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From MTV's My Super Sweet 16 to Building Her Own Legacy – Allison Mathis Jones | Born To The Game Podcast · Born To The Game Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Like we were like the only black people. My parents
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: were like the youngest people like living in the neighborhood.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And my dad moves in and at that same time
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: pretty much decides that he's gonna also start representing entertainers.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: He starts representing you know, your your rappers, your musicians,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: your actors, and pretty much West Places Ferry, which was
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: like this majority white area. Like my dad is throwing
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Grammy parties and tim dream career coming over.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: To the game.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: In line with the person learning to the game, carrying in.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: The play goes on the past, but it's.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: The game. Is welcome to Born to the Game.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: Produced by Archimedia Group and collaboration with Inflection Network and
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: distributed through iHeartMedia. This is a space where the children
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: and families of iconic athletes, entertainers, and cultural figures. Their
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: families built, but who they were and how that legacy continues.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Today's guest is my dear.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Friend Alison Matthis Jones, daughter of the late Atlanta attorney
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: and civic leader Charles Mathis.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Many people first met Allison as a teenager on MTV's
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: hit reality series My Super Sweet Sixteen, where viewers got
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a glimpse in a larger than life celebration, but behind
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the cameras was a young woman navigating family expectations, public attention,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: personal growth, and eventually profound loss.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Today, Allison joins us.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: To talk about identity, grief, family, motherhood, and it means
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: to build a legacy beyond what the world first saw.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Please welcome to the show, Alison. Mathis.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Joe just made me sound like such a big deal,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and that is alarious.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I'm like, who we're all talking about you? That's you, honey,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: what it's all you? Girl?
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I can I like get that written so I could
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: use that as like my Instagram Because this is.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Your episode, You're gonna have the whole episode. Well, hello ladies, Hi, honeybuns.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. You know, we
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: had to do it. We had to again.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: This is our You are our first virtual guest, and
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: it only made sense to have you on to join
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: us and to hear your story. You are, like I
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: just said, a dear friend of mine. So I had
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: to have you on so that the viewers can just.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: See what you've been doing, my super sweet sixteen star.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Like a little bit of a tidbit Mariah that like
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: our dads literally forced us to be friends. Like we
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: were both like awkward teenagers who like we were both
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: kind of like socially awkward, like and it's crazy because
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: we're pretty outgoing, but like our dads were literally just
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: like kept being like here your friends, your friends who
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: were like you literally don't know each other.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And then eventually it just stuck. So we're stuck.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Our moms were great friends, are great friends, and so
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: it made sense. And it's been what almost almost twenty years.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: You know, you're aging yourself this year.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Actually, I'm turning thirty six, so it marks twenty years since.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: My supers Oh are you going to do anything? I
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: am not, I'm not, I am.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I am already for Harper, my daughter's supersol, like all
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: of my birthday celebrations are now on hold for the
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: foreseeable future until she turns sixteen in nine years. I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: already know that is how much money I'm gonna need
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to save for her to have what she wants, because
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: now she's like, oh, mom, you did this, so like
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I gotta come harder than that.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, wait, we are going to get into
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: your experience during my super sweet sixteen.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, even just you looking back on it.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: But first just walk us through your day to day
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: life in the household as Charles mathis as your father.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: I think people need to understand how big of a
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: deal your dad.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Was to the Atlanta community.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, so my dad was born and raised in Macon, Georgia.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: He was the first African American city attorney for Millageville,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: which is actually a city that is about forty five
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: minutes to an hour outside of Macon, and so he
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: kind of set up his first law practice in Millageville
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and then became the first black city attorney in Millageville.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: From there, he started doing some.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Medical malpractice suits and things like that, and he actually
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: at the time ended up winning a settlement that was
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the the largest settlement that a black person had ever run,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: had ever won for a client as an attorney, and
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: so that kind of catapulted him into the spotlight as
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: an attorney.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So when you talk, you know.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: All of the attorneys and lawyers associations, like winning awards
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: left and right, being asked to be president left and right,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: all of that stuff. And of course, with all that notoriety,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: my family moved to Atlanta, and so my dad was
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: very much if you asked him, like this country boy
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: who like moved to the big city, because at the time,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: coming from like Macon Millageville, Atlanta was the big city.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Now to me, of course, I was four when we
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: moved here, Atlanta is just home, like it's normal. But
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: for him, it was very much like a big deal
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to even make that type of move from the Millageville
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: make An area up to Atlanta. And so when we
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: moved to Atlanta in nineteen ninety five, he set up
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: his practice here and the rest kind of became history.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: We moved into a condo in Buckhead, which if you
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: have been in Atlanta for or lived here, spent any
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: number of time, any amount of time here, you know
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: that Buckhead is kind of the affluent area in Atlanta.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: So we moved into a condo in Buckhead, and by
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the time I was seven, we moved from that condo
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: to what some people would probably call a mansion on
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: West Pays Ferry.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: The house looked like Tyler Perry's house.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I mean it's like, you know, it was
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: my home and so it just was what it was.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: But even now, like sometimes I'll drive by the house
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: like just to kind of you know, get in my
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: feelings some nostalgia and I'm like, damn, that's a big house.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Like I lived there, like I grew up there. Like
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: that is wild that I grew up there. So when
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I was seven, we moved from our condo into this
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: home on West Paces Ferry. And just like for people
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: that don't know Atlanta, West Places Ferry is the like
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the street where like the Governor's mansion is, so it's
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: definitely an affluid area. It definitely, I feel like, felt
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: like a little bit of culture shock for my parents
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: because coming from even though it's still buckhead like a condo,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: you're gonna of course be around more people of color,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: you know, younger people like we were like the only
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: black people. My parents were like the youngest people like
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: living in the neighborhood. And my dad moves in and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: at that same time pretty much decides that he's gonna
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: also start representing entertainers, and so he starts representing, you know, lawyers,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not lawyers. He starts representing you know, your your rappers,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: your musicians, your actors, and pretty much West Places Ferry,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: which was like this majority white area. Like my dad
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: is throwing Grammy parties and Ti and Dermaine coming over.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: So it definitely was an interesting, an interesting.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Time, like to be a young lady, you know, preteen,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: entering my teenage years in Atlanta, growing up in an
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: environment where a lot of people weren't used to seeing
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: black people at the time living the way that.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: We were living.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Wow. So was there one particular moment where it clicked
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: for you the impact that he had on the community.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: So it actually didn't click for me until I would
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: say I was probably maybe like in college, Like I
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: think that is the thing that so many of us
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: experienced growing up with these parents who were kind of
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: bigger than life, and you know, they're well known, is
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: that like they're still just our parents. And so I
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: did not really realize that, like the things that I
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: was experiencing my dad, you know, not being able to
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: walk through the mall without somebody coming up, things like that,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't really realize that that was not normal until
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I think I got to college and I started, you know,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: kind of branching out meeting different people and meeting people
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: who did not know anything about me, anything about my dad,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and kind of describing to them like, oh yeah, well,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: like you know this person used to come over all
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the time or this used to happen all the time,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and then being like wait what, like you know that
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: that is not normal, and me being like, oh, okay.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: So how would you describe your dad?
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: My dad was the most down to earth man that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you would ever meet. Like I said, like he very
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: much was if you asked him, just like a country attorney,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: like who just moved up from Atlanta, moved up to Atlanta,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and he literally never changed. He was very very personable,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: very very kind, very very giving, and very very very
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: down to earth. Definitely one of those people where like
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you can kind of move him to the city, but
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you were not taking like those country roots away from him.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And even still when I meet people you know now,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and I'll sometimes meet people that I know them, but
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: they don't quite know who I am because also a
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: little tidbit, I'm my dad's youngest child, and so people
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: still refer to me as the baby, and like when
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: they see me in public and they're like, I have
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: on a ring, I have two kids. They're like, wait,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: what aren't you still twelve? And I'm like, I don't know,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I'm actually a little older than that.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: So sometimes I'll meet people and I'll say, like, oh,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I think you probably know my older sister, Like I'm
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Charles Mathis's youngest daughter. And the number one thing that
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: people say is like, your dad taught me so much.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Your dad took me under his wing and mentored me.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Your dad gave to my organization. And so I think
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: that giving and always willing to give back and kind
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: of help other people to establish themselves, you know, in
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: whatever field they were looking to establish themselves in. That
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: is like the one thing that I would say described
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: my dad perfectly.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: And that perfectly segues into my next question, because I
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: was going to ask you what values did he instill
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: in you?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: My dad always taught me to be humble, and he
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: always taught me to take other people.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Along with you.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I remember, you know, growing up and having the opportunity
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: to go on different trips, to attend different shows and things.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Like that, and my dad was always like that parent
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: that was like, bring some friends with you.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: And when I was younger, I think that I thought
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that he just wanted me to have friends with me
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: so that I was entertained. But as I grew up,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I begin to see that he wanted me to bring
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: friends with me because he wanted me to learn the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: importance of like sharing, and that if we're not giving
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: back and kind of helping others to you know, also
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: experience the things that we are experiencing, then it's pretty
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: much all in vain. And so I would say humility
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: would be the first one, and the second one would
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: be to not be successful on my own, but to
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: try to make others successful as well. My dad was
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: like so big on community, and that is something that now,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: like is I think central in what I'm building.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Myself is it's all about community.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: It's all about giving back, and it's all about mentoring
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: not only like the next generation, but our peers because
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: we all have something that we can learn from each other,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and there is room for all of us to be great,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: especially if we're willing to work together and hold hands
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and literally just lift each other up as we go.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: I like, yes, my dad is pretty much the same way,
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: like share the wealth, And I love what you just said.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: There's room for all of us to eat.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: At the table, and you're not that We're gonna build
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: a bigger table and make room period.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: Exactly did you feel any sense of pressure to live
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: up to certain expectations because of who your dad was.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, And again so I have a master's degree
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: now in marriage and family therapy, and so I psychoanalyze
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: myself quite a lot, right, And what I realize is
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: that not only being Charles Mathis's daughter, but also being
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the youngest, I felt a lot of pressure to succeed
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and to make sure that my life looked a certain way.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I think, especially coming off of my super sweet sixteen,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: which I know we're gonna get into, I felt like
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I was kind of like a representation of my dad
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and his success, you know what I'm saying, Like I was,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I was the fact that Charles Mathis succeeded and the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: fact that he made it to a certain level personified, right,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And so I definitely didn't want to misrepresent that or
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: let him down or let anybody down. And then also
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I think just like having a dad like my dad
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: was also I mean, I guess this goes I'm saying
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: he was like really smart. I guess, of course, like
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: how could he be that to me? So smart and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: so like he really valued like education and all that,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: and so even when it just came down to like
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: my grades, you know, like things like that. I definitely
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: felt the pressure to be like, okay, like my Daddy's smart,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: like he has kind of high standards when it comes
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: to grades and what college I'm going.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: To, and you know, all those things.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: So before we do dive into your super my, super
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: sweet sixteen journey, what's one thing about your dad that
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: people just didn't get to see?
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: You know, that is such a hard question. And the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: reason that it's a hard question is because my dad's
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: gift and curse was that he really had no private life.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Like he like at the doors to our home were
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: always open.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: It could be Christmas Day and you know, my dad
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: would call someone and like literally we'd end up with
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: a house full of people and I'm still in my pajamas,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: like playing on the floor with my with my toys,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: and now we have like there's a Christmas party, and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I'm like, what is going on? My dad gave so
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: much of himself to the community and like to Atlanta that,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to be quite honest and to be transparent, sometimes it
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: felt like me and my mom in particular just got
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: like the leftovers because he gave so much, and so
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I don't really feel like there's anything that people didn't
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: see because he he was always, you know, open door policy.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: He definitely was not.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: A shy guy by any means, and he was like
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: always authentically him.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: I love that. I really do love that for you.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: And you know, my dad again, I remember stories of
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: my dad saying that he would oh, I'm going over
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: to Charles's house and I'm like, okay, you know, have
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: a good time. So yes, definitely your dad had an
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: open door policy. And again that's something that even years later,
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: we still talk about and just enjoy that about him.
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: So I think that perfectly segues into us talking about
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: your my super sweet sixteen journey and what that experience
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: was like for you and how that was like even
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: for your dad, because I know that probably caused him
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: a little bit.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: My dad's party, I gotta put that out there, Like
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: my dad literally like, okay, let me just set the stake.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: So I am.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I am fifteen years old. It is the summer before
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I turned sixteen. It is very beginning of the summer,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: at the end of the summer in August, so it's
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: like June, me and my family are I want to
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: think in like Myrtle Beach, because this is back when
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach was totally living and like all everyone loved
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: to go to Myrtle beachur in the summer because they
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: had teen clubs and your parents will let you be grown.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: We're in Myrtle Beach, me and my sister, who is
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: a great deal older than me. I won't out her
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and say how much she's a lot older than me.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: We're sitting and we're watching MTV. It's like raining outside
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and there's a Sweet sixteen marathon on, and so we're
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: watching all these parties and we're just like he he
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: ha ha.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: We could totally do.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: This, Like we could totally pull off a party like this.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: But we're like, we're joking, you know what I'm saying.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: We're just whatever, don't think anything else of it. Meanwhile,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: as the summer goes on, I actually am turning sixteen
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: this summer, and so I asked my dad if I
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: can have like a sixteenth birthday party. We go back
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and forth, like, oh, are we gonna do it at
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the house? Are we gonna do it somewhere else? My
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Dad's like, sure, you can have a sixteenth birthday party,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Like we'll do it. So we still to plan a
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: sixteenth birthday party. Now it was already a bit over
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: the top, I will say, but it was not a
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: my super sweet sixteen party. It was a birthday party,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Next thing, I know, my
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: dad comes home one day and it has to be
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: like late July early August at this point, my birthday
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: is at the end of August. My dad comes home
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: one day and he's like, yeah, someone from MTV called
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and they heard about your party and they wanted to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: know if you wanted to be on some show. And
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, what Like so of course, I'm like
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I call my sister. I'm like you're not gonna believe
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and she's like, oh yeah, I know, like Daddy talked
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: to me earlier, Like she's like, you know, we were
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: just talking about it, like should we do it?
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, like let's do it.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: And so then from that point my my party that
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: I was having, my dad like took it and he
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: ran with it and he made it his own and
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: so transparently, I will say, like celebrity appearance like stuff
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: That's that was not something that we.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Were initially planning to have until after you know, my
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: dad decided that we then needed a marching band, and
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: we needed celebrity appearances, and we needed all the things.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: So you needed p Street Street to be shut off.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: That's the way I remember from watching the episode.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, I will never forget that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: because I remember watching the episode and it was just like, whoa,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: that was crazy. It was funny about like Ptre Street
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: being shut down, because that's like the one thing that
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I feel like I kind of caught like flack about,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: was like.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Shutting down pech Stree Street.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Is that like if you know Peachtree Street. We did
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: shut down p Stree Street, but we shut down one
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: lane of peach Stree Street, and like p Stree Street
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: was still actually like totally operational, but you know it's
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: okay operational.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, people could still drive you know street on the
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: other comp just you know, just make Atlanta's traffic word.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Why this was two thousand and six, it's different, Okay,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: So Peachtree Street was still operational.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: But did you realize how big the show was?
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, you said you were watching a marathon, but like,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: did you know that there was like a huge deal
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: to even actually get on and actually and also like
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: how do they find out that you're having a party?
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Like how did that happen?
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: So I think they found out just because my dad
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: was relatively like plugged in in the entertainment world at
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: this time. Like I said, he was already representing by
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the time I was sixteen, quite a few celebrity clients,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and my dad was like a talker, and so all
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I can imagine was that he starts talking about this
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: party and then someone's kind of like, wait, oh, I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: know somebody with MTV, and you know, it just went
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: from there in terms of knowing how big of a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: deal it was, though, Like I remember kind of being
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: shocked that I was on there, like that I was
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: going to be on there because I used to watch.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: It, you know what I'm saying.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I want to think I can't remember, but I want
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: to think that my episode is like season three or four.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: So I have been watching the show, you know, like
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: four seasons and like seeing these parties and like the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: party that I think I m envisioned in my head.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I kind of had a hard time computing like how
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: is my party gonna like compare to like those parties,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And so even now, like
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: looking back, of course, like I said at the beginning,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: it's been twenty years. People on social media will often
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: tell me that my party was their favorite party, and
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm kind.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Of like, oh my gosh, like, how did we pull
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: that off?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Yours and Keanna Taylor's have been my favorite so far,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Like Lily, I still remember Tiana Taylor's. But you've showed
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: it to Harper, so watching it back with her, how
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: is that? And like when you're going back in the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: explaining stuffter, But both of my kids have seen My
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Sweet sixteen and they think it's hilarious up until the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: point where I get thrown up on, and that is
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: very traumat for my daughter. She is like very empathetic,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and she is like still kind of like I feel
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: all of your feelings, like that must have been the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: worst thing that ever happened to you. Like she'll literally
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: be like, I'm so sorry that happens.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, it's okay. My son he finds.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: It funny, and then he's like he has a ton
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: of questions because we're in the vomit and poop phase.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Anyway. So he you know, anytime that that vomit.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Or poop are involved, he's gonna already have a million questions,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and especially like with it on me, he's like, what
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: it feel like, what it smell like? Like, let's let's
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: get in well, like dive in details about the throw
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: up experience. But it is something that's really really funny
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to watch back with my kids. I don't love watching it.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I think that many of us who find ourselves on
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: TV or podcasting or radio, the strange thing is we
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: don't love to hear our own voices, which is weird
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: because we.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Talk on microphones.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: But listening it back and then like listening to it
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: as me as a teenage is like kind of cringing
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: for me. However, I love, love, love that there are
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: moments between me and my dad that are now like
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: captured on camera forever.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I get to go back and watch them.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: My kids get to watch them, of course, whenever we
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: watch it, which we don't watch it often, We maybe
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: watch it once a year, you know, but it brings
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: up oh, like my kids are asking what was your
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: dad like? You know, things like that, So it's really
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: special to be able to show them Yeah, So did
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: being on TV? Did it change anything for you? Like
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: did you like being on TV?
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: We were like, oh, I kind of like I like
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: being on TV? Or what was that like for you?
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: And also like just your experience after being on the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: show and then going back out into the community in school,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: what was that like? Yeah, I think that being on
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the show gave me really tough skin to be sixteen,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: and you know that's obviously for a young lady in particular,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: it's a really pivotal time, like you're definitely finding yourself
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and to be sixteen, and even though I realized now
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: my life wasn't normal necessarily, I wasn't living under a microscope.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: People weren't really watching me and what I was doing
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: until postsuet succeed And so going from being, yes, maybe
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: a girl that had, you know, more experiences and that
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: you know, things like that, to a girl that people
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: knew and people had opinions about it was definitely a transition.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: I say that my parents did a.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Really really good job though, in making sure that I
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: didn't let it change me after I would I think
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: probably about a month after the show aired. They kind
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of let me do what I wanted and then I
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: wasn't really even allowed to at this time. There were
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: like chat rooms and things because this was early two thousands,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Like I wasn't allowed to go on those anymore because
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: they started to see that I was like, you know,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: taking some stuff personally. So they were like, not like
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: no more, looking like you live your life like you
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: live your life as if this never happened. And so
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: that's what I did. And you know, I went to
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: the University of Miami for college. Occasionally, yes, I would
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: get the oh you're that girl from my super sweet sixteen,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: but I don't feel like going forward. It really changed
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the trajectory of my life for better or for worse.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Cool, really cool.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Well, it was an outstanding party, and it was a
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: party that I you know, I felt like I was
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: at too, and I was.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: You were there, right, I was gonna say, I I
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: don't know. I don't think I was there, and I'm
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: so shitty about it because I don't think we met yet.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: I don't think.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: I don't think we met until after your party.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I don't think so, because I was mere was asking
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: me and I was like, I don't think I was there. Yeah, okay, okay,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know why.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: In my head I thought you were there, but there
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: was a lot of people there, and somehow there were
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: people I didn't even know there.
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: So, but was yours wasn't at Justin's right, Justin's So
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: maybe because I remember being at Justin's, so I actually
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: think I was at your party Allison was at Sweet sixteen,
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: because I didn't know if it was Allison's or someone
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: else's because there was another person there was another guy
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: from Atlanta who had it on Justine.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Aaron Reed was on there. I was on there, and
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: then Quincy. That's why I thought Nincy's wasn't at Justin's,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: because I went to his was after mine.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: I thought I could have been at Quincy's. Hers was
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: in Atlanta as well.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Like actually the Atlanta teenagers back in the two thousands,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: apparently we were.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: We were doing ye'ah was nitty?
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, Now I will the question that I do have.
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: So back when My Super Sweet sixteen was was coming
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: up and was popular, it was before social media was
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: a thing. Yes, now sixteen year olds they are growing
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: up under the influence of social media. Would you be
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: on My Super Sweet sixteen and twenty twenty.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Or let your daughter do something or let your daughter
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: be on it. In twenty twenty six, I'm gonna probably
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: say no.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: I feel like, like I was saying about those chat rooms,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: like that was already a lot, you know what I'm saying,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: And imagine like with Instagram and TikTok and just like
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: the constant accessibility. You know, I think it would have
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: been too much for me mentally, and I think it
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: would be too much for just about any teenager. Like
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I said, even now, I get tons of comments on
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: social media about my sweet sixteen, and some people will
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: even say to me, some of my close friends who
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: know that, like, honestly sweet sixteen, Like I'm not gonna say,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: who cares, but like it's not a huge part of
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: my life anymore. But they will say to me, like,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: why do you still talk about your sweet sixteen on
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: social media when it's been twenty years, And I'm like,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: because people still ask about it, Like people are will
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: come into my comments and be like, hey, yeah, I
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: love the stay in the life, but like do you
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: still have your dress from my super sweet sixteen? And
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like, y'all no, but you know, like people are
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: very much still interested in it. So I cannot imagine
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: doing it now, and how much more interested they.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Would be in it if it were current. You know.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, it's a part of the culture
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: if you think about it. I remember it was pit
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: my ride, Yeah, what was it?
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: What was the other one? Crib? What was the crib?
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: And so all those shows, I mean we all remember them,
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: we all watched them religiously.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: So it's the show really was a part of our
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: culture growing up. So it's very it's I mean, they
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: don't probably do it as much anymore, but the relevancy
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: is we all remember it, just like we remember a
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: different world and all those good, other good shows back,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: you know, back during that time.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: So it makes sense, it really does. And baby, I
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: was locked in. We were locked well, I mean all
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: those MTV shows.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I used to watch all of that, The Real World,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I'm dating myself, the World watch all that.
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: Yes, well, it was a beautiful part of your journey.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: And you know, now that you're twenty years removed, we're
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: going to get into.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: What you're doing.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I have one more question, though, I got one more question. Yes,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: before we move on, Alison, I have one more question.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: How do you separate who Allison really is from the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: version people think they know. So that's a really good question.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And you know, earlier in the episode, when I was
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: talking about my dad, I think I was talking about
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: his authenticity, and I think that's something that kind of
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: passed along to me. I don't necessarily think that there
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: are multiple versions of Allison, you know what I'm saying.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I think that I am pretty authentically myself. Now, what
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I will say is like, in the lens of Sweet Sixteen,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: I have to remind people often that I was sixteen.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: I was very much a child on reality TV. So
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: some of the things that I did and said, yes,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: they were immature because I was immature because I was sixteen.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: And so in that respect, I well kind of, you know,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: I can kind of separate myself a little bit, like
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the grown up version of me versus the sixteen year
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: old version of me, because of course, like I would
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: hope put that, you know, I've grown a ton since then. However,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I don't really necessarily feel like there are just these
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: two distinct versions of me. I kind of feel like,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: you know what, with me, what you see is kind
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: of what you get.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: I'm my daddy's daughter, and you know.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: We're We're just, We're just, you know, a country family
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: that with our roots in Millageville and Macon, who moved
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: up to Atlanta and here we are.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: I love that. I love that.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: What is the biggest misconception people have about you because
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: of the show? I think I would say, especially back then,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: people definitely assume that I was very, very very bratty and.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: Bougie.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I am spoiled, yes, but like selfish and.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Bratty not so much. Never really been that girl.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Like I said, humility was always like, very very important
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: to my parents. I would say that was probably the
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: biggest misconception people had of me, and the thing that
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: initially I felt like I tried the hardest to kind
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: of counteract, and then you know, after a while, I
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: just decided I didn't really care, and so I just.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Let people think what they want and keep on living
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: my life.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: But period, So what is the difference between bougie and brattie?
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: Because is there is there a huge difference?
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: I feel like there is, right. I feel like, when
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you're bougie, it's when you like nice.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Things and you like it a hard way.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: When you're bratty, it's when you're going to treat people
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: a certain way as a result of being bougie.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: I'm bougie, but I'm not going to be rude to you.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I'm bougie, but we can still go to water, you
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Like, it's also like you expect it, like you're entitled,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: like the too. Yeah. Yeah, And then I always.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: Thought bougie meant entitled. And that's why I hate it
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: when people labeled me as bougie, because I'm like, I
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: will stay at you know, I will go to McDonald's
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: waffle house. I will stay at a two three star
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: hotel like I don't now, don't get me wrong, I
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: do like the finer things, but I don't have to
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: have it.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: But I wouldn't even call you though you're to me. Yeah.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Also, like the thing that I say a lot is
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: that like there's a difference between being spoiled and being selfish.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I think that's because like, okay, what I what I
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: prefer to stay at the four seasons over the holiday inn. Yes,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: but like if we're going somewhere and the holiday is
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: where we're staying, then that's where we're staying.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Like Mariah, you know, we love a residence in. That's
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying right next to the four seasons. But
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: we like the residence in. Stay in a residence in quickly, honey. Okay,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: That's why I cator in the mic away.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: That's what I want to make sure we set the
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: record straight because people will autock look at us and
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: be like, oh, they're Braddy spoiled bougie, and I'm like,
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: hold on a second, that's not even true. Okay, maybe
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: a little bit, but not all the time.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Time, guys, Okay, good son.
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: So now that we talked about what people saw, I
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: think now it's it's a good opportunity for us just
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: to talk about who Allison is today and what you
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: were doing and what your passions are, what you feel
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: like your purpose is. So if you were to describe
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: yourself in one word, who is Alison today?
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: In one word? One word? Oh, it's pressure, but you
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: can do it. You can do hard things, Alison. One word.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: I mean we already throughout bougie. Yeah, give me one.
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: Word to describe how Matthus Jones in twenty twenty six.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: So the one word that I think I would use,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and this is probably going to throw you off for
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: a loop is multifaceted because I feel like I am
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: a person who I've done and am doing like so
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: many things. Like when I look back at like the
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: life that I have lived in these almost thirty six years,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: I'm like, how have I done all this? Like?
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: How has all this happened to me? How have I
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: fit all this in? Like WHOA?
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: So I think I would say multifaceted because I'm a mom,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I'm a wife, I'm a content creator, I'm a realtor.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I've written a children's book, like I just you know,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I'm multifaceted.
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: You're doing all the things so out of you know,
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: all the things that you have accomplished that you are
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: continuing to accomplish.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: What's the most important thing for you right now?
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I think right now the most important thing for me
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: is kind of finding myself outside of being a wife
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: and a mother. My kids are still relatively young, they're
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: four and six, and so they still take a lot
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: of time and attention, as I'm sure you guys know
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: and can imagine. However, I don't have babies anymore, and
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not having any more babies, and so I'm kind
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: of at a place where I'm like Okay, yes, my
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: kids still need me, I'm still pta mom, still all
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: of that, but there also is space for me to
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: have my own identity outside of them, outside of this house,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: and so I am really focused on building that both
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: personally and professionally right now, which is a fun journey
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: to be on.
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: So I've again, I've known you for almost twenty years, and.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: So I know your journey.
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: And before we talk about just the struggles that a
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: lot of women and mothers and wives deal with when
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: they're trying to navigate motherhood and wifehood and also trying.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: To pursue their own careers.
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: And figure out their purpose and their passions and their identity,
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: we'll get into that.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: That's gonna be my next question.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: But before we get into it, what is it that
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: you are working on currently? Can you give us a
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: list of all the projects that and your passions that
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: you're doing right now?
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: So I am a content creator. That is kind of
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: my job day to day. So people use the term
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: influencer and content creator interchangeably. They're not exactly the same thing,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and I am kind of both, which is why I
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: can kind of say that they're not exactly the same thing.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: And so personally, I work with brands and businesses as
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: an influencer to promote their products and such on social
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: media and create content for them that is promoting their products.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: But then I also just launched a separate business as
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: a content creator, and that business is called Moments to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Media Content Co. And what we are all about is
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: helping businesses and brands represent them on social media. What
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I would say is kind of different between like being
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: a social media manager and a content creator is that
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: you can still totally have a separate social media manager,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: but sometimes what happens is that the social media manager
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't have any actual content to post, and so the
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: social media manager is like, yeah, I can come up
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: with this whole plan of what we're gonna do X
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: y Z, but I don't have any actual content. So
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: that's where Moments to Media comes in. We offer content
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: days for just about any kind of business you can't imagine,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: so interior decorators, attorneys, you know, estheticians like anyone.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: We will come in.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: We have you know, hourly packages where we can set
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: up a content day. We can get behind the scenes
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: content day and the life content content of you and
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: your product or your your service and then we go
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and we produce social media ready content out of that
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: that your social media manager can take and post. We
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: also do event coverage, which is really fun, and so weddings,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: birthday parties, all the things. A lot of people want
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: social media ready content that they can share showing the
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: event that they hosted, or showing their wedding or xyz.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: And that's something else that we offer. You light up
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: talking about it. I know it sounds like you're having
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of fun with it.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun. I'm getting to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: go to a lot of cool events. I'm getting to
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: meet a lot of business owners, you know, small business
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: owners and kind of bigger business owners and just kind
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: of help them showcase what they do and what they're
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: all about on social media, which is really really fun.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Like I said, my background, I have a degree in
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: public relations and marketing, so my background is already kind
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: of in stuff like this, and then I kind of
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: transitioned to being an influencer just because of my sup
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: verse three sixteen and life and so it kind.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Of just seamlessly happened.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: And after having quite a few people come to me
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and say like, hey, like can you help me create
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: content for XYZ. I was like, oh, people need this,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: and so here we are. That was my next question
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: is what made you make it a business?
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Because you yes, for yourself. So that answers the question
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: of that. I love that house. How you can create.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: A cash flow or an influence out of a pain point?
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, people need something and you
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: have the answer. That's really cool. Yes.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: People are literally like okay, like we see how you
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: do your own content. You obviously have the eye for it, like, O,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: can you come to this event and like we just
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: want to grand you know, a recap of our grand opening.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: And that was like after you know, the fifth person
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: ask you, You're like, well.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, Like I guess this is what you're mean. So
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: So, Mariah, has anybody asked you five times to do
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: something the same thing?
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: How then we have to think about that. No, I'm saying,
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: how they.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Have, and.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Let's make it into a business. I mean, hey, I
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: mean that's a great that's a great point. I love it.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: And what challenges have you faced pursuing this just being
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: a co creator influencer.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think that my biggest challenge, and
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: it's just it's probably a me thing, is just balance.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I don't even think there's a such thing as balance,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: but you still try to find it, you know, being
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: a mom, being a wife, now being a business owner myself,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: and then also still managing my own social media stuff
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: as an influencer.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: It's really hard to fit it all in in a day.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: It is impossible to fit it all in on a day,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: quite honestly. And there is always some area that I
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: feel like gets kind of the shorter end of the
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: stick for me as a mom. That area is never
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: going to be my kids. Like I'm just never going
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: to let it be my kids. Speaking of kids.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: I love that it's perfect.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: My daughter high beautiful, Oh my goodness long, and we
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: were taking down breaks for this, and so that's what
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: we're going to be doing this as well.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: So, yes, my kids are never gonna be the thing.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: That get the shorter end of the stick because that's
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: just not the mom that I want to be. So
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: it does kind of feel like some nights I might
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: be staying up till three am to fit it all
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: in because you know, I had to stop working to
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: take down the braids or whatever, and so I think
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: that's the biggest challenge for me. Also, just being a
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: content creator, you would think that I would be used
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: to it, like coming off of I said I'm my
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: go back Woop. Also just like being an influencer and
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: sharing so much of my life on the Internet, you
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: would think that I would be used to it coming
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: off of my super SPEEDSICX scene and having been on
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: a reality show. But people really think that they know me, right,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: and they kind of do because I'm authentic and there
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: is one version of me. But I do get kind
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: of off the wall questions comments. I get people coming
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: up to me and the kids in public sometimes like
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: oh I saw the video you did about Xyzo. I
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: could be kind of tricky to navigate sometimes, like especially
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: because I guess sometimes I forget that that that's even
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: a thing because I'm very much just living my life,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: But that can be kind of.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Kind of kind of funky, especially now as a parent. Right,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: So what's your go to thing to relax? We love
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: to do to relax. So I love playing tennis. I
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: just got into tennis, like what a year and a
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: half ago, but like, I love it. It has become
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: such a fun outlet for me. And it's there's also
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: like a whole like tennis community that I am now in,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: which is a whole different conversation for a different day.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: But I would say tennis is one thing that I
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: can always count on, like to get my mind off
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: of work, off of motherhood, off of all the things.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: And so no matter what, like at least once or
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: twice a week, I'm gonna send an hour or two
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: out on the tennis court, because when you're out on
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: that tennis court, like you really can't think about other things,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: because tennis is one of those sports where, like you
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: gotta focus.
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: So I take this, what does success look like at
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: this stage for you?
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: That is such a hard question.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: I think that for me, at this stage, success looks
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: like having the flexibility to to.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Fit it all in.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: And like, I know that's such an oxymoron because I
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: just said that, like, oh, it's impossible to fit it
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: all in, But I think like having the flexibility scheduling wise,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: in terms of having like help to fit it all in.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: So like for me, right, like what that means and
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: what I've realized is that I need a.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: Maid and I need a chef, because.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: I don't have the time to cook, to clean, to
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: mom and to work, and so like the things that
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: I can hand off.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: I very much need to be able to hand off.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: And so I think that's like one thing that will
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: be like a sign of success for me. And I'm
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: not talking about like the housekeeper that comes like every week, cause,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: like I mean, that's attainable for many of us, thank
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: god it is. I'm talking about like the housekeeper that
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: comes like every other day and like does the laundry,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: all the things, Because in trying to find some semblance
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: of a balance in this crazy life, I've just realized that, like,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: because it's impossible to fit it all in, we have
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: to be able to get to a level of success
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: where we don't have to try to fit it all
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: in because we have other.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: People that are doing some of those points for us.
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: So to the mother, to the wife who is struggling
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: to believe that they are capable of achieving it all
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: or having it all, I've heard you and I've seen
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: you say that a lot on your social media, that
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: women can have it all. What do you say to
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: the mom or to the wife who wants to have
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: it all? But they're struggling trying to take that first
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: step into doing it.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I would just remind that woman that there is a
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: season for everything. I speak in seasons a lot because
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: my husband actually plays professional basketball, so I'm often talking about, oh,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: this season, that season, and in using that word so much,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: it has become such a big part of how I
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: think about everything, not really in terms of sports, but
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: just in the way that life works. There was a
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: season of life where all I did was hold sleeping
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: babies who were nursing from my boot, and that's what
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: I did, Like that is all that I had the time,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: energy and capacity to do.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: That was my number one priority.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: I am now in a season of life where I
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: can leave my kids, you know, with their grandmother for
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: three or four hours and go and you know, attend
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: this networking event. Everything in life is going to happen
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: in seasons, and just because you're not in a certain
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: season today doesn't mean that you won't be there in
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a year.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: And so it's very hard when you're in it.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: But remember that, like just like the season's changed, like
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: in a blink of an eye, you will find yourself
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: in the next season and you will get an opportunity
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: to pour back into yourself.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: And how important is it for women to try to
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: find themselves? Would you say? It is absolutely important?
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: So I, like many of us, and again this could
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: probably be we could we could probably do like a
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: third and a fourth and a fifth episode together.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Because there's so many things you can talk about.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I, like many of us, feel like I
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: kind of lost myself a little bit in wifehood and
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: motherhood just that my my husband's career and what that
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: meant for our lifestyle and my kids and all of that.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: It just felt so all encompassing that I didn't really
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: feel like I had an identity outside of that, Like
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I was, you know, this man's wife, and I was
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: these kids mom, and.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: That was kind of it.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: And there are so many things that we can go
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: through in life that will leave us like pretty much
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: waking up one morning and realizing like, huh, Like if
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: I don't have that anymore, then who even am I?
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: And I had one of those wake up moments where
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I woke up one morning and I was like, wait,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: who am I? Like if we take if we strip
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: all those things away, who am I? And So it
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: is super super important that you take the time to
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: figure that out. Like I said earlier, like everything in
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: life is in seasons, and so it is okay if
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: you're in a season where being a wife or being
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: a mother or whatever maybe comes ahead of other things.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, always remember who you are,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: what you're passionate about, what you love doing below that
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: as well, because like there will be a time where
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: you need to lean on it, you know.
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, and I believe we are all deserving
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: of tapping into our purpose and to our passions, and
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: we are deserving of it unapologetically. I think society has
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: trained women into believing that you can only be.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: A good mom and a good wife.
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: And if you even have the audacity to tap into
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: what your personal desires are outside of motherhood and wifeihood,
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: you're selfish. And so I'm just excited and I'm happy
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: to see all of us trying to break that barrier
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: and break that stereotype and say out loud that.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: You can have it all.
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: You can be a great mom, you could be a
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: great wife, and you could be a great business woman.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: We can have it all.
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I love this conversation, and I just love
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: how we all continue.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: To uplift each other and other women. A panel coming on.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: I love you're onto something apparel kind of something. I
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: could talk about this all day.
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: And it's because, too, Allison, We've also grew up seeing
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: very successful men and powerful men in their respective industry,
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: and so our moms and you know, Tamarra, it doesn't
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: matter if you know who your dad is, but just
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: seeing women always just take a back seat to their.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: Spouses, and so you know, again, we're.
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: Just trying to do things differently and say that it's
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: okay to to step out there and put yourself out
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: there and be big and bold and say I want to.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: Do the damn thing too. But yeah, so I could
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: see a panel coming.
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: I just I could talk about it all day, like
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: it's just my Tmay and I talk about it when
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: we got off. Once we got off the phone with you,
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: I'm sure we're going to talk about the same thing.
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: We just we love talking about empowering women and going
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: for it.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: So good for you, sus We see love that. Thank you.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: Let's go into our next segment.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: So you're one thing that stuck out to me earlier
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: is that you said that your dad was very big
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: about community and about taking people with you.
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: And being humble some really really great attributes.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: And things that has you know, made you who you
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: are today. What do you miss the most about him?
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: My dad was like a bigger than life personality, you know,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Like I think that we've all met those people where
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: like you literally can't imagine them not being there. And
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: so I think it's just like the presence, right, like
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the feeling that you would get when, like my dad
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: would just walk into a room. And I don't know
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: if that even makes sense for someone who if you're
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: someone who has not lost someone that is close to you,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: But I think it's just like his overall presence. Also,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: I will say, like just me being honest, like being
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: the baby like I often feel like, for example, like
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: my siblings. When my dad passed away, I was twenty,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: so I mean my brother and sister were in their
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: like mid to.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Late thirties at this point, and.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: So there was a lot of kind of resentment in that,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Like I lost him so early, so like I was
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: just barely getting into adulthood and so being the baby
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and like his baby girl. I also just miss like
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: being able to call my daddy for.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: Some you know what I'm saying, just like the little
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: stuff like oh, hey Dad, like can I have money?
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Or hey Dad, like the car is doing X y Z,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: or you know, just like the day to day daddy's
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: little girl stuff. So how did losing him change your
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: perspective just about life, about growing up or whatever. Yeah,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: I think that losing my dad. First of all, that
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: was the first. I've lost my grandmother before my dad, but.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Losing my dad was like the first.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: It still felt like the first like major thing that
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: happened to me, like the first negative thing. I think that,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: you know, we kind of all feel like we're supposed
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: to lose grandparents, like that's somewhat normal as you become
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: a teenager, but like losing a parent, like that's something
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: that literally shakes your entire world. I would say that
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: it definitely showed me the importance of just taking advantage
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: of the moments that we have with people and ironically
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: like capturing content because I love to look back at
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: pictures of me and my dad. Unfortunately, just because of
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: the time that we were living in there, we don't.
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: Have a ton of videos of my dad. You know
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Thankfully, I have my super sweet sixteen, But we weren't all.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: We didn't we didn't have video on our phones yet,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: We weren't all just like recording.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Video, and that's one thing that I wish that I
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: had with him. And so that did kind of inspire
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: me to start capturing moments like I even now will record,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: you know, videos of my mom, like with my kids
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And I pray to God she
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't go anywhere anytime soon, but I do know one
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: day I will want to look back on this.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: They will want to look back on this.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: It's just so important to make sure that we capture
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: those moments. So you talked about like, you know, the
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: cars not working, or can I have some money? But
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: what are the moments really that you are you find
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: yourself reaching for him?
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: So with me, it.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Honestly usually has to do with my kids more than me,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: I think at this point, because my dad has been gone.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: It was fifteen years this April, so it's been a minute.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: And brief is a funny thing in that you at
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: one point you think my life can't go on, and
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: then you look up and you're like, it has been
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: fifteen years, and I have still been living, and so
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: it's not something that I feel like necessarily impacts like
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: every single day of my life at this point. However,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: it does still really really bother me that my kids will.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: Never know their granddad and they ask questions about him.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: You know, we have pictures up and things, but they
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: will never get to know him. And that's something that
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: I won't say haunts me, but often I'm like, it's
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: I kind of have this it's.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: Not fair type of feeling. I think that will be
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: the biggest thing.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: When my kids, like seeing them get older, seeing them
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: reach certain certain milestones, accomplish certain things. That is really
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: when I miss his presence, and like, you know, both
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: of them remind me of him in little different ways,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: and I just I know that he's with us, but
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: I wish they were, they were able to see him
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: be with us. You know, are there ever moments when
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: you're just like, you know what I am Charles Mathis's daughter.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: I can do this. I don't you know, I don't
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: have to whatever. Do you have any of those moments?
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I have those moments very it's not even necessarily I
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: can do this, but I have I have moments me
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: and my sister laugh about the all the time where
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: we're like we're Daddy's daughters, like we we are so
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: much like him that it's like hilarious. Yes, and I didn't,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: of course realize it, you know so much growing up.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: But like even like I mean not to like big
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: myself up, but like sometimes I'll walk into a room
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and the way that people sometimes will react to my presence,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm my daddy's daughter, like.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: You know, period, period. So what do you think he
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: would be most proud of today?
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: I think he would be extremely proud of me as
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: a mother. I think that those two kids that I
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: have would have him wrapped all the way around, you know,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: his finger, like they would get everything they want. But
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: I also think, like in this stage of me building
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: my business, I think he would be really really really
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: proud of that as well. I think that he would
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: be really proud of me because, just to be transparent,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: like six months ago, I was job hunting. I was
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: like looking for a job to work for someone else,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: and then, like I was explaining in kind of the
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: birth of my company, I saw a lane and I
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: jumped into it, and like that was my dad to
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: a te is like seeing a lane and jumping into it.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: So I think that he would be so proud of
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: me for doing that. And I do think I would
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: have more clients than I already have because I think
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: that my Daddy would be telling everybody about it.
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: But you know, I don't look at that absolutely. So
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: and what has what has navigating or your journey been like?
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, has it been like? And you talked about grief?
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: As you know, grief is funny. Everybody says that.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Everyone we talked to me on hear about grief, they
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: said the same thing, that grief is funny because it
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: hits everyone differently. So when it comes to your grief,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: what has navigating it from his death until now and
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: then also into the future, how's it been? I think
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: that for me, losing my dad at twenty years old
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: was probably the best and the worst time that I
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: could have lost him.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: And I say that to say is that I was
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: very self absorbed at twenty. I was in.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: College, I was I had my own trying to build
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: my own life, my own stuff going on, and so
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: you know, my dad passed and at that time in
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: my life, I don't think I really had time mentally
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: and emotionally to stop and process, like I have to
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: go back to school for finals, and like oh, like
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: I'm an Aka and like we're happy, like our charter.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Day is coming up skiwee of course.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: But you know, like because and I don't mean self
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: absorbed in like a really bad way. I just mean
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: that like I had so much going on at that
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: stage of my life that like I kind of just
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: kept living, you know what I'm saying. And so I
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: will say that this year, like I said, it was
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: just the fifteenth anniversary of my dad's passing, and on
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: my anniversary of his death, I feel like it hit
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: me harder this year than it did when he originally passed,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: which is so weird to say, but I think like
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: that this in some ways, like being thirty five and
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: having my own kids and then also kind of being
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: like settled in some ways now, I feel like I
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: finally had time to like be like, oh wait, like
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: that did happen? Whereas like I've just been in live
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: and build mode and you know, Okay, you graduate college
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: and then you get married and then you have a baby.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: Like I've just been going and going and going and
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: going for the past fifteen years.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: Just because like that's how life kind of works when
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: you're in that period of young adulthood entering into I
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: guess midd adulthood.
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know what we're gonna call this age that
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: we're at now, but I feel like this year I
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: really just had the time and like the space to
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: really feel it, and it was I won't say that
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: it was hard.
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: I don't think that's the right word, but it was heavy.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: It was heavy. You know, Yeah, what about explaining it
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: to your kids?
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: I know that you said they'd never met him, but
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: you're trying to explain someone that's never been here.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: Was that difficult or.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: I don't think that they'll ever fully really understand. To
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: be honest, like, you know, Okay, my son is a
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: big lion king guy. So we talk about it in
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the lens of like mufossa idea, you know, in the
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: stars with the great.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Kings of the past. You know, it's like that whole thing.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: But to understand like how big of a man my
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: dad was, I don't think they'll ever really get it
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: because I think me and my sister often say when
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: we're like talking about you know, that time we're like
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: what a time, Like what a time it was to
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: like be Charles Mathis's daughters and to live in Atlanta
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: and to experience this. And I just think, if you know,
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: you know, if you weren't here, you'll never quite quite
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: grasp it. You know, I do a really good job,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: I think explaining like the man that he was as
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: my father and like the man that he would have
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: been as their grandfather, but like the man that he
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: was to the masses, I don't think they'll ever quite
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: quite grasp it, which kind of makes me upset, to
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: be honest, like because I'm like, oh, I wish you
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: guys could really understand, but you know, oh wow wow,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: Well you will help them understand because you again Charles
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Mathes's daughter.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: So before we go into our next segment, what advice
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: would you give to someone who was navigating grief?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: And then the second part is what helped you? I
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: know you've touched on it, but.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: If you're thinking about helping someone else and giving someone
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: else some advice who was navigating especially the big laws
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: of a parent or somebody close to them.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: What would you say.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: I would just say, take your time, there's no roadmap,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: and you will feel what you need to feel on
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: your own time. I'm sure probably fifteen years ago there
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: were people. I mean, I can only imagine wondering like dang,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: like she's just gonna go back to school, Like she's
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: just gonna, you know whatever, do what you.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: Need to do.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, There is no there's no
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: answer book to this, There's.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: No key it.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: It is such an individual journey. And I would just
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: say remember that and remember that your journey.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: When it comes to grief is completely your own. Perfect
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Alison.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 4: Okay, So, Alison, what legacy do you hope to leave
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: behind and what impact do you hope your children feel
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: from you When it.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Comes to legacy, I think I hope to continue my
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: father's legacy when it comes to humility, when it comes
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: to community, and when it comes to uplifting others. I
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: hope to be, you know, remembered as a person who
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: poured in to others and gave others. Any knowledge that
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: I have, like right, anything that I have had to
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: personally walk through or experience, good or bad, I hope
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: that I can use it to inspire and help other people.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: Like I've had so many different things happen to me,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: and I don't want any of those things to be
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: in vain because I think that everything that we go
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: through makes us into the person that we are and
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: gives us something unique to share.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: And so I hope that that is my legacy.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: Like Okay, yes she went through XYZ, but with what
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: she went through, like she inspired you know, this person
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: to then do this or then do that, So that
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: would be the legacy. When it comes to my kids,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: I would say having a son and a daughter is unique,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: right because my daughter, I really want her to know
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: that she can do all the things, that she can
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: be multifaceted, that she can be wife, mommy business owner,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: all the things. And my son, I hope that I am,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: I guess, teaching him how to love women, you know,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: and how to treat women and how to I guess
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: enable his future spouse to be all the things without,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: how to be how to be inspiring, and how to
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: be her biggest cheerleader.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, support, that would be the word that I will.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: That's another show too, Yes, very much so, definitely another show.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: We needed to start young.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Literally, it starts so young when you're thinking about yes,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: his spouse whoever he decides to be with because it
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: does start that young. Yes, they always put it all
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: into the girls. It never is the boys.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: So I love that. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 4: Well, I will say, as a dear friend of yours,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: everything that you've described that you're doing, that you hope
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: to continue doing.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: I see it, I feel it. You are exactly who
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: you say you are.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 4: You know, the one when I asked you uh to
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: give me one word to describe you, I in my
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 4: mind I was thinking on audacious, audacity.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: You know, you do it.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 4: And so and you do it fearlessly because it's it
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: takes a certain level of courage to step out and
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: do the things that you continue to do. And we
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 4: didn't even talk about it on this episode, but you
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 4: had a brain tumor, you had a health scare, and
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 4: all those things you still rose, You still stood up,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 4: you still kept going, and you you always had the
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 4: audacity to keep going. And so just as a friend
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 4: being able to witness that, I am very.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: Proud of you.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 4: And you are inspiring a lot of women to things,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 4: and so keep going.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: Girl.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: One thing that I would just like say as we
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: close up, like to women and to me to everyone,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: is like you can't put a period where God's putting
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: a comma like life, will you You may have to pause,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever season you're in may require you to
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: kind of hump the brakes for a minute, but that
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: does not mean stop like you know, and I was
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: putting back, Oh sorry, We're.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: Wanted to by saying.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: My mom when she talks about your dad, and even
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 4: when she continues to talk about him today, she will
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 4: always say Mary Charles never allowed anybody to see him sweat. Ever,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 4: he always had this very even killed personality. He you know,
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 4: was just very just astute and profound and just very
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 4: not when I say, matter of fact, he just didn't
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: allow any any outside noise to shake him.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: That's who you are. I've never seen you upset.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: I've never seen you rattle, and even when I knew
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: shit was going on, you never allowed it to just
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: consume you, you know. And so you get that from
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 4: your father hands down, and so you know, that's what
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: I'll end with saying, you know, you are your daddy's child,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: and he would be so proud of your girlfriend.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: I need that. I need a little bit more of that,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: not letting people see me sweat, because I'll be ready
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: to that part. Girl. What I tell you, Allison is
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: the queen of okay, Like.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 4: Okay, but watch me stand and watch me be bold
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: and take this step forward.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Better than I can tell you just watching, just watch,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: and you don't even have to say nothing.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: You don't have to say nothing.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 4: So that's something that even viewers girls, anybody who's watching this,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 4: sometimes you just just let you know, just let the
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 4: ship roll off, stand up, keep going. Yeah, yeah, such
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 4: a pleasure, Like I cannot wait, Like I'm serious about
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 4: this panel, Like I'm in my mind. I'm like, okay,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 4: we have to have something because we want to hear
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 4: more about your story.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: I know there's so much more and you have so
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: much to give to to everyone. It's just you're just
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: joy to be around.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: So don't don't ignore. I'll call Alison. We call Never Never.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: Y'all know we're locked in.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: This is for life, Okay, all the events, all the podcast, holloway.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 4: Thank you girl, it was a joy again, beautiful episode.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 4: Thanks for spending some time with us. I'm gonna close
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: us out. Thank you for joining into today's episode.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: I'm your host Mariah and I'm Tamara, and we'll see
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: you next time. On Bourne's game.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 4: Make sure to like subscribe, tell your mama and um
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: and whatever.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: Tamara likes to say at the end.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah,