049 | These Are My Favorite Things

Speaker A: M. This is. She's Equipped with Jennifer Allwood, a podcast for Christian women in business who want to earn more from their God given talent, grow their impact, and lead with faith. Well, hey, friends, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jennifer Allwood and this is. She's Equipped with Jennifer Allwood. Today we're going to do something totally different on the podcast. I thought it would just be fun today to do something, uh, totally different. I haven't done this in a long time. I'm going to do, like, some of my favorite things on this podcast episode. I'm actually going to do show and tell. So if you're listening on the podcast app and you'd rather flip over to YouTube, um, I will either be showing you some of my favorite things. I think I've got eight things to show you guys. Uh, or things to talk about. I mean, they're going to show and tell or I'm going to talk one of the two. Um, but, uh, yeah, flip over to YouTube if you want. Let me make sure I've got the camera good to go here. But you know, I was talking to Nell a little bit earlier and I, like, sometimes I just run out of things that I want to talk about in the podcast. When you think about doing this for eight years, almost 8 million downloads. Well, no, we're at 7 million downloads. Um, almost 800 episodes. Like, you kind of start thinking, do I have anything new under heaven to talk about? And so I was like, you know what, it's summer. Let's actually just have some fun. So I'm going to show you guys some of my favorite things. These are, um, uh, in no order whatsoever, just things that are bringing me joy this season. Okay, so let's talk about some of my favorite things in no particular order. Okay, first up though, are these little baby Jesuses. Okay? Dun, dun, dun. All right, listen. I get so much ridiculous joy out of these little Jesus figurines. I got these off of Amazon. I'm gonna put a link to every single thing I'm talking about in the show notes. And so if, um, you're on YouTube, you should have the show notes there. If you are listening on the podcast app, you can go to jenniferallwood.com, go to the podcast, um tab, and you will see this episode. And there are notes there. Okay? So, um, I love these little baby Jesuses because I love just leaving them in the craziest places. I keep several of them, a handful of them in my purse, which means, like, sometimes if I go to A doctor's visit. I will, like, leave it in a public restroom. Public restrooms are my favorite. We were just, um, in Miramar beach in January for like, a little mini mastermind with a bunch of my business clients. I left one on top of, like, the, um, where you get, um, things to dry your hands with in the bathroom. I like leaving them in the airport, um, on a shelf at Target. Um, in restaurants, like, in between the salt and pepper. I don't know why they make me just have so much joy. And people maybe see them and they, like, roll their eyes. But I, I seriously, I'm seeing more and more baby Jesus everywhere. And so since I already had a bunch of these and was doing this last year for Christmas, I actually ordered a bag of 100 of these off of Amazon. So I'll put the link to the bag of 100 because it's cheap. It's less than 20 bucks for a hundred little baby Jesuses that are rubber. And so I, um, I bagged them up and gave each of our kids a bag of them in their stocking. Now, in full transparency. I don't think anybody in the house finds as much joy out of this as I do. I think it's just me, but I think it's hilarious just to leave little baby Jesuses around places where I go. So there you go. That's number one. Okay, number two. All right, I'm going to tell you my favorite obsession right now in terms of something to drink. Okay, I wanna preface this number two by saying this. I have never been someone who drinks my calories. Ever. I drink water, I drink LMNT. I drink, uh, non sweetened iced tea from McDonald's, which is the best iced tea on the planet. Non sweet iced tea from McDonald's. Sometimes they get it wrong and they give me sweet tea and I wanna throw up. I just don't understand how people drink that. But here's what happened. We were in Florida last summer at Bougie on Miramar beach, um, our condo down there. And, um, Ava said, I wonder if we can walk smoothie king from our beach. And there was a smoothie king. Like, we're really close. We're within walking distance of a Starbucks, um, a chick fil A. And smoothie king was right there too. And I'm like, I don't know. And she goes, well, what if we go down the beach right here and then just like, cut over? So I'm like, okay, because, you know, it's Ava, so I'm doing anything for her. So Ava and I head over to Smoothie King. Turns out, yes, it's like a three walk block. So we walk a block on the beach, and then two blocks up this, like, road, and suddenly we're in front of the Smoothie King. And what's fun about it is it's right next to a used bookstore, which I just. I love going in there every single time. Okay, so we go into Smoothie King, and I tell Ava, what are you gonna order? I don't know what to order because, again, I don't consume my calories in drinks. If somebody says, hey, you wanna go to Starbucks? I'm gonna get a black coffee. I mean, do I love the taste of creamer? I do. But if I start out my day with sugary coffee, then I just want sugar all day long. And so I just would rather eat chocolate and, you know, raw chocolate chip cookie dough and mashed potatoes than have calories in my drink. But Ava's wanting Smoothie King, so I go to Smoothie King. So she gets something called an angel food, something. I don't know what. And, um, I see something called a lemon strawberry twist. And I think to myself, well, I like lemons. I don't think strawberries. Let me get a lemon strawberry twist. Okay, um, here. Here is evidence of the lemon strawberry twist that I had today. I don't understand what has happened to me, you guys, but I am. I think I'm addicted to these things. I don't know what they put in it. I would say I have five of these a week. That is way too much. That is way too many calories. That is way too much sugar. I have no idea what has happened to me. I'm like, maybe it'. Menopause. That suddenly I am addicted not only to this. I should tell you one other thing. Lime or lemonade? Popsicles. It's like my body is suddenly craving tart. And I'm sure somebody's gonna have a reason as to why. I don't know, but I just want everything tart. This lemon strawberry twist is so tart. When I think about it, it feels like when I think about pickles. Do you know what I mean? It, like, hits you back here in the jaw. Okay, listen, here's my pro tip. Nothing in this for me. By the way, if you download the Smoothie King app, this is, like, how invested I am in this drink. You get, like, um, points. Like, Today, I had $4 off of this particular, um, smoothie drink. So I took it. Um, they just scan, you know, your app every time you get one. So if you're addicted like me, then you get some points back. And also on Fridays, you can get a 20 ounce for the price of a 16 ounce. I'm telling you guys, I am so addicted to these that Jason, who is the most, uh, generous man on the planet, but sometimes he'll just order them for me doordash. And you have to order two of them. And so then they're ridiculously expensive because you're paying all the doordash fees. But then I have like one for today and one for tomorrow. Sometimes I can't even wait until tomorrow to dig into number two. So don't hate me. But I'm telling you, like, don't start them if you don't plan on being addicted. I don't know what's in it. Lemon twist. Strawberry. That's the only thing I can recommend for a drink. Okay, there you go. Thing number three, my favorite shoes of the summer. Okay, so usually I order one good pair of sandal flip flops summer shoes every year. I mean, I will, you know, buy cheap flip flops or whatever, but I will sometimes spend money on just one, like, good pair of shoes for the whole summer. Okay. If you're watching YouTube, you'll see these. These are my favorite shoes of the summer. You may have seen 900 other influencers showing these. Not that I'm an influencer, but they're like an ivory color jelly slide and they have these like natural colored stone all over them. Um, so cute. Easily go with flip flops. Easily go with a swimsuit. Easily go with a dress. You can wear them to dinner, to church, to the beach. They're so comfortable. They're so versatile. You can get them on Amazon. I'm gonna leave you a link on the show Notes. Okay. I get compliments on these all the time. Love them. And they make you look really, really tan. So there's that. The Sam Edelman shoes. I think they're like 70 or 80 bucks. Um, and so. But they're going to last you more than one season. You know, I mean, I've had enough old Navy flip flops to know they last you half the season. And they're done. These are not that. So. Love these J slides. Okay. Um, I also brought down to show you my favorite new hair products, which you've heard me talk about. You've heard me talk about these on my Instagram. You've heard me do possibly one or two Facebook posts about them. These are my favorite. These are two of my three favorite Products from them, which I think every woman who has experienced any sort of hair loss or who is my age should be using, because one is a serum for thinning hair. Okay? You're supposed to use it once a day. I'm using it twice a day. I just am. And Ava literally said to me, if you're watching YouTube, look at my hair today. She said, mom, your hair is looking so big. She used the word big. But it's feeling more and more like my old hair all the time. For those of you who don't know, I went through a hair loss at the beginning of 2020, which I think then was related to the products that I was using, because that product, um, was under a lot of scrutiny, was making national news, et cetera, et cetera. They had changed their packaging. The packaging had some stuff in it that wasn't supposed to, et cetera. So lost a lot of hair at the beginning of 2020. Um, this hair loss, I did two things that could have, um, led to hair loss. One in November ish of last year. So six months ago, I started testosterone. Because I have very little testosterone. I actually went into menopause. Um, how old am I? Eight years ago, Almost nine years ago. So no need to ask me about, hey, do you need to get your hormones checked? Honey, I've been getting my hormones checked every three months for eight years. Okay? So I've got my hormones under control, but my testosterone has kept going down. So they started me on testosterone. I did not know that if you have low testosterone and you increase your testosterone numbers too quickly, that can result in hair loss. Did not know that. Okay? So I started testosterone at the same time. I was diagnosed with, um, subclinical hyperthyroidism, which basically means that I should be really thin. So just so you know, I'm low key pissed because that is not the case. I have to watch what I eat. So anyhow, they started me on a thyroid medication, which I took for two months. We took it one month. My thyroid numbers didn't change. They doubled it for the second month. My thyroid numbers did not change. So I have gone off of that. I have an appointment with a thyroid specialist coming up. Anyhow, either of those things or the stress I was under in November, December could have led to hair loss. The point is, I have lost over half of my hair. And the reason I had to finally, like, talk about it on social media is because people kept saying they would comment on my posts. Did you cut your hair really short? Oh, I like you with shorter hair. Or wow, you cut a lot of your hair off. Which would just make me feel awful. So I try to be pretty transparent with a lot of things going on in our life. So I just finally came out and said, yes, I have lost a ton of my hair over the holidays. Normally, if you have something like a huge amount of stress or if you have a surgery or if you have, um, you know, something like I was starting those different medications, it's usually about 90 days later you'll go through a massive hair shedding. And if you've never lost hair, like, praise God for that because it is awful. It is freaking awful. Okay, so not only did my hair look shorter, shorter, shorter, but my hair has gotten super thin to where, um, I feel like I'm an 80 year old woman. And God bless all you 80 year old woman, I'm 54. I don't want my hair to feel like an 80 year old woman. Yet when I'm 80, it feels like I'm 80. That's great. But right now I don't want it to feel thin. And so I, um, had a lady contact me who sells Monet hair products. Um, I bought all of the products with zero thoughts at all about ever sharing them with you. Zero. However, I started them in March. Um, my hair is the healthiest, I think it has been since I was in my 30s, I would say before kids. Um, and so I am thrilled with the results. So the two of my favorite products, I'm going to leave you a link, are one, a hair thinning serum. So something I didn't know. Um, the only way I'm going to grow new hair because my hair has gotten so thin is if I'm taking care of my scalp. This is a serum that you put on your scalp to get more hair to grow. Now a lot of people are using like, um, Minoxidil and all that stuff. I tried that, friends, but do you know how gross that stuff is? It's wet, it's sticky, it's ooey gooey. It just gave me the ick. And I'm having to put it on my scratch scalp and rub it in. And then my curls were getting nasty. You're supposed to do it twice a day. And then I started learning that people who are using products like that, if they quit, their hair starts falling out again. So no, I don't, I don't need to go through this again. Okay, I'm good. So this serum is to instigate new hair on my scalp. Second thing is called rejuva beads. And basically what it does is it takes care of split ends. It is protecting my ends. And like, look at how curly my hair is, you guys. When have you seen my hair this curly in the last year? Have you? I don't, I don't think so. And I've got all this new hair coming back here. Look how curly it is. So I am thrilled. Thrilled. I'm using all their things. I'm using shampoo, conditioner, um, cream, everything. But these two things are my favorite. I'll put a link in the show notes. Okay. I just think that everybody who gets to a certain age and their hair is either thinning or feels really, um, brittle and dry, needs to be using both of those products. There you go. Okay, Next thing, I have got to give a shout out to my daughter in law, Bella. I'd also like to know if you have a daughter in law, do you feel weird calling them a daughter in law or do you call them daughter in love? I don't know, like daughter in law feels like too official. Like I don't adore her and daughter in love feels cheesy. But I do adore her. Okay, so anyhow, I have shared two of her links recently and I want you to go check out what Bella is making. So she had a friend who's getting married, Easton and Bella. Our son Easton married Bella. Um, and Bella is such a creative. She is so amazing. She makes like a lot of posters and banners and she's selling those on her Instagram account. But then she had a friend who was getting married. Now this friend is one of seven of Easton Bella's friends that are getting married this summer. And so they have all these weddings to go to. And Bella and Easton are both in several of the weddings and stuff. And one of Bella's friends asked her to make a pair of jeans. And so she wanted like this white pair of jeans with what's about to become her married name Mrs. You know, XYZ, like kind of across the booty. And Bella did a video and I think that video has gone viral. Well, let me, let me, I can tell you here in just a second. Hang on, because I just brought up her account on Instagram. You can go to with love dot by Bella, with love dot by Bella. Or go to Bella Allwood, my daughter in law, Bella Allwood. And you'll see a link over here to this. So this has gone to almost a hundred thousand people, these jeans. And I'll have Easton show the jeans on the screen here. But she has Been inundated, which is fabulous. With orders from women who are getting married or have a bachelorette party coming up and want a pair of these jeans. They are so cute. So if you're a bride, you know, a bride, you have somebody in your life getting married. If you're going on a girls trip, a honeymoon, a bachelorette party, whatever. These are so adorable. Go over and check them out. If I was getting married again, like, sometimes I tell Jason I just want a redo on, like, announcing our pregnancies and getting married, because I feel like there's so much more fun things now. I would totally have a pair of Mrs. Allwood written on the butt back when my butt was still cute and high and up in the air and all the things. Um, so go check out her Instagram With Love by Bella, if you know somebody who would be interested in jeans for the bride or the bachelorette party. Okay, next, I want to show you my favorite thing that I've read recently. So, um, don't come at me with your daggers, okay? Don't come. Don't come at me with, like, condemnation. But, uh, sometimes I don't read my Bible every day. Like, first of all, shocker. Okay? So it doesn't get read every day. I try, but sometimes I put the Bible down and pick up a book that talks about the Bible. Now, always Bible over book, right? Always learn from God himself versus an author. But sometimes it helps me to read about Scripture through the light of somebody else's eyes. Okay, so I did a podcast episode with Ruth Fernandez, um, maybe two or three years ago. It was so good. It was so good. It was on her first book, which was called Prosperity Is Not Luck, it's yous Birthright. This is called Kingdom. Wealth Is Not Luck, it's yous Birthright. Listen, you guys, it's challenging me, and I feel like I have a really good, like, money mindset. You guys have heard me talk about money mindset till I'm blue in the face. You've heard me talk about finances. You've heard me, um, talk about, like, wrong mindsets and where they come from and how it's okay to make money and how God gives us wisdom to give us. You've heard me talk about a million things, right? But this book is talking more about, like, um, almost like, if you can imagine heaven in a way, almost like, as a courtroom. And there are certain rights that we have as believers. We have birthrights, and there's certain things that we are, um, able to have. I don't Wanna say entitled to, but able to have because of who we are in Christ. And so this book is so good. It's a great reminder that we're not chasing wealth. We're not trying to pursue it out of greed. Um, but God has given us wealth to steward and, um, that we're not supposed to be playing small. Um, that when we are blessed, we're able to bless others, et cetera. If you, um, are a businesswoman, I encourage you to go get that book Kingdom. Wealth is not luck. It's your birthright. I will have Easton put the Amazon link, um, here in the show notes. Okay. All right, next, what Jason and I are watching in terms of a series. Okay, so right now, my favorite series that we're watching is called Friends and Neighbors. Let me see if I can remember what it's on. By the way, the other day I figured out we have been paying for two Paramount Pluses, which why do we need two? One we're paying for on Amazon. One we're paying Paramount plus so called and canceled. One, I'm like, how did we do that? We've also been paying for Disney. Um, Disney Plus. Like, even our kids didn't know we had a Disney plus account. I'm like, how are we just paying for these things? There's so many different streaming services anymore. Okay, um, your Friends and Neighbors, um, has. Jon Hamm is the main character. Um, it's a divorce situation, and then he becomes a burglar. Okay, so that's what Friends and Neighbors is about. And it is on. Where's it at? Friends. Hang on. Apple tv. It's on Apple tv and it's good. But that's not the actual one I want to tell you about. Okay. The one I want to tell you about is called the Madison. Okay. Have you seen it yet? It's from, um, Taylor Sheridan. I always want to call him Tyler Sheridan. Taylor Sheridan, who was the creator of Yellowstone. Okay, if you hated Yellowstone because it was too vile, too dirty, whatever, this is different. It's like, um, yes, there's language, uh, but there's not a lot of killing. I don't remember any sex. The storytelling, you guys, is incredible. Um, the scenery is beautiful. Jason and I were hooked. Well, let me say this. I was hooked more than my husband. Um, I cried, and I am not really a crier. And it was right after we had to put our dog Stella down because she had cancer. And, um, so maybe I was just feeling super sensitive. But we binge watched that thing because I wanted to, um, I Want to give you one caveat. If you are a widow or widower, um, or have recently lost someone close to you, maybe, maybe skip the Madison at this time. Okay. Um, because that is essentially what it's about. And um, it just made me like love my husband and um, just love love. I love love. I mean, who doesn't love love? Okay, let me tell you where it's at on what channel? Hang on. The Madison is on M. Mhm. Oh, also the Marshalls, which is also Tyler Sheridan, which is about Casey, um, who was on Yellowstone. He's one of the three sons or three kids. And so if you liked Casey on Yellowstone, you'll love the Marshalls. Um, it's much cleaner. So there's that. Okay. Uh, the Madison is on Paramount plus. Paramount plus. So there you have it. Loved. Um, it is there. Still cussing. There is. Um, so you know, if you're super sensitive to that, then by all means skip it. But the storyline is beautiful. Okay, so next thing. That is one of my favorite things. Shameless plug to my husband Jason at fairway finest. Okay. Now I know him biased because my husband, you know, co owns the company, but um, his polos are fantastic. So if you're listening to this next Wednesday, Father's Day is in a couple of days. You're going to have to go order them right away. Okay, go to fairwayfinders.com for one of Jason's polos. Super soft, super comfortable. Uh, I think if it's your first order, you can get a coupon that'll pop up on his. Pop up on his screen. But he has a new one, um, for the 4th of July or for Father's Day. That's my favorite right now. It's called Old Glory. I'll have Easton share it here on the screen. It's fabulous. It's just, it's striped. So if you have someone in your life that's like, ooh, I really would love to, to support Jennifer's husband, but I am not quite down with all the bold, crazy prints and colors. This one is much more like toned down if you will. Um, it's red, white, blue. It looks patriotic. Any dad would love it. So if you have a golf in your life, go to fairwayfinance.com. my husband, um, has all their polos there and that's my new favorite from him. All right, last thing I want to tell you about, favorite thing is bouchie on Miramar Beach. So Jason and I had two condos in Florida. Bougie on the beach. And Bougie on Myanmar Beach. We have sold Bougie on the beach, the smaller of our two. We have kept the larger of the two, and we sold the smaller, original one. Why did we do that? Well, um, we got to the realization that, A, we didn't need two, and B, we were only going to Bougie on Myanmar Beach. It's different than our first condo because I know a lot of you stayed at our first one. Um, it is twice the size. Okay. There's four bedrooms instead of two, three bathrooms instead of two. But there are two decks. There are two living rooms. Um, it's twice the square footage. It's actually over twice the square footage. So for our family, it's just so much nicer to be able to spread out. That's number one. Number two, it has a pool and it has a hot tub. It also has a workout room, but when I go there, I don't work out. My workout is walking on the beach. But, um, it sleeps up to 10 people instead of six, so there's that. It is perfect for girls trips, bachelorette parties, and etc. You can go to bougie on miramarbeach.com and bougie spelled B, O, U, J, E, E. I know you could spell it with a G, but because we're Jennifer and Jason, we spelled it with a J. So B, O, U, J, E, E. On Miramar Beach. So Miramar beach is centered in between Destin and Sand. Destin. It's about 30 minutes from the Destin airport. It's about 20 minutes from 30 a. So we still drive over to 30 a lot. But, um. Um, I just. I love Bougie. Miramar Beach. It's still right on the beach. There is an elevator. Because I don't know if you know this, if you stayed at our last condo, there were 99 steps. I'm not saying that, like, generalizing. I counted. There were 99 steps from our condo on the third floor to get down to the beach. That's a long way to walk when you gotta pee, guys. It just is. And that's a long way to walk. Just period. And as Jason and I are both getting older, um, I currently am in need of at least a partial, if not full, knee replacement. And my husband's had three hip surgeries in the last five years. Um, we don't feel like 99 steps anymore. And, um, we're both in what I consider really good shape for our age, but it just. It sucks. So the bigger one that we can't Bougie in Miramar beach has an elevator going up to it. Love it. So go check that out. You do get 20% off any stay in June or July if you listen to this podcast and use insta20. Um, because I'm supposed to only give that to people who follow me on Instagram, but I'm going to give it here, too. So if you use Insta 2020 for any of the remaining days open in June and July, you can get 20% off your stay. So go check that out. Anything else? I don't think so. I think that's all of my notes. I had to. I had to write down a bunch of notes because I'm like, otherwise I'm going to forget. And I didn't want to forget baby Jesus. And I didn't want to forget the thinning serum, and I didn't want to forget my favorite book and my favorite drink, but those are my favorite things. Friends, that's a lot. Do me a favor. If you have watched this on YouTube, let me know in the comments if any of these things are already one of your favorites. If you end up ordering the sandals, whatever else, I'll try to make sure all the links are in the right prices. But anyhow, this was fun. I just didn't feel like talking about business today in my head. Sometimes I'm like, man, I've already had to talk about this before, so let's talk about something kind of off the beaten path. And so I hope this was fun for you and love you so much, my friends. I hope you're having an incredible summer. If you have any questions about any of the things I mentioned, let me know. And also just let me know how you like the lemon twist. Strawberry. That's my name. Not sponsored. Not sponsored, friends. In fact, none of this is sponsored. If you order off on my Amazon links, y' all get a commission. If you order a hair product, y' all get a commission. If you stay at my condo. Yeah, I'll. I'll get. Make money off that. But, um, none of these are sponsored items. They're just all things that I'm legit loving right now. And if you haven't watched the Madison, you do. I want to hear what you think. Okay, friends, love you so much. Bye. Well, hey, thanks for joining me today on She's Equipped. And remember, growth in your business is coming from action. Action, not just intention. So I want you to take what you heard today, pray about it, and then put it to work in your business this week. And if today's episode encouraged you, please make sure you hit the follow button so you never miss a strategy that helps you to scale your business and for more resources to help you grow. Head on over to shesequipped. Com. We'll see you there.