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A Contagious Smile Podcast
A Contagious Smile is a powerful platform dedicated to uplifting and empowering special needs families and survivors of domestic violence. Through heartfelt stories, we shine a light on the journeys of extraordinary individuals who have overcome unimaginable challenges. Their triumphs serve as a testament to resilience and strength, inspiring others to rediscover their own inner light. Each episode features candid interviews with survivors, advocates, and experts who provide valuable resources and insights to support those on their own paths to healing and empowerment. Join us as we celebrate the power of resilience, the beauty of shared stories, and the unstoppable spirit of those who turn adversity into hope. Let us guide you in rekindling your spirit, because every smile tells a story of courage and transformation.
A Contagious Smile Podcast
Empowering Futures: UGC Mastery, Tackling Child Abuse, and Navigating Family Crises TRIGGER WARNING
All right, we're ready.
Speaker 2:Good evening. Welcome to another episode of A Contagious Smile, unstoppable. The love of my life, michael, is closing the door, while we have a plethora of cuteness on the floor Stucko, rusty, uno, they're all around. Hi, babe.
Speaker 1:Howdy y'all.
Speaker 2:Howdy y'all what's shaking bacon. So we've got some exciting news this holiday week. Uh, santa's coming to town, santa's coming to town. I heard a joke from a little boy who said why did the reindeer have to go to the doctor? I don't know, because he got a bad case of the shingles. I thought it was cute, good boy. Well, that too, he was just like four or five. He was cute anyway. So happy early christmas, happy holidays, kwanwanzaa, hanukkah, whatever it is you celebrate to everybody. We are a Christmas family here, so we have been busy. My husband's just like staring at me.
Speaker 1:I always stare at you, but I'm trying to figure out where you're going with this. Well, let's get like staring at me.
Speaker 2:I always stare at you, but I'm trying to figure out where you're going with this. Well, let's get the good stuff out. So we have created some amazing courses that's going to teach you how to not just succeed, but like trial over your goals and aspirations for social media growth and your social media platform. Why don't you give a little insight, babe?
Speaker 1:uh, we as in mostly her, mainly her, well, all her. I just sat on my butt and did absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2:No, you play video games. I play video games, yeah, not I did some woodworking this weekend a A little yeah, put up what six. Shelves, shelves, shelves.
Speaker 1:Continue working on our cool room, which will be our studio here soon, very soon, which leads us into the UGC. Content creator. Tell us about it. Well, we're going to go that route.
Speaker 1:We don't know about TikTok. We don't know if they're going to shut it down, they're going to ban it. If it's going to switch hands, don't just rightly know. So we're going to play the safe route and go the UGC route. User generated content creator. And my wife has put together an amazing, awesome, spectacular, beautiful presentation PowerPoint slides, pictures, pop-up books if necessary, for us rednecks, and it is absolutely wonderful. She'll present it here very soon.
Speaker 2:Isn't there also a workbook and a system A?
Speaker 1:lot of stuff in there.
Speaker 2:You quite rightly know, yeah, and there is. Aren't we doing a 30-day trial thing? What's that? Tell us about it. It is a 30-day trial because my husband actually wants to try and get this going on his end and so he is going to be one of the students for this class. Now I don't like you're going to have to talk about that. I never talk about our numbers. My husband is the one that does that. We have an amazing amount of followers. We have an amazing, you know, system of wonderful people who listen and follow us and from the thousands and thousands of hours and classes that I have taken, and trial and error and just what work and what hasn't, we have been able to accomplish amazing things. And so I have done all of our own marketing. I've also done marketing for other companies, and so now we're doing this UGC, where we're going to do a 30-day program where we walk you through it, except Michael is going to be on the student side and, just like our law enforcement days, I'm going to be his teacher.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've got the perfect outfit for you. That's my teacher.
Speaker 2:Didn't we retire those handcuffs? Shut up, Michael.
Speaker 1:What are you talking about? Keep this PG Okay. User-generated content is basically a lot of the brands out there are looking for old folks like me.
Speaker 2:We're Gen X, gen Xers.
Speaker 1:Xers, xers, even're.
Speaker 2:Gen X Gen.
Speaker 1:Xers, xers, xers, even baby boomers. A lot of the young folk have flooded TikTok with their innovations and their creativity. So the brands are looking for us because we have deeper pockets than the younger crowd, so to speak. We have more assets under our belt, so they want us.
Speaker 2:What's under your belt?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I haven't seen it lately. You're not funny. Anyway, 40s, 50s, 60s, hey, if you're 70 years old, you can get in on this User-generated content. We're going to create the content for the brand they're going to market that and then they're going to pay us. So your basic needs smartphone with a camera, microphone and the ability to edit some of your videos. The ability to edit some of your videos and then, as you'll read in my wife's packets system that she's set up and we'll present here shortly, you can get all the goods at the ins and outs the start to finish from her, so be looking out for her UGC content creator packet. Well, it's not the name of it.
Speaker 2:It's not just that, what else it is? It's called a system because it's unlike anything else out there, because we're not just giving you one nugget, we're giving you the whole enchilada, the whole burrito, the whole burrito. That's what we're giving you, because we are even providing you with the templates on price pricing your work, the templates and contracts have already been written you. Once you get this, you will be able to change it to whatever your brand is, whatever your brand is, whatever your company is, whoever you are. It's all been done for you. About 99% has been done. Like I said, the contract's been done, the templates are done, ideas are done, even how to reach out to prospects. That's been done, been done.
Speaker 2:I've even also created a separate which Michael hasn't mentioned like planner for you to jot down your ideas and what works and what doesn't, and when you reach out to a company, who you talk to, when you talk to them, what you presented, your follow-up. It's all been done. So you basically can't mess this up. I mean, it's kind of a foolproof system. It's a way for moms at home to start making a little extra ka-ching on the side. Some people talk about doing this part-time. Some people take it on full-time. The sky's the limit with this. There's so much potential with this. It's amazing. Also, I am starting to open the gates more, if you will, to being more of a social media creator manager, because I've been doing it for certain companies here in the last like year and they have thrived and done amazing, and so I am opening that.
Speaker 1:Are you yawning?
Speaker 2:Well, look how much I've done in the last 24 hours. I'm opening that so that I can help you grow your numbers and your brand and take that hard work off of you. I look over your portfolio. I look over your creations. I go through it step by step with you. I can either take it over for you or I can help you learn how to make it soar at your own hands. It's up to you.
Speaker 1:But that's coming as well, and let's see what else one good thing about the ugc is that there's hardly any restrictions like, uh, the restrictions that you get on tiktok for violations if you show a brand on there, if you say the wrong word. Uh, if you have a logo on your t-shirt, um, that's, that's not in the ugc, you don't get any of that. You don't have to have a certain number of followers right so we're gonna, we're gonna try this out.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna be the first guinea pig under my wife's tutelage we're gonna open it up to 10 people the first 10 will right, yeah, and we'll be meeting on zoom and we're going to do it at a huge discount. Um, and for the first 10, we'll give a huge discount to you. If they allow us to use their reviews after the course is right, the system is finished. What's really great about this is that, whether or not tiktok does shut off, shut down whatever is in the next five years alone, you know everybody needs advertisement and the best form of advertisement is word of mouth, and you're talking about job security.
Speaker 2:This isn't something you're ever going to have to worry about, because companies need their items advertised, and this is teaching you how to do it, and you could do it from home. You could do it from a coffee shop. I've got my UGC portfolio up and going so people can see it. I've got different content I've created for the different niches, so you can kind of look at, just you know, different things that I've done, which is really cool and it's fun, it's engaging, and you can do it on things that you really love, which is even cooler. What is it, babe?
Speaker 1:I've just noticed that. You know, you said that you could do it with very little and you know, here we are broadcasting our podcast. We've been doing it for years in our office, in a little office and I'd say it's probably eight by ten, eight by no, it's 14 by 14 you think, okay, so we don't, we don't have much room here, but we're, we're making it happen.
Speaker 1:Folks, what y'all need to realize is my wife is the shit. Okay, she has this little podcast in the top 2%, even in the top 1% globally, of the most listened to podcast. Think about that y'all. And out of all the podcasts that are out there in the top 1%, this little woman, this little one-armed woman here, has made it happen, and the last time we counted on all our platforms, it was over 40 million followers. So she has the numbers to back up the system that she's going to put into play here very soon. She has the numbers, she has a voice. Okay, she can do it, you can do it, we all can do it, and we've never had anybody market us.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:And we've never had anybody help us with marketing. No, it's just been one arm show.
Speaker 1:It's kind of funny, right, but y'all look out for the system here coming soon, the system.
Speaker 2:It'll be out this week. We're going to do it pre. We're going to launch the opening.
Speaker 1:How about the red system Pre-Christmas?
Speaker 2:The red be out this week. We're gonna do it pre.
Speaker 1:We're gonna launch the opening about the red system pre christmas the red system.
Speaker 2:No, now there are a few other things that I would like to talk about. So in the news today, I have to talk about this because it burns my biscuits. In the news today, a teacher, allegedly whatever I can't, that's just hogwash for me. Allegedly, I'm going to show my husband a picture, a gorgeous special needs.
Speaker 1:That's the back.
Speaker 2:That's the boy's back. The boy is nonverbal, nonverbal.
Speaker 1:Special needs. There are so many welts and stripes and bruising.
Speaker 2:It looks like he's been cut With what A belt.
Speaker 2:They don't know. They don't know. We cannot speculate. But the county put the teacher on modified admin leave or suspension whatever until an investigation has gone underway. But oh my God, and you know what the thing is is that by look of the picture, I'm here to tell you it is not the first time. That is not the first time. This is a nonverbal kid, right? You know, faith was basically nonverbal kid, right? You know, faith was basically nonverbal for a while and then, with apraxia, it was much harder for her. So you know, the thing is is when you have a child, whether or not they're in special needs, what are our classes? Whether or not they're in general education classes, it doesn't matter. You know, I'll be damned.
Speaker 2:Nobody's gonna put their hand on my kid Period, like the one time In band camp Right that Faith got bullied and I showed up at the school they were like I didn't picture you also.
Speaker 2:No, they were like oh God, it has to be her right, like it has to be this. Mom and I go into the office and they're like the principal's busy. I was like I don't care and they're like no, no, no, no, no, no, please, don't, please, please, please. And I'm like ha, and I kept walking right and they're like no, no, no, no, no, you know, let us announce you. No, I went straight back and I opened the door. She's like I'm in a meeting. I was like I don't care who you're talking to, because right now you're talking to me. I said I warned you when I trained you about my child, and my child has a big gash on her head and this is not okay. So either this is gonna get resolved or we're gonna be on camera within the hour right outside this door. Call my bluff. And she was like uh-uh. I was like don't start stuttering with me. So I reminded her that you know our state has a right to hire and fire, state that there is a zero tolerance for bullying, regardless. The answer I got was well, the bully is a special needs child. I don't give a rat's behind, because that does not make it okay at all. And so they were like well, we can't really do anything. And I was like, oh really. So everybody knows that a mom with a child with special needs can find out more than an FBI agent. I mean, we are on our game. So within an hour or so I let her know that I knew that that child had been kicked out of three other elementary schools previously for bullying and expulsion, was left and that was all that was left. And she wanted to know where I found this out. Blah, blah, blah that their rights are protected. You know that information isn't public knowledge. It doesn't matter. You nasty biatch, because you messed with faith and that is not okay. And you know the assistant principal who, whenever she saw me, would turn around and walk the other way, because you know they knew what smart mouth Faith was. Faith walked up to this assistant principal one day it was hilarious. And she goes you could be a model. And she's like, oh, thank you. And she's like, yeah, like Jenny Craig, like the before, that's Faith, that's it. She was like first grade, yep, that's our kid. So she walked the other way, the principal. I was like I'm still waiting on a resolution and this was just, it's not okay. And this was a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Schools are doing it more and more. There's not an excuse in the world. What gives the teacher okay, I know you're going to think, wow, this woman advocates for abuse survivors and everything else what gives an individual rights to put their hands on the child? Absolutely nothing right. There are cities and counties that authorize paddling. If somebody paddled Faith, I'm going to show them how I learned how to break boards, because nobody has the right to put their hands on our kid. Tell me what you would do if Faith came home and said Daddy, teacher, hit me with a paddle board.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, I'm definitely headed down yonder.
Speaker 2:I'm already at school. I'm already there. You're going to be. I'm definitely headed down yonder. I'm already at school. I'm already there. You're going to be, I'm already there.
Speaker 1:How is she going to come?
Speaker 2:home if you're not here Because she walks in the door and she's like Dad, I got to tell you because I already know, because she tells me everything first.
Speaker 1:Anyway, so you left our child at the house.
Speaker 2:No, I left her with you.
Speaker 1:You said, she came home and told me yeah, she came home.
Speaker 2:You're not backing out of this. She came home and told you, which means you are already here. I already knew, so I basically said hi and then out, I'm gone.
Speaker 1:I'm back at school because no so apparently this teacher thought that this child, being non-verbal, would not communicate to the parents or someone else and do they not think the parents bathe their child?
Speaker 2:Get away with it. Right? Do they not think the parents are going to not see this when they help this child change so?
Speaker 1:your assumption is it will be spot on. This is not the first time she's done it to this child.
Speaker 2:No, it's a male teacher.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought you said it's female. Okay, no, so, or any other child.
Speaker 2:Correct. It's ridiculous. I mean, where is our kids safe place If they can't be safe at school and they feel threatened and not safe home? Where is their safe place? And they wonder why kids are bullying and bringing guns to school and violence is so crazy. Why? Well, there is the reason right there. I'm so proud of these parents that stepped up and were like, hey, something has to get done and we're holding them accountable. You, doggone, sure should hold them accountable.
Speaker 1:So this leads into our system that you're going to put in play here soon. You can be a stay-at-home mom or dad and homeschool your child while still making an income. You'll see, we'll put the numbers out there and there are plenty others out there on TikTok that are already doing UGC and their numbers speak for themselves, the income they have, the affordability it is to get started. I don't, I can't say it's super easy. You think TikTok, doing videos on TikTok, is easy, but I hear a lot of times, especially from Amber, that it's soul-sucking. Yeah, where she does, like you know, 25 videos a day or whatever. It's soul-sucking. So I don't want to get into a job, that, or a hobby or a career or whatever, and you know I'm just, I'm whooped at the end of the day and I absolutely hate it aren't you there now?
Speaker 1:no, no my last job was my last job. Worked at a paper mill and that was. That was so I remember that you were not happy every day you come out bent over, knowing that you have to go back the next day for another 12 hours, 16 hours. Kudos to y'all out there making toilet paper.
Speaker 1:I did it during COVID, it was a nightmare, lots of overtime, but it is soul sucking anyway. Oh, by the way, our daughter, my daughter faith y'all have to look her up on tiki taki. She has now posted and and I'm proud of her because she's more of an introvert she. She doesn't like to put herself out there as far as being famous, fame or anything like that. She likes to stay to herself and help others. She has posted two, two, at least two of her pictures that she's drawn and she got several thousand views on there and she was ecstatic. Y'all. You know we could do a podcast here and post it, and I don't know a day, maybe a day and a half later, there's you know, a hundred. Maybe a day and a half later, there's you know, a million views whatever it's over a million.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's easy, that's the norm for us and she'll be in there, but that's nothing to her right. A million views, but seemingly when it's solo, when it's just her, she's more proud of it. Yes, that's amazing. That is amazing 's more proud of it.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's amazing. That is amazing. I'm proud of her. Yeah, she's awesome. And I have to say I just want to go back and take a minute. You know this is a really tough week because two years and I know some people might not believe in this Two years ago, somebody who had become my best friend growing up she passed away of cancer.
Speaker 2:And not even a year maybe, I met this amazing woman named Carissa and she was literally like a godsend angel. Her son, who we've had on, who has special needs, had a trach, had a feeding tube, had seizures, and Noah basically grew up with Faith. And on the nights, when we were up all night with our kiddos, chris and I would just keep each other company on the phone and we would just jibber, jabber and she survived horrific, horrific domestic violence. Are you kidding me? Right now, my husband? I'm not even going to say what he's doing, he's cleaning his tooth, nevermind. So anyway, she was a force to be reckoned with, a beautiful soul. I just loved her beyond measure and we were always there. We talked literally every day, and it was two years ago, last night at 1.07 am, that I got the phone call that she had passed away and I was lucky enough to be able to talk to her and FaceTime with her and speak with her every day. When she was on the ventilator she did open her eyes and when I would talk to her on FaceTime, um, and she had her son Noah there and her husband Rodney, and I just knew how badly she tried to hold on through Christmas. But I know she wasn't able to and she had always said she'd take care of Faith always.
Speaker 2:And the reason I'm saying this is that it was last night at 1 0 7 am this morning, two years ago, that she passed, and one year ago last night this morning at 1 22, faith was in the ar, fighting for her life, and it was an unbelievably scary time. The healthcare system failed, multi-organ failure, dozens of surgeries at bedside because she was too fragile to even be moved down to the, or. We were even told that they would make her comfortable and let her pass, which I think that's probably the first time michael ever saw daggers literally fly from my face, um, when I basically told the doctor to eat crap, uh, to put it nicely um, that she didn't know our girl and that we weren't going to allow that to happen. She was going to fight. And she did and she fought, and she fought and she fought and she fought and she had drains and catheters and central lines and broviac lines and chest tubes and dialysis and you name it. I mean there was so much stuff, it was it was heart wrenching, to say the least.
Speaker 2:And when she woke up for the first time it was heart wrenching because she realized she slept through not only Christmas, yeah, that she slept through Christmas and New Year's. You know, neither side of our family, on either side, um even attempted to make a phone call, um text, smoke signal, email, anything, and that's I don't know. I mean not surprising, I don't know. I mean not surprising, but hurtful, because times like that you really learn who's in your corner and who's not. And for everybody who was, we want to say you know, thank you so much, but everybody knew what was going on and still, and so we're really happy with our small United family here, I mean I don't believe, I don't believe any excuse is acceptable as to why, over a five-week period, nobody could have reached out, for I mean even because it was the holidays. I mean, what is your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:Just didn't care. It's very selfish.
Speaker 2:But you know what it's about a beautiful child. It's about a beautiful girl who has never hurt a soul, but given her life to help others and done nothing but pay it forward From the jump, who has been there For Everyone else and never asked for anything in return.
Speaker 1:So If I might steal the microphone for a minute, that leads me off on the side point. Y'all, during our hospital stay For the two and a half months we were in ICU, we were kind of a basket case. Ok, both my wife and I are very level headed. All right, she's more analytical, I don't know what the heck I am, but you know, we kind of think with a straight head when the shit hits the fan. But it's our child, it's our daughter, it's our little peanut. Okay, our minds were not thinking as clearly as you know they should have. And I just want to express this because you must, it is a must as a, as a father, as a mother, as a caregiver, a guardian. Get your damn paperwork in order your wills, your DNRs, your power of attorney, your medical power of attorney, all of that. Get everything in order, because when it comes to the fan, uh, things can get chaotic.
Speaker 2:we weren't expecting it. We were having a good family dinner. Then, you know, we had a family movie and then she started to act like she didn't feel very good and we honestly thought it was that time of the month about to start and she had been cutting up the whole time her little smart mouth ways. And then she just looked at me and said I need to go to the hospital, which never comes out of her mouth. And I said you know they're going to admit us. And she said I know. And I said, all right, let's get some shoes, it's cold out. And I said let's go. And I grabbed a couple of things because I always try to make it like you know, her stuff, her pillow or whatever, and that was it. And at dinner we would have never known that was going to happen in a few hours.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, that's why Michael's right, it's so imperative that you get those things in order and you just need to do it because it's so important whether to have it and not need it. Then need it and not have it. It's a big burden to put on your loved ones to have those decisions made, even if you're doing it for yourself or your children, because they have a voice and they have thoughts and decisions, especially if they're older teenagers. But you can sit down with them and make decisions as a family on how you want things to be and how you want things to go, and know where those documents are and tell somebody else where those documents are and make sure that you abide by their wishes. And it does take a lot of stress and angst away from the rest of the family, if they even care to be there so we don't know if, uh, we'll probably do something christmas, right, of course?
Speaker 1:um, yeah, um yeah, hmm, silence.
Speaker 2:Crickets.
Speaker 1:Crickets. I'd lost my train of thought there. We'll just probably do a podcast somewhere around Christmas, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Real quick, because we know you want to spend time with your family members.
Speaker 2:Some of them might not. Some of them might not. I don't blame you.
Speaker 1:We do like our little Trio here. Well, it's not a trio anymore, is it? It's a six tablet.
Speaker 2:Oh lord.
Speaker 1:It's no family drama here. It's nice and quiet.
Speaker 2:And we'll have Abby.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, I forgot about her.
Speaker 2:I love her.
Speaker 1:That's my niece, my pain in the ass. Niece.
Speaker 2:She said I'm the best aunt ever. She loves me, I love her, I love her. That's my niece, my pain in the ass, niece. She said I'm the best aunt ever. She loves me, I love her, I love her, her and I talk all the time. She's the best. Great Well y'all can do a show. She does. Do shows with me when she's here. Just don't talk about me. We always talk about you, and they already talked about how they're going to prank you. There'll be no pranks the week she's up here Wrong, you know.
Speaker 1:She's trying to stay the whole summer. Negative, uh-huh, negative. How much fun is that? How much fun? Yes, oh, it's a load.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I'm so excited because I adore her.
Speaker 1:I gotta look up and see how much vacation I got. Oh no, you're not doing that?
Speaker 2:okay, we'll play. You wouldn't let me go out of town when you know who came up. So no, you didn't want to deal with her alone, so I am going to play that card right back all right, well, y'all.
Speaker 1:Uh, how are they going to get our packet?
Speaker 2:we are going to put it all over our social media and we will have that announcement. It'll be everywhere.
Speaker 1:You can put it on Facebook, can't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it'll be up by Tuesday and it's open only for the first 10.
Speaker 1:The first 10 who sign up. Right.
Speaker 2:Correct the first paid who sign up right Correct, first paid, 10. Yes, but they're getting a massive, massive discount. You know, I heard somebody paid almost $1,000 for something like this, which is just ludicrous, and they didn't have anywhere near the background training that I had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I read on Discord in a group I'm in that someone paid $900 and didn't get a minimum of the content that they were getting. Wow, yeah. So all right, you want to take us out? No, go ahead. Hey y'all, we thank y'all for listening and um, uh, uh, hell. Okay, well, our website's under construction. That's under maintenance, so can't go to our website anymore, but we'll work on it. But we thank y'all for listening and supporting us any way you can. To a contagious smile and all y'all out there. We wish y'all a Merry Christmas, right, babe?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:This is Victoria and Michael on Unstoppable Good night.
