The Gift Of Time

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 a iced coffee and let's do life together. 

Hello hello, happy Monday. I'm here with Nichelle this morning. 

Nichelle: Good morning.

Brittany: We're going to chat through a few things and recap our weekend.

Chris got a new coffee machine this weekend.

Nichelle: Oh, have you tried it yet?

Brittany: I tried it this morning. First, I was like, what do I do? It's touch screen. 

Nichelle: It's so fancy looking like I was, I'm excited for you. 

Brittany: I think he's been doing research for the last two years on some type of machine that will do coffee, lattes, espresso, iced coffee, froth the milk, an all in one mack daddy machine.

Nichelle: I remember him talking about that when I started. He's said there's this machine that I want, hear me out. 

Brittany: Yes. So it's been a long time coming. He finally was like, okay, I'm pulling the trigger. So he set it all up and he's still like working on perfecting the coffee combo, getting better milk that does everything. I did make a cup of coffee and that's what I brought to work this morning. It was pretty good. I did two shots of espresso and mixed with creamer. It was a little sweeter, because typically you mix espresso with a milk, not a coffee creamer.

Nichelle: Yes. 

Brittany: I feel like I need to learn.

Nichelle: Which creamer and milk goes with what.

Brittany: Exactly. So they have an iced coffee option that I'm super excited about. I feel like I'm going to get addicted to this coffee maker and then I'm going to be like, guess we need one at the office. 

Nichelle: Darn it.

Brittany: So that was fun, but I'm actually coming off of a really fun weekend.

Nichelle: I know I'm so excited to hear about this. 

Brittany: For our anniversary, which was in August, Chris's gift to me was four tickets to Heather McMahan and an overnight stay in Charlotte. Charlotte was the closest option of where he could find tickets for one of her shows. And so he got four tickets and then a hotel and then massages the next morning. 

Nichelle: Wow. 

Brittany: For me to take three girlfriends with. It's so funny because all weekend, my girlfriends were like, this is so funny that he gave you this separate gift away from him for your anniversary. I gave him golf lessons for our anniversary. We gave each other something to do, separate from each other.

 I don't really think it matters. But this weekend was finally our Charlotte trip and we drove up on Saturday morning and we stopped in Greenville and ate lunch there at this place called Gather. And it was like this outdoor sort of like food trucks, all in this cute little outdoor area.

Nichelle: Oh, was it down? 

Brittany: Yes, it was very close to downtown, very close to their like Greenville baseball stadium. And so we stopped there and ate lunch and it was so great. The weather was perfect. It was a great sunny weekend. Then we drove up to Charlotte, which was less than four hours from Athens.

 It was really not bad. We got up there and checked into our hotel and went and had a drink and then came and got ready for dinner. We went to dinner at Five Church. They have one in Atlanta and I've eaten there before and it was really good. It was awesome. And then we went to the Heather McMahan show after that.

Heather McMahan at her shows, her thing is wearing leopard print. And so it was a sea of leopard print in Charlotte. We walked into the restaurant and other people in the restaurant were there eating before. You like made eyes with another table and you're like solidarity, like Heather McMahan. We were saying some of her catch phrases back and forth to each other. I feel like we were instantly making friends with people because we were in leopard print.

Nichelle: That's awesome. 

Brittany: Yes. So we had a great dinner and then went to the show. It was so fun because I actually got to meet a lot of people who follow me on Instagram that were there.

Nichelle: I saw that. People were so excited to see you.

Brittany: It was really fun. I always love meeting my followers or people who follow along with us. My best friend Shay was with us, and it's so funny, every time we're together and somebody comes up to us, she is always like,let me tell you about Brittany, like she's exactly how she seems on the internet. Like I'm her best friend. She gives me these like great accolades. It's so funny because she was doing that the whole weekend. But it was so fun to meet some of you guys and the show is great. It's been a little while since I've been to a comedy show.

 She was so funny. I felt like I was listening to one of her podcasts in person. 

Nichelle: Oh, that's awesome. 

Brittany: It was a good I would say a little over an hour. 

Nichelle: Did she have anybody open for her?

Brittany: She didn't. It was just her. She has a, I don't want to say like a second personality, but like is she wears this wig.

Nichelle: Oh, it's totally second personality. 

Brittany: It's like this person who's like introducing her but it's really her just dressed up differently with an accent.

Nichelle: It's a short curly wig. 

Brittany: Yeah. She introduced Heather and then Heather did her show and it was just hilarious. She was staying at the same hotel that we were at, so I sent her a DM and I was like, meet us at the rooftop bar afterwards. She didn't. Can't hurt to try. So anyway, we woke up the next morning and had our massage, which was awesome. If you're ever staying at the Grand Bohemian in Charlotte, they have a small spa up on the 16th floor called the Poseidon Spa. It has an outdoor area that you can look over the city. You can relax out there and look out over the city. It's small, but the service was amazing. Every single one of us were like, that was easily top five massages we've had. 

Nichelle: That's awesome. The thing about Charlotte, it's so funny, we lived up there for about a year and a half and it still feels like a small town vibe. Everybody's so nice. 

Brittany: Yes, I got that vibe too. So on Sunday, there was a Panthers game, which was home. People were starting to tailgate in parking lots around the hotel. We walked to get coffee and we could see all these tailgates setting up and NFL football is a little different than college football.

Nichelle: Yeah. 

Brittany: These people had like these giant smokers attached to the back of their trucks.

Nichelle: Fans are just a different breed. I think it's because they're a newer team. The fans are die hard. 

Brittany: Yeah, it was really cool to see, and the weather was in the forties yesterday morning in Charlotte. We were all in sweaters, carrying our coffee, just walking around and then we drove back yesterday. But the whole time we were there, my girlfriends and I kept saying, this is the perfect getaway. It was two full days, one night. 

Nichelle: Yeah. 

Brittany: Our husbands had the kids, but they only had to do one night alone. We still left. We were able to do something, felt refreshed coming back. So we just kept saying how that was the perfect little getaway. It was just so fun. I feel like it's important to take those trips with girlfriends or just get away and get refreshed. 

Nichelle: See it was the perfect gift.

Brittany: Truly. I come back a better mom, a better wife. That's what we did this weekend. What did you get into? 

Nichelle: Mine was not that fun, but it was really special. I would say. I think after our conversation last week, which I know we're probably going to get into a little bit. I was very reflective on I need to spend time with the fam. So I just hung out with the girls. For the first day, my youngest one spent the night with a friend and my oldest and I hung out.

Brittany: So tell everybody a little bit about your family dynamic. Nichelle has two girls tell us a little bit about their ages and stuff. 

Nichelle: So Robert and I have two girls. Maddie is 16 and Brin is 10 going on 32, knows it all. I think that's the thing about having an older sibling. You just think that, you know it all, especially when they're six years apart. It's very different. Not something I saw myself getting into, but it's fun too.

They definitely have their own personalities. My oldest is 16. Just has such a kind heart and her boyfriend just broke up with her. So I just feel like it was one of those weekends where I was like, she doesn't have plans to go to a friend's. Just hanging. So we binged some Netflix shows together and went out, just literally did our Target run our normal weekend thing. And then the youngest got back yesterday and it was just all about mom, dad, mom, dad she needed to have all the attention. And then last night we did something that we used to do during quarantine. We have a medical building that's out behind our house and whenever we needed to get out of the house, we would go have a picnic in the parking lot. So we did that last night. 

Brittany: That's so fun.

Nichelle: But it only lasted for five minutes, because it was so cold. 

Brittany: You're like, okay, we've been praying for cold 10. 

Nichelle: I know. And then as soon as the sun set, we were like, oh it's so cold but it was fun. Just together again.

Brittany: So I feel like one thing quarantine did for some families was allowed for people to figure out, okay, we've got to get out of our house, but we're still stuck together. So how can we do something different? I think people are starting to pick back up those traditions. They started. And that's a way that they can stay close. 

Nichelle: Yeah. I think that it taught us that we've missed opportunities with our family, because we're always on the go, and quarantine made us go skurt, and stop for a minute and go, okay, what's important? Okay. This time together is actually really important. I know it was really tough for a lot of people. It was tough for everybody. For us, of course, family's special. 

Brittany: I'm sure Mattie thoroughly enjoyed that one on one time in the stage, of a fresh breakup. Trying to figure out high school life, like what's going to happen next. Being able to have that one on one time was probably more important to her than you might realize. 

Nichelle: Absolutely. And our relationship is very different than like mine and my mom's relationship was so I want to soak it in.

Brittany: Yeah. 

Nichelle: It's hard too, because she is so open with me. I'm like, oh, I don't want to hear that. 

Brittany: It's like a blessing in the curse.

Nichelle: I know exactly. I'm like, I don't want to hear this, but I need to hear this and I need to know where you're at. I appreciate that we have that relationship, but it doesn't mean that it's not hard sometimes.

Brittany: Yes. Mom life. I know. I have two little girls, one and two, and then Nichelle has two girls, obviously older and anytime she tells me stories about what's going on. I'm like, so that's, what's coming my way. Okay. So how are you handling this? Okay. I need to prep my mind. But it's been fun to share stories with each other. Hazel's teething and she'll be like, I feel like I don't remember the teething like that. It just gets blocked out of your memory later. 

Nichelle: All of those traumatic things just get blocked out. Like childbirth, you're like, it was fine. It was fine. 

Brittany: Exactly. That's so exciting. That's probably nice guys had that time. 

Nichelle: It was just a nice change of speed. We've had something going on every weekend leading up to this. And then after this weekend we have something going on for the next several weekends. So I was just let's take it easy. As much as I wanted to do a million projects, I was just like, stop Nichelle.

Brittany: Yeah. Let's just chill. Yeah, Nichelle has something exciting happening in two weeks. She's getting a puppy.

Nichelle: Just casually another one. 

Brittany: She has four dogs and this is going to be her fifth.

Nichelle: Along with the the chinchilla thing, I'm sure they think that I'm nice and crazy now. But yeah, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Brittany: I can't wait. Do we have the name confirmed yet?

Nichelle: We're still going back and forth. I think we have it narrowed down to two names. I'll share once we can confirm.

Brittany: Oh my gosh. She sent me a picture of the puppy over the weekend. And he's just so cute.

Nichelle: He's so fluffy for him to be so little. He's already very fluffy. 

Brittany: Oh, I know. He's a golden retriever. They are a golden retriever family. 

Nichelle: Oh yeah. 

Brittany: So Golden's and English Setters. We'll have lots of puppy stories to come, I'm sure.

Switching gears a little bit, at the end of last week, Nichelle and I worked together and we were scrolling Instagram while we were waiting for our lunch. And we saw a video that stopped us in our tracks that I want to spend a little bit of time talking about. My friend Nasreen, her Instagram handle is @heynasreen, she is based in Texas. She is amazing, she's a petite style blogger. I would say we have very similar style. I always send people her way that are shorter, petite. I've met her several times. We partnered together with Gibson look two years ago and did an international women's day collection. She and I did, a fun makeup tutorial earlier this year and showed the same eyeshadow and face pallets on two different skin tones.

But she's somebody I look up to in the industry. She's an amazing wife, mom, friend, business woman. And she announced that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I feel like Nichelle and I were watching this video and it punched us in the gut. If it did that to us, I can only imagine how she felt as she's sitting in a doctor's office. She does this video, if you haven't had a chance to see it yet, I highly recommend checking it out. We'll leave a link to it in the show notes, but she just talks about starting to see the doctors not panic, but they're like something isn't right. Let's keep digging. What's going on here? She talks through that whole process and October is breast cancer awareness month. This is the month that she got diagnosed. She actually is starting her first round of chemo today. She has been on my mind, on my heart literally every hour of each day. I just can't imagine. I feel like you think that's not going to happen to me.

Nichelle: 1000%. Because you go in for mammograms after 40, right? You go in later, unless it runs in the family or whatnot, but it's something that you don't have to worry about until later in life. 

Brittany: And cancer literally has no boundaries.

Nichelle: None.

Brittany: Just hearing her talk through her story, it's been heartbreaking and just in talking with her. I was texting with her and she's so strong. Something I admire about her is, she's putting this out there to help other people.

Nichelle: That was her first reaction to it. It wasn't like poor me. It was like, if this teaches anybody, anything, I hope that it's awareness. Go get checked. I thought about her all weekend. That she's still helping others

Brittany: Right. In the midst of time in her life that is dark and sad and unexpected. Her goal is to help others here. I think that says a lot about her as a person. I would encourage everybody to take a moment and say a little prayer for Nasreen and for her family. You can follow along her journey on her Instagram. I confirmed with her before we did this podcast that I could mention her on here. We talked about her one day coming on the podcast when the time was right and continuing to raise awareness and sharing her story. One thing that I wanted to do to give back to her and show my support you guys know that I sell clothes on Poshmark once I am no longer wearing it. So the month of October, we are going to donate all of the Poshmark earnings to breast cancer awareness. I talked with her about a specific foundation that we are going to donate to, and that's the national breast cancer foundation. We will be listing more on Poshmark. So far, we've already raised $2,500 that will get donated in her honor.

So I'd encourage you to take a look. If there's anything that you want to check out in my Poshmark closet, all of the proceeds will go directly to breast cancer awareness in her name. And then I will also put a direct link where you can donate including her name, so you can donate in her honor, if you would like.

But Nazarene, we are thinking about you, are praying for you. You are so strong. It's an honor to be your friend. Just please know that we are here for you. We are wrapping you in prayers and you can do this. You're not fighting this fight alone. You've got an army of people all over the world who are praying for you. Even just seeing the comments on her videos and on her recent post with her family and hearing her why, she's already touching people's lives. So just know that we are here and we're supporting you and we love you. Yeah, man.

Nichelle: It's eyeopening. I think that's what led us to the conversation that we were going to.

Brittany: Yeah. So we saw this video and then we were talking about time. The word time. And lately I have felt in my personal life and within my business that I don't have enough time to do X, Y, Z. That's always my excuse. I really want to do that, I just don't have enough time to do that. I can't add something else in. I don't have the time. And Nichelle and I were like what does that mean? What is important? Even getting off work at 5, 5:30, going home, wanting to have a home cooked meal, wanting to spend time with kids before they go down and you get in these routines almost, and it seems so robotic and mundane. It's like how to break the cycle. How to make sure as my kids are growing like where is the time? Where's this time go? 

Nichelle: Yeah. I think we talked about different paths in life too. We were talking about, how does one person like their time? How is it more valuable than the next person's time? I think that we're so predisposed to make excuses. Like we're like, oh, I don't have time because of this and this. And my kids are, a lot older and a lot more time has passed by. I'm like I chose not to make time during some of those points in their lives. There are some things that it was like, okay, yeah, that's more important than others. Like volleyball games. That was something that was so important to me. I will be at my child's volleyball game. I will be at my child's school presentation. But it's okay I don't have time to go for a walk tonight because I've got to go home and make dinner. I've got to make sure that the dogs are taken care of and that the homework's done and that this is done. I just don't want time after it's all said and done.

Brittany: I also think about our cell phones and social media. If I just put my phone down at a certain time every day, every night, and then intentionally did something for myself or spent undivided time with Chris. How much time gets wasted from scrolling Instagram. It's hard for me to say because my entire job is sharing on Instagram. I want people to consume what I'm putting out there, but I also think there needs to be a boundary. There's times where I could get on the Peloton and do a workout or something, but instead I just sit there and I think me relaxing is scrolling. And is that relaxing? For me, it just continues to be work. I don't know. I think everybody is in a different walk of life. Figuring out what is important for you. There are going to be harder years, harder times. Where you might not get to spend time with friends as much because you're doing something else that you've deemed more important. Not in a bad way.

Nichelle: It's just priorities. There's different points in your life where something takes priority over another thing. I love work, so I will sit down and I prioritize that over, going out and hanging out with a friend.

Brittany: Collins has come home recently and she keeps saying I want to do gymnastics. I want to go to gymnastics and I'm like, where did she hear that from? I am sure a little kid in her class probably does gymnastics classes. So we were looking at times and a lot of them are during the day and the other times are at night. I was talking with Chris, I was like, okay, so we could take her to a Wednesday afternoon or Thursday after school. But then that would adjust our routine for that evening, and we just need to be okay with it being different. It will be so worth it to her. I don't ever want to hold them back in getting into an activity or doing something because of work or because my job or because we are too tired or we don't have enough time. I think we're starting to be in that point where it's like, how do we do everything? They want to start getting into these extracurricular things and I want them to do those things, but it's okay, who's getting off work early to do this, or who's doing the pickup. It's just something I haven't really thought about, but I know it's very common. People do this with their kids every day. We're just getting to the point where we're now having to move schedules around, rework and it's uncomfortable because we just haven't done it before.

Nichelle: Yeah, they sleep seven to seven. It's a very clean schedule. You usually probably have dinner at the same time every night. And then you're going to get into, tonight's going to be a late night. 

Brittany: I think Chris and I are both very schedule oriented and we get in a routine and then that's just what it is. But, I want to break that routine a little bit so we can do fun things with our kids. 

Nichelle: I was going to say, it creates a little bit of freedom, right? 

Brittany: This is so crazy to say it's seems scary to try something new, but I think it's just because she is the first. We haven't been at this part of parenting before, or this part of raising kids before. We look around to other people who maybe have a little bit older kids, or even a year or two older and they're doing it. Okay, we can do it too. We just have to do it.

Yeah. It's funny you're just constantly going. Once you think you're like, okay, this is working for us. Then it's change. But it goes back to what is most important? 

Nichelle: I think that's the thing about time, it's not guaranteed.

We've got to take it now while we can. We're going to make it happen while we can. 

Brittany: Making those shifts and taking time for ourselves, time for our family. I think that's important. We were just discussing how I want to get back into my workout routine. Do I sleep a little longer? Do I wake up earlier? But I know I'll feel better if I start my day out X, Y, Z way. I think it's taking that control back and knowing there's a purpose, and you are wanting to be more intentional with time and with your family and with the girls.

Nichelle: It's such a snowball effect. When I start to think about that, that's one thing that I had told Brittany last week, I was like, I want to get back into my workout routine. I used to get up at five o'clock and beat out a workout, by 5:35, 5:40, shower, get ready for go. I have the ability to do that. I was making myself believe I didn't have the time for that. The reason why I spent more time intentionally at home with the girls is because my youngest is going through body image issues right now. I could sit around and complain about, Ugh, I feel miserable. I've gained weight, blah, blah, blah. Or I could do something about it and show her. That's what we do to take action instead of complaining or feeling bad about ourselves. It's this snowball effect and we all know it's mindset. It's a mindset game.

Brittany: It's crazy how other factors play into that. If I'm about to start my period, those few days before where I'm really moody and super emotional, how that has even affected some things here at work where I question everything. And it's okay, you're just PMSing. Chill. Do something to take care of yourself. I've started spending time with friends and doing a girl's lunch once a month. We have this group that goes to dinner and even that time spent with other people is refreshing. I feel like reworking the time that we have and being intentional in every aspect is what I want my takeaway to be. Think about the time that you are spending doing something that isn't intentional. If it's not, how do you make it intentional? If you're not doing anything intentional with your time, where can you implement that? I think you've mentioned mindset changing. That is so important. 

Nichelle: Yeah. You have to change your own narrative. You're in control of it. You have yourself to blame.

Brittany: Everybody's busy. Everybody has a million things going on. We can't turn to somebody and be like, I want to do exactly what they are doing. There's so many factors, and your version of right isn't their version.

Nichelle: I fell under that trap at one point. You have to figure out what works for you. What makes you happy? What makes you thrive? What works for your family?

Brittany: Yeah. So that's what we were chatting about last week and getting into this week. I feel like having that accountability with each other and having these conversations and reminding each other what did you do this week for you? I was telling Nichelle, Chris moved the Peloton inside, because I was telling him, I want to work out, but it's starting to get cold and before it was hot, it was outside in our garage. So I was telling her, one way that I hold myself accountable is I set my workout clothes out before I go to bed. I'm going to be disappointed in myself if I have to put those clothes away, because I didn't make the time for myself to get up and do the workout. You just hold yourself accountable. 

Nichelle: I had to know what I was working out in the next day. If I had a plan, I felt way more comfortable about getting up and going to town. If I didn't have a plan, do I really want to do that today? Do I want to get on the treadmill or do I want to lift weights today? You can't leave it up in the air. So having your clothes out and having a plan really does put you in the right brain space.

Brittany: This isn't even about working out. That's just been something Nichelle and I have been discussing lately. I think this applies to so many other things and just figuring out what your priorities are and making sure you're spending time in those areas that are important to you.

Nichelle: Yeah. We have some questions to round out today with from your listeners. And remember that we are going to post a question box every week on Life with Loverly every week. So submit your questions. We want to be able to cover anything and everything that you guys want to hear. So the first one is somebody wants to know what date night ideas that you have for them.

Brittany: So Chris and I love date night. A lot of times we just like going to dinner and that's where we can spend time, no phones, talking, enjoying a meal, trying something new. That's our tried and true. I feel like that's a pretty standard date night idea, but that's something that really works for us.

Another thing we love to do is a day date. I feel like we have always taken time off to go spend the day out. Chris and I go to the PGA Superstore and he will walk around and try, new putters and look at everything and then we will go over to the mall and walk around and buy something for the girls. There's usually something in mind, but especially around the holidays, I think it's really fun to be able to take a day and go with your spouse and get Christmas presents or go buy for whoever is on your list. 

Nichelle: Oh, that's so much fun. 

Brittany: The kids are taken care of, they're in daycare or wherever and we can spend that time together. What else? Even getting away, if you can do an overnight stay, even if it's local. We have this new bed and breakfast that we are wanting to go do an overnight stay during the week. And I think that's going to be a really fun. Reminder to date your spouse. Let's say you can't get a babysitter or you don't have family close to watch your kids even intentionally saying, okay, cell phones down, the kids are going to bed. Let's order our favorite takeout. Here's a movie we want to watch together. Curl up on the couch. That time where phones are down is not just like another evening after the kids go to sleep. You are intentionally doing this together. It can be as simple as that. But I think making sure that the two of y'all have committed to this is our date night or this is our time phones away.

I feel like for us, if the phones are out, we're not engaged. It's so easy to sit on the couch and pull out your phone and scroll Instagram. 

Nichelle: Most people I think do that. You know what I mean? You're just mindlessly scrolling or you're probably working, going through trying to find stuff. It's so different to intentionally say, Hey, do you want to start a new series together? 

Brittany: And putting your phone down when you watch that series together. That's one thing. There's a few shows that we like to do. I feel like if I am watching the show, but I'm on my phone, it's not the same as if we're intentionally sitting next to each other, cuddling, watching it together. Even if we're not having conversation back and forth, we're still connecting and spending that quality time together. Maybe this is something we can get into in another episode, but there's this book called the five love languages. Chris and I read this book before we got married, early on in our dating, actually. My mom was reading it and she was like, I think this would be great if you think Chris is the one. She was like I am getting the vibe this is the direction that it's going. I would encourage you guys to read this book. It has helped us so much in our marriage. Chris's love language is quality time and physical touch. So for him, us sitting on the couch like snuggling and spending that time together is really important. I think that would be something to chat about, in another episode. What all the of the love languages are and that type of thing. If you haven't read it, I would highly encourage you to read it. They have a few different ones for the workplace, for your kids, for friends and things like that too. So anyway, that's a long answer.

Nichelle: Love it. So one of the followers asked, I noticed you share sizing in your try on. What's the significance behind that?

Brittany: I feel like this is such a difficult thing for some people. For me, my job here is to show you outfits that you can wear and I want to make sure that if you spend the time and the money to purchase the outfit, that you are getting the right fit. And when you click buy, when it gets here, it's going to fit right based off of my description of sizing. How annoying is it when you get something in and you didn't know to size up? And then you have to return it, and the return process is super annoying. You don't have a store local, you have to send it back in the mail and go to the post office. No one has time to do all of those steps. So for me, I want to make it as easy and as precise as possible that you will know this is the right size. And I feel like over the years, I've shifted because I would never, in a million years want to offend anybody by sharing what my size is. Me writing out on the screen, I'm wearing a size small. I would never want somebody to feel like they can't wear it because I'm a size small, and maybe they're large. I'm purely, only sharing that so that people who are a similar body type or that they know, okay, she's a small in this, I'm a medium. She said, true to size. My true size is a medium. I know I'm going to go with that size and it's going to fit me. There's no ill intent behind why I post that. Sometimes I've tried to just scale back and be like, this fits true to size. But then there's people that are like, I like to know what that true size is for you in this item, because that helps me with my true size, like knowing, okay, she got this size, I'm going going to get this size. So it's, I would say like a guide. 

Nichelle: Yeah. It's to be helpful. There's some people that are in between sizes. Hey, in this brand I'm normally in between sizes, how do you feel like this runs in comparison? There's a lot of those type of questions and it's meant to be helpful. I know whenever you would try on dresses and things that, personally, I know that you're five, five, you share that. And for that reason, I know I'm three inches taller than you, and it may be long or it may be short on me. So it's just meant to be helpful and the guiding of customer service.

Brittany: Exactly. At the end of the day, this is a business. On Nordstrom, it says the fit is true to size or order up one. I am trying to provide you a service that you get to see the item on somebody. You get to hear about the material. You get to see movement, you get some style advice. So with that comes sharing sizing details. It has nothing to do with my personal size but, everything to do with my overall opinion of the article of clothing and how it fits. If that makes sense. Sometimes people have been like, you shouldn't share sizing because it's encouraging people to be different than what they are. That's absolutely not the reason that I share that at all. A lot of body types can wear a lot of the pieces that I show. So it's just meant to guide you in the size that will best work for you, so you don't have to return it.

Nichelle: All right. And the last question, what makes you excited about your job?

Brittany: I love my job. I feel like I have such a cool job. I get to interact with women, men as well, every day. I started this to inspire other women to feel good about themselves in what they're wearing. I think it's been so cool that I've been able to grow that in other areas, not just with clothing, but that's where it started. And now I share my skincare routine, and my haircut. Things about our home. At the end of the day, the whole reason why I do this, is to inspire other women to feel good about what they're doing for themselves or for their family, and to want to see the good in things. I think it even goes into my word of this year, which is kind, and just being a kind person and having a kind outlook. I think it's cool that I have this career where I get to talk with people and help people work through problems. I can use my experiences to help somebody else navigate through the same thing they're going through and this is how I got through. While I want this to be a platform of positivity and you can come here and get outfit inspiration, it's also real life and not every single day is rainbows and butterflies and oh, from the outside, it just looks like everything is so easy. I feel like I give a glimpse of that and I'm real too. My outlook is I want to see the good in things. I want to turn the negative into a positive. I think it's cool that I have that opportunity with my job to share that outlook. All while giving style advice, and while putting ideas together for family photos or giving people ideas for teacher gifts.

There's so many different varieties and ways I can offer that service to people. But I just love that I have this unique place to where I can share my purpose and be a positive place for people to come and what they take away from it. There's a variety to choose from if that makes sense.

So I love what I do. I was talking with one of my girlfriends over the weekend while we were in Charlotte and I was just telling her that, and that I never thought that this job would go there. Or that it would grow to be that for some people. It's really cool what has come from this and what the internet can do. The internet can be such a crazy place and it can be a dark place and there's people on it who are not living their best life. But there's a lot of good and encouragement. I think it's what you want to take away from that. 

Nichelle: It's a reflection of what you're putting out there. You have some amazing followers.

Brittany: Yeah, that's true. I really do appreciate my community. It's funny. I never thought when I started this, that I would be cultivating this community of women who are so supportive. But I think it's amazing.

Nichelle: It's so fun to see you guys come up and introduce yourself to Brittany. Like you're so excited to see Loverly Grey. And she still walks away and goes, it's so fun. It's so weird. Like they like treat me like I'm a celebrity and I'm not. I'm like, you are to them.

Brittany: I'm thankful I've had the opportunity to make other people feel good. I think that's the answer in the long and short. If you guys can't tell, I'll answer the question very longwinded. So anyway, that wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. We've got lots of good information that will be in the show notes today. So make sure you head there to get a quick recap and donate in Nasreen's honor. If you haven't watched her video I will leave her Instagram handle and the video link as well.

 I know she would appreciate a few second prayer, if you can, even turn this podcast off and have a moment of silence for her or say a quick prayer. I know she would appreciate that more than anything. 

Nichelle: And I know that she'd want for you guys to go get checked out. I know they normally say 40 to 44 is when you go. If that runs in your family, or if you feel something that just doesn't feel right, go get it checked out, and don't hesitate. 

Brittany: Yes. All right, friends, we will see you next week.

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

Nichelle: That was perfect.