High Five Hot Mess Podcast

This week, AI made Lisa cry. Twice.

Not because of a family crisis.
Not because of work.
Not because of a fight.

Because of robots.

One chatbot refused to schedule carpet cleaning no matter how many times Lisa Smith explained she never picked Sunday. Meanwhile, Lisa Wilson spent four weeks battling podcast software, support tickets, audio glitches, AI processing, and what can only be described as robot nonsense.

The weird part?

Lisa loves AI.

AI helped create the High Five Hot Mess intro music. AI helps brainstorm ideas, organize thoughts, and turn messy concepts into something useful. So how can something be both amazing and absolutely infuriating?

In this episode, Lisa and Lisa discuss:

• AI customer service fails
• The chatbot that wouldn't stop arguing
• How AI nearly broke their podcast
• AI actors, AI voices, and the future of entertainment
• Whether AI is really coming for our jobs
• The environmental impact of data centers
• Why Lisa says "please" and "thank you" to AI
• Finding balance before the robot overlords arrive

Plus, the question we're all trying to answer:

Is AI making our lives better... or just making us cry in new and creative ways?

🖐 We'd love to hear from you:

What's one thing AI has made better in your life?
And what's one thing you never want AI to replace?

Connect with us:

YouTube: High Five Hot Mess Podcast
Instagram: @highfivehotmess
Facebook: High Five Hot Mess Podcast

Remember to hydrate, unclench your jaw, roll your shoulders back, and high five somebody.

I had a go bag. Not a hurricane go bag. A leave-my-life go bag.

For years, Lisa Wilson kept a secret "leave-my-life" bag at work...cash, a burner phone, extra clothes, and a plan to disappear if she ever needed to start over. The strange part? She wasn't trying to escape a bad life.

She loved her husband. She loved her friends. She loved her job.

So why did she still feel the need to have an exit strategy?

In this episode of High Five Hot Mess, Lisa Wilson and Lisa Smith explore the difference between performing a life and actually living one.

They talk about:

✅ The secret "go bag" that started a seven-month therapy conversation
✅ Feeling grateful for your life while still feeling disconnected from it
✅ Why so many people fantasize about running away, starting over, or living a completely different life
✅ The hobbies, dreams, and parts of ourselves that quietly disappear as responsibilities grow
✅ Being known only as "the capable one"
✅ Why "just because I'm good at it doesn't mean I want to do it" became the accidental theme of the episode
✅ Fantasy careers, floral shops, dance studios, cult leadership, and the lives we imagine we'd be living if nobody expected anything from us

Most importantly, they ask a question many people secretly wonder:

Are you living your life... or performing it?

Question for the comments:

What percentage of your life feels like living... and what percentage feels like performing?

🎙️ High Five Hot Mess is a comfort-comedy podcast about friendship, reinvention, happiness, modern life, and all the weird contradictions that come with being human.

If you've ever looked around and thought:

"Wait... how did I get here?"

This episode is for you. ❤️

#HighFiveHotMess #Podcast #Midlife #Friendship #LifeTransitions #Authenticity #PersonalGrowth #WomenOver40 #GenX #ComfortComedy #Reinvention #MentalHealth #SelfDiscovery #PerformingALife #LivingYourLife

Do people who say no actually live longer?

This week Lisa and Lisa get into the emotional cost of always saying yes — and why so many women feel guilty setting boundaries, disappointing people, or putting themselves first.

It starts with a study Lisa found claiming that people who resist outside pressure and act on their own terms may actually live longer. Which immediately sent both of them into a spiral about:

• people pleasing
• guilt
• over-functioning
• emotional exhaustion
• and why women are so often taught that saying no makes them selfish

They also talk about:

• growing up in the 70s where “no” wasn’t really an option
• why Lisa Smith says yes to almost everything
• why Lisa Wilson absolutely does not
• workplace pressure and career boundaries
• friendship guilt
• negotiating commitments instead of automatically saying yes
• and whether constantly saying yes slowly disconnects us from ourselves

This episode is not about becoming ruthless or cutting everyone off. It’s about figuring out where the line is between being kind… and disappearing yourself in the process.

Mentioned in this episode:
@mrsemmawalz

Follow High Five Hot Mess everywhere:
Instagram: @highfivehotmess
YouTube: High Five Hot Mess Podcast

You got the job. You hit the number. You built the life. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you started wondering why you still feel tired, restless, or quietly empty.

Turns out, that's not a personal failure. That's your brain doing exactly what it was designed to do.

This week Lisa Wilson and Lisa Smith went down a happiness rabbit hole and found Yale professor Laurie Santos — whose class on the science of happiness is the most popular in Yale's history (and free online). What they discovered stopped her cold: our brains were not designed to choose happiness. They were designed to survive. And somewhere along the way, a lot of us confused productivity with happiness — and have been on the treadmill ever since.

This week we get into:

• The happiness treadmill — why your brain keeps moving the goalposts no matter what you achieve
• Were we raised to earn happiness rather than just feel it?
• Why stillness feels uncomfortable — and what that says about how we grew up
• Two Netflix shows proving we're not always great at choosing what's good for us
• The Southern Ladies Council on Appropriateness and Manners — and why every woman needs a group that tells her the truth
• What did you think would make you happy — that didn't?

New Here?

High Five Hot Mess is a comfort-comedy podcast for everyone looking for a high five in this hot mess world. Two real friends with zero guru energy. Honest conversation and a lot of "wait, me too." Drop us a review if this episode felt like it was written for you — it genuinely helps people find us. Let's hang out!

Find us:

•       YouTube: @highfivehotmess

•       Instagram: @highfivehotmess

•       Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-five-hot-mess-podcast/id1883400763

•       Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1FJGMijJvEVb6TfE7p8KpG

•       TikTok: @highfivehotmesspod

•       Website: highfivehotmesspod.com

Tide Pods are $30. Gas is $5.50 a gallon. Streaming services somehow cost as much as cable now… and one of us is unemployed.

So no — we’re not cutting everything.

We’re making trades.

In this episode of the High Five Hot Mess Podcast, we talk about the emotional math women are doing right now to keep life working without giving up every single thing that still brings joy.

We talk about:
✋ cutting cable but keeping the trip
✋ making homemade laundry detergent
✋ grocery store sticker shock
✋ spin classes during unemployment
✋ subscriptions quietly draining money
✋ how Lisa used ChatGPT to audit the podcast subscriptions and save $500
✋ why “intentional spending” looks different for everyone

This isn’t financial advice.
It’s two Gen X women trying to figure out modern life in real time — while still trying to find the high fives.

Because maybe the answer isn’t cutting everything.
Maybe it’s making better trades.

🎙️ High Five Hot Mess Podcast
New episodes every Thursday.

We’ve all said it:

“I’m fine.”
“I’m okay.”
“It’s all good.”

But what if we’re not?

This week on High Five Hot Mess, Lisa Wilson and Lisa Smith talk about the quiet weight so many women carry—stress, family pressure, changing goals, health fallout, emotional overload, and the pressure to keep functioning while life piles on.

From buffalo humps and burnout to honesty, boundaries, and redefining happiness, this is a real conversation about what happens when life gets heavy.

Sometimes the answer isn’t starting over.

Sometimes the answer is recalibrating.

🖐️ Listen / Watch High Five Hot Mess:

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@highfivehotmesspodcast
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highfivehotmesspodcast/

🎙️ Recorded at The Pod Place – Las Vegas, Nevada
https://thepodplace.com/

If this episode felt like your life right now, share it with a friend who keeps saying she’s “fine.”

Please follow, rate, review, comment, and subscribe. It helps more than you know.

What happens when you start with less than $50, two kids with sensitive skin, and a need for something that works?

This week, Lisa from High Five Hot Mess, sits down with Marci Scharko, founder of Turnrow Bath Body & Home, to talk about building a handmade business from scratch, staying true to your values, and growing without losing the heart behind the brand.

They talk about:

• Starting a business with almost no money
• Why scaling up isn’t always the answer
• Handmade vs mass-produced products
• The reality of running a small business
• Burnout, self-doubt, and asking for help
• The 50-pound wax disaster story
• Why customers still matter more than automation
• Building a life that fits you—not just your business

If you’ve ever wanted to create something of your own but felt scared to start, this episode is for you.

Connect with Marci / Turnrow Bath Body & Home:
Website: https://turnrowbathbody.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turnrowbathbody/

Connect with High Five Hot Mess Podcast:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highfivehotmesspodcast/
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@highfivehotmesspodcast

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and share — it helps us grow more than you know. 🖐️

What happens when two successful parents in their 40s walk away from stable careers, pull their kids out of school, and spend two years living on the road?

Hilary is back on High Five Hot Mess to tell the truth about long-term van/RV life with kids — and it’s not the filtered Instagram version.

We talk about saving for years to make it happen, what people said when they announced it, homeschooling on the road, discovering their daughter’s dyslexia, marriage inside 300 square feet, campground showers, public laundromats, Arctic Ocean adventures, and what freedom actually costs.

This episode is funny, honest, emotional, and full of the kind of reality nobody posts online.

In this episode:

• Why they quit high-paying jobs
• Saving for years to chase one big dream
• What family and friends really thought
• Homeschooling while traveling full-time
• Discovering dyslexia on the road
• RV life expectations vs reality
• Parenting inside a tiny space
• Marriage under pressure
• Swimming in the Arctic Ocean
• Learning when to say yes—and when to say no

If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like to leave the safe path and choose a different life, this one is for you.

Listen / Watch Everywhere:
YouTube: @highfivehotmesspodcast
Apple Podcasts: High Five Hot Mess
Spotify: High Five Hot Mess Podcast
Instagram: @highfivehotmesspodcast

She was a fire dancer… a flight attendant… a CPA… and a mom.

And somehow—none of it is random.

In this episode of High Five Hot Mess, we sit down with Hilary, whose life completely breaks the idea that you’re supposed to pick one path and stick to it.

From performing at circus festivals around the world… to navigating imposter syndrome… to rebuilding her identity more than once…

This is a real conversation about what happens when your life doesn’t look anything like you expected—and why that might actually be the point.

If you’ve ever questioned your path, felt behind, or wondered if you’re doing life “wrong”… this episode will hit.

IN THIS EPISODE:
• Fire dancer to CPA (yes, really)
• Career change and non-linear life paths
• Imposter syndrome in unexpected places
• Circus performance and festival life
• Confidence vs self-doubt across identities
• Rebuilding after trust is broken
• Small habits that impact mental health
• Feeling lost vs being exactly where you need to be

LISTEN / WATCH:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@highfivehotmesspodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/

CONNECT WITH US:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highfivehotmesspod

LISTENER QUESTION:
Are you where you thought you’d be in life right now?

FOLLOW THE SHOW:
New full episodes every Thursday + bonus episodes every Monday.

Hydrate.
Unclench your jaw.
Give someone a high five.

#HighFiveHotMess #CareerPivot #ImposterSyndrome #LifePath #GenXPodcast

In this bonus episode of High Five Hot Mess Podcast, Lisa and Sherif Said get real about what it actually looks like when everything starts going wrong… at the same time.

This isn’t a highlight reel.

This is the part no one talks about — the setbacks, the financial stress, the unexpected roadblocks, and the moments where quitting would be easier.

From buying a struggling restaurant that turned into three, to losing locations, permits, shutdowns, and even a full restaurant flood — this is what building something really looks like when everything feels like it’s working against you.

So how do you keep going?

That’s what this episode answers.

👉 Start with the full episode: She Got Rejected. He Wrote Two Books. Now What Happens Next?

This episode is about resilience in real time — and what it actually takes to not quit.

In this episode:
• What happens when a “good opportunity” turns complicated fast
• The reality of owning and rebuilding a restaurant
• Unexpected costs, delays, and setbacks no one warns you about
• How to stay grounded when everything feels out of control
• Why success becomes the only option after enough adversity
• The mindset that keeps you showing up anyway

If this episode hit for you, follow the show on Apple and share it with someone who needs it.

Sherif’s Books:
The Hustler Legacy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXXXXX

The Hustler Playbook (Interactive Journal)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXXXXX

Listen & Watch High Five Hot Mess:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@highfivehotmesspodcast
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-five-hot-mess-podcast/id1883400763
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highfivehotmesspod

If this episode hit for you, follow the show on Apple Podcasts, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Listener Homework:
Where are you being tested right now… and what would it look like if you didn’t quit?

Roll your shoulders back. Unclench your jaw. Drink your water. And go find your High Five.