0:00

What's going on , guys ? Welcome to another episode

0:02

of the More Than a Side Hustle podcast . If you guys

0:04

are new here , my name is Anthony and I'm Janoka

0:06

.

0:06

Thank you for tapping in week after week , either on

0:08

YouTube , Apple , Yahoo , Spotify

0:11

, wherever you listen to us at .

0:13

We help non-to-fathers create more impact , income and

0:15

influence outside their jobs .

0:16

Yes , and if you are

0:19

following us in any capacity on Instagram

0:21

or even on YouTube , that you're subscribed

0:23

. You did see that we recently announced

0:25

we have baby number two on the way .

0:29

Yes , you guys got it , you had a delay .

0:30

You're not clapping , you're staring at the camera . I wasn't

0:33

sure , and we posted a

0:35

video about family reactions , so be sure to check

0:37

that out as well . But what are we talking about

0:39

today ?

0:39

Yeah , so as we're recording this the last

0:42

couple weeks , congratulations

0:44

To me To us To us .

0:46

Okay , why are you ?

0:47

looking at me and

0:49

we spoke about this in one of the last episodes as well but it's

0:51

super dope that you're able to see what's happening

0:54

in our lives real time

0:56

. You're able to see the growth , the trajectory , things

0:58

that are changed . Things are getting different

1:00

. Whatever , it is Like

1:02

something changed the lighting . Again little bit on mine but

1:04

I think I still look fine all right . Well , we're just gonna rock out this time

1:06

okay , you're watching a video or something , just flick

1:08

or whatever . No idea what's happening , but you

1:11

get . This is one of the things about a podcast , like , we record

1:13

these live , so there's not gonna be me sitting here

1:15

editing this out . No , you get it live direct

1:17

. The mistakes , the challenges , whatever happens

1:19

, you get it .

1:20

So wait , before you go into that , I gotta read my

1:22

uh review of the week . So thank

1:24

you to chow . Q090875

1:27

continued on . She or he said

1:30

great podcast . Thank you for sharing and teaching

1:32

us how to be better . So thank you for writing

1:34

us that review . We appreciate that . We want

1:36

to continue to get more of those . Last one was

1:38

december and then this one popped up like early

1:40

march , so appreciate that . What happened january

1:43

, febru ?

1:44

I didn't ask for many reviews .

1:45

Well , I'm asking here , so

1:48

thank you for sharing that .

1:50

This lighting adjustment is really bothering me

1:52

. It did adjust again Because it got brighter

1:54

outside .

1:55

Yeah , that's what it is . It's adjusting with the . It's like you

1:57

know how the TV , when it's dark , it bright .

1:59

You know All right you keep the podcast going . I got to fix

2:01

this .

2:01

Well , we were going to bring up the fact that

2:04

TikTok is possibly going to be banned

2:07

from America and

2:09

recently the vote was

2:11

a landslide , with Congress voting

2:13

in favor to ban

2:16

TikTok . They basically said

2:18

that either the company sells

2:20

it , I guess , to us us

2:22

being America or it

2:24

will be banned on all , like Apple , google

2:26

Play . You won't be able to purchase it anymore . So

2:29

I was saying , well

2:31

, I said to Anthony , well , why would they sell

2:33

this to us ? Like how does that , even , why would that

2:35

make sense ? Are we the biggest consumers , we

2:38

being Americans ? And like , maybe

2:40

that's a good , good question . I have no idea of the stats

2:42

, of the numbers , because , as we know , tiktok TikTok

2:44

is a worldwide thing and the

2:47

impact that that has . I know a lot of people were

2:49

speaking about the impact that has on creatives

2:51

and people that have blown up from

2:53

TikTok and that we know from TikTok . What

2:55

does that do to them and their following ? The

2:58

hope is that they have built

3:00

things outside of that or

3:02

that they at least have a YouTube or Instagram

3:04

or just other ways email list

3:07

, that type of stuff that people can tap in

3:09

with them . If they do not , oh

3:11

yo , what's going on , guys , did you ?

3:13

know we own a seven-figure cleaning

3:15

business and we use that business in

3:17

order to pay off 114,000

3:19

dollars of debt . We use that business to help us travel

3:22

more , save more money and eventually

3:24

become financially free . If any of that

3:26

sounds good to you , check out Cleaning Business

3:28

University , where we teach you how to launch and scale a

3:30

six now seven-figure cleaning business , and

3:33

the best part about it is that you do not have

3:35

to clean homes yourself . I know that sounds crazy

3:37

, but check out Cleaning Business University . We give you

3:39

more in-depth information about that . Check

3:41

it out and we will see you on the other side

3:43

that's kind of like a full change in finances

3:46

in life .

3:47

I saw a creative say follow us

3:49

on snapchat , which snapchat

3:51

still around well , I've seen people coming back

3:53

on snapchat . I was gonna say I saw people coming back on

3:55

snapchat so I think it's becoming a bit more popular again

3:57

, but I don't think it compares to instagram

4:00

and tiktok at this point .

4:01

But yeah , that's's . So you asked

4:03

why would they sell ? So one of the reasons

4:06

if you're so my

4:08

thing is , I think we don't want TikTok

4:10

in the US unless we own it , because

4:13

you said they want the data . Like we

4:15

have the meta , we have , like we

4:19

have everything essentially that we need here

4:21

and we don't get any data from TikTok , us being the US

4:23

. So the way they built

4:25

the tiktok platform is that they were like I

4:27

, just like most platforms , they go through these cycles where

4:30

they want to get as many users on there as

4:32

possible . So , like when you first got

4:34

on tiktok , you know , a couple years ago , you

4:36

post something and you go viral like that was the

4:38

thing , like they wanted . Oh , you could get

4:40

easy credibility , you get easy fame

4:42

, you know insta stats , whatever , and

4:45

essentially people get on tiktok like yo

4:47

, I'm gonna blow up on air . So a lot of people kind of create their

4:49

name from tiktok . So

4:51

the problem is that we don't have , we don't

4:53

own any of that data in the us . You know

4:55

, we're all about data . We want to control it , want to manage

4:57

it , we want to essentially use it for whatever we're

4:59

going to use it for . So if china

5:02

did , or the owner of tiktok or

5:04

whatever , whoever owns it , whether it's a personal

5:07

, individual , team , company , whatever it's

5:09

out to sell it to us , they would need to

5:11

decide , okay , well , I'm selling

5:13

it to them because yeah , I'm selling it because

5:15

us is my biggest market . If I can't be my biggest market

5:17

, I'm wrapping this thing up , and

5:19

that would be the only reason they would sell it , or

5:22

they would just say f off us and keep this thing

5:24

pushing now I I don't know

5:26

that I feel like tiktok should oh

5:28

necessarily be banned completely

5:31

.

5:31

However , I think there should be some regulations around

5:33

it , simply because I feel I think I've mentioned

5:36

this before me as an adult , I

5:38

indulge in tiktok a lot and it

5:40

is very , let's say , addicting

5:42

. You can be on that thing . If you not on tiktok , stay off . You can be on that

5:45

thing . If you're not on TikTok , stay off . You could be on that thing forever

5:47

because it just keeps going . It feeds to you exactly

5:49

what you want to see and read

5:51

and engage in . So I think that

5:53

there should be some type of limitations , particularly

5:56

with the kids , because I'm like , as adults , if we're doing

5:58

this , what does this do to our

6:00

children , teenagers , et cetera , et cetera . So

6:02

, in some form , there should be

6:05

, I don't know , a cutoff , something

6:07

to control TikTok in some

6:09

capacity , but I guess , because America doesn't

6:11

own it , they can't control

6:13

anything . So they're like let's just ban it altogether . On

6:15

top of what you said with the data part probably

6:17

.

6:18

So why would it be up to TikTok to regulate your children's

6:20

behavior ? Wouldn't that be ?

6:21

on you ? Wouldn't

6:25

that be on you ? Wouldn't that be on you as a parent ? Yeah , but how much regulating are people able

6:27

to do , really , when your kid may be at school at 8 hours

6:29

a day ?

6:30

There's not much regulating .

6:31

Take it off their phone , block it Right

6:33

. There's options there . There's

6:35

options , but how much people one

6:38

are really doing that and how much kids

6:40

are actually sticking to that ?

6:43

I think that if Alani

6:45

got to the age where we had to regulate her social

6:47

media , we would absolutely do that . I

6:49

wouldn't expect TikTok or Facebook to put something in place

6:51

that says a kid can only be on here eight

6:53

hours . It would really be on us as parents to regulate

6:56

that .

6:56

Some type of limitation . I mean , that's the same thing with YouTube

6:58

, right ? I mean , people say that they're

7:01

watching YouTube kids , and then the commercials

7:03

are what you call it . The

7:05

ads that come up are not for kids , technically

7:08

. Who are you blaming then ? You blaming YouTube or you

7:10

blaming ?

7:10

yourself . I'm blaming me because if

7:12

you do , if you go to YouTube for kids

7:15

, youtube is kind of regulating

7:17

a little bit , but

7:19

you could set parameters on if you want to pay for not having commercials

7:22

, you want the YouTube premium , you want all this other stuff . So

7:25

I think , as parents , we would have to regulate that more than the application itself

7:28

, cause things are still going to slip through . Are you going to sit there and

7:30

blame TikTok ?

7:30

Not forever . I don't agree that it's all

7:33

on them , but I feel like , because of

7:35

the way the platform is set up , it still

7:37

should be something in place for kids , cause

7:45

that's of stuff . So that's just a conversation

7:47

. I don't feel like they should ban it because I actually

7:49

love the app . I find it to be one of my

7:52

favorite apps . It's basically Twitter and TikTok

7:54

for me .

7:57

But that's where we are at this point . I actually hate it .

7:58

Well , you don't , you don't watch it , you don't hate it , that

8:05

hate it .

8:05

That's a strong word , you don't hate it .

8:06

I don't enjoy tiktok at all , but you be on it .

8:08

What do you mean ? I don't send you tiktok . So I'm on tiktok because you send me videos

8:10

, but I'm not on tiktok because I'm consuming content

8:12

. I I really , if you look on my app

8:15

, let's actually pull it up right now .

8:16

Well we can't tell we're signing on to the same thing

8:18

.

8:18

No I could go to my app screen

8:21

time , oh , and see how long and see how long

8:23

I actually spend on on tiktok I

8:25

go through waves .

8:25

Sometimes it's like , oh , I'm over it , and then sometimes

8:28

I'm like on it , on it , this week I think I'm on it .

8:31

I go through waves of a website and activity

8:33

instagram messages

8:36

, mail x , youtube , nike

8:38

run slack , facebook safari

8:40

podcast photos , whatsapp

8:42

settings Google Maps week or in

8:45

general , threads this week music weather

8:47

, my weather app

8:49

. I'm on there longer than I'm on TikTok my

8:52

weather app , so whatever that

8:55

gives you any indication on my time

8:57

. On TikTok it says about five

8:59

minutes a day .

9:00

That's you , but the rest of the world is

9:02

on it .

9:03

I'm not everybody . I'm on my weather app

9:05

longer than I'm on TikTok .

9:07

What are you doing ? Checking just to run , probably

9:09

with the weather app . But either way

9:12

that is what's happening in the

9:14

world on TikTok and

9:16

let's see , let me go . What are we talking

9:18

about today ?

9:19

So we were going to be talking about

9:21

March , march , 12th March , something . 2020

9:24

was the time , the year

9:26

, the month

9:28

, that everything changed the date . The date

9:30

everything changed for the world

9:33

, the entire world .

9:34

So we just wanted to discuss what

9:36

has changed in our lives or

9:38

the world since the pandemic

9:40

started . You were like what happened in March of 2020

9:43

?

9:43

The pandemic happened .

9:44

The pandemic happened . We are four years after

9:46

. It's kind of like at least for me , uh

9:48

, similar to like september 11th , like you won't

9:51

forget it ever . You remember

9:53

where you were when they announced it , so on

9:55

and so forth .

9:56

So and what reminded

9:58

us of this ? Well , what reminded me

10:00

of this was , if you guys

10:02

watch the NBA , rudy Gilbert

10:04

is always the , the

10:06

, the dog , the , the taste , the

10:08

, the , the , the monkey , whatever you want to call

10:11

him , the test dummy , and for

10:13

this month , for the rest of his life . So

10:15

he was , he got injured

10:17

and it was like march is just not his month

10:20

. I was like , wait , what ? I didn't

10:22

have to do anything . They went back and I said , oh

10:24

yeah , so if you guys don't know , um , he's

10:26

a , he's a player in the nba and this month

10:29

he was literally the indicator of

10:31

the pandemic . Now

10:33

I want to give you guys some context . So

10:35

the pandemic in the

10:37

US was not a real thing . Quote

10:39

, unquote , because everything was still

10:41

happening . So the NBA sports , everything

10:43

was still going on . Right

10:46

, rudy Gobert , excuse me , he

10:49

was on an NBA stage doing

10:51

his interview and it was about the pandemic and he literally

10:53

coughed on the mics . It's like a joke , like

10:55

, oh , pandemic , we're all healthy NBA

10:58

players . He coughed on the mics as like a joke , like yo , pandemic , we're all healthy NBA players . He coughed on the mic like

11:00

literally as a joke .

11:02

I mean , it's just nasty . First of all , number

11:04

one nasty .

11:05

He's also not from here , so

11:07

his sense of comedy might be

11:09

a little bit . Last name Gobert .

11:11

I mean people have last names that are born here , like Hartzog

11:14

right .

11:14

Yeah , he

11:20

literally coughed on the mics and that next week the

11:22

nba was shut down in march . That was when we said , okay , the , the , the pandemic

11:24

is real and he was like the

11:26

indicator of the pandemic in

11:29

the us because the nba shut down right after

11:31

that well , I , I just think about

11:33

he .

11:34

I think we'll always look

11:36

at , well , who didn't get COVID

11:38

right ? I

11:41

think we'll always . It has changed

11:43

how , maybe , we view people

11:46

coughing . It has changed how

11:48

we view sickness . It has changed

11:50

the

11:53

conspiracy theorists went crazy . It

11:55

just has changed how we operate , I think

11:57

, maybe being a bit more respectful of people's space because we're mindful the conspiracy theorists

11:59

went crazy . It just has changed how we operate . I think , maybe being

12:01

a bit more respectable of people's space because we're mindful to wear a mask . I think we

12:03

had a doctor's appointment and

12:06

Tony was asking did doctors always

12:08

wear masks ? I'm like , yeah , actually they

12:11

always wear masks when they're doing certain things

12:13

. Yeah , because that's how they protected themselves . And

12:16

Asians , they wear masks because that's

12:19

what they know . That's what they do back home not

12:21

every asian country , obviously , but

12:23

that's what they did . So now

12:26

it's like a cultural thing that

12:28

we wear a mask , maybe if we're not feeling well

12:31

or in different settings where

12:33

we're hesitant about things . So that was

12:35

a shift . Um , seeing

12:37

the world actually shut down , I think was

12:39

nothing that anybody has ever imagined

12:41

happening . I mean , yeah , what does that even

12:44

mean For me ? I felt like it was serious

12:46

, which is , I think , march 12th , 11th , whatever

12:48

the date exactly was when

12:51

New York shut down , because , if

12:53

you didn't know , we're from Brooklyn , new York , but we live in Dallas

12:55

, texas , and to me , new York , but we live in Dallas , texas , and to me New York

12:57

doesn't shut down for anything . We

13:03

always make those jokes , or you see those memes , that we was going to school in six

13:05

feet snow , there's nothing shutting down , so the school is shutting down

13:07

and sending their teachers home . I'm

13:12

like this is maybe bigger than we think and they thought at the time , well , it would

13:14

just be maybe a a few days , a few

13:16

weeks , and so on and so forth . So

13:19

I think those are some of the major or the indications

13:21

of the change when it was all

13:23

kind of happening , or it was happening pretty

13:26

quickly , to be honest , in other countries

13:28

, and then the first person in seattle had got it . We

13:30

were actually away , we were in morocco

13:33

for a wedding at that

13:35

time and the only english channel was cnn

13:37

and so

13:40

I had it on and he used to be like you have to turn this

13:42

thing . I mean , it was , it was all they were talking

13:44

about , so we're like dreaming

13:46

about it at this point to the point . They were like , should we

13:48

go back home earlier ?

13:50

and I think four days after coming back into this

13:52

country , the world shut down

13:54

yeah , while we were , while

13:56

we were in morocco , it really

13:58

wasn't a thing over there . While we were in Morocco , it really wasn't a

14:00

thing over there yet , because we were at a wedding , we was having a good time . But

14:03

we knew that the shift was happening , because

14:05

the only news station we got was CNN . But

14:08

we just saw little dots popping

14:10

up on the map . First case here . First case

14:12

here . People were like it's nothing

14:14

more than a common cold . So what are we really

14:16

going crazy over ? But

14:18

the challenge was when you saw people getting hospitalized

14:21

and it

14:23

really got scary when hospitals

14:25

were overran with patients

14:28

who have COVID it's

14:32

like , okay , what is this ? Number one Is

14:34

it a cold ? Is it not ? Is it respiratory ? Is it stopping

14:36

your heart ? Is it stopping your heart ? Is it stopping your lungs

14:38

? And then we had some cases

14:40

where in the US , it

14:42

was like , oh yeah , now athletes are getting

14:44

COVID . So first it was like old people , overweight

14:47

people right , it was just people who

14:49

were on the extreme

14:51

spectrum You're extremely overweight or you're

14:53

extremely old , your immune system's

14:55

low . And then we saw athletes

14:57

getting it . So when we saw NBA

14:59

players , we saw soccer players getting it and

15:02

they were becoming sick , we was like okay , anybody can

15:04

get COVID .

15:05

It doesn't just impact Because you know , I think in America you put athletes

15:08

and celebrities on a different pedestal . I don't know if they

15:10

do that everywhere , but it's kind of . They're not untouchable

15:12

, but they have means to more things than we do

15:14

. Yeah , you see a celebrity , yeah , so it's like if

15:16

a celebrity could get it , then what's the whole WA ? We're

15:19

just waiting for me . Exactly , exactly

15:22

.

15:22

So when we saw , when we saw that shift start to happen , then

15:24

we're like , ok , we're taking this more seriously Because for me , I'm

15:26

like oh , I run , I work out , I'm healthy

15:28

.

15:42

Like I should be . Football players . They run , you know , all these players , all these athletes are getting

15:44

it now . Okay , and then I think it became . It also felt like , like you said , it felt like , well , it's not going

15:46

to happen to me , I think at the beginning and I'm like , well , I still have a gym class going on

15:49

, I still got some appointments . And you're like

15:51

I think you should cancel that . I don't know that

15:53

you should be going out based on what they're

15:55

saying . So it took a while . I don't

15:57

know . This is for everyone um

15:59

, to kind of catch up and be like

16:01

, okay , this is real , this is not

16:03

a game . You need to keep your butt inside . And

16:06

part of the change for us that happened

16:09

with that is we started doing grocery delivery and to

16:11

this day , we still have our groceries

16:13

delivered , not necessarily because of covid at

16:15

this point , but it's just been

16:17

more convenient , things like that

16:19

. Like we started it then , um

16:22

, I'm sure instacart blew up then . I don't

16:24

know that . I mean people were probably using it , but I'm

16:26

sure their stocks and everything else

16:28

went up then because people did not want to go

16:30

out and do it themselves

16:32

, because we didn't like . We're like , oh , we have

16:34

to go walk the dog , make sure you have a glove

16:36

on to touch the doors going outside

16:38

.

16:39

All those things you guys remember

16:41

that and we're sharing this because this

16:43

was our experience , but we know that there's so many people

16:46

out there that can relate to it , because we

16:48

all went through the same exact thing in this month

16:50

. In different ways , in different ways and the groceries

16:52

would be delivered . And you're sitting there washing the bananas

16:54

and oranges and you're using

16:56

scrubbing your boxes and

16:58

I will never forgive you guys . I will never

17:01

Anyone who's listened to this podcast . If you

17:03

ran out and grabbed toilet paper . I

17:05

will never forgive you for that .

17:07

No one ever told us .

17:08

Why did we go out and grab toilet

17:11

paper in the midst of

17:13

the pandemic ? I will never forgive you guys . Maybe

17:15

that was just absurd . Did you

17:17

just need to hoard ? We're not talking about milk

17:19

. We're not talking about bread . We're not talking about groceries

17:21

Meat .

17:22

We're talking about toilet paper .

17:23

Why are you running out and grabbing toilet paper ? That pissed

17:25

me off ? Maybe you can tell us your reason behind it

17:27

. Drop your reason . If

17:31

you're one of them , if you went out and the pandemic , and then

17:33

we would go .

17:34

If we did have to go grocery shopping , we would go

17:36

like seven in the morning or six and like really

17:38

early and there was a long line outside the

17:40

grocery store . I guess other people didn't

17:42

want to re-interact . Thankfully

17:45

, we didn't face major family

17:47

changes in regards to people kind of dying

17:49

from covid . Uh , people we

17:52

had people that got sick we eventually had gotten

17:54

, so covid started what in 2020

17:56

? yeah , I think we both

17:58

had gotten covid eventually , like december 2022

18:01

uh , and I probably had it before then well

18:03

, okay , well , when we knew was

18:06

then , when they had the official test down and everybody

18:08

could get it at their home that's when we really started testing

18:11

normally yeah , also a big texas

18:13

that's

18:13

also a big thing that changed for a lot of people was remote

18:16

work we talked about oh yeah , we talked

18:18

about the rise of remote work . But when

18:20

you were , when you become exposed to something

18:22

and now that's

18:24

a normal way of life , you can never go back

18:27

to seeing the way things used to be . There was

18:29

this young lady who was . She said she visited

18:31

a luxury hotel and she was telling her story . I

18:33

don't know if you said this it might might've been on TikTok , actually

18:35

but she visited

18:37

a luxury hotel and she was

18:39

like I would have never visited this luxury hotel but

18:42

I decided to splurge on myself . But what came of

18:44

it was she was sitting at the bar and she overheard

18:46

a conversation about a , a two gentlemen

18:48

that were going through a sale of like a , a

18:51

$4 million asset or something

18:53

like that . And now she's like I'm tuning into that conversation

18:55

. Now I can hear it . I know what's

18:57

possible , you know , because I I hear somebody

18:59

doing it . So I've never been close to somebody

19:01

talking about something like that a day in

19:03

my life . Say , I don't come from money . I know you guys

19:06

see social media influences . I am not that I just

19:08

happen to go into this hotel because I had a little bit of extra

19:10

money in my pocket , um , and

19:12

then also she sat down with a guy who owned

19:14

a attractor , something

19:17

like that , and he owned a multi-million

19:19

dollar tractor company or something she's like . I

19:22

am now exposed to these conversations

19:24

and I'm like my mind is boggled because I've

19:26

never been this close to someone who's done these things . I

19:28

can never go back to unhearing it . So during

19:31

the pandemic going back to what I was saying about remote work

19:33

, that was something that changed . Everyone's life is like

19:35

. We are now in a remote world , world

19:37

where we don't want to go back to the office , we

19:39

want things delivered fast and we want convenience . And

19:42

if you want to do some extra credit , take a screenshot

19:44

of your phone . Or if you're driving in the car

19:47

, take a screenshot of your , your dashboard

19:49

, tag us tag us on instagram . Let us know

19:51

you are tapping in so that we can repost

19:53

you and show you some love too you can

19:55

tag us at more than a side hustle podcast

19:57

or at the heart your morning .

19:59

We have two ways that you can tap in with us we appreciate

20:01

it , thank you um . The other thing I think was

20:03

different was depending on where you lived

20:05

. So we live in texas and things

20:08

weren't , as I would say , strict and

20:10

stringent , as maybe it wasn't in northeast

20:12

um , definitely not so we

20:14

were texas and alana were like we

20:16

were open a bit earlier than

20:19

most people were right , Most

20:21

states were , so I think the pandemic started

20:23

in March . By May things

20:25

were opening back

20:27

up , if you will , a bit more restricted

20:29

. I know changes that happened in

20:32

New York was the restaurants

20:34

now were outside , even though it wasn't the

20:36

warmest they were

20:38

in the wintertime and all that . They went outside

20:40

because they wanted to still .

20:41

That's the most ghetto thing I've seen in my life .

20:43

They wanted to still operate or they were losing so much

20:45

money to still operate , and then a lot of them

20:48

kept it that way , in so much that , so

20:50

that some streets you can no longer drive

20:52

down because the restaurants have an extension . So

20:54

now it's like , oh , now we have more room . So

20:56

that has been a big change in the world

20:58

. Here in Texas that wasn't a thing . But

21:00

I'm trying to think of what other major

21:03

changes I think that we faced . But

21:05

I think it depends on one what

21:08

life was like for you ? Maybe

21:10

for some people , people being in the home setting

21:12

wasn't a good experience , right

21:15

, you know , some kids , some people it wasn't

21:17

good for them to be home all the time . That

21:19

was another thing . Uh , we didn't have kids at that time

21:21

, but if you had to be home with your child

21:23

all the time and

21:26

remote learning became

21:28

a thing , that was a mess

21:30

because no one knew what they were doing .

21:32

Colleges have not gone back to being

21:35

normal Universities are

21:37

not normal today . No college experience

21:39

, all these things . So you went through . We had a whole generation

21:42

of kids who didn't go through graduation

21:44

.

21:44

You paid the same amount . Who didn't ?

21:45

live on a dorm , who didn't live on a campus , who

21:47

didn't even get to experience what they went , essentially

21:49

what the college for . We

21:54

had a whole generation of people who didn't even walk to the stage and then now , post-pandemic

21:57

even colleges are not the same today . Like even you

21:59

know , I went to university at albany and

22:01

we're still seeing the the effects of that . Like

22:03

our student life , our greek life . They're like yeah

22:06

, students are now opting in to

22:08

live off campus or live remote and

22:10

not being on campus . Like the campus

22:12

.

22:12

Campus life has changed tremendously since

22:15

then I think this past school year that

22:17

just started I know a school in new york because my

22:19

friend works there they just fully

22:21

became like fully back

22:23

in in office , in on campus

22:25

just now last year , like starting september 2023

22:28

. So when some

22:30

people are going to listen to this , be like COVID ain't over

22:32

understood . At this point they are saying

22:34

which they've been saying for a while it becomes , it

22:36

has become like the flu . We will see it , probably forever

22:39

. It will change , it will fluctuate

22:41

and you kind of deal with it . You

22:43

get a shot or you don't a vaccine

22:46

to kind of deal with it . It we understand

22:48

that and we ain't here to talk about the politics of covid

22:50

. Just make mainly just how

22:52

has the world changed ? How did our world change

22:55

the past four years

22:57

? I think in general , life changes in the past four

22:59

years , but specifically , how did the pandemic

23:01

affect things ?

23:02

the pandemic affected um mortgage

23:04

rates right , yeah , interest rates

23:06

, people moving interest rates . So we went through two

23:08

different , two different cycles during the pandemic

23:10

as well . So we went through the scared

23:13

cycle . So no one wants to buy anything

23:16

because no one knows what's

23:18

happening . So it's like I don't know if I'm going to be

23:20

able to go back to work , I don't know if I'm going to get fired . So

23:22

no one is buying anything at the beginning

23:24

of the pandemic . So

23:26

interest rates were at 3% . That's when we bought our house during that

23:28

time . And then you got the end of the pandemic

23:30

when it's like , okay , things are back to normal . Now

23:33

we have to make up for the lost revenue

23:35

, lost income that we had . So now interest rates

23:37

are a lot higher . So we went through

23:39

two different phases . We went through a few different economies

23:41

during this pandemic where you know no one was buying anything

23:44

. Everyone's

23:46

fearful for their lives . And then you got the greed cycle

23:48

, where everyone like oh , we back now

23:50

we have to make that we lost and now we want everything

23:53

. So we um , we went through

23:55

that as well , so we got our house and we got some real estate during that

23:57

time and then at the end of the pandemic , okay , we

23:59

slowed down . So that was a

24:01

huge shift for a lot of people as well . Just that

24:03

, that fear cycle and then going to that greed

24:05

side of things where it's like we lost out a lot

24:07

of time , and then travel is not the same

24:10

today .

24:10

Oh , travel , travel is different . A

24:12

year after the pandemic , prices

24:14

were really really high at one point and prices

24:17

were really low , sorry , I think , because they wanted to get people

24:19

back in . And then it became like whoa

24:21

, this is the highest we've seen it in years

24:23

in regards to

24:26

airplane flights and things like that and hotel

24:28

. So all of that , I think , impacted us . So I wonder now , inflation and

24:30

things like that and a hotel , so all of that , I think impacted us . So I wonder now Inflation

24:32

, inflation . I wonder now , like for our kids

24:34

, how do we , how

24:37

will it impact them in the future ? Or just has it

24:39

impacted them now and I think for

24:41

the past two years ? So , when I was , we

24:45

had Alani in 2022

24:48

. So when I was pregnant , going through

24:50

the whole process in 2021 , you

24:53

couldn't go to all the appointments um , only like

24:55

what they consider major ones checking it

24:57

, 20 months , scan and delivery . Essentially

25:00

other than that , I had to go by myself

25:02

. Um , things are are

25:04

different now , but I'm just wondering how

25:06

else would it impact ? It impacted

25:09

how many people could be in the living room in 2022

25:11

. But

25:15

four years later , how would it impact our kids ? I'm wondering at all .

25:17

I think especially for kids that will be a history lesson

25:19

.

25:19

They'll know that were raised during in the beginning

25:21

. Oh , they call them COVID babies .

25:25

That's one of the things . They might have learning challenges

25:27

or they might have speech challenges , because

25:29

they weren't talking to anyone Attachment

25:31

issues , sleeping issues there

25:33

was a bunch of challenges there . I'm really

25:35

hoping that this episode doesn't get blocked on

25:38

youtube .

25:39

they'd be blocking stuff ? Who knew ?

25:40

if you say something , if you use a word too

25:42

much , that kind of goes against when

25:45

we use the word . We use a word here a

25:47

lot , so you should just say vid , yeah

25:51

, I'm 25 minutes into my podcast

25:53

.

25:53

You're telling me this now just thought about that

25:55

.

25:56

Okay , so I'll just save it , if we say so yeah

25:58

those are some of the changes that definitely and I want

26:00

you guys to think about that for you know , for your life as

26:02

well I mean , how else would you say

26:04

that our life is ?

26:05

you know we spoke about the world changing , but any other

26:07

way that our life , like like our business , kind

26:11

of fluctuated during that time but never really took

26:13

a big plummet , just based on the way

26:15

that we run our business essentially , and

26:18

so cleaning businesses were labeled as essential

26:20

during the pandemic , so we were able to still clean houses

26:22

.

26:23

People became germaphobes as well , which is actually

26:25

a good thing . So the cleaning business , the cleaning

26:27

industry , took a huge boost

26:29

. It was a huge boost , but

26:36

then a lot of people who couldn't adjust to clients canceling or not having clients on the

26:38

books or having cleaners they had to , you know , sell their businesses or close down a lot of businesses

26:40

during in general during the pandemic closed

26:42

down because they couldn't sustain during

26:44

that time , but we were fortunately enough . We

26:46

were fortunate enough to be able to sustain through that we

26:48

just cut back on some expenses .

26:50

Like we had a va service at at that time where

26:52

, like we can get the phones , it's not really

26:54

ringing , the phones aren't

26:56

really ringing as much , and so we cut back on

26:58

expenses in some places marketing that

27:00

type of stuff with the business . But

27:02

it was able to sustain and kind of take

27:04

off once we I say open

27:06

back up , because whatever that really means

27:09

here Any

27:12

other way , you would say that it impacted us , I guess in the past four years I

27:15

just think it's one .

27:16

I just think one of those . I just think with the uh

27:19

pandemic it just changed my

27:21

mindset for everything . It's like you know , working

27:23

in an office now it just seems like

27:25

people just want us there . Like I knew for a fact

27:27

that when , during the

27:29

pandemic , when we were closing down our office

27:31

and our teams , when I was working at my job

27:34

, when our team stats actually went up , meaning

27:36

we were doing better , and they were still trying

27:38

to find reasons to come back in , I'm like , oh , it's not even

27:40

about working remote , it's just like you want us to

27:42

be physically there .

27:43

Well , cause , remember a lot of companies . They were losing money

27:46

on the real estate , that they were money

27:48

, but they're like come back in

27:50

to make me feel better .

27:51

Yeah , you're trying to fill an empty void

27:53

because this building is empty . But at the end of the day , the stats

27:55

are better . We proved it and it was

27:57

like , anthony , you still got to get your team back in . It was

27:59

like , okay , here's what it is , so that

28:02

would be a major thing too . So

28:11

, yeah , for us , like we said , the big , uh , we bought a house since then , that type of stuff . So yeah

28:14

, um , that's it on my part then .

28:15

All right , guys , well , use this month to just kind of

28:17

reflect on changes for years is a long time .

28:18

We are out of it at this point , but I think

28:21

march is always just that reflection moment where we're

28:23

like damn , the world really shut down yeah

28:25

, oh , that was gonna say .

28:26

That was the last thing that I've seen people have said

28:28

you know about doing things and moving

28:30

forward , either in business or in life , but

28:33

what if the pandemic , something like the pandemic

28:35

, happens again ? I've heard people kind of use

28:37

that as an excuse but something

28:39

to stop them . I don't know that we

28:41

can ever guesstimate that again

28:43

. So I don't know that I would ever try to operate my

28:45

life in that way . I mean anything can happen , right , earthquake

28:47

fire , I . Anything can happen , right , earthquake fire . I mean we don't know . So if you're

28:49

thinking of life in that way , I understand

28:51

to be hesitant , but more so , maybe be

28:54

more prepared if anything like

29:00

if I didn't have an emergency fund , then maybe I'll know I need to have one because I didn't

29:02

like that feeling of not knowing what was going to happen with my job , economy , so on and so

29:04

forth . So maybe being more prepared versus

29:06

like I'm not going to do something because

29:08

this could happen again , that would be

29:10

my only thing .

29:11

So keep pushing in your day , keep pushing in

29:13

your life and keep pushing forward .

29:15

Have a good one , thank you .

29:16

All right , guys , appreciate you guys tuning in , make sure you

29:18

like , subscribe , but then , more importantly , share

29:20

this episode with one person , because the

29:22

more people we reach , the more people we could teach and help .

29:25

Take care .

29:25

All right Later .

29:26

Thank you for tapping in with us again . As

29:29

you know , we always ask if you guys can , please

29:31

, please , go ahead and leave us five-star review . Go

29:33

ahead and write something if you're enjoying what we speak

29:35

about , if you listen to us week to week , please

29:38

be sure to let us know that helps us to

29:40

continue to grow and for other people to

29:42

listen to our show as well .

29:43

We appreciate it .