THE COMPLETE ORAL HISTORY OF THE CAR MOM

Welcome to the Carpool podcast with Kelly. And I got scammed. I got scammed. And I basically paid for sugar water. And I cried. I was so mad at myself. I was so embarrassed. I mean it was literally like I lit money on fire. And a lot of money. A lot of money. The money that Tyler gave me to start it. And Liz, your mom time off, starts now. Welcome back to the Carpool podcast with Kelly. Just Kelly today, you guys. My poor sister, my poor co-host, she's sick as a dog. I talked to her this morning. She sounded horrible. And I said, Liz, go lay down, go rest. I can record a solo episode. Now, how many solo episodes have I done? I feel like it's been two or three. And I've always really gone into it like with a topic, like a specific thing that I want to deep dive on. So that's kind of what I'm going to do today. I'm kind of going to break it up into two parts. The first part is I want to recap how my December has been going so far and what Christmas notes I have added to my list because I think I have some really good ones so far. And then I want to give you guys a history lesson on the history of the karma. I feel like we have a lot of new listeners. I know I have a lot of new people following me on Instagram. And we haven't really done like a proper, you know, karma at a glance, karma history lesson. And we've been going on about five and a half years of running the karma, a lot of highs, a couple of lows. And I just kind of wanted to give you the history, give you what I've learned, the mistakes that I've made. And hopefully it'll be a good conversation for anyone who's interested in social media, but also just, I don't know, anyone who feels like they're part of the journey because I really feel like the car mom is so much more than just me and it is this community. So that's my idea for today's episode. So let me get started. Well, here's the thing. And I'm also kind of like stressed today because it's my party. So I'm having a girl's night tonight at my house. By the time this episode comes out, I will be two days post party. And it is, it's like a makeup themed Rob your neighbor. I just like having a theme. So it's kind of like a favorite things party, but everyone brings like a beauty product, like your favorite beauty product. And I kind of elevate the night by, you know, kind of encouraging like a little bit dressier of a dress code, like this is, I mean, it's, you know, I was raised by Chris, you know, it's the holidays. This isn't like a pajama party. Everyone gets a little dolled up. And even though we're just coming to my house, I try to make it feel fancy. For example, we're drinking out of champagne flutes. Like I, for some reason, registered for so many champagne flutes when I got married. Like what was I doing back then? I have no idea. So we drink out of real glasses. I make flatbread pizzas for everybody. No one brings anything. I ask that's not true. I ask a couple of girls to bring dessert because that's not my specialty. But like no one is not a potluck. Like I just want to do this. So I make all these sassy flavors of flatbreads. I have wine, champagne, beer. I have some non-alcoholic options too, of course. And it's just like a three hour get together at my house. Teller takes the kids somewhere and I'm really looking forward to it tonight. So I'm going to be doing some serious party prepping after this. And I'm excited. And I've also loved, I've been seen on the Carpool Facebook page, a lot of people hosting their own little get togethers and saying that like it was because of our podcast that we encourage them to host these get togethers. And that warms my heart so much. I cannot express the importance of hosting, of gathering with people. And I know it's so much work, but be the hostess. You don't even have to be the hostess with the most is just be a hostess set people's expectations up. That's one of my biggest hosting tips. If you're worried about how to extend the olive branch or how to host something, I would just be super transparent in your invitation. So for example, I sent out a proper invitation for this party. So people kind of know it's supposed to be a little fancier, but you could also just say, hey, do you want to come over tonight? I'm going to make some flatbreads, bring the kids over. Let's have a little holiday party. I've loved, loved, loved seeing you guys get together. It's so important, especially in this time of like AI and social media. And I think it's so important for our kids to see two of us just gathering as friends as community. So good job, everybody for hosting. I'm so proud of you. And it's not too late to host get something on the calendar for the new year. If you haven't planned a party yet. Okay, so back to my Christmas notes, let me tell you, so we're it's December 15th at the time of this recording. And I have been making just notes about how I can improve the Christmas season. I don't have a ton of like notes because I've got only had we haven't even had Christmas yet, but here are some of the the hot and here's some of the things I've done right and wrong so far. So first thing is I made a huge mistake and I did not put my return address on my Christmas cards. So I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't do that. I also didn't spend enough time in my address book prior to printing my Christmas cards. I obviously I have to print my Christmas cards early because I always work with minted, which I love their Christmas cards, but like I have to let it get my order in in like October. And I was kind of rushed this year. So I didn't just spend time in my address book. So I put a note on here to just before I order, spend 20 minutes reviewing my address book. Is there anyone I need to add? Is there anyone I know who's moved who I want to like text them real quick and get their updated address? I didn't do that. I got some bounce backs. I like had addresses I didn't add them. It was it was a mess. I definitely flopped that. So I put spend some time in the address book and then also make sure you put your return address on there. That was silly. Okay, another thing that I did this year kind of accidentally, but it's worked out really well is I bought Fred a red long sleeve gap pocket T. I got it at like a resale shop or something. And I just put my note in here to make sure I get the boys playing red shirts or playing green shirts that are that are nice enough that they could like wear it to a casual holiday gathering like maybe even church, like a nice pocket T and nice Henley. That's just a plain color because it's been very easy to like throw together with the girls outfits to keep everybody coordinated but to have the boys in a just a solid color. So that was a very little thing I did. But I'm telling you Fred is wore the snot out of this red nice long sleep shirt because then it goes so easy. Like then I can put George in a plaid, haddy in a pattern, Libby in something plain and just kind of all works really well. I also love coordinating my kids outfits, which I know is like me being crazy, but that just gap T has helped a lot. So that's that's a note that I wrote down. I also did write the note that I said I need to get all of the kids one fun festive shirt to wear. I Fred and Libby both had things because they had leftover from George and haddy. I just kind of like goofed, I guess this year and didn't buy George and haddy a festive holiday shirt. And there had been times when we were like going like for example this weekend, we went to go make gingerbread houses at my aunt's house and I would have loved to have put them in a Christmas shirt and like George doesn't have a Christmas shirt. Like I don't know what I was doing. So I wrote that down on my notes. I'm going to review these notes like in November and then I will know just to make sure I order every kid a Christmas shirt doesn't have to match. It's enough to coordinate. This is just like a fun shirt for them. And so I thought it was an important note to make. And then the last thing I put on here is ham and cheese crescent rolls are great for quick filling dinners between events. So is chicken noodle soup. So I wrote this one down because we had a really busy like holiday weekend. We had a Christmas party on Friday, breakfast with Santa on Saturday, and then we had gingerbread making on Sunday. And we were running, running, running and my kids were eating so much freaking sugar. And you know, then you come home and I feel like you're scrambling and you're just like dying to get something nutritious in these children, nutritious and filling in hot preferably. And I had ham and cheese crescent rolls, which is literally just a crescent roll with ham and cheese rolled up into it. Like that's all that it is. You just bake it till it looks done. I don't know. But it's such a good filling meal and it's hot. It has protein in it. The kids love it. So I just made a note to myself to just always have that on hand. Like those are all things that can live in the fridge for a couple of weeks. It's so easy to throw together for a lunch or an early dinner, especially on the weekends. And then I also wrote chicken noodle soup down. Now kind of same sentiment. This is just like a really yummy vegetable, full meal that is great for the kids after just basically like, you know, having so much sugar cookies. So I also plan to make a big pot of chicken noodle soup for the week of Christmas. Stick it in the fridge. It's easy to heat up. I can have the ham and cheese crescent rolls if I want to like make it more of a meal. But just having those two things on hand, homemade chicken noodle soup in the fridge for the week of Christmas and those three ingredients for the crescent rolls, you'll always have dinner. You'll always have a filling semi healthy dinner. So that's another note that I wrote down. So I'm looking forward to the holiday season for Christmas season. I need to get to wrapping. I need to get to wrapping. But I'm very excited. The kids, the kids last week of school, they're off on Friday. And oh, I'm doing a fun little game. If you need the last minute game, I'm doing candy cane fishing. So basically you get candy canes and you stick it in a cardboard box, and then you get a stick and you tie another candy cane to it. And then the kids have to like you tie the other candy cane to look like a hook. And then you can fish for candy canes. So I went to five below. I got like the junkiest candy canes I could find like air head flavor, skittle flavor, nerds flavor, like disgusting, but good for the kids. And then I'm like just took a little cardboard Amazon box, stuck them in there, and then the kids can fish them out. So that's like my room mom game, which it was pretty like low effort, but I feel like it's going to be a high impact. I'm hoping the kids like it. I'm bringing it to Hattie's class on Wednesday, and then I'm doing Georgia's class on Friday. If I want to make it harder for Georgia's class, I saw that instead of doing the stick, you could just like tie it around their waist and then they have to like bend down like kind of like squat down to try to fish the candy cane. That's kind of sounds weird. I don't know. But I might try that if I feel like it's too easy for Hattie's class or I feel like it'd be too easy for Georgia's class. So that's a little bit about what my December's been up to. So we're busy as can be, but life is great. And those are just some of the holiday updates that I had. Today's episode is brought to you by Quince. These days, I'm all about quality over quantity. You guys know I am decluttering my house. And so if things in my closet are not well made and versatile, they're not worth it to me. I'm getting rid of them. And that's why I love Quince. The fabrics feel elevated, the cuts are thoughtful, and the pricing actually makes sense. Quince makes high quality wardrobe staples using premium fabrics like 100% European linen, 100% silk and organic cotton poplin. Lightweight cotton cashmere sweater is perfect for the changing seasons and can't miss seasonal colors and prints for spring. First tile, well made pieces that make getting dressed simple. Did you also know that Quince sells kids clothes and like home goods? I just got some of these linen blackout curtains for my bedroom. And they're wonderful. They are great quality, really thick, willy, willy, rail made, and they look amazing. Quince is always my go to when I need really anything. I go to see if it's available on Quince first because you're going to get the best price and the best quality. So right now, go to quince.com slash carpool for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to qince.com slash carpool for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash carpool. Today's episode is brought to you by Alma. Where do you want to be a year from now? Who do you want to be? And maybe more importantly, who's on your team helping you get there? Because the right therapist, someone who makes you feel comfortable, challenges you in the right ways, and has the clinical skills to support you can make a huge difference. That's why I tell you about Alma Alma's on a mission to simplify access to high quality, affordable mental health care. And they've built a nationwide network of over 20,000 diverse therapists. What's great about their platform is it's easy to find someone who fits your needs. You can browse their therapist directory without even having to make an account and you can filter things like insurance, gender, and therapeutic approach and more. And affordability matters 99% of Alma therapists, except in insurance. And people who find a therapist through Alma, save an average of 80% on the cost of sessions. They even have a free insurance cost estimator. So you would know exactly what you'll pay up front. A year from today isn't that far away. Get started now at hello Alma dot com slash carpool. That's hello Alma, a l m a dot com slash carpool. C a r p o o l. Okay, so now I want to get into, I guess, just like the history of the car mom. And maybe some of you guys won't care about this, but I haven't covered this story in a long time. So here you go. I'm just gonna start from the beginning. So when I was pregnant with Hattie, I was working at the dealership. And I wasn't selling cars anymore, because I couldn't do the hours with truthfully just daycare. And George was young because George and had only 16 months apart. So George was a baby, basically still. I was newly pregnant with Hattie. And I was doing direct mail and BDC work at the dealership. So basically, I was helping answer internet leads, and then I was sending out direct mail pieces. So it's called Mining for Customers. I would look up customers who bought a car three years ago. I'd pull their addresses. I'd put together a mailer being like, Hey, it's been three years. Do you want to come in and buy a new car? And I didn't love the work because I just didn't find it to be very fulfilling. I wasn't making the money I was when I was selling cars. And our expenses were going up and up because then you have one kid in daycare, I'm working part time, and then I'm looking at the price of two kids in daycare. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, this is not going to pencil. And my mom was a stay at home mom. So I just kind of always assumed I would stay at home eventually. But once I started kind of facing that reality, I was a little less excited about it because I really did just love selling cars. And I remember just like being so sad that like I couldn't sell cars anymore. And I felt like it was something I was so good at so passionate about. But then of course, I was also so passionate about being a mom, I always wanted to be a mom. And I always wanted to have a lot of kids. So I remember just sitting with Tyler one evening and I was really frustrated with myself because I feel like I just wasn't hacking, hacking it like I, I've just always been a very high, I guess you could say the word high achiever, like I was senior class president in high school, I was on the president's board in my college, I was held held in an exec position in my sorority, all four years in college, like I've just always done a lot. And I now I was thinking about like, Okay, so now I'm going to just stay home with the kids and not work and not do anything. And I don't know that there's anything wrong with that, but it was just feeling like such a juxtaposition from who I was. And I was mad because like I was good at it, like I was going to leave a job I was good at, because it didn't work with motherhood. And Tyler's always just been like, the best husband, like seriously, he's, he is so supportive. And he's always encouraged me to, to treat the car mom like a business. So it was actually the car was actually his idea, or he inspired the idea. Because I was talking to him one night and I was getting a little emotional. And I'm like, I just can't believe I can't figure it out. Like, I've just always been able to figure it out. And now I feel so lost. And Tyler goes, Kelly, why don't you just focus on the moms? He's like, just try to sell cars to moms. Why don't you talk to your dad and see if you can, you know, work an untraditional sales role, and just be the mom in St. Louis who sells cars, like sell to other moms, only work by appointment. And I was like, that's kind of a good idea. Like I could just be the mom who sells cars. And I kind of had like these visions in my head. And really, as soon as he said the idea, I knew it was going to be huge, which sounds so crazy, but it's almost like God just like kind of like laid out the entire vision for the car mom. And I was like, Tyler, that is an excellent idea. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. I literally called Elizabeth that night. And I said, Liz, I think I'm going to start reviewing cars for moms on social media, like be a just post on Instagram, like post the cars that are at the dealership, I'll sell some cars, I'll just become a YouTuber, like a car reviewer. And she was like, that's an amazing idea. So we both just like knew that it was a good idea, which, which made it really fun. And people always ask me, like, did you ever think it would gonna was gonna blow up this big? And I, I hate to sound overly confident, but the answer is yes, like, yes, I thought that it could be this big. And I think that it's actually one of the reasons why it got so big, because we treated it like a business from day one, like this was, you know, you could, I guess, like, I kind of, it kind of started off like feeling like a passion project. But like, we just all knew me, Tyler and Liz, it was going to be more than that. So every move we made was to make it what it is today. Now, we didn't know exactly how it was going to look, but we knew it was a good idea. So I kind of sat with the idea for like a day, but I'm not one to really sit with things. And I guess I thought like I was going to have to do it on YouTube, because like that's where the other car reviewers were. But I, at this point, like Liz was working full time at another job. So she wasn't working for the car mom yet. She was just more like supporting me from the distance, she was living in Dallas at the time. And I was like, Okay, well, all the other car reviewers are on YouTube. So like, I guess I just have to figure out how to be on YouTube. But YouTube was such felt like such an undertaking because it was so it wasn't on the go. It was like, Do I need a professional camera? Do I need an editing software? How do I monetize on YouTube? Like I had no idea what I was doing. So I remember one night I was like rocking George's sleep scrolling Instagram. And I'm like, Well, all the moms are on Instagram, like all the moms are doing exactly what I'm doing right now, scrolling their phone on Instagram while rocking their baby. So I'm just going to do I'm just going to do it where where my audience is. And that's on Instagram. So the very next day I was at the dealership. I for some reason, just knew I was going to call it the car mom. I secured the handle and then I went live. And I said, Hi, I'm Kelly, SunTrip Stumpy. And this is the car mom. I've been in the auto industry a couple of years, and I'm going to start reviewing cars for moms. And that was it. And I just hit send. And literally, that was how the page started. I like made a logo on Canva. And then I started reviewing cars. And, you know, I was very, I think like one of my biggest privileges, I'll say, is I had a lot of resources, like I was a mom, obviously, I had sold cars for several years. And I had access to five used car lots, five car lots with a ton of used cars. If you don't know, my family owns car dealerships. I don't know if I said that earlier. So I, in a way, was like the boss's daughter. And like, I could just like roll into any dealership and be like, Hey, I need the keys to that, you know, use Pacifica, you just got in. So I had such a wide net of cars that I could pull from, which I think has really helped obviously with my success because the other car reviewers, it's very hard to get started car reviewing because you don't really, the manufacturers aren't going to send you cars until like you have an audience. And you don't really like get an audience until you have enough cars reviewed. And then even when you get cars from the manufacturers, I'm sure that those reviewers feel like they can't necessarily be as harsh as maybe they would like to be on some of the cars. I don't know. I'm just kind of speculating, but I do not rely on the manufacturers to get me cars. They send me cars. But if I never got another press car in my life, like you guys wouldn't even notice because I can just access all of the dealerships cars. And my dad has always been so supportive. And, you know, he's really, he's really never given me pushback. I think there's a level of like my dad just doesn't totally understand it. And my dad's also smart enough to know like what he needs to understand and what he doesn't need to understand. So he knows that I review cars really critically and some of the, some are cars that he owns, like some are brands of cars that he owns, but he's never one time asked me to tone it down or asked me to not do that. He doesn't really care, to be honest with you. So anyway, I say that where it's just, it was very easy for me to start doing a lot of cars. And I had an old car seat, like an old disgusting grade code that was like expired. And I just started putting it in the car. And for lack of other words, I just kind of started talking out of my ASS. Like I really had no idea what I was talking about, especially in terms of the car seats. And I quickly got lit up like a Christmas tree on social media, which I was grateful for, because I was wrong for what I was doing. And I was just saying like, Oh, this one doesn't fit a car seat. This one can't fit three across. And I was showing like three of the biggest car seats possible. Like I was being stupid. So once I realized how unequipped I was to talk about the car seats, I kind of dialed that back for a while. And I just started focusing on the cars and car buying tips that really seemed to resonate well with my audience. And it was actually something that I was at the time probably more passionate about, because I didn't really know a ton about cars as crazy as it sounds when it got, when I got started, I had sold cars, but like I sold BMW. So like, what did I know about the used Ford Explorer that was on the lot? Like not much. I just kind of like showed it from a mom's perspective. Like I just showed it like, like I was, I mean, a regular person, for lack of better words. But I also think that's kind of one of the reasons why my review started to resonate with people. Because I didn't take it that seriously. And I wanted my reviews to be fun and engaging enough. And I remember kind of like the motto or the motto I came up with, or like the style of my content is I would tell people, I want to feel like I'm your girlfriend, you're taking car shopping. Like this is not that deep. Like I'm just like, I wanted to be like, I don't know girl, trunk looks a little small. What do you think? And I was just trying to get people like a first look at a car. Oh, I should also mention this was like Pete COVID. Like I was doing this in June of 2020. So like it was, it was COVID times. So people weren't really going to the dealerships. Or they didn't really feel comfortable doing it. So I was like, I'm just going to show them the cars. Like I can go to the dealership, I can grab the keys and I can just show people what cars look like. So I started posting pretty consistently, very consistently every day. And I remember when I wanted to first start growing my social media, I would do a lot of trolling. And here's what I mean by that. Any Facebook group I could find that would take my post, I would post it and I would try to get sneaky with that. So like for example, I'd go to like Peloton Moms on a Facebook group and be like, Hey guys, like admin delete if not allowed, but I'm starting an Instagram about reviewing cars for moms. Like what are your favorite mom features? And I would say it to ask a question rather than just say, go follow me because if you said go follow me, they would delete you. So I would ask a question and then at the end I'd be like, Hey, by the way, I'm starting this account. Here it is. And that honestly, for what it was that worked really, really well. Because I remember I would like post like on, I would try to post like two or three a day of like literally any Facebook group I'd get my hands on like, you know, moms of May 2020 babies. I did it on, you know, my sorority page, my high school page, any page that would take my post. And I remember I would like go to bed and every night I would log in the next morning, I'd be like, Oh my gosh, I got 15 new followers. One time in one night when after posting on a Facebook group, I got like 300 followers and I couldn't believe it. So that was one of the ways I tried to grow in the beginning. And then I would also, I would follow every, I'd follow so many accounts, so many car accounts and then some of the big influencer accounts. And I would comment on every post, Hey, my name's, Hey, I'm review cars for moms and families. Check out my page. And I was so grateful at that moment that I had made my handle the car mom because it said what I did. You know, if it just would have said like Kelly Stumpy, it wouldn't have been maybe as catching people's eyes, but I'm so grateful I have the handle the car mom and I have a story on that after because if I went on Mercedes post and said, Hey, follow me for, you know, car tours for moms, I would literally do that for, I would do that for hours on my phone, just like comment on every single page. And I think that kind of helped me grow. And you know, one of the biggest pieces of social media advice I give people is like social media is social. So if you want to grow on social media, how about you start by being social? How about you start by making connections and commenting on other creators and not even comment to do promotions? Like that was honestly kind of shady that I was doing that comment to engage people will see the comments. And then now you can do like say something funny, say, or say something funny to the comment or add value because people read the comments more. I feel like a lot more than they even used to. Anyway, so that helps me get a lot of followers too. So once this all started, I remember like again, I knew it was a good idea. So as soon as I had the idea, I was like, we got to get this thing trademarked. And I, you know, between the trademarking and then thinking about getting on YouTube and thinking about the cost of a microphone, like I go back to Tyler and I'm like, Tyler, it's going to be like $1,200 to get this thing trademarked. Like the camera I won is like $800. Like I just, we had no, we didn't have the money. I was like, I don't think we can, I just, I don't know. I just like feel like this isn't really going to work. And this is so cute. But the next day he came back and he handed me a debit card and he had put $5,000 on it. And we, like, I didn't even know we had $5,000. And I really don't know where he got the money from, but he gave me the money. And he was like, I really believe in you and I believe in this. And he's like, and I want you to, I want you to take it to the moon. So we opened up a bank account handing me the debit card. I bought a camera for $895. I bought a mic for $100 and something dollars. And I went to go get it trademarked, reached out to a trademark lawyer. And a couple of weeks later, I got something in the mail that said like, hey, send your, send this $2,000 check here to get the car on trademarked. And I was like, okay, perfect. It had my logo on it. It had my name on it. It had the classes we were filing for. I sent the check in. I don't hear anything. I reached out to my trademark lawyer and they were like, what did you pay? And I got scammed. I got scammed. And I basically paid for sugar water. And I cried. I was so mad at myself. I was so embarrassed. I had, I mean, it was literally like, I lit money on fire and a lot of money, a lot of money, the money that Taylor gave me to start it. And I was so mad at myself. And it was such an expensive lesson to learn. But I guess if you, I guess once your lawyers start trademarking something like that becomes public, and then they, scammers will just send it to you in the mail. And I mean, scams are like so, like scams are so out of control, like even more so today. But that was definitely a low. And I was like, shoot, like I messed up. Borrowed the money from my dad to pay for the proper trademark and yeah, that was, that was a crazy time. So anyway, now we start. So I'm still pregnant with Hattie during all of this. And I was still working at the dealership doing the car mom, like, on my lunch break, like going out there and like trying to like find one car to make content with. And I had no idea how I was going to monetize it. So this was, so I started this in June. Hattie was due in October. And I said, I need to try to get 10,000 followers by October because one, you'd get, because at 10,000, you used to get the swipe up, which like was everything back in 2020 on Instagram. And I was like, if I can get the swipe up, I can monetize. I can monetize if I can get the swipe up. So I was like, by the time Hattie's born, I need to be at 10,000. So I can quit my job. And I worked honestly super hard. Like I spent a lot of time recording content, filming, for filming content, editing content. I was still doing it all myself. Liz wasn't working for me yet. And when Hattie was born, I had 14,000 followers. So I had made it. Thanks to like some small to medium sized accounts shouting me out, like Amy Beth Campbell, she had like 8,000 followers and she was car shopping and she was so generous with her shout outs. And like that helped a lot. And yeah, that was, that was crazy. So Hattie was born and I said, okay, I think I can do this, but like it's still going to take a lot of time. I still had no idea how I was really going to monetize it. But my first idea was to kind of come out with like a car buying workbook. Back in 2020, when I was doing this, like courses were all the rage. Like everyone had a course. Everyone had a course, people were over coursing it. They had a course on how to have a course. They had a course on how to wake up in the morning. They had a, like everyone had a course. But I didn't feel like I had the bandwidth to record a course at the moment. So I said, I'm just going to do like a workbook, like a car shopping workbook. It will be a PDF download. And that came out in January. So I had worked on that from basically October to January, worked on this workbook. And I was really proud of it. I feel like now looking back on it, it wasn't anything that groundbreaking. But at the time, like I really, I felt like I was like sharing all of my tips. And it was just, PDF downloads were also a really cool thing back then. It's crazy how much it's changed just in like five years. So anyway, we decided to launch this workbook. And in the first day we launched it, we sold like 800. And I was selling it for, do we sell like 800? It was a lot. It was a couple hundred. I think it was like 800. And we sold it for $10. And I was like, Oh my gosh. Oh my freaking gosh. I couldn't believe it. But that was January that launched. So from June to January, I didn't make a send. And that's what I tell people about social media when they like want to get started. They're like, well, you know, is it going to make money? And I'm like, I don't know. I didn't make any money for six months. Literally, I was negative. I was in the negatives for six months. And I don't think everyone needs to do that way. Just don't mess up on the trademark thing. And not everyone needs to invest in a camera like I had to. But that was when I was like, Oh my goodness, like this is insane. And I was so grateful for my community at the time because people were buying it just to support me. They were like, Hey, I bought a car last month, but I just, I, you were so helpful. And I was looking for a way to support you. So I went ahead and bought the workbook. And that was just insane. So at this time, I probably had 60 ish thousand followers because I remember in March of 21, I hit 100,000. So I started in June of 20 by March of 21, I was at 100,000. So from October to January, I grew a lot after had he was born actually, which I'd have to look back on my feed to see like what I was posting because I definitely like still took a maternity leave. So I don't really know how I blew up so much. I guess I guess I would have had to have gotten some shout outs or something. I'm not sure. I don't remember. And also during this time, my manager reached out to me and it was like the tech that like totally changed my life because I used to have my phone number in my Instagram bio. This was when I had like, you know, 10,000 followers. And I was like, Sure, if someone wants to text me, like, I'll help someone buy a car. I was also still kind of using the car mom to try to sell cars at this point, especially the St. Louis moms. So I got a text from this person and it said, Hi, my name is Austin. And in parentheses, she put girl. So I knew it was a girl named Austin and she goes, she's like, I manage micro influencers and I'm trying to get this thing started. I think your content's amazing. Can we hop on a call? And I was like, Oh, I've heard of this. I've heard of managers before, but I was so hesitant because I was, I didn't want to like give up a percentage of the car mom. And I'm like, that's crazy. Like, I so believe in this. I was like, I'm not giving anyone a percentage of anything. But I took the call with her and it was like the first person who outside of like Tyler and Liz, who I felt like understood what we were doing. Because in the beginning, we got like our fair amount of like hate or like people making fun of our content. And she like saw exactly what we're doing. She's like, you're going to be big. And I'm like, I know I'm going to be big. Like, I think I'm going to be big too. And she's like, I love women who are, you know, not your typical influencers. Like, and this is no shade to them, but like, not the fashion bloggers, not the mommy blogger, like you are disrupting industry and I want to be a part of it. She was small. She was small. She didn't have, I was her biggest account at the time. And I think I'm still one of her biggest accounts. And I've been with her since then. So she really changed my life because that's when I started to get brand deals, which was not very easy in the beginning because I wasn't your typical influencer. And the auto industry was so behind on influencer marketing. Like, they had no idea what was going on. Like, we couldn't get, we didn't get our first, I'd have to look back, but like, I don't think we got our first like auto sponsorship for like a year or two in, because like they were so not on the pulse. My first sponsorship I ever did was with chatbooks, which I am still a chatbooks customer today. And I did a story set, I think for $200. And I couldn't believe it and product and product, which was like so exciting. So that was really fun. And then that's really, that really started to take us to the next level in terms of like getting more income and making it a full time thing for me, because the workbook sales like we're so big, but it was like that one drop and then it significantly petered out. Like we had that one big drop and then it was, you know, we'd sell, you know, like maybe 20 or 30 a month. So it was still good, like supplemental income, passive income, but it wasn't, it wasn't going to be sustainable. But once Austin started, once I got Austin, things really started to pick up and I continued to grow a lot. And then so in March, I hit 100,000. And then in April, Elizabeth quit her job and came to work for me full time. And Elizabeth's story is kind of fun too, because Elizabeth had a huge background in video editing. So Elizabeth got her, Elizabeth got a degree at Bradley University in television arts. And she was the kind of, she was just like the girl in high school who like was always editing videos. Like if you needed a video made back in 2012, like it was Elizabeth who did it. Like she just was good. She had her little final cut pro on her little MacBook and like she was just a video editor. So she was working a job she hated. She was living in Dallas and she had started like doing some stuff like part time for me, like helping me just like edit things. And I was calling her all the time and always bouncing ideas off of her. And then eventually I was like, Liz, let's just, just quit your job. Like just quit your job and come like, let's just do this. Let's just, let's go full send on the car mom together. And I remember us being so, I guess people was asking me if like I was embarrassed. And I think I, I think there was a level of me that was a little embarrassed. But I just believed in it so much. Like I just let myself kind of be a little uncomfortable with it. And I think Elizabeth kind of felt the same thing, but I was like, it's so much more fun. Like we just have to take a chance on this. And again, we, I mean, we, we, I can't express you how like we didn't, we weren't making a lot of money at this time. Certainly not enough to pay for two of us to work there. But we believed in it enough and we knew if we could get monetized on YouTube, things would really start to pick up or at least be more consistent. YouTube monetization was very difficult because I remember you need a thousand subscribers, which we hit pretty easy, but you need 400 watched hours to get monetized on YouTube. And the 400 watch, or maybe it was 4,000, I think it had to be 4,000 for the 4,000 watched hours took forever. We were posting like one to two videos a week, because that was the only bandwidth we could do at the time. And, you know, we'd be like, okay, we hit 40 hours that day. Okay, great. Like, which was actually crazy when you think about it, because our tours were only like 15 minutes long, and we were getting like 40 hours worth of people watching it. So the 4,000 watched hours took a while. We finally did it. We got monetized. We couldn't freaking believe it, you guys. We could not believe it. We would log on every day and check what we made off YouTube the next day. And it was anywhere from like $40 some days, most days it was like $40 to $60. And like, that was insane to us. Like $40 a month off of our YouTube tours, $40 a day off of our YouTube tours, we're like, that's like $1,200 a month. Like, that's insane. And then whenever we would drop a tour, our views would go up a lot. And it was a hot tour, we would like freak out. I'll never forget we dropped a Lexus GX or LX, I think it was the Lexus LX570. And it was a $500 day on YouTube. And we couldn't believe it. We were like, oh my gosh, we made $500 yesterday off of our YouTube video. And that was insane. Now, we would have like one or two of those a month, and it was like when we dropped the hot tour. So again, it still wasn't like totally ripping, but YouTube got consistent. Austin got a little more consistent. We had our digital products. And we also just really worked on continuing to grow. And it's just been such, such a wild ride. And it's been so fun. And I feel so blessed to do it with my sister. And I feel so blessed to do it with all of you guys because I really just felt like we were doing it to change the auto industry. And the more I started reviewing the cars, the more like fired up I got about it, to be honest with you, because it was like, these cars suck. These cars suck. No one's thinking about famoism, they're making these cars. And I just couldn't believe how these things were getting like, swooped under the rug. And I would say that April, like once, once a little started working for me, I was like, okay, I need to go get CPST certified because like, I don't, I took a lot of weight and pressure in what it meant to be reviewing these cars. And I was like, if I'm going to be influencing these, these purchases, like I have to know what I'm talking about. Like I have to know what I'm talking about. It's too serious of a matter to like be making, to be talking on my butt, for lack of better words. So I got my CPST certification. And let me tell you something, I could not believe how little I learned. And that's like such a hot take, but I was like, okay, well, that didn't really help much because do I know how to install a car seat? Sure. Do I know how to fit three across? Do I know what seatbelt overlap means? Do I know what head route? Like it wasn't, and I hate to like crap on the program, but like it just felt, I think for some people it was helpful. But for me, I basically like should have already been certified because I was already installing these car seats. And I was like, this just was, this wasn't enough. So I got the certification and then I still continued to like deep dive into like so many other like components that go along with car seats and safety. And I've met a lot of great CPSTs along the way. And now I have Sam who works for the car mom. And I'm always so transparent with like, I am not, I'm not really not, I'm not the world's best CPST, but I think Sam is one of the world's best CPSTs. And I love surrounding myself with women who are smarter than me in those capacities. Because it's just, it's, I just don't mind relying on other people. And that's how a lot of my team has been built around. Like, I think we have a team of what do we have a team of six now, and every person is smarter than me in their field. And like, that's exactly what I want. And I have no qualms with just hiring better talent. And that's where I love like having moms work for me. Because I think like they're just corporate America's most underutilized resources, because these women who are for me are so brilliant. And they should like just, they're so brilliant. And like, they choose to work for the car mom, because we offer a flexible schedule because like, we're all moms doing it. And I just, I can't believe how smart they are. And I'm just, I'm so blessed with like such the best team. I have Stephanie, who works on my website, is so smart. And she really has ramped up our website and our affiliates in a major way. Matney is like the best assistant I could ever ask for. She is the kind of assistant who like thinks before I even think, do you know what I mean? Like she's just so great. And she's got great customer service skills, which was also important to us. And I just can't believe how how excited I am about how far we've come, but also like how far we're going to continue to go. And yeah, it's just been, it's been a really wild ride. And I'm really so grateful for all of you. And I can feel like it's been so fun to feel the shift in the auto industry. And like, if I think about like some career highlights I've had, like getting to speak at NADA, which is the National Automotive Dealers Association, it was a top, I've spoken now there two times. And it was an incredible experience, because I'm talking to dealers about how to make the carbine experience better for women. Like, okay, like it's giving mission statement. Like that's exactly what I wanted to do. And like I'm actually in the room, getting to work with some of these manufacturers. Not like, I've never like consulted with a manufacturer, but like when GM flew me out there to show me that they put head restraints in their, in their cars, like pinch me moment, interviewing the CEO of General Motors, pinch me moment. I recently got to go on a trip with Ford where they, I guess we kind of consulted a little bit on like future products, pinch me moment. So it's just been, it's been so incredible. And I'm so excited to like get this website out and just really take the car mom to the next level. And I think like my long term vision for it is I want to, I want to eventually like the car mom needs to be more than just my opinion. It needs to be a lot of mom's opinions. That's something that's super important to me. Because one, like I'm, one mom, I have got one combination of kids. I don't have older kids yet. I'm not going to have younger kids forever. So I want to make sure that we're always hearing that you're always able to hear from a mom that looks like you. And that's what I think the new website's going to allow us to do. And it's going to take, like I want the car mom to be the car mom and I want to be Kelly Stumpy, who runs the car mom, but I don't necessarily want to be the car mom. If that makes sense, like I want us to be the car mom, like we're all the car mom. The car mom is the car moms. I probably need to change it to the car moms eventually, but for now we'll just do the car mom. Oh, that's another fun thing. So when I first, when I picked the name, I couldn't get the car mom.com. It was unavailable. But I had already done the trademark thing, because I didn't know I needed a website at the time. So I got the car mom official. Well, then a couple years later, I had the opportunity to buy the car mom. And I bought it. What did I buy it for? It wasn't that much money for what it was. Like I would have paid way more. I think I bought it for $1,200 the car mom.com. And then just this past week, car mom.com became available. And so my name is the car mom, but I was like, what do people just type in car mom? Like it should go to my website. So I also bought that domain, which I paid a little bit, I paid a lot more for, but I felt like that was important to have those domains. So now I own car mom, the car mom, and the car mom official. They'll all take you to my website. And when our redesigned website comes out, that's when I'm really going to rely on a lot of you guys to go there and review the cars. It can be the car you have, the car you test drove, but didn't buy your husband's car, your mom's car, it doesn't matter. I want it to feel like rent the runway, but for cars, like I want it to be everyone's opinions on there. And my reviews will start being a little bit more like data-based and just more informational. And like your reviews will be more of the opinions, which is what I want. So that's a little bit about the car mom. And that felt really good to recap that. Trying to think if there's any other like crazy highs, crazy lows. It's been, I mean, it's been, it's been pretty consistent growth. Hitting 100,000 on YouTube was so exciting. I'll never forget that. We got the plaque, which like George thinks is the coolest thing in the world that his mom has a YouTube plaque. Like it's so fun. Starting the podcast was a huge endeavor that we've so enjoyed. And it's one of my favorite platforms to make content on. I love the podcast. I love all of you guys so much. You have no idea. And I mean, yeah, it's changed a lot. Like, you know, what worked in 2020, 2021 does not work in 2025. And I think that's kind of what makes social media so exciting is that it's just always changing. So yeah, all right, guys, well, that's this episode. So that was kind of fun. I hope you guys enjoyed this specialty edition of the history of the car mom. And we will be back on Friday, back with Elizabeth for a regular, regular episode. So thank you guys so much for listening to the Carpool podcast and I will talk to you next time. Love you. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Carpool podcast with Kelly and Liz. Make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoyed riding with us, tell everybody you know, there's room in the car for everyone.