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Maximalist Life
This is Maximalist Life, with Brianna Gamble and Tamika Stringfellow. This unfiltered podcast is your permission slip to chase after everything you damn well desire.
Join us as we dish out no-holds-barred conversations and invite you to step into a life filled with limitless possibilities. Forget fear and embrace the maximalist mentality with us every week.
Get ready to experience piss your pants laughter, cringe-worthy truths, and be inspired to break free from living a mediocre life.
Maximalist Life
Ep 21 - Everything Sucks...Now What?
Episode Summary:
Running a small business means rolling with the punches—especially when your whole week goes sideways out of nowhere 😵💫
📵 Getting your social media accounts disabled with zero warning over some bogus violation
🔒 Your entire team locked out of all Instagram accounts—personal and business—at the same time 🙃
💅 Trying to enjoy a peaceful pedicure... only to get stuck next to people who don’t understand volume control
🙄 Clients ghosting their appointments (yep, that’s why we have cancellation policies!)
💸 Dealing with shady chargeback fraud from people who straight-up steal your services
⚖️ Having to take folks to small claims court because they think your business is a hobby
🧘♀️ Figuring out how to reset your energy when everything feels chaotic
🚧 Holding boundaries in business, even when it’s uncomfortable
🧠 Realizing not everyone handles stress the same—and that’s okay
💪 Learning how to push through those “WTF is happening” weeks without throwing in the towel
If your week has felt like a dumpster fire, you’re not alone. DM us or drop a comment—let’s talk about it 💬 We’ve got your back.
Stay Connected:
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @maximalistlifepodcast
🎙️ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify – it helps us so much!
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Speaker 2:Yeah, and they're like oh yeah, I always have like a random song stuck in my head and so a lot of times, you know, riley and I send voice messages all the time. So we usually send voice messages like first thing in the morning, yeah, and then almost every day when I send my voice message I tell her what song is stuck in my head that day, yeah, and I sing it, perfect. And then I just send separate, like she's like he signed it in a separate one. So like I just have those ones, yeah, just singing, all of them perfect, and they're just the most random, stupid songs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, I actually I haven't had one this morning but, they'll just be random, like sometimes it'll be like a pop song, or then sometimes they'll just be like you're a rich girl and you're going to and I have to do it like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know I had to do it so dramatic. Please never send me a singing voice memo oh, I'm gonna start now.
Speaker 2:You're gonna get it it'd be so embarrassing. My husband sings enough that's true, and your son?
Speaker 1:Jesus, those two.
Speaker 2:So you know, I started doing the drew thing. I forgot to tell you this, but I started doing this, so, like Bentley says you with Drew, no what like I started doing like, um, like Bentley will say something to me and I'll just be like, and I don't give a fuck yeah, I started doing that I was like this is what Drew does he? And it makes it seem like I'm not being mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh-huh, he'll just sing like that I'm a stupid bitch, yeah, and I'm like excuse me, sir, what are you doing? Or he'll just like you're just.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started to do that and I was like it little yeah.
Speaker 1:I just like you just make a joke out of it. Instead of like. If someone is so mean and just like, you're really stupid like that be scary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, especially you. You're yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, I didn't put my whole Red Bull in here, it's like almost gone, but the whole thing. I know what are you doing? What idiot can I?
Speaker 2:keep refilling Mm-hmm thing.
Speaker 1:I know what are you doing.
Speaker 2:What an idiot trying to keep refilling really peeing some piss, some pants, some piss. I'm pissed. So today we have our, our cup, our little cups. We have a I got it. I got a taylor swift one, and then I got tamika Gilmore Girls one. These are from Sweeter Than Fiction bookstore in Charleston, south Carolina.
Speaker 1:I keep hearing different things and so like I thought you're gonna say sweeter than like fiction or something like you're like thick or something. Yeah, I in like at book club the other day someone said, well, there's these blacks and they're gonna. They said like black something and I thought there's going to say like a black guy, there are black guys, yeah, but it was like there are these like black books. It was like something so stupid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just pull it in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was like I thought you were going to say something completely different. Oh shit, yeah, here we are. We made it.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Maximalist Life. I'm your host, brianna, and I'm Tamika, and today we're going to talk about how life fucking sucks sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trying to get through the week.
Speaker 2:This has been a tough one. This has been a really shitty week for us.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh god, wait, you're turning these on. Yeah, we're recording.
Speaker 2:That's how much.
Speaker 1:I'm like worried about everything.
Speaker 2:Everything's been a shit show.
Speaker 1:I'm like if we record this whole thing and then we didn't press it on, Kill yourself. Yeah, I will.
Speaker 2:We started off the week, so we were at the studio, I had my computer and I'm trying to set up a Facebook ad for the studio and my ads manager would not load. And I'm like what's happening, why can't I get my? And then I'm like what's happening, why can't I get my? And then I'm trying to go to my regular Facebook and it nothing would load. And I'm like I don't understand.
Speaker 1:In my head I'm like, oh, facebook must be down, turns out yeah, but then I looked at my stuff and I was like, oh, all my shit's disabled yeah, turns out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything on all of our Instagram accounts and facebook accounts got shut off. Um a post on our one of our studio instagram accounts got like, flagged by like a bot or whatever, and they got it. It was flagged for um human trafficking and it said human exploitation policy is what we violate. Yeah, and I'm like what the fuck are you talking?
Speaker 1:about. We're just trying to take pictures of sexy ladies for them the hell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, the funniest part was the post wasn't even about boudoir photos at all it was literally about us bringing on like basically like kind of intern type of people on the team and I don't know. So it was just a shit show. Yeah, so our boudoir account got completely like disabled on Instagram. We couldn't use it. People couldn't find us on Instagram. Our branding account for the studio same thing then, like my personal account, tamika's personal account, her work accounts for Sparked and XOXO Tamika, and then it filtered into our maximalist, like the thing is like I don't know if people know this, but like I have my own accounts, but then I log into the boudoir account like you, can be logged into multiple accounts at the same time.
Speaker 1:So then, because I was logged into the boudoir account, I they like disabled all my accounts as well, even though that I'm not really associated with that, like it's not under my name or anything yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So anyone who was logged into the boudoir account at the same time as their other accounts all their other accounts and there's 11 people that work there so all of us are logged in so we can post things you know, yeah, so everyone's personal Instagram accounts got taken down. One of the girls she's also a hairstylist, so she has a separate hair page. That was disabled. One of the girls one of the makeup artists she has a makeup page that was taken down, so it was chaos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and people were just like I mean, my XOXO Tamika is just like flowers, like how, like how are you gonna? And so it made us appeal. And then, when we appealed, two of my accounts came back. But that one was like, oh no, you're still not following like the community guidelines. And I'm like, oh really, by posting flowers, like what are we doing here? It was really so I was like, okay, that one's gone whatever and the girl's personal account started getting deleted.
Speaker 2:It's just a regular.
Speaker 1:She just had like animals and her like nieces and nephews and pictures of like disney characters yeah, I know, it's weird, I know yeah, so it was really stressful.
Speaker 2:I mean, we book the majority, like we booked the majority of our clients off social media, so that was huge for us to have that taken down and, of course, as a business owner, it makes you sit back and, you know, smack yourself in the face and be like this is exactly why you should not have all your eggs in one basket with your marketing and not just be mainly like solely focused only on one platform. Luckily, we have an email list of almost 10,000 local women and I mean we don't nurture our email list the way that we should be, but we do send out email newsletters here and there and it was something I knew in like a backup plan.
Speaker 1:We could kind of go from there, you know it's really hard not to have like all your eggs in the social media basket. Because? Not to have like all your eggs in the social media basket? Because, especially for us, like we live in a small town and I would say 80% of our clients come from an hour to two hours away- yeah like people are surprised when they hear that like literally everyone's coming from San Jose, Walnut Creek, San Francisco and then they come from like you know the Merced Modesto area too and I, how do you outreach to those people if it isn't on social media?
Speaker 1:you're not just like getting out there with the newsletter, because we're not going out there and collecting emails and like sending them these things. So it's like we don't really have an option this day and age to like do it any other way. I get it like yeah, you have your google ads that you could go out if people are searching, but not a lot of people are like literally searching like food war studios. You know, it's more like I've wanted to do. It popped up. This looks like something I would love to be a part of and so then you reach out yeah, there's.
Speaker 2:I mean there's a difference. When you are like, okay, let's say you're a hairstylist or a wedding photographer, like it's a wedding, like wedding photos. I mean, let's be honest, like no professional photography is a need, but, uh, wedding photos are something. It's just a given that people are gonna like hire a photographer so they get engaged. One of the first things they're gonna start looking up is wedding photographers, so they're actively searching for that. But, like you said, they're not actively searching for like sexy photos for my husband and even still the wedding photography.
Speaker 1:I still think that they're actively searching for that, but, like you said, they're not actively searching for, like, sexy photos for my husband and, even still, the wedding photography. I still think that they're looking on Instagram first yeah, you know they might be searching my Instagram.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, but so yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, what are we supposed to do?
Speaker 2:we have to have this account and that's how we have to like, do our business yeah handle our business on Instagram it's like, yes, of course there's all these other marketing things we could be doing and going in person and whatever. But it's like, realistically, the roi is a billion I don't know the exact number, I'm gonna go with a billion times, an infinity times better doing paid ads on social media, or even just organic traffic too, than doing any other type of marketing for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so that was like how we started our week. So that was about 48 hours of chaos and stress. Yeah, and everyone's trying to reach out and you can't like there's not a phone number. You can't just like call.
Speaker 1:You can't call Instagram, just like. Call instagram, be like.
Speaker 2:Hey, instagram, I'm just a lady hey, mr zuckerberg, I'm having a problem here. Can you help me? And the thing that pisses me off is we pay thousands of dollars to meta every month to be doing paid ads and stuff, and then this bullshit happens and they don't give a fuck about you oh, they don't care, you're they don't give a shit, they just shut you down.
Speaker 1:Oh, this ruined your whole entire business, sorry yeah, it's weird like they don't have like a loyal, uh, like a loyal client, like yeah, I want a punch, card yeah, I'm like making ads every week yes like why?
Speaker 2:aren't you treating me better? Uh-huh, and I get it. There's people spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads and we're such a tiny like nothing to them, a speck. But yeah, it's just frustrating and it's hard when you are building your audience on a platform that you don't own so luckily. So I mean, we had to kind of think quickly so we were like, okay, if we don't get the accounts, any of the accounts back, we have to just try to make a new account and just start over, which blows. But it was like, okay, so I started getting together some captions, some photos, like ready to go getting one of our old Instagram accounts that we had kind of like a backup account that wasn't used, ready, but I didn't want to post anything until we knew for sure what was happening with our accounts. Um, I had an email all written, like drafted up, to send our whole email list about what was happening, because people started reaching out to us saying, like people, that we block them.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, we had clients like hey, I was, can find you on Instagram. Like do you block me?
Speaker 1:I'm like people already think like we're scammy because they just like look, they see our ad, they see like our Instagram and they don't know us like they don't they can't physic because they live two hours away. They can't physically drive by and go. Oh, this is actually a real studio with real women working, like all that kind of stuff. So they already think, like I'm not, I'm unsure of, if I show up, how it's gonna go yeah, because I mean people do have really sketchy experiences with booking, with photographers on.
Speaker 2:Instagram that they don't know yeah and especially this type of shoot, a boudoir shoot. I mean yeah, so they don't know if it's gonna be some like 60 year old man dude in his basement with his just his boxers on with his dick out the box and he just has a video camera not the video yeah, and he's like ready, look sexy yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So people were sketched out. So we had clients who had already booked with us, they were already on our calendar and everything and they but, like I said, you know, like you just said, they don't live here, they don't know us. They booked up, booked us off of an Instagram ad and so they started reaching out like hey, like I was look like trying to look at your Instagram, I saw that it was like deleted, kind of weirded out, like want to make sure my shoot is even still on, like what's happening? Yeah, and you know, because we have their credit card information.
Speaker 2:So they're just like fuck their people are freaking out it didn't look good yeah it was a little bit of a nightmare, but um, yeah, we ended up getting all the accounts back and um.
Speaker 1:Yesterday morning, like literally all of us just like got an email and then it was like oh, actually, we made a mistake, you're fine. And like all at the same time too, like all of us had like okay it's like 15 or 16 instagram accounts uh-huh, okay, you're good to go.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, because you stress me the fuck out all week. Yeah, drew is like trying to talk me down, like, honey, you already did everything you can like, just like there's nothing you guys can do. And he's like it'll be better tomorrow. And then when I texted, he's like I told you it'd be better tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you guys can do and he's like it'll be better tomorrow. And then when?
Speaker 1:I texted him. He was like I told you it'd be better tomorrow. It's fine, you guys can't just keep freaking out. I'm like yeah, but it brings us all down. Like I was texting Brianna, like I know you're feeling this way, like just like it's going to be okay.
Speaker 2:Like we'll just kind of push through. Well, not gonna let this take us down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just because you know everyone's freaking out, like Riley's sending me messages and she's just like this is really worrying me. This is really scary and I'm like you guys don't worry about it, like our business isn't gonna tank over this, it's fine, we'll figure it out. This. This does suck. It's uh gonna be kind of a big hiccup for us, but like we'll make it through somehow. So, thankfully, the way we made it through is they gave us our Instagram account back, but man, what a roller coaster that was.
Speaker 1:I hate it. I do, yeah, I don't want to deal with that kind of shit ever again yeah.
Speaker 2:And then one of the days, so then one of the days when all this was happening, I was like you know, I need to step away for a minute and just relax. And so I'm like I'm going to go get my nails done. I just want to go get my nails done and just like chill. So I go to the nail place and I get my nails done. They're like you want a pedicure. I'm like no, because you know I hate when they do my pedicure and there's a person doing your nails at the same time.
Speaker 1:Oh, I never allow that. I fucking hate. I would like, nope, I'd go, nope, nope, nope, nope, no. This isn't happening. It's like pulling and tugging. I'm not. I hate that, unless I was literally in a rush, but my nails take two hours at least, so I guess I could do it, but I don't do that I want to relax for my pedicure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want any of that.
Speaker 1:Especially, I think, because you do the dip like they could just do it here. Diane's not like doing my design nails.
Speaker 2:No, no, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And my pedicure at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no. So I'm like okay, I'm going to just, I'm just going to go there, I'm just going to take like an hour or two and I'm just going chill, and then I'll come back and like revisit everything with like a fresh, like a clear head. So I get my nails done, it's fine. No, like oh, you want to pick her? I'm like no, and then at the end of no, no, that's why I say it too yeah, yeah yeah, so then at the end I'm like you know, I do?
Speaker 2:I do want to pick oh you did and I shaved my legs, so I'm I'm like you know what I do. I do want to pet a cat. Oh, you did. I was like you know what and I shaved my legs, so I'm ready, I'm ready. You know, I don't always, so I know.
Speaker 1:And I didn't realize this until, like, I met some like white ladies that, like you, have to shave, because I never shave.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. Yeah, I didn't know, there, mine gets more than prickly. It's rough.
Speaker 1:You can get real rough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had no idea that that was a thing. I had no idea that there were women who didn't have that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I could never shave again, it would be fine. And there are just some little long, like maybe five long hairs that are like two inches, that's it. That's what would happen Like four or five long hairs that are like two inches. Oh my Jesus, that's it. Like that's what would happen Like four or five long hairs that are like two inches, but everything is like.
Speaker 2:You never have to shave again. I could like I shaved what this is two days ago. It's already prickly right now, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:That's fucking crazy.
Speaker 2:Welcome to being white. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you guys get veryly legs and you burn.
Speaker 2:Fun and we have like pink skin too. I love it. So we oh. So she's like okay, you come in the pedicure room and then I don't know, I don't think all pedicure places are like this, but this one it's like it's kind of like a closed little room and they have the lights like super, super dim. They just do like like a little tiny kind of like a reading light on your feet so they can see what they're doing. But everyone else is like so quiet and it was so relaxing and everyone else in there was silent. Everyone was on their phone or their eyes closed.
Speaker 2:These two bitches, let me tell you, these two bitches sitting across from me, the whole hour we're talking nonstop, there's gap, gap, gap, gap, gap, gap, gap, gap, loud, so loud. Whole hour we're talking non-stop, there's gap, gap, gap, gap, gap, gap, gap, loud, so loud. And I'm like nobody gives a fuck what you're doing on your birthday weekend. Can you guys talk about this another time? Just say it like a little quiet, you know, and I'm staring, I'm staring at them hardcore, I'm right across and I'm just like and I'm shaking my head, I'm just being so dramatic, you know, just sighing not the side.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's such a mom thing.
Speaker 2:They're just like uh-huh, and then they're, they're having I want to say something too, because they're having a conversation about how one girl was telling like she was on a plane and this, these people behind her, the lady, one lady said something to this other lady's kids like she kept telling them like stop kicking my seat. And then finally she was like yelled at them and so this pedicure lady is telling this story and she's just like I just can't believe that people are so rude and that's so embarrassing. You're just acting like that in public and I want to be like it's embarrassing how you're acting in public right now and you brought your three-year-old here who's on her iPad with no headphones.
Speaker 1:Oh I, oh I, oh God, please, the headphone things. Okay, wait, I was. When I was on the plane recently, uh, I think when we were going to Disneyland, this lady's like phone went off or something crazy Like it wasn't like an alarm or she, there's something and the stewardess came over. She reached over the lady was sleeping. She reached over her and was like you can't have your phone like this. Oh, because they say that in the beginning now like yeah, you don't have headphones on.
Speaker 1:You can't just have your phone just out there thank you for making that announcement because it's a lot of people too.
Speaker 2:They just love to talk on speakerphone or my grandpa likes to watch tick tock videos at full volume yeah, cause he can't hear it.
Speaker 1:How could he hear?
Speaker 2:it brianna, so loud. Then the problem is he falls asleep and then the same tiktok video is repeating, repeating and I'm like hello, turn it off. Yeah, that's so good, I know so. Uh, that was so frustrating yeah, you were texting me.
Speaker 2:You're like I hate these bitches, I was so mad and I want to say something, but also like I'm not going to cause a scene, like I would never cause a scene like that, and but I just also like the other thing I really hate stop taking your toddlers to the nail salon. I mean, you can take them to get your nails done. Don't bring your toddler into the dim, dimly lit, relaxing pedicure room. And if they're gonna have their iPad, then get them some headphones, because I don't want to hear dora the explorer while I'm getting my yeah, that's so rude.
Speaker 1:You have got to your kids have got to carry around headphones I don't care if she's so ridiculous that your kids don't have headphones I hate that like if you're gonna do screen time with them, they need to have headphones and I get it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I get that like, oh, maybe like you're a stay-at-home mom and this is only time you could go and you got to bring your kid, or whatever.
Speaker 1:So where's the headphones?
Speaker 2:Shut them the fuck up. Nobody thinks your kid's cute either. Just so you know. In case you were wondering, like your kid's talking like oh mom, I got glittery purple nails. I don't give a fuck. Also, yeah, I want.
Speaker 1:Kids're so innocent. But, man, I just need you to sit there and be quiet and just chill.
Speaker 2:Speak when spoken to. Yeah, and the thing is, had I seen that little girl out in the world somewhere, I mean I would have been like she's the most adorable fucking thing. She had like curly red hair. She's so adorable, yeah she's so cute. But seeing her in there I was like you're the fucking devil.
Speaker 1:Not the hair, she's so adorable.
Speaker 2:But seeing her in there I was like you're the fucking devil, not the devil. Yeah, shut your fucking ipad up.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that does piss me off. I'm like, oh, can you?
Speaker 2:turn it down. So my whole time that I was like thinking I was gonna have this relaxing time to get away from my like instagram drama, I was just like pissed off and I'm the type of person like I can't let it go.
Speaker 2:I know so I'll just fester for the whole hour. I'll get so mad. I'm just like fuming about it and I'm the type of person like I can't let it go. I know so I'll just fester for the whole hour. I'll get so mad. I'm just like fuming about it and I keep telling myself, like it's not a big deal, just let it go. And I'm like, okay, mel Robbins, I get it, just let them. Lol, I can't, I can't let them. I don't know why you can't let it go. I don't know it. Just really, because I just hate people who are oblivious and inconsiderate of other people. Oh God, me too. I just it. That's what makes me mad. It's not even so much. I'm mad at the noise, I'm mad at you, not respecting everyone else here.
Speaker 1:I am mad at people's audacity.
Speaker 2:That's, that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Like you just thought. Like you, you just like you don't give a shit about how you work in this world. No, you're inconsiderate to like all these people like I. I don't understand that. It's not kindness, yeah, I just, I don't know I don't know like I get it, like it's for yourself or whatever. This is like what the world we're in and like, sometimes like I don't give a shit, but like there's got to be like social, like things there are.
Speaker 2:There are social rules that people don't follow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they just get away with it and they don't like. That lady went home. She had the best time at her pedicure.
Speaker 2:Oh, she had the best and her party. Her birthday, is going to be great.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because they planned it all out.
Speaker 1:So what were they doing for their birthday?
Speaker 2:They're going to. No, yeah, what? That's what you're doing? Yeah, okay, because she's probably like our age I mean, she's in her 30s for sure and I'm like that's what you're doing for your birthday. Yeah, because she probably has to bring her kids. They're going with all their I don't think their kids are going, it's all the friends and their husbands are going, and one of the friends is mad that the husbands are going are going. She wants it to be a girl's trip to the great wolf lamp. Yeah, launch, launch, yeah. And then she's like I really want my husband there, so all the husbands should come, but all the husbands don't want to go. It's just a whole drama. So that's what is going to happen for her birthday. So I hope she has a fun time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the top of her pedicure looks nice, it better speaking of pedicures, okay.
Speaker 1:so I got french tip pedicure the other day, okay.
Speaker 2:I haven't done that in a minute.
Speaker 1:Gold, chrome, french tip, what With diamonds on, like the cuticle bend just in one corner, and then I put like I got a bunch of gold toe rings, and then that's how I was rocking in Mexico.
Speaker 2:I was like I like this, that's cute.
Speaker 1:I like this style. The problem with the gold chrome, though, though, is they put black underneath it so it could rub off, like if you look at my nail right now, like it could rub off, you know, so then you might see a little bit of black. So that's the only thing. But, man, I thought my toes were looking so cute.
Speaker 2:Your toes were popping.
Speaker 1:I was like look at this gold French tip. I loved it. I was like this is looking so different you know that's pretty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I liked it yeah.
Speaker 1:I gotta get them done again too yeah, you better do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the last thing that happened to top my day off is I was I had to run over to the studio because we had our cleaning lady coming, so I run over there well, let's talk about that.
Speaker 1:I mean, you had to let someone go yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, let me just tell you this, because it's so fast okay go as I'm leaving, because I didn't, you didn't. Oh yeah, I didn't want to go to the studio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I was covering for you. I didn't think you were gonna come because you were so upset I could tell you were just not like, yeah, I know how you get, so I had it on my calendar.
Speaker 2:I was like gotta be there at 3 30 so I go over there. And then you were there and I was like I didn't even need to fucking be here, so I'm gonna go home now and take a nap and I go to shut my door and I broke one of my nails. It's been a tough week for you. I was, and I just I broke it and then I sat there. It was like I was pulling the door closed and you only have like lotion it slips. And then my nail just popped right off and I looked at it and I just put my hand down. I'm like staring out the window, like the door's still open too. I'm just sitting there and I'm staring out the window and I start laughing like a fucking psychopath like you want to cry, but you laughed instead yeah right, I'm just dying laughing and I was like I look like I'm gonna murder somebody yeah, it's like someone's laughing at you
Speaker 1:going, ha ha ha ha ha, betcha gotcha, I'm just going to keep getting you this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just laugh.
Speaker 1:I'm just like.
Speaker 2:I don't know what the fuck's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was rough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean in the beginning it started you kind of had to let our cleaning lady go and then you had to do the laundry for the studio. So now that we're shooting, so so much. So you had to do the laundry and then you're like, okay, I have to go in and like, drop the laundry off. Yeah, because our cleaning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, our cleaning girl didn't do the laundry and so.
Speaker 2:I was like fuck, and you were gone because normally, like, you used to do the laundry, and so then I was like, oh my god, I gotta go to the studio and get all this lingerie, take it home. I gotta wash it and you know you can't put it in the dryer, so I had to just lay it all out on my bed. I literally just have like hella lingerie like on my bed on my carpet, just laid everywhere. It just looks so ridiculous. Yeah, so I can't let my dog go in there because I don't want him to be like sitting up laying on the lingerie. So I was just so mad and you know that shit gets like all twisted up in the washer and when you you go to take it apart, and I was so angry about it.
Speaker 2:I'm like, and I already hate doing laundry, so yeah yeah, yeah, so I had to, um, let someone go recently, yeah, and that kind of sucked. I mean it always sucks when you have to fire people, but I feel like I've gotten better at it. I have fired a lot of people over the years, yeah, you have, yeah, and I think I have gotten a lot better at realizing when there's a problem, letting there only be a pretty short period of time to come to a resolution and like trying to retrain and have these talks, and then I go all right, it's not working, you got to go. I don't have the time or the money or the mental bandwidth to deal with having someone on my team.
Speaker 1:That isn't like carrying their own weight yeah, especially when you're talking about like someone cleaning the studio, like you can just find a person that's like better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not like it was a photographer who we trained for six months, it's like you could just get someone in there for the next weekend.
Speaker 1:It's totally fine, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Tough week for you.
Speaker 2:I just thought because she was like a client, like she was a past client you know and client you know, and she had like worked with the studio for a while, but it seemed like her schedule is getting kind of busier too, where?
Speaker 1:she's not able to like come in when we need her and like so it's like, well, if you can't come in this weekend and do the laundry, like how are we? Then? It's like one of us is rushing to the studio to try to get it done. It's like that's the whole point of why you're paying her. So it's like, okay, well then it's just to work out. You need someone else to come in and do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like you know I'm always. I always say like I'm never above doing anything at the studio.
Speaker 1:I am, I know you are, but hey, I'd be washing all of those fucking panties though I know. Yes, I don't want to clean the toilet.
Speaker 2:I know you won't clean the toilet or take out the trash, do literally anything. I'm not above doing anything, but I also feel like at this point in my business that is not the shit that should be taking up my time. Yeah, that's not the stuff I need to be focused on. So I really just need to, like, have people in place that are doing their jobs and doing it well, and the studio, at the capacity that we're at it, has to run like a well-oiled machine.
Speaker 1:Otherwise, man, if one cog is off, it really fucks things up yeah, yeah, like at this point everything should be making it like easier for us, but this week everything was harder.
Speaker 2:A lot harder, yeah, but you just have to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just have to kind of like get through it yeah, it's like you just keep telling yourself like everything's fine, that's what we're talking, texting each other everything's fine because this week I had a. My stomach hurt all week oh, still does.
Speaker 2:It still does from your trip, from my trip every time I come home from Mexico.
Speaker 1:I just have a bellyache for about two weeks, and it just from the food. Yeah, it has to be the food. It's not like I'm drinking the water, you know, and so it's just crampy. And the first day I was having like hot flashes in the studio on Monday Like I was sick, sick. I hate that.
Speaker 1:And I was just laying down when I got home and I was like, oh my God, my belly hurts so bad. And then every day, like my tummy just hurts, hurts, hurts. Still this morning it was hurting and it's just like. I'm tired of like having diarrhea and just having like tummy aches and stuff, like I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 2:But here's the thing.
Speaker 1:It's like giving birth you forget about it and then you go to Mexico again the next year.
Speaker 2:And you're like I'm going to have so much fun.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love it. It's love it. It's so worth it. This baby's so worth it. This tummy ache is killing me this week.
Speaker 2:So on top of all, this stress and then my tummy's stressed, yeah well yeah, because there's probably like a little parasite in there or something yeah, could be. Yeah, shit that guy out that awful.
Speaker 1:I don't want to do this I know.
Speaker 2:Oh, the other thing that made my week awful riley has been off this whole week. Yeah, what a bitch taking time off. Yeah, I'm just kidding, so selfish of her. I know she never takes any time off. Um, yeah, she's off. So she's our main full-time retoucher. She also does our website, like she does all of our graphic design work and everything, and she's like my right hand man. Yeah, like anything I need help with, and I just like have access to her all day, every day, and we can just like get stuff knocked out so quick together, and so having her gone has been fucking terrible, yeah, and so you know, we've just had so much shit going on at the studio.
Speaker 2:And I was like I had sent her a message and I said I'm going to try really hard to not message you at all this week about anything work related, Like I don't want you to think about work, I just want you to take time off. So I started?
Speaker 1:Was she going on vacation?
Speaker 2:So I mean, I guess I could say this, because this will come out after, but her best friend is getting proposed to Aw, and so the boyfriend, I think, told Riley so she was going there and whatever. I think there was also something else, because she was in Utah, like she was with family, and then she's in Arizona now, which I think is where this is happening, Um, which I think is happening today or tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she was, and you know how she is. She was like the boyfriend told her she starts crying, oh God.
Speaker 1:She's so emotional, emotional. Some people are so emotional like I would be like, oh yeah, super exciting cool.
Speaker 2:What do you need?
Speaker 1:me to do. Yeah, exactly like some people are just like crying, like I literally don't ever cry, ever, ever ever. I I was telling someone like I cried the other day because my dad's a shitty dad and I hadn't cried. Yeah, yes, I hadn't cried since the June, like since last June.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:And it was because of him again.
Speaker 2:Again, that's what it was, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's like, this fucking fool won't like leave me alone.
Speaker 2:Get out of here, yeah.
Speaker 1:What are we doing I? Know, why do you still have to torture me? I'm four years old.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I hate, have to torture me. I'm four years old. Yeah, I hate him and love him. I can't like leave him alone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, god damn, I know I hate that family trauma is really something.
Speaker 2:It's really fun. What was I saying about?
Speaker 1:the proposal yeah, no that's it. No, yeah, nothing, there wasn't anything but you didn't have her, so it's been kind of crazy god, I'm just like, oh, so okay.
Speaker 2:I told her. I said I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna tell you about work or anything. So I started a note in my phone and I called it riley's tea party and I was writing all the tea that I want to tell her when she gets back. You're just gonna overwhelm her with all this shit.
Speaker 1:I said I'm gonna send you only brianna would fucking think to do this. I'll be like I'll just tell her whatever. No, I'll forget.
Speaker 2:I'll forget all the things. So I was making their bullet points. I was writing every single thing, every funny thing that happened at the studio, every crazy thing that happened with clients. I was like, oh, I can't wait to tell her all this stuff. But then she texts me like a couple days later about something about work and I said I'm not gonna just word vomit or no.
Speaker 1:I said I'm not.
Speaker 2:I told her. I said I'm keeping a a note and she goes. No, I want to know now she goes, I want to be updated in the moment, send me voice messages every day about what's happening at the studio. So I was like, okay, so I just started telling her she loves it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then what? We had a client that didn't show up.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you something. When you make an appointment somewhere, first of all put it in your calendar. I can't tell you how many clients go. I forgot, I didn't know what do you mean.
Speaker 1:You forgot Especially when it's like a photo shoot, I feel like that's just like a thing.
Speaker 2:Like that's an event. Also, we send multiple reminders, multiple reminders Via text and email, so I don't know how somebody forgets something like that. Um, you make this appointment. It's like put it first of all, put it in your calendar.
Speaker 1:second, let people know ahead of time if you're not coming yeah, I don't know how many people we've known along these years that their grandma's died everyone's grandma's dying every every time the excuse is my grandma just died. And I understand, and some of them I think are true, but the thing, is.
Speaker 1:I don't, like, I don't believe that, because the ones that are like my grandma died, they're messaging the day before and said, hey, my grandma passed away. You know, like I don't know if I could do this shoot, like they do this whole thing. It's the ones that are after the fact that we're like, hey, are you on your way to your shoot? And they're like, oh well, my grandma just died, but like right now.
Speaker 2:She just died literally. We're on my way to the studio. She died literally.
Speaker 1:That's the shit that they will say yeah, they'll be like oh, my dad's having a heart attack right now I'm in the er right now and I'm like, but it's weird that you're responding right now, but you couldn't text me six hours ago yeah, and it's like the makeup artists show up the none of the makeup artists live in town oh so and then, like it's for me, like our clients are like every two and a half hours, so it's like you're in this weird limbo of like stay or go for the makeup artists.
Speaker 1:You know me, I could go do something for an hour or go home, yeah it's, it's just like, especially when you make appointments.
Speaker 2:I mean it shouldn't be any different. But you know, when you make appointments with like small businesses and you just no show on them, no call, no show, you just kind of like fuck them over yeah because they're counting on that income, right, and it's just like I can't believe how many people just like take advantage and are just like well, and so I mean we have extremely high cancellation fees for that reason.
Speaker 1:I mean they are ridiculous yeah, so that it discourages you, just like come to the appointment, or Texas right, because we have, because you don't have to buy anything from your shoot. Yeah, I think we have people. You don't have to buy anything from your shoot. Yeah, I can have people.
Speaker 2:You don't have to buy anything yeah, you could just come and do a shoot, you don't have to buy. So it's not like we're saying like, oh, come and pick. Either like come and spend all this money or spend all this money canceling.
Speaker 2:It's just like no, you'll literally spend more money canceling than if you would just come to your appointment mm-hmm because I just can't like have our time wasted like that and because when you no show too, and people are already there, like you said, like they've already taken time to get ready whatever they have to do if they have kids, whatever and then they're like driving all this shit. You know, some of our makeup artists have hella dogs. For whatever reason, they have hella dogs and they have to like take care of the dogs. They have to do all this stuff, and so it's like you know, everyone is coming together for your appointment and also for us, and no, it's not like this everywhere, but you know, our whole studio is like blocked off for that time, just for you. It's not like we take walk-ins like, oh, someone could just pop in and fill that spot. We can't call and just be like, hey, we had a cancellation, do you want to come in in an hour? It's not a dentist appointment even right.
Speaker 1:Even with that, like, like I said, like our clients come from two hours away, so we can't ask the client a lot of times, the next client can't come earlier, like they're already on their way to leave, and since our appointments are the way they're scheduled, they're like oh well, I won't even get there until. Like yeah, almost my time anyway.
Speaker 2:So there's like no point even asking them yeah, it's just a huge oh god, you know. And then people get pissed off at us that we have these like policies in place. It's like how dare us have boundaries?
Speaker 1:right. But here's the thing you, first of all, you didn't have to do the shoot in the first place.
Speaker 2:We didn't force you to do this. You signed up.
Speaker 1:Second of all you read the contract.
Speaker 2:That's the thing. There's a contract that's all written, every single thing's written, and you signed it.
Speaker 1:Third of all, you could just come and not spend any money.
Speaker 2:Fourth of all you could just tell us in advance.
Speaker 1:At least like here's the thing. At least like here's the thing. I would be like some kind of like. I feel like this is how my mind would work if I was young and I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this shoot, and then I couldn't afford it. All of a sudden I would. If I, I would just like cancel, and then I would like cancel my card and then, like you can't charge me the five hundred dollars, like I'm not that I want to give anyone ideas but at the same time like like, at least, then you cancel.
Speaker 1:And then you're like well, why are they really? You in your head think like okay, if those policies are like crazy in place, but at least I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean the thing is, yeah, I don't want. Yeah, yeah, I mean, at least let people know so we're not taking the time out of our day, like you're saying, to drive Like our makeup artists and our photographers they don't all live here.
Speaker 1:They're 45 minutes away driving into town, and at the point where I mean, I don't even know if you need to cancel your credit card. If you can't afford anything, then the card's not going to go through anyway.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't even fucking matter, just let us know anything yeah, it's frustrating and it's baffling to me how many small business owners I come into contact with who don't have policies in place like that yeah, because people will take advantage of you no matter what yeah, and then you feel like shit, that like, oh, these people take advantage of you, and then you're just like, well, I'm out all this money, just like when people like they try to say that on square, when they um, I don't I don't remember the girl's situation specifically, but she tried to reverse her charge and then she paid us a fee and then disputed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, disputed it and then we like submitted all this stuff and then, and then we like submitted all this stuff, and then Square was like no, like you get all this money still, we got to keep it Like they sided with us on that one.
Speaker 2:They sided with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, they were like. No, like you guys did all this work already.
Speaker 2:You signed this contract.
Speaker 1:You signed this contract, you agreed to all these terms, and then but Square is another thing, like Facebook, like. Whatever they say is just like whatever. Yeah, there's no rhyme or reason. I've heard hairstylists say stuff like oh, people come in for extensions or they get their whole hair done and everything. They dispute it, and then there's like nothing you can do about it too.
Speaker 2:They dispute the charge on their card.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Get their money back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then they're walking around with the full head of extensions, or like with the full head of extensions, or like with the new hair color, and they're like here I am what they're like.
Speaker 2:Here I am. Here I am with my new hair and all my money.
Speaker 1:Yes, wow, that's so trifling, that's like the most trifling situation so let me tell you the most trifling situation that.
Speaker 2:I've experienced with a client doing something like that. Okay, you already know this. Yeah, so we had a client, and this was somewhat recently. She came in same deal, like all the policies are written out, she signed the contract, blah, blah, blah. You know she already knew what to expect. So she comes in, she does the shoot she had so much fun because I shot her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you shot with her. She does the shoot she had so much fun Because I shot her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you shot with her. She was saying how much fun she had.
Speaker 1:She brought her friend.
Speaker 2:We do a same day viewing, so you get to view all your photos and that's when you decide if you want to order, how many you want to order. So you do have the option to walk away and not purchase anything. Technically, I don't know why the fuck you would do that. Why would you just do this whole thing and then not get any photos?
Speaker 1:I wish I had one from memory something.
Speaker 2:So, but you don't have to, you don't have to. You also could. There's a one image option on the pricing list 8, 12, 20, 30 and above. She chose the 30 image package. Okay, so she had all these options, including not purchasing anything. She had many smaller options, including not purchasing anything. She had many smaller options. She could have chosen. She chose 30 because she loved her photos so much.
Speaker 2:She thought they were so amazing right, so she pays in full that day. You know, here's my credit card pays in full and yeah, and she paid in full.
Speaker 2:She wasn't like, oh, I need to put it on a payment plan or anything no, she just like charged my card this this is fine, I'll pay, so she so, and we're talking $2,400. That was the cost and that's what she paid that day. So after the fact she apparently what happened, she spoke to her partner and they decided amongst themselves that they wanted to cancel this order.
Speaker 1:What it sounds like to me is you went home, your husband's mad at you yeah, you had buyer's remorse the thing too, though in our contract it states that whatever uh sales happen final sale. It's final sale because the thing is is the ball gets rolling right after you finish that stuff we have a whole process goes in like everybody starts to touch your photos, like all these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stuff's already uploaded to the retoucher, stuff's already filed, like it takes so much to reverse all this shit. So that's why we're like sales are just final. You can't come back and then go oh, I want to downgrade, I want to do this. Yeah, you great, I want to do this. Yeah, you can't like digital things are just are non-refundable anyways.
Speaker 1:Like you can't order like music off itunes and be like, hey, I need a reef. I mean, I didn't like that song, so I want my money back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what, that's not how it works, uh-huh. So uh, she wanted her money back. Um, she wanted to cancel the order. So she she reached out and and said, hey, this is what I want to do. So I let her. Unfortunately, like we're not gonna be able to do that per your contract in our studio policies.
Speaker 2:I sent her a copy of her signed contract that outlined everything and I said I can give you some options. I gave her options like week If you pay through PayPal credit, then you can like make payments on there and I'll refund your credit card, so you have that money back and then you just pay on whatever. I gave her the option of refunding her money onto her card and doing setting up an in-house payment plan. I gave her all these different options. She never responded Okay, so I reach out again. Hey, just checking in, here's all these options. What is it that you want to do here? I'm trying to like work with you. Nothing, no response. Okay, so her photos get retouched. So like it just continues. Then she just continues on through the process. Her photos are getting retouched and ready to go which I think, that that I think there is.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say like a up with us, but like yeah, maybe we should have paused it, or maybe there should have been a pause, but, like you know, it's already going like no stuff's already getting retouched.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. Like that's the whole point of why. Because the thing is we don't need to even do what I had offered. Right, the thing is you signed it, the policy is this, this how it goes, we're you know to do all that to pause.
Speaker 1:It's almost harder to. Then you are also are not communicating with us.
Speaker 2:There's no communication.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so so she stopped communicating with us.
Speaker 2:So like a week or whatever goes by, I don't hear anything and I'm like all right, well, I mean, the ball's still going, it's still rolling.
Speaker 2:Your photos are retouching, getting retouched, I don't know. Like you're not responding to anything. So what's happened? So, whatever, like her stuff got finished. She never responded anything.
Speaker 2:Um, her photos were sent to her just like they would with anyone else. They pay off their photos. They get their photos sent um, on our side, where you can see the gallery set, like I can see when people download their photos. So she downloaded all 30 of her photos. Um, after downloading all 30 of her photos, she then calls her bank and disputes the charge, which puts a hold then on my bank account for 2400. Right? So you have to go through this whole process now you have to submit paperwork, screenshots, whatever. So I go through this whole thing and it takes them like two months because it's up to the cardholders bank. Ultimately what happens? They look at all the stuff that you submitted and then the bank says who wins or whatever in this dispute? Somehow, whoever it is looks at this stuff and goes, yeah, you should get your money back. So they gave her her 2400 back after she had received this whole experience. She received all of her photos, she downloaded all of the photos. She has a 2400 item.
Speaker 1:You know an experience, yeah, and paid nothing for it yeah, and at this point, like all of us, are paid out for the work that we've done yeah, retouchers paid, photographers paid, everybody's paid out. So now like not me not the studio, not the studio.
Speaker 2:So it's just like. So I was pissed, obviously. Well, we all were, well and I. And then we start looking into it, because you said something about it. We start looking like, so I start researching it a little bit. Well, because here's the thing.
Speaker 1:I've been watching all these tiktoks of people like stealing from target. This is how it came. This is why I had said it. I've been watching all these tiktoks about people like stealing from Target. This is how it came. This is why I had said it. I'm watching all these TikToks about people like stealing and all this stuff. I don't know why it came up, and so I was like I mean, it's as if she came into our studio, literally stole something from us and walked out.
Speaker 2:So if that was to happen, if we were a retail store, we would be able to call the cops on her well, it's the same like if she walked into target, bought 2400 worth of clothes, took the clothes home and then called her bank and said I didn't buy those clothes right.
Speaker 1:And they gave her money right and so I'm like, but why is it that we can't call the cops on someone? Like why is it then, like, they get to do like fraud against us, basically? And then we have to suffer and especially we're a small business target like, oh, they, they have that, like you know who cares? But so that's when I said I was like, why can't we call the cops on her or something?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I start researching it and come to find out it is illegal. It's called chargeback fraud so in case anyone was wondering, chargeback fraud is when you purchase something and then you call and you say you, that was a fraudulent charge and you get your money back. It's the same as stealing. So you can file a police report and you can sue this person. So the first step. So I'm like, well, this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we talked about it. Like I would love for the police to show up at her house and be like ma'am, you stole some boudoir.
Speaker 2:You stole some nudes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what for the police to show?
Speaker 2:up at her house and be like ma'am, you stole some boudoir, you stole some nudes, yeah, what. That's so embarrassing. Yeah, talk about embarrassing things. So I was. I was like okay, here we go.
Speaker 2:So I started looking at the process for taking someone to small claims court. Yeah, in California I don't know where everybody lives who listens to this but in California it's $50. It's a $50 filing fee. Yeah, come on. Oh, it's actually only $30. Um, it was only 50. It's over a certain amount of money. I can't. I think it was like 1500 over 1500. It's $50. So I'm like oh, yeah, I'll pay out $50 and we're gonna go to court.
Speaker 2:So the first thing that they recommend is that you send a demand for payment letter that basically just has all the information and it states like here's the deadline. If you don't give me this money by such and such day, you can say whatever day you want. I'm just letting you know that I will be taking you to court for this. So this is your last chance to come clean. So I did, I sent her and we don't know if people don't give it to us, because we aren't like shipping something like a product to their house, like I didn't have her home address and she doesn't live in town. So I didn't know. I'm like, how am I going to send this letter? So then I had to sign up on this account called Spokio, which is like one of those ones they use on the show Catfish to like find where people live and stuff.
Speaker 1:You love that show, don't you? I love Catfish Because you really like the guy.
Speaker 2:Neve. You love Neve.
Speaker 1:Neve, you just want him to fuck you man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I do, oh God While he's working on a case. Yeah.
Speaker 1:He just has, like, his detective glasses on and it's like, okay, I'm spying and I'm licking her, he's not spying, I'm spying and I'm licking, ew Ew ew, ew, okay, okay, okay yeah. You guys are just working together.
Speaker 2:Oh, I would love that. Oh my God, yes, yeah, I know you would love that. I want to be his co-host. Yeah, sorry, cammie. Yeah, she's getting kicked out, yeah.
Speaker 1:And during your break, you guys have sex.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, All the time Pounded. Okay, so I get her home address. Okay, off Spokio. It's so funny that that's the site you use, because of that there's so many. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is like one of the first ones that popped up. I was like this is the one, oh God.
Speaker 1:Hey, don't kick her cronuts, I'm kicking the cronuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so print it off, ship it and did like a signature required thing so I could prove that she received it. And sure as shit, the next day she signed for it, she got it.
Speaker 1:And I gave her 10 days.
Speaker 2:I gave her 10 days to pay now on the outside did you make it like inconspicuous, or it said like no, no it said Brianna Gamble okay, I want her to fucking know okay yeah yeah, you're getting something from me she could not like open it because it says your name on it well, I figured it could go either way.
Speaker 2:She could either not sign it because she sees it's me, or she's like fuck, I want to know. Know, like if she thought she was getting sued or something. So I don't know. Whatever it was, my name was on it. She signed it anyway. Um, I gave her 10 days. So about six or seven days into the 10 day period, she reaches out and sends me this pretty like nasty and ridiculous email, yeah, and just says a whole bunch of bullshit.
Speaker 1:Uh, that doesn't even make sense yeah, stuff like she didn't like the photos.
Speaker 2:I didn't even like the photos and I felt pressured to buy them and all this stuff, which is just so ridiculous. Even after retouching, I didn't like them either, which is just that's so bogus because, like I said, you could have not purchased, you could have bought one, you could have bought it. You bought, could have bought one, you could have bought eight. You bought 30 photos, right, and you raved about your experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the biggest thing for me too was when she said I got the photos Like I downloaded them, but then I had already did the dispute.
Speaker 2:I tried to. Yeah, I tried to call my bank. I tried to call my bank. Well, why didn't you?
Speaker 1:just call us to pay the 20?. If you then download them because you're like I'm going to keep these, then why didn't you just call and pay?
Speaker 2:us Like she was trying to act like innocent, like, oh, I tried to make it right, yeah, no, you didn't.
Speaker 1:No, you didn't, because you would have just called and paid you would have just called and paid, yeah, so bingo.
Speaker 2:At the end. What happened? She paid, that's right, she sure fucking did. So she says all this stuff, blah blah, say whatever bullshit you want. And then she said I will pay you. What's the word she used? She said something like I'll pay you like reluctantly reluctantly, yeah, where I will pay this reluctantly, even though I hate my photos I had a horrible time.
Speaker 1:Okay, she didn't say she had a horrible time, but all these things I mean. The thing is, is she left that place seeming like she had the best time of her life? Yeah you know, and she brought her friend and they were like oh my god, this is amazing, like all this stuff, and I'm like no, you just stole from us.
Speaker 2:That's exactly you just had buyer's remorse, which is understandable, but, at the same time, like you have to. You're when you're doing things as an adult, you're signing legal, binding documents. You're like purchasing services or products, like you can't just fuck around and do whatever you want, like you have to be an adult and be responsible, make these responsible choices.
Speaker 1:And have she just communicated?
Speaker 2:with you Right.
Speaker 1:And like here's the thing anyone can plead their case to someone at least and see like what's gonna happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people have done it and so you know, and, and it shouldn't even have to be said, but you know you're a lot more likely to get your way if you're nice, but if you come at me, and just ignoring and ignoring yeah, first you give me the cold shoulder and then you come at me and you want to bitch and complain and like blame us for your poor financial decision.
Speaker 2:That's not my problem, so I don't feel bad whatsoever about it. Um, there's so many other ways that this situation could have gone. That would have resolved it in a better way for both parties, but she chose not to do that.
Speaker 1:And so I just dragged on.
Speaker 2:They didn't need to. But anyway, I think a lot of small business owners won't do stuff like that because they're afraid.
Speaker 1:Especially now that I know it's only $50. That's, I'm suing everyone. Let me tell you you do something against me financially.
Speaker 2:I'm doing, I'm small claims court judge judy, here we come, yeah we're coming. Yeah, I mean, I watched that show religiously. Still, I'm not as much anymore. Well, it's not judge judy anymore, it's judy justice now judy justice.
Speaker 1:But same lady. It's the same lady.
Speaker 2:It's just the same lady. It's just a different show. I can't remember why.
Speaker 1:Why Did they change?
Speaker 2:like networks yeah something like that oh okay, yeah, but it's the exact same. Yeah, she has Kevin, her like bodyguard guy and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, just don't do things against.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I you know I try to. I do try to make decisions and, um, like, handle things empathetically. Yeah, um, I try to, like whatever I feel like. I try to always be fair, but you're not going to fuck with my money.
Speaker 1:Well, okay. So here here's one example. Remember, there was a client, they did a couple's boudoir with us oh, lord okay, she got a really big package. She got an album. I mean she loved it. They had so much fun. They're actually really nice they're really nice people like all this stuff. Well, so she did a payment plan with us and then she got through like 75 of her payment plan something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe even more no okay, no, so, uh, no, no, you would just know today you're like a little kid now. Um, she got through a lot of her payment plan. We had talked about it. We keep, we kept reaching out. She would like not talk to us for months and then not make her payments? Yeah, not make her payments, not talking? And then all of a sudden we'd get like a text like well, what's my balance?
Speaker 1:just as if she wants to pay and then she would, we would tell her, and then she'd be like no, can't do it, never mind a port thing. So there came a point where I mean and so her stuff just gets like like we just can't send it. So her like little file is on the top of our thing saying like this is a problem child we just see it every day every day, and so finally I did.
Speaker 1:When I talked to rihanna, I go. You know what. She paid enough to cover the digitals yeah, just send the lady the digitals yeah she did. She didn't pay the amount to cover the album, but I was like, and we had already ordered the album and everything- I don't know why the album got ordered.
Speaker 2:We never order before people pay off. Well, I think that's actually when the policy changed.
Speaker 1:I think we were trying to get ahead for the holidays so everyone would have their stuff for the holidays Because she was a December payoff. Yes, I remember you. I remember You're right, and so we're trying to be nice to everyone so that they would have their stuff by Christmas. So we ordered earlier, even though they hadn't paid off.
Speaker 2:So hundreds and hundreds of dollars we spent on her fucking album.
Speaker 1:But then I and so then at that point we, we didn't have to, not, we shouldn't have, yeah. We didn't need to do it Like it was just and I said look, she paid enough for all her digitals.
Speaker 2:Said look, she paid enough for all her digitals, just send them to her and you know the thing is, we sent him to send them to her, and it was chris, nice thing to her all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:She just never responded and she downloaded all her images she never said shit thank you like I'm sorry, like I haven't been communicating with you or anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we sent her the nicest ran with them yeah, we sent her the nicest message about it and we're're like don't worry about the album. Like, whatever, I'm clearing off your balance. Like, here's your photos. Happy holidays. Never said shit to us. That's why you can't be nice to people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, like not that we do things to get like. Now my thing is going crazy, not that we do things to get like something, but it would have been nice to just have a little response from her at least say thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I literally spent hundreds of dollars on your album that's just sitting collecting dust now at my studio because you couldn't be bothered to pay it off. And then I didn't need to give you your photos because it wasn't even like I don't know.
Speaker 1:I just feel like I know, but you know, I just feel like that's the kindness that we put out into the world and that's what I like, like, like. That is these types of situations Like Fine, it's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like.
Speaker 1:She was struggling, whatever. And that's okay, and she paid for most of it. Let's just give it to her. Fuck it Like I, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we always try to kill people with kindness. I mean that never, it never. Because here's the thing too if someone owes me like $100, let's say it's like they have a payment and it's like $100, whatever, I'm not even going to waste my fucking time on that, like what are we going to do?
Speaker 1:Small claims card costs $30. $30 and then it's like get my $70.
Speaker 2:You can keep it. Yeah, it's fine, you probably need it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean at that point, they do need it.
Speaker 2:You're like it's over $100. It's okay, okay, have it. Yeah, it's okay, it's fine, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think this one too, the one that was like the dispute one, it was a principle that we were trying to let.
Speaker 2:I couldn't. Yeah, it was on principle. Yeah, I couldn't let it go?
Speaker 1:yeah, I know it was there's that little thing, that little festers in you yeah, I go.
Speaker 2:This is not right.
Speaker 1:We need justice for this miss justice over here with her mallet.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I'm just like. This can't happen. You cannot take advantage of small businesses because you think that they're afraid to get a bad review or that you're going to tell your friends about it and spread the word not to go Like that's what happens. People just let shit go and they don't have boundaries in their business with their clients because sometimes they are like at the mercy of these clients we all are and they go. I mean, I don't really feel like we are at this point because I think to myself, 13 years in business, however many thousands of clients that we have had over that time who are raving about our business and giving us referrals and coming back, and we have 200 five-star reviews on google, like one person going and telling people some shit about us, whether whatever it's true or not true.
Speaker 2:I'm not worried about that yeah also, I don't want your shitty friends if they're like you oh my god so if you're gonna tell your friends not to come here, yeah. If your friends steal too, I don't want them.
Speaker 1:I don't want thieves for clients I bet that lady tells no one what happened. I bet she didn't tell her partner what happened and I bet she just got scared and she just had to pay it.
Speaker 2:It's like I kind of feel bad for her. You do, uh, I mean, I feel bad that I don't feel bad. It's like I feel bad that people, um, when people do like what, what would make you do something like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would have felt bad if she didn't download the images. If we would have seen that like she didn't even download them, she got the whole email Like she got the link and she didn't download it, I'd have been like damn, like maybe her partner did get mad at her. Or like you know, and maybe she did make the decision, or maybe something happened or you know, whatever and Like you know, and maybe she did make the decision, or maybe something happened, or you know whatever, and I've been fine.
Speaker 2:But the fact that she downloaded them With a quickness. That's the problem that I have Right Agreed, so so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, business sucks a lot of times and you know, hopefully you can push through it and get through it.
Speaker 2:So does life. Yeah, shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm tired. Sometimes, like today, I want to just lay down all day yeah, but that's not going to happen.
Speaker 2:What if we just record our next episode laying down? We'll just lay on the floor and the camera's just like on top of us. It's this aerial view.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, and we're just eating our cronuts.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that yeah that could be something yeah okay, so let's get our pajamas on, get ready for the next episode. Yeah, all right. Well, all you lovely ladies out there are you people tell us if you watch judy justice, let us know. Or, uh, catfish, oh god, that's her God, that's her favorite. Oh my God, I love it. It's trash TV. It's fun though, yeah, if you're out there and you're having a bad day or a bad week or just a bad life we're here the whole bad life yeah.
Speaker 2:You never know, some people have bad lives.
Speaker 1:Let's help you change it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let us know. Send us a message and we will send you some affirmations Some morning.
Speaker 1:Manipulations, well you said you were doing morning manipulations this week. Oh my God, I was?
Speaker 2:I was that morning when the whole Instagram debacle happened. Yeah, I had to do some little manifesting or whatever. Yeah, a little affirmations. I was like oh my God, because I was getting freaked out. And then I was looking in the mirror and I was just like you got this bitch, like you're not going to let this take you down. You have been through worse shit. You will not be taken down. You'll figure it out. Come on, like, get it together. Yeah, so embarrassing. I did it and I believed it.
Speaker 1:I believed it, I mean you did, but then you didn't even come to book club because you were so mad.
Speaker 2:I was drained, I was extremely drained from the whole thing and I didn't go to book club, which I'm really sad about, but I needed to recharge.
Speaker 1:Especially you.
Speaker 2:I really have to have recharge time. You know I teach my son about that, so sometimes he goes. He'll come downstairs. I'm laying on the couch, he goes. Are you recharging your battery right now?
Speaker 1:well, you know, I had told Drew. I said you know Brianna's so upset about all this stuff and she like didn't come to book club. And he was like that's what you have to do. You have to go and like have some fun, to like get away from it. I go, yeah, but her, she doesn't want to work like that.
Speaker 1:And he was like, oh yeah, she's actually she's an introvert and it's because, literally, I don't know any of our friends that are like really introverts I mean Christina, kanye, sometimes Invern, but not really like they hang out, like we're all hanging out. So it is different for us to think in that way, because none of us are and so. I'm like, yeah, but she doesn't work like that, like that's not how her brain goes.
Speaker 2:I gotta just shut it down for a minute, and I was really glad I did, because the next day I was like back in action I like to use my vices against it.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, that's how I I those are like my swords and stuff against the bad things that are happening to me, just like what I do drown it in like alcohol and cigarettes I knew it.
Speaker 2:I knew it. What I like to do is I like to slug out on the couch and watch the worst true crime documentaries that are out there. There's some good ones, and I just see some really awful shit happening in the world and I'm like man, that's not my life, so I have it pretty good You're appreciating. Oh yeah, it makes me really grateful. Yeah, and it makes me really not let my son do anything fun.
Speaker 1:For real man. It is scary. As much as I don't like kids, I don't want them kidnapped. No Jesus, please, like I just can't believe that we go out in this world and people are just so evil, don't just don't steal the kid, but can you take their iPad? Just steal the iPad, please yeah, give them headphones oh my god well, you can ensure yeah, yeah, I love.
Speaker 2:Well, you can. You can now find us on instagram, because now our instagram is back at maximalist life podcast. Check in, let us know how you're doing, how your week, day, month life is going, and we will see you guys next time.
Speaker 1:Hope you're okay, dicks out.