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OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW with Victoria Odekomaya
Welcome to the OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW where you'll learn how to own and grow your brand and market your business. Every week I interview entrepreneurs and/or share branding, marketing and business tips to grow your influence, build a profitable business and make an impact.
Victoria Odekomaya is an award winning photographer, brand & marketing strategist with over a decade of experience. She is passionate about helping women fulfill their dreams and purpose effortlessly.
Click to be featured, advertise on the show or connect with Victoria: hello@thelimstudios.com
OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW with Victoria Odekomaya
Gen X Women Are Sick of This Sh*t: The Origin Story | Epi 56
"The world is a rough place. There are a lot of very sad, desperate people out there." These aren't just words—they're the reality that drove two friends to create something extraordinary when they established their Facebook group "Gen X Women Are Sick of this Shit."
What began as a mother's frustrated response to her daughter's complaints about "work-life balance" at a part-time barista job unexpectedly snowballed into a thriving community of over 450,000 women worldwide. The group's name speaks volumes, resonating with women who found themselves sandwiched between caring for aging parents and launching adult children, navigating menopause without adequate information, and seeking connection in a digitally disconnected world.
This captivating conversation reveals how these accidental community builders manage a massive online space where women discuss everything from physical changes and healthcare challenges to dating in midlife and nostalgic memories of big hair and concert tours. The stories shared range from heartwarming—like when the group reunited a woman with concert photos she'd lost in the 1980s—to deeply moving, as the moderators sometimes coordinate wellness checks for members in crisis.
Beyond just talk, they've expanded their vision to include a podcast and a paid membership platform called LILAS (Love You Like a Sis), where women can form deeper connections in a vetted environment. They're tackling subjects that previous generations kept silent, creating bridges of understanding for younger women who might otherwise be blindsided by midlife transitions.
Want to feel less alone in your experiences? Looking to connect with others who understand exactly what you're going through? Find their podcast "Gen X Women Are Sick of this Shit" on all major platforms and discover their membership community at GenXWomenPod.com, where real human connection awaits in a world increasingly dominated by artificial interaction.
//ABOUT
Victoria Odekomaya is a Nigerian American and former drug research scientist turned brand and marketing expert. Through her Creative Agency, LiMStudios, she specializes in brand photography, video creation, and strategic marketing. Victoria's mission is to empower female entrepreneurs to be SEEN, KNOWN, and HEARD, enhancing their visual presence and attracting their ideal customers to build a BANKABLE PERSONAL BRAND. Victoria's scientific background has honed her analytical thinking, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills, which she integrates into her branding strategies. Her 23-year journey to U.S. citizenship reflects the perseverance female entrepreneurs need to overcome challenges in branding and marketing. This fuels her dedication to empower women to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.
In 2022, Victoria launched the BOSS LADIES CAMPAIGN, giving participants a celebrity photoshoot experience to enhance their confidence and brand visibility. The campaign promotes these women through features in BOSS LADIES magazine, appearances on Victoria's 'OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW', and recognition at the BOSS LADIES GALA. The gala not only celebrates women but also raises funds for local non-profits, so far raising $19,000+ for Dove Recovery House for Women and PINK RIBBON CONNECTION.
For sponsorship/business inquiries, visit https://mtr.bio/limstudios or email hello@thelimstudios.com.
The world is a rough place. There are a lot of very, very sad, very desperate people out there and if we get an idea that somebody is struggling or in real desperation, then we'll take it a step further, if we have to, to try to get them some help.
Speaker 2:I think that what you guys have going is so important because even in the business space where female entrepreneurs that I work with a lot of times we are so siloed right and we think we're the only ones going through this, there's so many people out there that are going through the same thing, so how Facebook shares your group too, so it starts very local.
Speaker 1:So it sees that you know, I started the group, I invited Leslie, I invited other people who I know personally, and it kind of grows that way and you've got somebody else who invited somebody else, who invited somebody else, and suddenly you've got somebody who lives in Australia, and then it spread that way.
Speaker 1:Right, you're the only two managing all of that, so kind of right now, because Facebook is so particular about the content that goes into the group. That's kind of right now. It's the two of us. It's hard to train somebody to look for a lot of that 300,000.
Speaker 2:You guys have a second, you have a full-time job because I know you do.
Speaker 1:She's got like 11 jobs.
Speaker 2:So what are some of the most surprising things that people have shared? Hello and welcome to another episode of the Own your Brand Show. I am excited about today because, first of all, it's our first time in this new studio space and I get to share this episode with my beautiful friend, megan and Leslie. Thank you so much for joining me. I have to tell you, these ladies are super. They have superpowers. They have done something that I feel like a lot of us are trying to do, and I cannot wait to share that with you because check this out they have almost almost 500,000 people on their Facebook group like mind blown. So my thing today is like I just want to get the details of how they did that, what happened, what, how they're, you know, growing the group on and on and what are some of the things that they have in store. So, without much ado, let's just jump right into it. Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:So, first of all, what's the name of your Facebook group?
Speaker 1:So the group is Gen X. Women Are Sick of this Shit, okay, which I think is the reason why we have 453,000 people in that group. I think that's a good starting point, is a good name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think that beyond Gen X, I think a lot of us are just sick of it.
Speaker 1:And whatever shit that is Right, like we don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2:But yeah. So tell us well, first of all, how did you come up with that name?
Speaker 1:OK, so two years ago my daughter was living at home with us. She was 23 years old, she had graduated from college. She really wasn't doing much during the day, she was just kind of hanging out. She really didn't have a whole lot of friends that were local. Everybody kind of moved and done their own things. She was working as a barista part-time and she was complaining to me because she didn't want to go to work. She was just bitching about that and she's like Mom, I just need a better work-life balance.
Speaker 1:And I was like you work part-time at a coffee shop and you don't do anything anyway. So I got online, I guess, as one does, and started a Facebook group and called it that because I was sick of her shit.
Speaker 2:You were literally sick of her like a blade of a.
Speaker 3:I wish I could talk about a work-life balance with a part-time job. That would be a gift. I know right To be able to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting. So it just kind of grew up with like did you like you started the group and then, and then what?
Speaker 3:I just invited your friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just invited, like I know, I invited you. I was like OK, leslie's Gen X.
Speaker 3:She'll know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:So you know, leslie and I don't know 20 or 30 other people, and I left it open, ok, and I posted to it occasionally and other and some friends posted to it, and then it just sort of steamrolled and then then we had to take some drastic action right, like making sure that we were doing post approvals and things like that, because we just didn't want the random stuff, um, but for a long time it was open and it grew tremendously during that period. Um, yeah, so incredible. Yeah, so can you give us examples of some of the things that you are just sick of that tremendously during that period yeah, incredible.
Speaker 2:So can you give us examples of some of the things that you are just sick of that you post on this group?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh. Yeah, what do we hear the most? Menopause, menopause, dating. Yeah, dating in midlife, that's a difficult thing. That comes up a lot.
Speaker 3:Just all the physical changes, just health as we age the state of health care right now accessing adequate health care yep those are big conversations, the kind of loneliness gap huge in midlife just like if you chose to have children and those children are grown like connecting, finding relationships, but also being like the sandwich generation between having aging parents that maybe you're supporting and caring for if you chose to have children, that you might have children at home that you're still kind of taking care of, or helping launch into adulthood and kind of being sandwiched in that yeah, I think those are the major themes, and then just like nostalgia, yeah, things that people love, or miss or are excited like are coming around, like all the concert tours.
Speaker 1:Big hair, that's a big thing. Finding makeup that doesn't settle into your lines and crevices, that's another thing, people talk about that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:But connection I mean, I think that like disconnection is something that people are really kind of sad about you know and are desiring more like kind of interpersonal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kids are gone, right, Like everybody. Woke up one day and suddenly they're in their almost 50s or 50, and their kids are gone and they're looking for some sort of connection. They're like how do you make friends after 50? Right, it's really hard.
Speaker 2:So one thing that you guys said and I'm going to go back to the group in a moment, but one thing that really resonated with me. So, first of all, I'm not Gen X. Yeah, I'm not Gen X at all, but I can relate because when you talked about the changes in our bodies. I feel like that's a conversation that needs to be had, and had sooner.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Because it should start in your 30s oh my goodness or before, like if your parents raise you like your mom teaches you as she's going through this stuff. It would help you tremendously when you get to that point too.
Speaker 2:I had to call my mom one time. I said, like you know, this is I'm feeling. I thought I was going to die because I was like, what's going on with my like? It just felt, I felt strange. You know, things were just you know. And then she was like oh yeah, I remember that happened. I was like, oh man, she told You're bearing the lead mom.
Speaker 1:You know, like tell me you know.
Speaker 2:But anyway, I think that what you guys have going is so important because sometimes I'm finding that even in the business space, where you know female entrepreneurs that I work with a lot of times, you know we are so siloed right and we think we're the only ones going through this, whereas there's so many people out there that are going through the same thing. So thank you for you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and that's and that's. I, almost a year ago, went to Leslie and said okay, there are a lot of women in this group. I don't think we had that many yet, but we had a lot. I said there are so many women in this group, they are asking all these questions, they need some help. What could we do, you know? And also, wouldn't it be kind of fun to do a podcast?
Speaker 2:yes, yes, and so you have your own podcast. Tell us a little bit about that um, so that's gen x.
Speaker 1:Women are sick of this shit as well, so we paired paired the name for both um, and it's leslie and I talking about some of the stuff that happens in the group. Um, we do invite members to tell stories, so we have a fabulous session section that Leslie came up with. Yeah, you want to talk about that.
Speaker 3:Well, I think that came about because someone had shared like that they were a model for, like they'd been on the Atari box as a child.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right, that's right, so it was sort of like little things that happened to you or that you participated in, where you sort of like had five seconds of fame, but we did five minutes of fame, because sometimes they're a little bit longer. So it was like I bet we've all done something weird or met somebody famous or had like an interaction and it would be kind of fun to be able to share those and talk about them, and they're often fairly generation specific, so they touch on like nostalgia or just something that would be meaningful to people in our age group.
Speaker 3:So we people call in and they're funny. Or they send emails and we read them live on the air. Oh, that is so cool, so we try to have them like on theme, but it's like this will live forever. You're not the only one that's going to like. Have this memory Right.
Speaker 1:I never thought about that this memory, right, you know right. Oh, I never thought about that like being something we get to share.
Speaker 3:Your wacky story that maybe you never told a friend, yeah, yeah, I used to think was that big of a deal and it's like no, it brings other people joy. Yeah, it's pretty fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so cool so you started this group, you invited a few friends and then so you just woke up one day and there's like thousands of people like do you remember what that looked like when it was growing?
Speaker 1:So there was a big leap kind of in the fall, about maybe six, seven months after it launched. Yeah, it just seemed like and Facebook is weird, we all know that. Right, it's just a thing, it's a weird entity and you never quite know what that algorithm is going to do and whether people are going to see your stuff. But if it starts to get a little bit of traction, that's when you start seeing that snowball effect. And for a long time we had the group shut down so that the only people that could join it were people who were invited by other members, which is kind of a good way to do it if you want to slow your growth a little bit and make sure that you're not getting spammers.
Speaker 3:and scammers and stuff like that in there.
Speaker 1:So we did that for a while and I think that kind of helped with that. I don't know that girlfriend feeling right. If you're bringing your own friends into it and we opened that up a little bit more you still have to apply to get in. You have to answer questions. We try to be really thoughtful about those questions to make sure that we're letting real people in. Yeah, it's crazy, it's a management nightmare.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. How do you manage all that on the back end? Yep.
Speaker 1:Not very well, it's just a lot of hours. We want to make sure that all the posts that go in we're very thoughtful about those, because Facebook can be very picky, can't say anything that's going to be incited that Facebook would see as inciting violence, right right, which is a struggle when you're talking about menopausal women who might want to post about oh my God, I'm going to kill my husband.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, or just like rage or being angry, she's not going to kill her husband?
Speaker 1:Not really, and Facebook doesn't know that, so we have to be careful about that. Actually, the group can get in trouble, so we have to watch all of that and then it's kind of keep in check on some of those comments because people get fired up and keyboard warriors start fighting with each other, and Leslie's really good at trying to.
Speaker 3:Delete, delete, delete, nope, got to go. Yeah, warriors start fighting with each other and leslie's really good at trying to delete, delete, nope, gotta go. Yeah, I mean it's, but the conversation is really the people that are in the group and I would say, for the most part it's really respectful yeah I mean people are genuinely supportive so posts are typically like a combination of nostalgia and like has anybody ever had this experience? But we try to walk a really careful line with like medical advice.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, that's a trouble spot.
Speaker 3:A because there's so many groups where you can go or like whatever condition that you're experiencing, reddit is actually an amazing resource Like. There are lots of support groups on Facebook so we try to like send those out where they need to be. But you can't help but have conversations about like.
Speaker 3:I'm XYZ age and I'm experiencing this. Have you had that experience? Just like, is this normal, right? Or is there someone out here like me versus tell me what medical treatment we should have? So there's like a big, there's a line to be very careful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a line. You have to be very careful there. Yeah, there's a line that we're trying to keep in check. Yeah, yeah, and it's hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I imagine that people are from all over the country.
Speaker 3:All over the world.
Speaker 2:All over the world. Wow, okay, it's international there are.
Speaker 1:We're big in Finland, australia, sweden.
Speaker 3:We have a lot of members from Canada.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow A majority from the. Us.
Speaker 2:Lots of Australia.
Speaker 3:Because the Gen X, like shared Gen X experiences.
Speaker 1:I don't know, they do vary from country to country but there are some universals in that I think, yeah, and I think part of that, too, is how Facebook shares your group too. So it starts very local. So it sees that I started the group, I invited Leslie, I invited other people who I know personally and it kind of grows that way. And then you've got somebody else who invited somebody else, who invited somebody else, and suddenly you've got somebody who lives in Australia and then it's spread that way.
Speaker 1:So I think I'm always trying to. You know, I'm trying, I'm always trying to figure out what Meta is really doing, but I know, but it's a mystery. Like so yeah, we just kind of guessed.
Speaker 2:but so have you guys thought about doing like some group, um you know, um what do you meetups?
Speaker 1:So not with, not in that group. Um we've, we've. We do some virtual meetups with that group we have in the past, We've opened up, We've got a platform that we allow people to come in meet other people. We can do that with that group, but we've really tried to.
Speaker 3:I'll let you talk about Lylas, but we created something different for that. So off platform, we created a group called Lilas, which is love you like a sis, which for some people it was like a middle school kind of like sign off on notes. So it was definitely a Midwestern thing. I don't know if it was everywhere, but it was definitely a Midwestern thing.
Speaker 1:We were trying to come up with something that would sort of indicate what we were going for which is nostalgia, a generational connection and also just like friendships you know, building friendships or having shared experiences.
Speaker 3:So that's a paid membership platform where you're 99.9% sure that the person that you're talking to is who they say they are.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's like some safety built in, and then also people, because you're intentionally signing up for it, like you want to be there. You're not like a social media kind of observer.
Speaker 3:You're like yeah, I want to be part of this. I'm going to invest in meeting people or sharing my experience or developing. You know, it's there's. There are online relationships, but there's just a little bit more connection and depth to them, I think. And then we do a lot of things, like we have book clubs and we do trivia night and we have first Friday movies that we stream online. So there's some social connection and we get to know people.
Speaker 1:There's a little under.
Speaker 3:There's like 190 members about a hundred active at any given time. You know people kind of drop in and out. It's also just like a supporter group. So if you've benefited from the Facebook page and you're like, yeah, we want to contribute, there are people putting a lot of time into this, you can join and that helps too. That's cool.
Speaker 1:But it is off platform and not associated with Facebook or Instagram at all and we give people the opportunity in that group. If they want to do personal one-on-one meetups, they totally can.
Speaker 3:There's like a space you can join and everybody here in this space is like yes, I'm open to people in real life and we know we've already got a couple of gals that have met in real life and you know it's so fun like that's we're like. Oh, that's the plan, that's what we wanted, yeah, and you've shared, like likes and interests on there, like there's a craft space and there's photography and gardening, so you can kind of go find people that have shared interests and swap recipes or talk about relationships or dating or divorce or death and dying, all of the things that are important to us in midlife, so on a given day, how many people are active, you know in the group.
Speaker 1:Oh, in the big group that can be anywhere from about 160,000 to 80,000 to 300,000 people. Oh my God, yeah, wow, and honestly, it really depends on how, on top of it, leslie and I are for getting posts into the group right, so that there's stuff for people to engage with. That's part of it. Wait a minute.
Speaker 2:You're the only two managing all of that, you know.
Speaker 1:So kind of right now we because Facebook is so particular about the content that goes into the group, that's kind of right now it's the two of us. It's hard to train somebody to look for a lot of that stuff 300,000.
Speaker 2:You guys have a second. You have a full-time job, because I know you do. She's got like 11 jobs.
Speaker 3:But it's like it's not, as I mean, we can be pretty clear, like for a while we were just like okay, no third-party posts. Like you can't reshare something from another website. A because it can be changed later on and get the group into trouble. But it's just an easy, like we're just not doing that right now? So we try to keep stuff I think personal and like relevant.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the creator stuff you know, like the holderness family, no, the worst, so we can kind of block some of that out, the worst, so we can kind of block some of that out and then just moderate. I mean you look, people can I was going to say complain, but they can like tag posts that are problematic. So that's a pretty we're not like reading everything in there.
Speaker 1:Right, no.
Speaker 3:And then there are folks that help with the membership queue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean they kind of deal with that and that ebbs and flows, I think. That's good queue. Yeah, I mean they kind of deal with that and that absence flows, I think as far as that goes. Yeah, because I was thinking, like you do have other jobs, yeah, oh yeah, would you like to be an admin on our? Group. Oh my gosh, I don't have the time, but I am a member of the group so.
Speaker 2:So the other thing, like do you feel like there's some other people that are not quite gen x in the group?
Speaker 3:okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, but definitely all women don't know are not quite Gen X in the group oh yeah, yeah, they're definitely younger and older, but definitely all women, though no men.
Speaker 1:So there are men in the group and that part of the reason is you just on Facebook. You cannot. There's no way to block out men, like it's people could say. First of all, anybody could say that they're anything they want.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so what's kind of the point of that? I will say that if you looked at the back end and you looked at the numbers we're at, about three and a half percent say that they're men.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's not too bad, nope.
Speaker 1:So the vast majority are women, and I can look at the insights too and I could tell you that the vast majority are Gen X women as well. So there are some boomers, there are some millennials, there's the smattering of gen z, that's, you know. That's in there too and that's fine like that. The whole idea is my. My daughter is gen z. She likes gen x culture. Why the heck not? You know?
Speaker 2:she likes the same bands I do, so it makes sense for me, I think, just the knowledge that I can learn from you guys because you've lived. That's awesome experience. And, like I said my mom, I had to call her and she would tell me all those things had I known I would be more prepared, right? So just listening to some of your experiences kind of help, you know, the next generation be more prepared. That's fantastic.
Speaker 3:I love that Generational wisdom. And so the information isn't like siloed or secret or not talked about Right. It seems like, in some ways, gen x is like the first, the first generation to be like wait, you knew all of this. Like why didn't you? Why aren't we talking about this?
Speaker 1:well, we've got social media now too, so it used to be you'd have to go get a book out of the library to read on some of this stuff right now, and it's like laid bare where there's no information whatsoever.
Speaker 3:Right, right, right, yeah, um, so it, we're just being much more vocal about it, asking for help in ways that maybe didn't happen yeah certainly not my grandmother's generation yeah, so what are some of the most surprising things that people have shared?
Speaker 2:that you're like huh okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I can talk to some of the sadder stuff. There have been a few instances where we've actually had to find where that person who's posting lives, like what town they're in, and call the police to do wellness checks on folks before. So there's, you know, it is a the world is a rough place and there are a lot of very, very sad, very desperate people out there and if we get an idea that somebody is struggling or in real desperation, then we'll take it a step further, if we have to, to try to get them some help.
Speaker 2:That's amazing that you guys do that.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I can't sleep at night if we don't.
Speaker 2:So what are some of the funniest things that you've, that you've had, oh?
Speaker 1:man. Oh well, we could talk about um ann and um heidi, the oh yeah, yeah, do you want?
Speaker 3:to tell that story. That's a great story. This was like before I. This is the story you came with. There was a group member who had a role of film that she had picked up from the ground from a concert in 1980 something something when she was like a teenager and hung on to like into adulthood and got it developed at some point I don't know if it was then or later and then took the photos and posted them in a few groups trying to like, like can you help me find this person?
Speaker 3:and they found her like she had pictures lost the film yeah was identified and got her pictures back.
Speaker 1:Oh my god after like in the group yeah, in your group, in the group because within seconds I mean yeah, I think it was like six hours total that everybody was like oh, I think I recognize this person, or where was this she knew where the concert was and knew kind of like the year that it was and who the concert was, and that narrowed it down.
Speaker 3:Well, and she had pictures with band members.
Speaker 1:So this gal the film that was in the film had sought out band members from Cinderella and got pictures before the show, like just like a good groupie would Wow, and that was on that film. So this is like what?
Speaker 2:30, 40 years later or something like that 35 or something like that. Wow, that is such a good story.
Speaker 3:I thought that was pretty funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll say that Still need to get that press release out, wait true, you know Dang People share about their pets Like those.
Speaker 3:Posts are pretty amusing. There's stuff like that. Or just like going back and looking at themselves when they were younger. Like what would I tell my younger self?
Speaker 1:Like looking back at my younger self.
Speaker 3:Those posts are pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:I love the prom photos and the you know big hair and the bedrooms like photos of people's bedrooms and stuff are so great yeah.
Speaker 3:You know things that they used to wear and that kind of stuff. So that's, you know, that's kind of interesting. Or also just like social, cultural differences, like geographically. Yeah, where I was from, we would do whatever list of things, and then you know people in other areas are like ooh, I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2:That's really so those things are fun, yeah, super fun. That's interesting, Wow. So what are your plans for this group going forward?
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:What do you want to do with? It, I don't know, I mean it'll probably just stay as it is for now.
Speaker 2:I mean a lot of people are getting a lot of benefit from it, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And it's just, it's so hard for us to get word out in our own group, which is so frustrating when you have that many people in there. We'll post you know about the podcast, we'll post about Lilas, we'll post about Lilas, or we'll post about you know events or things like that that we're doing and you you know you get a few people who are like oh, I had no idea you had a podcast, like we've had it since May and we keep talking about it. But that's fine. So it's almost like we need. We need and want to keep that group going for all the reasons to help as many people as we can. But also, you know, that's sort of our from a marketing standpoint, that's our funnel right of people into our membership group too.
Speaker 3:So people would be most relevant.
Speaker 2:Right. So, speaking of that, because you know, we all know that, you know, sometimes we cannot control the algorithm and they do what they want to do. And even in your group you said that there's certain times, like even it's your group, you manage it and all the things you still can't get words out there. So, like you know, I mean I just want to ask you this question. I know you're a marketer Like what the heck?
Speaker 1:They have changed the tools. So it used to be if you owned a Facebook group, if you had a Facebook group, then your messages as the admin were seen by everybody, or you could pin them to the top and people actually would see them. So they still have the featured section. They still have. You know all of that, but nobody sees that stuff.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I actually had a conversation with somebody who works at Facebook because I got meta verified so I could talk to a human being and I explained. You know, I posted something and I put it at the top of my group and I pinned it and nobody's seeing that and he argued with me and he's like no, if you put it up there, people will see it.
Speaker 2:And I said here's the screenshot to prove. And he was like oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm like thank you, so I don't have an answer. I don't, I couldn't tell you. I have learned that if you do have a big group and you need to get messages out, I will piggyback on people's posts. So if they, if I put something in that's on a topic that I know is something we want to get out in the world, I will make the first comment on it and say, like, if somebody says I would love a list of great podcasts, I'll comment, be the first comment on there and say you know? Waves hands frantically like hey, don't forget to check ours out.
Speaker 1:You know like so and that actually seems to do better than us shouting at clouds, oh goodness.
Speaker 2:Anyway, so AI, you mentioned that. It just got me thinking. So you know, I know you guys do a good job of you know managing the people that are coming in. You know so that you know for the safety reasons, right, but with AI, and you know everything that's going to be coming in the near future, like what do you think? How is that? How do you think that's going to impact the group, if it?
Speaker 1:will. So there is an AI feature now that you can turn off and on in groups. We have ours off. It is, I think. I think that it's mostly a search feature so you could ask what's going on in the group as a member and be able to find different posts. You already have the little you know, I don't know. So that's there. I think the biggest worry is just the bots and things that are out there that you can create profiles so quickly and easily. They can look and feel really human. So it's just it's the onus now is on us as Facebook. You know admins to really be careful about what. You know what and who we're putting into the group.
Speaker 2:So I don't know, ai isn't helping at this point much, but on the other side though, how can you see AI helping? That's a good question. I'm not sure at this point that much so, but on the other side, though, how can you see ai helping?
Speaker 1:that's a good question. I'm not sure at this point that I can um in terms of facebook itself.
Speaker 3:Right like that's a tricky right, it's a tricky space. I I mean, I just like as a consumer I'm not somebody who uses facebook a lot and I would say, like as a just user I would feel more suspicious of the platform overall. Just like are these people real? Yeah, like should I believe this marketing? I think it in fact might serve to like kind of push me to like, oh, if I'm interested in something then I would go look and see if it really exists yeah, right, yeah In terms of like advertising and stuff.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, I would be like is that a real thing? Do I want to click that link? Probably not. Like, let me go see if it's a real thing. Yeah, oh well we see in the post.
Speaker 1:We see people want to post things like oh my favorite, like a Golden Girls reboot.
Speaker 3:Right, so I keep seeing this meme pop up.
Speaker 1:It's like it's Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and two or three other people right, that are the new Golden Girls. It's totally fake, that is not a real thing, it's not going to happen. But we get people who are like want to post that in the group and then we have to be the voice of reason and say that's not real. Yeah, so now we're the fact checkers. You're the fact checkers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks, on top of everything else, you're right, right yeah, but I think, with this whole ai thing on this conversation, like I think that what you're doing is even more important because people that are already feeling disconnected with you know, with ai being like all over the place now people would seek that human connection even more, you know.
Speaker 2:So I really love that your group is already giving that people that platform to just connect, and also your private group too, to be able to know that I'm really talking to a human and we can meet up and things like that. So I know you have that podcast and you have a paid group Right, and I'm just wondering, like for people that want to be a part of that, how can they be a part of it? What's the name of your paid group? Again, it's Lilas.
Speaker 1:Lilas, it's Love you Like a Sis.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's on the web. You can find it on the website.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:GenXWomenPodcom, so everything is kind of from there. I love that. Yeah, um, and then you can join. I think you can join like 30 days for free.
Speaker 2:If you just want to check it out now, do you have to be okay, sorry, sorry about that. Do you have to be a member of the facebook group?
Speaker 1:oh, no, okay, no no, we'll make reference to the facebook group in there, so that might confuse people if they're not but there's no I'm not terribly often no really.
Speaker 3:I mean like mostly when we're just venting, other people sometimes say like oh, I saw somebody talking about this today and I wanted to like have a small group basically like a smaller conversation about it, but they're pretty separate I mean even on the podcast, anymore other than like the letters that get sent in the five minutes of fame, stuff which anybody can do, that you don't have to be a part of the group to do that.
Speaker 3:Like we don't really reference the group terribly much just um which is if we do we ask it might go away tomorrow.
Speaker 1:We don't know, we don't know.
Speaker 3:Facebook is very temporary, so unless people have like specific, we often ask like hey, do you mind if we share this or that kind of thing? We try to get permission so that people feel like you know, at least they can go and listen to it. If we've shared it, we've said it on the podcast, they can come and listen to that episode and we let people know that we share their stories.
Speaker 2:Okay, so LILAS is the private group and anyone can really join. Anyone can join. Okay, then the podcast is also the same name, right, and where can we find the podcast?
Speaker 1:So Gen X Women Are Sick of this. Shit is on Apple, it's on Spotify, it's on all the directories.
Speaker 2:Nice Yep, and how often do you guys put out episodes?
Speaker 1:We're on a little tiny hiatus right now. We'll start back up with new episodes starting in February Nice.
Speaker 3:We do every other week as long as we can fit it in, that's our goal. She's got 11 jobs. We met that goal last year from the time we launched until we took our holiday break, and then we'll see how it works because, this will be the first time that we're looking at like a whole 12-minute calendar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've had people complain, though they're like where's the next episode? I've run out of episodes. I need more episodes, which is great, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to. I'm looking forward to it because I feel like, definitely, again from an educational point of view, like just pulling from your experiences, I think that everyone really should be listening to that, just to you know, and also to just kind of see, you know what was in during your time. Sorry, I shouldn't say it like that. No, no, no, I think that's true.
Speaker 3:And like it is very like we're not trying to like speak for Gen X people all over the. United States or all over the world so it is very Indiana specific, or if we happen to live other places or memories of local places like it's also very much like a local nostalgia kind of podcast.
Speaker 1:Because we can't help it.
Speaker 3:Our mall is our mall, yeah absolutely so, if some of those experiences resonate cool. You know, that's awesome and I think just like lived experience is important, I mean yeah, lots of people will write in and say, oh yeah, like when you talked about this, whatever, like going to this concert or something, when you were like 15, like I.
Speaker 2:It made me remember yeah so it is a lot of that nostalgia stuff, and I really like that you also have that five-minute fame too, because then you can kind of get other people into it and get their voices in.
Speaker 3:So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the stories are great the five minutes of it. We did an entire episode with five minutes of fame and it was just so fun. We just did all those that we had. Yeah, we read letters and played the calls and like talked about it as we were introducing them.
Speaker 3:And just it's fun to hear people say like I hadn't thought about this in years. But, you know I was waiting tables and I met Tori Amos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that one yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, and like got invited to her show.
Speaker 1:I mean, that was a real story that somebody shared, so Smoked a cigarette with Adamant. Was it Adamantant? I can't remember. Now, wow, somebody anyway. Yeah, this is so cool this is so.
Speaker 2:I am so glad you, like you, started this group, you know, and I have to say thank you to your daughter too, because she kind of started the whole thing yeah, I've had to apologize so many times for that.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry that I. You should bring her on the podcast and she's the story too.
Speaker 3:She is, she's old, so I think she's okay with it.
Speaker 2:I think she is too. I can put that on one of your episodes too. Give her some money.
Speaker 1:No, but we should. It'd be fun to have like Safi and Gillian on both. Yeah, like, bring our kiddos in. Yeah, bring our daughters in, because they're about the same age, so it would be kind of fun to do that.
Speaker 2:You know what would also be fun for them to talk about their experiences. So we kind of do like a versus yeah, you know, like Growing up with us, yeah.
Speaker 3:And what it's like. You know now. Right, like what they notice in their own generation. That could be really cool. Yeah, it could be really fun.
Speaker 1:We also talked about letting our husbands have the mics one time too.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know. See what happens there.
Speaker 3:I'm sure they have a lot to say too. I'm sure they do Comic books, comic books Sci-fi Star. Wars yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, wow, well, thank you so much for your time today. This has been so much fun. Oh, thanks, well, thank you so much for your time today. This has been so much fun. Yeah, and we can find the group the private group on your website, so make sure we have all of that listed, as well as where we can find your podcast itself, and if people want to join the group, we'll make sure that we send them all down there. But this has been so much fun. I just really enjoyed speaking to you guys and just you know like I oh, I love it.
