Christy Carlson Romano on voicing 'Kim Possible,’ co-starring with Shia LaBeouf & getting scammed by a psychic
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Is your vehicle stopping like it should? Does it squeal or grind when you brake? Don't miss out on summer brake deals at O'Reilly Auto Parts. O-O-O-O'Reilly Auto Parts. Could you say your catchphrase? Oh, yeah. The do-do-do-do. Hey, Wade, what's the sitch? Wade!

Everything's messy when you start scratching at people's childhoods. Me representing a part of y'all's childhoods, if I start talking about it, it can offend people because they're like, wait, you're supposed to be this for me. With what you know about Shia now, what would you have done definitely at the time? I can't speak to what would have helped, but if you would put 40-year-old Christy in 16-year-old Christy's body, I would give him like a big hug because he definitely needed one then. Do you think what you were doing as a child affected your relationship with your mom? Yeah, I didn't talk to my mom for like a year. Oh.

We sat down with the voice of Kim Possible, actress Christy Carlson Romano. You probably already know her from the Disney movies Cadet Kelly or even Stevens, but now she's married with two kids and has been very open online about her experiences as a child actress. We talked with her about everything from getting scammed by a psychic to working with Shia LaBeouf, all on today's episode.

Thank you for being here. I am so excited to be here. This is very random and very cool. So thank you for having me. I didn't realize until doing my research that you had been on Broadway and done so many Disney movies and TV shows. And you have two kids and you're married. Meeting you 15 minutes ago when you walked in the door, I was just like...

I didn't know what to expect, but I was shocked by how genuine you were. And it's cool to see someone so down to earth when they've done so many cool things. For so long, your career, as we were talking before this started, started when you were six and a half years old. What was your first gig? Gosh, I did a toy commercial that was eventually, the toy was recalled. Oh. No. Bummer. But you still got paid?

Of course. I think I sang like the jingle in it too. And it was called Warm and Tender. It was like one of those like, you know, like water heater bags that old people like put hot water in before they had electric warming blankets, which I now use every night.

We won't talk about that. Oh, I love a warm blanket. Oh my God, I love that. Heating pads are the best. But this was like back when those didn't exist. So you would put hot scalding water in it. And if you did that, but make it the shape of a puppy that you would hug, what could go wrong, right? So that was why it was called warm and tender. And it was like, there was a cat warm and tender and there was a dog warm and tender.

Such a bad idea. But literally, you can go on YouTube and we can look. Before I leave, you can look at this commercial. I have to now. Please do. You'll see little baby Christy. Yeah, that was my first commercial. How did that even get started? Like, was it something that your mom was like, I have this super talented, bubbly little girl that would be great at this? Or were you just like, mom?

I need to show the world how I can sing and act. When it comes to like my mom as a stage parent, like, you know, I don't think that she ever wanted to be like, you know, a performer. She's actually kind of a wallflower. But when it came to me and now I'm seeing this in my youngest, who's like trying to sing and it's like, oh my God, this is triggering. But, you know, she really did have a connection with me with my talent where she was like, well, I've given a lot to my three other children when it came to sports and

and even beauty pageants and dancing, which is kind of how I got my first manager at that young age. So I think she was really just trying to honor my interests and then go with that at like whatever speed it could go. And I think right place, right time with being so young, there's a lot less competition. And we happen to live 70 miles from Manhattan where I grew up in Connecticut. So it was kind of like a very easy, I say easy quotation marks competition.

But the lift of being able to access opportunities was possible. So were you, did you do school like online? Was there even online school at that time? No, there was not online. I'm 40. I'm Oregon Trail generation, I think. And so basically like, I think it was going, I'm so old. Sorry.

Sorry. You're good. We'll bleep it out. We'll bleep it out. I'm so old. But there was a fax machine involved. Let's just put it that way. Initially. There were fax in your homework? Yeah, there was literally like some sort of a fax thing where you'd get your assignments. And there was a pager. My mom, when we would get paged by our agent or manager, whether I got a call back or something, she'd go to a pay phone and she would like call and she'd be like, you got the job.

That's so classic. Yeah, it was really, really wild when I think back to it now. But really, we did go, I ended up going to a school called Professional Children's School where a lot of celebrities went. So Scarlett Johansson was in my class and actually Jack Antonoff, who's like Taylor Swift's like producer, he was in my graduating class. Oh, wow.

And it was just a tremendous... When you see they give you newsletters of how our alumni are doing, but it's ridiculous. The people that are on the alumni. They're the number one. Everything. It's literally crazy. It's like Jenna Malone and Macaulay Culkin and Kiernan Culkin. The whole Culkin family went there. So it's just this really amazing good school that accommodated for professional children. So eventually when I started working for Disney, I was about...

14 and then I moved out there. They picked up the show around 16. I turned 16 the day we started filming. And yeah, I mean, it's wild, but I was able to make it work and then ended up going to Ivy League school. Wow. Okay. Why don't you get back a bit to all the super crazy successful people that were in your class? Is it hard when you look at all these people from your class that are Scarlett Johansson, Jack Antonoff, all these people that are

Going bonkers in their careers. And is it hard not to compare yourself to that? I think I fell into that trap for years of like, you know, even when I was working at Disney, there being, you know, immense success for people like Shia, Raven, Hillary, like they were all sort of my colleagues. And we all took a very different roads, very different roads, mentally, spiritually, emotionally.

I mean, financially, like everything was so different about us. We were very different brands, genders, races, just like the different infrastructures of our families. You know what I'm saying? Like Shia's family we know was troubled from the jump. And then Hillary had a really, really great family structure to a lot of degrees about what that would look like for her. And I know her sister and I think they're a really tight knit family that probably helped in times of there being sort of confusion and fame and

financial success I think has a lot to do with that the outcomes of that so for me I was always told that education was the most important thing so when I turned 18 even Stevens was ending we had done one of the Disney movies and then right like after that movie like wrapped up I had the opportunity to go to Barnard which is at Columbia University and so I was like either I do this or

or I stay in LA. I think I had had like a pilot with like Fox or something like that and it didn't end up getting picked up. So I was just kind of like, okay, I'm gonna go to college and have this quote unquote normal life all of a sudden. And none of that happened for me. The transition of that was like very strange for me. And so at that point when they were like calling me to be like, hey, would you be interested in being Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway? I was like, oh great, like I can go escape to the theater.

And so I guess when you're talking about the comparison thing, circling back to this, I think just everybody...

their own journey. And for a long time, like you tend to use other people's journeys as a means to motivate yourself through shame. And, you know, when you work super young, like that shame of not getting the part or not succeeding, it is so loaded for you because that success means, oh, you know, I have so much approval in my parents' eyes and like all of their time that they sacrificed is

is now going to amount to something. So it's a very thick, complex situation. I'm grateful that now I have the distance from it to be like, I just hope everyone's doing okay. But I will say I wouldn't want to be in Shia's shoes because he's had so much that he's had to work through

And now I've been sober eight years from alcohol, you know, and everything. So it's just kind of like. Congrats. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. A round of applause for that. Having a baby does that. Yeah. That's awesome. Oh, yeah. You kind of got forced to be sober.

Or it's exactly, but no, it really, it's just, it's just the most amazing thing. So I, I just look at other people. I'm like, you know what? This is all happening for some reason that we can't understand. I've got to focus on myself. The sobriety thing. I'm curious drinking. Did it become a problem because of comparison? Did it become a problem? That's a great point.

Yeah, for sure. You kind of talked about how like you want your parents' time to amount to something. Like do you think that you felt pressure as a kid pretty consistently as you were doing all these jobs while it was maybe fun for you? Like also pressure involved? 100%. I think that, you know, child performers are what I call them as high-performing children because that could also be athletes. Mm-hmm.

dancers, musicians, like any child that's kind of growing up in a very like highly competitive environment kind of has the same outcome in terms of them being like, okay, this is my identity. But at the same time, time is elusive because you're not thinking of your childhood in days, you're thinking of it in accomplishments. Yeah. I feel like for me being just your average kid,

like I, my marker was summer break. And so like, like with school, like it's like, okay, that's another school year. And you guys didn't have those, you didn't have that marker. Yeah. I mean, summer break, which meant that you were on hiatus, at least from when I was working with Disney would mean that, you know, Hey, I hope Disney gives me a movie to shoot. So like, for example, my movie that I got to shoot was Cadet Kelly. And that was in like the summer of the second season or something like that. Right. I was like,

16 or 17 at that point. And it was really cool because I felt like, wow, like,

I'm doing something other than the Even Stevens show. And then after that, Kim Possible kind of happened. So I just think like you start to think of everything as, I would call it like a transactional mindset where it's just like, okay, well, what's the next thing? And as kids shouldn't be thinking like that all the time. I think it can kind of destroy the joy of childhood to some degree. I mean, it also offers, like I said, like I don't want to come off bitter. I think people, of course, people on the internet are like,

oh, she's bitter that she doesn't have this person's career. And it's like, it's really not that. Like I said, I'm now 40. And it's like perspective is so rewarding. And so the more questions you can ask yourself or the more conversations you can have with folks, this is just what it is. I do find it really interesting to talk about, to be honest. Oh, me too. Especially with how much the media has been bringing these things to light. As of recently, I was thinking, there's been a long conversation about Jeanette McCurdy's book. And

um, I makes me curious. Like, do you think that what you were doing as a child affected your relationship with your mom or your, yeah, sadly my mom and I have struggled in the past, you know, like I think like where I was extremely compliant, um,

quite like Jeanette. Like I, when I, I did a YouTube video on my podcast vulnerable, which I have actually stopped doing because I felt like there was a tremendous amount of pressure for me to do everything right. As a sort of quote unquote advocate, I was like, I can't do this anymore. Like I'm not representing the community the way that you can't be all things to everyone. And therefore I was like, I need to just take care of myself and take care of

my family. And like, that's where my focus and my sobriety, like, I think that has a lot to do with everything that I've done. And even talking about this stuff is because when you're sober, you have to have like a tremendous amount of accountability for the things you've done. And so I, I've tried to do that, but again, everything's messy when you start scratching at people's childhoods. And sometimes I think even me representing a part of y'all's childhoods,

if I start talking about it, it can offend people because they're like, wait, but you're supposed to be this for me. Because if you're not, then what does that mean? Because I used to watch your show. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, I used to watch your show because I felt really bad about being bullied. But then what does it mean that you were being bullied by, you know? It's just like, it kind of breaks my heart when I think about it now that like, I would be maybe taking that away from people because my fans to me are always the kids that, you know, watch the shows. So.

I've never thought of it that way. And that's so interesting how, yeah, I mean, people view you as the character that you played and that's how they knew you. That's how they had a relationship with you through the screen. Because they're kids. It's not like they're adults. Like they can't be like, oh yeah, like Jason Momoa. He's obviously not Poseidon. Well, even, okay. So one of my first memories of like going to the zoo as a kid, I remember getting so excited when I came across the naked mole rats because of Kim Possible. Yay!

I was like, I know that. I was like, that's on TV. And like, I want to go look at the naked morats. That's so funny. That's so cool. And so. They're really ugly, ugly.

They are. They're so weird. Such a random. Like I never thought about how random that is. I think I've asked the creators, Bob and Mark, about it. And they were like, you know, we were just looking for some sort of an animal because it's Disney. And like we just thought of something that this guy Ron would have that's not like your typical pet. And, you know, we thought of I think they thought of like ferret and like a pig. Matt was a ferret kid. So I did have a ferret. Ferrets are actually quite cool. I taught my ferret how to roll over. He could jump through hoops. Yes. I wasn't able to have a dog as a kid. So my ferret was my dog.

Honestly, like I actually would absolutely have a ferret. They're quite clean. Was it clean? They can smell. And there was a spot in my room where you knew where the ferret would pee all the time because it just turned yellow in the carpet. I dated a guy who had roommates that had this ferret and they never named the ferret. They just called it ferret and they would have it drink beer and stuff like that. And I would always be like, guys, you guys are really wild. But like the ferret was happy and it lived a long life. Wow. The ferret never had a surprise.

- I feel like naked mole rat might've been because like for like kids, anything with the word naked was just like funny. - Oh, that's what it is. - Naked. - That definitely was what it was. I was like, it's naked. - When people approach you in public, what is the job that they like bring up the most, do you think?

I think impossible at this point, which is really strange because when you think of voice actors, you don't think of their faces. You don't think of their faces. I've interviewed plenty of them. I had a podcast with Will Friedle, who was Ron Stoppable's voice, and he's Batman's voice, and he was on Boy Meets World. And it was called I Hear Voices, and it was legitimately a podcast. We did it on iHeart a couple years ago, and it was like we interviewed Eric. Oh, my God. See? I don't even remember.

bring his last name? Eric Bauza. Eric Bauza, you guys would probably not know, but he's like literally the voice of every Looney Tune now. He's the voice of the rabbit. Ha ha!

Who's the rabbit? Wait, this is so bad. Bugs Bunny. He's the voice of Bugs Bunny. He's the voice of like five others, 12 other. And he gets like, literally he has like Emmy awards and like, wow. I'm saying this guy is the most massive, amazing and a great person. But it's like, you would never know these people's faces. However, they know my face. And the reason they know my face, because they don't realize it because they may be on the younger side is because all the stuff that I had done, Cadet Kelly or even Steve, it was like all of that stuff kept,

playing in sort of the world. And so whether it was a commercial or whether it was their older sibling that was watching it, it was kind of like my face kind of creeping in somehow. So it's that familiarity. So when I meet folks, it's like they go back in their minds and they regress to being those kids. So that's why I'm always like, I love, I

I love them so much because it's literally like seeing people turn into kids. Aww, that's really sweet. This episode is sponsored by one of our all-time favorite baby brands, Dreamland Baby. Both of our babies use their dream-weighted sleep sacks and have used them before.

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Oh, yeah, of course. You know, the do, do, do, do. Let's see. Then I did something recently for somebody and they were like, that's not the voice. I was like, okay, guys, come on, stop being critical. You're like, I'll try again. Jeez, it's been a while. Like, we don't have the reboot, like, happening. Okay, let's see. Hey, Wade, what's the sitch? I hope that was good enough for the internet.

Oh my God. That's crazy. Thank you for doing that. I'm sure. Thank you. Did people actually really miss doing the voice? I love her voice. It's so clean and like pure and just like positive. Like, I think there was something about her character that the reason I don't mind talking about it is because she's just such a good influence. Mm.

On, like, everybody. Yeah. There's, like, nothing problematic. Especially for, like, young girls. I think seeing a girl that's just so strong and kicking butt and independent. That's so true. Like, I think that's cool to see for, yeah, young girls, young women. I definitely was doing, like, somersaults in my grandma and grandpa's hallway and stuff, like, after watching it. I thought she was so cool. She was. As a little boy, I was like, I want to be Kim. She's awesome. It was very... She was very...

Like, people could identify with her, and it didn't have to be boy or girl. And also, like, the power dynamic between her and Ron, it was just different. And then the fact that they ended up dating was, like, a really big deal in, like, the whole Disney animation world. So... And one of the really crazy things about Kim was that she was one of the first Disney characters to get a change of outfits. Because so many of our young watchers were like...

we want Kim to wear this. We want Kim to wear that. So finally they gave her different outfits like later into the seasons and you'll see her wearing different things. But she really only had like, she had a, originally she had her mission outfit, her one high school outfit and her cheerleading outfit. But then they really started making her change her outfits. And it was like, how do you animate that? You know, that's really detailed work. So it's kind of nerdy, but. That's so cool. What, how did you,

think about voice acting like because before you'd been acting was it like wait i want to be on screen or was it like this is a really cool fun new project and a way to explore acting in general having the theater background and using my voice for so many years it was sort of just a very natural fit for me to be doing that being a singer it was a a really good time for me to learn especially

I think I was like 16 at the time. So it was kind of like, how do I learn how to use this side of my voice as a talent, as a feature? And while she wasn't very different, the fact that I can still do her voice at 40 and I've had a lot of miles on my vocal cords. It's like, there's something to the training that I had early on. They were like, hey, no, do it like this. And this is the intention of why she sounds like that. So there actually is quite,

much more to Kim than people would think. Somebody was saying, I think they were like, that's her customer service voice. And I was like, I guess I could see that. It works. That's funny. It works. And landing that role, that's such a big deal. So how did that all come about becoming Kim and getting that part? Yeah, Kim was basically just synergistic from Disney Channel. I think they did actually have a lot of people. I believe Allison Hannigan was one of the options. And then she ended up becoming

the mom in the live action movie. And I find that really funny, but they just, I think they just vibed with the fact that I was the girl's age. You know what I mean? I was a couple of years older than what she was. And I had some sensibilities that made more authentic sense to her, you know? And I had a sense of like sarcasticness in my voice that could also be not off putting and fun when it came to Will's voice.

being very slapsticky and crazy. So I was kind of the straight person. And then we worked a lot on Kim's, like we called it stealth mode. So when she'd have to be in mission mode, I'd have to be like really intense. And so that was something we worked on a lot. That's so wild. Is the time commitment,

Like, for you, it's less on a voice acting job rather than your traditional... Yeah, because it's kind of like podcasting. Like, you can batch content if you needed to. So, like, they'll do... I think...

I think for the most, gosh, I don't even remember. This is way too long ago. But like, I think you can do multiple episodes in one day of sessions if you had to. But you can certainly, even if it's not more than one episode, if say you do like a secondary character that doesn't have as many, they can batch episodes up. And then if they come back with like ADR work, where it's like they've animated some of it and now they just need, you know, extra oomphs and whatever's,

You can do a ton of different episodes, but technically you're a session performer. So there's not that much money in it. People don't realize this, but there's not a lot of money in it. Dang. I wouldn't have thought that. Shoot. Okay. I would have hoped that you would have like, yeah, been rolling it from the beginning.

No, no, I know. It's kind of the honor. You have to believe in the honor of it, the legacy of it. That's why I think I am proud of it because it's like, my goodness, like how are we still talking about it, right? And it had four seasons. So the impact is just really cool. And I mean, there's obviously been talk about,

about there being a reboot. There was some serious talk about there being a reboot. To the specifics of that, I'm not allowed to talk about, but at the same time, it's also kind of a very corporate thing where, you know, how many times can we express to the powers that be

that like it's still relevant, like that people still care and that now those people have kids and their daughters who have red hair. This just happened to me like 48 hours ago when I was at a baseball game. There's this little girl, she's got beautiful, beautiful red hair. I think she was about like 11 years old.

And she's like, "Oh my gosh." The mom was like, "She was KP like three Halloweens ago. "We were always trying to find red haired girls "for her to be and she just had the best time." And when she pulled up the picture for me, and now this is a kid who didn't watch the show when it was originally on, she just had the biggest, coolest, like fun smile on her face. 'Cause I think there's something about cosplaying as KP

that makes girls feel like truly, I don't know, like empowered. Yeah. Something like you're saying, it's like you just were trying to be her and pretend to be her. So. Okay. Even the, the movies, Cadet Kelly, right? Am I saying that right? Yeah. Abby immediately was like, I knew that movie. It made me want to be like a tough girl. I tried to pretend I had the rifle.

It's true. Those rifles hurt, man. When they hit you, those rifles were rough. Just throw them in the air. Because they were weighted with like metal, like certain, like the butt of the rifle would be like pretty heavy. In general, they were weighted. So you'd really have to know how to throw them up. And we got bruises and we got hit a lot. Yeah. So you did all that yourself? Yes.

Well, yeah, I think we had stunt people go in and do it for us. And those women, those young women were gymnasts. But the guys that you would see in our squad or battalion, they were actual military, like academy guys. Yeah. Junior ROTC. Yeah, they were legit. But we filmed in Canada, which was really random. Oh. Super random.

fun though. That probably made a lot of women want to join the military seeing you. You think so? I don't know. I wonder. I had never seen stuff like, I mean I grew up in a small town that we didn't have like a, it was that, that's like drill. Yes, drill team. Drill team. We didn't have drill team or anything like that and so I was just like, I didn't have a rifle clearly. I was just like taking

the end of the broom just I hope not you would practice with the broom after watching I would try to do it that's so funny I'm telling you I watched a lot of TV at grandma and grandpa's that I would just get inspired your grandma and grandpa's were like they were lenient with the TV they were like watch whatever Disney you want oh wow

Oh, why do you think it's Disney? They were like, yeah, it's fun. I'm much more, I think, particular about what my kids are watching and I don't need it to be entertaining. I'd rather if they're going to have that, like, not that I'm all that strict about it, but if they're going to have the screen time, the older they get, the more I want them to have something with like a lot of value, like a lot of purpose, like not just entertaining, but educational. And so in some ways I can understand why Disney's done these like massive franchises, like zombies and the things that have music and stuff. Cause I think that is,

I think that's really great for kids to be like enjoying the music aspects of it too. I'm so curious. What are your thoughts on current Disney Channel? Disney Channel does not exist the way that it did. It is pretty much very different because it's called Disney Branded Partners now. Because of the streaming, I think that it's kind of altered the ecosystem of the way that they can have ratings and stuff like that. So they're very savvy to all of that, obviously. But then...

from what I know internally, they have these amazing what they call tent poles, franchises like zombies and descendants. And those things are geared towards utilizing all of the aspects of Disney as a like massive company, whether it's like the parks or the toys and stuff like that. So I think that it's a very different like era of Disney Channel.

who even knows? Like they may get back to what we used to do, you know? But what's cool is that, you know, Ryan Merriman from the luck of the Irish, like some little movie that now kids, did you have a crush on him? I love, no, I just loved all those like Disney channel movies. Yeah, I know. And it's like all those movies, those kids are still watching them. Ice Princess changed my life. You have said that. I've heard you say that multiple times. There's so many that just like,

actually so true because like kim possible like all these even stephen's movie like they just play on your imagination in such a like i don't know i just remember watching them and just feeling like so deeply moved watching now as an adult that makes me so happy like really like i remember i would watch it be like okay like okay we're just gonna pretend we're ice skating i know we're in my grandma grandpa's backyard but like so y'all have been together a while yeah yeah well no no no no no no no

wait Blake's your brother yeah yeah yeah we've been together a while but like I wasn't there guys it's literally can we say how late it is right now too late 10.09 okay it's 10 o'clock at night and I was literally just with my kids at a pizza parlor I'm so sorry the Blake thing was not intended I'm like what's happening right now my brain is never okay my brain is not yes of course but you and your brother would pretend to be ice princess we would I mean I would try to

wrap them into anything because those Disney Channel movies, like those are so nostalgic for me. The worlds are very rich. Yes. Yeah. And that's the thing is that I think like when you were growing up, the worlds were like much more like in your backyard. So that's so true. You know what I'm saying? Like now it's a little bit more magical and like actual Disney, like magical lore. And so I get it. Like we love it, but I just have to be a little bit more specific about like, well,

what is this movie and do I have time to watch it?

Sorry, last question. I'm so curious. I love it. If your girls watch Kim Possible. Am I interesting? You're so interesting. Come on, you're Kim Possible. Oh, okay, great. I'm glad you guys. Do your daughters watch Kim Possible? I want them to watch it so badly, but I wouldn't push it on them. And so every now and then I'll be like, hey guys, look at that on the streaming. Because my avatar is Kim Possible. Cute! Of course it is. Of course. I was like, well, uh,

do they even have it? And then when they had it, I was like, well, I mean, I'm not going to not have KP as the avatar for our Disney plus. Um, but yeah, I don't, I don't force it on them. Have you ever considered dying your hair red? I did die at once and it was awful. Really? Oh, it was not good. It was not good. Thank you. I appreciate that. I like pale skin and you think, but no, I think like, I don't know. And now I have like, I've tried the, like the freckle stuff. Like I've tried the freckle makeup and,

And it's cute, but like, you know, I don't know if I have what it takes to be actually redheaded. Please tell me though that you've been Kim for Halloween before. I cosplayed her in like TikToks and stuff too. That's cool. I've gone for it and had fun with it. And now I think I'm just kind of like, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to like try to cosplay anymore. I don't know.

I just have to leave it to the young ones at the Comic Cons and, you know, just see the fun pictures and stuff. Every Halloween, though, I will say this. Every Halloween when people tag me, I take so much joy in, like, reposting their stuff. So when Halloween comes around, like, send me or tag me. Call me or beat me. Cute.

Your KP, you know, content and I will repost it. That's sweet. So a question I've been dying to ask you because I was a little kid in Missouri seeing all these kids who were, you know, were acting on Disney. And to me, that was the dream. Like if I could have been on Disney, my life would have been perfect and it would have been the coolest thing ever. And so...

I'm so curious as someone who literally lived that life, you were in all the movies and the TV shows and like that was your childhood and you did Broadway too. And so what was that like? Was it everything that people make it out to be? Was it a high that, you know, you look back on, you're like, man, that was the craziest high of, you know, of my life of getting to have all these opportunities and playing all these roles. I do think it was an amazing high. And I think that I still get to reap the benefits from that. Like, I think if I didn't,

acknowledge that like the nostalgia that I've played into with my podcast network or like my content that I've made on YouTube and TikTok and stuff like that. Like my, my,

fan base, essentially being in conversation with that past, I'm constantly trying to understand what that means. And like, okay, have I talked too much about it? And are people frustrated with that? And it's like, okay, but then they still want me to do it. And so I'm in constant conversation with the past. And sometimes I've called it narcissistic purgatory because it's like, I have to talk about myself, but then it's like, but you want to grow too. So, I mean, there's, there's, you know, who's doing a really great job of this right now. And I've mentioned her, how big of a fan I am is Kiki Palmer. Hmm.

Keke Palmer is killing the game with how everybody has known her for a long, long time, but she's just like her own person and she does her own thing. And she has her podcast where she talks about her own points of view and her own interests. So I think that it's, it's really hard to make this like transition, but,

But when you're in the middle of it, of course, it's the dream. There's so many kids that don't get that opportunity. And so you are very aware of how many kids did not make it that far. And so you do get this like kind of like bravado, this kind of confidence about you while you're working. And so that kind of keeps you high, right?

for as long as you're working. And so like, yeah, when you stop working, you kind of get a little bit confused about like, well, who am I now? That happens. And then it happens even more if it's not gonna, you know, if it doesn't get handled correctly. So it's just very natural. To me, that sounds natural, but to everybody else, they're like, oh no,

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of not getting that next role or that next part make its way into the moment? Because I've noticed even in my life, like fear creeps in and almost like robs you of the joy. Definitely. I think fear contributed to me sort of like, you know, drinking, you know, and like essentially like not taking myself seriously enough and not honing into my craft and like managing my finances. Like everything about my quality of life was like lackluster because I was just not fully understanding my values.

Because I think that when you understand your value, it doesn't really matter. And I've heard you talk about this too in the past. You can put your entire self into your career, I think you said. And then it's like, if you fail at that, then what do you have underneath it? This is literally what I was driving up here listening to this episode. And I was like, I heard him say this. And I was like, oh yeah, like I totally know how that is. So that's it. You know, you just got to have to, you have to build a life outside of yourself. So why do you think?

you turn to drinking, did you have, did you have good community around you? Did you have hobbies outside of performing and acting? What did your life outside of your career look like? And did that affect the drinking too? Like yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Um, no, I did not have a good community around me. I wouldn't say I had people that were actively like, you know, I never used

like hard drugs. Like that was never my thing, but being out at nightclubs to be able to be seen and then feel sort of like,

Like you had community with other people that went out, but then also you never went to high school. So you kind of want to feel like you're popular. It's just like this weird toxic moment in your life where you're like, well, I want to be young Hollywood. I'm supposed to be young Hollywood. I got to go to hide and I got to be seen by paparazzi. And I didn't get a Maxim cover, which means I can't get the new like Robert Rodriguez movie. So it's like all of this like spiral. And then it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. So basically it's just not fun anymore.

And then no, you don't have any hobbies. I mean, like I literally learned to ride a bike, I think for a commercial or something like that. You know, like I hadn't really been an expert bike rider, but like I had to really kind of get on a bike and like be better at riding a bike because I had an opportunity to do it in a commercial. That was like as a kid. So like a lot of the things that I did, my mom would say, well, Christy, this is like you cross training, she called it. And we can put it as special skills on your resume. Yeah.

It was never like, are you interested in doing this? It was always like, oh, cool. I can say that I did horseback riding and I can say I did this. And so it was like, you know, the most interesting man in the world from that like alcohol commercial. There's like that guy or some tequila guy who's the most interesting man in the world. And it's like, you're the most interesting kid in the world because you could do all these like random things.

Things, but not that well. Not that well, right? Did you learn to juggle? No, I didn't. Okay. Don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. That was a skill that I, I was a jester in a community performance. Wait, really? Of Once Upon a Mattress. So, learn how to juggle. Yeah, so you can juggle? I can juggle. That's amazing. It wasn't on Broadway though. I, like all the shows that I did were not, like I feel like your resume as acting as a kid was Broadway this, Broadway this. And mine was like the Kirkwood Community Theater. Oh my God.

Well, they say there's no small parts, only small actors. So that's amazing that you did all that. But okay, where was I literally going? Oh, my question though was, okay, do you think that you getting, like focusing so much on your career, like everything that you did, career, career, career,

Do you think you almost like dug your own hole in a way? Because since you were so laser focused on that, because that's all that mattered, you didn't have, you didn't like build up community around you. So it wasn't like you had crappy friends. It was like you weren't putting the time into the relationships like you needed to. So it was a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way. Yeah. Well, and what I find interesting for you is that you guys met

pursuing, you know, the arts and you had each other to kind of like navigate through whether or not you wanted to do that. And then we were talking before we were filming and recording and you had suggested to her that like, okay, well this is, this quality of life may not be

the most sustainably like happy, you know, like if you had to be away from each other and then you're on set with another person, then you have to kiss that other person or whatever it is. It just doesn't feel right. So it is very difficult at a certain point for you to be like, what am I doing with my life? And then you keep it. But, but there's a big difference between being conditioned over your entire childhood to be compliant for a certain kind of life and

And like then doing it on maybe a more minor scale where you're like, okay, well this is regional. Like you're saying it's regional, but like it still matters. It matters just as much because when I take my kids to see the Nutcracker, it's the highest point ever.

of connectivity to the arts for me and my daughters right now because I'm not putting them in the industry. But it matters so much to me because young people need the arts. I'm not saying like, hey, don't act. Don't do this. Don't do that. Of course young people need the arts. But it doesn't necessarily need to be at such a level that it's going to take over your entire life forever and ever. You know what I'm saying? So that's where I'm saying it was great that you guys had each other as community to navigate through that transition. But that's not the case anymore.

for most individuals that are on the level that me or other people were like at that time. - So when I was a kid, I begged my mom, like crying after I saw Peter Pan at the Muny, this professional theater, summer theater in St. Louis.

I was four and I like begged her. I really wanted to get into the arts. Like my dad played baseball in college. My older brother was big into sports and I love sports. I played sports too. But that was when I knew that I really wanted to get into the arts. And so of course my mom got me into it and I did that for a while. But like what do parents need to know that have kids that really want to pursue that? Because like...

Yeah, I think you've stated before that you don't, yeah, you're kind of keeping your kids out of Hollywood and all that. So what do parents need to know if their kid truly wants to perform? I mean, there's resources. That's the good news is that things are starting to come to light and I think people are speaking up and I think that's really great because I think that we're at a time where there will be change and a lot of positive growth from that because there's a lot of people that care. I've done a lot of work with the Looking Ahead program, so I'll shout that out.

because it's a resource for once you become a part of SAG and SAG and Equity as well, they have the same program. Equity is for those who are kids that are in the theater arts, right? And if you're touring, you know, there's a lot that goes on mentally for those young kids. And it's like, I was one of those kids. So I'm really glad that this program exists because it really plugs the parents in to other parents, as well as the kids into kids of their same age bracket.

So this program is amazing. It's just gone national. That's what I would suggest to other parents. But my overall note to parents would be to go slow. Like don't go fast just because there's an opportunity in front of you. Like that opportunity may come, it may go. But the people that I found that had the most like well-adjusted kids were the ones that had parents like Jonathan Lipnicki. He was a little boy from Jerry Maguire. And

And then he did the little list vampire. And he was like, he had this like, you know, full career. And then he went away, you know, but then he lived his life and he came back and he's like a black belt in jujitsu, but he still loves acting. And he does it on his, he does it, but he does it because he loves the craft and it wasn't sullied for him. And he's had to deal with quite a lot of people being like, you used to be cute, you know, like that was...

I think a podcast or a movie he had where he was like, people literally like I'll be in an audition and they're like, Oh, you're that kid from Jerry Maguire. You used to be cute. And it's like, as a man with like a black belt or like a double black belt in jujitsu, it's like, he's just like, he's a, he's a badass, you know, but he's grown past that.

And he's really well adjusted and obviously his money was invested wisely because his parents were CPAs. They didn't give up their careers and throw all their money into that one child in case he had a brother or sister or whoever. So you've got to take it slow and then just go from there. So I'm guessing you think it's really dangerous if...

yeah, are reliant on their kid or give up their careers to fully divulge in their, you know, their child and helping them build their acting career just because they're

I mean, if you think about it, right? Like if you're reliant on your child, then it's almost like they can't stop. They have to keep working because if that's how you make money... Yeah, like what's the exit strategy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I can guarantee you this. If you're the type of stage parent that ends up relying on your child, it will not end well. And whether you think you got it or not, like if you really think that you can get...

you can keep your child sort of addicted or enmeshed as I would say, they would say in

enmeshed and codependent on your approval, like they're going to grow up someday and they're going to resent a lot. So I would say do the work on yourself as a parent first, because I'm a parent. And while, I mean, my youngest is starting to show signs of wanting to sing and I'm like, okay, what do we do? I'm like freaking out. I'm not saying that I have all the answers. I'm certainly not, but I pray for stage parents. I truly do because it's got to be really hard.

for your child to come to you and have that dream. Like you, like as a four year old, your mom was like, okay, but you probably like, you know, you like the color, you know, black right now and everything's black. Like kids change their minds so, so quickly that sometimes you're like, well, I don't know if this is serious or not. We have to wait it out. I noticed you mentioned on your podcast, I was listening to it. You were talking about how now you're

children that are on these shows and in these movies, they have a business independent of the show through social media if they post, if they have an Instagram or a TikTok, which I think is so, so cool. And you were mentioning how they can monetize those platforms and use them as leverage to build wealth or build a career for themselves. But at the same time, I was just thinking about this.

They're able to see all the comments. They're able to see everything that people are saying about them. And so I'm so curious when you look back at your childhood, do you wish that you would have had social media because you could have...

had more of a business move in that regard and built up a personal brand outside of Kim Possible, outside of Disney? Or are you thankful that you didn't have to see the comments? I'm thankful that I didn't have to see the comments. Okay. 1,000%. I think that was one of the biggest privileges of this experience was that I didn't have that. And how I've navigated social media now is just kind of what I've had to do to like, like I said, deliver for my fan base on talking about nostalgia. Like that's not

that's not who I am necessarily. Those aren't my every thought and detail and every choice that I've made in my life. You know, I, I'm pretty much an open book. I think maybe too open, but like, it's all, it's all sort of an exercise in not in the accountability that I had mentioned before, but also like trying to get to know myself and connect with people. And like, I've always tried to kind of have community. Like that's like the through line of my book that will be coming out eventually. And then like,

Just like me, who I am. I'm like looking for friendship. Like I'm a pretty, I'm a golden retriever at the heart of it. So I'm a try hard, like theater, like, you know, you're theater kids. So it's like theater kids are these like performative, lovable, goofy, try hard type people. We can't do anything. It's just who we were built to be. And so it's always nice to meet others. Yeah.

People with the world that we live in is really, really harsh. And there's a lot of people online that like really thrive online.

other podcasters, other YouTubers that just thrive on hatred. And it's like, I know that maybe I've been critical and like said things that were about pop culture and stuff like that and celebrities are, but mostly that's just musings. Like I've never gone after somebody in a way that was like, I'm going to take this person down. It's just seemingly like,

Like I do see that like these young kids have to be so aware of that, that I've heard that even people who aren't celebrities don't even like dance at nightclubs anymore. They don't even have fun at festivals because they're like, Oh no, someone's going to like take a video of me and I'm going to become a meme. No, that's really sad. They don't dance anymore. They don't, they don't, the younger people like don't, they don't have that kind of like levity in their lives anymore. It's sad. So that is sad. Yeah.

You talking about being an open book, something that I really admire is your vulnerability, which is ironic given your podcast name, but about your finances because I feel like you speaking on that, it was like, it was so surprising to hear, but also I feel like there's so many people that have found themselves in your exact position that you're bringing light to and honestly awareness of. Kind of talk about where you found your finances from

As people are seeing your name everywhere and all these movies, like where you found yourself just years after that. So the crazy thing is that I've actually made a lot more money as a social media person than I've ever, ever made as a Disney person.

Like, I mean, it's just amazing what social media has done for creators and like the ability for you to be, like we had said, like to, to kind of like lock into something, to be able to empower yourself and, and,

one you're authentic but also you're experimenting with formats when I started YouTube gosh like I don't know six years ago five six years ago it was like I was doing a throwback cooking show where I was like inviting like people from you know and it was COVID at the time so it was even crazier to even be like hey we haven't seen each other since we were 14 or whatever like do you want to come to my house in Orange County and like cook a knocko like it was just like knock yeah

- It was so random, but it worked. At the time, it just worked. And so I changed formats a lot and it's kind of fun that somewhere along the line you find your way to, I don't know, monetizing stuff. It's not easy, it's not for the faint of heart, but you can do it.

I've definitely empowered my finances through doing my own things for myself, not waiting for the phone to ring, not waiting for Hollywood to give me an opportunity. And because of that, I've been able to get opportunities in Hollywood. For example, the thing that I told you guys before

I'm not allowed to talk about. Yes. Hush, hush. Which was it, but even the book, like the book wouldn't have come about if, um, if, you know, and I also am grateful for Jeanette McCurdy's book because she really kind of put that whole awareness on the map for a lot of people. Um, I'd been doing like stuff like on my YouTube for a little bit before her book came out, but she was workshopping her one woman show, which ended up becoming her book.

So she'd been doing that for like years before and she was really working on herself. You can tell just by reading the book, right? Um, so she's kind of a pioneer and she deserves all the support. I don't have, we don't even know each other. Like we've, we've, I think I've, she followed me at one point. I think she does. I don't know. But like we've connected and she, and she's like hearted my stuff when I said, Hey girl, like congrats on the whatever. And she said, thank you. I think.

Um, so it's like one of those things where it's like, I don't know you, but I, I am you kindred spirits. Right. It's like that thing of like, we have had different lives, but there's been some things that tether us together. And some of that human experience is that like 1% of 1% kind of thing. Right. Um, do you relate to her story in many ways? Uh, well, I wasn't, uh, the, the abuse, absolutely not. Like that abuse was just so garish to have to, um,

like get through, it was very, very hard to get through that book, of course. But like in terms of me seeing similar kinds of stage parents around me that were doing things like that, that's what you then feel guilt by proxy because it's like, I was right there when Shia was going through what he was going through with his parents and, um, or like whoever else, like I won't even name names and it's just like, okay, like,

wow, I guess I'm lucky question mark. And like, maybe I should just think about my life and just say, oh, it was, it was so much better than this person's, but it's all kind of like the wild west of child welfare. It's like, nobody's really thinking about it in a way, but they are, it's like I said, they are kind of now. Um, and again, I'm sorry, what was the question? Um,

You're good. I mean, actually, I was asking about Jeanette McCurdy, but I'm so curious. You've been mentioning Shia. I'm curious what you would have done differently. Oh, it was the money thing. You were asking about the money. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry about that. But yeah, I mean, with what you know about Shia now, what would you have done differently at the time? I would have hugged him more, man. I would have made him give me a hug. I don't know. He probably wouldn't have liked that, but he was kind of like...

He was kind of a brat at times. We started when he was, I was 14, which means that he was probably like 11 or 12 or yeah, like very, very, very young kid. And we were oil and water. I mean, I was this like preppy girl from the East Coast and I had a really thick accent in the pilot when I look back.

And he was just this like wild Venice kid with like two toned hair. And like, they brought us in for the chemistry read and it was like, we couldn't have been more different. And they were like, that's the show. And they were so smart because it was like, we could, like, they didn't care if we got along or not. It meant that our chemistry was authentically that sibling rivalry existed from the job. So whether it was stoked by the materials or it was stoked by, you know, executives being kind of like,

you know, like, hey, you know, you guys are kind of funny. I don't know what you can't explain it, but it's like a vibe that you have where it's kind of like, is this Shia's show? Is it the family show? And so it ended up becoming more of an ensemble show just by the nature of having to film at different times. So like he being certain ages, like they would stagger our, our like, so again, we wouldn't be in the same storyline. Yeah.

so that I could have hours of filming and then he would have hours of filming. And that's how they would stagger us to be able to do like a full TV show. Otherwise it would be too hard to coordinate us being in the same like scenes all the time. So we ended up having two different shows. There was the Ren show kind of like when you would watch it, I would have a storyline and then he would have one.

And his were arguably like way funnier than mine. Mine were just more like the Lizzie McGuire, like I like a boy and blah, blah, blah. But that was what we had to do because mostly girls were watching Disney Channel at the time. And so that's what was unique about even Stevens was because he was really just like so talented for comedy. Sometimes I think like, God, I wish he would just be funny.

Like I, I, I just wish that there would have been more, there would be enough joy. There would have been enough joy in his life for him to continue with comedy. But as we know, like a lot of comics are like plagued with depression and, and like a ton of darkness in their lives. So I can't speak to what would have helped, but I know that, God, I mean, if I would, if you would put 40 year old Christie in 16 year old Christie's body, I would give him a hug, like a big hug then. Yeah.

Because he definitely needed one then. Yeah. Thank you to Liquid IV for sponsoring this portion of today's episode. Matt, which Summer Olympics events are you most looking forward to? Probably the gymnastics because that's what you want to watch. Did you just take my answer? Yeah. Gymnastics.

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Finance wise though, like I said, I didn't make that. I just started thinking about all the nuances of how much I made. I didn't make that much. Arguably, there isn't a lot to invest.

you don't make that much on Disney Channel in 2001. Like it's not like it was high school musical times, you know? It said your net worth, you had mentioned on your YouTube, it said your net worth was like 3 million or something before, like from Kim Possible or something. What? All lies, all lies. And one of your YouTube videos, you said in a YouTube video talking about, yeah, finances and all of that, how...

your net worth, according to the internet, was $3 million. And you were like, I don't even have a million dollars. Like, I have student loans. Like, I made a million dollars one year and spent a million dollars one year is what you said. Yeah. If I'm remembering correctly. That's right. Because you were... I don't know. I think you just...

From what you had said in the video, it seemed like you never thought that the roles would stop coming. Uh-huh. Correct. Yes. I think when you come off of a TV show, you're like, oh, I'm going to find my way. I'll figure it out. And your agents and managers are like, we're going to package you. You're going to do this. And we'll get you in this room. And so you're just trying to be super optimistic. And like I said, you're coming off of the bravado and the high of being told that you're like, you know. And I remember I dated somebody who had been on...

the show Freaks and Geeks. And then, you know, that show was really popular. It was Jed Apatow's first TV show that he'd ever done. And it was a huge cult classic. And, you know, this guy was an actor and then stopped working for a really long time. And so he was like, you know, you're not going to like keep working, right? Like it's going to be a while. And so you get on in their show. And I was like, ah, you're ridiculous. And I was like, I wish I would have stuck my foot in my mouth because it's

It's like, that's true. Like it takes a while, you know? And again, I left. I went to college immediately after. Like after even Steven stopped, I was like, bye.

And I just, I could have, should have, whatever, stayed and took whatever momentum was left and kept trying to find the next thing. But I didn't want to. I was kind of like, you know what? I don't need, I was, I guess I was blind to the idea of the privilege that I had. I don't know. I didn't want, I also didn't want to wait to live my life. And I still feel this way as reflective of me kind of

doing my own content now. I just don't want somebody to tell me how to live my life. Like, oh, you can't have kids because you're an actress. You know, like you have to look this way because you're an actress. You can't cut your hair and dye it because you're an actress. You can't get married and have a healthy marriage because you're an actress. Like you need to be on set and you need to do this and you need that. And it was just feeling like, and I could never, I didn't even want to live in LA. I didn't even travel. That's one thing I think I do regret from the 20s. I'm not bitter about

I promise, but I do regret not just being like, you know what? I'm going to go to Europe.

I have a little money or I'm going to try to save money from residuals that come in, you know, when, when those reruns happened. And I was like, never thinking about, Hey, I'm going to go like explore the world because I was always like, I have to stay here because if the phone rings, I have to, I have to be here because I have to call and I can't leave. And I, I, maybe I can go to New York, but then if I go to New York, maybe I could do a theater audition. It was like literally like that kind of tone. And it's like, no, like at least when I was, sometimes I think when I was 18, I was so much smarter than,

than I was in most of my twenties. But at the same time, like, I feel like finally after eight years of sobriety and being a happy mom and a happy wife, like I've come full circle and I'm back to being that Ren Stevens character like that, you know, she's, she is that try hard and she really does love her family. And, you know, she understands that, you know, she's got a lot of privilege, but at the same time, she's not perfect. Um,

It's really kind of poetic in that the person that I thought I lost, I've found again. Obviously, you can't change the past, but if you could go back...

are you glad that you went to college when you did? Do you wish you could have taken some of that momentum and used it to boost that career high you had for a little bit? Or are you glad that you took a step back and, you know, changed a lot of things in your life? When we talk about, Hey, if I look back and if I try this, I try that. Like it's super toxic for me to do that. Not that your question is, you know, your question is really valid because it's so easy to be like, well,

I don't know if I did that, but it is toxic because it sends me down the what if road. And so it's kind of like, there's no conclusive conclusion.

that would show anything. And I think when you get to the point where I've turned 40 in March, like I'm starting to perceive time a lot different in that like, oh wow, I'm not gonna live forever. You know, I'm like, oh wow, you know, I'm aging and like that's cool and how do I feel about that? And will I ever get to Europe? And like, you know, and there's gonna be a time when like your body isn't going to be as healthy. Like you just start thinking really big thoughts

important thoughts and then you're like wow it really doesn't matter like the any of that stuff that could have would have you know it's funny you bring that up because I have I voice those deep thoughts all the time and Abby's like can you please stop giving me a crisis every single day you know we probably lived like 30% I'm like stop with the numbers oh my gosh there's this calendar of

You know the calendar with the boxes? I don't, but I think about this every day where I'm like, I just turned 26 and I think like, I probably won't make it to 100. So I've lived over a fourth of my life. He tells me that constantly. Okay, so then this is the most macabre thing that you could buy. But there's like this calendar of your life that basically suggests that most people live, I think, to be like...

I don't know, like 80 something, 85, 86. So it's got a week for every single week of your life. And you're meant to cross off when you first get it all of the weeks of the life that you've already lived. And then you've only got this many boxes left. Oh my gosh. So if you were to buy it, maybe you could stop having to bug her about it.

Okay. She's giving me a crisis. I think I want to get that calendar though because I think it puts life into perspective, especially because not every single day is guaranteed. Like I could die in a car accident tomorrow, you know? How do I know that's not going to happen? And when you have kids, especially multiple kids too, I mean, it's just like the stress compounds on like what you're going to leave them and like, you know, what do they remember of you and how do you protect them and everything.

So yeah, I just think like community becomes more and more important to me as I realize that the days are short. What is it? The days are long and the years are short. That's what they talk about like with early parenting. Yes. But it stays true. It stays true. Because I mean, you're a mom now. You have two wonderful children. How is that then? How is mom life then? I would say that being a mom saved my life. I think it gave me purpose outside of...

this identity as an actor. And so, you know, it's kind of, it wasn't something that I thought I was valuable enough to do.

You know, I think like me getting that like gift to be able to do it with a really amazing partner is what I never thought I would have. You know, I tried really hard in other relationships and it was just like failure after failure and having the kind of partner I have in my husband. And then now we have, we, we have our podco, which is our podcast network. And it's like,

We do everything together. So I love that you guys do the podcast and do everything together. It's so refreshing that we have the mom and pop shop is literally digital now. It's like, that's so true. That's crazy. That's what it is. It's like, I know so many husband and wife teams, especially in media. It's like you guys both benefit. It's cheaper. Like you can trust each other. You've got each other's backs. You've got four eyes, um,

Right? Like, it's great. It's fantastic. I know managers that are husband and wife teams. I know so many creators that are husband and wife teams. It's so cute. I love it. And then even like, I'm pretty sure our tax guy is a husband and wife team. Even in Arizona, do you know all those...

signs on the highway that say husband and wife law firm. Yes. If you live in Arizona, you'll always see this big billboard that says husband and wife law firm. I don't know how they're doing that. It's called husband and wife law firm. Huh. I hope they're not divorce attorneys or something. I know, right? Oh, no, that would be bittersweet. Yeah, they switch into that one. Oh, that would be... You mentioned something, though, that made me kind of sad. And you just said how you didn't feel...

enough to be a mom? And I'm wondering why, like why? When I got pregnant, I was pretty burnt out. You know, I was trying to make ends meet with, I was doing a lot of like national, I would go to different cities and do like acting classes for kids. And I wasn't happy doing that because it was triggering. And these were things I hadn't handled. And then I was away from my partner and then I would be doing like small weird movies and

that weren't really my heart wasn't in it and I was doing it so that I could get enough money to because when you do movies they pay into your health insurance and so I was trying to keep health insurance and so I would do like lifetime movies although the lifetime and they were like smaller than lifetime movies or they were like horror movies and stuff like that so I was like I wasn't thinking of myself as a like an artist anymore or an actor it was just more or less like what do I got to do like let me just work I just like acting and I just want to work I don't mind being on set

But then I would, I even did Comic-Cons actually. I did Comic-Cons for a while and I love Comic-Cons. I just don't want to do them now. Like it's just a lot of work and the money is not as good as if I were on maybe like some sort of TV show, you know what I mean? Like that would probably be like, you know, Walking Dead or something. Like certain kinds of TV shows make a lot of money. And if Kim Possible had a reboot, Comic-Cons would probably pay a lot more money. But for me, they're not. At the moment, I love the fans. I loved, loved everybody. But,

but I was just like, I can't do this for a whole weekend and be away from my family kind of thing. So that's kind of, and I was also like pregnant at times I would do comic cons and I did audio books. I did a lot of like, I guess you would call them odd jobs. You know what I mean? Before I found my way to just do social stuff.

And so I, you know, I just kind of wasn't in a good place with it. I just didn't feel like, I felt like so much of it was out of my control. And yet I had gone to school and it ended up taking me 12 years to finish, but I had a production, I have a big production background and then had my film degree from Columbia. So I was like, oh man, I should be doing this myself. Like, how can I use my know-how, right? And my sensibilities as a person who grew up on sets to like make stuff.

And so weirdly, just kind of like you guys, you weirdly slipped with TikTok and like this stuff. It kind of just kind of all lined up eventually to be like, well, everybody eats and we should lean into the nostalgia of what all your Comic-Con fans are like, where are you now? What are you doing now? And it's like, cool. What if you did this with other people they have that question for?

So it's kind of like he and I put our heads together. And for some reason, we always do it in a hot tub. We happen to have a hot tub. And we were like, Christy's Kitchen throwback. Yeah, yeah. And so it's like we vibed.

And it was such a great process to have him as that partner. But we'd already had, what is it, two kids at that point? So it's like, yeah, I mean, man, we struggled for a while. But again, I was at a dark place, but the pregnancy brought me out of it in a way that just I never wanted that to end.

And I've never looked back. Like I said, it's changed my life. And meeting your husband, how did that happen? You keep mentioning him. Wait, before we talk about the husband, respectfully, because this was a long time ago. Were there any Disney Channel crushes on set? Yeah, I dated Sean Ashmore, who was the boy Brad in...

Kelly. And he was a sweet. During filming? Yeah. Like right after filming for a while. I would say like maybe like six months. And then. Okay. And then it was like very, very innocent. Sweet. Very, very sweet and very innocent. He was just a good guy. And then he was like in, he was like Iceman in the X-Men movies. Yeah.

So he started like building a career outside of like, because he was a Canadian actor and he kind of started making his way in Hollywood and stuff. And so, I don't know, I think I got nervous and like didn't want to be in the big leagues with somebody who was like doing like big movies and stuff. I was just like kind of a shy girl. I was very shy. But I mean, I had a big crush on him when we were filming and then I was like amazing that we actually started doing that.

No way. But I haven't seen him since. He's obviously married with kids and it's like, he's a great guy. Him and his whole family are just, he's from a good family. Who do you keep in touch with from those days? Okay, so like I had my 40th birthday and because of my podcasts,

I've really touched base with so many different people. If you go on my Instagram, you can see on my birthday party, like I have this like scroll of like so many cool folks that I had there. And that's like not even everybody that was there. I had some really just like across the board, like Nickelodeon and Disney people.

Like that you would like totally know. And like you would be there and you'd be like, wait, this person, wait, that person, wait, this person. And it was all because of the podcasts and because of the community that I was trying to create, like for better and for worse, like we weren't all connected to each other before that. And so a lot of people had pockets of knowing each other, but then just that night alone on my 40th was like such a euphoric experience of like, wow, everything's come together so that everyone can kind of just,

celebrate, you know, in the same space. So that's really cool. Just that simple. Like I'm in, and that's the thing is like, I, again, not only am I an open book, like if somebody were to reach out to me and be like, Hey Chrissy, I really just kind of want to talk personally about this experience I had. Like my door's always open. I've had like people, young, um, performers who've had issues with their employers or like issues with their mentors, um,

And they've like reached out to me confidentially through DM. And I'm like, what do you need? Like, can I help? Do you need inspiration? Do you need a pep talk? Like, do you need resources? So I'm kind of the real deal when it comes to that stuff. It's been interesting because sometimes people get it wrong, you know, on the internet. And it's been frustrating because I just feel like

like I said in the beginning, like I stopped vulnerable because after the Quiet Onset documentary came out, I felt like very exposed. And because that was a podcast, as we all monetize our podcasts, it was like, oh God, I feel kind of yucky now. Like this whole thing feels yucky and I can't do this anymore. Really? Yeah. Why yucky? I don't know. I just, I got a lot of flack online for monetizing my podcast. And I was like, but I have to keep

producing it and it's not really making that much money like it really wasn't so I'm I'm doing my own thing I'm really excited about Annalisa Vanderpoel and Mai's podcast it's called Big Names and we've been doing it for just about a year and it's small but like it's fun and like we're having fun together and she's gonna start coming to Austin where I live and we're gonna start doing crazy fun vlogs and just like vibing people want us to come like do live shows I mean

Do you guys do live shows? We've actually never done one. You should do live shows. Write in, guys, if you want them to do a live show. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. And then you're going to sing Peter Pan. He's going to come in from a Peter Pan harness. I have no doubt that Matt could be entertaining myself. This is completely a joke, but I was telling Abby, because Abby doesn't want to do live shows. I don't want to speak for you. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I just don't

I want to do something that people want to see. Like if they are paying for tickets, like I want to put, you don't feel valuable. I'm reading that. You don't feel valuable. You are awesome. I need to talk about this. I feel like I have to offer them for their time and their, you know what I mean? You'd have to, you'd have to come up with like, I don't know. I know. Matt was saying he could sing and I'll dance to his song. No, no, no, no. I was joking. I was like, we pull a reverse Uno card and they show up and it's actually a concert for my views.

It was sick. Yeah. We would never do that. We would never do that. Although your music could be in it. I mean, I don't know. That was just a big joke. But like if I were ever to tour for my music, I would want it to be because people actually – Branded as that. People actually – if it would be for people that actually wanted that, we would never – Force it on people. We would never fake people out and be like, it's a podcast live show. Just kidding. I'm performing my original music. Bring out the guitar. Yeah.

I think it'd be fun. I would like to see that. You gotta give them variety. Maybe someday. Maybe someday. Yeah, exactly. But, oh crap. What were we even talking about? How did we even get on the live show? This is what happens when you talk to them. What just happened? Gosh dang it. No, we were talking about Disney crushes and then it's... Oh, right. Then we got on to... No, now we're gonna talk about...

Your current crush, which has been going on for a long time. Oh, yes. The current crush. You met in college. We did. Well, I was 26 and he was 27 because I had left. Oh, yes. I had left at 19 to do Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. As Belle? Uh-huh. Because Disney was like, oh, you're KP and you're this and you're that. And people know because my stuff was in reruns. But still the kids were thinking it was new because...

it was new to them and so I was still kind of relevant in that way and and so even though I was like 19 and was like okay cool uh let's do this that's amazing it was amazing growing up sort of doing theater I'd started very young doing that stuff so it was sort of like that was like the pinnacle of anything that I could have thought I would have gotten to be able to do uh but yeah I did that for like eight months I was gonna ask it was probably a long run that's a long

- That's a long time to be doing that. - It was, yeah, it was wild. It was really wild. And I was very tired. I was burnt out. That was the first time after those eight months that I was burnt out. And then at that point, that was actually right before the psychic situation. That psychic situation that is on my YouTube if you Google, there's like one video. That one went viral and then the other one about my money went viral. - No, okay, I've seen the money one, but what happened with the psychic? - Oh God, Jesus, okay.

Basically, a psychic came to the stage door when I was Belle. And she was like, your whole life is going to be ruined and you're unlucky in love. And I had had my heart broken by my college boyfriend or whatever. And so I gave her a call because I was like, oh, she's so forward. She really cares. What? So I basically started to get codependent on the psychic for, I want to say,

five months, four months or something. Yeah. And so basically it was basically like I had this relationship or a friendship. So I thought with somebody who would spiritually tell me like, this isn't good for you and this is what's going to happen. And then it became more and more fearful and there was more and more money involved with it. So I'm actually really open and honest about it. But what I've come to understand is that unfortunately I was kind of targeted by somebody who was like kind of

You know, a con person. A con person, yeah. So that's what happened. And it can happen. Like, I think, gosh, I feel like I'm almost lucky that I didn't get, like, some other things that happened to people. She made you pay her? Yeah, that was it, right? It was like, well, we have this crystal and, you know, I've got to buy it and I've got to bless it and I've got to do all this stuff to it to make sure that your future will be intact. But, you know, if you don't pay me X amount of money, like...

And it was like, you know, $40,000 or something like that. It was insane. It was insane. But at the time I just thought, okay, well this is the cost of doing business and I'll be blessed by doing this. And like, that's what I'm saying. My financial fluency, which it goes into the other,

the other YouTube video or whatever, it wasn't well enough developed by my stage parents. - And you're young. - Yeah, I was 19 but I was a young 19. 'Cause again, I might have been able to act older and go to clubs and do whatever. But it was like, my brain upstairs was super young. - Did your parents or anybody know that you were paying $40,000? - Banded up knowing. They did, it was so embarrassing. And I had to tell them and it was all very embarrassing.

But I mean, whatever. Like, it's kind of cringy. It's my cringiest moment. It's an interesting story. But other people have contacted me. I'm sure. And they've been like, I'm so glad you opened up about this because this happened to me. I'm sure. You can't. The more that I've learned about life, I feel like things that we're like the most shameful of, like there's so many more people that are in the exact same boat, but they're just silent about it too. And so good on you for, but you're like, this is the

I have to laugh about it because it's wild. And putting it out there. And I feel the same way about a lot of things that we say. I'm like, I know there's other people out there that maybe need to hear this. But... What are the warning signs, though, to look out for? Because I'm guessing she... The day that you guys met, she probably wasn't like, hey, I know all this stuff about you. Give me 40 grand. It probably wasn't like that, right? No, no. I mean, she got more than that from me, right? Like over the... Yeah, I'm sure it was like... It was little things like $200 here, $200 there. Like little things...

It's just wild. So yeah, I mean, look, these people exist and usually they don't come to you, right? So like real psychics, I think like don't ask for money or if they do, it's in a very...

way. So I would probably like do your research on that. I don't know how you do your research on that, but they never come to you like that and they never give you a card. It's like they're very private about it. And some of them are don't even like want the gift, you know, like some of them are like very shy about it. Sometimes it's just like, oh, my family friend is a person who says they talk to angels or they do numerology. Like there's some things that people just

friends of friends or family members. And that's kind of how it happens is like, you have this wise person with these gifts, these intuitions that you can like access through your family network. I don't know. I mean, it's very strange. It's a very strange world that I'm not in anymore. And like so much so that like, I even feel weird about having the CoStar app on my like, it's like Zodiac stuff. It's just basic Zodiac stuff. And like, I try not to like, put

put too much effort into thinking about it, but it was, it was me at 19. Thank you to DoorDash for sponsoring this portion of today's video. I DoorDash my food probably twice a week. It is so convenient. You guys, especially if I'm trying to, you know, clean and take care of my kids and do all these things like multitasking, I suck at multitasking. So having food delivered to me whenever I'm trying to multitask and do a lot of stuff at once is

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Plus, you'll be getting $0 delivery fees and lower service fees with a DashPass membership. DashPass benefits apply only to eligible orders. Terms apply. I know you mentioned having kids really helped with your mental health and everything. Yeah, was marriage a part of that as well? For sure. I mean, it also helped his mental health too. I think, you know, my husband's a Marine veteran and he's been deployed and he's an amazing human being for his service to our country and...

I, I, I, I didn't understand him now more than ever for a reason I cannot say. But in the, in the reason guys is because I did something, I did a project and I can't talk about it.

That's why. Matt's sitting here trying to say the thing that probably people can deduce, but at the same time, I'm not saying anything, but I'm very excited about the fact that there's more connectivity to my husband's experience in life. Anyway, I...

I love being connected to him in all things. So that's kind of like what's brought us together, the kids, the business, you know, the life experiences, stuff like that. It's like so intimate at a certain point where there's, I think there's a big difference between codependency too, because I've been in codependent relationships with the psychic, with my mom, with, you know, other boyfriends and then fiance's and stuff like that.

And where we excel is like having our own identities, having our own like dreams and aspirations and personalities and then coming together and then making each other better. So there's been times when we've, we've been through really hard times financially and we now can spot each other a mile away and see a crisis and

from like a month or two down the road and like come together and be like, okay, how are we going to divert this? And we just, we just know how to like, we know how to be the heads of our family. It's like when we met, we weren't like that. We were like two drunk kids in love. Like, you know, like making out, um, like our first date, we went to some birthday party. Um, we had pretty much met the week before we had a coffee and I was like, oh, my friend's having a birthday party. Would you go down to the Lower East Side? And

and be my, I guess be my date. I was very brave, but I didn't want to lose him. You asked him out. I did. I was like very nervous too, because that Kim possible energy, it was, it was that KPE, KPE. Um, and so, yeah, I mean, we had a great time and, and immediately hit it off. I mean, we were inseparable ever since then. And,

happy I am I love my husband 13 years that's incredible how long have you you guys have known each other obviously for your whole life no we've been together eight years we've been married for almost five it'll by the time this episode's out it'll be five years congrats five years is a big deal thank you

Thank you. We just celebrated our 10. That's amazing. That's a big one. And by the way, sometimes they say that five years can be some sort of weird time. But I think because you guys have young kids that you will not feel it. Yes. And I feel like that really keeps you on the same wavelength of like, and you're such a person that leans in, I can tell, that you're not like the kind of person that's like, I'm going to be over here in this room and you can, you know what I'm saying? Like it's...

We're attached to that. Do you like... So we were talking about mom and pop shops and how the new mom and pop shop is... Digital. Digital, which I've never heard that before. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you're onto something there. Do you like working with your husband? If I could, I would work with him all the time forever. Because I know he has my back. I feel like I've had a lot of people get commission on things just by picking up a phone, like agents and stuff. And it was because somebody called in and they're like, would Christy be interested in this? And it's like...

But you didn't do anything. You didn't call on my behalf. It's like, I know tons of people in the entertainment industry that are literally just paying their agents because they got a phone call.

And they picked up and it's like, what? This is so busted. And then you have taxes. So this was another reason why I like made and spent a million. I had a business manager in one year when I was, what, 20, coming out of the Broadway Beauty and the Beast. And it was like, I had a book deal and I had a record deal coming off of Broadway.

And it was like, I did not allocate that the proper way because I had the business manager and I had the taxes and I had a lawyer's fee and an agent fee and a manager fee. It was like all this stuff. And it was like not properly dispersed in a way that like, it just wasn't handled right. You know? And so I think then you start to think to yourself, like, I can't trust anybody, you know? And I don't even want to make money. You know? It's just like, you start to get very self, you know,

So the fact that I have somebody that's in the trenches with me who has actually been in trenches, he's like a real soldier. We're soldiering forward together and we're very resilient in this way. And you know what? It's actually kind of strange. Him being a veteran and me being a child actor, there are some strange parallels and I can't exactly explain it

but it's something that I'm starting to really truly see like the reason why we make sense. The reason why I'm so happy with somebody who's been to war, you know, and literally had to see some really crazy, awful things and who has seen death and now comes back and is like a civilian. And like, think about that. Like,

Whereas I was a kid, but then I wasn't a kid. And then I felt like then I wasn't anything. So it's like this strange kind of like fall from grace where then you're like, who am I now kind of thing. And so he had to go through that too. And then we met in a screenwriting class of undergrad, but he happened to be 27 and I was 26.

That's how we met. He really wanted to be here and you guys spoke on the phone and he really liked you. Oh, that's so nice. I'm bummed. I know. He was putting your kids down for bed so it ended up not working out. Parents, you need to come first. Yeah, I mean, you're parents so you gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah, we like... I wasn't gonna Rochambeau but we were like... I was like, no, I'm gonna go and he's like, go, you gotta go. So, you know, whatever. Well, tell him thank you for our service. He's sleeping right now. He's asleep right now. If you told me

to tell him to thank you for your service that thing they don't actually like being told that did you know that wait really oh shoot i think maybe it's a marine thing so if somebody comes up to brendan and says thank you for your service he says thank you for paying your taxes and it's kind of this like funny kind of like flippant way of being like you know i did i did what i did because i chose to do it and i and i did it and i did it and i and i don't think about it kind of thing which is

When you think about it, the mark of truly a brave person where it's like they don't want the recognition. They did it for their own reasons. You know, he was also 19. He enlisted the day after 9-11. And so it was like such a crazy critical time in our country. Something you mentioned that kind of stuck out to me and I wanted to ask more about it.

you were saying, instead of like saying your mom, you said your stage parent. And so I'm curious why, yeah. Why use the term stage parent instead of mom? Man, you're so good. You guys, um, you caught that. I think that I'm starting to have sort of like an understanding that who I have now is my mom and who the person was then was the stage parent. Like I used to say that like my mom could have, there was like a, like a pyramid. And I said on the top is like, mom,

friend and manager. And it was like, pick like two at any given time. Like you can't be everything. And therefore I'm missing out on one of those. She couldn't be everything. Right. So in dealing with that disappointment, I think now I'm identifying as, okay, she was the stage parent and she had limitations as the stage parent because there's other people out there that are

stage parents as well and they don't see the blind spots they think like oh I can fix this and my kid's not going to get preyed upon or my kid's not going to lose their money or my kid's not going to have residual damage from not succeeding when they go to college you know it's just like there's so much that can go wrong sometimes I'm like but why would you even want to subject your kid to the the possibility of any of it but at the same time it's not my kid so I have so much sympathy for them

to have to put themselves through that too. It seems like from the outside looking in, it seems like you almost have those distinctions because I'm guessing things with your mom are good now. I'm assuming that it's worked out in the end, but maybe there was a time where things weren't so good. Yeah, I didn't talk to my mom for like a year. I didn't talk to my entire family for a year because I thought they were like mismanaging my money. So I think I got really...

attitude-y about that. And then I was like, I'm peacing out. Like, I don't want to talk to you guys anymore. And I'm in this relationship with this guy. And I just kind of like went from one codependent relationship to another and I never really fixed anything. And so I didn't talk to my family for like a whole year when I was 21. Did these guys try to tell you what to do with your money? That one did. Yeah.

That one was like from a really wealthy family and he was like living on his father's money. So it was kind of weird that it was like a trust fund person. And he was just like, you don't know how much money you have and you should know and you should break away from them. And it was like, okay, but now you're living off of me. So I just, like I said, I never really feel like it was easy to find community in LA. And so I think that's why I'm like always kind of grossed out by LA. How did he, how did he take advantage of you? Yeah.

I rented him a Ferrari for his birthday one year. We were only together for a year and four months, but I rented him for a Ferrari. When he broke up with me, I moved him out and I like bought him like an Hermes ashtray because he smoked scars. And I was like, is there anything else I can do like to make it more comfortable for you to move and break up with me? Like it was like, who was I? Like I would never want my daughters to be this way. You know, I would never want them to feel like

God, just like apologizing for oneself. But I'm not that person, I guess. I think I've been loved enough now to like...

feel like so whole and I don't know it's really deep did your parents help connect you with maybe a financial advisor or somebody that could help I only had one business manager and that person was not decent I feel like I feel like when I look back they really weren't trying to help me they would sit me down and have these conversations with me about my money and they would be like

making it like very, very difficult. And I was not dumb. Like I'd gone to college and, but it was like, I don't know if I was tired or I just didn't understand it, but like, it wasn't fun. Like those conversations where he was like, so this is why you have to show a loss for your S Corp and like this, and then look at this Excel. And then he would make it almost like needlessly complicated. So then I'd be like, well, I need you. Hmm.

versus like, I'm gonna make sure that you know this to the point where you don't need me anymore. And so after the whole psychic thing happened, I remember he was on the phone, my manager at the time, and then my lawyer was on the phone. And they were like, Christy, are you okay? And I was like, no, guys, I'm fine, because I didn't trust them. And I was like, I'm fine. I just wanna make this purchase. Like, just, you know, free up this money for me, this 40,000 or whatever, which was huge for me because I'd never had control of my money. And I was like, just let me do this and...

I'll be okay. And they're like, really, Christy? And I was like, yeah, like, just mind your own business. Like you guys don't, you know, I was, I was kind of rebelling. Hey, real quick. I don't want to take much of your time. I just wanted to thank you all for being here. It means the world to Abby and I that you're watching or listening to our show, whether you're doing laundry or in the car on the way to work. Thank you for being here. I hope that you've learned something. We really have a lot of fun putting on the show and it's,

that we get to do this. So thank you. Your support means the world to us. If you wouldn't mind sharing this episode with someone, if you learned something, that would be awesome. But if not, just enjoy. We really appreciate you guys being here. Seriously. So, okay. Back to the episode. You're awesome. Thank you guys. During that time, I guess you had to...

call the bank and say, hey, my parents no longer have access to my accounts. I don't want them to- I fired my mom. Whoa. Yeah. So my mom technically worked for me and I fired her because she paid herself a salary, which is pretty standard, I think, when it comes to trying to show like a loss when you have a corporation because she was my employee.

everything that she had could be like her own tax deduction. And, you know, but then my mom had like a separate apartment and it was like, Oh, well I want to be here in town with you, but you should have your own apartment and I'll have mine. And it was like, wait, we should have bought a house. Like why don't we buy a fricking house? And then we could have figured it out, but like we never did that.

And so it was just kind of like kind of frustrating, like with some of the some of those things that just weren't maybe she obviously didn't know. Right. Like she just didn't know what to do. It must have been a very emotional conversation to hear.

to fire your mom. - Oh, it was horrible. That whole season of my life, because I was dating this person, my dad got involved and he flew out and he was like, "What are you doing?" It was very weird and very awful, which is what made that breakup that much worse. This is the Ferrari guy, because it was like, "I just left my family for you."

And now I'm out in LA and like I have nobody. So I had to like basically go back to my family with my tail between my legs and be like, he broke up with me. And so sad. Did you have anybody else out there at that time? No. No.

Not really. Where was your family? Where were they when all of this was going on? My brother was always there for me. So like when I started having like little bits of money problems and stuff, my brother was always the one because he's in finance. I would call him and I'd be like, you know, how do I get through this? And he'd be like, okay, well, you need to be on this budget. You should just try to do this. But he was busy. He was living his life. He was like working for the World Bank at the time and traveling to all these different places in the world. So we were close, but not like close enough where...

I knew to lean on him or something but we traveled together a few times like I went to India with him he always tried to help me my brother was always like that's why it's like we're still so so so so so so close because he just has always fought for us to be like an actual sibling relationship because he knew I don't really care to cry you guys oh god stupid um

But like, he just always knew that like I needed him, you know, but like he never wanted to try. He tried sometimes to be really strict with me and that never worked. And I think finally we've found a way where it's like, we'll have business questions about our podcast network. And he's so good at finance. Like he's such a boss.

with what he does. He does private equity and emerging markets. He made me memorize that, but he does even bigger things than that. And he's like helping us with podco, like scaling up and like the fact that I can now love on his nephews and my girls. And that's why we're visiting them, you know, in Nashville frequently. So yeah, we're, we're really close. And I would, I would be remiss to say that he wasn't a part of that.

It's just that he wasn't like flying in to see me as much as maybe that could have happened. That's really sweet that you, yeah, that you have your brother in that, like you're even in Nashville right now. We just got to Nashville today and kind of just worked out. Spoiler alert. That we're like all here. But I love that. I love that he was there for you. What would you say to somebody who might be in that same situation where they, I don't know, they're struggling on knowing how to manage their money or maybe they aren't

feel like they don't have community and they don't know what to do. Like maybe they're in a bad relationship with someone who's taking advantage of them in some way. What would you say to somebody who's going through that? I think the best thing that you can do is look inward.

And like in looking inward, you have to find your higher power and you have to find the strength within yourself. Like if there was anything that I would want to teach my girls when they start becoming young women, and I know my husband will do that too, but I really want them to understand their value from a young age so that there's no confusion about that.

And that they don't waste any time. You know, I think like when people are hurting, we waste a lot of time. We waste a lot of time on comparing ourselves to others. And we waste a lot of time in thinking about the toxic what-ifs. And so...

really the girls just need to live in the present moment. I mean, the longer that we can live in the present moment, the more fulfilling our lives will feel, I'm assuming. I'm not saying I do it. I just think that like, if you have a running head start on this pathology as a younger person, how great would that be?

So that's what I want for them. And I would want that for anybody. Did you turn to, I know obviously there's the thing with the psychic, but was there any spiritual awakening that you had or any sort of like place where you found purpose? I'm curious what that was for you at that time or even now, you know? I have spiritual experiences when I'm in the present moment. And it's not that often because I'm trying to constantly build my social media following and I'm all,

always trying to push to like, you know, have a million followers on Instagram or like now I'm trying to do affiliate links and stuff like that, which I actually really love doing that stuff. But there's never, there's only green lights. There's never like, whereas when you're in the Hollywood industry, traditionally, there's only red lights.

maybe some yellow that quickly turned to red. But with social media, it's all green lights. You are your own boss. You are your own destiny. So like for somebody who's like a toxic try hard, sometimes you can, you can be like, okay, no, I don't want to be toxic. I want to be

really doing this from a place of like empowerment rather than like desperation or something. So that's kind of where I'm at if I'm being really honest. But I do love working with my husband. I love our podcasts. We, I think, are creating something really cool. That's so cool. Well, I love that you have your own podcast network and company and that you have your own podcast. Where all can people find you on social media? I mean, Podco has its own Instagram, but I obviously have my Instagram. So please...

we haven't like if I haven't completely repelled you from all of my honesty please come see me at the Christy Carlson Romano on Instagram I think it's Christy Carlson Romano on TikTok and I'm also on LTK but my YouTube is my name but

But right now, the only thing that's there, well, there's Vulnerables and there's like all this like back catalog of stuff. But my focus is on big names because I moved big names to its own channel. But now I've moved it back to CCR, like to my YouTube so that we can like really test out this new format where me and Annalisa Vanderpoel, who's an actress that was in That's So Raven for a long, long time.

She's the redhead in that show. Okay. Chelsea. Chelsea. Yes. Chelsea. Chelsea Daniels. Is that her last name? That sounds right. Yeah. Big fan. So she, she's this like, she was also Belle on Broadway. No way. You're like, we have a lot in common. Yes, we really do. And so, and we grew up together too back in the day. So it was kind of like, cool. Like, let's go have some fun and film it. And so that's what we're going to do. And yeah. Yeah.

that's it we're just gonna live in the light and have fun and i don't know see what comes well it's been wonderful talking with you we'll let you go off to uh sleep go to sleep because it's like really late but um i've literally my husband called me like a couple times oh my gosh i'm so sorry okay okay you better go well we'll all go to bed and um thank you guys for watching we really appreciate you being here and this is crazy that we get to do this so thank you for being here thank you so much thank you guys thank you guys