De-Influenced with Dani + Jordan - Hot Topics, Hot Takes and Finance Bro Jordan

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Hello our lovely De-Influencers!! We've really been on a streak these last few episodes between industry secrets, marital conflict, embarrassing stories we were supposed to take to the grave it has been a wild ride. GOOD NEWS, this episode packs the same punch ;) We're talking the controversy over the opening ceremonies at the 2024 Olympics, the Ballerina Farms situation with the Times article and so so much more. Plus, Jordan's giving you his take on finances but we do have to tell you that it is NOT professional financial advice. As always, checkout our socials ⁠@deinfluencedpodcast⁠ on Instagram and TikTok, maybe you share our clips and content with family or friends who may not know about us… That’d be pretty cool. We love you De-Influencers!! XOXO

Hello and welcome back to your favorite podcast. Deinfluenced. Hi, Jordan. Hi. Curly hair today. Oh my God, you noticed. Of course I noticed. I think you should let it down.

No. No. I was diffusing it before and I haven't pulled out my diffuser in so long because I haven't A diffuser. Diffuser is it helps. It adds, what am I saying? Texture. No.

Oh, my God. No, no. Humidity. It adds like humidity to your hair. So it does the opposite of what most girls want because humidity is good for curls. It's like hydration and helps your hair curl. And so I had like every intention of wearing it down. But when I got done with that thing, I literally looked like I'd been electrocuted.

It was giving Albert Einstein. And so I, yeah, I threw it in a bun. Yeah, you and Stella have the same hair. I know. No, mine's curlier than. Stelis. Yeah. By far. Well, how's your Monday doing? How are you doing? I feel like we have so many good things to talk about. I have so many interesting things to say this week. Okay. What do you want to say? Well, no. Danny, what's been going on in your week? Okay. My week has been good, mainly because my kids love me

a lot. They do love you. They love you so much right now. And you love me again. So I feel like life is good. Yeah. How does it feel like? I do want to know like when Stella favors me, what does that make you feel like? I don't mind. I know. That's how I feel like whenever Stella goes through phases where like you're her like number one, it doesn't bother me. I think one of your like old therapist told you that like zero to five is all about the mom

and then five plus is like where the dad, like they start favoring the dad. No, no. Oh, that's, that's been in my head. Yeah. That's, well, if that's not true, then yeah, maybe I am a little offended. No, I think it's more so like Stella is just like a girl's girl. She's a girl's girl. She's a girl. She's a girly pop. But also we've talked about this. Like I think that I need to start playing it cooler with her. Like I think I try too hard with Stella. Stratton I try too hard too, but he loves it. Yeah. He's like all about it. He's like, oh, you want some love here. Let me give it to you. Stella, if I show her that I want it, she shuts down. Stratton is very sensitive. Yeah. I'm learning that that. That, that, That's the difference. Like Stratton is like you and Stella is like me. And Stella and I are more independent and Stratton needs like needs more.

Yeah. He's a, I mean, he follows and copies literally everything that she does. Everything. But I think that's normal. Yeah. It's probably normal. But yeah, I, uh, I, you're, our kids are obsessed with you right now. Yeah. They really are. It's pretty great. It's so great. It is pretty great. Because you know, you used to like, you used to be sad whenever Stella was like a newborn, right? And like you kind of expected, oh my gosh, like this level of affection. And now she's, it's just great. It's, it's really good. It's a happy home. Yeah. Let me ask you this. I feel like this needs to be discussed in a long form format. What did you think about Morgan Wallen? So we went to Morgan Wallen the last time that we podcasted, right? And I was so. I was so. excited to see Morgan Wallen. I love his songs. I don't really know too much about him as a person, except for that he's had some like royal F-ups. I just know that he's like not becoming the best version of himself. Yeah. But you know, sometimes I'm like, oh, fame and money, that'll do it to you. But I think we're just all like, okay, like, we're ready for you to have like your comeback as a human

being. Yeah. And then he just like makes another mistake. And so I was like, okay, we can put all of that aside and like let's just go and enjoy the music. Um, I will say, I was like a little disappointed in the concert. Like for example, like if someone asked me, should I invest my money and buy a ticket and go? I would probably be like, you don't have to. You didn't miss out on anything like revolutionary. Like if you said, do I need to go see Kenny Chesney? Yes, absolutely. Do I need to go see Taylor's stuff? Without a doubt, you got to go. Um, Even NF. Even who's my other guy? Noah Kahn. Yes, you should go. But like this concert was just one that I could have passed on. And like my life would have been the same. And it is so rare for me to go to a concert and not leave being obsessed with the artist. Even if they're not that good in person, like I still always leave. And I'm like, man, I just love them. I just love them. Because I feel like you get to see like a different side of them and you get to see their personality. You get to see their mannerisms. I was. first of all, so disappointed that the AT&T Center didn't put him on like the Jumbotron.

So like we didn't have like great seats. We were pretty far back and I could not see him the entire time. They barely put him on the screen. They kept putting his guitarist. And I was like, why don't I don't want to see the guitarist. And then they had these like weird graphics that looked like they were like from the 90s. Yeah. It seemed like we were at a Backshade Boys concert.

Or a creed concert. A creed, yeah, a creed concert. And, you know, he only gave us one outfit change. I was a little disappointed about that. I didn't love his outfit to begin. with it was like small print and it's like dude you're on a big stage we need like big print like you shouldn't wear something small print yeah i don't know it's just like fashion and so um he walked out with troy hakeman which was cool i know he's kind of like you know known for his walkouts he

walked out with uh Travis Kelsey and peter or Patrick mohampton peter mohombs Peter mohomes some go sports uh Patrick mohomes um in kansas city which i thought was pretty cool um but yeah i just also didn't feel like he was just giving us his all. It seemed like he was there to do a job. But, you know, I think whenever you are struggling with mental health and you are struggling with maybe it is alcohol, whatever it is, like, he's just there to do a job. And I think we did like the math. And I think he makes about, and I don't know what he nets, what he personally nuts. But I think he's making like $14 million a show. When we like, we averaged out each ticket is $250 with the amount of people in the stadium and then plus like alcohol and all of, you know,

the merch and everything. It's like we round it's like 14 million. And so it's crazy. Like when you think about when he cancels a show, he's losing out on 14 million each time. And he cancels a lot of shows, which makes like what shows do it. It's serious. Like when he's losing, he's canceling something and like he's losing 14 million. Like it's a big deal. So I think he just showed up. He did his job and like good for him for at least showing up, you know? Well, I think you and I both understand how the hamster wheel works. And it's like you got to think about how many people are pushing him every night. Just get up there and manipulating him and being like, oh, well, if we do this, you know, we can go here and you can enjoy this. Like every bit of his actions, like throwing a

chair off the roof like screams to me like, I need help, like, but I don't know that I need help. Or I don't have people around me to help me. Or to help me. They're just pushing me to make money because this is supposed to be my dream and I'm supposed to be so thankful. But I'm really just on this hamster wheel that I kind of just wish I could be back in Tennessee. Yeah, I mean, you could look at it that way or you could look at it as he has a team around

him that when he is weak, he cancels a show. And that's a huge deal. And so like maybe, you know what I mean? And at least he showed up and did the job like bare minimum. You know, you can look at it both ways. No, I think, I'm not blaming him. I think he's pushing through the best that he can, but I think that he is on a hamster wheel.

The other, I think, piece of data that supports my argument is like, you were telling me that he doesn't write any of his songs? Okay. First of all, he is listed as an author, like as a lyricist on all of his songs. Right. But each one of his songs has different lyricists that he collaborates with. And Danny's like a forensic investigator.

when it comes to what this means. Yes. So what does that mean, Danny? Well, from my perspective and my point of view, I do not know if this is factual. So don't like take it for, you know. But it makes me feel like he shops songs around. And because when you look at his album and everyone that's contributed, each song has like a new face.

There's not like a pattern. Like if you look at Taylor's List album, there's like three contributors. Like, and they're always the same. And which makes me feel like she's sitting down. in a room and like working with people on this album. And country music is kind of like, I wouldn't say notorious for, but it's known for, you know, Miranda Lambert will write a song and then give it to this country artist. Like there's just, they pass songs around a lot. And yes, I do not believe that Morgan writes all of his songs. Yeah. I don't think he claims to. No, I don't

think he claims to either, but that furthers my argument that I feel like he's on this hamster wheel that is not of his making. Like, you know, he started on the voice. Did you know that? I watched his audition. So he auditions on the voice and he probably is like, you know what, I'm just this Tennessee boy that wants to be a singer, right? So he goes on the voice and he, I think, identified his pop at first on the voice, right? Like he wasn't doing country. He was pretty country. Oh, he was country. Yeah. So then he gets into the country music scene and someone in the business figures out how to make him a star. So it gets him with the best writers.

He's now churning out these albums. And he has the most hits of anyone, right? Yeah. I'd be curious if Luke Combs writes his own music. I don't know. But there's a level of like ownership that I feel like he lacks over his music. Morgan Wallen. Like he's disconnected from Morgan Wallen the star from Morgan Wallen, like the actual artist.

Does that make sense? It did feel that way. It didn't feel like there was like so much of pride behind each song. But that probably happens when you don't write your songs. Like Taylor has like so much pride over every single song. Because she's like, I remember what I was wearing and my sweats crying when I wrote this lyric. Like there's so much heart behind each song. And I think that he is already, we're already seeing Morgan Wallen just become the product and the brand.

And that's how I felt in his show is like you're not, he tried to kind of make it sentimental. He was like, these are the bleachers from my high school. But it felt very contrived to me. It did. It was like you had a manager that's trying to help you create community within your audience and trying to position you as this like small town kid, which you are. But there's no heart in it. There's no ownership in it.

And I think that that's what I've felt the most about the Morgan Wallen concert. My biggest is the point. I just feel like I didn't get to know him. Like I just want, I just want to get to know you. But like here's the question. Do you think Morgan Wallen knows Morgan Wallen? Or is he just become this person that the business in the industry has made him? It's a good question because everything he touches turns to gold.

But is that him? I know. Yeah. Deep down. And this is what I think. It's like John Mayer. Right. John Mayer, because John Mayer like was huge.

He had so many huge pop songs and was like killing it. But he was like at the end of it after like three or four like huge albums, he was like, this isn't me. And then he switched to like blues music. Yeah. And move to Montana and like does these weird Instagram. last all the time. Well, it's so funny. But he admittedly said, like, I was becoming someone that I wasn't, right? And I think that what people look at Morgan Wan and they say is they're like,

you should be so much more grateful. You're on top. How are you so unhappy? Why are you throwing chairs? You're a multimillionaire. But I think what most people who are not in the business don't understand the cost of getting there, right? So losing yourself, becoming this person that no, like, everyone knows, but no one really knows. And it just feels like. I wonder if he's a three on the Enneagram. Maybe, but I find that like, you know, the reason I think alcohol plays such a big role in this is because it's like he probably has to drink just to kind of get through a lot of these feelings that he's feeling and a lot of the pace that he's being forced to run at. And the only way that he'll be able to like come out on top is if he stops completely, which it's really hard

to stop when you're on top of the world. Like it's nearly impossible. To be honest, if I was a musician, probably be like Morgan Wallen. You see yourself in Morgan Wall. I think I would be more like him or like I would lean towards maybe like more Selena Gomez vibes like that career path of just struggling. I don't know if I would be able to be like a Taylor Swift. Well maybe. No, probably not though. No, I mean it just it shows you how rare a Taylor Swift really is. I know but we won't talk about her because I talk about her 24th. But the opponent of it is like the ownership that you feel

over how you build your brand. Like I think that the more commercialized and the integrity that you feel behind your art. Yeah. I mean I get scared to talk about her because apparently she's got like the beehive. But Beyonce, like I kind of feel like Beyonce has been commercialized in the same way.

Oh, I don't. Really? You think her heart is completely behind every one of her songs. 100,000% like lemonade. Was that the album? Yeah, but like that was so...

How many co-writes does she have on her music though? It doesn't matter. That was like, that was a masterpiece. That was like an artistic masterpiece and like you don't create something like that if you're not behind it.

Okay, you're right. I'm sorry. No, it was amazing. Like even I didn't go to her tour, but like that girl has some say over what she's doing and she cares. Like 100%. And I don't know if she's writing her own songs.

And that's the thing. I don't think that you have to write all your own songs to be the most amazing artist. I think you just have to like own your craft and love what you do. And like even if it's like producing your concerts or your music videos or whatever it is, you have to be like really invested and not just like have a song thrown at you and go perform it. For sure. Like that's not to me that and, you know, he's a great singer and he really is so talented. Yeah.

But I think that nowadays there's so many great singers and there's so much talent. Like people want more. We want depth. We want stories. We want to get to know you. Like it doesn't work anymore to just like sing a hit song. It does. It works for him, obviously.

But like for me, it doesn't work for me. I will say no artist, maybe Kenny Chesney, has as many hits as he does. Like I went in kind of. I don't think that anybody does. No, I went in kind of as an amateur follower of Morgan Wallen. And it's crazy how many songs were played that I was like, oh, I've heard this. I didn't know this was him. Yeah.

It's crazy. I'm just like really rooting for him. Like I really hope that. he's okay. I really do. We should call him. I'm like, do you want to call on my podcast?

Yeah, let's talk. Let's talk. Who is the real Morgan Wallen? He just starts crying on the podcast. We get clips. We blow up. We're bigger than Joe Rogan.

I also have a hard time because of like the amount of TikToks of like girls that come out and say that they've like made out with him or hooked up with him. Oh, yeah. Like it's everywhere. Like every time I go on TikTok, it's like, Like Morgan Wallin singing to me at my concert when I was at in his bedroom last week. And I just like, there's so many. They're all over the place.

I've never seen these. And it's so funny because all the girls like look the same. Like he definitely has a type. And yeah, that just that part really gives you the ick. It's tough. Yeah. It's tough for me to get past. But John Mayer was like that too.

He was pretty horrible. Yeah. You moved to Montana. Yeah. I'm over that too. Like I'm like on his side again. I'm like, I love you again. I want to watch some of these lives. Are they funny?

He's a weird man. I think he's a genius. Yeah. And so like, quirky strange. Yeah. So he's just, you know, Jessica Simpson writes about this and her book about dating him. And she just said that like basically dating John Mayer, it was like embarrassing 24-7 because he would just flaunt his intellect and his, the way he spoke and everything like 24-7 and just made her feel. like the dumbest person ever. Like intentionally made her feel dumb? Yeah, that's what she said in the book. Yeah. Are we sure though? That seems really mean.

No. John Mayer, if you've ever watched any interviews, yes. He's an a-hole. He is an egomaniac. He is an a-hole. Like, he's so mean in some of his interviews. Let's give him some chance. Maybe he's reformed. No, I know. He moved to Montana. That's why I respect him because he saw it. And he was like, I got to get out of here. Like, I got to get out of the spotlight. And he moved to Montana. and I think he's probably a better person. So that's why I said, I like him now. I'm going to start following him on Instagram.

So we had Morgan Wallin. Then we had a photo shoot. We had, man, I was there all day long. But it was a fun photo shoot. It was sweet because the kids came. And like they stayed for like 30 minutes. Brenda brought them for a little bit. And they got to see me like, you know.

And Mommy at work. I love that. I love that. I think. Like it was really sweet. Because then I come home and still like, Mommy, I saw you on the cameras. Mommy, your hair looked beautiful.

Mommy, I love your outfit. Like, she's so cute. So that was really sweet. It was a hard day just being pregnant. You know, oh, go ahead. Well, I was just like, I was so looking forward to the second trimester. And I just, it's not, the energy is not hitting me. I take a nap of a day, right?

Yeah, you're a sleepy girl. I'm a sleepy girl. It's like I probably sleep one to two hours every single day. day like around two o'clock and honestly two to four is like my time i'm running out of hobbies i mean i am a level 25 master caton player and i'm bored i'm on to the next thing i just i don't want to hear it i don't want to hear it i'm over it can i ask you a question about the photo shoot i don't know if this is relevant but uh you wrote down a note mom hate about hand on belly is that from the photo shoot um no this has just been a theme this pregnancy which i don't remember

this being a topic of conversation when I was pregnant with Stella or Stratton, but people are like very confused about why pregnant women touch their bellies and photos. And I would say 80% in the DMs I receive about it are nice. People are like, can I ask you a question? Like, why do you put your hand on your stomach when you take a photo when you're pregnant? And then other people are like, you look stupid. Like, why would you put your hand on your belly when you're pregnant taking a photo? Even to the point where I got one yesterday, which was like, this is so selfish of you to put your hand on your belly at Ellie's baby shower. You barely have a bump. This is her day and you're taking away from her moment. Like poor Ellie. And I'm like, dude,

first of all, me and Ellie have for the past three years, like, dreamt about being pregnant together. Remember I told you I was like, Ellie, when you get pregnant, I'll have, like, I'll start trying from my third. And the timing was just like, perfect. And we've always planned on that. So literally, like, as soon as Ellie got pregnant, I was like, okay, babe, like, we got to go. And I'm, like, we got to which I wasn't ready just yet, but we gave it a couple of months and then we went for it. And so it was just like baffling to me that this is so confusing for a lot of people, but most of people are very sweet about it. So what I said in response was there's many reasons why a pregnant woman puts their hand on their belly when they take photos.

Number one is I want to look back at my pictures and be like, oh, remember that? like I was pregnant then. Like, and you want to like remember because your entire day, you feel not yourself. Like you were reminded 24-7 that you are pregnant. Every single time I brush my teeth, y'all,

I am dripping blood from my gums bleeding because I'm pregnant. My stomach hurts 24-7. My blower back started hurting. And I'm not trying to complain. Like, I'm just telling you like that when you're in it, like there's never a moment where you don't remember that you're, so when you are taking a photo,

you're like, I'm going to remember this season of pregnancy. Because not only that, but like I can already see like my nose is starting to get a little, you know, just you notice like little things about you that are changing. So it's like, well, I want to also remind myself that Danny. What's going on with your nose? Like, you know, just your nose starts to get split. It starts to get bigger. Like it gets wider. Are you sure?

Yeah. It's like. It's like a known thing. Yes. And it's. You know what was not a known thing for me? What? It's Saturday night.

Okay. No, Friday night. We come back from. her. Danny and I are about to make out. She's like, let me brush my teeth first. She starts brushing her teeth. And I'm like, this is going to happen tonight. I feel it. It's coming. She spits, turns around and smiles at me. And it's like a scene from the exorcist. Her mouth is just bloody. Her teeth are dripping blood. And I was like, oh. I mean, we still did to be clear, but it took me a second to recover. I was like, you should just look at his heel. Babe, that is so superficial.

Babe. It's just blood. It's just blood. Oh my God. It's just blood. Man, if that grosses, yeah, there's so many other horrible things that come with pregnancy, just so everybody knows. Well, I've been there, done that. I'm just saying. No, you haven't.

I don't think your gums bled as much during this pregnancy. As they did have a straton. Really? Yeah. Maybe it's a boy. Yeah. So, anyway, so that's one reason. Also, number two, what do you do with your hands in a photo?

It's so awkward. Like, this is just like an easy thing that you do with your hands. You don't even have to think about it. It's like so maternal. You like have a human being inside of you. You're like going to touch. Like I don't know. It's so like.

Yeah. I didn't even think about it. You just do it immediately. And then the third thing is, which I think is very relatable, is like nobody wants to be. Nobody wants their bump to be like a food baby. And like I'm in that stage where like the bump could be. And so like I want people to know like, yeah, this is a baby. Not a food baby.

So the narrative behind why you should not put your hand. on your belly is what? Is it just people? Yeah, yeah. It's just the internet being silly. But no, some people truly didn't understand. I honestly think to as a pregnant person, it looks more flattering. Yeah.

When you have your arms and you have them like out like this and you're holding, like it makes your arms look more defined. Like there's just so many reasons why. I like start taking pictures. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously.

And so there's so many reasons. But yet people, some people just are like, that looks so. stupid. Like, why would you do that? That's so... I know. It's so silly. It's really silly. I always take pictures of my hands behind my back like this. Yeah. Because I don't want anything misconstrued.

Because it's always like females that come up to say hi. And they're like, oh, let's take a picture. And I'm like, hands behind my back. It's like... Wait, that is so funny that you think like that. Oh, yeah, 100%. Because especially in our clipping culture, it's like, I don't want... Oh, you don't want people to be like, look, Jordan. Yeah, he's disgusting.

He's touching her. Yeah, like, you know. it's just everything can be misconstrued. So I'm always like my hands are locked behind my back. Wait, that is hilarious. So anyone who tries to take a picture with me, not. I have noticed that. And I'm like, why are you so standoffish? Like, it's really odd. No, not standoffish. I am, I am protecting myself. Wait, I have noticed that. And sometimes it kind of is embarrassing. What do you mean embarrassing? You look so uncomfortable. Babe. And why why would people assume that you want to touch them? Like, like, I'm not saying, no, I don't think I'm a creepy, weird person at all. But

what I'm saying is like, you won't even touch another girl on the shoulder. If you're getting hate for putting your hand on your belly, think about the hate that I would get for like putting my hand on someone's shoulder. You know what I'm saying? I can't imagine. It's like a male thing. It's like the same thing where it's like I generally speaking will not be in like in a professional setting like a room alone with another female. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that makes sense.

Yeah. Like generally speaking, I just avoid that at all costs. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean, like the internet is so weird. It's like I could just be like, oh, come on in here. Get a picture with Danny. And then your hand looks like it's in a weird position. It's like he's grabbing her boob or something.

Exactly. Like he's disgusting. Yeah. Well, just sometimes when you take pictures and you don't like engage or touch, like I think it looks like you don't want to take the picture. Okay, well let's come up right now with what is a better posture? Because I've also tried this, my hands folded. And then I just look like I'm.

trying to be like a cool guy. And so like hands behind back seems very like, can you just touch their shoulder? No. It's okay, babe. I give you permission. Never. No. If any female tries to come up to me and get them to touch, touch me, I will give them

the X and I will say, get away from me. Now it's going to be. Timptress. That's how loyal I am. It's a get away from me. I know what you're trying to ruin my future political career. Get off me. Are you going to run for president?

I don't know, but if I do, I've got no pictures incriminating. That's what I'm going to say. I'm dead. Now No, no one's going to get a picture with you because they're like, we know it makes you so uncomfortable. No, now it's going to be like a running joke. We're like, they're going to come up and like, here, put your arm. We're all going to take pictures with our hands behind her back.

Yeah. Wow. No, honestly, so many guys are, so many husbands are probably listening to this and they're like, this guy, this guy gets it. Really? I just don't get that. I've never, like, taking a picture with a guy. and then put their shoulder hand around me and been like, ew.

I don't think it's you. I think it's those same weirdos that are like, oh my gosh, you're a hand on your bill. It's the weirdos. No, I think it. Those weirdos run the internet. I mean, the internet is run by psychopaths. Like me. No, you're not running the internet.

The internet's running you. True. It's run by absolute psychopaths. And we all listen. Like, it's like, oh, yeah, yeah. That's what most people think. I just have to say, like, I don't, I don't. think the the hand on shoulder is weird. I think if you touch their hip or anywhere behind or below,

honestly, like the clavicle and down, it's like weird. Babe, you and I know I did not play sports growing up. I don't have hand eye coordination. I'm not taking any risk that I'm too low, too high. Oh my God. Clavicle. Like I'm just going straight handcuffs. Literally so silly. not. Okay. It's silly until it's not. I'm protecting our family. You just don't get it. Okay. Well, I want to segue into, I asked people on my Instagram stories, like topics that we should cover, because I haven't done that in a while or just like random questions that they had. And the number, do you want to know what the number one question was? Yeah. No, sorry, I was thinking about something else that I need to tell you. But yes, what was the number one

question. Everyone wants to know Jordan's take on the stock market collapse. Really? That's so funny because I don't feel like we talk about like finance that much, do we? I think they want you to talk finance and conspiracy theories more. Well, this is a really great opportunity to tell you that I have applied officially to be the co-host of another podcast. You've said that for like months. No, I really did. I sent the application today. Okay. Well, it's called money wise. Okay. It's on the Morning Brew Network. If everyone can please email, money-wise or go follow Sam Parr on Instagram and shoot him a DM and say that Jordan should be the new co-host. I would really appreciate it. It's a conversation about finance and money and

financial literacy and I would get to interview really cool people. Just so you can really spark your political career. No, honestly, I feel like there's a desire from the people here for conversations that go beyond this podcast. Well, okay, can you give us an example about you talk about like the stock market crashing? Well, the stock, see, now I feel put on the spot. You're going to talk about things like this. Yeah, what do they want to know specifically? Like, yeah, it crashed. Just Jordan's take on the stock market collapse. Here's what I would say. Can I tell them what our biggest investment is? Sure. O-ZMPIC. Is that our biggest investment? It's not our biggest. But it's our most successful ever. So listen.

Guys, this is not financial advice. That has to be in the podcast. Two years ago, I saw all these celebrities. We were hearing about all these celebrities taking OZMPI. And I was like, this. We didn't even really know what it was. This is going to be the next big thing. Yeah.

And we've never taken OZPIC. But like, I knew in my mind, I know there's a lot of controversy around it. But like, obesity is such a problem in America. I was like, this is like a really needed thing. And so I knew it was going to blow up. So two years ago, we invested into E.Y. Lily. Yes. Yes. The research company. And then there's the big one. It's a Dutch company. I forget. And it is just like absolutely exploded. Like it is crazy how much that stock has grown. And so now the stock market is crashed. And this is not financial advice. But we are going so much harder on the Olympic. You're supposed to like buy things up when it crashes, right? Yeah. When it crashes, the price is so low right now. Yeah, so everybody go in.

Yeah. I also don't know much about why the stock market crashed, but I do know that the yen in Japan crashed as well. Yeah. And it's a really good time to visit Japan. Really? Yes. Wait, should we go? No, you can get like, apparently you can get like world class sushi for like two bucks.

Be really great for me to go pregnant. It's a great time to go to Japan right now. You know, like, Tokyo is like my number one place I want to visit. I know. If our kids were so young, we'd be on a plane tomorrow. Wait, let's go. That's such a long flight for our kids. Can they do it?

How long is it? I mean, is it like three days. The longest flight we've been on with our kids is like three and a half hours. We're like, they're good. They're good. We can do this. Yeah, no, that's what's been crazy is like I know a lot of people that are going to Japan right now for that reason. So you're saying your take on the stock market is to buy into a Zempex.

Yeah. And also, so this is also a pro tip. So to be clear, Danny and I are not day traders. We very, very, very rarely buy individual stocks because it's like gambling. Yeah. It's like what do you know a company's going to do? Like what we are believers in? What are we, what are we Danny? I always ask you. We're boggleheads. Boggleheads. Boggleheads. Boggleheads or boggleheads? Or boogleheads. So that means that we invest all of our money in the stock market through index funds. which is a broad makeup of the whole stock market. And so when the whole thing goes up, you're diversified to go up. When the whole thing goes down, you're diversified to go down. But it's like just put your money in index funds, sit it, sit with it and let it ride. What do you feel like out of everything that we've invested in, even outside of the stock market, has been our best investment? Divi.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's one thing that, well, I mean, we own 100% of divvy, which that's very uncommon for a startup to own 100% of themselves. My biggest, like when we started divvy, I told Jordan, I was like, I don't want a dime of outside capital. Like, I want 100% to be owners and to be responsible for why this company is working or why it's not. And I feel like it really helped because like when a product wasn't doing well, It wasn't because I was like, oh, maybe it's bad marketing or maybe it's like, we were like, it's a formula.

Go back to the drawing board. It's not a good enough product. Like, we know why things aren't doing well. And I feel like whenever you have so much capital, you're throwing things at the wall. You're like, oh, well, maybe it needs more ads or maybe it needs more this and maybe it needs more that. But at the end of the day, so many brands and so many people like just have bad products. And you don't know because you're so lost in all the numbers and the processes that you've built

around your formula. And so now we're getting to a point where I'm like, okay, if we wanted to really scale, I'm like, you know. Yeah, because we figured it out. Because we figured it out. And like now we know and I wouldn't be opposed to having some more partners or anything. But I feel like when we decided to invest in Divi, like it was a lot and it was really scary. That was one of the questions people wanted to ask me. They were like, how come you do so many giveaways if Divi doesn't make a dime for you?

Because I've told people before that like I think they. misconstrued what I said because first of all, I don't understand the connection there. People are like, you do all these giveaways and you give away so much money. But then you say that Divi, I guess I've said on the podcast that we don't take money on to Divi. Yeah.

And I think people are confused maybe what I said. So what I said was that we own Divi 100%, but every dime that Divi makes we put back into the company. Now, I think for tax purposes, we have to pay ourselves like little salaries, right? Yeah, and we're like on health insurance. Yeah. So you have to pay yourself a little something,

but it's like very, for me, like, very bare minimum. And so what we're saying is like, let's just say that you start a bracelet company and you start with $100, you sell your bracelets, you know, you start with $100 for your resources, your beads, everything, you make all your bracelets, you sell them, you make $1,000. That $900 profit, you just put back into the business. So then you go buy more beads and then you pay maybe an influencer to talk about your bracelets. And then maybe you hire someone. And so all those $900 doesn't go back in the business. my pocket, it goes back into the company. So that's why I believe businesses are the best investments because I feel like we know like, not just saying divvy, but like we like to invest

in other people's businesses too. No, but to be clear, like, divy is a very illiquid asset. Like, we don't, it's not like we take the revenue and the cash out of it. It's like it all goes back into it. But the value of divy has grown so much, but it doesn't feel, like we don't feel that in our daily lives. Because we don't touch it. We don't touch it. We don't touch it. Yeah. Yeah. People should know that. So they don't know that, but now they know.

And then so when it comes to the giveaways and how like we pay for all those things, that's my business, the influencer business. Yeah. Which is so separate from Divi. They have like totally different teams, totally different operating process. Creative is a completely different team. Like even whenever we do like a shoot for a Divi launch, the money that comes to like pay for that shoot, comes from a totally, it comes from Divi.

But then sometimes I'm like, oh, I want to like boost it a little bit and I'll like throw a little bit more in there just to like spice it up. And so when we do giveaways, that is coming from the Danny Austin business, which also has its own team, its own ecosystem, its own office and everything.

Our hope for Divi one day, although it's very illiquid, is that we want it to be worldwide. Well, true. But the best company, the best value, like the best products. And so we pour everything back into it to make it the best in hopes that one day a partner will come along and say,

hey, this makes sense at our bigger company, B&G or Unilever. Yeah. Or we bring on a partner that says, hey, we can help you go international. So like we will come in and acquire 30% of the company or something like that. Yeah. It's so crazy because like when you're going through it, when we first started, I didn't even know like we could get that far. I know.

But I think that one of the things, because I've talked to a lot of the investors in the market, and I think one of the things that I give you total credit for is that methodology of like money will distract you early on from the real problems that you have. So what's so interesting about the financial market right now is in 2021, all these beauty companies raised all this capital from the beauty investors out there. They're not even profitable. They're not even profitable. They're not even profitable.

They're profitable for one year and then they're losing money every single year. And the only reason they can keep up is by raising more money. Every big brand that you think is just like this multi-million dollar, billion dollar company that's on the shelves at Ulta or Sephora or what have you, 90% of those are not profitable. They have raised money and they think that money in a strong advertising presence is going to make them profitable one day. And that's what the investors think. But it's been so wild, even just talking to people in the market about Divi being a profitable company that focused on the fundamentals from day one. They were so burned by those like COVID 2021 companies that it's like hard for beauty investors

right now to even know what a golden nugget looks like when they have it. Well, what happens? Okay, so a good example is all birds. Remember those sneakers that were made from wool? And people went like ballistic over them. I think that they, I could be wrong, but I think they reached like a billion dollar valuation. Yeah, they did. And they were killing it for like maybe two or three years.

But I think what happened is they got so much money. They threw it into advertising. They threw it into like all these like the sustainability and their marketing. They never came out with another hero product. All they ever came out with was the wool shoe. People are over it. If they didn't have all that distraction, they would know, oh, sales are declining. People are over the wool shoe.

Let's come out with a different type of shoe. But they, it was just, there was so much going on with probably all the investors and all the capital that they were getting. They felt like they had this false sense of like success and security. Whenever people are over the wool show. Yeah. And honestly, what they use the capital for. And just because they were a billion dollar valuation, what most people don't realize is that's a, that's a multiple of their revenue. So they're not making a billion dollars. That's not a billion dollars. That's not a billion dollars in revenue. It's not a billion dollars. They could have been doing a hundred million in revenue and had a negative EBITA margin, which means that they're not

actually profitable, but some investors said, this is the new thing. This is the hype thing. This is what happened during COVID when the stock market was so up. We just started throwing money at bad things. Right. And so someone could have been like, or trendy things. I think a normal revenue multiple is like three to five X. You know, they, they maybe could have gotten like a 10x. So like if you're doing 50 million in revenue, you do 5x of that. And that's like the value of your company. So 250 million. Or some investors might come in and say, hey, we're going to value this at 3x, so 150 million. So like someone could have come to an all bird and said, hey, you're doing 100 million in revenue,

but you're not profitable. But we think that this is so hype that we're going to give you a 10x multiple. So just like it's creating a hype chain. It's just sales. Then they got all this capital and they started opening all these retail locations with one skew, which was that shoe, the wool shoe. And now it's like we're all just reversing. Same thing happened with Peloton.

Peloton was so hot. during COVID that they got this crazy valuation and they staffed up and then they were like, it becomes an ego thing. You think that like you're on top of the world until you're not. Because you raised like let's just say all birds, I don't know how much they raised, but it's probably 200 million. Yeah. You could do some damage with 200 million. Oh my gosh. You could open so many of the retail stores. And then like you walk by these stores in the mall and nobody's in there. They're just like draining cash. And it's like you don't know that. You don't know that nobody wants to go there because you had money the entire time. Yeah, the most crazy, and I don't know what you should name

this psychological phenomenon, but it's like the phenomenon of like a big, the bigger a company gets, the more removed their leadership comes from the actual market and customer. Yeah. It's like, it's so hard not to do. Like even at Divi, we experienced this. Like it's so good for us just to simply like walk through Ulta's or go to events where we're talking to customers because the bigger it gets, you start getting so involved in the complexity and the minutia of things that just don't actually matter when the only thing that matters is the customer. I think what you like the serious thing for me is like if I ever wasn't involved in product development like that scares me. No, the best thing that we've done for Divi is kept you locked in this house. So you just develop products all this.

Honestly, I just now remember that's why I wore my hair curly today. We had this new product that I was like trying to see like how my hair would air dry. And that's why, now I remember. I honestly think that the smartest thing that we have ever done with Divi is kept key functions sequestered off. Well, it's kind of like product development. Like, Danny is still incredibly, I always tell people like accounting, not Danny, right? Sphere of genius. I like, do we make money around here?

Sphere of genius is product development. Like, you just have such a great way of knowing exactly what people like and what they don't like about products. Well, and the, the scariest part is like, they listen to me. And like, I go in there, and they're like, what's our next product? And they're like, what? And I'm like, and then so I know, I'm like, I have the authority. So I tell them, I'm like, I want this color. I want this texture. I want these key ingredients. I meet with our scientists because I'm like, okay, what's new out there? Like, what's going to actually activate and work? And then, like, once we get like the formula figured out, I'm like, I want it to look like this bottle. I want this. It's really hard because it's

With product development and our timelines, there's a lot of like pushed and pool. But that was one of the questions that I got in my Instagram today. It was why did you discontinue our OG shampoo and conditioner? And that was our original shampoo and conditioner, which people are obsessed with. I'm not going to lie, I used it today. Like the OG shampoo is one of the most amazing shampoes ever. I think what happened and why it didn't do as well as we hoped is because the conditioner wasn't as strong as a player. And so people coupled them together and said the shampoo and conditioner I don't like when I think that people actually really liked the shampoo.

But like we were very in tune with my audience. And like that was the first time I ever came out with a product that people were like, I got feedback that was like, I don't, this doesn't work for me. So immediately I'm like, okay, well, we got to come out with another one. So that's why we came, we ended up coming out with our volumizing shampoo and conditioner. And then we have some other things that are coming out that are kind of solving that problem. But like, for example, well, I just want to say really fast, though, if we had, this scares me so much. Like, it actually gives me like, like anxiety thinking about. Think about if at the time when we launched shampoo and conditioner, we had $100 million in the bank.

We would have blasted the ish out of that shampoo and conditioner. Okay? Like, because why wouldn't you? You have the money. You would just blast it everywhere to launch it. And then people don't like it. you're too far in. You've already spent $10 million to launch this product. Like, now you just got to keep riding the fake wave. And like, you've got to keep pushing it. So it's profitable. And then

you spend more money and more money. And then two years in, nobody likes it. But you spent $50 million marketing this product. Like, it literally gives me some much anxiety. And that's what I really didn't want to happen. And that's why we also, people always like, why don't you have more skews? It's like we, I think when we got into Ulta, we had like three skews. But, but it's, it's, it's, You're so right because... It could have been worse. Well, yeah, it could have been worse. I agree.

Pushing a fake hyped product into market is worse than like doing what we did. But like what people don't understand is in 2020, what was that, 2023? Yeah, 2020. Was it or 22? We were projected to do way more growth that year than we did because when we realized that this product did not work for everyone's hair type, we stopped pushing it. Like, we stopped talking about it. We let the people have it who loved it, but we stopped talking about it. And that drastically changed our revenue projections. But like, it's hard to explain to people,

like that was the right thing to do. But we lost, I mean, millions, tens of millions of dollars, like in potential on that product. But if you don't have investors, I'm like, who cares? But you know what the, you know, we got back for that cost is the lesson learned that we will never do product development like that again. And I feel like that is why Dibby Stance. And integrity matters. Like I don't care if like if people don't like it and it doesn't work for everyone and there's like any type of feedback. Like I want to be able to have the flexibility to pivot. I never want to put myself in a position where I have to like stand behind something that people don't like. Yeah. Like it would kill me. I would be able to sleep at night. You know what I'm,

what I'm having from an integrity standpoint reconciling a little bit and I'm going to get comments about this. So I just want to take it head on is my distrable. trust of big pharma, but also me going so hard on OZMPIC as an investment. I'm aware. I'm aware of the cognitive dissonance, guys. I don't know how to reconcile it. I kind of believe in this drug. Well, it's, you know, just I'm a work in progress. It's helped a lot of people. I mean, so that's what I think. But then now you got all the like the people coming out saying it's like really destructive and dangerous. And it's. Oh, is it? I mean. I feel like there's a lot of things, though, that are destructive and dangerous.

I mean, like the alcohol industry. Yeah. It's probably, probably more people are, are hurting from that. Yeah. But, you know. Okay. We won't go if not enough bad. Anyway.

Wow, that was a tangent I was not expecting. Oh. You know what also has just grind, has been grinding my gears this week. And I need you to kind of explain this to me like I'm five. Okay. I need to understand this ballerina farm situation. Because let me tell you something. It's so deep.

I, and I don't know who side I'm on, I am so angry at this reporter. I am so annoyed and angry at her like intellectual pride to go into a woman's home who has eight kids as this young 20 something from New York and writing this article. It is the most like, you're open-minded, quote unquote, about. about every lifestyle that exists in New York, but like you're going to go into a rural mom's home with eight kids who's minding her own business. Making sourdough bread. And like with never understanding the complexities of parenthood and you're going to write an article like that, like I was going to say something really mean.

Here's the thing though you have to remember. People hurt people hurt people. Okay. And this is the same thing that I feel about the opening ceremony at the Olympics. Wow. And the same thing I feel about this reporter, somebody hurt them. No, I, no, no. I understand, but I'm not going to let her scape go out of that.

She's not a hurt person. She's an ignorant person. She thinks she's intellectual, but she's actually so, so ignorant. Okay. So I agree with you. I really do. And I think that she's old enough to take responsibility for her hurt, like get some therapy and if like you can't project like your insecurities on everybody.

The same thing with like the opening ceremony at the Olympics. It's like people, it's sad that people attack like Christianity. Like it pains me. It sucks that it's our religion. But I do feel like a lot of these people are probably coming from a place where Christianity'd one day hurt them. And like one day like these morals like, these morals like, this traditional wife lifestyle or this faith was pushed onto them and it ended up putting them.

So they live with this chip on their shoulder where like their whole lives, they're just trying to prove that like we're trying to like modernize the female. And like religion doesn't have to play into every aspect of our lives. And like they're going to the extreme to prove their point because they were hurt in some way from this traditional lifestyle. Like these trad wives, I think, are very triggering for them because they're so scared. of being pushed in that direction of like marrying a man that controls you and you have to give up all your dreams and have 10 children. And I think a lot of females are really scared about that because traditionally and historically speaking, that has been pushed on females for the

longest time. Now, I don't think that that that is pushed on Malarino Farms. I don't think that like, I think that's the lifestyle that she chose to live. And I think that's like a totally beautiful thing. I think that people like her like living on New York. York are so accepting of these newer lifestyles because like they were never endorsed back in the 60s 50s. But like we're, but they almost feel like when people are pushing this traditional lifestyle that they're going back in time and they're losing like their progress on like feminism. And I think that's where they're coming from. Like I truly think they're like scared. But then like they're so ignorant and they're so like immature about the ways that they

communicate their fear and their messaging that it like it attacks this like beautiful. beautiful family. And like it attacks like this like this really great thing that's happening over here at Ballerina Farms. That was a mic drop. You've had you've had a couple of those on this podcast and its history. That was a mic drop. That was very I apologize for my demeanor towards what's her name? Megan. Megan. Megan, I apologize. I was triggered by your ignorance. But I understand that you are coming from a place of hurt. And my question for Megan is I just simply do not understand if one of the core tenets of progressivism is acceptance of other people. You can take the LGBTQIA plus and you can say we are accepting of this.

You can take any other lifestyle that exists in this honey or hodgepodge of lifestyles of New York, but you are still going to not accept the lifestyle of someone who's just minding your own business. It's ignorant. I agree, but that's why I'm telling you it's like a personal issue that I think a lot of people deal with because historically there has been a lot of oppression to like these communities or females or like the lifestyle that like females are able to live now. Like it was never like that.

And so they're just coming. Like I said, it's like you can't. They feel like it's moving them backwards. Yeah. I honestly feel that way. And like I'm not. I'm not like her because I am, I would say I'm way more accepting and I actually really value traditional

values. Like I think what, what Ballerina Farms is like is doing is actually very admirable. And I think it's like really, really cool. But I do relate sometimes with the ways that, um, like, like I don't want to move backwards. Like I don't want to be stuck at home. Like, like, that's not me. That's not me. I don't want to be stuck at home having eight kids, um, making sourdough bread and feeding my family and just worrying about. that all day long. That's not, that's not me. And so I relate to that that side of it, maybe. And if I felt like somebody was like pressuring me to do that, I would maybe get a little defensive too, but I don't feel like anybody's stranded it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying is like who's, who's trying to stop who here. Like, I mean, well, I think living in New York, you have this like

vortex that you're living in where you feel like there's probably so much like propaganda and like media and all that. And maybe they're like not really in tune with like what's going on. No, I think that that's what scares me the most about just like the environment I feel like we're in is I, and this has happened to me a couple times where I feel like we are just simply, there's two realities that Americans are living in. There's Megan's reality and then there's Ballerina Farms reality. And you can take the same argument for there's the Republican reality, then there's the Democrat line. The Fox News versus CNN. Like there's so many different realities through propaganda. that we are living in, that like, what is truth is becoming so hard to come by.

Yeah. And she didn't really help spread the truth when it came specifically to Ballerina Farms. Like that was... She spread her truth. That's what's so scary is that like when you get into debates or arguments with people like Megan from our, based on our worldview, what we are being fed by algorithms and, you know, our values and things like that, we are truly living in two different worlds where what she did, and I would argue for it's for a small, smaller percentage. of people than ours, but like what she did attacking family, attacking Ballerina Farms, was justice, was right to a very, and this is what my argument is to a very small minority

of intellectual, intellectually prideful people in New York City or a coastal city. Yeah. Like that is who she is catering to. She went in with an agenda. She wanted Ballerina Farms to be the face of the oppressed female, the oppressed mom that was living at home and their husband. and forcing them. She really, really, and you know from the get-go, when you start reading that article, you know she went in with that bias. Like, it's so obvious. And it's just, it's, it's not

probably happening in the same way it was years ago as it is now. Now, women, just like, there's people that actually want to live this lifestyle and actually really value traditional values. And, like, she probably can't wrap her head around it. Like I said, it's probably because she was hurt. And I don't, I don't think what she did is right. I think it's really disgusting. I think it's wrong. I'm just trying to understand like where these people are coming from because it's so like to me I'm like how how could you get there? And so I try to put myself into her perspective and her like view and I'm like oh maybe this is how she got here. You know? I'm all about that. And like I think on this one why I feel so fiery is because I just can't simply unless you're talking about pride and ignorance, I can't seem to figure out how she got there. Right. It's like without those two components being involved, I'm. I I don't understand how you crafted this narrative or wrote this narrative in your head when I'm sure you went to that farm. And they're probably- Can I give you an example?

I don't even want to be defending her because I think what she did was horrible. I'm not defending her. No, I know you're trying to help me understand, which is what I asked you to do. Yeah, yeah. I'm not defending her. Like, first of all, Belleran Farms, Hannah, is that her name, Hannah Nealman? Yeah, Hannah Nealman. She, I love the way that she handled the situation.

She handled it with so much grace. I think, like, this honestly just helped her out in the end. Like so many people are coming to her aid and to her support and saying, like, girl, good for you for sticking up. She ended up putting out two pieces of content, kind of defending her story and defending, like, basically what happened with this reporter and that she was really blindsided by this reporter painting her as this oppressed wife. And then she took her voice back and wrote a blog post about, like, really, her true story

and how she went to Juilliard. she was one of the first ever ballerinas to graduate or to be in school and get pregnant. There was like never a pregnant ballerina at Juilliard, which was a choice that they made. She comes from a family of nine. They both do. Like they're Mormon. This is like what their values are. They knew they wanted to have big family.

And ever since then, like she decided like she was going to give up one dream to move on to the next. As mothers, we all do it. There's so many dreams that like I probably would be pursuing if I didn't have, if I wasn't wasn't a mom, but being a mom outweighed all the other dreams that I had. And so I am living my dream, even though, yeah, I have a lot of, just like she put her pageant dresses in the garage, too, that like, I don't pull out anymore because that's not my lifestyle because this is like, this is my new dream. Because I'm impressing you. Yeah, because you're oppressing me and forcing me. No, and so like I, it pains me whenever women are so quick to support some women

and their decisions, but not quick to support others. And I just feel like there's this consistent theme of it being Christians. Like I just have always felt that way. And I feel like I'm like, when I go back to it, why is it always Christians? Well, probably because Christians hurt them at one point. Like maybe the views that Christianity had on them or like push them to do as a child or maybe their family, like it probably, you and I both know that Christians can be horrible. They can be very judgmental.

They can be like, and I'm not saying all, you know, you're looking at. No, no, I'm thinking about what you're saying. It can be very hurtful whenever somebody comes to you with their faith and tells you you're going to go to hell because you're this and this is. And maybe it is a truth that you need to hear, but it can be really traumatic. And like the way that I think about it sometimes is like, you know how like I have this like weird thing with like mega churches. I have this weird thing with like really charismatic churches because I literally was locked in a room when I was in second grade and forced to speak tongues and I wasn't allowed to leave unless I did. And it wasn't a very weird thing. And it wasn't traumatic by any means, but like I have this like chip on my shoulder.

I feel like when people or like pastors pull out this like super charismatic side where they're like speaking in tongues and want to prophesy, like not that I don't believe it because I know it's biblical and it does like it is true. But it's something that I struggle with. And so when I, I do feel like if I were to meet somebody that is prophetic and saying that they are prophetic and claims that they're prophetic. and if I were to meet them, I might go in with a little bias. It's just because of my experience growing up.

And so, but that's, once again, that's ignorance on my part. I need to deal with my issues. I need to go to therapy and deal with, you can't blame the world for like your issues. Like you have to, like, you can't blame your spouse. You can't blame like your parents. You can't blame. I can't blame this church for the rest of my life for having a chip on my shoulder. Like that's so immature, like grow up, get therapy and like work on yourself.

Like, you know what I mean? And so that's where I feel. like a lot of these people fall short is they can't get over it. They just want to blame people and they want to blame Christians. And I think that's why some people were so accepting of like what happened with the opening ceremony at the Olympics because they're like, yeah, like we all are individual and we get to live our lives and we get to put naked people on camera. And like, you know, I know that's also in France and like that's like, you know, totally different lifestyle and everything. But I think that people that were are okay with it, they're like, yeah,

don't push religion on me. Don't push like you did my entire life. Like, and it sucks. It it sucks that it's happening to my religion that I would die for, you know, and I hate that part of it. I hate that people that are hurt by Christianity, but like, I'm just trying to see the world for like what it is. Like, I want to see like why people are acting the way that they do. And I think that that would help us maybe have conversations to be like, man, that sucks that you've been hurt by the church, that you've been hurt by faith. Like I have too. But like, I still believe in it and like, here's why, you know, because here's the thing, us budding heads and calling her ignorant and calling her an idiot and being like, so what good is that going to do?

Megan? Yeah, like, I didn't call her an idiot. I know. I'm not saying that like, but. I just said F you and I, and I rescinded. I retracted my statement. I know, but like, this is what happens though. This is why everything is so divisive because we can't have a conversation about it.

We can't be like, Megan, why did you go into like some beautiful wives home? They have this amazing family. And why did you do that? Like, what's really like deep down in there? Should we get Megan on the podcast? Honestly, like I guarantee you. I guarantee you it comes from a place of hurt. Well, okay, like, let's just go back to also the basics and the things that we should teach our children.

Media literacy. Like, you're really going to believe everything that you read these days. Like, come on. There are no, let me tell you something. There is, there are no trustworthy. I think our children are going to be fine. I think our parents need some help. Literally.

Like my mom? I think our children are going to be like, that's fake and your mom is like, did you know that if you're trying Apple Sider Vanderinger, you will live 10 more years. 10 more years. No. Like, and the scariest thing about like our parents is like they don't even need like an actual, like, it's just TikTok. It's like Savannah living in Georgia who's 24 years old makes a TikTok.

And my mom's like, did you see what Savannah says? Like I don't know her, but I trust her. I trust her. Like it's, it is. No, I think, yeah, I think media literacy is like I come on. I don't believe anything these days. And like every single publication has a bias. So like you have to just know like whatever you're going into.

Like it's you got to decipher it for yourself. But it really did upset me. I commented on Ballerina Farms post and I was like, I'm so happy to see that you're getting so much love and support from people because like that's what that's how we should be treating each other these days. And like, you know, personally, ballerina, that is not a lifestyle that I want. I don't want to be milking the cows. I don't want to be baking sourdough bread.

I want to do our dash. I want to go to the mall when I need something. Like, but I love the way that. you're living your life and I have so much respect for it. And I love that your husband is your co-CEo. And even if it is so much more traditional where your husband is really leading the family, which also is biblical, like I am totally here for that too. Like, you know. Yeah. That's my biggest thing is like I just don't know why we can't just, oh, that's different than what I want, but still good. I'm good with it. Yeah. It's because people are hurt.

I'm sorry, Megan. I'm rooting for you. I can't wait to read your next profile piece. I don't know if I go that far. Oh, well, I was just trying to be nice. Are we not there yet as an internet? No, we don't have to be nice. We can be kind. I always tell Stella, I'm like, I don't, I hate whenever my mom or like when I was a little kid, or it was like, you have to be nice all the time.

Why do you have to be nice? You need to be kind, but I don't have to be nice all the time. If I'm upset, I can be upset and I'll be kind while I'm upset. But we just don't need to be mean to each other. Yeah. It's different. So I never tell Stella, you have to be nice. I'm always just to be kind.

because like sometimes you don't want to be nice. You want to be sassy. And like she has a personality and like let her feel her feelings. Yeah. That's a whole not a thing. Wow. Hmm. I don't know.

I feel like I probably like upset some people with that one. No, that was really good. That was good like preach queen. Well, you know, going off of that conversation, have you heard about the Italian gymnast sponsored by Parmesan cheese? Can I ask you a question? Did you really watch the opening ceremony? I never watched it.

I actually didn't watch it consecutively, but I watched enough TikToks where I feel like I watched it. Yeah. You know, I'm just going to say this from like, I hate when people hate on Christianity. It like bums me out. Did they really though? Or was it like symbolically?

No, no. He said that he did not mean to offend like anyone and he wasn't trying. But he did take his inspiration from who painted the famous guy that painted the Last Supper? I'm not going to risk this one. I want to say Decaprio, Leonardo DiCaprio. Da Vinci. Da Vinci.

He said, I didn't mean to offend anyone that is stone on my heart, but I did take my inspiration from Da Vinci. So it's like, oh, Divigi painted the last supper. So it's like. And there was like a woman sitting in the middle that had a crown on, which is like power in the middle, then everybody around. And I don't know how many like disciples or how many people were around. in the Olympics.

But it was very, it looked like the Olympics. Here's my thing. Here's my thing. Like, this is what you really have to think about. It's like, if I was the head of the Olympic ceremony and there was a scene that I was creating that was even slightly remotely, questionably mocking another religion. Like, even if it had like one little hint where somebody was like, oh, like, do you think? I would be like, okay, scratch it.

Like, because I just out of respect, honestly, for people's religions. Like, you know, I would just be like, it's not worth going there. Well, it's a uniting event. The Olympics. Yeah, but it's like, also, this is France's Olympics. They're going to do things different than, like, they're going to celebrate their culture and what they believe. And don't they put, like, naked girls in magazines and stuff. I don't know.

I'm just saying, like, we don't live there. Like, I don't know. Show me like your French girls. You know, and so, like, my thing is, is like, if I was ahead of that, like, I wouldn't even go close. to touching mocking of religion. So like, why could go there? It's like, there's so many different ways you could have gone. And it was a little, it was a little quirky.

I think there were some, there were some nuts involved, like literally. Balls? Yeah, I think this guy's balls were out. And like, you know, and like, this is the other sad thing. Okay, wait, I just want to say one thing about the, I know one's going to agree with me on this. But Marie Antoinette, when she was holding her head and singing. So there was this part. Did you see this part on TikTok?

So there's this part where Marie Antoinette is like her head's cut off. Because, you know, let them eat cake. And then everybody killed her. And she's holding her head. And the head that she's holding, like, her neck is all bloody. And her head that she's holding is singing. It's like kind of like epic. Like it's kind of cool.

Like people were so grossed out. I was like, this is kind of cool. But like I would not have wanted my children to see it, which is like another big thing. Because it's like, shouldn't we be able to watch the Olympic opening ceremony with our kids? You know, our kids were asleep. But if my kids were up, I would not have been a happy mom. But then she's like singing this like, oh, ha, ha, and then like this like insane rock music comes on.

And like all these men are playing from the windows. And there's like big building lights in red and like fires are coming out. And I was like, I was rocking my head. I was like, this is so cool. Like I literally do not think anybody else thought it was cool. I think everybody else thought it was the weirdest thing ever. And I was like, this is so tight. Like I thought it was amazing.

Wow. But I did hate that like table scene. I think that was like really kind of silly. How far into the Olympics are we? I have not watched a single event. And I don't know. It's weird. It's it almost feels like this Olympics snuck up on us.

And I don't know if it's because like none of us watch like cable anymore. And so we missed all the ads. But I'm just not invested in this Olympics. I feel like a lot of people aren't. I've actually been pretty invested. Are we up? USA. I watched. Yeah.

USA is up. I've watched. Gold and total? I don't know. I watched a lot of the gymnastics. Did you see like the Superman guy? I know. Oh, yeah, yeah, the pommel horse guy.

Yeah, he killed it. Like I've really enjoyed watching the gymnastics, but I have to say like nothing gets me going like track. Oh, really? Mine's like beach volleyball. Oh, no. So fun to watch. Nothing gets me going like watching that 100 meter dash because over in like the flick of an eye.

And it's just so like it's crazy to me. I watched the guy. The guy won, what's his name? Liles. Isn't it crazy? Noah Liles won gold in the USA 100 meter dash, men's 100 meter dash. And he literally looked like a scene from Lightning McQueen. You remember Lightning McQueen in cars whenever he's like running and puts his tongue out

and like crosses the finish line with his tongue? That's what this guy did. So I actually learned through this 100 meter dash, you don't win unless your torso goes over the finish line. So like three or four other guys had their foot in front of him, but his torso, he leaned in. And so he won by like 0.005 of a second. That's insane. It's wild.

And he was like talking a lot of smack. And so it's good that he watched that he won. I watched Shakari Richardson. She's a former Dallas gal. I watched her. I think I just watched her qualifying like 100 meter dashes. And she looked pretty good. I don't know if she, I haven't watched like, she got silver.

Oh, she got silver in the final race. People are really not talking about this. but one of the greatest redemption stories of the Olympics. You know what I'm talking about? Scotty Sheffler going from prison to winning a gold. Gold medal for golf? No, but there's a lot of tweets out there that are like, Texas is carrying this Olympics because it's like,

Shikari Richardson and then Scotty Sheffler and... I think that what the Olympics needs to do better is getting us invested in these athletes before the Olympics. Because, like, I don't really know any of these stories. Like all I remember is from maybe Netflix literally came out with a documentary about Simone Biles like two weeks before. But she's one of the big ones like do you remember, yeah, I'm just like not invested in any of the stories this year it feels like like the big rivalries or anything like that. But I feel like the only way you can get invested is if you start watching and they start following these people on social media. It's on like who's the rugby player that.

Oh, I love her. Ilana Morris or something. Oh my gosh. She is so funny. She's like a rugby player. Wait, sorry. Say her name again. Alana Mayer.

I think that's how you pronounce her name. She is a female rugby player. And she has been covering the Olympics, like hysterically. She's so funny. Like her whole thing is she goes into the Olympic, what do they call it? Like the quarters. The Olympic Village and like her whole thing is like she's like trying to find a man. And it's like so funny.

Like she's amazing. I think they ended up winning a medal too. Was it gold? She's so funny. Like, I love following her. So, yeah, I feel like you kind of have to be, like, invested. And then if you just watch the, like, nighttime, like, around, like, 7 o'clock, the recap of the day, you kind of see all of, like, the big highlights.

Okay. We'll start watching that. Simone Biles nailed it. She killed it. Her, like, the stunts that she was pulling out were so advanced. They, like, never been done before that even if she would have, like, fallen, she still would have gotten gold because, like, her stunts were, like, nobody's ever done them before. And I watched a little bit of her documentary, which was really interesting.

You know, there's this thing called the twisties that gymnasts get. And it's like basically when they can't tell where they are, like when they're spinning in the air. And it really messes with their mental. And so that's what happened to her when she went to Tokyo. Oh, she got the twisties. Yeah. It's like a forbidden word. It's like really bad when you get it because it like is like a mental block.

Like you can't perform. And so everybody was like ragging on her because she like, you know, quote unquote quit whenever it was like she could have thrown these stunts fall on her head and broken her neck. Like it's really easy for you to say that from your sofa watching her. You saw that line in the documentary. She said that line. I probably did. She, I think it's better to quit for mental health than I got the twisties because no one would understand that. Yeah. I mean, she's pretty amazing. Yeah. So I'm excited to watch. I don't know if they've done the 200 meter dash or all the, oh my gosh, I really got into, um,

what's the thing where they throw the really heavy. Oh, javelin. No. Shot put. Shot put, yeah. Oh, my God. Those guys, it's like they have, they're like beast like on top, but then they have like ballerina toes on bottom.

It is the funniest thing. I mean, they're like, they're so agile on their tippy toes, but then they have these like massive, it's so crazy. Oh, my God, you have to watch it. So crazy. I, um, Yeah, but just nothing gets me going like the, I wonder if, because I saw an article this morning that Noah Liles was like the fastest man in the world. But I wonder if that means that they're the fastest man in the world at the current time. Like he surely didn't be like Usain Bolt's. Well, did he set a world record? No. Oh, so then Usain's probably the fastest.

Usain is the fastest. He was fun to watch. Usain? How old were we back then? Well, that was what, eight years ago? Yeah, I guess not that. 20s, early 20s? Do you want to know a history fact? Yes, always from you. So before Usain was the world record, there was a man named Jesse Owens. You know anything about him?

Yeah, he was the one who stood with his hand up in the Berlin Olympics? Yeah. Berlin, yes, 1936, Hitler's ruling Germany. And a lot of Olympians are like, where do we go and compete? Like, because this is so wrong. And Hitler is trying to get rid of all the Jewish athletes and all of the black athletes. He doesn't want any of them to compete. And the USA is like, absolutely not.

Like, we are bringing our Jewish and black athletes. But there's a little bit of controversy there because Jesse Owens ended up running the, like, the four by four for a Jewish guy. And they think that it was too, I don't know. Anyway. Wait, wait, wait. I'll go to that in a second. And so Jesse Owens is competing in the 1936 Olympics. Hitler leaves any time that there's like a black person on the field or a Jewish person like you can't, you know, because he's a POS. And so Jesse Owens ends up winning, setting like a world record. I think he wins like the 100 meter dash to 100 meter dash could be 400. I'm not really sure. And he's just like amazing. He also competes in the long jump. And he's doing the long jump and he's competing like head to head with this other German guy.

This German guy, he ends up beating this German guy. And this German guy, which I knew his name because I would sound so much more legit, ends up like giving him a high five and running, doing like a victory lap around the stadium with Jesse Owens to celebrate the fact that he won. Even though this German guy lost, he's like celebrating Jesse Owens. Hitler's so mad that when World War II breaks out, he sends his Olympic athlete, the guy that supported Jesse Owens to the front lines to die in World War II. Really? Where did you learn this?

Just, I go down these rabbit holes. I know. What platform? TikTok. Probably Wikipedia. I do love Wikipedia. That's so crazy. Yeah, so it's really sad because this was brought up at the Dividey photo shoot.

Hell of why. because they were talking about these Olympic athletes and what is to come for a lot of them. And then I made this like somber comment. And I was like, well, it depends on the country. And like, everybody was like, what? And I was like, well, I mean, there are some countries where if you don't perform well and you don't, if you don't win, like, not to say that they're going to kill you, but they'll put you in a place where you're going to die. Like, because you are useless to them now. And so that was something that, like, it's just, it's really sad.

But yes, a controversy was... You're like all glammed up and like everyone's in a circle around you and they're like, wow, Danny, tell us more. Yeah. No, literally, I was like, well, did you know? And you're like, and that's why you can't compete for this country because, you know, they're known for... No, seriously.

Or like, I mean, there's a lot of also interbreeding that goes on for the Olympics. Like Russia's like really big into, I don't know if they still are, but like basically, you know, breeding this athlete with this athlete to make a lot. another Olympic athlete. Like, they do that a lot. As long as with like a lot of blood doping and stuff like that, like steroids for the females. I don't know if they still do that. I don't know.

These countries cared so much. I took a lot of classes about that at UT. Do you think that the Olympics and like being the leader in gold medals still holds the same amount of like national pride and value? Probably not. I don't think so, but. No, I don't think it holds as much value. I think that it was this like insane sense of power and pride back then when things

so much more like on the floor gorilla. Like I think nowadays it's more it comes it's more about like technology. Yeah. But um so no I don't think it holds as much but it still I think matters. I think people take pride in it but there's so many people that like anywhere I won't get is that. But the controversy over the 1936 Olympics with the US team is that there were two Jewish guys that were going to run the I don't know if it was the four by four four by one it was the relay. And after Jesse Owens had won a lot of lot of his races. They ended up replacing, oh, this goes actually really deep. They ended up replacing the Jewish, the two Jewish athletes with Jesse Owens and another guy. And they think because

it was like the guy that was the head of like negotiating the deals for the like Olympics in the USA was like secretly working with Hitler. And Hitler had like basically bottom off. paid him off. Just to not let two Jewish athletes compete. Wow. And so they think that's why, but then there was like some like, you know, statement or something that came out that was like, they were hurt or something, you know, something like that to like cover it up. But this guy that was like the head of the Olympic committee was also like a, I think he was like a commercial like builder. Like he built like buildings. And like Hitler and him like agreed behind the scenes to do business together. And so basically paid him off. And then, yeah. Dang. You know me in World War

II. We should have a segment on the podcast of just like what Danny's learned from Wikipedia this fast week. Well, you have to. That was, I was hooked. I was engaged that entire time. But here's the thing, though, about my Wikipedia and my history lessons is I forget them all in a week. So you have to know. You were on fire just then. You have to like, I have to know what I'm talk. Well, and the reason why it also became relevant is because I don't know if you saw the ad campaign that came out with Bella Hadid when she was, she was promoting, I believe, the 1956 or the 1972 Olympics. I don't know. But she was promoting. It was the, it was the Olympics that happened in Munich. And I was mistaken and I thought that she, 1972,

I thought that she was supporting the 1936 Olympic, or 1936 Adidas. And I was like, dude, this is like flat out, like wrong. But it was the 1972, but there was like this, there's, I don't know if you heard about the Belad Hadid thing. But it's, they used her in this ad campaign where they were, they were promoting the 1972 version of the Adidas shoe, which Adidas is a German company.

And I think at this certain Olympics, like 11 Jewish people were murdered. Israeli athletes were murdered in the 1972 Olympics. And then they put Bella Hadid, who has been outspoken about Palestine. They put her on the ad campaign. So it was just, it's been a disaster. Do you think that, like, do you think that Adidas knew what they were doing? Or do you think that it was just like, a total oversight.

I want to say oversight, but who knows? It's like. It's like how do you oversight that? I don't know because it's like, do you tie a shoe to the Olympics every time? I mean, there's probably only been a couple really controversial, like historic Olympics where something like that has happened. So like why would you pick that one? And really sit during the Olympics.

Like you would have to tie the campaign to the Olympics, right? You can't just like not like they really stood during the Olympics. Olympics. Yeah. It's, but like, are they that calculated? Because, like, people will see through that. But it didn't benefit them at all. They're getting probably demolished, right? Adidas. But, like, but they didn't know they were going to get caught. Oh, so you're saying, like, subliminally, they just wanted to, like, put this out there. I don't know. Well, why did Balenciaga do what they did? It wasn't going to benefit them. I think Balenciaga, like, I don't know. I think whatever happened there probably happened with Adidas.

It's crazy. I don't know. I don't know either. Wow. It's heavy. It's really heavy to leave on that. You don't want to cover the Italian gymnast sponsored by Parmesan cheese. No, I'm running low. Oh, man. I really got into this conversation. I know. You've been, you've been, look at this. Hour and 26 minutes. You are on fire today. You have any other hot takes? Hot takes. All I'll say about the Olympic athlete sponsored by cheese, I have a one really hot take about this. Do you want to know what it is? Yeah, I do. Maybe tell the story because no one knows what you're talking about.

There's an Italian Olympic gymnast. Georgia Villa is going viral for her partnership with Parmigiano Regino, Regino, the Parmesan Cheese Company. The gymnast has pictures of her with giant cheese wheels and eating the cheese all over her Instagram. I think it's a great partnership. I'm here for it. My, uh, my only feedback or my only take on this was my first pregnancy of my pregnancy of version was parmesan cheese. Yes. It's very triggering. Maybe you should go write a profile piece in the New Yorker. This is a little, this is a little triggering to see her sitting on a massive block of parmesan cheese.

It actually gives me the ick, but that's only because that was my pregnancy of version, which is so random. And if I was sponsored by the Olympics right now, my personal, I think what I would like to be supported by is I would want to be in a big pool of jalapenu chips. What brand? Maybe kettle. I like siete. Or honestly, I don't discriminate. I like any Parmesan. chip. I've never, I'm, whoa, sorry. I like every jalapeno chip. I've never met a hollow pinion chip that I didn't like. Never, ever. Even with seed oils. Oh, they probably taste better that way, to be honest. Yeah. Anyway, well, thank you guys for listening to our

episode of De-influence. Feel free to follow us on TikTok and Instagram. And we love you guys and we'll talk to you next week. Bye.