Latest / Cleaning Business Life / I Built an Entire System to Avoid Wearing Culottes | Ep. 208

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I Built an Entire System to Avoid Wearing Culottes | Ep. 208 · Cleaning Business Life

• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone! Welcome back to Cleaning Business Life.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Shannon Miller and I am your host today.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And today I am going to share a story about being at the pool.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually at the pool the other day in mom mode, right?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just checking out everybody, watching the pool, watching the lifeguards, doing the mom thing.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this girl came walking past the front of the Ramada where I was sitting, and I was like, oh my God, I have not seen a pair of those since I was a kid.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what they were were 1970s flip-flops.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they were rainbow flip-flops.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, God, I have not seen those in forever.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the rainbows weren't like the traditional rainbow colors like they are today.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: You have the green, the purple, the blue, the yellow, the orange, the red.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's rainbow.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is 70s rainbow.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So there was brown and then a darker brown and maybe even a darker brown and then a lighter brown and then a lighter, lighter brown, and then maybe a cream color if you were lucky.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember my dad used to take us to like the supermarket or the drugstore at the time, and we'd get one pair of flip-flops for the whole summer.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And usually you'd wear them out by the end of summer because we were out on the boat a lot.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I stopped her.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, wow, where did you get those?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, I got them off Amazon.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm gonna check that out.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But they were they were retro flip-flops.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was absolutely shocked.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I had not even, they were not on my radar.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't thinking about it.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um I the second that I saw them, I was like transported back in time.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was really an interesting thing.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then I thought about OP shorts.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: OP shorts only came in blue and brown and an off-white color.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can look those up, OPs.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: They were made out of corduroy, from what I remember.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: There was ditto pants, ditto jeans, and they were like flared at the bottom.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: They call them, you know, I don't remember what bell bottoms are called now, the flared or, you know, whatever.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Bells.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um they had this big U on the back of the butt, and my grandmother would say, Hey, looks like a horse kicked you in the ass.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are you sure you want to wear those?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just laugh.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: My grandma was pretty blunt.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was the Schemine defurs, which was the like the premium jean right before Jordan Ash.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So at the same time Jordash was coming out, Schemine defur was there.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe Schemandefurs were even a higher price point.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And my mother was like, I am not spending that money on those jeans.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never have a pair.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was gonna die if I didn't get a pair, right?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then this kind of brought back another memory, and I am going somewhere with this story.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was my middle school uniform.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who don't know, I went to Hazel Avenue Christian Academy in seventh and eighth grade, and the school uniform was marigold yellow and royal blue, and you couldn't wear pants.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And young girls were required to wear culottes because we like to be on the monkey bars, right?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who do not know what culottes are, it's a hybrid mix of a skirt and a pair of pants.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: They were absolutely popular in the late 70s and early 80s.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they were the most hideous things that anyone in fashion had ever invented.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So my mom wasn't trying to torture me.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: She wasn't trying to embarrass me.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: She was just doing what was required for me to attend the school at the time.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the required uniform.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember just being mortified that my mom, a, made my uniform, which I would be so appreciative to today if my mom made me clothes.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Such a better quality, such a better fit, if we all had seamstresses like in the days.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But so if you're too young and you don't remember what a cool is, I'm gonna spell it so you can stop the podcast right here and you can actually go and search what these hideous things look like.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's spelled C-U-L-O-T-T-E-S.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Total fashion faux paw.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, I don't think they've ever resurfaced back into fashion.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So go ahead, wait.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Seriously.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Just go ahead and pause if you need to.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you've had enough time to look on your phone.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, imagine these culottes in a marigold, yellow, and royal blue color on Shannon's little body.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So now you understand.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was convinced that I looked like the lunch rush in the 1970s McDonald's restaurant.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And my middle school brain, this was a catastrophe.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: This was like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm gonna be forced into wearing this uniform.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just a minor inconvenience, it was a fashion disagreement.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I was absolutely embarrassed that anyone would consider or want to make me wear this hideous set of clothing.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like, oh my god, this was awful.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I was it was a full-blown social catastrophe.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I was absolutely mortified.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where the story gets ridiculous.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because if this actually happened today, I'd probably wear a pair.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would snap some pictures and go, ha ha ha ha ha ha.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to remember, my middle school brain was like, I'm not wearing that on the bus.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had to take the bus, the public transportation.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was an hour and a half in each direction, which meant that I got up at like 5 a.m.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I came up with, I devised a plan.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I took my uniform and I would roll it up, and then I would shove it in there with my books.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it wouldn't, the books obviously would go on the bottom, the uniform would go on the top.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you got wrinkled, if you had a wrinkled uniform, you'd get in trouble too.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: There were also stipulations with the uniform, like your culates could not go above the knee, and they would make you like get on your knees and your skirt had to touch the ground.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in your the top of your, for those of you who went to private Christian academy or a Catholic school, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Your the V in your shirt could not be more than three fingers deep.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you had small little petite fingers, I wasn't allowed to wear anything low-cut, not that I was concerned at that time.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a requirement of the uniform.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So every single day for two whole years, five days a week, I did the same ritual.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I got up early, put on regular clothes, got on the bus, took the bus to the school, immediately ran into the bathroom because I wasn't allowed to be on school campus without being in uniform.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you could get in trouble for that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I got there, immediately changed, put on my school uniform, and then I would say the hellos or run off to class or do whatever.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would spend the whole day in school in my uniform.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would go back to the bathroom.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to make sure I caught my bus because if I missed the bus, I wouldn't get home for like three more hours because the next bus was later.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would hurry up, roll up my uniform, shove my books in there, and I would take the bus home an hour and a half in the other direction to get back to my house.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would walk in the door and I'd have regular clothes on.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I did this for a long, long time.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So wearing street clothes was like a thing of me hiding.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big deal.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh, I'm gonna die if any of my friends see me.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the part where it really got me thinking about the flip-flops, the schemendifers, the ditto jeans.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why did I care so much what other people think, right?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why was I willing to spend all that time and energy hiding from a pair of culottes?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you think about it, that was a lot of effort.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to get up early, put on street clothes, change when I got there, before catch the bus before it left, change out of the culottes, the whole deal.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And why did I think so strongly about what other people think?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Something to ponder, right?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you who are out there working and listening.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the answer is really simple.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's at that age, I was just trying to fit in and survive, right?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just fit in, assimilate.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: We must assimilate.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Since I'm dating myself, might as well go off full-fledged, right?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to stand out.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want people talking about us.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be different.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow my brain became convinced that marigold, marigold, yellow, and royal blue culottes were going to be the thing that made me stand out.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh, well, I didn't see anyone else wearing up.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was just me on the bus.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone else was wearing street clothes.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I no way, it's never happening.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, it's not gonna happen.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that would make everyone notice me or judge me was of great concern.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the funny part.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: If if I came across marigold yellow and royal blue culottes and I shimmied into them, I'd probably snap a picture and put it on Instagram because I I just don't care, right?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I haven't thought about the culottes in decades.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: But when I saw those flip-flops, it brought back all of those memories.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I have I hope that there's a good run on them because I actually thought that those were the coolest thing since butter on bread when I was a kid.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So today I just wanted to tell the story of my marigolds and royal blue culottes.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I stopped caring what other people's opinions are of me.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where I think the story becomes a bigger middle school uniform.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because we still do this as adults, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: We we try to please our family.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's six degrees of separation.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: We can talk about that on another episode.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, circle of influence.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: We can also talk about that on another episode.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: It we hide from different things as adults, as business owners, right?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: We hide from prices because we're worried about what people will think, right?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: We don't post videos because we're worried about being judged.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've put some doozies out there.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my god, that was awful.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they're still out there.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think when um Facebook wasn't carrying the videos anymore, I that gave me an opportunity to download all my videos.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I ever did.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're just deleted.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I think they're maybe on the internet land.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't start businesses because we're afraid of failing in public.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I got notes here so I can keep on track.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't apply for opportunities because we're afraid someone might say no.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things that we don't do because we're still concerned about fitting in, right?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Different outfit, same fear.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm being honest, all this time with cleaning business owners, what you think of me is none of my business, right?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be concerned about what others think about you.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually came up with that mantra probably about 20 years ago.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have family where I live in town, and it wasn't until I started to be successful, was when my family's like, yeah, that's my cousin, or you know, that's Shannon, we're relatives.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: It I didn't get any supports.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: They were just like, You're crazy.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is not gonna work.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you go get a real job, right?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So and the older I get, I really is something that most people are far too busy to be concerned about what I'm doing.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: So there's that too.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they're worried about their own insecurities, they're worried about their own problems, their own version of their own marigold and royal blue culottes.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what's your version of culottes, right?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you had to put coulots on today, what color would you pick?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Would you pick like lime green and brown?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Would you pick apple red?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many different things that people wore in different fashion eras.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's embarrassing.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen some photos.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you wore let me wear that?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I I thought I would, I thought it was the greatest thing.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, new clothes, look at me, look at me.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I look back, I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe my mom let me wear it.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or she made it from me because my mom was quite the seamstress.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's the one thing that you're carrying around, the one thing that you're hiding from?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Really give that some thought.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, some of us need to give ourselves permission.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have to give ourselves permission to hire.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have to give ourselves permission to expand, to open up in another market.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: We give ourselves permission to buy another business.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: We give ourselves permission to take on a business partner.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Shh, that's always an interesting thing.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: We won't talk about that here today.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't really thought about those culottes until I saw the retro flip flops at the pool.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I probably give the chance, I'd probably put them on and walk around and see if they still felt as comfortable as I remembered as a kid.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it changed, the culottes didn't change, the colors didn't change, the uniform didn't change.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm hoping if if anyone goes to Hazel Haven a Christian school, if it's still around, I'm hoping that the uniform has changed.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm praying on it.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I changed, right?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Your level of BS becomes smaller and smaller and smaller.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, it's just you just keep on marching on.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have a it's tunnel vision.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't hide from coolats anymore.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: We hide from different things, and we don't raise our prices because we're worried about what people will think, right?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't post videos because we don't want to have anyone judge us.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And and those are big concerns.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: I hear it all the time from people.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: So don't get me wrong, be a good person.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be I want to treat people well and be a good person myself, and I I want to do the right thing, right?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I can no longer spend my life re-rearranging myself around other people's opinions.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Super important.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it goes back to what you think of me is none of my business.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's a lesson the culats were trying to teach me all along, and I just wasn't my adult Shannon self, right?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have to admit, it took me a long time to get here.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, please leave us a review.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: It tells the algorithm gods that we are worthy.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll see you in the next episode.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.