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Aging Like a Fine Wine - The Tod Hallman Interview
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May 14, 2024
On this episode, Mel Greenberg sits down with the ever-dynamic Tod Hallman. He shares his journey from a professional dancer to a powerhouse in Hollywood. He attributes his success to resilience and a willingness to take risks, harnessing the wisdom of different generations. For Tod, life is a continuous runway of learning and leading... a perfect example of Aging Like a Fine Wine. #aginglikefinewine #lifeuncorked #todhallman
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[Music]
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hi everybody Welcome Back to Life on
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Court and this installment of Aging like
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a fine wine where we talk to ordinary
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people doing extraordinary things today
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I have Todd hman with us he's a
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celebrity stylist Fashion Show Producer
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a content creator and chair of the West
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Hollywood Public Safety commission among
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just a few things welcome Todd well well
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thank you first of all thank you for
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welcoming me and I'm thrilled to be here
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with you you know I love and adore you
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so I'm very excited oh you're sweet tell
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us a little bit about you and how you
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ended up here and doing what you're
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doing now at this time in your life well
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you know long story short when I was
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younger I was a professional
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dancer um I danced with the company in
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Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh is
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very cultured with Arts there are a lot
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of different dance companies I went to
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Point Park college CMU Carnegie melon is
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there so there's a lot going on in
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Pittsburgh and the company I danced with
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I was lucky enough to dance with Bill T
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Jones and his partner Arie Zayn but at
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24 I was burnt out you know like 24 at
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24 I was burnt out you know for 9 to 10
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hours a day people yell and scream at
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you and tell you how awful you are oh
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only to make you better you know that's
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dance and I met someone that was moving
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to La we kind of hit it off only knew
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him for seven days and I followed him to
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Los Angeles however that was the mid 80s
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and La was strictly TV and film you know
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there was no Live Theater here but there
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were music videos so I went to a couple
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of music video auditions but it wasn't
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my tribe so I kind of stepped back I
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ended up in retail ended up in
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entertainment PR which taught me a lot
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about this town Hollywood and how we
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interact with celebrities um I was an
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assistant and I said to my boss one day
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one of us must go or one of us is going
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to
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die said you know I worked in retail I
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know a little bit about fashion I'd love
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to explore this so he connected me with
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a stylist I went in as her assistant I'd
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never done it before but I figured how
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difficult can this be I'm you're daring
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you're willing to to jump out there and
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try new things I love that and I was
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also at that age where I was like I need
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to do the next thing and our very first
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photo shoot I'll never forget it was um
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with Angie everheart and we were
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shooting a cover of FHM the men's
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magazine it was a big production and she
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was like one of the supermodel girls and
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as soon as she hit that seamless she was
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on and I was like oh my God this is it
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so you're here now and
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and you've done you've had an amazing
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career you're on to new and different
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things what inspires you right
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now God that's a good question because
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the
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industry a lot changed with the
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pandemic and you know I went through a
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period where I was teaching at fitm the
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Fashion
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Institute and with everything I tried to
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share with them and prepare them
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for the fashion industry I gained so
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much knowledge from them because you
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know my students were 19 to 23 yeah and
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they had a different perspective on the
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world they did things differently and I
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found all of that fascinating I learned
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so much from my students so now my new
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project I'm working on I have a young 30
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yearold digital content producer and I'm
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learning from him and he's learning from
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me as he prepares to do a big launch for
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his fashion collection do you think
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that at our age and like we're in our
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60s being open to that and welcoming and
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embracing learning from younger people I
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feel like it keeps me young I want to be
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around Youth and learn new things I
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don't necessarily want to be stuck in
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the past even though I know there are
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certain areas I just don't get it
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motivates me does that move you oh yeah
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I agree and you know here's the reality
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life moves
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forward you know and things change you
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know each generation brings something
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different to the table and with Joseph
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leading me through this project you know
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I've learned how to understand you know
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the metrics you know how to post how to
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do my hashtags so it's been a great
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learning experience and my numbers are
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growing you know my metrics like my
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impressions of people that I reach he
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like this is insane it's unheard of so
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real quick while you're talking about in
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Instagram where can our community find
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you on well it is called dashingly Todd
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and it's to1 D only my mother did it I
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had nothing to do with it um underscore
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official Todd how do you want to be
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remembered
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oh wow
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um you know I work every day to be the
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man my mother raised me to
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be some days I do better than others uh
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I am very civically involved getting
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chair of Public Safety for the city of
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West Hollywood I am our Eastside
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neighborhood watch Captain none of these
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things I pursue they just kind of came
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to me but I am my mother's son I like
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people I like talking to people I like
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helping people
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and I don't have kids I always say I
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don't really like them even though
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jokingly I'm really good with kids and
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when I
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taught the irony is I come from a family
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of teachers and my mother asked me um
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she and her friends all went to buoy
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State Teachers College in Maryland and
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she said do you want to go I'm like no
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I'm off to be a thespian so for to go
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full circle and for me to teach and I
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was so incredibly nervous I was like I
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don't know how to write a syllabus I
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know how to dance I know fashion but
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when I found my rhythm I found I loved
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it
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so I would just like to give back with
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the knowledge and gifts that I've been
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blessed with I think that you impact
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people from the point that you come from
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and and that can only be a positive
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thing and I think clearly I mean you've
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shared stories in the past about your
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experience at fit and your impact is
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profound and I think that's why you
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because you had that foundation so but I
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still am in touch with a lot of my
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students a lot of them are doing very
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very well and they're like you know we
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listen to what you said Mr hman so
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that's a very nice thing I have to ask
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you because this is life uncored after
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all what's what's your favorite wine I
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do love a
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rosé I remember having fabulous wines
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with you at the V wine bar I'm not big
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on dessert or sweet wines that's not
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really yeah I prefer PK you know if it
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gets to that point ni Rich yes what's
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next for you Mr hman well
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um I am very excited about dashingly
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Todd on Instagram and
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I am too I'm just going to tell yall out
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there follow it is the funnest side and
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you will learn so much and have fun
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watching it oh thank you and you know
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you follow you know my regular we call
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it a civilian page but dashingly taught
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is all style and fashion and it allows
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me to do what I do well and share and
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it's also you know I learned because I
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used to blog
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and you know I am competitive with
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Myself and I would get press releases
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and I'm like oh my God this collection
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just dropped I've got a Blog about it
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I'm going to get it up first and
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sometimes I would post before a lot of
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major Outlets posted and I'd be like yes
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I beat them to it so it's kind of the
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same thing on Instagram and what I love
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with Instagram you know I see works of
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designers from all around the world um
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and get to see what they're doing and I
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save you know their pages so if I'm ever
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doing a client or a music video or
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special project I'm like oh this
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designer would be perfect I can reach
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out to them so yeah I love the world of
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Instagram and also sharing things with
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people
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because you know there's so much out
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there but I'm not
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done by any
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stretch so much I want to do um so I'm
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enjoying this you know juncture and you
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know just trying to hold on to the face
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and
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well thank you again and we will keep
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our eyes on dashingly Todd on Instagram
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and for everything wonderful that's
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coming for you well thank you and it's
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so great Mel to chat with you I know I
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don't get to see you that much for the
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next time you're in La please let's go
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to V wine and have a good time
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absolutely that would be great all right
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y'all till next time take care drink
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some good wine and ciao
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[Music]
#Performing Arts
#Self-Help & Motivational
#Seniors & Retirement