A Big Thank You

This podcast was transcribed using Descript. Please forgive any typos or errors.

Brittany: Hi friends. Welcome to Life with Loverly. I'm your host, Brittany Sjogren. I'm excited to share my heart with you beyond the 15 seconds we get on Instagram, grab an ice coffee and let's do life together.

Hi friends. First of all, thank you so much for all of your kind words and just feedback from the first episode of Life with Loverly. I still am on cloud nine just knowing that this podcast is happening. It's been in the works for so long, and I've loved hearing your feedback and seeing what you want me to talk about on here. I am really planning to take the follower and reader feedback and share those topics. So we've got lots of great content coming your way.

If you haven't had a chance to share what you want to hear here, make sure that you comment whatever you want us to talk about. Getting into today's episode, I want to share a little bit about this exciting event. We just had a closet sale that we've been raising money for. It was this past weekend.

It was a perfect weekend for it because we came off of my birthday week, the week before, which was such a fun week. And I feel like spirits were so high. And then we went into the weekend with this closet sale. So much fun. A little recap of my birthday weekend though cause I feel like I work a lot and that's just kind of what this job is, and Chris was able to block off my calendar on my birthday and had surprises lined up for me all day, which was so fun and so relaxing. We did massages. I went to lunch with my mom and best friend and we just kinda hung out and it was the perfect like day off to celebrate my birthday.

And then we kind of carried the surprise and celebrations into the weekend. On Friday, Nichelle took me to a winery and we had it's such a great time away. And if you are new here and don't know who Nichelle is, she's actually on the podcast with us. Nichelle is my right hand woman. She's been on board since March and lots of things have been happening because of her encouragement. And just honestly, she's been like, let's sit down and do these things you've wanted to do so. Nichelle will be kind of behind the scenes on the podcast and you'll hear from her every now and then she's actually going to share a little bit today once we get going.

But so we had such a great week. And then we went into the weekend, and on Sunday we hosted this closet sale, which was local. It was in Athens, we've rented a space and set up a closet sale and raised $17,000. That was all donated to St. Jude. So, first of all, thank you so much. If you came out to the closet sale, if you had any part in making a donation. , we so appreciate it. 

We are raising money right now for St. Jude. Chris is actually a St. Jude hero and Chris is my husband. He is running the London marathon, so we've been racking our brains all year, figuring out ways that we could raise money. He actually signed on with St. Jude last December to run the marathon.

And so we've been making donations and raising money since then, but we knew we wanted to do something even bigger and get you guys involved. And what better way to do that then allowing you guys to shop my closet and make donations to St. Jude.

Nichelle: And I think it's so cool too, because you have your Poshmark account that you've been selling in the years past, and it was really that's where the idea like spurred from, because you usually donate all of that money that you earn from your clothes. I think it's really cool. I think it would be really cool for the followers to hear, see like your clothing situation and why this is such like the perfect idea. 

Brittany: Yes. So to Nichelle's point. The past several years I have been selling clothes weekly on Poshmark, and we've always made donations like 100% of what we make from Poshmark sales go to charity.

 Usually we've been donating to different charities and sometimes I'll let readers pick which charity we donate things to or donate that money to. But once Chris signed on with St. Jude, we decided to take like all the Poshmark money from 2021 would get donated to St. Jude, and then we were kind of like, wait a second. Let's make this even bigger and kind of host like a meet and greet and figure out a way we could get like a bunch more people involved. So that's where the closet sale kinda came from and with this job. So I'm a full time fashion, blogger, style, influencer, whatever you want to call it these days.

 But I pretty much style outfits for a living, so I'm constantly buying new clothes. I partner with brands and they send me items. And so I have a lot of clothes that I wear and that I just have. And I always tell people like the amount of clothes I have is not normal. Like you, nobody needs the closet that I have, but.

A lot of times I will style an outfit and then the pieces might sell out. And so I need to figure out another similar outfit that I can share for those of you who missed the first look, you might be able to get something similar. I am such a good sales shopper and bargain shoppers. So I love like providing a lot of variety and showing you pieces that you can wear multiple ways. So I'm always adding in different styling pieces to complete an outfit or, you know, things like that. 

With my closet. It, I tell brands if they like send me clothes, I, once I am no longer wearing this piece or once it's sold out and it's not going to be restocked, I want to give my readers and followers the opportunity to purchase this, and then I donate the money that they, you know, that the cost of the item to charity. So of course, everybody does it differently. And no shade to anybody who isn't donating their proceeds, but this is just something that I felt called to do. And something that we. Really like doing, especially for St. Jude having like a bigger purpose, which is so awesome. 

So that's a little bit of a background of why I donate my clothes or why I donate the money from my clothes. But with the closet sale, it was just so much fun. The energy was so high. I think there were 11 of us total mixed up between like other Loverly Grey employees, friends, family, and we just had such a good time working on getting this closet sale ready for you guys. It was a blast. 

Nichelle: It was so fun to meet your followers. They are exactly like how I would imagine in real life, just golden people that are so sweet. They're so appreciative of everything that you do. There were so many of them that were just like, she is like one of the only two people that I follow all the time still, just because she's been consistent over the years and what she stands for is so important to them like your faith, you know, how kind you are. That's something that I know we'll probably talk a lot more about, cause that's very important to our you. They follow you for the human that you are. So it was just so fun to see and hear that like in real life, as opposed to just through Instagram

Brittany: And I love meeting followers and anytime I have the opportunity. If somebody says hello in Target or wherever we are. I love that interaction. It's funny a few weeks ago I had the girls and we were at a coffee shop, and the girls who were like having a snack and I was kind of frazzled and somebody came up and was just like, hi, you're Loverly Grey, you know, nice to meet you, and I felt like so caught off guard, but I almost was like happy that they were seeing like a crazy moment. And my girls. You know, I was like, well, I hope that, like now she knows, like I'm just, you know, out here, like doing the mom things, but it's always fun to meet followers.

So if you ever see me out and about I would love to say hello. Anyway, one thing that is really cool with like a connection that Nichelle and I had when we did her interview, Chris and I both interviewed Nichelle for this position back in February, and we did a Skype call to just kind of get to know her, and Chris noticed on her resume that she had done some charity work through a previous job with St. Jude and that struck a chord with him because he was already signed on to be a St. Jude hero. And so Nichelle started explaining a little bit about her experience with St. Jude, and I just thought it was so cool because she's actually been to St. Jude. 

So I'm going to have her tell you guys a little bit about her experience, and then if you're not really familiar with St. Jude, this is going to be a great time for her to kind of explain that to y'all. 

Nichelle: Such a great cause for him to choose to run. I think that was the first I was like, oh, there's this huge connection with St. Jude. I am on board. So, two years in a row at my previous job, we actually. Every year at holiday, like a lot of companies, we would raise money for St. Jude, and I think that a lot of us know St. Jude as a children's research hospital for children with cancer. And I don't think that I really comprehended until I went, what an important place this was.

So it's in Memphis. Two years in a row we actually won four highest donations just because I did find myself like so passionate about. The work that they do and what families getting returned. So every single penny is donations. These events are exactly what pays for these families to be able to take their focus off of like everyday life, like in work and like buying groceries and their sole focus is to make sure their kids are okay.

And St. Jude will take care of them from apartments to groceries to, I mean, vehicle's just getting them from one place to the other. The facility is amazing. I remember them preparing us before we went in the first time and they were like, this is not a sad place. We're not going to cry when we go in there and I'm like, like turn a steel trap the tears, because I'm like, this is a place where children have cancer and it's not, that's not how they treat them when they're in there, they treat them like you're in here to be a survivor, you're a warrior and this is a happy place. And you see the kids in their red wagons, like being carted from room to room for their testing and procedures and stuff and there are just huge smiles on their face. There's artwork scattered throughout the entire hospital from these children and the bells they get to ring. It's just such a magical place.

And I think just knowing that every single dollar that you guys, you know, helped Chris raise for this marathon is going to an unbelievable cause and it's going to help many families get through, you know, these procedures and this treatment that their kids are going through. So I was very, very excited to see those numbers come in. Like holy moly. Thank you guys. 

Brittany: We set a goal. First of all just hearing your story being at St. Jude, I was like, this is so crazy. And it's been so great as we've continued to donate money to St. Jude having Nichelle you know really continue to encourage and can say this is what this is going to buy. This is what this is going for, so that's been really awesome. And who knows, maybe we'll take a trip to St. Jude one day. But with the closet sale, we set a goal of, I think it was like around $10,000 we were hoping to raise. We also had a raffle going at the closet sale, and then when we saw the numbers hitting like $17,000, we were like oh my goodness.

Nichelle: I know. We were just like, oh, how wonderful would it be if it was just $10,000? Like, that'd be so great. And then the numbers just kept going and we were like this incredible. 

Brittany: It's so exciting, and we are continuing to. Now we are back to posting on Poshmark. I'll put my Poshmark handle and information in the notes, so if you want to check it out, you can check and see. We will be uploading things there, and all of those proceeds will continue to go to St. Jude. And then Chris is actually leaving to go to London next week. He is heading out going across the pond, and he's going to be running the London marathon, which I'm so excited for him.

He's been training so hard. This is actually his second marathon that he's done. And so he's been putting in the work truly. The last, like five to six months has been like intense training. He goes on these long runs. The other day, he went for a three hour run. So casually he's like, I'm going to go around 21 miles today. And I was like, okay, I, what am I going to do today? But he's been putting in so much work, and once he gets back, I want to have him on the podcast just to kind of share his experience being in London on behalf of St. Jude, he's part of a team. I believe it's like eight or 10 other people are also St. Jude heroes and they are also running on behalf of St. Jude. And they've had team calls and zoom meetings and things like that over the past few months. And it's been so cool for them to talk about like fundraising and and just like how they're all each raising money and things like that. So I'm so proud of him that this is something he really wanted to do.

And he kind of turned his marathon running and training into like something for good by raising money. And I know this is not the last time that he will do this. He's already started to be like, Let me see, maybe we can work with this organization and I can do this marathon. So I have no doubts that he'll definitely be working with St. Jude again in the future. 

Nichelle: Oh yeah. I mean, just on the mindset alone that goes into training for a marathon. That's something that I think that we would all love to hear about. 

Brittany: Exactly. Yeah. So he'll definitely be on. I know several of you guys over on Instagram have asked about like his training, what plans he's following, so that'll definitely be something that we will be sharing too. So anyway, I am so thrilled that we've raised as much money as we have, and I just wanted to spend this time saying thank you so much. If you would like to make a donation on his behalf, we will leave the link in the show notes as well.

So you can click there and make a donation. Any amount helps. You know, like I said, all weekend at the closet sale we kept saying like, "It's for the kids. It's for the kids." So, you know, any amount helps. Then to give you guys a little sneak preview, speaking about running. My brother is a Paralympic bronze medalist now, and we're actually going to have him on the podcast next week, so make sure to tune back in for a little interview, with my brother, Jarryd Wallace. Until next time. 

Thanks for listening to today's episode. I can't wait to continue these conversations with you over on Instagram @lifewithloverly. Until next time.