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Speaking of Curves: Meet Kristine and Alysse
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Oct 31, 2024
Join us today for a new FB Live of Speaking with curves! Today's guests? Alysse of Ready to Stare and Kristine of Trendy Curvy! Come on over at 12pm EST/ 9am EST as we chat about how we can best support these business owners and to talk a little bit about fashion and work from home tips!
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hello hello hello welcome to speaking of curves I'm Marie tonight I'm the creator
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of the Kirby fashionista we started this series speaking of curves that comes on every Tuesday at noon Eastern Standard
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Time and 9 a.m. on the Pacific on the west coast to talk about and show
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support for our small businesses and finding out ways that we can support
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them through everything that's happening because really small businesses are the lifeblood they're the life force the
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backbone of the plus-size fashion space and so over the past couple of weeks
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we've had designers boutique owners Bridal and today I've been trying to
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hurry up and get this together but today we finally have a couple of influencers joining us to talk about you know we
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kind of sit in a very interesting space where we talk about the business and even ourselves as business owners so
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with that being said I definitely want you guys to welcome Elyse of ready to
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stare and Christine of trendy curvy hello ladies
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thank you so much for joining us thank you so how are you doing today we're
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good have you guys your coffee already I
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know what but I don't I don't I'm a tea drinker
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okay well I'll give you that okay so have you guys our tea this morning yes perfect cuz I need I need mine this is
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my last cup for the day yes it is 12 o'clock and I'm still drinking coffee first cup yet so oh no Elyse hi how you
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managing I'm okay I'm okay well you look amazing I'm sleeping in and it's doing wonders I
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don't need this much coffee you know
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it's magical oh great right so tell me Elyse we're gonna start with you
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you run ready to stand but you also have a both other businesses so to speak right
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like you also do other work outside of your some of your brand how have you been impacted with with
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everything going on right now well the first thing that was really impacted was
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my influencer work especially anything in the travel a space that I had that
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was pretty much all put on hold and then the next thing that happened was that
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pride started to get cancelled so as LGBTQ influencer that was like a huge
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blow to my business because we rely on you know the community support that we
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get during June and so that was a huge that was a huge blow but the things that
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really didn't change was I do social media management for nonprofits and small businesses and all those clients
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they stayed the same and in some cases actually even like increase their hours
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because they can't operate the way that they were so they need social media more
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than ever so that stayed the same and in fact increased and then my freelance writing that I do I know a lot of like
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staff writers have been laid off and magazines are closing but for freelance
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writers I haven't seen that hit because I do writing in like health space so
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health and wellness and so people are still searching for those type of things right now so I haven't seen really a dip
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in that and in fact I again I saw an increase in demand so no it's not my
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favorite type of writing on my editor but you know I'm glad that I had that
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because I still can't figure out how to and maybe you can help me with this but
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I can't figure out how to access you know unemployment as an influencer because I'm 1099 like oh my gosh you
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girl I got you cuz because the new decares acting the the latest cares actually is May 4
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independent so when I was telling you how like they've been moving to the laws and moving them so with PPP you as an
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independent you can actually one file for PPP and then two for unemployment
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like like how they have here in Georgia you can file like it's a economic
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disaster unemployment so it's a different tier so like you just click a different one and you're able to file
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for unemployment as a self-employed but that's because of the carers Act so there is access to that and you just
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either have to have last year's tax returns or your estimated taxes for the
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for the first quarter okay so that is available to influencers and you know
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1090 everyone who's liked stuff employee ten nine eight and 99 this is what I've been learning I've everything like every
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email that comes across confusing and yeah I've seen other some influencers
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you know that Oh while I file as an S corp and you know I file as an LLC and
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I'm like ah kids you know it's overwhelming and I think you know it's hard when you're just a single-member
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LLC like I am like it's you know you don't have employees to pay out so I
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know that there I've been dealing with some issues of like well do I deserve the help as much as other people and
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it's like heck yeah you lost like a huge chunk of your business yes you deserve it but um yeah so I think like for me
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it's been contending with just some of those like feelings about worthiness
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that that have come in to like do I deserve help and that's you know that
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makes many yes you do yes I know we all do so I think like I want to let other
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influencers know like you are a business and if you've lost and lost business and you deserve it so well thank you so much
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for sharing that and that's that that's for one that's real like you know it's like oh my god what do I do like you
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know how can i navigate what can i what can i do and doesn't even make sense for me to do anything
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like for me every single thing that we were working on stopped paused everything like all the things we had
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from for each bump for the best of the year like I've made so many different changes and shifts and you know at least
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like we've been like we're on a roll and everything was like right mind it's like
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the hell do I do um Christine like how have things changed for you like how are
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you navigating this space I mean I am navigating as best I can like everybody
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else everybody has been affected in some way or another and like at least saying influence or work pretty much came to an
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abrupt halt you know a lot of things we put on hold a lot of things were postponed I'm starting to see some
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things pick up a little bit and pivot to more at home type of content so I'm
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grateful for those things but it's definitely affected you know just kind of like leisure fashion
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yeah those campaigns don't exist right
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now so and then on my clothing line side you know I was in production coming out
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with spring items and that was put to all because the factories are closed so I'm pretty much just waiting for things
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to open back up so we can kind of get things back in motion but it's definitely affected my business and in
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all aspects now for you with was your clothing line with everything like were
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you at the point where you were just waiting for your samples or were you I'm like you don't even have samples yet and
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you can even like at least tease the samples where most of the samples were
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made and approved and then they were starting to go into production so it's
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it's kind of stopped right at the point where they start sewing and you know obviously making this whole garment so
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you know this was the time that that was come out we're in spring it was supposed to come out you know the first day of
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spring but that's that so how'd that
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this is just totally out of my control and even though it looks bleak
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everything happens for a reason so I'm doing with it and you know whenever we can
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release new items is whenever we will come out and so hopefully it will still be relevant and it will still be fire
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like I hope it will be always why thank
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you just like everybody else well so for you like was your clothing line like for
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those who don't know like tell tell our readers like Arden Watchers like what your clothing line was because I remember writing about I was like hey
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girl so tell us a little bit about your clothing line and then to Elise like
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after after that like at least like how has this impacted like what you post you
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know on social so my clothing line is called kin by Christine kan it's an
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abbreviation for my family my my first name Christine that my mom's name is iris and my sister's name is Nichole so
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the first name first letters of our names make in which obviously means family so there's a lot of symbolism in
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that I launched in October because you know I just felt like it's been a dream of mine for quite some time to have my
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own footprint on plus-sized fashion you know I know that I wear different brands
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and you know I'm an influencer but I really wanted to infuse my own style into the market so and I feel like
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there's still a lot missing so I felt like I could kind of fill that void so
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yeah it's been an incredible journey we've response has been absolutely amazing I'm learning so much I can't
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imagine you know some things I wish I
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learned a little bit earlier but go into the act but it's been a great journey and you know I'm excited to move forward
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even during these rough times got it good and at least like how have you
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noticed that you know for the two y'all both be on Instagram and I be following and stay I stay inspired like for and
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even at least you you use Twitter often to like how has that how your how's your messaging
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changed I think the biggest messaging that's changed is that you need to make
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sure it's clear to your readers that you are home and that you're safe because
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you don't want to post an old picture and people be like excuse me why are you
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in Puerto Rico you're supposed to be oh I know you live in Ohio so I've seen
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especially like in the travel space that people make it abundantly clear that they're at home and that this was taken
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before so I think that's the biggest change there's nothing wrong and there's always been nothing wrong with sharing
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pictures from the past I think the idea that we're doing an OOTD and it's the
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exact thing that we're wearing that day that just doesn't really happen as much anymore I know it doesn't for me it's
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just I like to shoot content and plan ahead I think a lot of us do so we've
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we've been planning ahead so that's good and I know for me I have a lot of content that I haven't shared that was
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taken before this so I'm basically sharing older content and making it
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clear that it was taken you know much before this happened and then if I am sharing newer content
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it's you know on my porch or you know in front of a mirror at home or on a trail
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you know I'm making it clear that I'm not that I'm not basically dangering
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people like going out or just want to be really transparent right just kind of keep yours informed and
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that's what makes them feel comfortable oh you know I did a poll right at the beginning of all this and I like asked
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my my readers do you still want to see travel content and 70% of them said yes
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so I took that as a go ahead continue to kind of move forward with postings about
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some of the content and the trips that I've done in the past since I you know takes time to put all those edit those
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YouTube videos and do all that so this is just giving me kind of a chance to catch up and and put that content on and
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people are you know they're still they know they can't go anywhere right now but they're fine going with you you know
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watching a video going going from home gotcha and Christine like how does it change for you yeah cuz you you're
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whatever being in your kitchen yeah I've been using every inch of my house that
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to post pictures but you know I have been mixing it in with some newer
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content and you know I rarely go outside to shoot but I still do and you know because I still am practicing social
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distancing nobody's outside it's just me and my photographer so I think that
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fashion and and what you post on social media is escapism there's so much going
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on right now and while I am very aware
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of the current situation and I do address it I do want it to be some
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relief right all right circumstances because we all know what's going on yeah I watch the news every day we all get
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the updates we know what our current climate is so I just kind of want to be
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at the intersection of awareness Oh some sort of relief from all of it escapism
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now you mentioned you know like the escapism it's interesting because I
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remember reading as he was buying people where like they had a post like business as usual for us like we want to be that
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escape but yeah for those of you guys who are just tuning in just kind of if you guys just joined in welcome because
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I've seen a couple of different people join we're doing I'm this is speaking occurs we have our special guests at
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least from readiness there and Christine from Trinity curvy we are talking today about how best we can support them how
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they have been impacted and talking about a little bit about like how to navigate this as a business owner
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because it you know we are although we are self-employed like we still are running a business and we're talking
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about a little bit of the realities in that to that to that point how do you
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what if you could charge like the everyday reader person with one way that they can support various businesses even
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like yourself what would you say um I would say that just you still
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following and engaging is huge because as influencers our engagement and our
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numbers is everything that's what we're judged on when we're getting campaigns
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when we're being being looked at by new company so you still just showing that
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during this time and it could be as simple as a double tap on their their
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their latest picture it's huge support is word is always appreciated
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across the board whether you're an influencer or business owner just continuing to support as we work through
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the things of this time it's really important yeah I would just echo that
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and say you know brands are really hesitant and moving forward with any influencer campaigns but you know I
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haven't seen it a dip and engagement at all if anything I've seen a huge spike so there's people are on their phones
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they're you know they're watching YouTube videos they're they're engaged so if we need brains to see that there
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is still a demand for our content and you know unlike traditional media where
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you can't go out right now and shoot a huge budget commercial but you can send you know a product and work with an
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influencer because we're getting real creative at home and oh no regulator the
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perfect advertisers right now so I just want to encourage there's people if they see an ad know that that's probably one
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of the few that that influencer has still so give it a like and share it comment and you know it doesn't cost the
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the reader anything but it it's huge for us and you know then if you are buying I
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would also say like you know use those if use affiliate links from your favorite bloggers that also helps us you
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know we've seen a lot of commissions the girl but you know if you see something
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and labeled affiliate link and you end up buying it like your if you're putting a little bit of money in our pocket and
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it doesn't cost you the reader anything you're just buying what you were already buying so
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so yeah if you see affiliate links and you're gonna buy if that helps us to so especially when many of these companies
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have dropped their cuz affiliate rates to zero and one different cheering those
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links so don't worry right I was like what is this one percent right why
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so like I could be gonna have a whole conversation about that like it just doesn't make any sense to me but for
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sake of having fun and keeping things cute over here um when it comes to like this we're in a
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space right now we're in a space where we're in having to innovate we're having
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to think outside the box and you guys both mentioned that you guys are finding
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different ways to kind of navigate this space what is something that you've discovered about yourself like for me I
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realized that there are two other voices that I want to other things that I want to share and want to nurture so I have
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launched two different new sites that I will be working on in different brands because I'm crazy but you know like I
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just it was right here and I was like I have to act on it and like for me I can just pay attention to that but for you
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guys like how are you innovating like what has kind of come to you or that you've realized because there's always a silver lining somewhere right like have
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you found that um I would think though I
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think that I've been really utilizing this time to plan and to try new things
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with my content be creative with it for my blog and my business I've been trying
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to you know for the business side think of new designs and you know I don't I don't think everybody's aware of my
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clothing line but I designed and style and and make all of the clothes they're
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all I sewed all the samples originally to go into manufacturing so I've really
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been trying to think of like what new designs I want to see and try to test things out like I'm really using this
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term it's kind of a testing zone to see you know we have this time that I really
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wouldn't have normally had and so I'm like a little oh these things you know we no
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one wants it to be this way I do feel like at this time that we've been given to stay at home where things are a
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little bit slow down is a blessing in disguise and I've really been been trying to figure out what I want to do
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and you know there's really a an awakeness and being still you know like
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I were going so much and I didn't realize how full my days were and how
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like just sitting still and allowing ideas come to you and not just going
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going going all the time it's really it's really beneficial to what we're
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doing right now Elyse so I have definitely been in more
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of like a freeze mode where I can get done exactly what I need to get done
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that's that's work that I still have I wouldn't say I've been extremely create
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is during this time I I wish that I could say that I had you know done all
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this stuff but for me I know that there's so much out of my control that
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the thing that feels best right now is crass so I've done a lot of it else or
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traps I was in a creative coaching group
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before all this happened and she said you know what did you like to do when you were 8 years old 9 years old and I
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was like well I like to do like I like to paint and I like to sew and draw and it's like funny how that's kind of what
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I've been going back to so so yeah I've been enjoying crafting and has nothing
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really to do with my business that's a perfect yep but yeah so that's I've been
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enjoying and it's been like me that's calming because I can control you know
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how I draw or how I do I can control that so it feels good to me to just do
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that stuff you know I wish I was able to be more productive but I have it so I just went on and I think
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that's okay balance yeah although I am
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taking this time to try to think of new ways to you know grow my business there's plenty of days where I'm just
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like today is not going to be productive and that's okay I'm going to do nothing
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on my to-do list listen leave Netflix and and Disney Plus yeah and Apple TV
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have been best friends like I have got caught up on almost every frickin show I
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have to get caught up on the manifest and then I think I'm caught up on everything yeah now you have days and
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it's like important to recognize that like at least I'm so excited about you drawing and sketching I have my
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sketchbook like that's sitting on my living room table right now because well just start sketching out little outfits
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and sketching out like ideas that come to my mind like for me I love to draw when I was younger I would do all kind
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of outfits and stuff so for me like that's my outlet so I get you yeah and so it's important that we find like
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what works for us because like you know we have two different examples here but they're both great there's not like good
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I do not subscribe to the oh you need to come out of this with a whole new right
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like um skill yeah I don't I don't believe in that some people are just
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like hanging on to be hanging on like you know fruit first for me like I was talking about earlier like I deal with
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anxiety like I have to learn how to manage that and be mindful like I will spiral if I just let myself keep going
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so I have to catch myself and if I'm not feeling okay if my mind I'm gonna get up
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from this desk and walk my tail over to the couch in the living room and show
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how do you guys navigate those moments outside from like sketching or like you
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know during yourself into work yeah I think for me prayer has definitely been
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beneficial you know not being able to interact
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and go to church you know that that has affected me a little bit more than I
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thought it would so you know just listening to gospel music Krang kind of
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taking those moments to just being your thoughts good or bad I think it has been
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really beneficial to me and just realizing that you know it's it's okay to not be okay this is not an okay
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normal nothing about it you should be like hitting on all on a
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point you know it's not it's not it's not a good time for us right now so it's
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okay to not be okay it's okay to feel like doing something it's okay to say
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like not doing anything like it just go with how you feel at the moment and try to figure out your daily routine things
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that make you feel good things that make you feel motivated and fulfilled every day and just do the best you can and at
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least now maybe move to go at least but you taught me that it's okay to not be okay
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many moves about maybe like five years ago almost and I've never forgotten that
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mm-hmm and that's actually something that I I repeat often so it's great that you said that Christian at least like
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this kind of goes right back in so how are you doing you know I think I am just
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really checking in with myself and it is okay to have days that are harder than
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others and therapy is definitely like getting me through everything I happen
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to already be doing online therapy I use pride counseling which is calm which is
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part of its also similar to better help they're like a sister companies so so
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yeah so I love both of them as like online resources it's nice because you
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all you need is like your computer your following and you just talk and then you can also do like chat sessions which you
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know I hate talking on the phone so to be able to have like a chat session option is is huge for therapy so yeah
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it's been really good I've been doing like some creative salons where do we get like writing prompts and then we
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just like what I've done those yeah so
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I've just been trying to just check in with myself and and know that recognize things that make me frustrated so like I
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know I call Ticketmaster I'm not gonna call Ticketmaster call the bank call I'm
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not gonna do all that in one day because that will make me extremely anxious so I tried to plan it out so I only have to
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do one of those things that I know makes make sure my anxious at 1:00 like in one day and that's what I've been trying to
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do is just kind of like honor that like it's okay it's really frustrating so much of this is out of your control and
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like you may never see that money again that makes you really stressed out but you know you tried you called you did
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what you had to do and now you got to move on and so that's like so much is out of your control that you just have
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to kind of try to be kind to yourself and don't don't overwhelm yourself with
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things that you know are gonna make you upset got to now this is a silly
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question but what have you been doing self-care
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wise in regards to like so for me like I've just been keeping my nails trimmed like you know or I do like these
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different types of exfoliations like have you guys like indulged in anything like self because I mean all the lessons
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[Laughter] here routines but I have been cooking
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every brace and cooking a lot more but I have bought like all the gadgets too
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many like I bought an air fryer which is the best purchase I've ever i'm jealous about that every night oh why so longer
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there but on my blog post i have posted like all the recipes that I've been
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trying with the air fryer it's amazing I bought like a brownie pan that only makes the edge brownie pieces life's
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waiting wait so it's like that only
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makes edge pizzas because the edges are the best and if you say it's not then I don't know it's also I'm a middle person
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I'd give me the middle part kinda just
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going with the flow whatever I feel like oh I want to try this today I want to try that today you know I made ceviche
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for the first time you know I'm making new recipes just whatever I'm in the mood for or feel like which I feel like
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is gonna put me in a good mood which is often food I just go with it but I don't
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really have like a routine and some people are like oh yeah and give you myself peg here carry Davey bags and I'm
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like I'm not on that level yet maybe baby mm-hmm what about shoe Elise yeah I mean I was
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never a huge skin care person before this so I've been in trying to like
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learn a little bit more since I'm home and my skin is like breathing more than it usually does I'm not wearing as much
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makeup so I've been trying to get into it but I definitely don't have a routine I mean the things that used to call me
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and not call me but like bring me joy we're shopping and traveling and I can't
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do either of those so I'm doing a lot of like Pinterest because it's like I could
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still dream I can still pin to my travel board and I really like we have been
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thinking about you know where I want to live in the future and how I want to
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live what kind of place I want to have so I'm kind of doing a lot of dreaming and that's helping and then in terms of
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shopping um Etsy has been really fast because you have to think like people
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who aren't the most of the time they run their businesses out of their home so
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let's see during this time which is mostly stickers really just curse for my iPad and my laptop right now um they
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have come so fast I know these stickers I need to see these stickers ready hold on let me see
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it again chunky chunky oh my god
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I'm just like I just it's something written and stickers are like three
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dollars so I don't feel like that bad that I'm buying them but also like it's helping an individual creator so yes I
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can't you know I'm not buying clothes really or anything like that maybe a pair of pajamas or something but but
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yeah stickers are something fun that supports like an individual artist and they're shipping out in like two days compared to everything else like even
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amst right now it's two or three weeks so um so yeah so it's like a little bit of instant gratification you know we
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were I think it's interesting what I've seen is the interesting is like people like even my husband who's not not
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plus-sized at all so he's used to going into stores if he wants something he has to buy it online and that's really foreign for him but for us as plus-sized
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consumer moment shopped online nothing new so I think that's been funny to
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watch just other people adjust to shopping online if they do want to buy something but for us so we were always
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on the line so it's not really different it's just a matter I was like recognizing that you know for for
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warehouses and things that are shipping out of warehouses for safety reasons it is gonna take longer and that's okay but
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you know a great time this is a great time to support individual designer and shop at sea and small because it makes a
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huge difference exact for them and it's quicker that's real well we are at our 30
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minutes a week that were my griffons guys it was like a little conversation we were talking you did share you know
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make people laugh with the people over here we got guys me talking about the middle part of the brownie but then
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you've got Raymond saying that edges are the best I mean laughs everyone is like
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kind of you started a little debate I'm the inside of a brownie flax just saying
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give it a gooey soft Milton your mouth
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huh yeah balance but you know that's another conversation but you know what that just means that we can equally kill
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a whole pair together exactly like me and my boyfriend he likes drums
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I like flats we are we're living in harmony so perfect
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well do me a favor tell me you tell everyone who's watching what your your
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site is your business and like how they can follow you and then yeah do that and
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then we'll I'll close us out okay so you can follow me on instagram at miss Christine MS Kri STI any my blog is
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trendy curvy calm and all of my other social media is trendy curvy and then my clothing line is kin ki n bye Christine
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calm and much appreciated for just a simple follow on my Instagram page thank
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you and Elise um my social media is at ready to stare and that's T Oh stare as
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in look at you and you can find me an app ready to stare everywhere I would
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love if you follow me on tick-tock I'm just like experimenting over there but I love to see y'all there because it's
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it's a fun little platform right now so ya ready to stare on chick talk to and my blog is www.ready.gov purse is really
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about shining the light on showing how we can support and help kind of you know really nurture the community during this
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time we will be back with sedate Thursday we'll be back Tuesday the days
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are kind of molding all together well we will be back on Tuesday with another guest at 12 p.m. Eastern Time 9 a.m.
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West Coast time and in the meantime make sure you check back on the curvy fashionista calm because we will be
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recapping and showing some of our favorite pieces from both at least and Christine and um in the meantime you
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guys don't be shy reach out thank you so much for following us and you guys have an amazing day talk to y'all later
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