De-Influenced with Dani + Jordan - Dani’s TV Appearance, AI Actresses, and Celebrity Reinvention

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

Catch up on Dani’s latest adventures - including her TV appearance! Then we jump into Hollywood drama with AI actress Tilly Norwood and the hottest celebrity reinventions, from style makeovers to career pivots. Finally, we wrap up with DOGE updates and government finance chaos. Popcorn recommended. We scored some great deals with a few of our favorite brands for our listeners: Visit ⁠facefoundrie.com⁠ and use code DANI at checkout for 20% off your first service. Right now, Tonal is offering something special just for my listeners. You can go to Tonal.com and use promo code DANI to get $200 off your Tonal purchase. "Cozify" your space with Wayfair's curated collection of easy, affordable fall updates. From comfy recliners to cozy bedding and autumn decor. Find it all for way less at ⁠Wayfair.com⁠ Function is a near-360 view to see what's happening in your body, and my first 1000 listeners get a $100 credit toward their membership. Visit ⁠www.functionhealth.com/DANI⁠ or use gift code DANI100 at sign-up to own your health. Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code DANI at ⁠monarchmoney.com⁠ in your browser for half off your first year. For 55% off your order + FREE shipping, head to NurtureLife.com/DEINFLUENCED and use code DEINFLUENCED Give yourself the luxury you deserve with Quince! Go to Quince.com/dani for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Make sure you’re subscribed to our official channel on YouTube, @deinfluencedpodcast, and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your De-Influenced fix! Stay connected with us on Instagram and TikTok @deinfluencedpodcast, and as always thank you for being a part of this journey.  We love y'all!! D + J Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. Hello, and welcome back to your favorite podcast, Deimplanced. It's me again, just me. I know. Some of you guys hate this. I know a lot of people miss Jordan, and trust me, I do too, especially after today, I'm going to miss him exponentially because I did a deep dive on something that is so out of my territory. and Jordan is such an expert in, and he would be great, like, in this episode.

But like I said, y'all, he is pursuing other things that he's been working on. And so it's really hard for him to do it all. So, you know, when I took my two months off, this is, like, Jordan's month off or so. We'll see, we'll see. We'll see what happens. But, yeah, so I guess we'll just do, like, a little recap. You guys really liked the friendship episode. I was really happy about that.

But yeah, what's happened since we last got together? Honestly, a lot has happened. I went to New York. They were like, would you like to go on the view? And I was like, yeah, sure, let's give it a shot. Like, why not? I don't usually watch the view, but I was like, this will be a great opportunity to share Divi, to just like put ourselves out there, to meet new people.

And honestly, like, really good practice for being, for just doing anything on TV because it's so different. I have to say I had the time of my life. I was like, I loved it because, first of all, I was on stage, or on, yeah, on camera on stage with like four or five other entrepreneurs, female founders. And we were all, like, hyping each other up the whole time. Like, we got really close. It was, like, so fun. And we were all super supportive of each other, which just made it great. Everyone from the view was so kind, like, so awesome. And also it's like a little, not competitive, but like you have 60 seconds to share your product.

And so you have to fit in like all these talking points and like sell it as much as like as fast as you can, but as being as like natural and authentic as you can, which was like the challenging part, which made it so much more fun. Like I told my team afterwards, I was like, anytime you all want to do anything on TV. Because basically the debut team was like, hey, like if you want to do this, like if it makes sense in your life right now, like you can. But like if it's too much with pregnancy, like it'll be okay. And I was like, no, no, I want to go. I basically told them, I was like, put me in more. Like I had the time of my life. It was so fun.

But I did get a little pushback from that, which like we'll go into later on in this episode. The founder of Lily Lashes was there, which I didn't realize. Her name is Lily Galici. She was on Shaw's The Sunset, which is like I don't watch a show, but my mom is obsessed with that show. what was so fun about her is she owns lily lashes and she i found out she went to ut she was a u t longhorn and then she went to law school and then she became like a reality tv star and this amazing like female entrepreneur um the company you should was there mara beauty

and then stitchy so all those women were like awesome and i'm just so happy that i got to meet them Sarah Haynes, Heinz, were both the, what do you call them, the host, super cool, really nice in person. But yeah, I did get a little push, a little bit of pushback, and I did kind of make like a little statement about the pushback. I think because a lot of, you know, like different shows are for different people and like I understand that. And, you know, but a lot of people were like, why are you going on the view? Like they felt like the view was like hateful and didn't align with my values. And I totally, I'm being honest with y'all, I haven't watched the view in like years, but I do, I've seen like clips and stuff of like what has been said. And yeah, I mean, I think

sometimes like definitely like things, they probably say things that I do not agree with. But I don't know. I've always felt what I said in my statement is I've always felt very called to like put myself into situations with people that like around people that don't necessarily always have to believe the same things that I believe because I feel like that's when I can use like my kindness and personality and conversation to like get to know people and like hit a deeper level. And that doesn't even mean just like the hosts on the view. But maybe it's the people behind the stage or the people in the dressing room or whatever. And maybe that's because like I went to, I grew up, like, in a Jewish community where, like, most of my friends were Jewish,

and I was, like, the only Christian, really. Like, we had very few people on my street that, like, celebrated Christmas. And so I've just always been, like, used to that. I'm very accepting of just being in those type of environments. But I do understand, like, politically, everything is so charged right now. But I was really surprised that they gave me the opportunity to go on their platform. Because if you really think about it, they were supporting me in, like, my platform. and I was like, okay, cool.

Like, if they want to put me on their show, like, I would love that. And so, yeah, I just felt like it was a really good opportunity. I did have some, like, awesome conversations with women. And, you know, it's also those things like you just never know sometimes, like, how God is going to use you. Like, I don't go into those opportunities being like, who can I evangelize and who can, and maybe I should. But I don't usually. I usually just, like, go into it.

And I'm like, I just want to be myself and just, you know, see. what happens and I love having like deep conversations with people and sometimes it's just like maybe that's the starting point of the relationship and then you see them again and you talk to them more and then you're in each other I don't know you just never know how God can like use you and so for me I've always felt very called that like my faith shouldn't isolate me into um being in bubbles and being in in rooms with only people that believe the same thing that I believe um and but I think it's also like maybe a personal conviction thing because maybe there are times in life where it's really challenging to stand up for your faith or you feel like you're going to be tempted or you feel like, you know,

and so maybe God is calling you not to go around those circles. And so I think it's kind of personal conviction for everyone. Like for me, I feel like I'm like very strong. And when I believe, I am not afraid to say what I believe. I think I'm really, I think I can be like very loving and saying what I believe without being like really judgmental or anything. And so, for my personal life and my personal, you know, family and my personal journey, I felt like it was a really good idea. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea for everybody. You know, I think that's why, like, having personal conviction and, you know, just entrusting your gut and doing what is best for you is so important. But, yeah, so I would definitely do it again. Honestly, they were so nice.

And it was so fun, you know, they didn't ask me about, like, climate change or, you know, anything super controversial. I literally had like 30, 40 seconds to just share Divi. And, you know, I think Divi could, it helps a lot of women out. And we all have scalps. And so another thing is, like, we have to remember Divi is a business and I want to serve everyone. I'm not going to, like, only serve people that believe exactly what I believe. In fact, like our team doesn't even, like, we all believe different things. And so I respect everyone. And Divi is a business and I want it to be successful. Like I want people to know about Divi. I want to be able to pay, you know, for our office and our employees and grow it and get into like, you know, more opportunity. And yeah, so that's like a

whole other side of it. But I don't know. I had a great time. And maybe one day we can go on Good Morning America too. That would be awesome because I do. I love that show. I had a weird thing that I googled right before this actually i used chat chvety because you know that's like that's a new thing i i really hope that my chat gbt search history never makes it outside of my phone like that could be really bad um like so bad it's bad um but i did chat chabit why are my ariola so itchy this pregnancy um which is something i've definitely never chat gvety before and to come to find out it's actually pretty normal um but like I had to be honest with y'all like just a little girl talk here like they're so itchy like so itchy to the point where but like

they don't look any like different they look normal so there's nothing like there's no like rash or any like dryness or nothing it's not sorry I hope you all are not envisioning picture in my area list right now just please don't um but they're just constantly itchy and so Um, you know, I did try putting lotion on them last night. Didn't work. Like, nothing works. So I found out, um, I think it's because there's just like your boobs are growing. And sometimes that causes, and like the hormones sometimes like cause your boobs to get bigger. And then they just itch from getting bigger, which is very interesting because now I'm assuming like stretch marks will follow. But whatever. I mean, what can you do? You know, um, so if you see me scratching a boob, itching a boob in the middle of just, just, just,

just ignore it. They get so itchy. It's kind of like, this is TMI, but like, you know, when you get like a little, you know, a little something down there and it gets a real itchy, like, you know, something, something, an infection or something. It's kind of like that, but on your nipples. It's just awful. Um, okay, I'm doing it now. Okay. Um, so, yeah, I looked at up. And then there was also something really funny that happened, like, The divvy team is so funny. Like sometimes I just wonder if I should like just quit and there's like go work for the divvy team full time because they're literally so funny. We looked like on our ring camera or like we don't have a ring but like our camera security cameras.

And while we were in New York and our entire divvy team was on my front porch and I was like, what are they doing? Like it was like maybe are they here for my birthday? Because my birthday's coming up. No. And they're just all kind of walking around my house. Apparently they had like a team retreat where they, they reviewed the history of Divi. Like, so they drove all over like town,

researching the history of Divi. And so like we got home and there were like all this like, did you see the sidewalk talk was like, Divi was here? I was like, what are these people? It's like a big team. I'm like, what are they doing in my front yard? But it was cute because this is where Divi was born in this house.

So they're hilarious. That was like so funny to see. I was like, is something going, is something wrong? Let's see. What else has been happening in life? So we went to Nashville for like 24 hours last weekend. And it was a very like last minute trip. You all know because Jordan's trying to convince me to move to Nashville.

We looked at Franklin and Leapers, which is like 45 minutes outside of Nashville. And it was so fast. We looked probably at like four different houses. three different lots if we wanted to build. This Franklin Labor's Fork is kind of like a dream. Like if you think of like Heart of Dixie or something like that, it's like everything is so cute and quaint and the people are so nice and it was so beautiful with hills and trees. And I loved it. We visited our friends, the Bethkees, Jefferson Bethke and Alyssa Bethke and had so much fun. I met all of their friends.

I met so many moms. Like, they all had kids, like, the same age. The one thing was, like, it's, it is pretty far out. Like, you do feel like you're in the country, which it's so pretty. So there's, like, half of me that's like, oh, I want to do it. And then half of me is like, no, I need, like, at any given time in Dallas, I can go like five different malls. Not to say I'm, like, a mall.

It's just, like, being able to go to, like, events that's, reading things at the mall or I have like there's just step always going on in the city for your kids and I love being able to meet Central at a place like that instead of like I was asking and I was like what do y'all do? Like what do you do whenever you want to hang out and they're like we all just go to each other's houses and I don't know if I want people in my household. I'll be honest. I don't know if I want. I like the fact that sometimes we can go to like a movie together or a nice lunch together or I don't know I don't know we'll see we'll see we're still thinking about it, but it was a really sweet trip. We watched Texas OU and then that's whenever

we came back, like literally that night, repacked and then left for New York the next day. So we did the view. I woke up super early. I had my makeup done by Kellyanne, which she's so, so good. I like, actually, she was in my sorty, but if you don't follow her on Instagram, she's super talented. So we had, I think they came exactly at like 6 a.m. So we had an early morning call. We went to, it was funny because we went to like four or five years ago when I first made the Forbes top creator list. We went to like this Forbes event. And then afterwards we went to this restaurant called Loring Place. And it was just like right next door. It was random that we went there. Well, I became obsessed with that restaurant that night. Even though I've only

been there once. I got the, um, I got the short rib at this restaurant. and it was like the best thing I ever had. And so for the past four or five years, I have been talking about this restaurant. We just haven't been able to spend a lot of time in New York. So Jordan took me and he surprised me with my favorite, my quote unquote favorite restaurant. And like, no offense, but it was subpar.

And I was like, what the heck? Like I remember this place is being so good. It's fine. But we ordered pizza and we asked the waitress, like, what's the best pizza here? And she was like the corn pizza. and oh my god y'all they brought me a pizza with corn on it i was like this is not okay i like i don't understand why i'm eating corn on a pizza i don't like it it was just it was like literally think of

taking like a pizza and then just putting corn on it like that's what it tastes like i was i was like i don't understand and i should have understood because she did say you should get this because it's about to leave the menu well now we know why it's about to leave the menu it's corn on a pizza I was just so disappointed. They did have really good, like, mocktails and stuff like that. What did we get for... Oh, we had the barata for starters. It was good.

No, I'm sorry, it was the ricotta. It was okay. Like, you know, I mean, I don't know. I just feel like New York has so many good restaurants, but it was very sweet that Jordan surprised you with that. The next day after we shot the view, we went to the plaza for lunch, had a yummy salad with truffle fries,

maybe some of the best trouble fries I've ever had. And my, oh my God, like, you walk into the plaza and, like, you literally think you're, like, a criminal walking in. Like, they just have, like, so much security. And they're like, what do you hear for? What are you? And they're like, well, are you a guest? Like, if you're a guest, like, you need to leave? And I'm like, no, I'm not a guest, but can I have lunch here?

And they're like, let's go. We have to go ask. I have I had lunch here a million times. They just really know how to make you feel a certain type of way. You know, I think they let me in because I got my hair done that morning, but, you know, If it was in the other day, probably would, I don't know. Oh, I have to tell you all about the hotel that we say in it. It might be one of my favorite hotels ever.

It's called Fouquet. It is a, which I always remember that because it's like Fouquet. It's almost like Fouquet, you know. But it's all pink and green. It is so cute, but the pink is not very confrontational. Like, it's not like a really annoying pink where it's like super girly. It's like a fun pink and green. The rooms were so adorable.

It was all, it's like a French hotel. Like the people that built it are like literally like from France. And a lot of the employees there are also French. So they speak French. Like it was so cool. And when I was leaving for The View, I was leaving. And they had like we had called an Uber. And, you know, they all have these, like, black SUVs.

Ours was, like, a Lincoln Navigator. And then there was, like, an escalade waiting. So there were two escalades next door to each other. And with the doors open, with the driver waiting. And I was like, which one is ours, babe? And I'm, like, I'm confused. I'm trying to figure out, while this little blonde chick, like, scurries past me, it was Reese Witherspoon.

Y'all, she was so little. I was a little shocked. I was like, whoa, she's so much smaller than I thought she was going to be. But she was so cute. And she was walking so fast. And I was like, that girl is going places. Come to find out, she is it. She was in New York promoting her.

She wrote like her first novel. It's called Gone Before Goodbye. And yeah, so she's kind of like on a media tour for that. It's so crazy to me that like someone like that is so, she's a powerful, like strong little smarty pants. You know, like she has got it going. She sold that her media company, I believe. called Hello Sunshine for like over a billion dollars. I remember hearing about that. And it was like wazers. Um, and she's still out there. Because like, guys, think about it. If I sold a company for a

a billion dollars, you, like, to do that and to like be writing novels and, like, you just have to be super passionate. And Jordan and I got in the elevator like later on and we were like, man, these people like actually hustle. Like they, they're not just like famous because they're famous. they're famous because they have a different threshold than the average American. Like they go harder than anyone and that's why they're so successful. Like I couldn't do it. I really couldn't do it. I don't even know if I want to do it.

But it was just, it was wild. Like I went there for like the view for like 30 minutes and she was like on a mediator going to like a new interview every single second. It was just. Oh, and not only that, she sold her company for a billion dollars and she still runs it. Just saying, it's pretty amazing. How are we already talking about the holidays? It feels like school just started, but here we are.

Holiday mode in full swing, and honestly, I kind of love it. There's something about pulling out the cozy blankets, planning for guests and making the house feel warm again, but it can also be a lot. From getting all the holiday decorations out of the attic to decorating the tablescape for holiday meals, that's why I've been shopping on Wayfair. It's seriously the easiest way to get everything done before the chaos begins.

I just ordered the prettiest pieces for our holiday table escape. Some textured place mats and a few cozy decor accents like taper candles and a linen runner that makes the whole space feel effortlessly festive. And now I'm eyeing all the holiday decor. Wayfair has everything. Christmas trees, wreaths, scarlands, even the big inflatable Santa Jordan swears we don't need, but secretly he loves it. Their huge selection makes it so easy to find something that fits your style, whether you're into a classic cozy or full-on sparkle. But like I said, Wayfair is awesome because they really do have it all. Like I'll be shopping for fall decor, but then they also, that's where I got Stella's mattress for our bed and it was on major

sale and honestly it's probably one of the best mattresses in our house. Plus, delivery is always free and fast, even on the big stuff. No more renting a truck just to bring home a dining table or sofa. Wayfair makes it easy to get organized, refreshed, and ready to host without spending a fortune or your insanity. So get organized, refresh and ready for their holidays for way less. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Okay, moms and dads, tell me if this sounds familiar. It's 6 p.m., the kids are melting down. Everyone wants something different, and somehow the only thing in the fridge is half a yogurt pouch and a slice of bread. That used to be my life, until we discovered Nurture Life.

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it is um they keep saying it's kind of like it won like six tonies like and it it also won like best um best musical like of the year and the reason why it's so interesting it's based in the future and it's about two helper robots like robots that are assistance to people because like in the future like we probably will have robots that look like humans that are assisting people and the whole thing is about these helper robots i'm just giving the synopsis i'm not giving it away. These helper robots are retired because they have like they basically, it's kind of like the iPhone and they're like the, you know, retired, like they've upgraded and now there's better robots. So they're like the older robots that are kind of just put away in storage

and they end up finding each other and they try to figure out if they can fall in love or not. It's so cute. What was so sweet about it was, well, obviously like the storyline is so sweet. But the, when I say sweet, I mean, like cool about it was the design, like the set design. It's so futuristic. And like, the only word I have for it is it was neat. Like, it was really need. Oh. Like, super cool and very futuristic.

And everybody keeps saying that this is kind of, it only had, I think, like, five or six people, like within the cast. And they all had different because there were so many projections that they used and so many, like, if they had a, if they had a memory. they would just like project it like a big massive projector onto the screen it was just amazing um so highly recommend um jordan said he didn't really like the music and i was like whatever i don't feel like like he really knows i thought it was really good but he's probably right like there isn't it's not like wicked where you have like that one or two songs they just like stick to you that give you the chills that make you're like you know like when you hear a song and like you feel it from within like there's no like that but the storyline is so sweet I did cry at the end um so yeah I guess that was pretty much

it we did our national trip we did our New York trip um tonight I'm staying in and doing nothing that's why I didn't do my hair and makeup for this podcast for you guys but um but I do love you just you know I do care but I figure that maybe y'all like me for who I am too not for what I look like And the last thing I want to share with y'all is we had a really big moment on Thursday, which was yesterday. And Divi launched their jumbo dry shampoo. And we've been working on this for so long. And I'm so excited because dry shampoo is quickly rising to almost like our number one product. Of course we have scalp serum.

But dry shampoo is one of those, like, Ulta sent us all the data. And it's like when people try our dry shampoo, they never go back. to their old ones, mainly because they like the scent, they like how fresh it feels on their scalp, they like that it's a clean formula, and it just works really well without making your hair feel like sticky or gritty. So we've been working on this jumbo for a long time. It can last you, like six to eight months, which is amazing, but I launched a really cool bundle for y'all. I don't know how long it would be live. Do you know? No. Okay, well, if you miss it, I'm sorry, but at least I'm telling you I'm really excited for y'all. If y'all are like wanting to try a new dry shampoo or if you've

never used dry shampoo, it's the best way to like extend hair washing days. Like for example, I didn't do my hair wash day. Also, you can spray it on your hats and like cowboy hats or anything like that. You spray dry shampoo on there and it actually helps with the creases so you don't like crease your hair from a hat. I would take mine off, but you don't want to see that. You just don't want to see it. talk about some crazy things. I actually learned about this in um in national and this is definitely a topic that makes you go hmm um have y'all heard of the actress named Tilly Norwood so she is an AI actress I wonder how I wonder about Reese Withersman thinks about this um so Tilly Norwood is an AI actress

who's making Hollywood really question reality that's a good one created by AI studio, I can't pronounce it, sorry, Zyosha, okay, whatever. She has a growing Instagram, a role in a film, and even a talent agency interested in signing her. But is this seriously the future of entertainment? Basically, Tilly was developed by, I'm just going to call it Zyosha. It's a division of Particle 6, led by Aline van der Weldden. Wow, Lean Vanderweldon.

It's she sounds like she would come up with like AI people um she gained 50,000 dollars on Instagram in May of 2025 she's featured featuring AI generated modeling shots in film scenes um she starred in AI commissioner a comedy sketch created using AI tools and written by chat chpT wow this is kind of cool um so then we have you know obviously Hollywood like I want I'm I want to know so badly what Hollywood's reaction was to all of this. Talent agencies like CAA, WME, and UTA have expressed concerns over AI-generated stars. Some agencies argue that platforms like OpenAI Soros 2 could infringe on intellectual property rights by using real people's likeness without consent. Also, if y'all have not played around with Open AIS 2, like, oh my God, Jordan and I need to show you all the video that.

It was so crazy. We had, like, Jordan put his face in, and we had, um, I, like, asked Soros to make Jordan, like, do like an Abercrombie trium haul. Y'all, it was so realistic. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen that I didn't, it kind of icked me out so much that I was like, I don't want to see this because it looked so real. Like, I was like, ew, I don't like you doing try and halls number one. Like, please don't ever do that.

But the crazy thing is like he was so good at it. Like his AI version was so good. I'll post that video like on my story. I'll see you. I can see it. But here's the thing. It's getting a lot of backlash, obviously. A lot of people in Hollywood are very skeptical about AI replacing human actors.

It's saying that AI generated performances lack depth and authenticity of human actors. Okay, wouldn't you say the same thing of like AI doing anything though? like AI, like driving cars, like it lacks like, like, I don't know. I just feel like every job is going to lack that now. So why are we only upset about the actors Hollywood? Like, you know, it just seems a little, I get it, I get it. But AI is taking over everyone's job. Like, you, I don't know why y'all are safe and we're not.

Like, there are AI influencers, like what, like, I, It just is what it is. So some viewers find the idea of AI actors unsettling, questioning the ethics of replacing real people with digital operations or creations. Okay, people really need to get with it. I just feel like hot take, but when people complain about technology advancing, it's kind of giving, I don't know, I don't want to be like super negative, but it's getting like a little naive because like this is how everyone felt with the computer.

This is how everybody felt with anything evolving. Email, you know, the printing press, the, we all freaked out about all the jobs when like robots, you know, started taking over building cars for Ford. It just happens. And I feel like there's nothing you can do to stop it. But if we're going to stop it, then let's stop it for everyone. not just Hollywood actors. Like, you know what I mean?

Um, I agree that, for example, if they're going to have these like robots growing babies over in China, I agree like, yeah, it might be safer and it might be, um, more efficient and easier for the moms, but you are missing that like emotional connection that you build with your child by carrying them. Now, it's fine. And if that's what you decide to do. But I do think that people are going to appreciate, you know, real actors and real influencers and real people.

But hey, like, if it costs you so much extra money to have, you know, these side roles or these side, you know, people, what do you call the people acting in a movie in the background? Extras. Why don't I just use AI, you know? Also, I do feel like AI should always be a disclaimer, though. I do feel like when they're using AI, like there should be some type of like hashtag AI on the photo or on the screen or like it should be very we should know that it's AI. I personally like I think it would be interesting at first to watch shows where they use AI people. But like I agree that half the fascination is I want to Wikipedia the person and see like exactly how many times they've gotten divorced.

How many kids they have? Who are they married to? Where do they live? Where are they from? Like that's what makes Hollywood and that's what makes watching a movie so fun for me. So I think I'll always want to watch like real people. But I don't mind if like the extras in the background walking around are AI. But yeah.

So my just my biggest thing is like fine. If we don't want to AI, then stop it for everybody, you know? And if actors don't like it, you just need to act better, honestly. Like just be better at your job and offer people. it's just becoming more competitive. Think about it. Okay, I think I know where this is headed. So I think where this is going to be headed now is like if actors now have to be a person off screen so that people want to watch them, they might have to have more of a presence on social media or a presence offline. You know what I mean? Like they can't just be like Jake Dillon Hall. You show up for

the role and then you are never seen again until you show up for your next movie. because now it's going to be so competitive with AI actors that people want to know who you are. Because we don't know anything about Jake Gyllenhaal besides the fact that he dated Taylor Swift and kept her red scarf. Like we don't know anything else about him. And so, but to stay competitive, we're going to need some more information. You know what I mean? And so because otherwise, what's the difference between watching an AI Jake Gyllenhaal and the real one? There's nothing if we don't know more about him.

So maybe actors, actresses will have to put it. in a little bit more work into like who they are off screen. I don't know. I don't know. I'm for it because I really like innovation and I really like when things change and I do feel like it is painful and it hurts at first, but it makes it like more efficient and just like increases the competition and the demand for certain things and it just makes everything better, I feel like. But Like, for example, if I feel like AI is coming from my influencer job, I have to get more creative and I have to think outside the box. And if I didn't have that coming from my job, I wouldn't evolve. You know what I mean? It's the same thing when like a new social media platform comes out.

It's overwhelming and it's scary. Don't get me wrong. Like when TikTok came out, but like we all built our careers off of blogging, YouTube, and Instagram. And we all had to like, there was this fork in the road and it was like, are we just going to keep doing what we're doing, or do we need to try TikTok and evolve? So I started doing dances on freaking TikTok, like, because I was like, I don't want to get left at the dirt. Thank goodness, it, like, evolved from the dancing because I was never going to make it there. I mean, that was really hard for me. Even Jordan was, like, dancing on TikTok.

Like, we were like, oh, we were like, we have to, this is when Jordan hired a coach to help him with hip-hop classes because we were so concerned about our careers because it depended on whether we could dance on TikTok or not. Like, that's the type of thing that has to happen. We have to evolve and change, and you have to hire a hip-hop coach. So, I don't know. I like AI. I use it literally every day of my life.

But like I said, I think it needs to be disclosed. We need to know. And it does scare me. It should be, like, illegal to use people's images for AI without their permission or without disclosing that it's AI. Like that, I don't know how we're going to manage that one, but we got some smart people out there. We'll figure it out.

It should just be like a really, really bad consequence if you do that. You know, like you should go to jail for life. I'm just kidding. Apparently, if you like throw gum on sidewalk in like Tokyo, I think, like, no, is it Tokyo? No, Singapore. Singapore, you go to jail. So maybe we need stricter.

gum laws. I mean, when I say gum, I'm G-U-M, gum chewing, gum laws. Okay, anyway, honest question, could you name every financial account you have right now, like your 401K, savings, mortgage, investments, even those old accounts from past jobs? Because I definitely could not. And honestly, just thinking about it, it used to stress me out. I'd tell myself, I'd organize it one day, but that day never came. I was feeling a little out of the loop on our finances. So that's when I started using a monarch. Feel organized and confident in your finances with Monarch. An all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together and one clean interface on your laptop or your phone. Once I linked everything, I could finally see the big picture.

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Danny to get $200 off your tonal purchase. That's tonal.com promo code Danny. This kind of goes into what we were just talking about. And so on our next things that make you go, hmm, I want to talk about the reinvention Olympics. And, Basically, this is where people or celebrities feel like they have to consistently rebrand themselves, which is so true and so challenging sometimes. I do feel like luckily for me, it has been super authentic because once you have children, you're just automatically rebranded, like it just is what it is. Like you are now a mother.

And if you are sharing your life every day, it just evolves into motherhood. It's super interesting because it seems like every celebrity comeback has to involve either getting naked, nostalgic, or both. The one that I think of that the biggest comeback I can think of lately is the Lindsay Lohan comeback. Like she came back looking better than ever. That girl just killed it with class. She came back with like a freaky Friday number two. She's doing all these commercials. and she's like hinting to her nostalgia and like hinting at her, you know, past,

but like doing it in such a funny, classy way. I just love her. So we have the rebrand trap where it seems like every pop girl who is over 35 is now getting labeled as reinventing herself. But is it reinventioned or is it just repackaged nostalgia? So for example, you have Christina Aguilera's burlesque era. you have Kim Kardashian's businesswoman era. You have Miley Cyrus's sophisticated era. The issue is, is that I think a lot of us, because of the internet, have like shock fatigue.

Like we've seen it all. Nothing really shocks us anymore on the internet. Nothing is crazy because it's all but done. So artists keep upping the ante, but the audience is just numb to most of it. That is so true. I think about Miley Cyrus in her recognizing. ball era like we all were like oh my gosh she's going down the brittany spears path and that stuff of like that type of thing happens all the time like doja cat right is that her name like she's crazy like the stuff that she wears is crazy um and it's just yeah you're right it's just like another tuesday so another way that it seems like a lot of celebrities will reinvent themselves oh i've seen this so much is owning your sexuality like a lot of people will come back and they're like

I'm lesbian or I now identify as a frog or I you know like you have all different art producers like you have all different types of like how people are now kind of owning their sexuality which sells empowerment um so I don't know I've always wondered sometimes is it authentic or is it more of like a PR strategy like I remember when a lot of people on YouTube probably back in 20, I want to say this is like 2016, we're coming out. And, like, there were some people that came out that, like, are now married with children. And so I always wondered if it was, like, authentic or if it was just helping them get clicks. I don't know. I see how people, like, that was a really easy way to just get more attention. But then I think it was authentic for some

people, but I do know how, like, it is true, especially for influencers, like, when you move, when you have a baby, when you get married, when you buy a new house, those are always like little spikes in your engagement, because it's something fresh. And I think that's why I've seen a lot of influencers, like, move into houses every two or three years or build houses, because they're like, that'll be great content. And it will get me a year's worth of content. I feel that because I've been in the same house for five years. And sometimes I'm like, I don't know else to share. We've exhausted all of our resources and I can just share this again, you know.

But there's so much more to talk about when you are constantly like reinventing yourself and doing like pushing boundaries and saying like, okay, who I am in the past is not who I am now. I guess I did reinvent myself more into motherhood. That's probably like the one that I really clocked into. I think like launching Divy and becoming more of like a businesswoman was kind of like a reinvention. but not really because I always feel like that's been at my core and I've always I think before I even shared divy as a business I feel like I always shared like the um influencer business the business of influencing like behind the scenes I always love sharing the business side of things um but I don't know I always

think about I'm like if I ever reinvented myself like who would I be because I always loved Kesha like Kesha always branded herself as I like when she would talk about her style she would always say trailer trash chic and I always loved her outfits so I was always like okay that's what I would want to be if I ever she just dressed so sparkly and fun um but yeah who else like if I ever had like an alter ego or something I don't know I kind of feel like my alter ego is like really gross it's kind of just who I am actually not like gross personally but like not getting dressed up wearing sweats every day like not trying like that's more my alter ego probably um but yeah it is hard it's really hard to stay relevant these days i find there are some influencers that do it so well like t and k do it really

well um mica and sarah they're really good at staying super relevant um oh Alex and John they're so funny and like oh um cat stickler she's always relevant with the times like it's hard though especially when you have kids i'm like i don't have time to watch every love is blind episode you know like i'm just trying to survive here and get through bedtime like bedtime like bedtime is like my olympics every day and so um so it's definitely harder and if fame now is so 24-7 like you can't really fade it out anymore you get burnt out by constantly pivoting and constantly, you know, rebranding yourself. If anybody knows what I should rebrand myself to, just let me know.

You know, I've thought about the rebrand of me on a farm. But I just, I don't know. It might be authentic to me one day. I think I could start with chickens because we did the math and we used 12 eggs a day in my house, like 12 eggs. Is that a whole container? Yeah, like we use 12 eggs a day. Like, we need probably chickens.

like actually like just need them. I think it's a financial, it would be a great investment. I have heard they stink, but apparently they like really take care of themselves and, you know, they do their own thing. So I would say if I started somewhere, I would rebrand myself to just being a chicken owner. And that's probably my first step.

So anyway, a deep dive because that's what I've been doing lately. and I so badly wish Jordan was here to just fact check everything that I say because Jordan will know everything I'm saying by heart and he would have known all of this three months ago. But I'm just not learning it and I'm like, wow, mind explosion. So the main reason I wanted to learn about this is because taxes. I get so confused about where the money goes when we pay our taxes. I mean, you'll ever think about it. you probably maybe don't think about it as much as I think about it. But I feel like there's always these problems in every city and I'm like, or, you know, in our country. And I'm always like,

where's the money, the tax money? And where is it going? Well, I was really like, when I learned about Doge, which is like that thing that Elon Musk started, which is basically, it's an office in the executive branch where they go in and they like audit everything. And they try to figure out where all the money is going in our government. But when I started like researching more about that, my mind started to explode. I was, I could not believe like, I don't mean to be rude, but I cannot believe how incompetent like our government is. Like you just, you know like whenever you're like, but the government will fix it.

And I think I also started thinking about this because of education because I am like so, I have always been like so pro public school for my children. because I went to public school and like, I'm like, any of the morals or values that you want to teach your child, like you can teach them outside of public school. Like, I remember when my teacher taught me that, um, the big bang theory. And I remember, I'm like, screw that. Like, I'm not going to believe that because my parents taught me that, like, you know, God created everything. And so, like, I don't know. I've just always loved it, bit and perpun. And then Jordan is like, we got to homeschool our children. And I'm like, you are so extreme. I'm on things. Like, I,

would like I could never literally but maybe I will if I move out on a farm in Franklin um but so anyway I started doing more research about this and there was this really cool podcast I've told you guys about it's called modern wisdom and it's by Chris Wilkinson which is so funny because like he used to be on love island which is so weird and then he runs this like one of the most popular most like intellectual podcast ever it's I need to watch like one episode where he's on Love Island because it it doesn't really add up for me. But yeah, he is very like, he's like, he's like pretty hot. So it kind of does add up. Like I get it. But, um, so anyway, they had this guy. His name was Sam Corkos, or maybe it's Sorkos. I don't know. See, Jordan would probably know. And he is the chief information officer

in the Treasury Department. Okay. And he did an interview with on modern wisdom, basically talking about his experience, uh, working in the, the department of Treasury and working in the government. And what's cool about this guy is he's like our age. Like he's like 32 probably. And or maybe 34. So he's like a young guy and that never happens. Like typically you don't have people in their 30s being hard to work for the government. So they originally brought him on because they wanted him to come and like modernize the IRS.

Because the IRS, we all know, is a disaster. Like my biggest prayer in life is like, please don't ever audit me because Well, first of all, like for the first five years of my business, I literally would like just keep all my receipts and like file them in a cabinet. And like, and then I got married and Jordan was like, there's a better way to do this. But like I literally would just like highlight my bills and be like, okay, this is what I own taxes. Like it was just a disaster. And so he's there to kind of modernize the IRS. He works like in tandem with Doge, which is all about like trying to save money in the government. Which is nice. Doge, I hope, I'm hoping, I really hope this is not like a political conversation I'm having. Like, if it is, I don't even know that because I feel like it's bipartisan that we would all want, like, the government to be run more efficiently. Like, I don't think anybody would, I think everybody agrees on that. But Elon Musk did leave Doge, which he's the one that started it. So hopefully, I don't know why that would be tied into politics. But, you know, sometimes these things are over my head. So basically his job is also to kind of look at the national debt, which has reached 37 million. No, I'm sorry. I think it's 37 trillion. Yeah, I think I had a typo.

37 trillion dollars. Like, we're 37 trillion dollars in debt. But like, my thing is, it's like, okay, like, what are we going to do? Like, that's, I think they were doing the math. And that's, like, every year, like, each person is $100,000 in debt. Like, I'm like, what are we going to do about it? And like, it just seems like this arbitrary number now that it doesn't even really matter. Like, it's like, is it going to, like, crash and then really hurt all of us one day?

I really don't understand. It's, like, a genuine question. So his biggest thing that he uncovered, he's kind of like an undercover cop. You know, the biggest thing he reported that he uncovered was that the majority of people working in the government and in the treasury department and in the IRS don't know how to work computers, which is crazy. He said that they're not tech savvy, that they are losing billions of dollars that no one can account for. Like they literally don't, they will have like this constant payment that just pays like 20 million a year and like nobody knows where it goes because it just, it was set up like 15 years

ago and it's just like on auto pay. Like they have so many payments that on an auto pay. And I thought this is so interesting. You cannot fire people. So like if people, well, you kind of can, but like I'll get into that. But like if there's incompetent people working in the government, like you can't get rid of them. So he's like the best way to get rid of somebody on your team because they're incompetent is to promote them. So that just gives them more power, but they're like least like less competent. It's crazy. So this is what's so funny. I think the reason why I related to this episode so much is like, I love you, dad, but like he still faxes everything. And maybe he's emailing nowadays. I don't know. I mean, I know five years ago he was still on

the fax train. And, you know, it works for my dad's business, though. Like, it's always worked for him. And he's still, but I've always, I remember sitting like in college or whatever and trying to, like, help him write emails and, you know, help him buy tickets, like, for a concert online. It was a whole thing. And so, you know, what's crazy is what he was saying is a lot of these people, like, joined working for the government like 10 years ago. And now their role, role, role, I can never say that. Their role in the government has changed so much. But they don't know what they're doing because, like, everybody, like, they don't know how to, like, work a computer. So basically his first point is they're not tech savvy.

his biggest problem that he's working on right now he said is that the IRS uses facts for for everything like because they believe that it is the most secure way of communicating and like sending documents which was probably true like 20 years ago but now it's not true and he is like he was telling the guy on this podcast he's like I have been trying for like a year to figure out who to talk to to change his policy so that we could be more digital and like less pay. paper and he's like, I cannot get through to anyone. Like nobody knows who makes that decision because it's just all been like lost in process. So they're still using faxes. Um, they receive 60 million faxes per year, which is crazy. He was saying that they have these like paper piles in,

they have a warehouse in Kansas City where like literally the paper is just like stack to the top of the ceiling because like there's so much paper. Um, it's, it costs half a billion each year. just processing all the papers, which is like a million dollars a day to just keep the paper process going, which is just wild. It really is wild. His other biggest point was that there's so much money being wasted. Like nobody really cares. The IRS is $15 billion over budget. And he was like, the thing is that everybody is always like, oh my gosh, the budgets, in government are so tight. They're so tight.

His whole point is like they're not tight. Like basically people in government like will just waste money because they have like endless supplies of it. So they don't really care where it goes because they always have more coming in. And there's no like checks and balances to the system to make sure that like money is being spent in the right way. And this was what's so wild. He was talking about like the contractor bloat because there's usually like I guess 8,000 people

working for the IRS or I think he said that he's got it down to 6,000, but then there's like 6,000 contractors that they hire because the people within the government don't know how to do it, so they outsource basically all of their jobs. And there's this thing called contractor bloat where they will hire a contractor. And because the contractor knows that it's the government hiring them, the first year they'll say, okay, we'll do the job for 2 million per year. And the government will be like, okay, great, like 2, 2,000. million a year, like you're not going to change your prices, you're not going to do anything. And they're like, yeah, two million per year. Well, the next year comes around and then they'll

spike their prices to $100 million per year. And because the person that works for the government has no checks and balances because they're not going to get fired and they don't really care, they'll just say, okay, so if you are a contractor for the government, you have hit jackpot because you can make up an arbitrary number, even though your services are only worth $2 million, you can charge $100 million and no one's going to fight you on it because there's no even a lot of times they don't even know what the qualifications or like the quality of what they're hiring you for because they don't understand how to use computers. You know what I mean? So you tell them 100 million per year and they're like, okay. And nobody's going to fire them. Nobody's going to get them in trouble.

So that's why Doge is trying to come in. So this was super interesting. So they have a cybersecurity team at the IRS. And they were spending like hundreds of million dollars a year on cybersecurity, which is great. Like we need cybersecurity. So he had, Sam had everyone on the cybersecurity team kind of like run an audit of all their contractors. He was go, he was like, go look at all the money that we are spending and like sending out to other contractors. Come back to me with only the mission critical, you know, services that we need to like keep everything safe. And because everybody, like, there are no engineers, very few engineers working on the cybersecurity team, which is so crazy because it's cybersecurity, they all came back and they were like,

yeah, we need 100, 100% of these services. And so then he put them all on leave. He put the whole, like, Department of Security on leave. And he brought in actual engineers, like normal engineers that just were like trained in engineering, know what they're doing. And, And he had them run an audit. And over 30% of what our government was spending on cybersecurity was basically to services that had never been used before, like never even been touched. So millions and millions of dollars being sent out, not even like, it's like you're paying for a contractor and you don't ever even use any of their services. Some vendors were being paid $20 to $30 million per year and like, yeah, never been touched.

And this is where it gets even crazier. This is where it gets like super kind of like sketchy, scammy. Sometimes they were fraudulent contractors. So a lot of times the government was sending out $20 or $30 million to some service that they were never using. And he actually like brought up an actual example of this. And then you would find out that the service they were paying it to was somebody that used to work in the government.

So that's kind of sketchy. everything about it. It's like people that worked in the government left and they're like, why would I work in the government make minimum, you know, not minimum wage, but like your salary is, is pretty low. They're like, I'll just start a new company, pay myself, I'll have somebody, you know, hire me as a contractor and I'm just going to put myself on auto pay. Like there are, there are contractors that have been on auto pay $20 million a year for like 10 years and nobody knows what their services are for. like that's wild it's so crazy um they also have this like really sketchy thing called uh this this is like really makes my heart but it's called small business disadvantage program so basically

if you hire a contractor that's like a small business which a small business actual like the definition is if they're paid 25 million dollars um so like small business is a lot of people think it's always like oh mom pa shop like a small business is a business like that brings in about 20 million million dollars. If you make like more than that, then you're not a small business. But, um, so their, their limit was, uh, under 25 million. So if you use, if you hire a small business, one of the advantages of the program is you can skip the procurement process, which basically is the process where like you audit them, you interview them, you negotiate prices. You do it's like within the government, if you hire a small business, you don't have to go through any of that. You can just

hire whoever you want because they're a small business and like support the small businesses. So they found out that they were paying $80 billion a year to small businesses. And when they looked over like all the small businesses they were paying, each one of them was like $24.9 million, which is just below $25 million, just below that cap that if you go over that, you're not a small business anymore. So basically, we don't know who these small businesses are, but you're helping a lot of people, just a very small subset of people get rich. So a lot of people are probably saying their small business, they probably used to work for the government and they're doing all this because they know they can take advantage of the government

process. There's so many like loopholes and crazy things. But the craziest part about it is there's just no feedback loop. Like, you know, like whenever, you know, whenever like Southwest or you have like all these people, they join unions and then they will protest. because they're like, we're not getting paid enough. And like, you're not treating our employees right. That's like a feedback loop.

And then the company can either respond and change or they can say no. And if all of the employees quit, then the company's going to die. And that's just like what happens in the free market. With the government, that doesn't happen. First of all, if somebody complains, the government will probably just be like, okay, here, have more because nobody cares and nobody's going to get fired. And there's no, like, integrity in their job. I'm not saying, sorry, I shouldn't be saying like nobody.

but overall this is what he found the majority are just like they're too scared to say something and they're just so used to like just you know paying whatever to just get the problem done and just you know solved um and then the last thing that he like really honed in on was just how incompetent like we've been talking about like how incompetent the teams are um so basically you cannot fire you you can but it is so much work he said to fire people on your team and the reason why is because uh this goes back to like a long time ago but it's basically people that are civil servants like you can't fire them and um it's it's a whole process to fire them so you just want to keep them and it goes back to i did some research it goes back to 1880 just stick with me when andrew jackson was

president. Basically, he implemented the spoil system. So it was like, Andrew Jackson got into presidency. And then he was like, hey, everybody in government, you're fired. I'm bringing in all my buddies, everybody that just believes exactly what I believe. And we are going to run the country. And what happened was you had a lot of, first of all, like, just the people that like were hired from Andrew Jackson, they didn't know what they were doing. There was no like consistency in running the programs and running anything that it just became like a huge disaster. So in 1883, they established a permanent civil service reform act to make sure that in government, each position was based on merit and not affiliation. So it made it illegal to fire or demote federal employees for political

reasons. Basically, that's just to keep like our government running like fairly. So you have people like that way like when Trump is elected, he can't just like fire everybody and bring in like people that only believe what he believes. You want different types of people working. It's a good thing. But the bad thing about it is, is like, how do you get rid of, like, incompetent people if you can't fire them? And his whole point was, like, the leadership is just so hard because you have people

that don't even know how a computer works, but they're hiring all these people to run computers and do this stuff, but they're getting, like, charge $100 million an hour, like, an hour, that'd be crazy, per year. It's wild. So he said they have about one million civil servants today. Most of them, whenever he went through and interviewed them, most of them didn't know what their jobs were. Because their jobs have changed so much because of technology. They've been around for so long that they can't even explain to him like what they do on a daily basis.

And he said that most tech companies, like let's say Walmart, like Walmart.com, like it's a tech company, basically. he said most tech companies have five engineers for every non-engineer in the IRS department, which the IRS is a tech company. It's the opposite. So for every engineer, you have five people that are not engineers when like it shouldn't be that way. That just makes it to like where most of the people working for the IRS like don't know what's going on. Another hard part is he was saying that like you can't be competitive whenever you're hiring for the government because they cap your salary. So the most you can pay someone is $225,000 a year, which is a lot. Like, it's competitive. Don't get me wrong. But when you're trying to hire like a VP of engineering from Walmart and they're

making $500,000, $600,000 a year, why would they leave and come to the work for the government where they have to publicize all of their earnings? They have to publicize all their finances. It's just like, it's just not competitive. So then you get like, see, like, see, like, see, like, level talent working for the government when we need the best of the best, you know. Sam, this guy, he's this chief information officer, he said he could be making way more if he went to work for a corporation. But most people, you know, that are working still in the government, they just like have a heart for it and they really want to be there. But he was like, there's no way I could do this long term, you know. This is like another loophole he was talking about

a lot of times if they wanted to hire someone that like was, let's just say the cap is 225,000, but they, their salary or their rate they're asking for is 250,000. A lot of times they will hire a contractor for 500,000 and they'll ask that contractor to funnel the remaining 250,000, like pay the contractor 250 and then take the extra 250 and funnel it to who they want to hire. So they kind of like arbitrage it off of the top, which is probably not legal, but, you know, maybe a loophole. I don't know, a lot of sketchy things happening. And then he talked about how hiring within the IRS is also like so challenging because when, okay, so if Jordan wanted to hire, let's say somebody to like run our ads for Divy, well, we already have somebody running our ads,

but like Jordan, I mean, he knows like a lot about running ads. But if we were going to do an interview, Jordan would probably take his person that runs our ads now to sit in on the interview because that person would know if this other person is qualified. Like that's not Jordan's expertise, right? So when engineers, like when Sam is trying to hire an engineer to like join the IRS, he is not allowed to be involved in that process. So the only person that's allowed to bring new, you know, potential employees is HR. But HR has no idea, they have no idea, like what makes someone qualified or not, because they're not engineers.

So it's basically left up to HR, which is just they bring in all these unqualified engineers and they're forced to pick someone and then you just have like less qualified people. So the cool thing is Doge is known for hiring young people and, you know, they're doing like a lot of cool things. Like people were saying, he was saying that like people that are working within the IRS, tech department, like the treasury are saying, hey, like, we don't know if this is good or bad, but it's the most different that it's ever been. So I do think, like, Doge is doing cool things. They're uncovering all of this. They're, like, bringing it to light. They're trying to fix it. But it goes so deep that it's going to take so long. And, like, we have to stay on course with fixing it. Otherwise, it's just, like, going to keep on, I don't know. I just find it fascinating.

like I know that that topic was probably so not relevant to a lot of people but I could not believe that I want you to go listen to this podcast I will link it down below so that y'all can check it out and if not he has so many other like great people that he's interviewing but these are the things that I have been like learning about and deep diving in and especially when it comes to politics I'm not like actually looking at like the mean sides of politics like I'm actually just trying to learn more about like the Senate and how decisions are made. And I'm like, should I run for president is my question. That's my only question.

If not, maybe the chief information officer of the Treasury Department. I'm just kidding. I can never handle it. It's too much pressure. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.