we'll uh, you know, but particularly when they have a big sale at Alto Sephora, we'll, you know, take get one thing and we'll uh invite her into my little room where I have set up with lighting and all. And we'll sit and we'll take a same palette and demonstrate it two different ways or whatever. So interesting. Couple episodes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's very good. Okay. Um I think you told us how to find you. So you're on uh are you on TikTok? Did you say TikTok?
SPEAKER_02:TikTok, it's just a fabulous life one on one on TikTok.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So we know we're on your your IG.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And uh VA Fashion Week is the website, VAFashion Week.com.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And then yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Are you on Facebook?
SPEAKER_02:Uh yes. Just my name Ann Woodlester, and we have a VA Fashion Week page as well.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. I'm looking forward to coming to your events and even in some extent even partnering with you guys on some things. So we are we're looking forward to that too. Yeah, we need to uh we need to put VAA a little bit further on the map, right?
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. And uh one of the the other thing that excites me about this whole weekend, this whole Timberland way, is the other group of people we're getting to network with. I've met so many incredible creative people and entrepreneurs, you know, that are working together to establish this weekend. So it's it's gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Yeah. Thank you for coming in and talking with us. Thank you for having us. Oh, absolutely. All right.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Yeah. That should do it for today's uh episode of Listen Up. We'll catch you next time on Listen Up. If you enjoyed today's episode, I'm gonna ask you to click on the links below, follow, subscribe, become part of the conversation. And remember, listen up.
