October 14, 2021 • 35 mins
Amy's friend @HeyMadiNelson came on to talk about all kinds of things! They first met in Haiti...and since then...Madi's life has blown up on Instagram and she's now a big influencer! They talked about things Madi is loving right now + how selling her clothes on Instagram led to an online clothing store + what she does to disconnect from her life online + her positive attitude + self-care + PIMPINJOY + her love for the holidays + so much more!!!
Madi's @ShopTalulah Store:
Madi's Mexican Lasagna:
https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTgyMDE5MjUyMDE1Mjcy?utm_medium=copy_link
4 Things Puzzle:
https://www.theshopforward.com/collections/4-things/products/4-things-puzzle
PIMPINJOY:
https://www.theshopforward.com/collections/pimpinjoy
Tanceuticals:
https://tanceuticals.com/collections/all-products/products/cc-self-tanning-body-mousse-ultra-dark
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, cass up little food for you. So life. Oh
it's pretty, but it's pretty beautiful thing that for a
(00:23):
little month your kicking four Happy Thursday. I am super
pumped to have my friend Maddie Nelson on today. Now.
Maddie and I met and haighty years ago, but since then,
her Instagram account, Hey, Maddie Nelson has blown up and
(00:45):
she is a big time influencer. Don't put that title
on me, Amy, Well, you have hundreds of thousands of
followers who knew that Instagram would even be this place
where we connected with people all over the world that
we may not ever know. And I feel like so
many people that follow you, they were attracted to your
(01:06):
authenticity and everything that you have to offer, and your
bubbly personality and all your tips and tricks and furniture
and clothing and parenting stuff like you influence hardcore and
I'm here for it. Like I love when you post
links to things. It's super helpful. But I'm sure you
know when you joined Instagram, I don't know if you
knew that this is where it would take you in life. No,
(01:29):
it was so crazy. Is so when we met, we're
David not even dating not yet know when I met David,
y'all were not together. In fact, my husband and my
brother in law went to Haiti without me. That's when
they were like, yeah, remember David. I'm like yeah, They're like,
well there was this girl, Maddie on the trip, and
they're like, I think they're going to get together. Like
it was this whole thing. Well, Ben stayed with us,
(01:49):
that your husband stayed with us that week at the
guest house, and that was kind of the week that
David and I were both looked at each other, We're like,
is this thing? And then momble hold here we are.
A few years later. Y'all are married, you have two kids,
Noah in Easton, You've got your dog Winnie, you just
moved into a beautiful new house. And but to walk
(02:12):
us through like how Instagram started and then how it
has changed your life. So, actually, Amy, what's so cool?
You were actually were part of inspiring my blog and
your story with your mom and your Pimp and Joy
like that. You know, I would wear my Pimp and
Joy shirts and Haiti and I remember you talking about
your story with your mom and just how that kind
(02:33):
of catapulted your business and what you stand for and
I love to write, So I started a blog and
I would write about my dad because my dad was
going through cancer at the time, and this was while
David and I were dating. I would just share stories
about my dad fighting cancer. And my first blog post
was this is not a blog. I had every intention
(02:57):
to not be a blogger. I really just wanted to
like share my heart, share my journal. It was basically
just me writing in a journal and putting it out
there on the Internet. And I would take pictures and
post the Pimp and joy T shirts or pictures of
David and I. And then it was like right around
when we got married, and David was like, I think
you should do this, Like you love clothes, you love fashion,
(03:18):
you should just start taking pictures and posting them. That's
when it kind of happened. And then I got pregnant
with Easton and something about pregnant moms love to follow
pregnant moms like I guess getting tipped some baby items
and all of that. So I started sharing that and
I feel like that's really when it took off. From
that shop to Lula was created. Yes, I would sell
(03:40):
my clothes on Instagram and my Instagram account was Mattie's
close for Sale. And I did this back in the day,
like even before Haiti, when I was in nanny and
I would sell like a twelve dollar Forever twenty one
shirt for dollars on Instagram, like I was able to
sell it for more than what I paid for it,
and people would always laugh at me, like why. I
was like, your clothes on Instagram? You're so weird. But
(04:01):
it was kind of my side hustle, and David and
my mom were both like Maddie, Like, you have Maddie's
clothes for sale. People buy your clothes. Why don't you
buy more than one piece? Like why don't you sell
more than one shirt? You could sell ten shirts. So
I had this idea to start a business even when
I was living in Haiti. And when David and I
got married, he created the LLC for me and he
(04:23):
was like, I really believe in you. I really think
that you should start this, and I'm just going to
create the business name and you can do whatever you
want with it. So it took me like a year
to do anything with it. What is the to Lula for?
My mom grew up like her mom would call her
to Lula it was just kind of like a just
a sweet nickname, and I loved it as a little
(04:44):
girl's name. And I would have dreams about this little
girl and she had dark brown, curly hair, just like Noah.
And I've always kind of prayed about this to Lula character.
I didn't really know what it was. And I said
to David, I would love to name a daughter one
day to Lula. And he was like, no, I don't
think so. I'm like, but I know to Lula is
(05:07):
going to be a part of my life, Like what
is it going to be? So when we were thinking
about business names, I said, let's make it to Lula.
Now it's our business. Yeah. I mean in a way,
it's something that you've given birth to. So you didn't
probably know what your dreams of this little girl what
it was, but in a way, it could have been
you dreaming up this the whole time. And I love
(05:27):
that David just took the reins and sort of no pressure.
But hey, I went ahead and created this, so it's
out there. He's kind of like manifesting a little Yeah.
It literally sat. It was from like zip Taxes or
whatever that online place is called, and they sent us
this folder, and it just sat in my cabinet for
like a year, and I would open my cabinet, I
(05:49):
would look at it and I was like, not, that
will never happen. And then my mom and I went
to market um for the first time. So when we started,
we did everything from market. Now we do some private cuts,
but my mom and I went to market and we
just ordered a few items and we shipped them all
to my parents house because at the time, like we
didn't have any warehouse space or anything. My parents shipped
(06:10):
from their living room and my dad was like, what
are you going to do with all this stuff? Like
all these clothes are gonna sit here, You're never gonna
sell them. And I'm like, you just wait, dad, And
now my parents live here and my dad is our packer. Yes,
and I love I've even seen on Instagram your dad
will put little notes to people, like inside the package.
(06:31):
He's the cutest. Oh yeah, Papa is like the Golden ticket.
I just made him some cards that says a note
from Papa, so he can have some special little gifts.
I know that if you're posting about it, I trust it,
and I'm sure all of your followers feel the same.
Way and appreciate you sharing. And also just to be clear,
if people are thinking about following you, you don't just
(06:52):
post mom stuff. You share all kinds of cute videos
and tips and tricks and links and favorite things for
all kinds of people. So what are four things that
your followers like you to post about or four things
that you're loving right now? Well, I like that you
mentioned that you don't have to be a mom to
follow me because I feel like I try to hit
(07:13):
a little bit of every area, and it's like I
want to give a little bit of home. I give
a lot of family. I share a lot of my
kids because that's the most important thing in my life.
So I feel like whenever you know, I'm in the
moment and I just sim recording a little video of Noah,
I feel like that's definitely what the people like the most.
Everybody wants to see this. I've tried in the different
(07:36):
seasons of my life over the years to not just
be a mommy blogger, not just be a home account,
not just be recipes, but to do a little bit
of everything. So recipes are a big one. My Mexican lasagna,
because everybody's most favorite recipe it's really easy. Yeah, send
it to me and I'll link it in the show notes. Okay,
(07:58):
So Mexican lasagna the top favorite. It's like, it takes
five minutes to prepare it, thirty minutes to bake it,
and it's the best. David, it's the entire pan I've
always loved to read, but in the past couple of years,
I've shared a lot of books and books that have
helped me in different seasons of my life. And right
now I'm really into Colleen Hoover. I've been reading her
(08:19):
stuff since last spring and I think I've read like
twelve of her books. Is that something to like? Do
post about the book and you can tell like, yeah,
I do, I know stories. I'll like say here's what
I'm reading, loved it or didn't love it? And then
do you feel like if your followers start reading, you
kind of have this own little mini book club situation happening.
Or is that something you've ever considered? No, never, I'm
(08:39):
not like a book snob, so I would probably like
every book. And you know what I think of when
I think of you, um and your account, which I
hope that you recognize this as amazing, but I'm like, oh,
I've gotten so many good self tanners from you. You
have a good self tanner. But wait, I've gotten one
from you and Mary that Christopher Oh, James Reid, Yes,
(09:02):
the spray. I loved that. Right now, I'm really into
the tan Suiticals. I partnered with them a year or
two ago, and I love their products. And then like,
I kind of test different ones, but I always go
back to that one. Oh, I've ordered the tan Suiticals
because of you, and I think it's great. It doesn't
smell like other ones do. It doesn't have the no,
(09:24):
It's got more of like a like a beech scent
or something. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure with everybody's skin though,
you know, help perfume smell different on different people. So
I don't want someone to be like, oh, well I
I use something you said and it smelled different on me.
I'm like, well, I don't know, but for me personally,
I've tried tons of self tanners, like so many of
them just have this smell that lingers with you. But
(09:47):
I will say the tan Suiticals, I have not had
that experience. I'm so happy to hear that. I take
everything personally, like if somebody's like, you recommended this and
it broke. I'm like, no, let me read out to
the people like I feel horrible if somebody sends their
money on something, I hope they love it just as
much as I do. That's like the most important thing
(10:07):
to me, even with too Lula. Let's do this since
we're already linking, like the Mexican lasagna, if you have
a Tan Suiticals link, send me that and I'll put
that in the show notes too. That way it's easy
for people to find. Okay, so we've got Mexican Lasagna,
Colleen Hoover, and Tan Suticals. Do you have a fourth
thing that you're really loving right now or thing that
I'm really loving right now is my fall drink with
(10:29):
my Stamix drink. So I get the ice dirty chie
with extra ice and top it with pumpkin cream cold foam. Oh,
it is the best. The pumpkin cream cold foam is
such a game changer because not too pumkin e. No,
I don't want it to be super sweet either either. Yeah,
I don't. I don't like the PSL. This is just
(10:50):
like the perfect little hint. I love that and I
get it in a VNTI cup. So if you just
get the Grande in a vint cup with extra ice,
you actually get more drink. Pro tip depth. So, with
so much of your life being on Instagram, I feel
like your followers probably expect to hear from you, like
(11:10):
if they were to open up their stories one day
or a couple of days and like you're not there.
I'm sure there's a certain level of concern, where's Nattie?
What has happened? Why is she not there? But you know,
I'm sure you have to take breaks for your own
sanity from time to time, but just even day to
day because it is part of your career. What do
you do to disconnect? So that's been a huge thing
(11:34):
to learn how to balance for me as a mom,
as a wife, as a business owner, and then having
Instagram as my life as well. And I feel like
now I've actually learned how to put my phone away
for a weekend at a time, which sounds crazy because
I feel like there aren't any influencers who take a
weekend off. But sometimes I'll just write on there, like
(11:55):
on a Friday, hey guys taking the weekend off see Monday,
or even just like if we go to the arboretum
or do something as a family. I don't feel so
pressured to get content, Like if I'm in the moment
and I catch a video while we're at Disney World.
I'll use that as an example. When we were at
Disney last week or two weeks ago, I recorded a
(12:17):
lot of videos throughout the day, just in the moment,
and then later on that night I posted them. So
it wasn't so much pressure to feel like, Okay, let
me catch Noah doing this, let me post it, let
me d M somebody who's messaging me. So yeah, it's
been a hard balance to learn. But I do feel
like I now see my kids growing so fast, and
I don't want them to look back on their childhood
(12:39):
and just think, Wow, my mom was on her phone
my entire life. I love that you shared you're taking
memories because you would be photographing and filming that stuff
anyway no matter what. Then if you look at it
from your influencer standpoint, then later, yes, those memories can
turn into some content for you, But you don't have
the pressure of posting in the moment. You time later
(13:01):
when the kids are asleep or other stuff, and then
you post it I'm glad you said that because it's
a reminder I'm not an influencer, and you know a
lot of people listening they're like, well, I'm just posting
for my friends and family. But you can still operate
that way, right, And it really is difficult as an influencer,
like I love to respond to people in my messages.
I spend a lot of time in my messages. I
(13:22):
don't have an assistant, I don't have anybody helping me,
and it's just me. So when we're at Disney World
and it's like, Okay, I'm just going to post a
quick picture. While you're posting it, you see messages coming in.
It's really difficult for me to see those messages and
not respond to them. And you know, even if I
only get to a hundred out of the five thousand
(13:43):
that come in that day, it's still important to me
to do my best and to try to get to
as many as I can. It's much easier to post
later on rather than in the moment and see all
of those messages popping in. What about your self care routine?
Do you have stuff that you try to do on
the regular to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Oh.
(14:03):
I love to get my nails done every few weeks,
which is so funny because it's actually something that's important
to David. David could care less about like my hair.
He could care less if my legs are hairy. But
when we started dating, and keep in mind, we were
in Haiti when we started dating, and he looked at me,
he was actually taking me to the airport in Haiti,
(14:24):
and my nails were all busted and chipped, and he
looked at me and he said, Okay, I just have
to tell you one thing. And I was like, look,
what is it? And he said, having nice nails is
just something that I really care about. Like, oh gosh,
I'm so sorry, like look at my nails and he
was like, no, no, it's okay, Okay. I just wanted
(14:46):
you to know, like I just really like nice nails.
And I used to hate getting my nails done. I'm
just a busy body, and sitting in that chair used
to just like be tortured to me. So I really
learned to love it. And I'll bring my kindle and
I'll read my book and that's something that I do
every few weeks. I feel like we had breaking news
here about David Nelson what eggs girlfriend had like really
(15:09):
scary nail and he said, you know, he's like I
had a teacher that had really scary nails. Like if
we went to a therapist and got to the root
of this, yes, he probably had a mean teacher who
would like tap on his desk. I think you're overall
just a pretty positive, joyful person, and that's just part
of your amazing personality. But what are you intentional about
(15:33):
each day to make sure that you're starting off on
that right foot. Whenever I do a Q and A,
it's all the question is always like why are you
so happy? Or do you ever have a bad day?
And of course I have a bad day. Everybody has
bad days. But I think something that's really important to
me is like, and it doesn't matter if it's first thing.
You know, I have young kids, and my kids wake
(15:54):
me up, and it's not always easy to just start
reading my Bible or to put at worship music on
as soon as they wake up, because it's like the
morning chaos with toddlers. So I always just take some
time during the day and I try to always make
it the morning, but to put on my worship music
I have a worship playlist that I play a lot
(16:15):
that I've had for years, and whether it's while I'm
putting my makeup on for the day or I'm driving
back from dropping my kids off at school, I always
try to take that moment to put on worship. And
for me, it's praying in gratitude, whether it's writing in
your gratitude journal or thanking God for what you're grateful
for that day. But that's probably like what grounds me
(16:37):
the most. I love my journal, but I don't always
find time to write in my four Things journal. Like
there are some yeah, like you might be driving in
your car because you've got the kids and you gotta
get somewhere, but you you can have a conversation with
God and be talking about like things that you're thankful
for and praying in that moment. I could just see
as a mom of young children and a wife and
(16:59):
running a bus, this and all the things that you
may not get to that first thing in the morning
as much as you try, but as long as it's
we've been throughout the day, like it'll it'll come in
and do its thing. And I fully trust and like
knowing God's heart, I know that he sees our hearts
in it, especially as busy moms or whatever stage of
(17:20):
life we're in, Like he can see our hearts and
just that little moment of jamming out towards the music
in my car or in my bathroom, I feel like
he sees us in that, and that's all that matters.
So when it comes to you and David getting a
break from parenting and work life, what does a date
night look like for y'all? Okay, we love to order
(17:41):
Panda Express. Yeah, we love our fand to Express, and
we like to watch our shows. So we just finished
um nine Perfect Strangers, which I read the book a
couple of months ago before the show came out, and
I did not like the book, but I loved the
TV show. Oh yeah, that one was so good. It's
on who loew of people want to watch it. Nicole
(18:01):
Kidman's in it. She's amazing. It's really good. I also
got the book. I was at the airport bookstore and
I was like, oh, I need a book for the flight.
But the flight's not that long from Nashville to New York.
So I kind of got started. But then I got
way to into the TV show that I never picked
the book back up. It's okay. It was much better
than the book, so you're not missing out on anything. Well,
since you mentioned nine Perfect Strangers, do you have like
(18:22):
in sticking with the four things theme? Do you have
three other shows that y'all have loved? We have loved
shows this year. Let's think the Undoing. I loved the
Undoing so good. Also Nicole Kidman, Yes, also Nicole Kidman,
I love her. She was also in Big Little Eyes
and I loved that one too. Oh my gosh, your Honor?
Did you see your Honor? I did, And I tried
(18:44):
to convince other people to get on board of me
on that and they wouldn't. But I loved it. INDEEDD
and I in my family, my family loved it. We
all loved that show. Out of Banks. I'm a huge
Outer Banks fan. I watched the second season in like
two days. Of course I watched it, you know, but
I was like, what is corny? But I thought maybe
(19:05):
I liked season one because you know, I would have
watched just about anything. But then when the second season
came out this year, I was like, Okay, this has
gotten bonkers, but I still loved it. I loved John
b I'm big John Bee fan. Do you all ever
work on puzzles or play games together or anything? Um,
David loves puzzles, but we only do them during Christmas time.
(19:26):
Oh really, Yeah, so we do a big Christmas puzzle.
Mary and I we designed a Four Things It's fine.
I'm fine, Everything is fine puzzle. And it actually the
day that this episode is airing with you, the puzzles
are now up order it. We filled it with like
cookies and donuts and fruit and cherries and dogs and
(19:47):
cats and things that make us happy. So for anybody else, yeah,
four Things dot com they're now up and available and
they're supporting Haiti, which is near and dear to our heart.
And it's crazy to think too that we're entering into
the holiday season because we know a lot of people
are ordering the puzzle for Christmas presents. And you were saying,
David even loves to do puzzles over the holidays, and
I can't believe we're in the last half of the year,
(20:08):
which is like you'll go all out for Halloween. Like
I can't either. I love my holidays. So like, are
you just on cloud nine through the rest of the year. Yes,
September through January is nuts for us. It's my dad's birthday,
my birthday, Noah's birthday, Halloween, David's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and
(20:30):
in between that think about retail like Black Friday, Giving Tuesday.
It's crazy, but yeah, we do go all out with
our decorations. Yeah, y'all need to go to Maddie's Instagram
if you're not already following her, because her Halloween decorations
alone are super impressive. There's like this huge giant skeleton
that apparently you had to camp out to get. What
(20:51):
is this hot commodity from home depot. So well, apparently
Courtney Kardashian got two of them, which is their sure
she had a hook up. Yeah, so apparently there's Facebook
(21:13):
groups and people go crazy. There's like a cult following
for these twelve foot skeletons, and my mom must have
called twenty different home depots and she got to hook
up with this guy. She gave him her number and
she was like, please, please please, if you just have one, like,
can we please come and get it? So he called
her one day in September and was like, I have
one secret skeleton in the back. You can have it.
(21:36):
Pro tip. You gotta call around make friends. Yes, you
gotta give some people your number. But you have to
put like a lock on these skeletons. Apparently people steal
them and they resell them for like two thousand dollars. Oh,
so do you have it like stick down in your
ground with a lock or something. Well, we don't have
a lock on it. Well, please don't rob us. Let's
(21:58):
go ahead and say you have it locked big time.
In fact, if anybody gets near it, they get zapped. Yes, exactly,
that's what you need to be saying. You get electrocuted
when you touch it, so be careful. Speaking of your
mom and your dad, and I know earlier you mentioned
your dad's cancer journey and pimp and joy. What's the
update with him, and that he's doing great. He's in
(22:21):
remission as of like a year ago. My dad um
is extremely stubborn and does not like to go get
his scans. So it's been a little while, and it's
it's one of those things and you know it that
it's always in the back of your mind, like just
wondering if it's going to come back, because the last
time he had it, it was the second time that
it came back. My parents moved here to Texas to
(22:44):
be with us, and they're literally the happiest I've ever
seen them. And my dad works at the warehouse every day,
and then he he got a boat and he goes
and rides his boat every day, so he's just living
his best life. And I'm so happy for them. I'm
so glad to hear that he's in remission. And the
Pimp and Joy played a role in whenever y'all had
(23:06):
to deal with it coming back, and that's special for
me for sure. And if anybody's a new listener here
and they don't know about Pimp and Joy, just like
in a nutshell, it's when you're going through something hard.
And Maddie touched on this earlier. It's like, of course
you have bad days. It doesn't mean every day it's
like totally perfect. But when my mom was battling cancer,
she just had an overall motto and her theme was
(23:29):
just joy and she was choosing it for herself, even
though that was hard, like when she was in treatment
and days were tough, but it was more so about
spreading joy to others at the hospital. She would see
people there in treatment alone, like I don't know about you, Maddie,
but like when you would be at appointments with your dad,
would you ever encounter people that were there alone? I
mean it would be heartbreaking to look around the waiting
(23:51):
room and to know, like with your dad and my family,
like there was so many loved ones that made sure
that my mom was never at an appointment alone and
never had to do anything by herself. And not everybody
has that. So my mom would make a point to
just try to talk to somebody that was alone or
compliment their their their wig or you know, their shirt
(24:15):
or their back, like little things to just try to
hopefully let them know that they're seen and that, you know,
just make them smile hopefully. So my mom having joy
is that overall theme. We we started her Twitter account
and it was Judy b Pimp and Joy, and then
from there the hashtag was born, hashtag pimp and joy,
and it was a way for listeners of the Bobby
(24:35):
Bones Show to share like this is how I spread
joy today to somebody else hashtag pimp and joy. And
it's not bragging on yourself, it's a it's a movement
that hopefully motivates other people and for you. You made
pimp and enjoy a part of you and your dad's journey,
and it was like, hey, we're hashtag pimp and joy
and you would wear the hat and like and then
in turn that makes you feel joy and so then
(24:57):
the then the joy is there. It's not the like
toxic positivity. And I just always feel the need to
differentiate it a little bit because I do see how
it could be, you know, taken as something like that.
But no, my mom would be the first to say that, no, no,
we had not very joyful days. And she would also
say that that joy did not come naturally to her
and that the joy of the Lord was her strength.
(25:19):
And she was always like, Amy, you need to talk
about this more like when you're on the radio. I
was like, well, Mom, it's not I can't always go
into the whole long story. She's like, well, people need
to know where my joy is coming from straight up.
So you know, that's pimp and Joy in a nutshell,
And it warms my heart to know that it's played
a role in y'all's journey, and you know that it
(25:40):
will continue to do that in other people's lives. And
then y'all you ran the New York City Marathon. Right,
that's right, Pimp and Joy, that was not a great
day for me. What inspired you to run the marathon?
And then why was it not so great after two miles? Well,
I am not a runner. First of all. I had
(26:01):
never run more than a mile in my entire life.
And at the time my dad was going through his
cancer journey. David and I were newly dating, and I
was like, Okay, David, you know we have to have
some runners for Haiti. And David was like, you can
do this. I really believe in you. And my mom's
(26:22):
going to run it and you can run it with her,
and I was like, okay, I guess so. So really
I ran it to raise awareness and money for HAITI.
So I had an awesome cause and I love HATI
more than anything, so I would do anything for the kids.
And trained a little bit with David's mom, and I
(26:42):
think the farthest that I trained before the marathon was
maybe eight miles. Oh my gosh. I went to go
run that marathon that day, and at the end of it,
I like pretty sure I needed an exorcism. I thought
I was dying. It was so hard. It was harder
than having either of my nine pound children. It was
(27:03):
the hardest thing I ever did in my life. Yeah,
it's not something that's easy. I haven't even run like
a block since it was morning when we started and
it was dark by the time I finished. What was
your time? I think it was like six hours or something.
I have to go and check. It was very long.
I mean, good for you. You You know, I did it,
(27:26):
and I checked it off on my bucket list, and
I'll never do it again. I told David he has
to do one in his lifetime. And Craig from Southern Charm,
he was on your running team. Yes, y'all all wore
Pimp and joy, but you were like you were a team. Okay, yeah,
And so how do you know Craig. I met Craig
through Naomi. Naomi and I both went to College of Charleston.
(27:48):
She's a sweet friend of mine. She's so awesome. So
Naomi is on Southern Charm and she dated Craig, and
that's how I met Craig. And then you and David.
You'll ended up on an episode of Southern Charm, right,
which is so funny. Whenever I get a message like
was that you on Southern charm im like, yes, um,
(28:08):
we did a fundraiser with them for Haiti before the
marathon and that was a different experience. I was like,
I will never be on reality TV after this. Oh well,
that's what I was gonna ask, Like you and David
having such a presence and with the kids, so like,
if y'all ever thought about it or been approached or
has nothing, We've been tossed around and I would never.
(28:28):
I don't know, Maddie. I feel like, never say never.
I don't think you get David would never either. Oh really,
he's very private. He's even more private than me. How
does he feel about being on your Instagram and you
all having certain parts that are public? Like is that
a conversation? Is that hard for him? I think because
of football, Like he had more of an online presence,
(28:49):
much more than I did when we were dating and
first married. So I think as a football he's really
comfortable with it. Like he used to go and speak
and do all these things, and he loves out that
he's more behind the scenes. Like I told him earlier,
I said, Babe, please, man, you come and say hi
to Amy and just you know, help my nerves. He's like, no,
you got this um that's not mine, that's for you.
(29:11):
Because there's so many other influencers on Instagram. I feel
like every once in a while, i'm, you know, somehow
stumble across or friend shares with me someone that I've
never heard of in my life and they have eight
hundred thousand followers and they're killing the game on Instagram.
I'm like, gosh, there's just so many amazing people out there,
(29:31):
but a lot of you sometimes end up in the
same bubble or the same world, and probably because you
can understand each other. It's like this it's a career field,
and I know you have other career things going on.
It's not your soul identity, but it is how a
lot of people connect with you, and do you find
that there's a good community for you and you've met
(29:52):
others that you can lean on. Because I feel like
it is again I'm calling it a career field for
lack of a better I don't know what it should
be called. But it's like it's still so new that
it's not like a lot of times, you know, in radio,
I can talk to other radio veterans that have been
in it for years and years and years and get
wisdom advice, Like, you know, I can talk to those
(30:12):
that have gone before me, but some of y'all are
literally paving the way right, yeah, David, And I call
it the wild wild West. It's like anything goes kind
of thing. I've always sort of stayed in my lane
and I never really got to into the influencer like crowd. Um.
But in the past year or so, I've met some
really awesome ones, and I've met some not so awesome ones,
(30:36):
but some that like first come to mind. Do you
follow the Sisters studio? I think I follow, but I
know I for sure know of her. Yes, she's shared
like SA stuff before. She's become one of my dear
friends through Instagram, and she's always been so incredible and helpful.
And I feel like if there's anybody who's shared wisdom
(30:56):
with me, it's been her. Like she's the real deal.
And I've really she did, like all that she's done
for me from day one, you know, back when I
had fifty thou followers, she was the same to me
as she is now. Yeah, I mean that's got to
be super important. Never knowing like when someone's reaching out
and why they're reaching out. Yeah, Yeah, it's I sort
(31:16):
of just stay to myself, and you know, friendships are
hard as an adult. For sure. We keep our circle
pretty small. I love watching your success and I think
that you make it look so easy because you're just
you're showing up and you're being yourself, so it's not
like you're I truly believe you're not on there trying
to make it look easy. And I'm like, you knew
(31:37):
me before all this, Amy, I hope I'm still the
same person that I was then. Yeah, I think that
you do a great job at it because yeah, you
are just showing up as you and people see that
and they resonate with stuff that you're talking about and
posting and sharing. And you know, I'm thankful that I
get to see you. I'm looking at you on Zoom
right now and I'm like, I know it's been forever
(31:58):
since I've seen you've seen you, but I don't feel
that way because I see you on Instagram all the
time right me too. You know Kendra from Haiti, So
she actually called me right before this episode and I said,
I'm speaking with Amy on her podcast. She's like, tell Amy,
I say, Hi, we just loved you when we were
in Haiti and you would show up and you're super
(32:20):
cute outfits and you were just you were just the
coolest and the nicest and so easy to talk to.
And every time you came Kendre and I'll be like,
Maby's coming, We're so excited. Well that's so sweet. And
I Kendra. I follow her on Instagram too, and so
I feel like, again I haven't seen her in years,
but five years, I feel like I see her because
(32:41):
of Instagram. And you know what's crazy is that, Yeah,
we all used to go to Haiti all the time,
and now with everything that's going on there, we're not
able to go. And it's I know that that's heartbreaking
for you and David, and it's heartbreaking for me and
my family, like especially adopting two kids from there, and
at this point I would have thought that I would
have taken them back for a visit, especially to possibly
(33:03):
see their birth mothers and just know more about their
life there, and that I don't know, Like it's just
I'm kind of speechless. When right before I went on
to record with you, Mary had sent me an article
on import of Prince in Delma like twenty nine area,
which we would hang out in Delma two, that part
of Porta Prince a lot and there was just a
(33:24):
kidnapping at church on Sunday. Three people kidnapped. And it's
just heartbreaking a place that we used to go like
we would no longer be safe there. No, And I
used to walk around by myself, you know, I always
said to my parents before my parents ever visited Haiti, well,
my mom, they were always a little bit nervous about
me being there by myself. I didn't know the people
(33:44):
who I was working with before I lived there. And
I always said, I feel safer here in Haiti than
I ever have in Los Angeles or in North Carolina
or Dallas. Like I loved, loved, loved my time there,
like kind of like your mom said, I really just
felt like the joy of the Lord while I was there.
(34:05):
And I mean, you know you feel that in the
States too, But it's just something special in the air
and Haiti and it just kills me. It breaks our
hearts that Haiti can't catch a break right now. I
know one day we'll all be able to. Yeah, I hope,
so to go there and go to what's that restaurant
that we like to go to with all the lights
and you eat outside. It's like Italian. No, I can't
(34:27):
think of it, but we'll go there. Yes, so good
and go write our names on the walls. Yes, and
they have. If anybody is listening right now and they've
been to this restaurant, they might be screaming it at
the podcast. But yeah, I can't think of it right now.
But yes, there's like live music and dancing and you
wrote your name on the walls in the best bread
roles you've ever had in your life. Well, I am
(34:49):
super thankful that you took the time to come on.
And I personally need to make the Mexican lasagna, so
I'm pumped about that you can make it with your
see it, Yes, love us. And again I'll be linking
that recipe in the show notes. So just wherever you're
listening to the podcast, if you go to the description,
(35:10):
you scroll down, that's where you'll see show notes and links,
and we'll have the self tanner up there and Maddie's
Maddie's Instagram so you'll know where to find her. And
then I'm sure some people are probably listening to this
because they know you, and so they're like, well, I'm
already following her, but hopefully they learned something new about
you here. And I'm just thankful that you took the
time to come on. It's such an honor to be
(35:32):
on here. Thank you so much, Amie. Yeah, and then um,
I'll be following you for all the holiday tips, perfect
all the tips and tricks since this is your favorite time.
We'd love that. Okay, Well, thank you, Maddie. Tell David
I said hi, and um, yeah, I see you soon. Okay,
talk soon. By Aby
Okay, cass up little food for you. So life. Oh
it's pretty, but it's pretty beautiful thing that for a
(00:23):
little month your kicking four Happy Thursday. I am super
pumped to have my friend Maddie Nelson on today. Now.
Maddie and I met and haighty years ago, but since then,
her Instagram account, Hey, Maddie Nelson has blown up and
(00:45):
she is a big time influencer. Don't put that title
on me, Amy, Well, you have hundreds of thousands of
followers who knew that Instagram would even be this place
where we connected with people all over the world that
we may not ever know. And I feel like so
many people that follow you, they were attracted to your
(01:06):
authenticity and everything that you have to offer, and your
bubbly personality and all your tips and tricks and furniture
and clothing and parenting stuff like you influence hardcore and
I'm here for it. Like I love when you post
links to things. It's super helpful. But I'm sure you
know when you joined Instagram, I don't know if you
knew that this is where it would take you in life. No,
(01:29):
it was so crazy. Is so when we met, we're
David not even dating not yet know when I met David,
y'all were not together. In fact, my husband and my
brother in law went to Haiti without me. That's when
they were like, yeah, remember David. I'm like yeah, They're like,
well there was this girl, Maddie on the trip, and
they're like, I think they're going to get together. Like
it was this whole thing. Well, Ben stayed with us,
(01:49):
that your husband stayed with us that week at the
guest house, and that was kind of the week that
David and I were both looked at each other, We're like,
is this thing? And then momble hold here we are.
A few years later. Y'all are married, you have two kids,
Noah in Easton, You've got your dog Winnie, you just
moved into a beautiful new house. And but to walk
(02:12):
us through like how Instagram started and then how it
has changed your life. So, actually, Amy, what's so cool?
You were actually were part of inspiring my blog and
your story with your mom and your Pimp and Joy
like that. You know, I would wear my Pimp and
Joy shirts and Haiti and I remember you talking about
your story with your mom and just how that kind
(02:33):
of catapulted your business and what you stand for and
I love to write, So I started a blog and
I would write about my dad because my dad was
going through cancer at the time, and this was while
David and I were dating. I would just share stories
about my dad fighting cancer. And my first blog post
was this is not a blog. I had every intention
(02:57):
to not be a blogger. I really just wanted to
like share my heart, share my journal. It was basically
just me writing in a journal and putting it out
there on the Internet. And I would take pictures and
post the Pimp and joy T shirts or pictures of
David and I. And then it was like right around
when we got married, and David was like, I think
you should do this, Like you love clothes, you love fashion,
(03:18):
you should just start taking pictures and posting them. That's
when it kind of happened. And then I got pregnant
with Easton and something about pregnant moms love to follow
pregnant moms like I guess getting tipped some baby items
and all of that. So I started sharing that and
I feel like that's really when it took off. From
that shop to Lula was created. Yes, I would sell
(03:40):
my clothes on Instagram and my Instagram account was Mattie's
close for Sale. And I did this back in the day,
like even before Haiti, when I was in nanny and
I would sell like a twelve dollar Forever twenty one
shirt for dollars on Instagram, like I was able to
sell it for more than what I paid for it,
and people would always laugh at me, like why. I
was like, your clothes on Instagram? You're so weird. But
(04:01):
it was kind of my side hustle, and David and
my mom were both like Maddie, Like, you have Maddie's
clothes for sale. People buy your clothes. Why don't you
buy more than one piece? Like why don't you sell
more than one shirt? You could sell ten shirts. So
I had this idea to start a business even when
I was living in Haiti. And when David and I
got married, he created the LLC for me and he
(04:23):
was like, I really believe in you. I really think
that you should start this, and I'm just going to
create the business name and you can do whatever you
want with it. So it took me like a year
to do anything with it. What is the to Lula for?
My mom grew up like her mom would call her
to Lula it was just kind of like a just
a sweet nickname, and I loved it as a little
(04:44):
girl's name. And I would have dreams about this little
girl and she had dark brown, curly hair, just like Noah.
And I've always kind of prayed about this to Lula character.
I didn't really know what it was. And I said
to David, I would love to name a daughter one
day to Lula. And he was like, no, I don't
think so. I'm like, but I know to Lula is
(05:07):
going to be a part of my life, Like what
is it going to be? So when we were thinking
about business names, I said, let's make it to Lula.
Now it's our business. Yeah. I mean in a way,
it's something that you've given birth to. So you didn't
probably know what your dreams of this little girl what
it was, but in a way, it could have been
you dreaming up this the whole time. And I love
(05:27):
that David just took the reins and sort of no pressure.
But hey, I went ahead and created this, so it's
out there. He's kind of like manifesting a little Yeah.
It literally sat. It was from like zip Taxes or
whatever that online place is called, and they sent us
this folder, and it just sat in my cabinet for
like a year, and I would open my cabinet, I
(05:49):
would look at it and I was like, not, that
will never happen. And then my mom and I went
to market um for the first time. So when we started,
we did everything from market. Now we do some private cuts,
but my mom and I went to market and we
just ordered a few items and we shipped them all
to my parents house because at the time, like we
didn't have any warehouse space or anything. My parents shipped
(06:10):
from their living room and my dad was like, what
are you going to do with all this stuff? Like
all these clothes are gonna sit here, You're never gonna
sell them. And I'm like, you just wait, dad, And
now my parents live here and my dad is our packer. Yes,
and I love I've even seen on Instagram your dad
will put little notes to people, like inside the package.
(06:31):
He's the cutest. Oh yeah, Papa is like the Golden ticket.
I just made him some cards that says a note
from Papa, so he can have some special little gifts.
I know that if you're posting about it, I trust it,
and I'm sure all of your followers feel the same.
Way and appreciate you sharing. And also just to be clear,
if people are thinking about following you, you don't just
(06:52):
post mom stuff. You share all kinds of cute videos
and tips and tricks and links and favorite things for
all kinds of people. So what are four things that
your followers like you to post about or four things
that you're loving right now? Well, I like that you
mentioned that you don't have to be a mom to
follow me because I feel like I try to hit
(07:13):
a little bit of every area, and it's like I
want to give a little bit of home. I give
a lot of family. I share a lot of my
kids because that's the most important thing in my life.
So I feel like whenever you know, I'm in the
moment and I just sim recording a little video of Noah,
I feel like that's definitely what the people like the most.
Everybody wants to see this. I've tried in the different
(07:36):
seasons of my life over the years to not just
be a mommy blogger, not just be a home account,
not just be recipes, but to do a little bit
of everything. So recipes are a big one. My Mexican lasagna,
because everybody's most favorite recipe it's really easy. Yeah, send
it to me and I'll link it in the show notes. Okay,
(07:58):
So Mexican lasagna the top favorite. It's like, it takes
five minutes to prepare it, thirty minutes to bake it,
and it's the best. David, it's the entire pan I've
always loved to read, but in the past couple of years,
I've shared a lot of books and books that have
helped me in different seasons of my life. And right
now I'm really into Colleen Hoover. I've been reading her
(08:19):
stuff since last spring and I think I've read like
twelve of her books. Is that something to like? Do
post about the book and you can tell like, yeah,
I do, I know stories. I'll like say here's what
I'm reading, loved it or didn't love it? And then
do you feel like if your followers start reading, you
kind of have this own little mini book club situation happening.
Or is that something you've ever considered? No, never, I'm
(08:39):
not like a book snob, so I would probably like
every book. And you know what I think of when
I think of you, um and your account, which I
hope that you recognize this as amazing, but I'm like, oh,
I've gotten so many good self tanners from you. You
have a good self tanner. But wait, I've gotten one
from you and Mary that Christopher Oh, James Reid, Yes,
(09:02):
the spray. I loved that. Right now, I'm really into
the tan Suiticals. I partnered with them a year or
two ago, and I love their products. And then like,
I kind of test different ones, but I always go
back to that one. Oh, I've ordered the tan Suiticals
because of you, and I think it's great. It doesn't
smell like other ones do. It doesn't have the no,
(09:24):
It's got more of like a like a beech scent
or something. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure with everybody's skin though,
you know, help perfume smell different on different people. So
I don't want someone to be like, oh, well I
I use something you said and it smelled different on me.
I'm like, well, I don't know, but for me personally,
I've tried tons of self tanners, like so many of
them just have this smell that lingers with you. But
(09:47):
I will say the tan Suiticals, I have not had
that experience. I'm so happy to hear that. I take
everything personally, like if somebody's like, you recommended this and
it broke. I'm like, no, let me read out to
the people like I feel horrible if somebody sends their
money on something, I hope they love it just as
much as I do. That's like the most important thing
(10:07):
to me, even with too Lula. Let's do this since
we're already linking, like the Mexican lasagna, if you have
a Tan Suiticals link, send me that and I'll put
that in the show notes too. That way it's easy
for people to find. Okay, so we've got Mexican Lasagna,
Colleen Hoover, and Tan Suticals. Do you have a fourth
thing that you're really loving right now or thing that
I'm really loving right now is my fall drink with
(10:29):
my Stamix drink. So I get the ice dirty chie
with extra ice and top it with pumpkin cream cold foam. Oh,
it is the best. The pumpkin cream cold foam is
such a game changer because not too pumkin e. No,
I don't want it to be super sweet either either. Yeah,
I don't. I don't like the PSL. This is just
(10:50):
like the perfect little hint. I love that and I
get it in a VNTI cup. So if you just
get the Grande in a vint cup with extra ice,
you actually get more drink. Pro tip depth. So, with
so much of your life being on Instagram, I feel
like your followers probably expect to hear from you, like
(11:10):
if they were to open up their stories one day
or a couple of days and like you're not there.
I'm sure there's a certain level of concern, where's Nattie?
What has happened? Why is she not there? But you know,
I'm sure you have to take breaks for your own
sanity from time to time, but just even day to
day because it is part of your career. What do
you do to disconnect? So that's been a huge thing
(11:34):
to learn how to balance for me as a mom,
as a wife, as a business owner, and then having
Instagram as my life as well. And I feel like
now I've actually learned how to put my phone away
for a weekend at a time, which sounds crazy because
I feel like there aren't any influencers who take a
weekend off. But sometimes I'll just write on there, like
(11:55):
on a Friday, hey guys taking the weekend off see Monday,
or even just like if we go to the arboretum
or do something as a family. I don't feel so
pressured to get content, Like if I'm in the moment
and I catch a video while we're at Disney World.
I'll use that as an example. When we were at
Disney last week or two weeks ago, I recorded a
(12:17):
lot of videos throughout the day, just in the moment,
and then later on that night I posted them. So
it wasn't so much pressure to feel like, Okay, let
me catch Noah doing this, let me post it, let
me d M somebody who's messaging me. So yeah, it's
been a hard balance to learn. But I do feel
like I now see my kids growing so fast, and
I don't want them to look back on their childhood
(12:39):
and just think, Wow, my mom was on her phone
my entire life. I love that you shared you're taking
memories because you would be photographing and filming that stuff
anyway no matter what. Then if you look at it
from your influencer standpoint, then later, yes, those memories can
turn into some content for you, But you don't have
the pressure of posting in the moment. You time later
(13:01):
when the kids are asleep or other stuff, and then
you post it I'm glad you said that because it's
a reminder I'm not an influencer, and you know a
lot of people listening they're like, well, I'm just posting
for my friends and family. But you can still operate
that way, right, And it really is difficult as an influencer,
like I love to respond to people in my messages.
I spend a lot of time in my messages. I
(13:22):
don't have an assistant, I don't have anybody helping me,
and it's just me. So when we're at Disney World
and it's like, Okay, I'm just going to post a
quick picture. While you're posting it, you see messages coming in.
It's really difficult for me to see those messages and
not respond to them. And you know, even if I
only get to a hundred out of the five thousand
(13:43):
that come in that day, it's still important to me
to do my best and to try to get to
as many as I can. It's much easier to post
later on rather than in the moment and see all
of those messages popping in. What about your self care routine?
Do you have stuff that you try to do on
the regular to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Oh.
(14:03):
I love to get my nails done every few weeks,
which is so funny because it's actually something that's important
to David. David could care less about like my hair.
He could care less if my legs are hairy. But
when we started dating, and keep in mind, we were
in Haiti when we started dating, and he looked at me,
he was actually taking me to the airport in Haiti,
(14:24):
and my nails were all busted and chipped, and he
looked at me and he said, Okay, I just have
to tell you one thing. And I was like, look,
what is it? And he said, having nice nails is
just something that I really care about. Like, oh gosh,
I'm so sorry, like look at my nails and he
was like, no, no, it's okay, Okay. I just wanted
(14:46):
you to know, like I just really like nice nails.
And I used to hate getting my nails done. I'm
just a busy body, and sitting in that chair used
to just like be tortured to me. So I really
learned to love it. And I'll bring my kindle and
I'll read my book and that's something that I do
every few weeks. I feel like we had breaking news
here about David Nelson what eggs girlfriend had like really
(15:09):
scary nail and he said, you know, he's like I
had a teacher that had really scary nails. Like if
we went to a therapist and got to the root
of this, yes, he probably had a mean teacher who
would like tap on his desk. I think you're overall
just a pretty positive, joyful person, and that's just part
of your amazing personality. But what are you intentional about
(15:33):
each day to make sure that you're starting off on
that right foot. Whenever I do a Q and A,
it's all the question is always like why are you
so happy? Or do you ever have a bad day?
And of course I have a bad day. Everybody has
bad days. But I think something that's really important to
me is like, and it doesn't matter if it's first thing.
You know, I have young kids, and my kids wake
(15:54):
me up, and it's not always easy to just start
reading my Bible or to put at worship music on
as soon as they wake up, because it's like the
morning chaos with toddlers. So I always just take some
time during the day and I try to always make
it the morning, but to put on my worship music
I have a worship playlist that I play a lot
(16:15):
that I've had for years, and whether it's while I'm
putting my makeup on for the day or I'm driving
back from dropping my kids off at school, I always
try to take that moment to put on worship. And
for me, it's praying in gratitude, whether it's writing in
your gratitude journal or thanking God for what you're grateful
for that day. But that's probably like what grounds me
(16:37):
the most. I love my journal, but I don't always
find time to write in my four Things journal. Like
there are some yeah, like you might be driving in
your car because you've got the kids and you gotta
get somewhere, but you you can have a conversation with
God and be talking about like things that you're thankful
for and praying in that moment. I could just see
as a mom of young children and a wife and
(16:59):
running a bus, this and all the things that you
may not get to that first thing in the morning
as much as you try, but as long as it's
we've been throughout the day, like it'll it'll come in
and do its thing. And I fully trust and like
knowing God's heart, I know that he sees our hearts
in it, especially as busy moms or whatever stage of
(17:20):
life we're in, Like he can see our hearts and
just that little moment of jamming out towards the music
in my car or in my bathroom, I feel like
he sees us in that, and that's all that matters.
So when it comes to you and David getting a
break from parenting and work life, what does a date
night look like for y'all? Okay, we love to order
(17:41):
Panda Express. Yeah, we love our fand to Express, and
we like to watch our shows. So we just finished
um nine Perfect Strangers, which I read the book a
couple of months ago before the show came out, and
I did not like the book, but I loved the
TV show. Oh yeah, that one was so good. It's
on who loew of people want to watch it. Nicole
(18:01):
Kidman's in it. She's amazing. It's really good. I also
got the book. I was at the airport bookstore and
I was like, oh, I need a book for the flight.
But the flight's not that long from Nashville to New York.
So I kind of got started. But then I got
way to into the TV show that I never picked
the book back up. It's okay. It was much better
than the book, so you're not missing out on anything. Well,
since you mentioned nine Perfect Strangers, do you have like
(18:22):
in sticking with the four things theme? Do you have
three other shows that y'all have loved? We have loved
shows this year. Let's think the Undoing. I loved the
Undoing so good. Also Nicole Kidman, Yes, also Nicole Kidman,
I love her. She was also in Big Little Eyes
and I loved that one too. Oh my gosh, your Honor?
Did you see your Honor? I did, And I tried
(18:44):
to convince other people to get on board of me
on that and they wouldn't. But I loved it. INDEEDD
and I in my family, my family loved it. We
all loved that show. Out of Banks. I'm a huge
Outer Banks fan. I watched the second season in like
two days. Of course I watched it, you know, but
I was like, what is corny? But I thought maybe
(19:05):
I liked season one because you know, I would have
watched just about anything. But then when the second season
came out this year, I was like, Okay, this has
gotten bonkers, but I still loved it. I loved John
b I'm big John Bee fan. Do you all ever
work on puzzles or play games together or anything? Um,
David loves puzzles, but we only do them during Christmas time.
(19:26):
Oh really, Yeah, so we do a big Christmas puzzle.
Mary and I we designed a Four Things It's fine.
I'm fine, Everything is fine puzzle. And it actually the
day that this episode is airing with you, the puzzles
are now up order it. We filled it with like
cookies and donuts and fruit and cherries and dogs and
(19:47):
cats and things that make us happy. So for anybody else, yeah,
four Things dot com they're now up and available and
they're supporting Haiti, which is near and dear to our heart.
And it's crazy to think too that we're entering into
the holiday season because we know a lot of people
are ordering the puzzle for Christmas presents. And you were saying,
David even loves to do puzzles over the holidays, and
I can't believe we're in the last half of the year,
(20:08):
which is like you'll go all out for Halloween. Like
I can't either. I love my holidays. So like, are
you just on cloud nine through the rest of the year. Yes,
September through January is nuts for us. It's my dad's birthday,
my birthday, Noah's birthday, Halloween, David's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and
(20:30):
in between that think about retail like Black Friday, Giving Tuesday.
It's crazy, but yeah, we do go all out with
our decorations. Yeah, y'all need to go to Maddie's Instagram
if you're not already following her, because her Halloween decorations
alone are super impressive. There's like this huge giant skeleton
that apparently you had to camp out to get. What
(20:51):
is this hot commodity from home depot. So well, apparently
Courtney Kardashian got two of them, which is their sure
she had a hook up. Yeah, so apparently there's Facebook
(21:13):
groups and people go crazy. There's like a cult following
for these twelve foot skeletons, and my mom must have
called twenty different home depots and she got to hook
up with this guy. She gave him her number and
she was like, please, please please, if you just have one, like,
can we please come and get it? So he called
her one day in September and was like, I have
one secret skeleton in the back. You can have it.
(21:36):
Pro tip. You gotta call around make friends. Yes, you
gotta give some people your number. But you have to
put like a lock on these skeletons. Apparently people steal
them and they resell them for like two thousand dollars. Oh,
so do you have it like stick down in your
ground with a lock or something. Well, we don't have
a lock on it. Well, please don't rob us. Let's
(21:58):
go ahead and say you have it locked big time.
In fact, if anybody gets near it, they get zapped. Yes, exactly,
that's what you need to be saying. You get electrocuted
when you touch it, so be careful. Speaking of your
mom and your dad, and I know earlier you mentioned
your dad's cancer journey and pimp and joy. What's the
update with him, and that he's doing great. He's in
(22:21):
remission as of like a year ago. My dad um
is extremely stubborn and does not like to go get
his scans. So it's been a little while, and it's
it's one of those things and you know it that
it's always in the back of your mind, like just
wondering if it's going to come back, because the last
time he had it, it was the second time that
it came back. My parents moved here to Texas to
(22:44):
be with us, and they're literally the happiest I've ever
seen them. And my dad works at the warehouse every day,
and then he he got a boat and he goes
and rides his boat every day, so he's just living
his best life. And I'm so happy for them. I'm
so glad to hear that he's in remission. And the
Pimp and Joy played a role in whenever y'all had
(23:06):
to deal with it coming back, and that's special for
me for sure. And if anybody's a new listener here
and they don't know about Pimp and Joy, just like
in a nutshell, it's when you're going through something hard.
And Maddie touched on this earlier. It's like, of course
you have bad days. It doesn't mean every day it's
like totally perfect. But when my mom was battling cancer,
she just had an overall motto and her theme was
(23:29):
just joy and she was choosing it for herself, even
though that was hard, like when she was in treatment
and days were tough, but it was more so about
spreading joy to others at the hospital. She would see
people there in treatment alone, like I don't know about you, Maddie,
but like when you would be at appointments with your dad,
would you ever encounter people that were there alone? I
mean it would be heartbreaking to look around the waiting
(23:51):
room and to know, like with your dad and my family,
like there was so many loved ones that made sure
that my mom was never at an appointment alone and
never had to do anything by herself. And not everybody
has that. So my mom would make a point to
just try to talk to somebody that was alone or
compliment their their their wig or you know, their shirt
(24:15):
or their back, like little things to just try to
hopefully let them know that they're seen and that, you know,
just make them smile hopefully. So my mom having joy
is that overall theme. We we started her Twitter account
and it was Judy b Pimp and Joy, and then
from there the hashtag was born, hashtag pimp and joy,
and it was a way for listeners of the Bobby
(24:35):
Bones Show to share like this is how I spread
joy today to somebody else hashtag pimp and joy. And
it's not bragging on yourself, it's a it's a movement
that hopefully motivates other people and for you. You made
pimp and enjoy a part of you and your dad's journey,
and it was like, hey, we're hashtag pimp and joy
and you would wear the hat and like and then
in turn that makes you feel joy and so then
(24:57):
the then the joy is there. It's not the like
toxic positivity. And I just always feel the need to
differentiate it a little bit because I do see how
it could be, you know, taken as something like that.
But no, my mom would be the first to say that, no, no,
we had not very joyful days. And she would also
say that that joy did not come naturally to her
and that the joy of the Lord was her strength.
(25:19):
And she was always like, Amy, you need to talk
about this more like when you're on the radio. I
was like, well, Mom, it's not I can't always go
into the whole long story. She's like, well, people need
to know where my joy is coming from straight up.
So you know, that's pimp and Joy in a nutshell,
And it warms my heart to know that it's played
a role in y'all's journey, and you know that it
(25:40):
will continue to do that in other people's lives. And
then y'all you ran the New York City Marathon. Right,
that's right, Pimp and Joy, that was not a great
day for me. What inspired you to run the marathon?
And then why was it not so great after two miles? Well,
I am not a runner. First of all. I had
(26:01):
never run more than a mile in my entire life.
And at the time my dad was going through his
cancer journey. David and I were newly dating, and I
was like, Okay, David, you know we have to have
some runners for Haiti. And David was like, you can
do this. I really believe in you. And my mom's
(26:22):
going to run it and you can run it with her,
and I was like, okay, I guess so. So really
I ran it to raise awareness and money for HAITI.
So I had an awesome cause and I love HATI
more than anything, so I would do anything for the kids.
And trained a little bit with David's mom, and I
(26:42):
think the farthest that I trained before the marathon was
maybe eight miles. Oh my gosh. I went to go
run that marathon that day, and at the end of it,
I like pretty sure I needed an exorcism. I thought
I was dying. It was so hard. It was harder
than having either of my nine pound children. It was
(27:03):
the hardest thing I ever did in my life. Yeah,
it's not something that's easy. I haven't even run like
a block since it was morning when we started and
it was dark by the time I finished. What was
your time? I think it was like six hours or something.
I have to go and check. It was very long.
I mean, good for you. You You know, I did it,
(27:26):
and I checked it off on my bucket list, and
I'll never do it again. I told David he has
to do one in his lifetime. And Craig from Southern Charm,
he was on your running team. Yes, y'all all wore
Pimp and joy, but you were like you were a team. Okay, yeah,
And so how do you know Craig. I met Craig
through Naomi. Naomi and I both went to College of Charleston.
(27:48):
She's a sweet friend of mine. She's so awesome. So
Naomi is on Southern Charm and she dated Craig, and
that's how I met Craig. And then you and David.
You'll ended up on an episode of Southern Charm, right,
which is so funny. Whenever I get a message like
was that you on Southern charm im like, yes, um,
(28:08):
we did a fundraiser with them for Haiti before the
marathon and that was a different experience. I was like,
I will never be on reality TV after this. Oh well,
that's what I was gonna ask, Like you and David
having such a presence and with the kids, so like,
if y'all ever thought about it or been approached or
has nothing, We've been tossed around and I would never.
(28:28):
I don't know, Maddie. I feel like, never say never.
I don't think you get David would never either. Oh really,
he's very private. He's even more private than me. How
does he feel about being on your Instagram and you
all having certain parts that are public? Like is that
a conversation? Is that hard for him? I think because
of football, Like he had more of an online presence,
(28:49):
much more than I did when we were dating and
first married. So I think as a football he's really
comfortable with it. Like he used to go and speak
and do all these things, and he loves out that
he's more behind the scenes. Like I told him earlier,
I said, Babe, please, man, you come and say hi
to Amy and just you know, help my nerves. He's like, no,
you got this um that's not mine, that's for you.
(29:11):
Because there's so many other influencers on Instagram. I feel
like every once in a while, i'm, you know, somehow
stumble across or friend shares with me someone that I've
never heard of in my life and they have eight
hundred thousand followers and they're killing the game on Instagram.
I'm like, gosh, there's just so many amazing people out there,
(29:31):
but a lot of you sometimes end up in the
same bubble or the same world, and probably because you
can understand each other. It's like this it's a career field,
and I know you have other career things going on.
It's not your soul identity, but it is how a
lot of people connect with you, and do you find
that there's a good community for you and you've met
(29:52):
others that you can lean on. Because I feel like
it is again I'm calling it a career field for
lack of a better I don't know what it should
be called. But it's like it's still so new that
it's not like a lot of times, you know, in radio,
I can talk to other radio veterans that have been
in it for years and years and years and get
wisdom advice, Like, you know, I can talk to those
(30:12):
that have gone before me, but some of y'all are
literally paving the way right, yeah, David, And I call
it the wild wild West. It's like anything goes kind
of thing. I've always sort of stayed in my lane
and I never really got to into the influencer like crowd. Um.
But in the past year or so, I've met some
really awesome ones, and I've met some not so awesome ones,
(30:36):
but some that like first come to mind. Do you
follow the Sisters studio? I think I follow, but I
know I for sure know of her. Yes, she's shared
like SA stuff before. She's become one of my dear
friends through Instagram, and she's always been so incredible and helpful.
And I feel like if there's anybody who's shared wisdom
(30:56):
with me, it's been her. Like she's the real deal.
And I've really she did, like all that she's done
for me from day one, you know, back when I
had fifty thou followers, she was the same to me
as she is now. Yeah, I mean that's got to
be super important. Never knowing like when someone's reaching out
and why they're reaching out. Yeah, Yeah, it's I sort
(31:16):
of just stay to myself, and you know, friendships are
hard as an adult. For sure. We keep our circle
pretty small. I love watching your success and I think
that you make it look so easy because you're just
you're showing up and you're being yourself, so it's not
like you're I truly believe you're not on there trying
to make it look easy. And I'm like, you knew
(31:37):
me before all this, Amy, I hope I'm still the
same person that I was then. Yeah, I think that
you do a great job at it because yeah, you
are just showing up as you and people see that
and they resonate with stuff that you're talking about and
posting and sharing. And you know, I'm thankful that I
get to see you. I'm looking at you on Zoom
right now and I'm like, I know it's been forever
(31:58):
since I've seen you've seen you, but I don't feel
that way because I see you on Instagram all the
time right me too. You know Kendra from Haiti, So
she actually called me right before this episode and I said,
I'm speaking with Amy on her podcast. She's like, tell Amy,
I say, Hi, we just loved you when we were
in Haiti and you would show up and you're super
(32:20):
cute outfits and you were just you were just the
coolest and the nicest and so easy to talk to.
And every time you came Kendre and I'll be like,
Maby's coming, We're so excited. Well that's so sweet. And
I Kendra. I follow her on Instagram too, and so
I feel like, again I haven't seen her in years,
but five years, I feel like I see her because
(32:41):
of Instagram. And you know what's crazy is that, Yeah,
we all used to go to Haiti all the time,
and now with everything that's going on there, we're not
able to go. And it's I know that that's heartbreaking
for you and David, and it's heartbreaking for me and
my family, like especially adopting two kids from there, and
at this point I would have thought that I would
have taken them back for a visit, especially to possibly
(33:03):
see their birth mothers and just know more about their
life there, and that I don't know, Like it's just
I'm kind of speechless. When right before I went on
to record with you, Mary had sent me an article
on import of Prince in Delma like twenty nine area,
which we would hang out in Delma two, that part
of Porta Prince a lot and there was just a
(33:24):
kidnapping at church on Sunday. Three people kidnapped. And it's
just heartbreaking a place that we used to go like
we would no longer be safe there. No, And I
used to walk around by myself, you know, I always
said to my parents before my parents ever visited Haiti, well,
my mom, they were always a little bit nervous about
me being there by myself. I didn't know the people
(33:44):
who I was working with before I lived there. And
I always said, I feel safer here in Haiti than
I ever have in Los Angeles or in North Carolina
or Dallas. Like I loved, loved, loved my time there,
like kind of like your mom said, I really just
felt like the joy of the Lord while I was there.
(34:05):
And I mean, you know you feel that in the
States too, But it's just something special in the air
and Haiti and it just kills me. It breaks our
hearts that Haiti can't catch a break right now. I
know one day we'll all be able to. Yeah, I hope,
so to go there and go to what's that restaurant
that we like to go to with all the lights
and you eat outside. It's like Italian. No, I can't
(34:27):
think of it, but we'll go there. Yes, so good
and go write our names on the walls. Yes, and
they have. If anybody is listening right now and they've
been to this restaurant, they might be screaming it at
the podcast. But yeah, I can't think of it right now.
But yes, there's like live music and dancing and you
wrote your name on the walls in the best bread
roles you've ever had in your life. Well, I am
(34:49):
super thankful that you took the time to come on.
And I personally need to make the Mexican lasagna, so
I'm pumped about that you can make it with your
see it, Yes, love us. And again I'll be linking
that recipe in the show notes. So just wherever you're
listening to the podcast, if you go to the description,
(35:10):
you scroll down, that's where you'll see show notes and links,
and we'll have the self tanner up there and Maddie's
Maddie's Instagram so you'll know where to find her. And
then I'm sure some people are probably listening to this
because they know you, and so they're like, well, I'm
already following her, but hopefully they learned something new about
you here. And I'm just thankful that you took the
time to come on. It's such an honor to be
(35:32):
on here. Thank you so much, Amie. Yeah, and then um,
I'll be following you for all the holiday tips, perfect
all the tips and tricks since this is your favorite time.
We'd love that. Okay, Well, thank you, Maddie. Tell David
I said hi, and um, yeah, I see you soon. Okay,
talk soon. By Aby
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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