Scrubbing In with Becca Tilly and Tanya rap An iHeartRadio podcast.
Hello everybody, we are scrubbing in, scrub it up dumb.
Today we have Oh wait, I.
Didn't tell you guys. I was driving. I was driving the other day and I'll actually I'll post this. We saw this car that had a license plate that said it looks like it said let's scrub in. Its like l E S. Hold on, it was like L E S. Scrub and then like in and so Robbie and I pull up next to the car and we're like, like thinking it was a scrubber or something, and we're like, oh, it's a license I let's scrub in like and he was like, yeah, less carbon. I was like, it was
like an electric car. Yeah, so its not what I thought it was, but it could have been. It could have been.
Your license plate.
Please send us, Please send it, because I was so excited to be the scrubber and just wanted this person wild less carbon.
Yeah you found an environmentalist, yes, yeah, so valuable.
Yeah. Yes, also we need those people too.
Yeah.
So sorry derail this because we have a really great guest today.
Yeah, we have.
She's a huge social media influencer, and she started her career in twenty twelve when she was just nineteen years old. She now hals over one point seven million followers on Instagram and has started a haircare brand, Divvy.
She is married to Jordan Ramirez and has two kids, Stella and Stratton.
And she also has her own podcast called de Influence, where she talks unfiltered about her life as a mom, influencer, wife, and much more.
Please help us.
Welcome Danny Austin.
Welcome.
I left the intro a hello, as you should be our guest. I'm excited. Yeah.
We were just talking about how you recently launched a podcast and it's a new new venture of your many ventures that you take on. Is your personality, like I always need to be trying or doing something new?
Do you know the enneagram? Are you all familiar?
Yeah?
Yeah, so I'm a three. So I was always like, which one is that?
The achiever?
It's hard to be married to me because my end and my husband's a perfection.
She's a one. I'm a one two?
Really?
Yeah? Oh, you guys are tough too, because you can't like, you can't start anything because that's perfect has to be perfect exactly and you have you have to do it your way. Yeah.
So yeah, I just always liked to just be busy. Like in school growing up, I always played every sport. I was like packed in the summers. I just liked having, you know, that structure and schedule, and so it kind of just trickled over to my adult years. But no, I the whole thing started when I was nineteen. I started a YouTube channel, like one of those like I'm like an og where I was just sitting in my
dorm room filming videos of myself. But I couldn't tell anyone because it was so embarrassing, Like, you know, I was in authority at the time at the University of Yeah, kaya, No, I was like the.
First sorority person ever.
But so yeah, I just started making videos in my dorm room and didn't tell any of my friends. And the only reason why my friends found out is because at the time, I had a really young audience, you know, they were like middle school, high school, because that's who was consuming YouTube at the time. And I was at a music festival with all my friends and these like little girls run up and they're like, Danny, we love
your holes or your YouTube videos. And my my friends were like, you're what because it was just so so different and so new. So yeah, since then, I just, uh, I feel like, what's so fun about it is because when you work for yourself like that and you're creating content, like, you can do so much with it. You can go in so many different directions. So yeah, I've just been kind of busy ever since.
But to me sometimes that feels overwhelming because I feel like it's like a constant I'm trying to keep up with something new or like what everyone's doing, like because there's so many opportunities, Like I feel like there's people like you who see it as like I'm going to take that on and try something new and if it doesn't work out, whatever, I tried it, And then there's people like me who are like it's too much.
Like how do you keep up?
It's so stressful. I think the biggest thing that I've always tried to focus on, which I know this kind of sounds cliche, but like I truly think about like my girls, and I love listening to what they want
and then giving them more of what they want. And so I remember when I was like nineteen twenty years old, I had this like kind of avatar in my mind, and I'm like, her name is Sam, She's also nineteen years old, maybe she's in college, she's trying to figure her life out, and so I would just create all this content like just geared towards her, and it made it less overwhelming when I just thought of like one person.
But also, I mean, I always have to remind myself even if, like if you think of one hundred people in a room, that's like a ton of people that you're influencing. And so if I could kind of get over the numbers and really focused on like that one girl, it made it more fun for me, like kind of took the stress off. So yeah, since then, you know,
YouTube was it for a little bit. Then you know, your Instagram came out and then switched to TikTok and blogging and all the different spaces, and so I've just kind of enjoyed popping around and just seeing where you know, we're inspired.
How do you your I think one of your something that sets you apart is that you have maintained a really loyal fan base that's like so engaged with everything you do. Like it's rare to see people like I look. I was looking at your page and I was looking at just the comments, and I was like, it's it's
really impressive, especially on Instagram. Now, I feel like to have that type of engagement in that following, like what do you think it was or what do you feel like you do that makes you different from from other people who've been because a lot of people have, you know, that was kind of the start of Instagram, was like that twenty fifteen era, right.
Exactly, and you've been able to maintain it since then, Like what did you.
Started Instagram twenty fifteen?
Well, probably earlier earlier than that because it came out so I mean, oh, right, right, I was thinking two thousand and five for some right, like.
The influencing like kind of that era was like yes.
So when I first started my Instagram and blogging, I was trying so hard, you know, I had the hair extensions, and I was doing the outfit pictures. I'm traveling all over I'm posting like three instagrams a day, doing these outfit try ons and this sort of thing, and it was just I feel like at that point, like I
don't know, it didn't feel real. And so I got to a point where especially when Instagram stories came out, I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna be myself and like take the hair extensions out, like just be like a goof, like just just see what happens. If people don't like it, then I'll just get a different job. And so I started doing that, and just like I started with this thing called retainer talks where I would get in bed at night and put my
retainer in and just like talk about life. And I was like slobbering everywhere, you know, and I was talking about, you know, wedding planning, being engaged, how much I hated being engaged. I think engagement is like sometimes the hardest time in your.
Life because a lot at the time, well I'm.
Sorry, no, but it's hard actually, like because you're still you're merging two different lives. And you know, my husband and I are we didn't live together, so like he's living with my parents, I'm living at home, and we're trying to merge our two different lives, and it was just it was hard, you know, two different leases, two different friend groups, all these things. And so I just talked about like real things for the first time. And
I think people just really related to that. And I think my biggest thing was just focusing on like building more so of like a loyal community instead of having a ton of followers. And I think that people could kind of sense that they felt it. I loved planning things where people could come together. We'd like needed a coffee shop, or I'd plan like a Taylor Swift listening night where they'd come over and maybe win like a ticket to come over and have like cookies or something.
And so just trying to make the community feel smaller I think actually made it bigger, if that makes sense.
You were like your mindset was like quality over quantity, Like.
You were exactly like if I can if I can interact and connect with or people connect to me, then if they're engaged, then more will come if that's what's meant to be.
But they're gonna be my focus exactly.
And I think too, I how I looked at Instagram stories because that's kind of how I grew. I feel like my loyal audience, that's how I still take care of, which is so so annoying because they disappear. So sometimes I'm like, man, why do I do that? Like why am I not creating this content like on YouTube or
somewhere it lists or whatever. I still don't know the answer to that, but I do feel like it helped me create a very like loyal engagement with my audience because I wake up with them, like from the moment I wake out of bed, and like I so they call it like the Danny mullet, Like I have a mullet whenever I wake up and I just walked through my day, I share like what products I'm using, things that I'm excited about, maybe things I'm struggling with, and
I take them pretty much all the way till like five o'clock and then that's whenever I get off of it. It's like workday, you know. So I just kind of always like envisioned my day as like a reality TV show. It's fun.
You kind of you literally created a miniature reality TV dating show for your brothers, right, I did think, wait.
Did you almost date Taylor Swift?
I mean that would be cool. So what happened was when speak Now came out, my brother did a cover of it, and she tweeted it, retweeted it and said, man, I love this cover of Sparks fly by Land in Austin, and my brother was so excited. He lives in Nashville. He went to Belmont University. He still lives there. He was so excited. He went to Harris Teeters, which is like their local grocery store, and he woul to go buy a cookie cake because he was so excited. That's
how he celebrates, you know, with his buddies. And he's like celebrating that Taylor Swift retweeted him, and he's in line, and none other than Taylor Swift is behind him in line buying groceries.
So my brother freaks out.
He turns around, Taylor Swift freaks out, goes land in Austin, What what are you new? Yes? But you know this is also when I mean she was famous. Obviously she was still living in Nashville, but she wasn't like right right, and she's like land in Austin, I thought you lived
in Australia, Like what the heck? And so they actually she gave him her dad's number and then Landon connected with her dad, went to her show in Knoxville, went backstage, hung out with mister and missus Swift the entire time, and he kind of like mister Swift kind of like mentored my brother for a little bit, took him the whole Cogan's house, which is so random, gave him like a bunch of like great advice. So yeah, that's crazy.
You met Taylor Swift, you probably got better. I mean you probably yeah, you know, I mean, I think it's.
Very serendipitous that that was during the Speak Now era yea and the re release with the feat Now and Taylor Swift is single? Is your brother single? You know what?
I well, I don't know.
But I had had a plan.
I don't know for sure, So if you have anyone, I mean, Taylor Swift included, but I kind of already like let that ship say. I'm like, you know, yeah, it.
Got a little bit aligning again, I don't know, I don't know.
But you did the like many dating series for him, and that was through Instagram, right, that was through Instagram.
Because so how that came about was my brother was so my brother's thirty four years old and he's just like a typical like he's just living life and he doesn't really like he didn't know when he wanted to settle down. I'm like, that's fine, but if I have any say, like I want to know who's going to be my sister in law, Like I'd like to have a say, you know. And so he came home to Dallas and a girl just blew him off, like didn't
show up to a date. And so I was, you know, posting on stories and I shared what happened to Landon and all these dms started coming.
They're like, i'll date your brother. I'm available.
So light bulb went off and we created like a little mini Bachelor or a season for him within like twenty four hours.
It was wild.
We had girls videos, so we chose like the you know, three girls. He went on dates with them. We ended up doing season two and then he stayed with the girl, the winner, for like over a year and they broke up with the winner.
The girl he loved.
But it's pretty impressive. I was like, dang, I'm pretty good at this.
Yeah, I hear, like your next venture just launching up dating?
Is there? Like do you have a hosting bud now?
Like there?
Would you ever want to?
Like? No, only if it's on my channels. I like having control.
Oh interesting, Okay, Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, if anything, I would do something like more like love is blind but I already tried twice for my brother, so he's out. I have to find someone new.
Sorry, I'm sure you could have someone apply to uh have you set up their dating their dating scene?
Well?
You know. You know what's funny is since that happened, I get so many emails that are like, hey, Danny, like I heard you're a matchmaker, like.
You could do like random matchmaking, yes, and somebody specific just like for different people. I'm down.
Have you seen Jewish Jewish matchmaking?
No, but I've heard a lot about it.
It is so so good, you'll have to watch. I'm like inspired, like I would do that job.
I've heard it's really amazing.
You would love it.
And it's really interesting because it's like basically shows like the different types of cultures like that, like some Jewish people like you have different like Messianic Jews you have, and how they all come together and like work through their different cultures that they've grown up in. And it's like, I don't know, it's fascinating, Like I loved it.
Yeah, I love him.
DD.
Do you mentioned so you and your husband didn't live together before you got married.
We didn't.
We met in Austin and then I was living in a house with bloggers, a blogger hog house, a blog house with two other girls. And then he moved back to Austin but didn't have a place to live because he didn't want to sign a lease, so he he lived with my parents.
Wow, yeah, recommend it.
I wouldn't recommend it.
No, Yeah was that for a reason?
Like? Is that was that just a choice? Like you were like, I never want to love us, Like I don't want to live with someone before I get married to them.
I guess I kind of just like I think that's just the way that I wanted to do it. I mean I think the least definitely came into play. But yeah, I think it made it so much more special, like whenever we finally moved in together, and.
Yeah, like I really I loved it.
I love whenever, Like I felt like the like we had something to look forward to. Yeah, you know, I thought it was sweet.
Well, I was gonna ask was there an adjustment period? Because like, you learned so much about someone while you're living with them, and that's kind of like a you know, you kind of go through that phase of being like, yeah, you're annoying, and how you do this and then like sometimes it's a deal breaker for people because they're like.
I didn't know that you did this, and now I'm living with you.
What the heck did you have like that adjustment period of like living with someone like that.
Oh yeah, So on our honeymoon, which of course, like it's gonna happen no matter what when you move in with something, I don't care what time standard, whether you're married or they're not, Like you're gonna have to work through those conflicts and okay, so my brother like my brother, well, sorry, my husband is a one like I told you. So we went on our honeymoon, and I'm like, uh, I liked I like spontaneity, Like I like to wake up
and be like, what's gonna happen today. I don't love to have a like everything, like like I want adventure, but I want to be able to like figure it out all my own. And so my husband when I got home from our honeymoon, the first night that we woke up, I rolled over and there was like a full schedule of my day. It was like seven am to eight am, workout, eight thirty to nine pm, like you know, read the Bible and small you know, prey and then breakfast from ten. I was like, I took
that piece of paper. I was like, like, rip that thing apart. I was like, you're not gonna tell me what to do. He was just very like structured like that and likes to run everything like my dream.
Yeah.
Yeah, and so there was definitely that adjustment where I was like, no, no, like I don't wear pants in the morning if I want to sleep in a little bit, like it's gonna be okay. But yeah, we figured it out. We're kind of like Yin Yin and yang.
Yeah.
Well, y'all have definitely figured it out because you now are how long have you been married.
I've been married well five years.
Okay, so but do you have two kids? You've two kids. You've advanced past the annoying quirks.
Yeah, you know, but it has it's okay. But I feel like, because you say you're not structured, but I feel like, at least from what I see on your social media, do you have like a like a plan like you're like, Okay, this is what I'm going to do this week and I kind of get up and do it. Or do you just kind of like as a day as the days go, that's kind of what you do.
I so most day fifty fifty. I would say fifty to fifty. But we do like typically will look at the calendar and be like, Okay, let's do this this week. But if it's like a prank or something like silly, that's always in the moment. But like, for example, we're here in LA and this morning Jordan called me is like, hey, what about if we go to the BlackBerry farms in Tennessee like right after this trip. And I'm like, okay, but we didn't pack for it. No, let's just go. So things like that like just.
Kind of like spreare the moment.
But have you brought that out of him? Oh?
I was gonna say that number one or the dark side of having fun in life? We can enjoy ourselves too.
We were talking about this before you came in. We saw on your Instagram story that you said you get a little anxious about coming to LA because you've been canceled while you were here.
Every time you come here, Like yeah, I'm just curious, like what is what happened?
So is it every time you come here?
Uh?
Not every time, but a lot of times, so you know, diet Prada. Yeah that account. Yeah, they've they've come at me quite a few times. This was so long ago, but I was in LA every single time. I had like two hundred thousand followers on Instagram and it was probably like how long ago, maybe six or seven years ago. And so that was the first time. Second time was
diret Prada. Again, I was by myself in La. Third time was I wasn't really canceled, but like I this, I made this like top list for Forbes and did this interview where like, I'm just not used to doing interviews where they just asked me a lot of really tough questions and I thought, I like spiraled and I was like, oh my gosh, they're gonna clip this, take this, Like I thought that I did something wrong by taking
the interview. So then I like went to the car and cried and cried and like, So that was my third time in La.
Yeah wait, so what why is it when you're in LA?
Is that just coincidence?
I think it's coincidence, but it's just funny that it always happens.
I was like, when I was seeing that, I was like, I honestly commend you because that term like canceled, Like it is very scary. Yeah, it's also so like it's just this thing that just happens. It's like, oh, you're canceled, You're this, And I don't get that vibe from you. If I were canceled, I would like sit in a shell and be like yeah, and I feel like you don't have that well when that was going on in your life, like how did you just keep going?
So I think we have to real a lot of times that you get hate or people are upsets, usually it's coming from like an outside audience that doesn't actually know you. And so that's why I'm able to laugh about it now because I know for sure like even when my audience like here's you know, all the details of what happens, they're like, dude, like we know you, Like it's fine, Like that was just somebody trying to get clicks, you know. And so I think that's kind
of what gives me a lot of peace. And then also like when you get offline and you're around all your friends and your family and like nobody cares, then I think you realize you're like, Okay, I'm only upset because I keep scrolling and I keep reading all these things that I just shouldn't be I shouldn't be reading, and when I get off I'm like, oh, this is actually real life. So so now I feel like it's happened like I've been I've been doing this for ten years.
It's not like I'm like totally new to it. So I feel like I kind of know the cycles of hate now. And it still hurts, like you said, like I still do the first week after, like I'm at home, I don't want to leave, I'm so upset, I'm crying in bed. Happened a lot with postpartum too, because I felt like I was like extremely fragile, and when people were saying, you know, you're a bad mom or you're a bad thiss like you believe it because you're so like you're not in a good place anyway, right, your
hormones are like raging, Yeah, exactly. So So No, it's still really tough, but I just I think whenever it happens now, I just say, oh, I'm getting hit again and being canceled again, It's going to be okay.
I think sometimes we forget, like when you get offline, especially your so much of your life is lived on social media and online that like I think people I forget sometimes, like if I just put my phone down, I can feel peace, Like I can experience like normalcy and like the people who love me, and and not overthink strangers on the internet having an opinion about something.
Yes, do you have strict boundaries with like your social media or what you're posting or your phone.
I don't have.
Strict boundaries with anything, unfortunately, but I do. I have figured out that when I start feeling that really heaviness and anxiousness, that I if I can trace it back, like if I can go back to my day and try to think of where that started, it typically started
from something I saw by looking at my phone. So I'm like, Okay, if I put my phone down, then I don't have to even put myself in the position to feel this way, right, If I can go outside, feel the sun, go to the beach, like do something that feels like fuels me as opposed to just doom scrolling and getting myself in deeper to a hole where I'm like, what am I even? Like? Why am I wasting my time and my energy on something that like does My scrolling is always.
Like quotes and there was like dark quotes, you know, and I just keep clicking and there's more quotes and I'm like, oh yeah that one.
Oh oh, and.
Like it's always like triggering in some way. Yes, it does, like knows my weaknesses. Are you in your dms? Yes, My dms are quite lovely though.
Oh good, oyeah good, Yeah mine are for the most part.
Yeah, yeah, I quite enjoy the DMS that I guess.
Well, I was gonna say, because you you do have a massive following, and I think that with with a big following comes the opportunity for more criticism and more negativity. So have you found that, like as you've grown and as you like notice like, oh I'm gaining a bigger follower, I'm getting more you know, a bigger fan base that there you notice an increase in in like the negative DMS or the hate.
I guess I think that's only natural. Especially whenever you do something that's a little like you put yourself out there. I always know, okay, something might happen from it, whether it's a podcast or you know, if I launch a new product for Divvy or whatever it is. It's just I think that's just kind of part of putting yourself out out there these days. But but yeah, I think I think that definitely happens. But like you said, I overall my my audience is very kind, like my dms
are very kind. It's I think that the influx of negativity comes maybe if it's like a Facebook group that's like, let's go get her, you know, and then you can always tell those days. I'm like, okay, we're just going to get off.
Yeah today, I was gonna ask, do you have strict boundaries with your well.
I mean I have two kids now, so it's I don't know if it's like a strict boundary.
Like I have to.
Yeah, you know, but I will say, like after five, you probably won't see me post a lot, so I kind of treat it like a like a workday.
Yeah that's really smart.
Yeah that is really smart. Actually, but you mentioned Divvy and when did you like launch that? What year was that I launched that?
In man? Was that twenty twenty twenty one?
You didn't remember. I'm so bad with dates.
I'm like, yeah, so that was born out of in college. I when I was doing YouTube, I was also studying to be to go to physical therapy school. I was just like stressed out all the time, didn't know how to really manage my stress. Started picking my hair, lost a lot of hair, and then got married tried to cover it up, so I got like hair extensions, bleached the crap out of my hair. I never had like a lot of hair growing up. My mom doesn't either, Like genetically, it was just not in the cards for me.
But so I started kind of working like on my own scalps yagram as well. I went into wigs. So I wore a wig for a year.
That was my goal. And the first.
Actually my first wig was was from La because in Dallas they don't have a.
Lot of good wigs.
Oh yeah, but I was. It got to the point where I was like newly married. I looked in the mirror just started bawling and I told my husband Jordan, I was like, I just don't even want to leave the house, like I'm so embarrassed. And and he was like, Okay, the Kardashians wear wigs, Like why can't you wear a wig. I'm like, well that's different, you know, And he.
Was like no, it's not.
Let's go.
So we jed jumped in the car, went to like the first wig place we you know, googled in Dallas and like we walked inside, it's like neon pink wigs, like sparkly wigs, like like plastic.
Yeah.
I was so like bombed and so this I was like, no, this is not it. So long story short. Do you'all know jeffree Star Yeah, on YouTube? I used to fall on YouTube and he always talked about this.
The wig shop.
That's like, yeah, well shure, Okay. So my husband like flew me out to la and we went to the wig shop and got my first wig. And I didn't tell anyone for a month because I just really wanted to like figure it out myself, like feel confident in it. I didn't tell my audience or anything because it looked a lot like my natural hair. And I even went on a family vacation to Chicago with Jordan's parents and weren't the entire time, and they didn't say anything. Maybe
they noticed, but they didn't say anything. And so that whole year I just really focused on like my overall hair health, scalp health, and started making like I was like a little chemist like in my in my bathroom, started making these scalps rooms to like really just like detoxify my scalp from like all the dry shampoo I was using because I was trying not to wash it as much and all the product build up and things
like that. And then people on my DMS, you know, we're saying, can you please send me some like I'll pay you, you know, fifteen dollars to ship it here. So that's whenever I went to my husband, I'm like, hey, I think we should you know, make this scalp serum and send it to some of these girls. There's also all clean ingredients, and then there were also some things I wanted to put in the scalp serum that it
just couldn't get my hands on. So we worked with a chemist and came out with our first scalp serum, and then since then we've launched our hair vitamins, shampoo, and conditioner, and it's been really cool because every product is just kind of born from like what people want more of. So I just kind of listened to them and then we have like an amazing chemist and we were, you know, just give them what they want.
It's fun. So the scalp serum isn't necessarily for hair growth. It's to like get rid of all the like build up and just like all the stuff that we put in our.
Hair, it helps a lot with so it does stimulate your scalp. It has a lot of caffeine in it that also helps stimulate. It has amino acids and peptides that create kind of like a stronger anchoring agent with your hair, so it's like less likely to fall out when you're putting in hair extensions or brushing hair. So a lot of people see great results when it comes to you know, maintaining their their hair or hair growth or maybe dan drift whatever it is. But I think
just a lot of those like natural ingredients. It's probably the first time that people are actually taking care of their scalp. So it's kind of like, you know, the first time that you put a moisturizer on, You're gonna be like, wow, this feels amazing. So so that was that was what was special, was kind of creating like a scalp routine for people. Well, yeah, it's been fun.
I mean it's like a whole no I'm like, I had no idea this is going to happen, And I think, dude, it's you know, I don't have the most like perfect beautiful hair. But I think a lot of people relate to that too, because you see a lot of like celebrities launching haircare brands and I'm like, okay, but like we know she was born with that, you know, and I want to know what the girls that have hair like me are using. So it's been cool to connect to my audience that way.
That's really that's a really good point.
Like there's people who will be like, this is what I'm using, and you're like, you know, you're jennerfer Anison.
Yeah, like you've had the hair like that forever exactly.
But I think it's cool that people like are seeing someone who's like you've gone through the.
Struggle of like all of that.
Yeah, when did you have the moment of feeling like I'm ready to share that this is a wig and I'm taking it off and I'm done like trying to like cover this up.
Like what was that moment?
Like I think you just kind of get sick of like feeling like you have to be perfect all the time, and you're just like I don't want to do that anymore. And if they're not going to accept me for that, then like I'd rather just move in a different direction.
I think it just kind of gets old. And you know, I was kind of known as like the wig girl for a while, and I didn't mind that because I think that once I did start talking about it, there are so many women that were going through something similar that like they're bawling in their you know, bedrooms, feeling
the same exact way. And so I'm like, Okay, well, if I'm like, if this is where I need to be creating you know, wig content instead of sharing my outfit for the day, because it's more meaningful and actually helps people, then like, that's what I want to do. Yeah, even though maybe you know, I felt a little embarrassed at first, but it gave me, you know, just more purpose with the platform.
I was gonna ask, like I have.
What I've experienced is that the things that I feel like insecure, nervous, or embarrassed about typically are the things where people relate to the most or like feel connected because they're like, oh, finally someone's talking about this.
I didn't know that.
And then you're like, why was I so fearful about being honest and open about this when like.
Do you have specific examples? I mean, I had so many. I wear granny panties every day, and I poop with my feet on the toilet seat, just.
To name a few examples.
I'm just trying to imagine.
But oh, hey, I get it, I get it.
Yeah, it was like the Acrovac's there.
Yeah, yeah, like that.
Yeah that's nice.
Yeah.
I mean my my big one was probably coming out with my relationship with my girlfriend, just like wondering like how my audience was going to react and like what people would say and expecting the worst, you know, and and of course I got negative yeah messages and stuff, But I think for the most part, it was kind of a reminder to give people the chance to like literally show up and also give people a chance to be good.
Yeah.
But yeah, I've always felt like those things where you kind of feel like I'm scared, I feel awkward talking about this or sharing this. Those are the things where people like finally send their first message or do you ever get those where it's like I never send dms, and well, I have.
One that you posted. Actually I don't know if I dm'd you about it, but I screenshot it because I thought it was so sweet. When so I might get this wrong, but I think you grew up like in a religious household and then your girlfriend took you to church. Even I thought that was I really was like here, ihot, I showed my husband like this is the sweetest thing ever. Yeah, but I'm sure you got a lot of like feedback from that too.
Yeah. I think it's just one of those things.
Especially religion, I think is a very It's such a sacred thing that people are connected to and that's so important to people that I think sometimes those conversations are hard and just being able to say like I don't know exactly, like i don't know what I was taught, but I'm figuring it out.
I'm living my life. I'm trying to figure it out.
And sometimes I think so many people are going through that and they don't have a concrete answer, because isn't that faith, Like just you don't have a concrete answer. Yeah, sure, And I think even talking about that sometimes it's really scary. But then people are like I'm going through the same thing or I'm navigating this, like thanks for talking about it, and it's like, oh, I've been so scared, feeling like
I wouldn't have anyone that relates to it. So I didn't want to share it, and it's the complete opposite.
I'm like getting chills over here because I on my podcast like two weeks ago, same thing where I've just been feeling, especially with my faith, like I don't know just the way that sometimes people use like oh I felt like God spoke to me, or I felt like God led me in this way, or you know, God gave me a word. And I've just been kind of confused on like what, like, was that just coincidence? Was it actually something that you heard?
Was it?
And it's just something that I've been able to talk about. And I was scared that people were going to be upset that I wasn't like one hundred percent confident like on that. But I a ton of people DM me saying that they struggle with the same thing. Yeah, and we're just figuring it out, Like I don't know the answer just yet, but I mean it's something that we're like we're all praying through together, we're all figuring out together.
Yeah.
No, it's true. I think more people with social media. I think there was a time, especially when you started, where it was all about like looking and presenting perfect. Everything was esthetically pleasing. All the photos were edited to perfection, and we've kind of taken this turn I think with TikTok, where it's not doesn't need to be perfect all the time.
Well, I think two people with faith in particular, it's very it's a very touchy subject and I feel like everyone has like their opinion and it's just everybody wills. Some people just want to be mad about something, you know what I mean. Like I've gotten so many dms of like how are you a woman of faith? But you believe in the zodiac? And I'm like, cause it's fun, like silly, Like it's not like I'm praying to the zodiac gods like.
Yeah, I mean like they're just projecting yeah on you, And like how are you supposed to know if we don't actually meet and have a conversation, And like there's just a lot of assumptions when it comes to religion. I get it all the time to like I'll say one word and they're like but I'm like, wait, I didn't ever say that. Yeah, So it's crazy. But it
is a very touchy subject subject. But I think like being like real about where you're at instead of My biggest thing is like on social media, like are you ever going to actually convince someone to sway their opinion from like arguing them with them on a comment? Like someone comments to me, I'm like, oh, you're right, let me just switch everything. I think like it's never going
to happen. And so I feel like if you're going to talk about it, like it's okay to be real about it and not know like you were saying and just be real. And and I think a lot of people just want to come from judgment, maybe because it makes them feel like they're in the right place, you know, Yeah, but it's just doing more damage.
It's it's sad.
Something that really impacted me is when someone said that I don't know is an answer, And I think people forget they need like yes or no, they need to be sure certain about something, and sometimes especially when it comes to those that area of like faith, I don't know is an answer because it's just faith.
Yeah, so sure. I wanted to look quick little sidebar because I I there's so much you're doing so much? Do you are all your days? Like are you you said no you don't like this struck sure, but like do you have a specific day to day how long do you spend doing everything? Like how do you I'm just fascinated by people's like a day in the life, because how do you do it?
All?
Right?
So I have on Monday morning, we have like our Monday morning meeting, and that's whenever we talk about everything that's going on in the week, so you know what brands that we're working with, different meetings that we have, so that way we kind of get like an overall feel for the week.
We my team.
Oh so my team comes to my house and we have about how many people is it?
Four people on my team?
Are five?
Yeah?
Like four people like one contractor that comes over pretty often and so they come over and we have like a girl that does all the brands deal. So I don't have like a management company. That's something that's kind of unique about what we do. I haven't had one for like nine years, and I just decided to build it like all in house. So I basically like hired
people and just train them. And I don't know why I do that now, I feel like, I mean, honestly, it's because I have a strong connection with my team. But it's a lot of work and so but I've just enjoyed it because I feel like you're it's more personal whenever I'm working with brands and working with my team. So we have someone that does that. We have someone that's helping with like brand, which is overall like where are we going, what are we planning in the future,
what events are planning. We have someone that helps with like our editing. We have someone that helps with LTK or you on LTK, I mean I try to do.
It's a lot.
I have shot my shot my. It's like the same. Oh yeah, it's like LTK, but a different version of it. Shop it's called shot Mine.
I've heard a shot mine. Oh really, I've heard a shop style. Yeah, shot mine might check it out. Well, I might check out you. So, so for those of y'all that don't know, LTK is like an affiliate affiliates, and so they come over. We plan out the entire week. About twice a week for an hour an hour and a half, we have admin time where Nikki, who does all of my brand brand deals, will sit down and
like she'll she'll present them all to me. So we get to pick exactly like what we want to do, what we don't want to do, and then everything in between that like they'll be they work upstairs like two or three days a week, but those two days a week where like no one's in the house, Like that's whenever I go ham, I'm like, I get to do whatever I want, you know, I get to like prank my husband. I get to just hang out with my kids. So there's a lot of flexibility, but there is structure. Yeah,
what does your day look like? Didn't you film like three three episodes or three chill shows? Yeah?
Yeah, what time did you start? I get up at like four and then I make I'm back on coffee, which is nice, So make my coffee at home in I have like two breakfasts, but they're like half breakfasts, so I eat space them out, and then around three clock I kind of hit a wall. And that's when I'm like zoned out.
So when you go to bed.
Uh, in a perfect world, I go down at eight.
We put her down at eight.
I like to go down at eight, And I'd love to be a sleep by eight forty five. Man, that's amazing, But it doesn't happen most nights. Most nights it's like ten.
So when is social time on the weekends? Yeah, or with your work people. Yeah, and you film every day, you record every day. Yeah, two shows every day.
No, no, no, but it's different. So like on Monday, on Mondays, I do the podcast. So it's like that's a little bit of a heavier day, not necessarily on Fridays. Fridays are like chiller, you know what I mean. So it kind of all balances out, and I, yeah, it all balances out. I feel frantic for a couple of days, and then I'm like, chill.
You know what I want to know the most for people like you and honestly like the toast. So what I find so fascinating is you do your job so well, but then after you do this, you leave all of this, you still have to go live life to have something to talk about the next day.
Oh, I see what you're saying, you know what I mean.
Like Claudia's like she does so much in a day, Like every day is like a new I'm like, how do you have so many crazy stories?
Do you feel that? Yeah? She stays busy, Claudia.
They're always doing, they're always going out, She's always out. You know what's so funny is like you find the stories in the stuff that you do. So like at my workout classes, I find like I've been like you know, I make friends there and I hear stories there, and like you kind of just like find it in your everyday life, you know what I mean, Like the stuff that you do with like your friends and your family,
Like it's kind of all in there. It's not like going to the clubs, like I don't like coming back and like sharing my story. It's just like all in that, you know. Or you're like going to a dinner party. You go to dinner. I've been talking about dinner party so much lately, and like I don't think I've been to a dinner party and forever, I guess I've just
been like social gathering. Yeah, people are talking about a new show, so then you like check out the new show and like all that kind of stuff, you know what I mean.
Yeah, today I'm like today I changed a blowout, and then my dog people on the ground, and then I'm.
Like this is my name.
But I guess for some people that's reliable.
I don't.
Yeah, what do your days look like like in La? What do you have planned? What are you doing here?
So we're staying at the one so last night we walked to dough Bricksha.
It's actually so good. You'll have to try. I love pizza.
If you love pizza, the spicy vodka is amazing. I thought it was just all hype, Like I thought, just people love David dough Brick. Actually amazing pizza. So we did that. And then so since we're here, we reached out to like a lot of brands that we work with, and we're gonna be you know, meeting up with Rare Beauty, Merit Beauty. I'm filming a podcast with the girl who started Dulce Glow. She's sprays hands Like every single celebrity
under the sun, somebody hear her story. So just like we reach out to people that we haven't you know, that we just dm with try to make something like, you know, out of it. But I don't know, do you all have any recommendations of where we should go this? This Texas girl doesn't really know.
Oh my god, we're probably the two most boring people to ask.
No Ililah for sure. What's that fun? Yeah, it's like a fun like I'm gonna say club.
It's not like Burlesqui, but it's a restaurant.
Yeah, it's a restaurant, like you go for dinner. I like to be entertained while I eat.
Yeah, it's so it's yummy food. It's like it's like Southern food, but like elevated.
Yeah, you're mine the South. Jay Z and Beyonce have gone there. Oh then I have, Yeah, I just must.
Yeah you're from Sreport.
Yeah, I'm from Streeport, just down the street across from you.
So far like a couple of hours.
No, Like if we needed to shop for like prom or something, we went to Dallas, So that was like, Yeah.
Is your family still there?
No, I have like extended family in that area, but I have my older sister lives in Baton Rouge, and then my other family lives in Florida. We're all kind of spread out.
So what do you miss about Streatport And like, what do you feel like what is the difference between La and Strept. Obviously it's it's a huge friends, But what do you miss about it or do you miss anything?
H I miss some of my favorite restaurants.
You know. My best friend from high school still lives there, so she like when I go visit, you know. And then I obviously have family there, but I don't really miss much. I don't have like a lot of attachment to my hometown, which kind of.
Sid you're never leaving here, But.
Like when I go back, I'm not like, oh, I can't wait to come back here one day, you know. But there are certain things elements about the South that I missed, and as a generalized you know, the food and some of the things.
But I love it out here. I don't really So.
You think you'll stay here?
Are you saying in Dallas?
Oh?
Sorry?
Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, yeah, I miss her answers, Yes, she's staying here.
I'll be here for the foreseeable future.
Yeah.
She tried to move to Nashville a couple of years ago, and that did not go over well with me.
Oh I tried to move. I mentioned I could live there one day. You're like, that's it extent of me trying to move there?
Front door, Like, you're not going where she would. I love Nashville though, Yeah, it's fun. That's probably where I would live if I didn't live in Dallas. I don't, okay, I don't love Dallas, and I'm sorry to all my Dallas people.
I love the people in Dallas. I grew up in Dallas. My parents are there, but it's just there's not a lot to do. Like I come here and you can hike and can be outdoors and the weather's amazing. Dallas. It's like you shop and eat and drink and that's about it. Yeah, but I mean I love doing those things too, but you kind of it gets old.
So we're here here. Yeah, what's the future for you? Like, what does the future look like?
Like?
Do you want more products?
Oh?
Yeah, I want to definitely. We have a lot of products in the pipeline for Divvy, which we're really excited about where in Alta we'll be launching in like all stores pretty soon. And then uh, for as far as, like you know, our channels go, honestly, we'll just be doing like a lot of the giveaways that we're still doing. I want to host some more TV shows or you know, TV show inspired content, and I don't know. Then maybe I'll move to Nashville one day.
It goes the options are endless. More kids?
Oh yeah, that too, Okay, but not not anytime soon.
I need a breather.
Yeah, postpartum is not my jam.
For both of your pregnancies, it was, Yeah, so very, very tough for both of them.
I had never like taken a medication in my life, and then I was like, hit me up with anything. It got like it was really really tough, but it gets better. I have a friend that just had a baby, and she's like, it's like textbook. I'm like, dude, it happens. It's so common. It's like just stick it out. But yeah, your hormones are just wild.
We had a guess Rachel Platten came on and she was telling her story about how it was horrible experience for her and and just like how finally being able to reach a point of being like I need help.
Yeah, exactly.
And I think that the hardest part for me was I had never dealt with anything like this before. So at first, you know, I had mystitis. I was feeling like really sick, ill, like feverish. So I just kept blaming like wanting to sleep, you know, fourteen hours, fifteen hours and stay in bed like all day on that. And you know, I just had a baby, and physically you're supposed to be within three months went by, and four months went by, and I had very physical symptoms like migraines.
I was like very sensitive.
To light, so like I would wake up and I like couldn't even open my eyes. And then to be honest, like I just started having really negative thoughts where I was like, man, I just like my my husband, like I'm just so much work for him on top of the baby, or like they'd probably be better off just like if I, like you know, moved, And it was just very it was very dark. And so whenever I started sharing those thoughts with my husband, he was like, this is not normal. I feel like we should talk to
a doctor. But when you're in it, you don't think that, you don't think that there's anything like you just feel like this is like your new normal. Yeah, and so yeah, it was really sweet that my husban and took it pretty because I would never have even had the energy to make that appointment, to be honest, like I couldn't even I couldn't have done that.
Yeah.
I know, sometimes you just need someone to like be like I want to help you, and I'm gonna step in where I can.
Yeah, but you can't if you don't share it with people, right, Yeah.
Yeah, so that's important.
I feel like you are a force in this world, and I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the podcast because I feel like you. When I have conversations with people about like the influencing space, they're like, Danny Austin, Danny Austin, Oh.
My gosh, my friend Ashley is obsessed with you. Like literally, she takes me today. She's like, I cannot believe that Danny's gonna be on your podcast. I am obsessed with her. She like, I can't remember exactly what she said Verbandon, but she was like she could just be so like chill with her stuff, and she always outdoes herself, like she's always talking abou how you're always outdoing yourself.
That's so sweet. My jaws to the floor because I'm not gonna lie.
I was like, I'm all in.
They don't know who I.
Am, Like.
They have no idea who, just like, you know, your producer probably reached out because maybe one video she saw so that makes me feel better.
Told me this before. No, no, no, we're very excited.
Like when we have guests on were we make sure that we know as.
I don't just like have guests that we don't know or don't want.
We did in the past, not that we don't want but that we didn't know. Yeah, we've had a couple just like years ago.
Years ago, I don't have genuine interest in someone. It makes it hard to have a genuine conversation, you know what I'm saying. So I think that we definitely know who you are into today.
I'm going to carry that for everything.
Would you like me to read the text messages? Just like make you feel so much like.
I was.
I actually there was a friend of mine and he was working with like different brands stuff, and he was like, you know who you need to talk to, Like you just need to sit down with Danny Austin. He was like, I don't know anyone who who like converts like she does, Like she's incredible and how she like.
So Danny Austin notes, page mind you stop it right yeah? And then she just texts me and goes, are you with Queen Danny yet? Tell her she dropped this and she put the crown emoji stop it because.
Y'all have to understand, like I'm coming from Texas, like y'all are the big dogs, y'all are queens.
Oh my gosh, I got my hairt out this morning.
Well that's great, kind of curled. My gosh, but thanks.
I know that, like coming out to l A and having a busy schedule is a lot while you're on top of.
Everything else you're doing. So thanks for taking the time to scrub in with.
Nikey for having me. This is like a dream come true. You don't even know.
And if people don't already, where can they follow you?
On all the rain they get divvy Yeah, yeah.
So Divivioficial dot com and then Danny Austen on Instagram. If you pretty much Google you can find all the things. But yeah, thank you guys so much, truly. What about your podcast? We didn't even get into the podcast on the podcast we're on season two. It's called de Influenced, where I kind of just wanted to like de influence, like influencing and just kind of be real about live. But that's on Spotify, Apple, all the places you can find podcasts.
Okay, perfect season two.
That's so interesting. So what's like a season?
I don't know, So to be honest, the first season, I just wanted to do seven or eight episodes to see if I even liked it. Oh okay, well it's you know, so I wanted to have a cut off. That way, I didn't seem like a failure if I just like quit in the medal and then I did my seven or eight episodes and so like I liked it. So we came back for season two. And that's whenever we brought in some people to interview, got it.
That's really smart.
You're just like you're like, I don't I'm not really having a good time, and you go away forever.
They're like, oh where'd you go?
Yeah, like it comes to a net and then whenever you you end, you can take a break.
You know.
I took like three or four weeks off and then came.
Back season We have no we are never.
You go a year round. We are a never ending season. Correct, Yes, yeah, we are three sixty five.
Yeah, our seasons are a year long. And then they continued the following year.
Yeah, Gray's Anatomy.
Yeah.
Can I ask you a question?
Yeah?
Have y'all ever fought before you had to film a podcast?
I don't think we've We've definitely had, I mean very rarely, but where we've had like a uncomfortable vibe.
Vibe it started and it was like, yeah, not cozy.
The most were kind of just like I didn't want to look at each other that.
Yeah, but like honestly, I'd say less than a handful of times.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And for this, we are coming up on our six years and I can say, like genuinely it hasn't happened as much as one would think.
Yeah, Like we do it every single week together. Wow.
See I sometimes I do with my husband.
I do with my girlfriend. That's a different conversation.
I actually think about that, Like I'm like if I because I've had my boyfriend Phil and Rebecca like once on the podcast, and I envisioned like working with him at some point in my life, and I'm like, I wonder what we would be like working together.
When Haley did.
Hailey was on our podcast last year right after we kind of went public with our relationship, and right before we were in San Francisco and we had gotten breakfast and we were running late to record, and I was so mad because it was like she had wanted to go to the spot and I was like, we don't have time until we got into this like bickering argument and then we had to sit down and start talking about how much we like met and loved each other, which like by the time we started talking about it,
we had both like calmed down.
And it was like, oh, yeah, we love each other.
But yeah, there was that moment of like, I can't believe we're about tough to go.
And that happened literally last week for our podcast. My husband had cut me off five times, Like I counted in my head. I was like one, two, and I was like, oh, let me start another conversation and see you feel it. And I got to five and I lost it and I was like, you know, you've cut me off, you know, and we on the podcast we were like bickering and we kept it in there.
My gosh.
So yeah, sometimes you kind of just had to keep it real because I'm like, I can't fake this, like I'm I'm frustrated and I can't act like I'm not, so let's just keep it in here.
Yeah. Well, to be honest, if the cutoffs happened while it was being recorded, yeah.
Oh no, it was right before we started. But still it was so annoyed, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot before we start. I just need to point out that's something that happened. Yeah.
I was like, just so y'all know, we were kind of bickering, but we're good. Now we're going to work through it on.
This podcast, so you know, yeah, little therapy session for everyone to hear.
I'm actually proud that we've had like very little and everybody always asked me, like, what's it like working with your best friend, Like, I'm I want to get into a business with my best friend, and I'm scared because we have different like working styles, and I'm like, it works it Honestly, we've gotten into like very minimal disagreements.
Yeah, it's like because I didn't answer her FaceTime or something.
Yeah, which is annoying.
Wait, I just realized, Oh, y'all have headphones on too.
Yeah. I just realized I was probably like.
The only dummy in the room with the headphones.
No, you got them.
We're gosh, but I've never forgiven myself.
Thank you again for being here. I hope you have a wonderful time in l A and enjoy your trip.
Are so sweet.