What If Overworking Is A Trauma Reflex

Burnout does not always look like falling apart. Sometimes it looks like answering messages at midnight, working seven days a week, and telling yourself you will rest after the next task. We get honest about what happens when your life becomes one long to do list, why “just push through” stops working, and how switching things up can be the difference between staying steady and giving up. Along the way, our newest golden retriever River Rose tries to steal the mic and reminds us that joy can be loud and inconvenient.

We also go deeper than productivity. We talk about trauma recovery, body dysmorphia, and the ways survivors try to feel safe again, from hiding in oversized clothes to avoiding photos. From amputation pain and coping habits to rebuilding health with GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide, we share what has helped, what has not, and why the real goal is feeling healthier, not chasing perfection. Michael opens up about a new diabetes diagnosis and the lifestyle changes that come with it, plus the kind of unfiltered marriage humor that only happens when you have nothing left to hide.

Then we bring it back to commitment and purpose. We talk about what keeps a marriage from going stale, what “all in” really means, and why advocacy matters when families are trying to survive the court system. If you are navigating burnout, work life balance, diabetes, GLP-1 weight loss, or healing after abuse, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more survivors and caregivers can find the support.

Transcript

Meet River And The Dogs

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Howdy y'all. Welcome to another episode of a contagious smile unstoppable with your host Michael.

SPEAKER_06 0:10

Watch River. She's crawling over.

SPEAKER_05 0:12

And Victoria. And River.

SPEAKER_06 0:15

One of our new babies.

SPEAKER_05 0:16

Yeah, River Rose is making her debut up here with us. Right after her bath. Hey River. Here goes the microphone.

SPEAKER_06 0:26

Hey baby.

SPEAKER_05 0:28

She's um I mean what's off? 14 weeks.

SPEAKER_06 0:33

14 weeks.

SPEAKER_05 0:35

She's a white golden retriever.

SPEAKER_06 0:37

That's a very rare. It's because she just got a bath and she's all sweet. She's lovely. Her sister, who is Amber Blaze, is down there. Amber was supposed to be the tame, quiet, lovey, just cuddle one. And she's actually Tasmanian Devil in Disguise. Raver, do you know that I was getting a trash bag out of the drawer earlier? And River came up and helped me shut the drawer. She jumped up and pushed the drawer closed for me. Don't eat that baby. She's over there.

SPEAKER_05 1:21

So as you can tell, we love our golden retrievers. We have four of them. And if you jump on anywhere that involves a potato spot or a Dora Cure, you'll see the stucco squat series, which involves our my service dog.

Burnout And The Urge To Quit

SPEAKER_06 1:38

That's my baby. That's my baby. So I say we have candy cane dogs because we have the very rare white and we have the very rare red. Because stucco and rusty are red. So here is a topic that I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this. What happens when you get burned out? How do you just not give up? And he walks out. And there's cricket. That better not be what I think it is. I keep my office clean. And you're see, she's mine when she's sweet, which is all the time. But when she pees, she's his. Big daddy's everything. Go watch Big Daddy when the little boy goes, he just puts paper on the bed when he pees in the bed. So my husband just basically Big Daddy's things, and then we have to go behind him and fix it. So what do you do when you get burned out? You switch things up.

SPEAKER_05 2:51

Okay. That's what you do, you switch things up. I'm not I'm not talking you go from you know, we'll we'll take this two things three. You don't you don't go to from the missionary position to Oh my god swinging in the bedroom. Okay. That's not what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_06 3:13

What about when people start to feel burned out in life? Oh, she just hit her head.

SPEAKER_05 3:21

You know what?

SPEAKER_02 3:22

I just go back and find this part or you know Whatever you're doing now may not be working like you think it is.

SPEAKER_05 3:37

And you may need to take a break.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

Like for instance, Michael says I work too much. I work seven days a week and I don't take a day off ever. And it has been that way all my life. Like I I don't know how to. And I've learned, I've learned this in school, and I learned this from being in therapy myself, that individuals who feel that they have to constantly work, work, work like around the clock is because they feel like they're never gonna be good enough, that they have to keep going, that they have to keep, you know, trying to do everything to make it better. And that is because Faith is not gonna be happy with you if you give her my Mickey Mouse, because you just feel like you can just keep working around the clock, and that's just what you do because you never feel like you're good enough, so your work's not gonna be good enough. And there are so many times my husband will be like, Can't you stop and watch a movie with us? Or can't you, you know, I my husband is my yin to my yang because because like I work 18 plus hours a day, and I'm in the office, and like I have I don't think jealousy is the right word. Like, I don't know what word you want to say. Like, I am envious in a way that I can watch that you know, you get to go and play video games for hours or take naps or you know, just watch television and watch movies or whatever. And I literally have my life in this chair. This is where I reside most of my life, and I do get envious of the freedom that you have.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

You want me to interject something here? You're doing good. It's self-therapy.

SPEAKER_06 5:36

No, it's not self-therapy, it's it's true. It's like, you know, I have people I'm helping that are patients, clients that will text me at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night. And, you know, some people would be like, you need to be putting on boundaries, and I don't do that. And I message people, you know, when they reach out to me when they need something at midnight or four, five, five, thirty, six in the morning, and and then I'm balancing everything else. And you know, it's a lot, but it's also a lot for one person to do, yet alone one person with one hand to do.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Yeah, must be something again.

SPEAKER_06 6:14

Yeah, you're just not really interacting here.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

Well, I don't know if folks want to hear about this. You know? You're a workaholic, and you know, that's why a contagious bile is the success that it is. She does everything and she's one-handed. My wife is a super genius, okay. I I praise her for that, but she puts way too much on her plate. Okay. I I'll bet right now if she pulls up. That's not fair to do that. Like if you already know no less than 42 tabs on footage. You're not reading. And you're working on every one of them. You've got 30-something social media posts to put out, you've got 10,000 emails a day to go through, you've got all the social media.

SPEAKER_06 7:09

An assistant anymore. I know I haven't had an assistant since the corporate world. And I am doing marketing and you know, creative and social media management and content creator, as well as counselor and therapist, and CEO and interviewee and speaker, and you know, podcast host. And then like this week, right now, in the next few weeks, I have I think it's like 42 different interviews that I'm on.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 7:53

And then, you know, we have guests that come on here as well, and it's a never-ending cycle because one of those tidbits is going to be something that helps save somebody, and that's what's going to make a big deal, and it's going to help, and that's why we do what we do. But it is very tiresome. And, you know, I realize I take my phone in, I take a shower every morning, and then I take my phone with me when I go and just try to decompress and take a bath because I talk to Siri when I'm in the bath and will give suggestions and ideas and things that I need to be doing to her for notes. And it's like, I wish I could just shut it off, but I can't. I can't shut it off.

SPEAKER_05 8:46

So I hear you folks out there hollering at me right now, Michael. Why don't you get off your ass and help?

SPEAKER_06 8:53

And honestly, we've had this conversation. Like he he has said to me, you know, you do too much. And I say to him, well, then help me, because there is so much that needs to get done. And he just doesn't do this part of it. And it's it's gets very frustrating, you know. I do get envious watching him be able to like do the things that he does daily, like naps and video games and TV shows and movies and things like that while I'm sitting up here.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

I love how you point that out.

Body Dysmorphia And Survival Habits

SPEAKER_06 9:27

I wish I could do it, you know. Like, okay, when we had a mirror on, he was like, What is your guilty pleasures? Like, and then he said, I want you to do something for me. And I'm like, Oh my god. And he he says, I want you to start doing something just for you and not for everybody else. And I don't have that capability. I'm not that person. I've never been that person to say, okay, I'm gonna stop everything I'm doing, and I am going to start doing this just for me. Like, I've tried, and I'll sit there and say, Okay, I'm gonna write X, Y, Z. And I sit there and I try, and then I'm like, oh, I forgot I gotta do this. Oh, I forgot I gotta do that. And then I stop to go back and work on something I need to do for somebody else to help someone else. So I can't just sit down and say, okay, I'm gonna do this, like, and I'm gonna take this time for me because I just I'm not wired that way. I just can't, I wish I was. I do, I really wish I was. I mean, in fairness, the one thing I did do, and I and I was teetering about talking about this on here or not, is I openly admit I have body dysphoria. And I have never met a beautiful soul that has endured any form of abuse that doesn't have body dysphoria, men and women, like they all have some form of body dysphoria. And I have always, and people say all the time, you always wear clothes that are so much bigger than you. Like you could put you and Faith and probably Michael in there all at once. And it's because I chose to hide behind my clothes for such a long time because it was something that I was able to do. And it was something I had control of. It was one of the very few things I had control of back in that time. And also because I was covering a lot of injuries, so I would wear clothes that covered and I didn't want anything fitted that, you know, when something on me is swollen, like shoulder dislocation or whatever, and it's swollen, I don't want anything tight on that area. So I became comfortable in it the other night. I purged and got three or four like extra, extra large yard say uh like yard cleaning black bags full of clothes that are all way too big. And I purge them and put them in bags to pay it forward. Like, so I did do that, and that was a really big deal for me because normally that's my comfort, is my big, baggy, huge clothes. Because one of the things I also do is I always cover up, even when I'm sitting here in the office by myself, I'll take my sweatshirt or a pullover and I stretch it over my legs, and my husband will come up and he'll pull it off my legs, but I still write go back and do it, even when he's not in the room. That's just my comfort. It's like my pillow of I don't want to see. Like I'm trying to get much better about that because, like we've said so many times, before the abuse, I was obsessed with working out, like it was beyond an obsession. It was an it was an addiction. I openly admitted it was an addiction. And I 5'8 and like 135 and 130, depending. And I would safely say, like, how would you describe my physique?

SPEAKER_05 12:35

I was very muscular, yes, very athletic, very muscular, but I was also top heavy with uh I have to say this politely, very large extremities on the upper part of the hourglass.

SPEAKER_06 12:52

And he used to walk around telling everybody for five dollars they could feel my buns of steel, like he literally tried to charge people to feel my butt back then. And I I literally was obsessed. I was doing martial arts, I was teaching, I was doing all sorts of things, I was lifting like five days a week, I was doing cardio seven days a week, and I just had that mentality. And then after all of this and all my surgeries, I never took any pain medication, as we've talked about so many times before. She's eaten something, babe. And I ate my pain instead because I couldn't take any pain meds and I never wanted to, and that was a personal choice. That was my choice not to. And the thing is, is that and I know we've touched on this kind of briefly, but when I came home from the amputation, I am an amputee coalition certified counselor, and I tell people all the time, I'm the only person I've ever spoken to in the amputee coalition or with any amputees that wasn't hospitalized the night of or the day of my amputation. And Michael will tell you, my amputation was basically an all-day thing. And then I came home the same day. Yeah, that's true. And I never took the first pain med. And I would get in bed. Well, the first thing I did, let's let's say what it really was. First thing I did was I came home and I went to the bathroom and I unwrapped it so I could see it. And I was devastated. And then I wrapped it back up, and I literally would be shaking. Like, I don't know how to explain it. I guess Michael have to help me. I was shaking profusely, like in pain. I I mean, it didn't matter what I was doing, nothing made it better, everything made it worse. I mean, I don't know how to explain it.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Like he would go excruciatingly watch her in in severe pain.

GLP1 Weight Loss And Side Effects

SPEAKER_06 14:48

I mean, I literally felt the best way to describe it is I literally felt like I'd have to die to feel better. Oh, Rivers giving kisses. So I literally would sit there, and then Michael was like trying to sleep, and so I would go downstairs and sit in a chair, and Stucco would just stay right with me and he'd never touch my my amputation. I mean, he would never go near the nub. He just put his head on my leg and stayed right there with me. And I'm a side sleeper, so I couldn't lay on one side. And then if I tried to lay on the other side, the weight pushed down on me, it was unbearable. And it was just awful. And so I cannot sleep on my back and I can't sleep on my stomach because my face is all metal and I'm not supposed to put the weight of that on there. So it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. And I literally was shaking, I was sweating, and so I ate. I ate to numb it, which when you think about it, doesn't make sense because people be like, I don't understand that. And I gained a ton of weight. My husband's like, no, no, no. Oh, yeah, like a toddler size of weight, if not more. And my husband is one of these picture taker people, and I'm trying to go and take pictures, and I'm just I don't want to take pictures, I don't want to be in the pictures. And literally, it's I don't want to. And we renew our vows every year. I didn't want to take the pictures then because I didn't want to see them. And then he would take pictures. He's like, Look how cute you are with stucco. And I'm like, Oh my god, I look like I swallowed a puffer fish or a whole school of puffer fish that are in my face and they're all swollen. And I hated how I looked. And as I I know we talk about it, I'm on GLP 1, and now Michael is also on the GLP1 train now. I am not because I want to lose weight, but because of you need to get healthier, you just need to get healthier. But I openly admit, and I have my husband's been driving me up the wall about wanting my starting weight, and I won't give it to him until I hit my goal weight. And so as of right now, which is so like hard for me to say, but I'm proud of myself. No, I lost 30 pounds without GLP. And then I started GLP, and for the first two months, you don't get anything. I was on semaglutide, and I didn't see a doggone bit of change for the first two months, and then I lost like two pounds, and that's it. And now I think I'm on week 16, and I uh, but I switched to trimazeptide three weeks, no, two weeks ago, I think two weeks, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two weeks ago, and I am now total weight loss with prior to GLP and with GLP, I think I'm at 43 pounds down.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

Wait, congratulations. So remember a hand.

SPEAKER_06 17:35

Ha ha ha. So now I'm like, I want to keep going. I'm not at my goalie yet. Uh, people are noticing, people definitely are noticing and saying side fix. I noticed some on the semaglutine, but on the tremog tremiseptide or whatever, I also felt like something was stuck in my throat. Like I always felt but again, that might have been not like everybody else, because if you've ever been strangled, your throat always kind of feels like it's closed up and I've had to have that stretched numerous times. I felt very nauseous on the semaglutine, and I didn't see any results for months, and it was two months, and I always felt just really nauseous and run down and tired, and it came with B12 in it, which I don't think was in there. You look so cute, River, just sitting there like that. She's just the cutest. You want to talk on air? Huh?

Diabetes Changes And Unfiltered Humor

SPEAKER_05 18:25

So I'll I'll piggyback off everything that she just said here. Well, not everything, but a little bit. I don't help on the computer side of the business because I'm just dumb. Okay. I don't know this computer stuff. My wife sat here and learned how to be an SEO. She learned how to market, she learned how to which she hates, do the AI crap.

SPEAKER_06 18:54

I don't know, no no no no, I don't do AI. I hate AI. Well, you do the video. I do imaging, but I don't do writing stuff because AI alone is a challenge.

SPEAKER_05 19:03

So she does all this and and knows all the lingo and the words, and I simply don't, okay? I'm the hands-on guy, okay? I get in my little workshop. I make things, I build things, I do laser engravings. So as far as the computer goes, yes, I'm blazing that aspect because I don't know how to do it, I can't stand it. I sit in front of this computer, my wife will tell you I'll fall asleep. If I'm reading something, if I'm doing something, I cannot stand here for an hour. I will fall asleep. Speaking of that, the reason I fall asleep is now because we found out I'm diabetic. And my estrogen is is 800 times more than mine. More than my wife?

unknown 19:48

Right?

SPEAKER_06 19:48

You know who's got the balls. Eddie, my nipples are getting sensitive, but normally it's adwa what adds one. So now you've bedroom talk with Eddie? Y'all both had the craps at the same time, too. Y'all both were on the shitter. My god, why okay? Why two men and beautiful Don and I convert about this, and she agrees. Do y'all have to come in and tell us all about your shit show? Like, he came in here earlier and goes, I have a question for you. Have you ever been on the and taken a shit and forgot to wipe your ass? I did. And I'm like, Are you kidding me right now? Like, why did you tell me this? Like, it that's not an image I wanted my husband that you sit there while tick tocking for 30 minutes and not wipe your ass as you drop chow. Like, seriously, drop chow? Yeah, what do you say?

SPEAKER_05 20:42

Don't drop chow.

SPEAKER_06 20:43

Uh-huh. But I mean, it's then you come in here and you're like, babe, like yesterday, he's walking. And I know every woman listening is laughing because at some point in their life they've heard this. He comes in, and even Meredith, I'm sure, could use this. She my husband will walk around. He did this all day yesterday when he wasn't on the crapper, and he's like, Babe, my spink turk, babe, my spink turk hurts so bad. Babe, we don't, I had that just for it. No, I think I just shit myself. It's like, why? I mean, it's like when a woman has her period, we don't tell you we just threw a clot in the toilet. Like, these are things we don't share with y'all, and you're just like, baby, that was a load in the toilet. Like it was a windy frosty. And I'm sorry if y'all are having a windy sposty right now. No, but we don't want to know that you have diarrhea and you like you've measured how much chunks have come out of your butt.

SPEAKER_05 21:41

Number one, okay. It it it it it's a preemptive pat on the bathroom, right? So we're giving you fair warning. No, do not come into the hot zone.

SPEAKER_06 21:53

But smell it downstairs. There's no need for you to give us any warning, but for you to give us a play by play is not necessary. As well. Oh, you had a solid 18 out of 30.

SPEAKER_05 22:04

Uh that's mediocre.

SPEAKER_06 22:07

But we don't need to hear about it. And then he has to lay down and he's like, oh. So as the good wife, I say, babe, do you want me to get used to anti diarrhea medicine to make it stop? No, I don't want anti-diarrhea medicine to make it stop. Why would I want to make diarrhea stop? I want it all to come out of me. It's like, okay. And this is what he says, no, I want it all to come out. Let it flow. And then he complains about it bitterly. And you know what? It's a stupid thing. I had a man who his wife was in labor, right? And he had the audacity to tell his wife, now you know what it feels like for a man to have a cold. And she's giving birth. And all of the nurses took the man out of the room, which was very smart. I mean, are you kidding? A man cold versus having bur giving birth and being in you know contractions? Not so like same at all.

SPEAKER_05 23:10

I can't believe we are on air talking about shit.

SPEAKER_06 23:15

Hey, you're the one who opened up this whole podcast saying about you know the missionary position to a swing. That was all you. You did that, not me. Yeah, but that that's typical of us.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 23:27

I don't talk about sexual positions.

Marriage Promises And Staying All In

SPEAKER_04 23:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 23:31

Hey, by the way, I asked you earlier if you could only remember one of your favorite memories of us from back in the day, which one would it be? What would you evict?

SPEAKER_05 23:42

Uh, well, there's a few. Okay, then I will not say one on air. I'll keep it PG. Okay. Unfortunately, we were at your sperm and egg donors? Yes. House. This was more recently than the before? Okay. Okay. And that's why I'm keeping it PG. Okay. Uh we were in front of a, I believe, an Azaia bush. Okay. And I got down on my knee with a ring. Yes. And I and I proposed to you.

SPEAKER_06 24:14

Are you gonna reenact it now?

SPEAKER_05 24:16

No. Why? Because it's your turn. No, it's not. Yes, it is, darling. No, it's not, darling. Oh, you didn't, I did. Bullshit. And I called her and I I set everything up. You didn't? Yeah, it's your turn this year. You're picking up.

SPEAKER_06 24:31

I already got the rings. I already took care of that. You will never be able to top that. Oh yeah. Babe, don't let her eat the cord.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

She's fine.

SPEAKER_05 24:39

Hey, River. So this year you proposed to me. I'll make the rings, right? Hey, baby. We'll get the plates. We'll send her topic.

SPEAKER_06 24:51

Probably tape from your toilet adventure. Right? Yeah. Say hi. I'm River. I'm adorable, sweet, cute, cuddly, and lovey. My sister is Tasmanian Devil.

SPEAKER_05 25:03

So I I don't have ADHD, right? But I I do I do try a lot of different things. I mean a lot. Crafting, hobbies, shit like that. And it it applies to, you know, when I play Xbox in the morning. I'll get I'll get tired of a game. And I'll have to switch it to something else. When I'm down in a workshop, I started laser engraving. Okay. And then I saw someone doing canvas painting with the laser engraver. Well, let me try that. And then I saw folks making bracelets out of welding rods. I said, Well, let me try that. So I'll be making uh jewelry out of that. Spoon rings, okay? I'm I'm making those. So sometimes you I don't know, uh guess back off from what you're doing and try something different or approach it in a different way.

SPEAKER_06 26:11

So some people have asked, what do you do when your marriage starts to get bland? And I'm not a marriage counselor, I can't. Y'all don't want to what would you do? What would you do if we started just to get boring and bland and law?

SPEAKER_02 26:27

I don't need just oh god texting. I don't know, you have to really sit down and and look at what's going on and think, do I need this in my life right now?

SPEAKER_05 26:46

Do I need this on my plate? What about if it was us? That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_06 26:51

Okay, have you ever had to do that with us?

SPEAKER_05 26:53

No. Do I deed this right now? Does this cause me stress in my life? Let me see if I can get rid of this. Okay, folks, I got told I had diabetes the other day.

SPEAKER_06 27:04

And I went to the store and got you all sorts of stuff you could start eating.

SPEAKER_05 27:07

Do y'all know what a life changer that is? Okay, for me, I'm I'm a 6'1. Um I was I was 283.

SPEAKER_06 27:15

Then he said he dumped eight pounds of diarrhea out that day.

SPEAKER_05 27:18

Dumped out the other day. See? But that's that's no sugar, no breads, okay, at least. At the very least. So sweet tea, gone. Sugar in your coffee, gone.

SPEAKER_06 27:31

Moon swings, here.

SPEAKER_05 27:33

Well, I'd like to talk about estrogen. Okay. Hi. I'm turning lesbian.

SPEAKER_06 27:39

Good to know. Maybe fourth if she had her way about it. Your daughter wants me to go to the other side.

SPEAKER_05 27:49

It is a lifestyle change, but you know, I have to do it. So if if that's what you have to do in your marriage, that you have to take a step back and say, okay, let's see what we got going on. We got job, we got work, we got school, we got extracurricular activities, we got friends, we got hobbies going on. I don't know, whatever you got going on in your life.

SPEAKER_06 28:11

Okay, but then why people are gonna say, why would you fight for this one when you've openly stated you've had other marriages before?

SPEAKER_05 28:17

No, no, no. So no, it's a fair question. Okay, we have okay. You have I have way too much invested in you.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Oh my god. Okay, I can't wait to hear this. You can't wait? I cannot wait to hear this. Okay, go ahead. You have my entire heart. That's not true.

SPEAKER_05 28:38

Bullshit!

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Your daughter has it.

SPEAKER_05 28:40

No, you give her whatever's left over. Hey, River.

SPEAKER_06 28:44

I'm listening, I'm just playing with the baby. Hey, baby.

SPEAKER_05 28:48

You have my entire heart. Do you have everything? Okay, there is no woman beside you, next to you, beneath you, next in line. You're it. Okay. I'm all in. All cards on the table. All right, you know everything about me.

SPEAKER_06 29:06

Nobody? Yes. Nobody.

SPEAKER_05 29:08

Yes. Y'all heard that? She knows everything about me. All my dirty dark secrets, y'all. Okay. I I did surprise me with that the other day.

SPEAKER_06 29:17

Wait when you said on air you had eight women at a time?

SPEAKER_05 29:20

No. When I opened mouth, kissed a horse.

SPEAKER_06 29:23

Oh my god! I'm trying to forget that. Did you play tonsil hockey with it too? Was it Mr. Ed? Ed! No, not that Ed.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

It's from Austin Powers. Okay, relax, kid. So yeah. There there will be nobody after you. Okay.

unknown 29:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:45

There will be nobody beside me that can compete. There'll be no one. Okay, it's you or none. You understand that? So I am all in. Okay, you have my everything. Okay. I'm not I'm not gonna train a new one. What?

SPEAKER_06 30:04

Wait, what?

SPEAKER_05 30:05

I'm not training a new wife.

SPEAKER_06 30:07

Training. Well, number one, my training manual was in English.

SPEAKER_05 30:11

Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 30:13

You see what I and you are not quadlingual. You are not quadlingual.

SPEAKER_05 30:17

You didn't have to see what I went through.

SPEAKER_06 30:19

No, I was there as your friend. I knew what you went through, and I hated it.

SPEAKER_05 30:23

But he didn't borrow.

SPEAKER_06 30:24

I hated watching what you endured.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

But I needed a change, right? Right? And that wasn't working. That marriage wasn't working, and I needed a change. So yeah. I'm not now you're not saying as a marriage counselor, you're not saying that people have to get divorces.

SPEAKER_06 30:45

What do you think are the reasons for divorce? Why would you divorce? What are your reasons?

SPEAKER_05 30:50

I mean, do in anything from money, infidelity, uh death.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

That's not divorce, that's widow. What else is there?

SPEAKER_06 31:05

Well, I'm asking you, like, what would be your reasons for divorce?

SPEAKER_05 31:09

Oh, none. So that's what I'm saying. There's been death. You and I will never get divorced. Never. I will hunt you down one.

SPEAKER_06 31:20

Because I'm scared of you. No. Do you remember what you said about I you honestly admitted being quite afraid to be against me in court? In court. And why is that? You get a divorce, you go to court. Why would you be afraid to be against me in a court, Room?

SPEAKER_05 31:40

Because I've seen you in action. I've heard a woman.

SPEAKER_06 31:45

What is that supposed to mean?

SPEAKER_05 31:47

Huh?

SPEAKER_06 31:47

You're kind of scary. Please elaborate.

SPEAKER_04 31:50

No.

Court Advocacy And Protective Orders

SPEAKER_06 31:51

No, because you know what? I would love to start going and doing more court cases for survivors. Is that my cousin Vinny was comical?

SPEAKER_05 31:59

You're the exact extreme opposite of him. That doesn't even make sense. Let's put the I don't know. The the the genius of Raymond Reddit and that female Matlock woman. Maddie Matlock? How serious she was.

SPEAKER_06 32:19

But she went under a per, you know, like a facade. I wouldn't. I'd go in there as me. We need my microphone cord.

unknown 32:26

Ever?

SPEAKER_06 32:27

I'd go in there as me. I wouldn't go in there with this false person, you know, persona of somebody I wasn't.

SPEAKER_05 32:34

You're you're you're so damn smart.

SPEAKER_06 32:36

I'm not so damn so damn smart. No.

SPEAKER_05 32:40

And you always have your facts free. You have your ducks in a row. You have all your oars in a book.

SPEAKER_06 32:48

Well, that's because I've been hurt so many times and so burnt.

SPEAKER_05 32:52

Already already set up before you even enter a courtroom. You know? You played the devil's advocate advocate. So it it's like you played chess 30 times with yourself before you went to a match. I don't play with myself. Are you serious? Now he's talking about a damn sex swing.

SPEAKER_06 33:16

Hey, you're the one who took it there. I'm just saying, like the the last case that I was in a courtroom for, it involved six children. And believe it or not, the man was not the aggressor. The man was not the abuser. And the standoff that I was at there was six plus hours. Is that about right?

SPEAKER_04 33:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 33:45

And I was the advocate. And then I left from there. And on another occasion, I was there for several more hours, and even ended up following as an advocate at a hospital and then helped prepare case, went to kit, went to court, testified. And very, very rarely does this happen. But the judge granted not only a TPO, but a year TPO against the mom on behalf of the dad and the kids. And I was like, you know, they knew me when I walked in. The bailiffs were cutting up with me and talking with me. And, you know, and then I come in there with all this evidence, right? Like binders of evidence. And I spent so much time getting all this ready. And I did not get to open one flipping page because they know me and they know my, you know, my reputation and and how I testify. And so I love helping advocates in that way. And so I would love to do even more of that because for that survivor and the children who are warriors to have that moment, it's so important in their healing. And it's just wonderful for them to smile for the first time in a long time. And I love doing that. So if that's something that you need, you can always reach out at Victoria at a contagious smile.com if you're like in Georgia and see what I can do to help you with that. Because that's a big deal. And people need that reassurance. People need that help. And so that's a critical thing, you know, to do. But I have been in court testifying for I can't even tell you how many different cases. I can't tell you, you know, I I want to be completely prepared, and that's what I do. Faith is all over the place right now.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Crickets. Oh right. Well we couldn't go long, right? So I don't really know where to go with that. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 36:04

And River is back here just munching away off anything she can get a little teeth on. She's confused. Do we have pictures of her on twitch like somewhere? No. Not yet. She's so sweet. We're working on getting the the red. What what do they call it? The red out of your eyes? The corner of the her eyes. You know, where it drips.

SPEAKER_06 36:27

The sad like tear.

SPEAKER_05 36:29

Yeah, it's called uh baby.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Hey, come here. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 36:35

But yeah, um. Y'all, please do not think that my wife and I are getting a divorce. Where's Pop from? We are a dynamic couple. We are very much soulmates.

SPEAKER_06 36:49

Why did you come up with we're getting divorced and put that out there? You wanna say hi?

SPEAKER_05 36:55

Huh? Oh lord. You know what you said earlier?

SPEAKER_06 37:03

You wanna talk? You wanna talk? I wish you'd bark. I wish you'd bark. I wish you'd bark and say hi. Yeah. She likes to talk back.

SPEAKER_05 37:13

She likes to talk. She does a work of 35 people.

SPEAKER_06 37:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

We do have an Etsy store. I put some of the bracelets on there that I've created. More to come. We've got some of her digital downloads on there.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Working on getting more squad series. So we'll put more on there and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:44

We should talk. Do you hear her sister?

SPEAKER_05 37:46

Try to we're trying to get things set up here for this creepy con coming up in July and July. In October. So y'all be on the lookout. We did confer with Eddie. Eduardo. Oh Lord.

SPEAKER_06 38:04

You know, you switch bromances. Joshua's gonna be very hurt.

SPEAKER_05 38:08

That's right. He's a doctor.

SPEAKER_06 38:11

He's not a doctor!

SPEAKER_01 38:13

He's not a doctor. And he gets irritated when you say he is. You know, I have that magic button.

SPEAKER_06 38:20

I have that magic talent to push people's buttons. Yes, yes, you do. Do not eat the cord. Do not eat the cord.

SPEAKER_05 38:26

So here at some point, we will be selling creepy coffee through a contagious smile. And the proceeds will help support the contagious file. And the creepy coffee, obviously.

SPEAKER_06 38:39

Your dog has to go to the bathroom. Let's go. Cool. Thank you guys for listening. And we will take talk to you guys soon. If we could help in any way, please reach out to us. You guys stay safe and have a good night. Well, that's