Conversations with Inspiring People

Lauren and I became close friends early on in college at UNCSA. She and I were basically attached at the hip for many years during that time. We had almost all of our classes together for this 4 years, both deciding to go into producing and I can honestly say that Lauren was one of if not THE best producer in our class. Lauren knew her shit and still does.

During this conversation I was surprised to hear her say that she wasn’t confident back then and to be honest I had no idea. Lauren was a close friend for the 4 years we were in school. We would spend some nights hanging out but in true film school fashion we would also spend a lot of nights coming up with film or tv show ideas and to this day, as you hear in this conversation, would love to do those projects.

I am very grateful to have a friend like Lauren in my life and to have had her as a friend during my time in college and I am very proud of who she is becoming now that we are on the other side of school. I was so excited to catch up with her and to share this conversation with you all.

Just like Courtney in the last episode, I met Rachael because of a project I am currently putting together. Rachael is a filmmaker, creator, professor, working to get another degree and so much more. Honestly her joy and smile make me just love having a conversation with her. It was a no brainer when I met her that I wanted to have her on the podcast.

This conversation is so interesting, Rachael has such an interesting take on life, what’s she’s learned and how she intends to grow from it. What drives her and inspires her are things that I think a lot of people can relate to. You can just tell by your first interaction with her why she is such an amazing teacher, filmmaker and friend. I had the pleasure of meeting some of her students and you can tell that they just love and admire her and how great of a teacher she really is.

This was a conversation I was just excited to have regardless of the podcast and I can’t wait to get to know Rachael more as we work together. I am excited to share this one and can’t wait for you all to hear it!

I met Courtney at the end of this past year because of a project I am working on. I was directed toward her because of how well she has made an impact on the community in Jackson TN and the things she’s done with her projects. Her talents and abilities are highlighted in this conversation.

I am grateful to have Courtney in my life to guide me on this project because of her expertise in being able to take an idea and make it big and leading a team/group of people toward a common goal that is beneficial to everyone involved. Her story on how she got to where she is is inspiring to say the least and I am excited to share that with you all.

Courtney is someone who lives her life as it comes to her and as someone who used to like to plan everything out and have it all laid out I admire how Courtney has allowed herself to evolve through life. From this conversation I learned how she continues to progress with life rather than forcing her plan on life. I don’t know if that is the best way to explain it but I hope that this episode will help explain that.

I hope that her story inspires you to go after that idea that has been racking your brain and to just go for it. Her fearlessness to dive into something unknown is amazing and I can’t wait for you to hear all about it.

Emily Ricket has quickly become a dear friend to me. We met over Bumble BFF in October of 2022 and since then we've had many coffee and lunch dates, hang outs and a super bowl party. She is super sweet and lovable and i'm really glad we met and become friends!

Emily and i are both from Ohio, LOVE Ohio State football, and just football in general! We connected over that plus many other things. Her goals and ambitions in life and really inspiring. The things she wants to do in life are hopeful and i can't wait to see how she'll accomplish it all.

In the short time we've known each other Emily has inspired me to do the things that scare me. She's shown up, both physically and emotionally, as a supporter and friend for many of the things that I am pursuing and pushed me to do things I wouldn't have done otherwise.

I'm super excited for you to hear this conversation and hopefully it inspires you to get out into your community and make an impact to like she is.

I met Nina through Amie one day at a dinner we had at Amie’s house. It was around the time that I was really living alone in LA, my grandparents had just moved across the country and left me in LA kind of by myself. My parents were also across the state. Nina took me in like a daughter and Amie’s sister. Amie had always talked about her mom and what she has done in such a cool way and I was always intrigued to hear her side of the story. I was so happy when Amie brought up the idea of having her mom on the podcast just so I could have a reason to sit down and talk to Nina about her story.

Her podcast is called "Code Name Siren" and it can be found anywhere you find your podcasts. Guys, it's sooo good! 

The things that she did were beyond anything I could have imagined and I am really excited to share this conversation with you and I hope you enjoy it.

Olivia and I have known each other literally since we were babies in diapers. We are cousins and no one can tell us otherwise. We aren’t blood related but our families have been celebrating holidays together since we could remember. Olivia and I were the best of friends anytime our families were together for holidays or family trips. There are so many pictures of us from that time and it makes me wish that we had grown up in the same town. But I am very grateful for having moved out to LA so we could rekindle our relationship. In 2018 I moved out to LA where she lived and honestly it was like time hadn’t passed other than now we can drink and party together. I am a home body, if you didn’t already know, and Olivia was always, and still is, ready to go out and have a good time. She showed me all the fun and cool places and introduced me to her friends. We had so much fun while I was out there. Then in 2020 I moved back home to TN and she eventually moved out to Maine for school with her boyfriend. We stayed connected and once it was safe again we visited family in Miami and had so much fun.

Olivia is one of the smartest people I know, seriously. She may be the life of the party but she is also the smartest person in the room. Not that that is shocking at all with how much work she puts into her goals and ideas. But she also expects that of the people around her in her life. She sees potential in people and wants them to succeed at their highest level because she knows they can. Olivia has been one of the biggest motivators in my life over the past couple of years, from pulling me out of my shell on to the dance floor on nights out to encouraging me to go after my dreams and keep pushing even when they seem silly and unachievable to me.

On top of that she has been the person in my life pushing me to prioritize my mental health above all else. I’ve struggle a lot like a lot of other people have and maybe it’s because it’s something she studies or maybe she knows me that well but she has always pushed me to get to know myself better and talk to professionals about what is going on, and at no point was there ever judgement or critique on how I handled things. She is gentle and kindness at it’s purest form. Which makes me know that she will be the best OT for children, elderly or any one that is in need of her specialty.

Olivia is incredible and I am so lucky to have her in my life and I can’t wait to grow old and host family gathering forever with her. I’ll let you see how great she is in this conversation…

I met Carina in 2014 in college and let me say Carina was and still is one of the funniest and amazing people in my life. Carina always knew how to make me laugh, literally until I peed. Carina and I were also in a band, and no I’m not saying the name because 1, please don’t look for the videos and 2, I’m still not sure why we named our band that in college but we did have a pretty fire band photo that I still kinda love to this day. Other than parading around being the annoying 1st years and singing random songs or making up our own, Carina and I got really close over the 4 years we were in school together. Carina and I had pretty similar mindsets and I guess pretty similar traumas/mental health issues. Although we could both be pretty blunt and make a joke of anything, Carina is the sweetest and most understanding person I know. She could make fun of any person that walks including her closest friends but if anyone else tried someone she loved she was the first to speak up. I have many videos of fun times with Carina, just random stuff from singing Hamilton at midnight instead of going to parties to running around campus with her beloved bucket/safari hat that she literally didn’t take off for I swear like 6 months.

Carina and I both moved to LA after graduation and eventually moved into an apartment together in Glendale. And at the time I will say that both of us were going through a lot. And because we were children on our own in the world with our first big girl jobs and big girl problems, we definitely did not handle living together well. After about 6 months I decided to move out and we didn’t speak to each other for I would say about a year. After some time, and a lot of growth and reflection, we started sending each other tik toks and I think, if I remember correctly, the first few were funny and then they started to become more serious talking about growth and maturing and becoming new people until eventually one of us texted the other a long text about how we are sorry and have grown and understand each other and hope we can be friends again. I think we both needed that time apart and in that moment we both needed to come together. I still think about this time and how grateful I am that we both had that time apart and were able to grow, especially me. I’d like to think that I am such a different person than I was when we lived in Glendale. That I’ve learned a lot about myself and learned a lot about how to deal with friendships and literally grow up.

Since then, Carina and I have both moved out of LA, I think we both realized that the dreams we had of living in LA and “thriving” wasn’t really the dream life we thought it was going to be, and that is 100% okay! Also since then Carina has gotten married and I hope she doesn’t hate me for saying this but I vividly remember a night her and I were sitting on the floor of my bathroom, don’t ask what we were doing, but she told me she didn’t think she would ever get married and that she wanted to travel for the rest of her life and be free, that I would probably get married first and have kids sooner… Now listen, life throws you curve balls and lessons especially when you think you have it all figured out. But Carina was right about most of what she said except she got married first and to one of the best people anyone could have ever found for her, ever. And she travels and sees so much of the world. Life is so beautiful in that way. I am so happy for her and I’ve probably said it way to many times that she’s tired of hearing it and I am so proud of the person she is continuing to become. She inspires me everyday and gives the best advice without judgement and I couldn’t ask for a better friend in my life. Anyone that knows Carina knows how blessed they are to have her in their life and that’s definitely evident in this conversation.

I met Ebony in 2014 at school. She was my first roommate and although by the next semester I had moved into my own dorm alone because we just couldn’t agree on the temperature in the room, plus I think we were both the type of people that just need our own space and place to relax alone, we remained friends and grew even closer as the years went on. Ebony taught me to have pride in myself and in my skin. To love who I am and integrate it into my art and my life as much as possible.

After that first year of college Ebony and I went on to have the same classes until we graduated, both going into producing and producing films and struggling through many classes together.

Since then I’ve watched her take New York literally by storm, kill it while getting her masters and continue creating art that she loves and inspires other people. She has used her gifts to help and teach younger generations and even though that was not a path I thought she would go down I can tell that it is definitely her calling. She inspires people to push boundaries and push themselves outside of their own boundaries and use their voices to enact change and hear Gods message and spread it.

I would say that I never told Ebony how much she inspires me but that wouldn’t be true. I’ve told her literally so many times how great she is and how I can’t wait to see how far she goes. I know that ebony will be the greatest at literally anything she puts her mind to, so well spoken and so smart and I hope you call can see that in this conversation.

Amie came into my life in the summer of 2019. I was working as an assistant at a small boutique agency in LA. I remember the day she came in, I knew that her and I would either butt heads or get along. I say that because she was just like me. And you know how people who are like you are either your friend or your foe? Well this industry was so competitive and honestly, as we discuss in this episode, superior at pitting women against each other. So honestly, I was sure she was here to boot me out of a job, almost certain of it. But after about a week, I swear we were best friends.

Amie and I have been through a lot of things together and we made it out alive. The things we discuss in this episode seem a bit shocking but to be honest it is common in the industry we came from. The culture that surrounds the entertainment industry, and I’m sure many others, is toxic. For woman, people of color, LGBTQ plus, and any other community that is an “other.” Yeah it can be shocking but its true, even though it looks like change is being made, under the surface its still stuck in the stone age.

With that being said, I have cut out some names for the sake of avoiding any issues. If you are, however, aware of who we are discussing lets just keep that to ourselves. We’ve had enough drama in that department, you’ll see…

Anyway, in this episode we talk about a lot of different topics from beauty standards, womanhood, and all of the things that come with it. I am very proud of the woman Amie has become, both because of what she has been through with the company we worked for but also in her personal life. All of which she shares with me, with us.

Amie is fearless and open about who she is becoming and I hope that in all that we discuss someone is able to take something from what she says. And if anything I hope its that you are beautiful and loved at all stages of your life, all body types and if someone doesn’t see your value, its not your job to prove it.

Epiphany and I met in 2016 at the University of Carolina School of the Arts. She and I became friends through a mutual of ours. It almost seems silly to say mutual because this person has meant so much to both of us over the years. Matsi is such a deep connection for everyone and a best friend to so many.

Anyway, Epiphany and I became almost instant and close friends once we met. She was older than us but certainly the most fun. So many wine nights, Disney nights, heart to hearts and many musical numbers were sung in that apartment. But the most significant thing about Epiphany, in my opinion, has always been her heart. It didn’t matter what any of us were going through at any given time, if you called, she answered. Never judged, never made you feel any type of way about what was on your heart, she just listened and made it better in whatever way she could.

Epiphany and I always connected in a way that I didn’t with other people. Her pure connection to the truth, seeking it out and bringing to light was always something I admired. She brought that not only to her personal life but to her work as well. It didn’t matter what position she had on set she was that light for everyone.

So when I was I was deciding how to restructure this new season I already knew that Epiphany was apart of that list of people that inspired me. She may not know it but just by being who she is and carrying herself through all that she has been through in life, she has impacted me incredibly. My time at UNCSA would definitely not have been what is was without her, even with the short time we may have spent in school together.

I could go on and on about how amazing the woman is but I’ll let her tell you. I hope you’re ready for a really incredible conversation.