Spotlight on Good People by Robert of Philadelphia
This is your go-to source for inspiration, shining a light on the unsung heroes of Naples and Southwest Florida. From heartwarming stories to practical tips, we celebrate the people who make our slice of paradise more connected, compassionate, and kind. In a world full of noise, we’re here to uplift, inform, and inspire — one story at a time.
Spotlight on Good People by Robert of Philadelphia
So much has been happening!
An update on what life has been like in our family business and the world.
Adding kindness to the world helps during a time where people are very fragile.
Some general rants on life
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Okay, so we're looking right up there in three, two, one. We're live.
UNKNOWN:Hi.
SPEAKER_04:First time back. It's been a really long time. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Oh, 10 days, right? Yes. 10 days?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I'm not ready yet.
SPEAKER_04:Today's the 15th and you're not ready yet. No.
SPEAKER_05:Never. Procrastination at its finest.
SPEAKER_04:You do better under pressure. I
SPEAKER_05:do. I do.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's been a real long time since we've done one of these. I don't remember the last time we did one. I think we did a remote one
SPEAKER_05:six months ago. It's
SPEAKER_04:been a while, but you got all ready and dressed up for this special occasion. You even have your colors on your Christmas sweater.
SPEAKER_05:My vest from
SPEAKER_04:Goodwill. Nice. You scored good from over there, right? The resourcefulness of you. I love it. So we have a lot of things to catch up on, a lot of things to talk about. We typically... cover a wide gamut of things. It depends on what's happening in life for our lives and we'll just have conversations about them and might be about our business, might be about someone in our business, might be about what's happening in our lives or what's happening in the world or just general opinions of the Southwest Florida lifestyle and being in a family business for 40 plus years and just the life today and the challenges of life today.
SPEAKER_05:Life in general that, you know, we're always all trying to figure out day by day. And my name is Lexi and that's Rob, my dad.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, for anybody who's new here, we are a family, a family and also a family business. Yeah. I'm one of the owners of Robert of Philadelphia Salons, as is my daughter, Alexi, my son, Robert, our family, my wife, Michelle, and then our team of 50 people who are also part owners of the organization. They built it and made it what it is. So there's a slew of us and we talk about them on here sometimes and talk about what's happening in life sometimes. And right now, people are under a lot of pressure. I think Well, we're always under a lot of pressure. There's always something going on, always some event. You know, last time we were doing more of these, it was coming out of COVID. Not that we're out of it because it's back again in its new version now. But as far as the lockdowns go, it's a while since
SPEAKER_05:then. I feel like there's always going to be something, you know, that's a way of life. Isn't there always something?
SPEAKER_04:Last five years. I mean, here in Southwest Florida, be a business here in Southwest Florida. I mean, you know, you've had Hurricane Irma. Then the pandemic. Then another hurricane.
SPEAKER_05:Hurricane Ian.
SPEAKER_04:Ian, which was the worst ever in our history here. Still so many recovering from that. And then on top of a recession or a looming recession, an inflation that's never been this high since 2008. My dad, your poppy, opened up the salon in 1980 when Jimmy Carter was leaving office as president. Inflation has never been as high in this nation since then, since he opened the business. He actually opened it when the recession, when interest rates were like 18%, I think at the time. And inflation was some ridiculous number. But I think we beat those numbers now. So Jimmy Carter, you're sitting pretty because Joe has helped you out. You got to thank that man. He's making you look good.
SPEAKER_05:It's funny because when COVID started, you're like, oh, this is really weird. It can't get much weirder now. And then you're like, oh, wait, never mind. I guess it can get a little bit weirder. Oh, here's more. Here we are. Here we are. And Hurricane Ian, you know, I'm born and raised in Naples, Florida. I'm like a proud Floridian, very flow grown. You know, I mean, I'm not like,
SPEAKER_04:You're rare, I know, because not many are born here. And
SPEAKER_05:my mom's like a third generation here or something crazy like that. So I'm very proud of Floridian. And throughout the history of Hurricane Donna, when you think back, every time, even growing up, you know, you hear the news says, oh, this hurricane's coming. You know, that's what I heard everybody say on like TikTok and stuff. They're like... well, why wouldn't you leave? Why, why would you stay? Are you stupid? Well, because every single time the news tells you, Oh, you're going to have 20 feet storm surge, get out, get out. You know, they freak you out. And a couple of chairs end up blowing over. So it's kind of like the boy who cried wolf, like the news continued to tell us that. And when this came, we were, I was like, we're fine. We're fine. I didn't, think anything of it. And then until it did happen.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I know we've had so many and there've always been this warning of this massive surge. It's coming every, you know, all the storms that we've been through here, they always talk about the surge and we just never saw the, so we just never, I never believed it was going to ever happen to us. I've seen it happen in other areas, but I thought we just were immune to it and that it would never really happen. Cause I remember back in Irma with Michelle, um, she was doing what the news said. She was blowing up life rafts and flotation devices and concerned about the surge. And I was laughing because I said, that's not common. It's there's no such thing. It's not going to happen. And even in the area we were in, we were in higher ground, but she was still following the protocol, the news and, um, you know, over and over again, I've just said, Oh, that's never going to happen. I was telling, I will never say that again after this one, because I was telling people, don't worry about it. People were visiting.
SPEAKER_05:I remember it was like the day before it happened. We had a guest come in, they lived on Marco Island and he was like, Oh, you're fine. You're fine.
SPEAKER_04:And all of her sisters. Yeah. Please. I, I'm, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_05:They
SPEAKER_04:were from Philadelphia. There were four sisters, I think in the salon at this time, they were all visiting together. And, uh, You know, I was trying to calm their nerves. Like, hey, I've been through so many of them. Don't worry about it. You're fine. Don't worry. You're fine. Everything's going to be okay. And I will never do that again. I will never say that again because I don't know. And actually, this one especially because it was coming our way. It was going to Tampa, Tampa, Tampa. And then everybody went to bed that night before. And all of a sudden, when they woke up in the morning, it wasn't going to Tampa. It was turning to us. And
SPEAKER_05:people came down here from Tampa to... to take shelter, like kids in college and stuff, their parents live here, they came down here for shelter, not knowing they followed the storm. And it was so bizarre because I had my friend come stay with me, I had my kids, you know, I live in a condo, I'm up on the third floor, and it's like the day before, she's like, oh, I think my zone's an evacuation zone. I was like, oh, just come stay with me, it'll be fine, at least we won't be bored. And We were happy. We were having fun, having a hurricane party. We had power through most, I think, the storms, whatever. We're hanging out. All of a sudden, the power goes out. And then not only the power goes out, the phones go out. I can't get a hold of anybody. I can't watch the news to see even now what's going on. I have no idea. And the only picture I get that comes through on my phone is from a girl that works for us, Virginia, sends me a picture of her car six feet underwater. And I was like... oh, well, maybe this is a little bit worse than I thought. It was like a war zone. It was really weird, very weird. Worse than Irma, I think.
SPEAKER_04:Well, obviously. And especially what was, you know, everybody's seen what's been on the news and how much of the coastal area was just... A mess. A devastated. I, for the first time, went to Vanderbilt Beach, and now it's December, so this is two months later, and we went at night to see what Vanderbilt Beach looked like, and I was surprised at how many condos are still not back up and running. They're still... dark at night, you know, the bottom floor of the electric panel and area was just wiped out. And, you know, they either can't get parts or it's going to take so much extensive work that all those condos and all those people are out. So, so many people were affected by that one. It was really big. And we were very, very blessed, very lucky that none of our homes were Or salons. Now we did have some people who had damaged their homes. We definitely, actually there were several employees who lost, who had to have their places redone. So didn't lose the place fully, but had to have the drywall cut out and new flooring. And for so many people that's happened to where they have to have major renovations done on their houses and they're staying somewhere else now. A
SPEAKER_05:lot of people didn't have insurance, you know. in that moment in time, a lot of people didn't. So it's like, what do you do now? You know, it's bizarre.
SPEAKER_04:We talked to so many people who are, you know, in a battle with FEMA and their insurance company, or they can't get their insurance company to answer if they even had insurance. But the insurance depends on the damage. Are they trying to get flood? Are they trying to get the other? So they're just going through a lot. So we were real lucky.
SPEAKER_05:Fort Myers, Sanibel, I mean, it's still like... I mean, it's like heartbreaking. And I feel like everywhere's kind of stopped talking about it now. It's like on to the next thing, the way everything is in life. But it's still decimated. I was on Airbnb last night, and there's a house on Fort Myers Beach. Sometimes I just like to look and see. And there's a house on Fort Myers Beach for a week. It's like...$2,000 or something. And there's no power or electricity, but it's for workers. So they don't have to leave or stay in a camp.
UNKNOWN:Wow.
SPEAKER_05:A campsite. Like they can stay, at least it's a shelter. Yeah. But that's crazy to me. There's still no power. Wow.
SPEAKER_04:I've been up there. I haven't seen that, but I hear people who go up there and, you know, know people who are from there and lost everything. I
SPEAKER_05:mean, it's coming before Myers Beaches. I've heard bars starting to open there and they have like their... But there's still just, it's just amazing to see what's happened at Sanibel.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, in our little area here where we thought that would never happen and it did. But I have to say the recovery effort and the way things are coming back together was much quicker and I think happened much more expeditiously than expected. remembering what happened in Irma. Now, Irma was different because Irma was wind damaged and it was in different areas like Immokalee and more inland because of the wind. But still, it seemed like things came back together, are coming back together. I mean, there's still a lot. It's easy for me to say because I drive the roads in areas where they weren't damaged as much. But going through Vanderbilt the other night, I could see that the beaches still aren't open in some areas and It's going to be a while.
SPEAKER_05:I feel like Naples is really recovering. There's some areas you can't even... It was very eerie the first couple days. It honestly looked like the apocalypse. One, there was no cell service. Two, the sky was so eerie. We live in a tropical area. There's greenery everywhere, and all of the trees were brown. It looked like we were in fall. All the palm trees were like...
SPEAKER_04:That's something I've never seen before in any other storms. It was like a burn on all the greenery. It was like the wind burn or the salt burn. I'm not sure what they call that. There's something it's called, but I never saw it. Like from the salt. Any other storm, it did. Like all the trees were burned and it did look like fall, which it never looks like fall here. Everything's always green, so that was really strange too. And even without... You don't realize the reliance on cell service. Because even at... Irma. We had cell service all the way through Irma. But with Ian, I don't know why, particularly with Verizon, there was Very little cell service to even be able to get messages out. Definitely couldn't make phone calls. Some other carriers, you could use your phone, but just to get updates and information was the issue. Like, knowing what the heck was going on and being able to talk to people. We couldn't
SPEAKER_05:even talk to, you know, we have a bunch of employees, and one of our main concerns was making sure everybody's okay. You know, like, getting a hold of everybody, making sure they're all safe. So it was definitely... bizarre, but it's amazing to see like how things bounce back. Like life has to keep going.
SPEAKER_04:Christmas is here and the Christmas music is playing. And, you know, three days after
SPEAKER_05:beautiful, they
SPEAKER_04:put that back together for three days after, um, the storm Walmart had their Christmas stuff out, you know, it's back to business as it goes. But with all that comes, um, going into, you know, with the recession, um, You know, they're saying recession, we're in a recession, we're not in a recession. Are we going to be in a recession? Supply chain, inflation, prices skyrocketing for everything. I mean, you know, our hair color supplies alone have gone up three times in the last 12 months, more than 15%. We've had some supply, some products go up 100%. with this inflation cost, gloves and foils and coffee and just basic supplies to run the business.
SPEAKER_05:If you think about like, so a couple, we've always manufactured all of our own products. Like we have our own hair care line or whatever. And if you think about, even think about that, a lot of that started with, a couple that started like our our manufacturing plant like closed down overnight with no warning nothing
SPEAKER_04:so one of our manufacturers went out went out of business like they just shut it down because they couldn't get whatever they needed they were buying a lot of stuff overseas which now we learned our lesson to work with a manufacturer it's products from within our own country so that's helping but we learned the hard way because yeah they just shut down they couldn't get what they needed
SPEAKER_05:and then think about think about all the other places in the that stuff like that happens. And that's all within the last couple years since COVID. where we're at as a country, that that started
SPEAKER_04:happening. I don't know how many businesses are not anymore because of that. I mean, it was hard enough getting through COVID. Anybody survived that, but then to have to go through the storm as well, but then the inflation and the cost of everything, the cost of housing in our area, the cost for somebody to live here, to earn a living wage and be able to live here. So all that's skyrocketing, going crazy. It's putting a lot of pressure on people, and people are on the edge, and... definitely a little bit more testy and touchy. You see these blowups happening on the internet a lot more frequently. These viral things
SPEAKER_05:happening everywhere. I mean, a couple weeks ago there was road rage guy just shot the other guy and killed him. Like there's
SPEAKER_04:just every day that happens.
SPEAKER_05:Lack of kindness in the world. It's like nobody wants to trust anybody anymore and everybody's angry.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we even have them on our own. So we, we create kindness campaigns or, One of the things we talk about often is that some people treated with a little bit of kindness sometimes can really turn them around, can really have a ripple effect in the world. So we're always talking about and promoting kindness and love and not woo-woo-y stuff, but just loving people, just being appreciative and grateful for what we have and where we live and expressing our gratitude and love for people. And in fact, even on our packaging now, we're putting our little heart with love that says, be kind on it. We have kindness campaigns and we did a campaign recently. So for those of you that don't know how we operate, we're a chain of hair salons and we have been a business for since 1980, a third generation family business now. But the way we develop our team is most salons or many salons hire experienced or seasoned stylists, which we have before. But for the most part, what we do is we hire people right out of school and we train them with an additional 2,000 hours that they go through of additional training. And the minimum of that and It's a rigorous program that elevates the standards. Most schools don't give them the foundation of what they need to be successful in the business. There's a high failure rate of people going through the cosmetology schools and going into the industry. So we're doing our best to increase the success rate of cosmetologists out of school for the industry, not just for us. But we have an advanced training program. And one of the things we discovered recently is was that one way to give people more experience is to offer these, we call them experience days, where we invite the public in for free services so that they can be assessed and given a check ride of their work. And their work is overseen, the haircut's overseen by some master or senior stylist. So we put a posting out that allows people to book online. It says free haircut. It says free haircut. And it says to get your free haircut, when you go fill in the promo line, put be kind. And that'll zero out the cost of the haircut.
SPEAKER_05:Well, and it essentially provides associates. It's more than associates. We have some stylists that are doing it as well. It provides them with
SPEAKER_04:a trial. Well, actually, they're all stylists. So using the term associate, we just use that because it's a co-stylist. So all of them in the program are stylists. licensed stylist so they could go anywhere and work so it's just our finishing work on
SPEAKER_05:in the greater education so to speak so but it gives them you know we booked them like five six haircuts so then they can have a full mock day of, okay, this is what it's like to be busy. This is, you need to stay on time. Like be aware. Are you educate, like providing five star service? Are you telling them doing a thorough consultation? Are you shampoo and conditioner with shampoo and conditioner using what styling aid future appointment, you know, all
SPEAKER_04:those things. Rather than practicing on real paying guests, which is how most become proficient in the industry is they go work in a salon right out of school without having that strong foundation because the schools don't give them they educate them on passing the state test not necessarily not all the schools work hard on having them be great hair cutters or be Be great hair colorist. So this is a process that gives them real world experience while somebody can offer them feedback and support to make sure that they're doing a great job and working on people. So it's a new venture for us and it's working out really well because we get to introduce people to our services who may have never used us before and also gives the staff a chance an opportunity to get some real experience. And, you know, they'll do five, uh, 25 people a month or 20 people a month, uh, which gives them, you know, in a, in a year's time, you know, they can have done 500 to a thousand people in addition to who they're an associate stylist with. So it really helps finish them off. And anyway, we've been doing that and we had some interesting things happen with that because it is free. It is a gift to somebody to get a full experience in the salons with the Prosecco and the
SPEAKER_05:Well, it's good for our concierge who's ever up front. There's constantly issues. There's always issues. So it teaches you problem solving quickly. Because to say that things in a salon are always going to go perfectly as you planned, it's not realistic. Somebody's going to be sick. People are going to run late. That's going to be expected in the salon, in any industry, really. So it's good for concierge. All, everybody.
SPEAKER_04:It's a practice ground for real-world circumstances, and real-world circumstances happen when we're running these simulations because they're with real people. They're not with a mannequin head, which I have a box of mannequins' heads out there, by the way, that I have to get to the salon. Yeah, I saw it. So they're working on live people, and there are real breakdowns, which sometimes is good because we get to learn, and the people working on that day get to learn from it. And we had something really interesting happen because the people book right online, and this was an interaction, I guess, that you had because we go through and we confirm the appointments.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I'll go through because they are complimentary. Sometimes at the beginning we notice some people wouldn't. show up. I will actually physically have people say, yes, I will be there so that we're not wasting that space. There's so many people that flood in so quickly to get in those spots.
SPEAKER_04:We'll have 55 people in a day. If
SPEAKER_05:somebody's not going to come, I want to know so I can put somebody else there. I was going through and I was just confirming everybody and I noticed a woman had a haircut schedule. We have girls that do haircuts and girls that do they do a full haircut and style, which includes a blowout. And then we have girls that do blow dries. Well, I noticed there was a haircut and style scheduled and then there was a blow drive for the same person directly after. So I just sent a text and said, I noticed you have two appointments. Like I was checking to see maybe do you have somebody coming with you? Like do you have a friend? Or is this a mistake? Can I delete one or the other? And She must not understand. And I'm like, I over-explained everything. I mean, you could see, I think it's probably still on there. I'm very well-spoken and I know, I didn't try to leave out any, there was no confusion. I was like, okay, you have two. And I explained it. But here is a, it's just funny. I
SPEAKER_04:don't know if I can blow that up. Yeah, I don't
SPEAKER_05:know if I can see it.
SPEAKER_04:You see that, right? Yes. Yeah. So this is our friend. I'll have to blank out that name there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So this is it. Hi. Hi, Karen. I noticed. I mean, this was just there was a couple multiple texts. There's another one, too. Hi, Karen. I noticed we have you down for a blow dry at 215 and a haircut at one o'clock. Is this a mistake? Thank you. Um, and then her original thing said, uh, there was one other thing she said right before that. And then, um, I said, okay, well, I'm going to cancel the blow dry because clearly that wasn't what she needed. I've figured that out. And then her next response is, um, literally word for word. This is the text that comes through to her. All of our salons. Everybody can read this. And she says, are you effing serious?
SPEAKER_04:Like immediately, like banged it out so quick. And these came in succession.
SPEAKER_05:And I put smiley faces. Like I said, thank you. Like there's no need to be nasty. And then she says, just canceled the whole damn thing.
SPEAKER_04:Capitals.
SPEAKER_05:Rolling on the floor, laughing my effing ass off. I will be sure and spread the work in my blogs. How unprofessional this slob is. Bait and switch.
SPEAKER_04:Nice salon. She was so angry, typing so fast that she got her words a little mixed up there. I will be sure and spread the work in my blogs. How unprofessional this slob. And here she corrected and put salon. But she was really fuming that she had been taken by...
UNKNOWN:you
SPEAKER_04:anyway it's just interesting how people fly off the handle and you know this this is totally a gift we're giving to people there's no bait and switch we we take no money on this day it's a completely uh free event it's not done with the intent if they want
SPEAKER_05:to buy a good product we offer 50 off i mean it costs us money doing this so for people to get like nasty like that like i but i feel like also the world is so used to scans
SPEAKER_04:that's the thing i mean people do actually come to us and I think that this is a scam. I mean, they show up thinking, when are they going to get me? Because there's no way they could really be giving me a full haircut, a$90 haircut, style, shampoo, head, neck, and shoulder massage, Prosecco. Kindness. People being kind for free. There's got to be a catch. It's like the... uh, what, what's the pitch you get from when you go to Disney world, you get free tickets. If you go sit through, sit through a timeshare thing, like they're waiting for something to happen. And literally that's the space that this woman was in. She was actually ready for, she was waiting for the hook, what's the catch and then flying off the handle when it didn't happen. So, you know, our goal, our intention always is to, um, To have people leave after they've experienced us, and even if it's on the phones or whether it's in person or they're just walking by or they come in to actually have a service done, that they leave feeling that they don't quite know what happened. They couldn't describe the experience, but they know that they feel really good and they love that they feel that way, but yet they didn't take drugs or Well, maybe we gave them some Prosecco, so maybe they had a little alcohol. But the fact that people were genuinely kind and thoughtful and concerned about them and them genuinely being happy, I mean, that's what our culture is built on. That's what our family is about, is... love, kindness, compassion, empathy, just doing the right thing for humanity. And so when they come into that space, they're not used to that. They're used to, most people are terrified of finding a new salon. Well, let alone a deal. And when there's a deal, there's always a catch. So, you know, and that's what happened in this case. And I feel bad. I sent her a big apology message to say, we're so sorry that you had that You were left feeling that way. Something in the way that we communicated it didn't indicate that the blowout was included with the haircut, so we'll change how we do that, but we certainly didn't intend for her to be upset. I get that there's other things that are happening in people's lives that have that happen. It's 10 days away from Christmas, and times are tough. Life is hard, and it always is. There's always going to be something, but we're doing what we can to... to impact that, to, uh, interrupt what people see as normal to do things that are different. Um, and, and in what way it's different every day, you know, we continue to evolve probably from the last time we made one of these, we're a different organization. We're a different family. We've grown.
SPEAKER_05:And we live in this world that is so, I mean, it's honestly kind of like scary nowadays, the way the world is. Um, And I know I'm 30 years old. I have two children. I'm still, I mean, I guess you're always trying to figure out your life. But I feel like in the last year, I've really had a lot of eye-opening things about being an adult. Because I feel like you go through your 20s and you're an adult. But you're still trying to figure out what that means, so to speak. And I was raising two children. So it was like, let me figure out how I... need to be while also figuring out uh making them fed and taking care of them and not stressing their lives out or causing them trauma um so but i'm
SPEAKER_04:on your own as a as a single mom
SPEAKER_05:and there's so there's a lot of us and we do it and i feel you and i and i feel like i work with a lot of them um and i have the utmost respect um because i know what it's like um but I'm realizing in my life right now, I don't, like, even thinking about, you think about the murder, the murders in Idaho or whatever, the four college students, like, how quickly, it's so bizarre, because I'm looking at their social media the day before, right? The day before, this is not an episode of a true crime on YouTube that we're watching that happened three years ago. This happened four weeks ago. And I'm seeing the day before on all their social medias, on their little VSCO cam, whatever. And these are just normal people. And how fast life can be gone. And totally not what any of us expect. So I don't want to spend my life obsessed with things that don't fulfill me because what if life is not guaranteed? And finally something clicked in my head. I'm tired of caring about what everybody else thinks. I just want to live my life for me. Yeah,
SPEAKER_04:well... This is the picture you're probably talking about, right? Yeah, I
SPEAKER_05:was looking at all their... That girl was downstairs. I was obsessed. I've been obsessed.
SPEAKER_04:But this is the picture that was actually the day before or the day of?
SPEAKER_05:The day before they went to like a formal. That was very... I'm not sure when
SPEAKER_04:that photo was. Was in the same time frame of...
SPEAKER_05:Was in the same time frame, yeah. The day before they had a formal and they had like 20 people at their house. And it's bizarre. You're seeing all of them... Their pictures are being taken on the floor where that happened.
SPEAKER_04:If you're listening and not watching the video portion of this, we just put a picture up and you've probably all seen it of the group, the roommates, in addition to another friend, I guess, or all the roommates because there were two that weren't killed in the picture. But it is a quick reminder as to... There is no someday. There's just today. Like, today is it. Like, maybe we're living for when life gets better, when the economy gets better, when we get another president, when we get another leader, when the interest rates are better, when the sun shines, when whatever. The someday comes. But this is it right now. Like, you know, hurricane, inflation, whatever it is. Yeah. So, I don't know. Allowing
SPEAKER_05:mediocrity in my life... because that's what I've always done. I'm a millennial, and there's like a huge thing. Actually, it's funny. I like how millennials were raised by baby boomers, obviously, who, that's Boo Boo, if you hear Boo Boo in the background.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the guy's, he knew we were doing this, so he's blowing the blower right outside the window. I don't know if you can hear that or
SPEAKER_05:not. But, you know, I'm a millennial raised by baby boomers who, it's like common knowledge, they were raised in, or not, you're not a baby boomer, whatever, you're a gen, whatever. But my point is, is baby boomers are a race. Just shut up and be quiet and be happy and don't talk about your feelings and everything's fine, everything's fine, there's nothing wrong, you know. And so it's funny, now they're saying like, Gen Z is like, oh, fuck it, I'm gonna tell everybody how I feel, you know. And I'm learning how to do that which is empowering. I I'm empowered by that. And I want to do that as well. Um, and I want to just be who I am. Like I don't have to be anybody else. And, um, it's a very empowering feeling when you finally, every day you learn something different, just like every day we go through different things, but that's recently where my head's been
SPEAKER_04:at. Yeah. And I think that's a really big, um, I think that's really important because something I spent a lot of time with our, um, our team with in particular are, are, um, uh, rising stars in, in educating them on is to have a relationship work over time, uh, to have, because we have a lot of staff members of our family that have been there a long time. Um, and to have a relationship like that work, you've got to be able to communicate and express yourself and you got to say what it is that you need and, and, what works for you and what doesn't work for you because if you end up having something that you're pissed about or something that happens that doesn't work or you're not growing or you hit a wall and you start to build a resentment, then it's real easy to start looking over the other side of the fence and seeing how green the grass is over there when you can actually create that right here in our home and in our family. And I was just having a conversation with one of the rising stars yesterday. And I was really proud of her because she was terrified. She wanted to have a conversation about her future and where she was going and what was happening. But it took a lot for her to bring up what she wanted to talk about. And I was so proud of her for being able to express herself that way, to actually be able to communicate what she wanted. And it doesn't always mean they're going to get it. But then it lets us know or me know what's important to her or what she needs, what she values. Um, so that I can work harder at giving, you know, giving her what she needs to have her life work in our own culture. So she's growing professionally. She's growing financially. She's growing spiritually. She's growing in all ways of life. Um, so that she, her fulfillment, she can get so much out of working here that, um, it actually gives her being in other areas of her life so that when she goes home, she's a better mom or a better girlfriend, a better wife, a better whatever it is that she is. What's that? Fiance. Better fiance. I'm just kidding. They're not, I'm waiting every day. Whoever they are and whoever they are, a better daughter, a better parent, whatever it is that they get so much out of being here that they're fulfilled that way rather than always having to look outside of that to find that better guy or to find that better way. So if being able to express yourself and being able to, uh, even to people who are toxic or not good in your life, you know, being able to communicate to them. So hopefully she gets something on that end.
SPEAKER_05:I think a lot of that starts, um, on our end in our business that starts with us as the leaders are we providing that kind of atmosphere for people that they are allowed to are they allowed to communicate how they feel and that's something I try to build I mean obviously I'm always learning but I really emphasize I want to have a close relationship with people so that they feel like they can come and talk to me that I will do whatever. Tell me what you need. Tell me what's on your mind. Even if I can't fix it, I will do my best to. Or if you have an idea, cool, let's do it. Your idea is great. Let's do it. You're right. I think a lot of businesses are run at the top where... the leaders are always right and you listen to me and that's it, which is true in a sense, but I don't want to live my life that way. I don't want to be that kind of person. I want to inspire and empower women and gentlemen to help me figure that out and them figure that out by themselves. And then so they're successful without me holding your hand saying, come on, this is what you do now. They're growing as they grow in our program as human beings.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And I think, um, you know, also coming from the mindset that like, if they're not happy, if they don't love being here and they're not happy, which I get that they're not always going to be happy, like happy, that would take drugs to always be happy, but always love the ride, love the journey of where we're going, uh, despite bumps, then I For me, I don't want somebody to be here unless they are happy, unless they do love being a part of this culture, and unless they're contributing in a way that lifts other people up. So, you know, we've had people who maybe aren't the... most productive or best. They haven't hit their mark yet in the world of being a stylist. They're still growing, but they contribute in so many other ways. They lift other people up. They're always bringing the spirits of other people up. They're always making a difference in somebody's life around them, next to them, above them, below them. It the lives around them and the people around them better. They are enhancing their lives. And the older I get and the more life experience I have and the more crap I've had to deal with in life, I realize that those are the kind of people I want to be around in my life. Those are the kind of people I want to surround myself with is more of those people that lift others up.
SPEAKER_05:Well, and somebody like... For a long time in my life, I've always made it my job to lift other people up. That's my job. But who am I surrounding myself with that's lifting me up? And that's going to make a huge difference of my impact on other people. So am I surrounding myself with people who are They want better things for their life as well. Are they growing? Do they want to grow? Do they have high standards for themselves? Do they want to be accountable and recognize? Just like for me, I expect the same thing. Like, that's what I want for myself. And when I do surround myself with people like that, like Mackenzie or Allie or Christy, you know, there's so many and many more. Like, do I surround myself? Those people being around them just makes me want to be like better you know you know those people they just make you want to be better those are stylists in our program like just humans that make you want to be better or am I constantly it's like you're pouring your bucket into other people pouring pouring pouring pouring and well, okay, well, what are you doing? This is getting a little tired. I'm getting a little tired of constantly, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you said something to me the other day that was just about that. You had this terrible feeling in your stomach. You didn't feel right about how a conversation was left, and you felt bad after you had talked to someone, and you were asking me, am I doing the right thing? Should I be doing something else?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It really had me think like if a person is leaving you feeling that way, if you're interacting with somebody and they leave you feeling so doubtful, so insecure, so unsure, uncertain about things, that probably that was more of the issue than anything. That the toxicity of that person... was the unhealthy part of it. Not that you felt that way, but your gut was telling you something's not right.
SPEAKER_05:What was this?
SPEAKER_04:Uh, it was a, uh, text or messages that you were getting from somebody and you asked me, should I have done something else? You said, should I have done this or should I have done that? Yeah. Um, and it was, um, so I don't know that had me realize like if, if, if you feel that way after interacting with somebody, if you have this gut feeling like that, something's wrong, like, Why do I feel guilty or wrong or weird after I interact with that person? Well, typically, that person, if you really did a check on them, there's something unhealthy going on over there. There's some boundary crossing happening or something that's really unhealthy that when you separate yourself from that, when you create more space or love them from a distance, it makes your life healthier. So it doesn't mean you have to stop loving them.
SPEAKER_05:It's amazing, just like all the people, even... Melinda's a nail tech who's worked for us. We don't even do nails. She's worked for us forever, longer than my whole life. I feel like she's gone through her own stuff in life, too, where... You know, she was depressed or whatever it was in her life that she was going through. And she was a huge, massive enabler. But that woman, she's worked for like 36 years or something. And she's totally like somebody you would see that would be like, oh, just shove your feelings down and work hard. You know, like she's typical, like that's her. But she is... lately, she, she just so makes me realize, she's like, okay, well, why are you doing that? Like, that's not, uh, is that helping you? Like, why, that doesn't sound right, Lexi. And, um, even for her, she recognizes things that she's allowed and just even those little things being around that changes my perspective, you know?
SPEAKER_04:Well, and it's another example of surrounding yourself with people who are going to bring you up, maybe not only tell you what you always want to hear, but lift you up in some way or another. So I don't know, just something that I think is really valuable and important. And I've been putting a lot of emphasis on in my life. I know you've been doing it in your life and taking care of yourself more. So, um, those are good things. And I think, um, As a... If you're still here and still listening, good for you because you made it that far. And
SPEAKER_05:I
SPEAKER_04:want to do a fit
SPEAKER_05:check at the end. I've always wanted to do that.
SPEAKER_04:A what?
SPEAKER_05:A fit check.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, we'll get to a fit check. I've
SPEAKER_05:always wanted to pretend like I'm a TikTok star.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, well... I'm just kidding. We'll turn this into a TikTok video.
SPEAKER_05:I'm just
SPEAKER_04:kidding. We'll definitely do that. I
SPEAKER_05:wanted to say one more thing really quickly. Yesterday... I know, I keep saying... Diana is this woman... she's been she worked for my grandfather she was my grandfather's associate she's still knockout gorgeous she's like 61 or 62 i don't know but she is beautiful um tall blonde gorgeous um she said yesterday something that even stuck out to me she said um our um because we were talking about me losing weight and I remembered she said you know what I always appreciated about your grandfather is sometimes you'd hurt your feelings but he was always honest and I was like yeah that's true he would always tell me like hey Lex you're looking a little fat and then I was thinking about it she said you know who else is like that Edward's like that and then I was thinking about it a year ago there's Edward right there a year ago Edward said to me oh honey you're looking a little tubby and Honestly, a year ago in January, I went to the gym and I said I'm going to take my health seriously. And I was talking to Diana and it is, I would rather have people tell me the truth in my life. That's what we were talking about. It would hurt my feelings if they were saying that behind my back, but they're not. They're saying it to my face. That means they care about me. And I would rather surround myself with people that hold me to a standard that are going to tell me the truth rather than fluff, give you all this fluff and then talk about you behind your back. Um, and that was something, that's something I want in our business, in my cult, in our culture, like, um, the ability to be able to communicate. So then that's what you were talking about in the relationship, the ability to communicate, Hey, this doesn't work for me or, Hey, you know, it, Maybe you can try a little bit harder to be on time or different things that I, instead of just being like, oh, everything's good. Like I need to communicate too and vice versa. And I want other people to do that with me too. So that was powerful.
SPEAKER_04:So it was Edward.
SPEAKER_05:Edward told me I was to be a year.
SPEAKER_04:That inspired you to, to work. I read, but it was probably Lisa for me many years ago that Lisa got me to bootcamp at five o'clock in the morning. She got me started. And that Lisa's in that picture too. Lisa, Diana, Verge, and Edward. Some legends in the culture. But that's just supporting the people. That's just lifting others around you and what it is. And in any one of the locations that I go in and any one of the locations that anybody comes into, that's what happens. And it happens in such a subtle way that we're inspired by each other. And that's what works in our culture. So not to say it's perfect, but it's one of the things that I get to appreciate about it. And even in having this conversation, I get to say I appreciate about the people that I'm surrounded with. At any one of our locations, there's a group of people in each one that is amazing. And whether they've been here for 40 years or more, 40 days, they have an impact on my life because of who they are in their heart. So I'm forever grateful to the community of people, not just inside, but outside. Cause we have a community of people who come to see us all the time too. And even the people who made it through this far and are still watching this here. Like, really, you're still here. Why are you still here? Tell me why you made it to this point of the video. Like no joke. Somebody listened to us rant this whole time. That is amazing. You should have, um, A month's worth of free services. Literally, if you made it this far, you're going to get a month's worth of free services. But you'd have to put it down in the comments, I guess, right? You watch this one month, free services. You have it. Go ahead, put it in the comments. I dare you, if you really watch this or you listen to this, you have to do it by January 31st, 2023. Okay?
SPEAKER_05:Sometimes it's scary. No joke. No joke. It's scary how much, you know, I'm his daughter, but... I don't know if maybe I've just picked up things being around him. He rants, I rant, and then he'll be like, oh, did you see this? And I'll be like, yes, I saw that. And then we respond to things the exact same. It's funny. I'm like, no, I already told them. This is, no. It's just funny how that happens. So if you listen to us rant.
SPEAKER_04:Maybe that's how the, you know, the generational, the transfer of generational knowledge or... guidance or whatever it is. Or maybe that's just in the cultural genes. That's all. I hope that other people could convey the same message. Just like we talk about kindness and how people can convey kindness walking into the family of businesses too. So thanks for still being here. A couple other things that we're going to touch on because we're...
SPEAKER_05:Because we don't ever do this.
SPEAKER_04:Been a while. And we'll get to look back on this in time and say... what was happening at that time. If you buy one of the cans of spray that we're selling right now, you may notice there's a rant on the front of that. I did a rant on the front of our spray because I was ticked off at California because they're bothering us. California's getting in our business and they have no rhyme or reason to get in our business. This is ridiculous what they're doing and it really pisses pisses me off what they're doing. And I put it on the front of the spray because it's annoying to me that California is so hung up on what we put on a can of hairspray. So if you don't know the story behind it, California is this regulatory board that is saying that what hair salons can and can't put on a can of hairspray. And they have this board that has a billion dollar budget And they're telling salons what they can say on a can of hairspray. They're very concerned about the fact that we can't use specific words on a can of hairspray like sculpt or mold or curl or scrunch. We can't put that on a can of hairspray. Or
SPEAKER_05:shape.
SPEAKER_04:Volume.
SPEAKER_05:Our original hairspray was shaping spray.
SPEAKER_04:We're not allowed to put those words on there because it would insinuate that it is a styling aid when in fact it's a hairspray. So if you put anything that insinuates it's a styling aid, it could be harmful to your health. That's what California thinks anyway. California has a bigger problem with that, but it doesn't matter to them. California has 66,000 people, 66,638 people that died just last year of obesity. heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol. They let food companies do whatever they want. In-N-Out Burger sells a million burgers, however many burgers a day with all the grams of fat in there. Do you know that in a bag of Skinny Pop popcorn, eight ounce bag of Skinny Pop popcorn, which is legal to sell and buy in California, there's 1,200 calories in there and 80 grams of fat. 80 grams of fat and 1,200 calories. Skinny Pop.
SPEAKER_07:Skinny Pop.
SPEAKER_04:People buy Skinny Pop because they think they're going to lose weight. So they eat more of it. They probably eat a 16-ounce bag instead of an 8-ounce bag. That's 2,400 calories. That's your calorie allowance for the entire day. But California doesn't say anything about that. They're not worried about the people who are going to die of obesity who are daily headed towards diabetes and heart disease. So they'd rather spend their money on telling a hair salon what's wrong. Skinny Pop
SPEAKER_05:is like... It's like the little bag. It's literally, I know, it's like white with color.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a skinny pup. And people are attracted to it because it's a skinny
SPEAKER_05:pup. That's a whole day's meal.
SPEAKER_04:California's not worried about that. They're not worried about that. They have a$1.5 billion budget for this cardboard that goes after salons to tell them. So the reason why we even have to deal with California is because they're manufacturers in California. Yeah. We're not allowed to put those words on there. We didn't even sell to California.
SPEAKER_05:Well, and here's like the funny, you have to like, I thought it was a joke. You have to show them a picture. You have to show them the picture of the hairspray. So we have been, our top selling product was shaping spray for years. 20 years it's a hairspray it's a light flexible hairspray there's just nothing like it really anywhere it's so flexible you can't find it it's soft but still gives hold amazing product right well our manufacturer like we were talking about earlier closed so we've been and it's been hard to make products like they make It's freaking hard to get hairspray, like a hairspray that we actually like, that everybody likes. I think we maybe have to put... Oh, is that it? No, it's not up here. We got to put it back. So... so we get this new company we find the hairspray we're getting ready to go it's been it's kind of embarrassing when we're telling all our guests who are obsessed with our product they are addicted to our product me included even all of our stylists you know we're telling them oh it's coming it's coming soon it's coming soon but there's constantly red tape after red tape after red tape you know pain
SPEAKER_06:in the
SPEAKER_05:butt and you know so then right as we're making the artwork they say oh sorry Sorry, you can't call it shaping spray. So he sends this response back to the company, kind of like, okay, well, go ahead. You can't say that. Then print this on it. Kind of like joking around a little bit. And then all of a sudden, here it is. It shows up in it. They really did. And it's kind of iconic. People want to buy it as Christmas gifts and stuff because it says that. But I think everybody should see this because it's the best bottle of hairspray Ever, because it's one of his rants on hairspray. You have to find it. That's the original one.
SPEAKER_04:But we'll find it. That's the one we wanted to, and they said, no, no, no, no, no. You can't do that. No, no, no. You're not allowed to. Here it is.
SPEAKER_05:Well, we did get this new shampoo and conditioner. It smells like the Westin. It's my favorite thing ever. It's called Hydrate Shampoo and Conditioner. It is life empowering and changing. I love it. I love it. Okay,
SPEAKER_04:here it is. I can't see that yet. Let's see. I'm going to do this. And not that one. You guys want to see. Here we go. There it is.
SPEAKER_05:Can they see that? There, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So that's how it shows. I don't know if they can read
SPEAKER_05:it on there. It says, why we live in Florida. We wanted to name this product shaping spray, but the state of California, where this is manufactured, decided that the word shaping misleads you into believing that this could be used as a styling product. California believes this could be harmful. Wording could be harmful to you.
SPEAKER_04:Thanks, California.
SPEAKER_05:And then it says what the law thing is, and then it says, oh, so noble, California. Thank you for protecting us from such dangerous use of our language and inserting your compelled speech to save us, which is kind of iconic. It's so iconic that this happened right now because of what's going on with Twitter and everything because that's...
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah, California's suppressing our speech, no different than what the head of legal and head of security at Twitter was doing under Jack Dorsey when she was suppressing... What she didn't like on the app and saying that they didn't do that, saying that they were looking out for the good of all people, not letting us make up our own mind, but as California is doing, suppressing the true expression of a stylist as to what this product does. They're saying, no, no, no, no, no. You're not allowed to say that that could shape mold or add volume to someone's hair. They could harm themselves. Silly. I mean, in the scheme of things, it's not that big a deal. But still, it's the same thing. If it starts here, where else is it going to lead to where they're saying, no, you're not allowed to say that to people because they're too dumb to figure it out on their own. But yet, you're going to let people eat as much fat as they want and continue to have massive heart attacks and not go on any kind of campaign about being fat. Bottom line, that's the big part of what heart disease is, is not taking care of themselves but they're not concerned about that they're concerned about what people say
SPEAKER_05:well and I see a lot of people my age like on Twitter questioning like oh well who cares like who cares this is old news like thanks Elon it's old news well why and I'm 30 years old I'm not like hugely in today's world who wants to be hugely into politics anymore it's everybody's kind of twisted in their own way and so and there's it's like well We're so torn apart. I'm scared to even say my opinion anywhere because I'm scared I'm going to get blown to pieces by 20 million people. But one thing I do believe in, that I deeply believe in, is our Constitution. And I believe in being a United States citizen. And I'm grateful to live in the USA. I'm grateful to be an American. I'm grateful for all the opportunities that we have here. And so that's why it matters. Because look at what, that's just the start of the government not letting you make your own, form your own opinion. They're protecting us so that we can't form our own opinion. Like, that's a basic right and that's where I think it's fascinating what Elon's done.
SPEAKER_04:And whether you like him or not, you know, for anybody who doesn't, you know, says, well, I don't like him, he's a billionaire. The way they always refer to him is as the richest man in the world. And the thing about him is, is, money's not his goal. I mean, if he really, if that's what he wanted, if it was just about the money, he's so not about the money because he's taken every, his first major breakthrough back in PayPal when he took his pay out there for$150 million or whatever, if it was really about the money, he could have taken that money and gone off into the sunset and lived an amazing life with$150 million. He took all of that money. He put all of that money into Tesla. Tesla almost went out of business. He gambled it again on the next thing that he was committed to, that he gave his life for. So he's not doing it for the money. He doesn't own houses and yachts and have a lot of assets and keep cashing out with his stock. He's doing it for what he believes in. And whether or not you like what he's doing or you believe in him is not even the issue. The fact that he took, I drive a Tesla. I love my Tesla. I love the technology of it. I love that he's bringing common sense to the car industry. And I like the tech part of it. I'm not a car guy, but I like the technical, the techie part of what a Tesla does. And it has full self-driving and the latest version of full self-driving is amazing. I know people are scared of it and I've been scared of it too, but it has evolved so much in time. I've had it since 2019 and I've watched full self-driving progress and become amazing. And these things that you see online about the car is taken off and killing people. The car does not do that. You cannot fall asleep. You have to hold the wheel. It doesn't do anything on its own. In fact, they have that camera sensor on the inside right now that if you look down to text, I think it's even safer than a car that doesn't have this because if you look down to text, it will beep so loudly at you. It will yell at you and say, grab the wheel because I'm not going to keep doing self-driving if you're not paying attention. It's really annoying because I've tried it. Many times and I get caught and you only get caught five times and they boot you out of the program and so you don't get full self-driving anymore, the full version of it. So, you know, you got to be cautious with it. The fact of the matter is what he's up to and what he's doing and now with Twitter, especially exposing the fact that we're just. We're just express... It's not... I don't want to suppress anybody else's opinion. I don't even want to make somebody wrong or be mad at somebody. You know, the fact that people can't even talk to each other without... Being angry because you don't have the same thoughts. You have a different opinion than me. It's okay. I love having a conversation with someone who doesn't agree with me and having an intelligent conversation about what their beliefs are, what my beliefs are, and we agree to disagree. And back in the times where... You know, the Reagan era was one of his great gifts. Whether you like Ronald Reagan or not, one of his great gifts was his ability to compromise, to allow Tip O'Neill, who was the Speaker of the House and was a Democrat, not a Republican. They were almost friends. When they were together, they weren't constantly making the other person so wrong. You know, now when you hear a politician talk, I love when you hear this. Watch this when you hear a politician, or anybody, but mostly it's politicians, when they say, look... Here's the economy's doing just fine. Look, Biden does it all the time. It's really like whenever somebody starts a sentence with look, it means shut up, you dumbass. I'm going to gaslight you. I know so much more than you do. You're just a dumbass. Look, while only that one word when it's put in that context is really saying, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I do. Shut up and listen to me now. It happens so often in the dialogue between people. whether they're Democrat or Republican, they both do it, watch any show at all.
SPEAKER_05:Right, I mean, and that's a thing I think I'm just sick of. I am just pro-America, pro... all of our citizens pro like I don't care like everything's just become so like let's nitpick this this and this and this and this and if we're gonna just fight and scream at each other and it's like you can't even have friends anymore people literally delete you off their friends list if you don't have the same opinion as them and it's sick like I won't never talk about that
SPEAKER_04:well yeah as a result you avoid having those conversations it's okay I don't need
SPEAKER_05:to
SPEAKER_04:express my political views or opinions. I don't need to do that. But some people feel the need to do that, and that's fine too. But I do know this, and I learned this at our Thanksgiving this past year when we had a family who had just immigrated here from Cuba. I know that most people are not headed to Cuba. They're headed from Cuba to here. And our very own Dilma and Dilmaris, have a family in Cuba who were fortunate enough to be able to immigrate to here and get asylum here and to understand and see what their life was like there and how they are in a totalitarian communist regime in that country and how little they had and how inflation is... We think it's bad here. They're... Uh, they, they don't have access to food. They don't have access to electricity. They're rolling blackouts. There's so many things that we take for granted here. Um, that is supposed to be happening in the socialist nation there that they don't have.
SPEAKER_05:We should have her on here one time.
SPEAKER_04:They're fascinating people to, uh, get to, um, hear what, how good we have it. And I, I especially love talking to Doma cause Doma grew up in Cuba and immigrated to here and she's, she's blossomed and grown and, uh, she has lived the American dream fully and now she's brought her sister and her family here and they're now living the dream here too. They
SPEAKER_05:were here. Okay, so my children, you know, I have nine and seven-year-old. And there's another little boy here that doesn't speak any English. But the whole time he's staring at my dad's pool. He's staring out at my dad's pool. And he couldn't even eat his food because he saw the pool. Because he had never seen like a private pool like that. He was fascinated with the pool. He was probably like Mason's like seven or something. So then... My dad finally notices he's staring at the pool. So he's like, want to go in the pool? Want to go in the pool? And the kid lights up. He doesn't even speak English, but he knows he's going to get to go in the pool. So then it's funny to see my kids go in the pool with him. And they don't even speak the same language. But my children are so innocent, and they haven't been tainted yet, that they were able to communicate and have fun without even talking. And it was funny because the little boy had goggles. He had never... had goggles that he didn't realize that when you put goggles on you can see underwater like he had no idea what they were um so just seeing that wow like look at what we take for granted here like it's it's
SPEAKER_04:well i mean in florida everybody has a pool there's so many pools here but he looked at that pool like it was it was you know columbus discovering america you know the the joy in his eye when he found out that he could go in the pool. He had this biggest smile I'd ever seen. It made my whole... thanksgiving the gratitude i had for where we live and we do live in the greatest nation and despite the divisiveness because the country went through this divisiveness many years ago in the early 70s it went through this kind of revolution this divisiveness yeah there was this there's this push back against government and push back against the way the establishment
SPEAKER_05:interesting it was pushed back against government and now it's like pro-government
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, yeah, now government's the answer, but then it wasn't the answer. Then in that revolution, it was government is the problem. And that was Reagan's whole push, too, that government is not the answer to solve your problems. Government is the problem. Oh, that was because of the war, though, too. in his communications. He just literally wrote them off. But we didn't have the same thing. He only had three newspapers to deal with, you know, the New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS. If he had Walter Cronkite in his pocket or Dan Rather, which he didn't because Dan Rather spoke against him, but he had donors that, but that was the outlet that got messages out. Now we have outlets everywhere that get messages out. Thanksgiving was amazing for me in that it really showed me the gratitude and appreciation I have for it. And
SPEAKER_05:real quick, this makes me think about, too, I've also seen, I'm an avid, I get, everything in my life comes from TikTok, essentially. I'm sure you as well, and you don't have to be ashamed of that. But,
SPEAKER_04:TikTok's the new Google until they shut it down. I
SPEAKER_05:can't even watch anything else because I just want to get, come on, tell me quick what happened. I can't, I don't have patience. And have you heard, like, have you heard of the Iranian soccer player who stood up for, you know, in Iran, the regime from wearing, or for women who show their hair, he stood up for them and they just sentenced him to death. Like, that just happened yesterday. And I don't think he's been killed yet, but he played in the World Cup or something. That's
SPEAKER_06:crazy.
SPEAKER_05:Like, he's a huge soccer player, and they sentenced him. What can I get you? How does that happen?
SPEAKER_04:What is his...
SPEAKER_05:Just type in, I ran soccer player execution. There it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:20 hours ago.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that's it. But I want, there's one specific, that's just them fighting. There's the guy right there.
SPEAKER_04:This one?
SPEAKER_05:It's the same guy, the guy in the background. That guy's just talking about it. That's who they're...
SPEAKER_04:Just the video you're talking about? No, that's in November. That's not
SPEAKER_05:the video, but they're all talking about the same person. They're all talking about... Let's see which one has... That guy, right? No, not that
SPEAKER_04:guy. This should be all that guy, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's not going on.
UNKNOWN:Let's put it on here.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's happening.
SPEAKER_05:Like, does anybody realize how blessed we are? Like, could you imagine if that happened here? Could you imagine? Like, standing up for women? Like, that's bizarre to me. And it keeps happening. It keeps happening over there. But nobody's saying the United States isn't doing anything now, you know? It's... So sad and it's a crazy world we live in.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and you talk about being able to express yourself and being able to say whatever it is that you want and believe whatever it is you want. We have the opportunity to do that here. And here is a country in 2022 that is executing somebody for having an opinion that doesn't align with the regime. A
SPEAKER_05:26-year-old.
SPEAKER_04:And that's what people get upset about when they try to express themselves on any outlet. And there's somebody on the outlet saying, no, I don't agree with you. So we're going to silence you to not be able to, you know, and this was the FBI that was saying to Twitter, like, or to all the social outlets, like, no, we don't think that's true. This was actually happening in the seventies. So also there was reports of people in, um, breaking into FBI offices to find evidence that the FBI was influencing, uh, suppressing people or suppressing media outlets, uh, keeping people from being able to express themselves. While here in this country, they just execute the person. They just, probably not even a judicial process at all. They, you know, they're guilty automatically. Not innocent until proven guilty. Right. It's just whatever they believe in. Very sad. There's all kinds of crazy things going on over there.
SPEAKER_05:Well, and it all started because a girl showed her hair and that's what, you know. Wow. Wait, real quick. I want to talk about my favorite person. Alex Earl. This girl, everybody loves Alex. It's A-L-I-X. Everybody loves her. And don't lie and say you don't because I know you do. I literally made a comment. There she is. I made a comment. I was like, I love you. And then it hit her first name. And then it got like 5,000 likes because everybody loves her. Just hit her name up top.
SPEAKER_04:yeah I thought she's just I thought it said Fort Myers there or something she's in Miami okay
SPEAKER_05:not anymore she's a senior but it's so funny okay because she is like you look at her and you're like oh just another like influencer like aren't we all so sick of seeing those people the ones that are like overly filled like perfect beautiful what is so cool about her and I know she she Dressed as scandalous, whatever. I don't care. She does it and does it classy in a weird way. So many 30-year-olds are in love with this girl. It's funny because she just came out of nowhere, really, and just started getting ready with me, putting her makeup on, and just talking about her life. And she's so freaking... genuine but is beautiful like it is so rare to find i mean even the kardashians aren't like this anymore you know they don't talk about everything's hush hush you're gonna see what you're gonna see this girl if you listen she tells you everything she'll be like yeah um I don't know. I went and these girls were being really rude and I don't like them, you know, or, and then she just, I don't know how to describe it, but I know everybody knows. Cause look at her videos. They all get a million views.
SPEAKER_04:I did shadow. Okay. This is her having her hair, hair down here.
SPEAKER_05:Oh yeah. She's needs to get it fixed. This was a big deal because she said she was going to get it darker and everybody made fun of her. Cause it's not there.
SPEAKER_04:That was the plan.
SPEAKER_05:That's her talking about. This is the only person in my life that I've watched every single video. I'm so stupid. And I've watched her come from nothing. And now she just went and met Selena Gomez yesterday. She's only 21 or something. But there's just something. It's so funny because if you look at all the videos too, there's so many girls who make videos and they're like... Whatever Alex Earl says to buy, I'm going
SPEAKER_03:to buy it. And they're like 35. Here are my top tips for how to make your Instagram story more aesthetic. Here are my top tips. Stop
SPEAKER_05:you.
SPEAKER_03:For how to make your Instagram story.
SPEAKER_04:Stop. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05:It's so funny to see.
SPEAKER_04:Not that Earl. She's the other Earl. There she is.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, that's Diane.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, but hit that. No, hit that. Cause it's funny to see what people say about her. Go back. That's where you can see, like, people are like, whatever you say, it's right there, yeah. Someone tell me why I'm crying, but this video just came on my For You page. Literally buy everything Alex Earle recommends. Look at how people are so excited. The mascara duo. She goes on to list all these products
SPEAKER_03:that I use. She says when she's not using the Dyson, because I can't afford the Dyson.
SPEAKER_05:Everything these people use. It's
SPEAKER_03:just so sweet, because you guys,
SPEAKER_02:like... Support me, and like, I couldn't do this stuff without you. Oh, this is her hair. Yeah, somebody's just replaying their video. Thanks for making me feel beautiful. That did it
SPEAKER_05:for me. So, Diana, I want to gift you the Dyson for Christmas, because I really think you're going to like it. She's so stupid. So stupid, but she's so... I like that girl. Thank you guys all for all your support. You have to... She's cool. She's not... Maybe I sound like such a...
SPEAKER_04:Millennial. She relates to you. So probably not somebody I would watch.
SPEAKER_05:Not somebody you would watch.
SPEAKER_04:I understand why that might be good for
SPEAKER_05:you. I've never admitted to that. So I just admitted to that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Well, I listen to everybody. TikTok's real hot right now. It's everybody's on it. And, you know, Michelle, we have a vacuum cleaner out there. We have a lot of vacuum cleaners, but we have a new one that just came yesterday. Oh, and I knew what it was. It came from TikTok. TikTok.
SPEAKER_05:I knew what it was the minute I'm like, oh, you got a Tineca or whatever.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I saw this brand come in last night. What is it called? Tineca?
SPEAKER_05:I think it's T-I-N-E. There
SPEAKER_04:it is. Well, whatever it is, we have it now. 98K, 56K, which one is it? This one, a million. We have this now. It's in our house.
SPEAKER_05:It's right out there.
SPEAKER_04:It talks to us too. I didn't try the oats and the mustard and ketchup yet. I've never seen this video. It was the first time I just saw the device show up yesterday and we tested it and it was really... Incredible what the water looked like after. We didn't put ketchup on the floor and we ran it and the water was, we live in a really clean house. But what came out of this, I don't even want to know. I don't want anybody to know that that came out of our house, but it doesn't look like that because the house is clean. Anyway, we own this now. So TikTok is influencing a lot of people. It's doing a really good job for a lot of people. And
SPEAKER_05:that's what I, you can say, anybody can, I can watch a TikTok of anybody. of them telling me, you need to get this. You need to get this. And I don't even know who the person is, but they're telling me that I should get it, that I want to get it because I trust people. And it's so hard now when I see people on Instagram and they're like, everything just seems so much like an ad. And I think that's why TikTok, it's like, anybody can, it's genuine. Like it's real. It's people saying what they're like.
SPEAKER_04:Well, and that's, that's why the traditional media, traditional outlets, news and media is gone. It's, it's disappearing. It's on its way out. I mean, people find out what's going on in the world from social media. Very few. I mean, the local news gets fewer viewers than, what's happening online on some YouTube channels, even local YouTube channels. So, you know, that's shifting and now people want an authentic response, but there's also that line too, where you go, okay, people just have to use common sense. That's all. The nice thing about it is you're, whether it's TikTok or any of the other ones, because I don't know how long TikTok will be around before they end up banning it, but They're directed towards you personally because it's your self-interest. When you watch something on television, they have to broadcast to so many different people. So a lot of the commercials on there, which I don't watch regular TV anyway, a lot of the commercials on there have nothing to do with you. You could care less about them. And with social media, they are directing exactly what it is that is your interest for you.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and the algorithm is like... because you can go on Instagram and go on Reels and you're like, cool, I liked a video and now it'll forever show me videos of rain. You know, something stupid. TikTok knows what I'm thinking before I'm even thinking it.
SPEAKER_04:That's why people are so worried about it because they're like, oh, China has all this information on us. Our own companies like Meta has started blocking people from that so they can't get that data from their phones. However... TikTok, the app itself, is collecting that data. So that's what the fear of everyone is. I'm not worried about it because I don't have anything to hide. There's nothing too secret that I want to go on. I think everything's public.
SPEAKER_05:I don't know if
SPEAKER_04:that's bad. There are people who are worried about that and concerned.
SPEAKER_05:What are you going to get from me? There's not much to get, let me tell you that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, if they know our habits and maybe because it's our archenemy in the world.
SPEAKER_05:Maybe we can be like a study or something. Are you watching any good shows?
SPEAKER_04:No, there aren't any. I haven't seen anything in a while.
SPEAKER_05:There's a good show. There's a new show on Hulu called Wanderer, I think. It's based off a book. It's really good.
SPEAKER_04:Wednesday. Did you see Wednesday?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that was...
SPEAKER_04:A lot of people hooked on that. The dancing, the whole thing. Oh, yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_05:I like the song. But it's funny because I even know the TikTok song. It's sped up. Lady Gaga one.
SPEAKER_04:You know the song?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I listen to it. It's so funny. There's certain songs on TikTok that the 15 seconds give me a boost of dopamine. So then I want to listen to it in my car because...
SPEAKER_07:Like
SPEAKER_05:this
SPEAKER_07:song.
SPEAKER_05:It's Lady Gaga's Fed Up. It's not even the real song. Tell me that doesn't give you... This song gives
SPEAKER_04:you serotonin. I did like the... Sorry, I did like it. The
SPEAKER_07:original Wednesday? No.
SPEAKER_04:They make it look like she's really dancing through the song, but I don't
SPEAKER_05:remember. They had to mess with that. That can't be real. Let me see. Oh, yeah. I want to show you. Go back to the other one. The Wednesday song. Let's see. Scroll down. Let me see if she shows up. There's this one girl that just killed it.
SPEAKER_04:This girl's got 1.7 million. Any of these? No.
SPEAKER_05:She just came out with it. Maybe she didn't. Maybe she did. I don't know. So I figured that out. What's something else? Why we wrapped this up?
SPEAKER_04:Tornado warning in Fort Myers today.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Still there? Still with us? We're still here.
SPEAKER_00:We made it to Vanderbilt Beach. We have a client. We're property managers for a condo right back here and it's pure devastation. I don't know how this is going to come together. My heart is breaking for our town and our people.
SPEAKER_01:That's
SPEAKER_05:right. That's close to one of our salons. You know what? Really quick, what I was thinking about. I think what happens with TikTok, too, is... It's much more genuine than the stuff you see on Instagram. So I feel like as women, men, adults, whatever, grandpa, grandma, whoever, I feel like it's so easy to become emotionally invested into people's stories and lives. That's Venetian Village.
SPEAKER_04:I never saw this one. This doesn't have any views. Somebody recorded from their house.
SPEAKER_05:There's a girl I follow that has a bunch of followers that lives on Golf Trip Over.
SPEAKER_04:I'm trying to see where that... Look at the boats. I'm trying to see where that is.
SPEAKER_05:That's the back side of the village. On the other side. By the houses.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the houses, but where?
SPEAKER_05:Like, where the parking, like, where the marina.
SPEAKER_04:This is taken from the beach, I guess. Oh, yeah, it's
SPEAKER_05:the other side. Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:All right, well, I think we have to start wrapping things up here and get
SPEAKER_05:going. I'm going to the gym. Shout out to Burn Boot Camp and Mackenzie Nickel. And Jade's been kicking ass there in Fort Myers. And look at Jade.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we should put a picture of her up here. I don't know where. I have a recent one of her, Jade. Jade's not going to show up like that. Oh, that's not Jade. Oh, my God. That's not Jade. I was going to look on Instagram, but I don't have that up here. Okay, maybe
SPEAKER_05:get out of there. Yeah, that kept showing up. That wasn't you, Jade. But it could
SPEAKER_04:have been. You look a lot better than that, Jade. Anyway, she's fit. Jade is... She's got some guns on her.
SPEAKER_05:And so is Mackenzie.
SPEAKER_04:Well, she's your inspiration. Mackenzie ended up being your coach, so way to go, Kenz. We've got all our cheering champions. But I
SPEAKER_05:feel like that's the same thing. Me and Mackenzie, we kind of... Like we have... I'm like, okay, well, we're going to get you over this hurdle. You're going to be more confident with booking new foils. And then she's like, you're going to come work out. Come on.
SPEAKER_04:You're going to have a hell of a workout today. You got a lot inside you today. You're good. You're ready. All right. Well, thanks for tuning in. If you really made it this far here, that's a long time. I don't know how long we've been recording here. I want to do a
SPEAKER_06:fit check. Sorry.
SPEAKER_04:An hour and 24 minutes. Brenda was telling you we got to shorten these things up. We'll have to cut these up a little bit. No, that's what I wanted to do. We'll leave the whole thing on, but if you leave this segment on and you watch this whole thing through, you're special. We love you. Thank you. All right. Do your fit check.
SPEAKER_05:Okay. You can take this part out. But I just always wanted to do it. Okay, so look, I got this super cool shirt. I have a hoarding issue where I go to Goodwill, and I say I'm going to sell everything, and then I don't. Well, I'm working on it. I'm getting better. But I got this super cool old people vest. It fits for the time. It doesn't look old people. It's vintage. It's vintage. I looked it up. And then I have Spanx that my dad's wife bought me because she's awesome. And then I have, look, I have new boots I just got from Target. Nice, very nice, very nice. And they were 35% off.
SPEAKER_04:Wow, resourcefulness. Resourceful. So that's FitCheck. Yes, and my
SPEAKER_05:extensions came from Christie and my nails came from Profiles. Okay, that's it.
SPEAKER_04:All right, FitCheck out. Good job. That's new. I'll have to watch for FitChecks anyway. All right, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for being a part of the family. We love you. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. We'll see you soon. Hopefully not a year from now. Bye.
SPEAKER_05:No, no, bye.
