Jen’s Update, Good News, & Giveaway

Jen Hardy [00:00:02]:
Welcome to the fabulous over 50 podcast. I’m your host, Jenn Hardy. And I am so excited to be here because I am going to give you an update. I don’t think I’ve ever done this. I’ve told you a little bit about myself throughout my episodes, but I’ve never really done deep dive on what’s been happening lately. And because these episodes have been a little sporadic and things have been different, I thought I would give you that update so that you can understand what the heck has been going on. So as you know, this used to be the Sick Mom’s Guide and then the Hearty Mom Podcast. And we settled on Fabulous over 50.

Jen Hardy [00:00:41]:
Well, not settled. I was thrilled to change it to the fabulous over 50 because it’s exciting. It’s glitter. It’s fabulous. It’s everything. And that is not changing. I just wanted to let you know that. Now I happen to be sitting here right now in a blingy robe talking to you.

Jen Hardy [00:00:58]:
And the reason is because I have been doing some things called shower thoughts in this robe. Now, if you have not seen the shower thoughts, I highly recommend you click the link in the show notes or go to youtube slash at the Jenn Hardy. So I am at the Jenn Hardy everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, everywhere. You can find me because I thought that’s easy. And so there we go. Someone took Jen Hardy, which is also why I don’t have jennhardie.com because someone took that too. And they’re just holding it because, whatever. Anyway, I digress.

Jen Hardy [00:01:35]:
One day, I was sitting there listening to people talking about shower thoughts. You know, things like, why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway? And I thought, why don’t they do that in the shower? Because they’re shower thoughts. And I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to get a cool little blingy robe and stand in the shower and use the shower nozzle for a microphone and do the shower thoughts. And that’s what I did. So I bought a robe, couldn’t find one exactly the way I wanted. So I made it myself. Because I like doing crafty sewing stuff. And I have made or recorded 450 shower thoughts.

Jen Hardy [00:02:15]:
One day I did a 195 at once and my feet were so numb from standing on that hard shower floor because I didn’t think to put soft shoes on. I dropped something and, and my foot got hurt. I didn’t even feel it. Okay. So I can’t do that anymore. Anyway, it’s taken off. The 1st month I was on YouTube with these things, I got a quarter of a 1000000 views. Now you might not know anything about YouTube, but I can tell you that’s a lot of views and it also feels really good.

Jen Hardy [00:02:46]:
And when you’re on YouTube, people give you feedback, which is something I miss. I would love to hear from you. And it’s hard for you to do that because right now you’re listening, but you’re not in a place to pause this and then go to my website and send me a message. And by the time you are, you’re not going to be thinking about it, or you’re not going to want to make that much effort because let’s face it. We are busy. So if you go over to the YouTube channel, you can hit comment and comment on all kinds of things because I want to hear from you. I really want to know what you would like to know. Who should I interview? What do you want to hear about? That kind of thing.

Jen Hardy [00:03:24]:
Because honestly, if it wasn’t for you, I would just be sitting here at my desk talking to myself, and that’s not a good thing. And clearly I’m not. Did you know that because of you, we are a top 3% podcast worldwide. And if they would take the 55,000 views on YouTube of the podcast in less than 2 months, we’d be up in the 1%. So I’m pretty excited about that. And that’s all thanks to you. So oh, I think we should have a giveaway. I think we’re going to have a giveaway.

Jen Hardy [00:04:02]:
We’re going to celebrate what’s been going on. I’ve got journals. I’ve got 3 different journals. I’ve got one for business owners. I’ve got one if you want to find the path to happiness, and I’ve got one one for moms with chronic illness. And I’m going to give one of those bad boys away to somebody who comments on my YouTube channel. So there you go. Head over there, make a comment, and you’re going to put hashtag journal.

Jen Hardy [00:04:28]:
And if you put hashtag journal with your comment, you’re going to be entered. That is so much fun. All right. I’m making a note right now because I’m making that up as I go along because that’s what’s been happening over here. Alright. So, Jen, what’s been happening? Well, I know that I mentioned before that we were adopting the son, and he is not any longer in our home, which is devastating. He unfortunately saw some things before he came to us that he could not unsee and he needed things we could not give him. And, I thought I was over that and I am not.

Jen Hardy [00:05:11]:
That we lost him 2 weeks before PODFEST, which is a huge podcasting convention. We ran the volunteers for to run the thing for 2,000 people. And so it really got me distracted, which honestly in hindsight, was a good thing. But, every once in a while now I’m really struggling. So, that’s really where everything kind of went sideways and I stopped posting regularly. We took a break from most of the work that we were doing and we just had to regroup as a family because it’s not losing a child in a typical way, but it’s been hard and I’ll just leave it at that. Now going back positive, I also was doing all kinds of things for work. My husband’s retired.

Jen Hardy [00:05:58]:
I have a business, Hardy House Media. There are several things we would like to do with the business that are really incredible, but I realized I cannot do them all at once. I like to create things and come up with ideas, and I’m a one man show over here, one woman show, whatever. And so I’ve had to slow that down, which has been wonderful. So right now, I have this podcast because I love you. And I have the YouTube channel because I am really having fun with that. And I have an AI business. It’s part of Hardy House Media called Hardy House AI Solutions.

Jen Hardy [00:06:34]:
And what I do is I help people save time with AI, and you can save time too. Now maybe you don’t have a business. Maybe you don’t have a podcast. Maybe you stay home. Guess what? I can help you. In fact, the video that’s coming out today is going to tell you how to be told what you can make for dinner with what’s in your refrigerator in 30 seconds and be given the recipe without having to look for 1. That just seems impossible, doesn’t it? So you’re going to have to jump to the YouTube channel for that. I will also have a link in the show notes because it’s phenomenal.

Jen Hardy [00:07:12]:
I’m not going to lie. And I think that every person who eats needs to know how to do this. So there’s that. And I’m also planning, as I said, I was going to cut things down, to put on some cruises. So next year, I’ve got at least 6 cruises. So let me tell you, maybe you like to cruise. Maybe you like a vacation. Maybe you have a business and you would like to go on a cruise and write it off.

Jen Hardy [00:07:38]:
Well, girl, you can. Because half of those cruises are for women. Either women who just want to go to on a cruise with some other women. Maybe you want to work on friendships or boundaries or figure out where your life is headed now that you’re at this age and you’re an empty nester and things are changing. I’m going to put the screws on, this particular one with a friend of mine named Sasha Gray. And she is on Facebook as Scattered Sasha. She has a ridiculous amount of people that follow her and it’s because she’s ridiculously fabulous. She is someone that I admired and wanted to be like her when I first started in this whole world of creatorship and online whatever.

Jen Hardy [00:08:28]:
And I got to interview her on the podcast a few weeks ago, which is amazing. And if you haven’t heard it, do that because you’re going to love her. And she and I are putting on this cruise. I’m going to put on she we’re going to put on something half of it’s going to be for women in general. Half of it’s going to be for women entrepreneurs. So depending on where you are, you can just come and meet some phenomenal people. The second cruises I’m going to put on a series of grandparents, grandchild cruises. No parents allowed.

Jen Hardy [00:08:59]:
I mean, you can go if you really insist. But, the point is that generations are really not connecting. Now, there’s always been a thing like back in my day, you know, older people saying and then kids saying, you know, people just don’t get it. Older people just don’t get it. Well, times have changed and there is this huge disconnect. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to teach the grandparents how to play video games, and that was going to be the whole cruise so they could connect with their grandkids. But then I thought as a mom, I do not want to pay to send my child to just play video games on a ship because I want to get my kids off screens. So we’re going to have a 2 part thing.

Jen Hardy [00:09:41]:
Grandparents are going to learn how to play video games. Probably specifically Minecraft, but we’ll we’ll see. And then the kids are going to learn how to play board games. My family are big, big board game people. Also, my husband and my kids are gamers. So we’ve got a little bit of both. I try to balance it out with board games. I’m not a gamer.

Jen Hardy [00:10:02]:
My fingers don’t like to do what my brain tells them to do, and I just don’t get it. But we’re going to do these cruises because we really want to help people connect. So we’re 1. We’re helping women connect to themselves and each other, and the other one, grandparents and grandkids. So if that sounds good to you, reach out to me. Where you ask? Jen@jenhardie.net is my email address. Anytime. That is my main address.

Jen Hardy [00:10:28]:
Send me a thing. Or you can go to the website, jennhardy.net/contact because I’d really like to hear from you. And if you would like to cruise with me, what we’re going to do is all inclusive. So the price, whatever you pay is what you pay. Drinks, everything, all the special things, all going to be included because I hate getting nickeled and dimed or thinking that I’ve spent something that I need to go somewhere and saving up money and only to get there. And then they say, oh, you need 400 for this and 200 for that. And yeah. Well then I guess I’ll be sleeping on the deck in one of the chairs because I’m out of cash.

Jen Hardy [00:11:05]:
So we’re going to hook you up. Let’s see. What else? Well, I’ve got my 5 older kids. They’re all doing well. If you’re wondering, I’ve got kids in 3 different states and one in Germany and we got to go see her in the fall, which was phenomenal. She is an amazing woman, and I love her so much. I love all my kids, but she flew us out there. That was her Christmas gift to us 2 years ago, and we finally got to take her up on it.

Jen Hardy [00:11:36]:
Oh, we did things like spending time with my daughter in her beautiful home, and she is an amazing chef and so is her husband. I can’t even call them cooks because they they’re and then my husband and my son and I took a day trip to Paris to have lunch in the Eiffel Tower and go to the Louvre. Need I say more? It was amazing. And then he got us a first class train ticket to go because it’s 3 hours each way, and it was all going to be a one day. So we just got spoiled rotten. It was wonderful. My family my 2 children and my husband and I left our daughter who we were visiting in Germany because she had to work and we went to Rome for a couple of days. We got a private tour of the Vatican, which was again, just a spoiling day.

Jen Hardy [00:12:26]:
Just phenomenal. Because we don’t go to Europe very often, and so we decided to just do the top of the line things while we were there. And can I just say it was great and I really enjoyed it? But next time, we’re not going to do all those side trips and we’re just going to focus on my daughter because it ended up being a lot. Oh, you know the other thing we did. My husband and I went. He was stationed in Germany in the nineties, and we got to go be where he was stationed. We got to visit the base there and then we stayed at a air at a what is it? Like a hotel? Oh, my goodness. Is it kind of like a bed and breakfast and kind of like a hotel altogether? And the couple that owned it, he is a chef and oh, my goodness, the food.

Jen Hardy [00:13:17]:
We got pictures of them in the kitchen and it was just so amazing. And so that was our trip there. And now we are here and I am working 12 hour days, getting everything up and running and setting everything up. And it’s just been a whirlwind of amazingness and wonderfulness, and you are part of that. And that’s why I just wanted to give you an update, tell you what what’s Jen doing. And what I’d love from you is to know what you want to hear. I know I already mentioned that, but I’m going to say it again. Jenn@jennhardy.net is the email address.

Jen Hardy [00:13:53]:
Let me know because without you, there is no show. You are the reason. So that’s all. I’m going to keep it kind of brief and I just want to tell you one more thing that’s very important. And that is that you are loved. You are loved and you are beautiful. And you are the woman that you are supposed to be right now in this moment. You may not be feeling well.

Jen Hardy [00:14:20]:
You may be looking at your body saying, I don’t know about these changes. You may be having relationship issues or whatever. I just want you to know that there is someone out there in the world that loves you. You can reach out to me anytime. I will respond. You know why? Because I care. Genuinely care. And that is, I think, something that the world has lost a little bit.

Jen Hardy [00:14:44]:
And, oh, speaking of the world losing things, there is one more thing we need to talk about. Okay. Now you might have noticed that we’re doing a series called voices of justice. And the reason is because I watch some court on YouTube. Now this isn’t court like Judge Judy. This is real court. So I’m going to explain this as quickly as I can. During the craziness of the 2020 era and beyond.

Jen Hardy [00:15:16]:
When people couldn’t go to courts, they had to figure something out because legally in America, our courts courts are supposed to be open to the public. Well, when you couldn’t gather as groups, they weren’t. So what happened was they started to put their court on Zoom, and then defendants and lawyers and everybody met on Zoom. And some of the judges shut that down when people could come back in and they didn’t care for it. But several of the judges thought, wait a minute. People don’t understand our legal system. This is part of our culture and it’s part of our civics and our civic duty to go to jury duty. So what if we kept these streams up and then people could see what court’s about and they could get to know the judges and the process and all of the things that go into it.

Jen Hardy [00:16:02]:
And so they’re still going. And I started watching it and I really liked it. So I listen every single day. I watch a little bit of it. And I keep saying, and I don’t know why I’ve apologized for that. If you’ve noticed that’s bothering you. I’m sorry. There’s a judge named judge Boyd and I just love her.

Jen Hardy [00:16:26]:
And so I asked her if she’d do an interview and she said, yes. And my YouTube channel went crazy because everyone loves judge Boyd’s. And I thought, wow, I also love judge Rosie Spiedler Gonzalez. So I interviewed her completely 180 different from judge Boyd, and she’s phenomenal. I would highly recommend it. And then I, it’s also on the podcast. And so if you’re wondering what the heck, it’s because it’s something that I find interesting, but also something that I wanted to share because the more you learn about these judges and the court, the more you realize our system’s strange. Because, if you and I commit the same crime in the same state, but we see different judges, we could have completely different outcomes.

Jen Hardy [00:17:13]:
You may spend 20 years in prison, and I may spend 2 years on probation. Yes. This is a thing, and I think you should know about that. And I think you should know the system is great, but strange. So that’s why I’ve been doing some things. It’s just a series. It’s not going to be permanent, but I want to educate people on the things I didn’t know about because I think they’re important. And then I’ve got judge Stevens coming up.

Jen Hardy [00:17:40]:
He’s a man. All I know 3 of these judges happen to be in Texas and he is so different from the 2 ladies. So it’s just really interesting. And then I, there’s also people that are YouTubers that take these recordings because the court recordings, you know, all day in court, there’s a lot of, like, downtime and quiet time. So these YouTubers take those court recordings and then they take just when people are talking and they put those out as 15, 20 hour long clips. And sometimes they talk. It’s a whole thing. It is a whole thing.

Jen Hardy [00:18:13]:
And so I’m interviewing some of those court YouTubers and you might’ve heard Colin and thought, why is this 40 year old man on fabulous over 50? And the reason is because Collin has an interesting story. And today, just today, I I interviewed Phil, who’s another one. And, oh my gosh. You know, Phil seems so strong and and he is strong. He’s so strong and courageous and he has so many followers, but it feels that a really rough time. And so I may share his interview here only because I think telling the stories of people, whether they’re 50 year old women or 80 year old women or 40 year old men or whatever who have a life story that needs to be shared, I enjoy sharing that. And hopefully you enjoy hearing it because, then that’s part of the reason I need your feedback. But Phil’s story is is interesting.

Jen Hardy [00:19:19]:
It’s it’s beautiful and painful and all the fulls. So if you’re wondering and things things come up, that’s why everyone’s on. So that is what has been happening with me, and I have missed you. I’ve missed talking to you. I’ve missed working on the podcast. And I am here for the long haul. This show isn’t going anywhere and it’s going to be up again regularly and okay. I said it again.

Jen Hardy [00:19:48]:
What is the deal with that word? It’s not a bad word. Just overly used in this episode. I’m going to be going live on YouTube twice a week. It looks like Monday Thursday. I encourage you to come over there. I will be sending a link in the show notes, like I said, for the channel And I would love it if you would come join me because this connection, we’ve lost it. We’ve lost it over the last few years, and we need to get it back. And that is a way for me to connect with people, and I really, truly want to do that.

Jen Hardy [00:20:25]:
We now have almost 350,000 views on the YouTube channel, not even been 2 months yet. And let me tell you what, we’re connecting and I want to connect to you. So and connect with you. So you are amazing, and I thank you so much for being with me on this journey, and I look forward to getting to know you and talking to you because you are fabulous. So stay fabulous and stay tuned because there are some incredible things coming. Thank you of listening to the Jen Hardy Update