Hey guys, welcome back to the pod. I hope you all had a good week. Hope you all have exciting weekend plans. I for one and my coach, Ella and I'm really excited because I'm doing it totally different this year. Last year I

felt a lot of pressure that I put on myself to prove myself as an influencer. I know huge fucking I roll right but it actually ran really deep and it was to do with something that we speak a lot about on this pod and on my all my channels, which is ego.

And actually have a section of my book about why I felt like Coachella last year was kind of the peak of my influencer ego and how anyway I hate to say this again, but I hope you will all prior to my book so that you can read and understand what I'm talking about but that being said I'm doing it totally different this year. I'm doing it with just my closest friends and taking my team and we're going to have some fun and relax. I'm not working. I just want to do it.

I'm not working. I just really want to relax and chill in the desert and listen to the music and not worry about what it looks like from the outside because all that matters is that you're present with the people that you love. That's one of my main resolutions for this year is to spend really meaningful time and energy on the people that I care most about and that lift me up and that make me feel sparkly. So that is exactly what I'm doing. I don't really have any outfits planned. So pray for me. I just want to have fun. Honestly, I really, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this.

I don't even care who I see. The lineup is kind of iffy this year, but that's good for me because then there's no stress and I don't have to rush to anything. So I just want to have fun and the weather in LA has been absolutely disgusting. I think we can all hold hands and say this has been the worst winter LA has ever seen.

So I'm just ready to get some sun and relax a note for anyone going to Coachella this weekend, anyone who parties in general, I haven't brought this up in a while and that's my bad because I want to constantly remind you that if you party, I don't judge you guys know that this is a judgment free zone. I truly truly do not judge. I don't care what you do. I only care that you're safe. If you are going to partake in party favors, get test strips.

And if you're going to partake in party favors or be around people who are doing that have Narcan know how to give people Narcan understand what symptoms of an overdose can look like I'm sorry to be negative and I'm sorry to start the show on a negative note, but it's so so important you guys and it's all of our responsibilities. So as we go into festival season as we go into summer. Honestly, you're around please, please, please be careful. I don't I really couldn't give a fuck what you do. I just care that you're safe.

And also just make sure that you have like a buddy system if you're going to go to a big festival, make sure you have like a meeting place, all that good stuff. I know I roll boring, but I'm 32 now. So that's it's my job now to tell everyone else that you got to be safe because nothing is more sexy than safety. Okay. My little soapbox over, but I hope you'll all be safe.

So I have a cool story to tell you guys very, very full circle moment with a couple of tanks teachable moments built into it. So when I was in New York, I you'll all remember that I went to a really fun dinner for Edie Parker. They have a new campaign. They're right. Just push campaign.

And Edie Parker is a fantastic accessories and lifestyle brand. And I have long been their fan. I mean, they're just make the coolest purses the coolest home stuff.

And then they have like a separate company called Weedy Parker where they make like accessories for weed. It's like the only one of the only companies where where it's there at the intersection of weed and fashion as they say, which is very cool.

The dinner was super fun. Full of really cool people. I was definitely the biggest loser there. But and we got this cool bag like a clutch that has a lighter on it. So it's like a little party trick. You can like light a candle or light someone's cheeky, or light a joint. Obviously, duh, tinks. That's the whole point of it. It's a weed company.

And the founder is a woman named Brett, who is one of the coolest people that I've ever met. She is so, so cool. She founded the company. She's just like one of those people where you automatically you want them to like you because you respect them. And you just think that they have incredible taste.

And I first met her back in the day when I was a writer in New York. And I've told you guys this before, but there was a time in my life when I was applying to about five jobs a day. I desperately wanted to move to LA could not get a job was just applying to everything and anything.

And during this time I was living in New York and I was I was a writer. So I met her at her store to interview her for a profile. And I immediately fell in love with her. I was like, this woman is it. She's just so cool.

She makes beautiful things. Her team is cool. I need to work for her. And so I followed up after I was writing the piece, which is now that I think about it. Like I was writing a piece for a magazine. And then I like emailed her and I was like, can I work for you? Which, yeah. But I called cold email term.

And she was so nice back. And she was like, you know, I really think you're great. But whatever blah, blah, we don't have we're not set up yet for to add a team member in LA. But you know, let's keep in touch. What have you cut to last week.

And I'm going to a dinner for her brand and, you know, we're friendly now. And she responded to our email chain from, you know, all those years ago. And she was like, isn't it funny how things work out. Good thing I didn't have a position for you back then because then you would have never moved to LA and done the TikTok thing and and things work out. So I'm going to read you guys the cold email because I want to inspire you guys to I mean, it wasn't a cold email because I'd met her obviously.

If you have a person or a job or a thing that you're like, oh, fuck, like, should I just go for it? The answer is yes, because even when they don't have a job for you or it doesn't result in anything, it's always good to make those connections to be kind to people to establish that friendship, whatever this is, this is how you network.

And I was worried I was like, oh, shit, did I write a good cold email, but I actually think it's pretty cute. So I hope that you guys sometimes ask like, what the fuck do I put in a cold email? And I think it's great to make it personal and funny and, you know, you want the person to respond. My feedback for myself on this email is like could have gotten to the point a little bit faster, but hey, story of my fucking life, right.

So I said, hi, Brett, my name is Christina Nijar and we met last Thursday at your beautiful store. I'm the Los Angeles obsessed editor for modern luxury working on your piece now. It's going to be fab. I had so much fun getting to know you and have long admired how you continue to grow your business into a lifestyle brand without you. I would not know what to get my 978 friends who get engaged every week.

Monogrammed coasters with new initials always see you guys I was totally in the panic. You can tell it's like I'm making jokes about it, but I was in the panic. I was like 28 and I was like, everybody's getting engaged. So that was before I shifted my mindset.

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