Hello! Hello! Welcome back to another episode of Diagnosting a Killer. I'm Kena. I'm Koelle.
And this is a kind of different minty breaky. Yeah, diffy minty breaky. Diff meant break.
There we go. Yeah. We know that you guys have been waiting for our true crime podcast festival
experience. We are bringing that to you today. And we're really excited. Really, really exciting.
It was from the 25th of August to the 27th of August, 2023. And I'm sure if you listened to any of
our podcasts from the last, I don't know, six, seven months, almost every single episode we
mentioned it, we were really, really excited to rub elbows a little bit and get to know our fellow
casters and not only that, but our listeners, our attendees as well. Yeah, that was really exciting.
And we just are so grateful that we were able to be a part of it. So thanks for everyone in advance
for listening to us and coming to support us. And this is going to be treated kind of like a
DAK live. No edits, just kind of a convo, casual convo. Yeah, we've definitely had quite a few
people asking about our experience. So we both thought that it would be great just to put an
episode out there. Just throw it out there. Plus, it's also kind of a getting to know us,
Sam's editing, amounts of editing. Yeah, for sure. We realized we had a lot of networking to be done.
And, you know, we kind of use this as a learning opportunity, but also a networking opportunity
for ourselves. And I feel like we got the question a lot like, so what's your podcast about? You know,
and so I was like, Oh, okay, people, we don't really, we didn't really have like a trade. We
actually just got done with our trailer. So go listen to our trailer. But we didn't do that
whole trailer thing. We're very new to podcasting or we were, you know, a couple of years ago,
we kind of just went in minimal research and we kind of just dove in like headfirst. Yeah. And
didn't really compare with anyone else. We wanted to stand out and be different. But with that comes
things that we didn't do like create a trailer right off the bat. So we did have, we have since
done that and that is now available. It's just a minute long of us talking. But yeah, I'm, yeah,
if anybody's heard me before knows me personally, they know that I'm not a podcast person. I don't
listen to podcasts. It's kind of funny that I co-host one. Yeah. So it's definitely interesting
listening to other people's, I guess, like their outline of what they do. And it's just been,
it's been a really interesting experience getting to know other people and then getting to know
like their personality first. Yes. And then listen to their podcast. Yeah. I think that's
something that's hard for maybe a lot of listeners, myself included, you know, where it takes me like
four or five episodes to really start to really like the podcast because then you feel like you
get to know the people. Right. But not a lot of people are willing to sit through four or five
episodes to kind of really get to know who they are. So it was really cool being on the back end
of it and meeting the people first. And now I have like, we keep saying we have like a bunch of
fucking years of binge-worthy content. For sure. Yeah. I think it was definitely a different experience
because I feel like it's all been word of mouth so far. People that listen to us generally have
heard through someone else or something like that, right? Which, I mean, since we've looked at the
statistics, of course we have listeners all over the world. But I think it was more, we were the
man behind the curtain. Yeah. Now we're exposed. And we're taking in all of this advice and
compliments. Honestly, people were saying, wow, that's so unique. I haven't heard of that. And I'm
like, really? Because I feel like maybe somewhere along, and of course with our podcast, you
tackle psychology, portions of psychology. But to have it truly based on mental health and mental
awareness, I think is something that really people were really excited about. And not only that,
but how many people's eyes lit up when they said we did two episodes a week, which we've kind of
slacked on this last week, but with the con. We've been busy. Excuse me. But people, yeah,
you're so right. Like we would be talking to other podcasters and we would say, yeah, well,
we do two episodes a week and everyone's like, what? That's crazy. We're like, I thought that was
normal. I thought everyone did that. I thought everyone did that. Content. Exactly. What else
do you do? People are like, what else do you do? Do you guys have jobs? Like, you know, mom and
yeah, exactly. And I go to school and there's definitely other aspects of my life besides
just the podcast. But I think that Ken and I are very similar in the way that we just have to have
something to do all the time. I completely agree. Yeah, we definitely are not home. Well,
we will be homebodies, but we're busy homebodies. Yeah, I guess. Like, you know, there's not a dull
moment. I don't like to relax. I feel like if I'm relaxing, I'm being unproductive. Yeah, same. So
it's kind of hard. One of these days, I'll die. I'll die. I'll die. From stress. No, but I do think
I speak for both of us when I say that we went into the podcast festival weekend with a lot of
imposter syndrome and we came out of it completely rid of those fears because everyone made us feel
so welcome, so comforted and so not alone in those feelings. Like, I can't tell you how many podcasts
told us like, oh my God, if you didn't think we if you thought we didn't have imposter syndrome,
you know, a year or two or three years ago, then you're completely wrong. You know, and anyone
says that they never had it is lying, you know, it's not an easy thing to do to put yourself out
there, put not even yourself out there, but your voice, your vulnerability and your opinions on
things. I mean, yes, we're relying facts, but we also have strong opinions on certain things.
And one of those things is that mental illness is a problem and sometimes it causes crimes. Like,
and a lot of people, some people don't agree with that. They're like, no, I don't think that's true.
Or they think that we're putting them in a blanket statement, which is obviously not true
if you guys listen, you know, or an excuse. But we do want to just thank you to all of our amazing
supporters. Obviously, everyone that's here and listening knows that we're doing this for the
right reasons. And we just really want to educate and get the word out. But we also want to talk
about some people that we met and again, our full experience, not just a generalization of it. So
we've kind of broken it down by day. We absolutely want to go ahead and take a moment to appreciate
our listeners just by your downloads alone. You help us a lot and your lended ear and conversations
that you might have on the ground with your friends and family members. We also want to thank
our Patreon members as well. You guys, SuperDuper, don't have to do that, but you do. And we love
you for it. And we specifically also want to shout out Louis and his family for all of their support
and going through that weekend. And yeah, so thank you all very, very much. We really appreciate it.
Absolutely. We definitely couldn't be here without any of you guys and all of your support. So we
appreciate it. So you want to talk about Thursday? Shall we get into Thursday?
Oh no. So we were fortunate enough to be able to go to Austin on Thursday and then come home on
Monday even though the festival was only Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So I decided to take work off
on Friday so we could leave right after work on Thursday. It was like, let's get everything going.
Have dad drop you off at work for my work so that we can just go because I live, we live about 25
minutes south of where we were going. It wouldn't make sense for me to drive back, pick you up and
then go. Obviously we're going to carpool. So this is your story. Mom was going to pick up my
Keto from the bus, which was like late afternoon. That was all taken care of or was going to be
taken care of. So my responsibility was to what, did I go grocery shopping? I can't remember.
You did? Yeah. I went grocery shopping and I put everything in the cooler and I had the cooler packed
and ready to go with all of these like quick microwavable meals because our intention wasn't
to really leave the hotel room but for maybe once or twice that weekend. So filled up the cooler,
getting all that done. I still, well I didn't still have to pack, but I packed my bag that morning
because I'm definitely one of those people that's like, I have to pack last second. Otherwise I will
obsess and overpack. Yeah, same. And then I have to, like I have no other choice. I'll pack and if
I'm missing something, I'll just buy it when I get there. Yeah. I have to be that way. Otherwise
I'll come toting like five suitcases. That's absolutely me and that's what I did. I knew you
started packing like a week or two before that. Yeah, probably. So we had that. We had all of our
booth gear, all this other stuff. We're going to pack it up into the Rogue, right? We had all these
little bottles of water and I had bought iced coffee for us so that we didn't have to go spend
any money at Starbucks, all this stuff. And so I'm noticing that like my bank isn't exactly where it
needs to be. And I was like, why, okay, I'll just transfer money. Well, I was trying to transfer
and nothing was transferring. And I was like, well, I did just change my pin number and I was like,
maybe it's that. So I, that was already wonky. And then my phone wasn't working, right? Remember,
like that was like something we're experiencing to the last few days is like nobody's phones were
working and we all have the same service that we all don't have the same plan. Yeah. So I make the
bright decision and I'm like, why can't leave for Austin if my phone's not working, right? I make the
bright decision to call my, well, I couldn't call because my phone wasn't working. Yeah. But to start
a chat with my service provider. And I said at 317 when we're supposed to be like on our way to
go by like 330. And so like three, like I said, 1517 somewhere in there, I'm like, hey, this is
the dealio I can't call to and from I've had people try to call me can't get a hold of me, text messages
aren't going out, like all this stuff. And not only that, but it's happening to other people in the
home, same service provider, but not the same contract. So it wouldn't be like a plan thing. Yeah.
I had just paid my bill like two days before this, not, you know, it's none of those things. And
obviously the internet's working because you're chatting with them. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. They're
making it. Clearly. Right. So yeah, this guy starts like tier one IT and he's like, is it on, you
know, kind of plug it in and restart your computer, restart your Wi-Fi restart. I'm like, it's not my
Wi-Fi. We are having so many problems with their internet. We were contacted that provider and they
just redid all of the equipment. The Wi-Fi is perfect. We checked. It's perfect. I guaranteed.
So then I was just like getting peeved and I was telling this guy was like, I gotta be,
like I'm going out of town right now. Like I wasn't trying to be a caring about it, but it was like,
do I need, is this something that I can fix? Is it, you know, or not? And I was, my phone works,
like, this is the model to my phone. It's clearly not all, because I had ran to the grocery store
just two days before that or whatever and my phone worked fine. Yeah. So I'm thinking like,
it's got to be something in this area or it's something with their service. Yeah. And meanwhile,
I'm at work like watching the time go by, checking your location. She's texting me.
She's not fucking on her way. Where is she? I'm getting peeved.
You haven't left yet? Yeah. I was actually getting mad. I know. I was getting mad.
Which is never good with you and me because when we're both pissed, we're just awful.
So I finally, he's like, oh, it appears that there's something wrong with the tower. We'll
have it fixed in 24 hours. And I was like, I've been on chat for 45 minutes at this point.
You didn't know that the tower was out? It was after 4pm by this point. Yeah.
And I'm like, great, thanks. So... Great. And we were supposed to meet at 4 just to remind everyone.
Yeah, we're supposed to meet at 4. 25 minutes away from the house. This is like 4.10 at this
point, 4.08 or something. And I'm like, cool. So I just paid my bill and I haven't been able to
use my phone in three days. So if my math is correct, I think it's like $5.80. May I get that
reimbursed? Please get that done. And he said, well, it should be 24 hours since the towers.
It was like, great, you already told me that. Can I get my $5.80 please? And he refused. And I was
like, so rude. Sir. But the thing is, is like, if it was just me, fine, but I also told him I
had a house full of people that couldn't use their phones. So I'm like, God, that would be a gateway.
You know what I mean? He's a listener, you know. He's like, the bitch, he's laughing.
So I was thinking if he had paid me $5.80, so I'd be like, great, can I get that for my family too?
Oh, my gosh. That's so funny. So whatever, I was pissed off. But
Well, so meanwhile, I'm now I'm like, I threw my hands up in the air. I was like,
fuck this. I just, I guess I'm going home because I'm not going to sit in a way at home when you're
25 minutes away. I'm speeding the hell home. And I'm like, this is exactly where I didn't want to do
like talking to myself in the car. Meanwhile, we're still in San Antonio, guys. Like they haven't
even left the facility. And it's 410 on a Thursday. No, I think I got back here at like 420. And I
was like, I'm ready to go. And you're like, great. And you weren't. And I wasn't ready. No, no, no.
What happened? Oh, because all this stuff was in the rogue, because we were supposed to leave, right?
So then we start unpacking everything in the road, kind of like pulls up like a bad out of hell in
the front yard. I left my car on everything. Yeah. And you're like, let's go, let's go. And I was
like, all right, well, then I thought you had said, Oh, I didn't hear you say bye to everybody
is what it was. And you went to the car and I thought you were going to the car to get something.
So I was kind of like taking my time. I was like finding my chapstick. I was talking to mom and
dad. Meanwhile, I'm profanity. Clearly in the car. No, seriously, I was like slamming my hand on
my steering wheel. I was like, what the hell are you doing? I can't call her because it's not
fucking working. Yeah, it's not working. So it's kind of nice about knowing that the phone was
going to work was that once we left the area, my phone did work after that. Yeah. To what
it's like, okay, Mac, we have cats. So yeah, so that was a pain in the ass. And then it looked at my map
and what would usually be an hour and 15 minute drive is now an hour and 50 because it's rush hour.
And we're supposed to meet Jennifer at 730 for dinner. Yes. We had dinner plans. Thankfully,
we weren't actually allowed to have access to set up our booth until Friday at noon. We thought we
had to set up Thursday night and be ready by 8am on Friday. So we were freaking out. We're like,
we're not going to have time for this. I hadn't showered in like three days. I was like, I need
to shower before dinner. Like I stink. I ended up not showering before dinner because we had
a little bit of issues at check in because there was just some miscommunication with all of that.
Yeah, with the cards and stuff. Yeah. So it caused us to get into our hotel room at,
I think it was like 640. 640 and we needed to leave at 710 for dinner. For dinner. Yeah. Yeah,
absolutely. And that's not including the time to take all of the shit from the car up another floor
and all that. So it was pain. Fifth floor. And so of course, taking everything from the parking
garage and we weren't going to leave all of our merch stuff, stuff for our booth, which was really
heavy by the way. It was really heavy. And we had the cooler that was filled with stuff. And then
our backpack, my backpack, your handbag, your other bag, and my backpack, your backpack. So much
stuff. So yeah, so we got all of that stuff upstairs. And the room was nice. It was just really
funny because after all of that, I was like, okay, let's wind down, let's have a drink at dinner.
Like, let's just have a good night. Like this is where our vacation starts. And then later in the
weekend, I am hearing that people are from Canada and people are from Washington and, you know,
Maine. And I'm like, I was bitching a moan in about a two hour drive here. Oh my gosh. They flew
with all that stuff. They flew with all that stuff. And I can't even imagine how much it would cost.
Like I think we heard from one caster that said that she spent like 60 bucks just for one.
Because she had too much stuff in her bag. Yeah. But yeah. So that was our Thursday. Oh, and then
the cherry on top. When we get to the hotel room and take a inventory of all of our stuff,
guess what's not there? All of the iced coffee and all of the water. Because it was in the back seat
of the car that dad was supposed to drive to my work together. So we had no water and no iced
coffee. We were like, great. We have to go to HB to get it, is what you're thinking. Yeah. But then
at that time we started realizing that, okay, Friday we don't set up as an until noon. Yeah. We can
get our, we can figure out where our space is. And then when we figure out where our spaces
we'll set up as much as we possibly can. And then go get the waters and stuff. Yeah, for sure. And
you know what, side note, if anybody here is listening that is like about to go to a con or
like wants to go to a con in the future, don't bring fucking 40 bottles of little water to people
because they're not going to drink it because there already is like a water thing set up at the
corner with like ice watering cups. And we didn't know that. Sometimes. We probably got rid of like
seven waters out of 40 and I drank three. By the end we were like, please, please, sir, take the water.
Please take the water. We don't want to lug us back to San Antonio. That's one thing we learned.
We will not be buying waters for next year. Okay. That was Thursday. Well, kind of. Well, Thursday's
not over. We went to Jen. We went to meet Jen, who's one of our loyal listeners, her and Jonathan.
And Jonathan unfortunately was unable to make it, but Mac, be quiet. But Jennifer was and she took
us to this place called Rose Gose. Oh yeah, it was so good. It was delicious. They had kimchi olives
that were like soaked in that kimchi. Oh my gosh. So good. No, that was probably like some of the
best food I've ever had in my life. A little elevated, but really good. Bliss is good though.
Yeah. Oh yeah. It was really good. But we had a great time with Jennifer. Thank you so much, Jennifer,
for hosting us. Yeah. We're strong but hosting us in Austin and hanging out. Yeah. Live in the
Austin area. Go check it out. It was for sure. The oysters. You didn't care for the oysters. I
didn't care for the oysters, but they were Gulf oysters. They were little gulfy. Yeah, they lied
to me. But the strawberry like kind of compote one that they had was so good. What else did we have?
They had like a beef tip plate. Oh yeah, with the mushrooms that we took. We took it to go. But
delicious. And then afterward, me and Coel or Coel and I found ourselves at a bar called La La's.
And if you're not familiar with Austin or the area, La La's is a year round Christmas themed bar.
And this is important because this will come back later. Come back later. Take a note of this, 1744
or maybe more when I add the ads. But this is important. It was fun. We had just a few drinks
there. It was a different, all different kinds of people type crowd. It was very divey. It was
cool. I love a good dive. Bartender's were super nice. Bartender's were super nice. They had an
old jukebox. And when you opened the restroom door, there was like a fishing line that had all
these little like elf on the shelf and they all dropped in front of the people sitting at the
bar like home alone. Yeah. Yeah. It's so cute. But that was a really cute little bar. And then
what a pleasant surprise when we showed back up to the hotel, who did we run into? But Lainey,
co-founder of True Crime and Paranormal Podcast Festival, she was sitting with Kristen from
Murder She Told the podcast. And then also Jason from the podcast Santa, Maybe a Criminal.
That's why the bar was important. I thought it was going to come back way later. Way later. No,
but it was really nice. Honestly, felt kind of a relief of mine to just kind of be able to meet
her in person. We had a lot of correspondence with her via social media and email. But being able
to meet her in person in a kind of like not so professional setting because it wasn't like
right in the middle of the festival. Yeah, it's like in the lobby area. Yeah. And chill out area.
Exactly. And we were able to just have a little bit of a convo and we went to bed. Yeah. So that
was really nice. And then Friday morning, the sun sets. He came in from the outside. It was cold.
It was cold. She had dew on a jacket. What's next? So we don't, I don't think, well, we were setting
up at noon on Friday, right? Yeah, we didn't get down there. It was probably 11. No, it was like
right at 11.50. We were walking down there. Yeah, we were too excited. Starbucks because again,
we forgot the iced coffee. Yeah, the back of the road. Starbucks snacks though. That Starbucks
did snack. Every Starbucks snack. Well, it's not, it's, it's brewed or served Starbucks. It's not
an actual Starbucks. Yeah. They just have Starbucks products. Yeah. Yeah. But it was really good.
Either way. Yeah. Yeah. So we found our little booth, which is really cool because again, this is
the first time we've done anything like this. And so we didn't know anything like what to expect
at all. We didn't even know what it was going to look like. So we finally got access to the
Grand Bullroom that we tried to open the night before, but it was locked. It was locked. We tried
to sneak in. You know, we kind of made our, like, weaved our way in and out of these tables. And
on every table, there was a piece of paper, like a regular piece of printer paper with the podcast
name and then two lanyards with also with a podcast name. Yeah. And we, it took us a little bit
of time because we were nice. We were happy to be in the middle. It's not that middle. Yeah. And we
picked up our lanyards and the rest of the rest of the street. And yeah. So we ended up starting
to get set up. We had two very ginormous flags made. I'm sure you guys saw the photo on Instagram
or TikTok, but we had two very, very big flags made. And we didn't know what we were going to do
with, we didn't know what we were going to have if we were going to be able to hide behind us or
on the table or as a runner. We had our backs to a wall or something. So I brought thumbtacks just
in case. Yeah. But it ended up fitting perfectly over like as a tablecloth almost. And our logo
was right in the center. And I was like, this is perfect. It was so cool. So we set up what we had
and then we had to go to HEB to get some water. We clearly needed those waters. Yeah, for sure.
We needed the water. Well, we, in retrospect, we didn't need the water, but we thought we did.
Yeah. And as soon as we walk into that HEB, man, and that lady was like, do you want to try some
salters? And we're like, yeah. And so by the way, we have a lot of listeners that are not from
Texas or America. It is our local grocery store. If people think it's acronym for here, everything's
better, but it's actually Henry Edward, but he's the founder. Henry or Harold, I'm like that. I
think it's Henry. I think Charles is in charge. Yes, Charles is in charge. But yeah, when you
hear us say HEB, that's our local supermarket, I guess. It's a grocery store. There are some
HEB pluses that carry other things similar to like a Myers maybe. Yeah, true. Some clothing items,
some comforts. Yeah, it's kind of a grocery store. So yeah, we walk in and we talked to the
lady that was, yeah, the lovely lady that was serving the little samples of alcohol,
yeah, of course. And we're like, we're here for the true crime paranormal podcast festival. And
she said, I meant, I thought that was last weekend, I meant to be there. All this stuff. She was super
duper nice. Super nice. Yeah, we've been telling like literally everyone that we saw on Austin about
it because why not? If you even come, they had day passes left, you know. Yeah. In the lanyard, I had
the diagnosing it like the true crime paranormal, like the logo, the diagnosing it killer. And then
on the back of that, I put, well, we both had our business cards on the back. So sometimes we'd just
be around Austin going to pick up stuff from the store or having lunch or something and just
it's right there bam, scan it over the QR codes right there.
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Yeah, so when we got back to the festival after the H-E-B run, we noticed this really nice,
like almost like a PVC pipe setup right behind our booth because we were backed up to another
booth. And that booth that we were backed up to was True Crime with Kimber. And she had this
amazing backdrop setup. We had kind of gone on the other side of the booth to check out her
booth. This amazing backdrop. It was like a picture of what she does because she's a YouTuber as well.
And she talks in front of this actual setup, but it was just a photo of it. So it could kind of mimic
what her videos looked like. Almost like a fireplace and like a mantel, I think. Yeah,
with these creepy candles on it. Yeah. On the reverse side of that, so again, facing our booth
was this giant black and white QR code. Well, when we walked up, I was like, oh dang, someone put a
QR code for us. Like that's really nice of them. Anyway, so we walked up and then we realized what
that was for. Well, unfortunately, Kimber wasn't there at the moment. So we weren't able to talk
to her about it, but it was still early and we were like, you know what, not a big deal. It
matches our colors. Yeah, where it's stationary with black and white. Exactly. And we were like,
if anyone comes up and scans it, we'll just explain to them that's not her QR code, but she's amazing
YouTuber. So it's like, there's no harm no foul, right? So that was that. And then we went over and
met. I'll let you take this one. Ninja Nancy. So what's so funny is that when we were setting up,
every once in a while, you would hear this like noise, but a very loud one. Scary.
Across the ballroom. It's like a bug being zapped in one of those lights. And I had snooped on the
festival's Instagram before. And so I had seen that there was a self-defense booth up last year.
And so it's like, that has to be the self-defense. People like have to go over and talk to them.
So Ninja Nancy, Damsel Ninja Nancy, who actually has a TikTok, by the way, and I love her TikTok.
I love it. Damsel in Defense. Damsel in Defense. And it's, she does all these like self-defense kits.
And a lot of them, like they had, she had everything in pink and I wanted like the whole Barbie
collection. I love it. I bought a pokey device thingy from her. Oh, the pointy butt block.
So we were calling it a pointy butt block. I loved it though. Well, I mean, I think it's just,
if you have to stab someone with it, it gets lodged. It'll do some damage. Yeah. But yeah,
I jokingly couldn't, I couldn't describe it to Cliff. So I called it a pointy butt block.
And so I got the rose colored one. I think it was Matt. Matt rose. Matt blush, I think is the one
that I got. Well, Ninja Nancy is freaking amazing. Y'all definitely go check her out. She has great
products and she is a wonderful person. Like she just cracked me up. She had these little keys
and that the little puff ball you were saying like, what is that key chain for? And the little key was,
it goes into the stun gun. Yeah. So that if someone takes it out of your hands, it disengages.
They can't use it. They can't use it against you. I thought that was so cool. It was Matt. Yeah,
check out Ninja Nancy. She's so animated. She's so much fun. She reminds me of everybody's fun aunt.
No, she's great. She really is. And thanks for the great combo Ninja Nancy. We will definitely
be keeping in touch with you. And the knowledge, the education that she teaches is really,
really important. She was cracking me up when she was saying, this was not Friday. This was the next
day when she was saying that like, when she's trying to like sell these to people, she goes to
parks or whatever, like events like in the parks, whatever, and this lady will come up and she's
like, yeah, so she's telling her about their products and ladies like, well, I don't, this is
like a customer. She's like, well, I don't really know if I need that. You know, I don't really
leave my house. And she's like, Nancy's like, oh, so you live here in the park? You live here in
the park? You live here in your house? You're in your house right now? Like you live here? Oh,
you live here? Oh, okay. Nice. And she's like, well, no, I don't really ever go places without my
husband. And she's like, where is he? Where is he? I don't see him cracking me up. I don't see him.
I don't see him. He's gonna go anywhere with your husband. Well, he wants to go without you.
Gosh, is there something happens to your husband? I don't see him. Anyways, so yeah,
so then we had the podcasters only mixer on Friday night, which was really great. They had
like Orderv set up for us and we got to meet a lot of really great people. I think in my opinion,
the most memorable and admirable for that night because we met them for the first time was Jen
and Cam from our True Crime podcast. Yes. Wonderful women, just so graceful and so genuine. And
definitely go give them a listen because we actually listened to them on the way home from
Austin. Like, I was so excited we were about them. Super, super nice. And I know that they
recently shouted us out on Instagram too. So thank you for that. Thanks guys. But just we had
some personal connections with them and we just really appreciate the authenticity of the conversations
we were able to have. And I feel like they very quickly took on like a maternal role like for
us as well. I was gonna say it was definitely like familiar. The feeling was very familiar. Like,
it was almost like either old friends getting back together or family members getting back
together or something. It was very, I don't know. It was nice. Something deep there. Yeah,
and I think I'm not mistaken. They're from Michigan. So I think I'll visit. Yeah, I'll visit Michigan.
I'll visit Michigan. Yeah, give them a listen for sure. And then you want to talk about our next
person? Who is our next? Oh, is it Jason? Yeah. Okay, I love Jason. I'm obsessed with Jason.
You heard it here first. You heard it here first, folks. So yeah, when we met Jason the first night,
do you want to talk about Jason? Hold on. I had to pause because the cat was pissing me. I was
making so much noise. Yes, I will talk about Jason. And I was 100% transparent with him. I am
always the kind of person that like, if I make a wrong assumption, or I say something I don't
necessarily mean, or I say something before I know the facts, like I will always admit that.
And I will always make sure that I am being 100% genuine with people. Right. And I told Jason
the next night, on Friday night, that when I met him at first, I didn't really care for him. I
thought that it was a shtick that he was doing. I thought he was making a light of true crime in
his podcast. I have since realized that his podcast is literally a true crime satire podcast.
Right. And it's essentially an audio TV series. And Jason, if you're listening, I want episode
12. Okay, so you know that I don't dislike you. I really like the episode. I texted him, I want to
be, I want to be Richie when I grow up. Yeah, no, Richie's great. But Richie's the character in
his show. You'll have to listen seriously. It's called Santa May Be a Criminal. And anyway, so
I was talking to Jason on Friday and I said, look, I just want to be completely honest. I
made a wrong assumption about you. I should not have judged based on a 30 second conversation
with you or an interaction that was last second. I really do think you're a nice guy. And I think
you're super genuine. And I really like what you do. And he said, he's like, you know what, I really
appreciate that, like that honesty. He's like, I don't know how I come across to people a lot of
the time. And I like when people give me that feedback, because then I can do better in the
future. And I really like personally, as Kenna, I really liked that response. Because some people
would say, why the hell did you even tell me that you didn't just say that to me? Like, that's rude,
or like, Oh, how dare you like not like me immediately or whatever. But he took it so
gracefully. And he took it like, seriously, it was a learning opportunity for him. It absolutely
was. And it was also a learning opportunity for me. I should not have, you know, I should not
have immediately made an assumption about someone I don't know him. You know, I still don't know him
very well. But I think that that's kind of over and done with. But he has made fun of me about four
times since then. He's never gonna let it go. Which is fine. Yeah, I think like, we all do this thing
where when we are put in an uncomfortable situation, but we know we want to push through it because
we like this whole situation when we talked about our imposter syndrome, which Jason was one of the
first people to say he was I dealt with that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that we all have certain
soothing habits when we're uncomfortable and stuff like that. Like what a mine is to drink. And
but you know, maybe one of Jason's is this, you know, this is the let me give you all the
information that I have at this moment right now, the way I can get over this. Yeah, no,
no, real quick and just break the ice. And so I think maybe him breaking the ice to you came off
as disingenuous. Yeah, no, for sure. And I think that's what it was as well. And again, like,
no one do what I did. Don't just make an assumption about someone off of the they always say like
in a first impression is within this first seven seconds of meeting someone. But I just agree,
like, you can make that first impression and you could always change your mind and you can always
admit when you're wrong, which is exactly what I did. Yeah, but it was really funny because
after I had that long conversation with him on a Friday night about all that,
Saturday morning, I busted his balls a little bit because I knew I could. And I he was wearing his
little suit, his suit jacket, not little, he was wearing his suit jacket with the fur like a
Santa coat, but it was like an actual suit. Right. And I walked up, he was in a group of a bunch
of people and we walked up and I go, Oh, hey, head elf. And he goes, Oh, so you listened to my podcast.
And I said, No, I read your synopsis. Thank you. I think everyone started cranking up. And I was
like, Oh my God, he's like, Oh, okay, two shake. Yeah, but I have and I still am. I was listening
to it earlier today. I was listening to it to Jason. Yeah, kind of obsessed. Anyway, Jason, again,
completely changed my mind about him and he'll super nice to keep reminding me about I'm sure for a
while. But also, you heard it here first folks, Jason, if you're listening, I'm trying to write
a book and I need your assistance because you were so creative. Jason's writing is really good.
For sure. Yeah, it's definitely entertaining. Like I've been talking about it to other friends of mine
and especially some of our closest friends and some of our longest listeners, because I think
that they would really enjoy it. The writing is funny. It's so funny. And but it really,
like he creates this entire universe and it's so fun. And it reminds me of old radio shows,
like old noir radio shows, like you'd be listening in every week. It's essentially an audiobook.
Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, you know, just back in the day when you didn't have a television,
you only listen to radio. You had to leave it to the imagination. And like I said, I'm so daft
when it comes to podcasts because I don't listen to podcasts. Yeah. So it's the first one that
I've ever listened to that's kind of like that. Well, same. I mean, honestly, like that's not
really my cup of tea when it comes to podcasts. But I really enjoy it. I didn't even realize
there were podcasts that did that. Right. So that's really cool. So go check out Jason again. It's
Santa, maybe a criminal is the name of the podcast. And it's a 12 part series. He has a bunch of
episodes. Right. So go listen. And that's about Jason. And that's about Jason. Where are we going
next year for the True Crime and Paranormal Podcast Festival? We're going to be in Denver.
So excited. I love Denver. I used to visit some friends when they lived in Denver. And
so it's been probably over 12 years since I've been there. Wow, really? So I was, I just love the
fact that not only are we going somewhere where it's like out of our home state, we get to meet
so many new people that aren't from Texas. But it's also familiar to us because both of us have
been there so many times. So that's great because it's a familiar area, but it's out of our comfortable
zone about like South Texas. And it's going to be in July. It's going to feel so nice. Yeah. And
it's my birthday weekend, bitches. Oh, that's so cool. So y'all better go. I'm making all my friends
come this week. We're going to do the same thing, I hope, with the five day thing, making a whole
trip, especially if it's this far. For sure. And it's my birthday on Sunday. So the last day of
the festival is my birthday. So you guys better go. Okay, thanks. So excited. Who else did we meet?
We met Brandy and Chris from Texas Wine and True Crime? Yes, Texas Wine and True Crime.
They're so nice. So nice. I love seeing couples doing these things. Yeah, that's so cool. My boyfriend
doesn't even listen to the podcast, let alone he wouldn't host it with me. Southern Fried too.
It was the other time. So they're in for a true crime. Eric and her husband. Yeah, Mr. Kelly. Mr. Kelly. Very, very nice people. And just again, people that have been doing it for years and are just as inviting as people that have been doing it for six months. You know, like it's so great. It's so great.
There's a big sense of community with that. Absolutely. CJ. CJ. Hi, CJ. Love CJ. Hi, CJ. CJ hosts Beyond the Rainbow podcast. Yes.
CJ brings light to crimes against the LGBTQ plus community and is a lot of advocacy with that as well.
And you were obsessed with her tagline. Do you remember what it was? It was. It's not a crime to be gay unless you're a murderer.
And I love that. So good. So good. So good. Obsessed. That is so clever. And that's so true. Like, fuck off, everyone. If you're a criminal, you're a fucking criminal. Yeah, that's all. That's all. That's all it is. That is all.
But I definitely gravitated towards CJ and her story and her and I talked about identity and orientation and stuff like that. And it was just so nice to talk to her.
And you could tell that she's just talk about an open heart and a genuine person. Absolutely. Again, just another one of everybody's favorite fun aunts.
And CJ's booth was actually set up directly to the right of Kimber so she was like, catty cornered us so we could literally just turn around in the middle of the system and be like, hey, what's it doing?
So of course, one of the questions I asked that CJ said that she gets asked a lot is whether or not she covered Matthew Shepard because it's one of the bigger, especially when I was growing up in late 90s, early 2000s.
Don't quote me on the year, but if you don't know Matthew Shepard was murdered for being gay in a small town. And so I asked her about that and she said, yes, she said I do do big cases because sometimes that's what people want to hear.
But she really likes to focus on the lesser known cases. Absolutely. Light and awareness that this happens everywhere, not just in major cities. Yeah, absolutely. People that don't even know the news.
Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. Especially people of color and especially people in lower funded areas. Yeah, absolutely. And it's definitely like heartbreaking and the fact that I feel like she's almost doing something similar to us.
It's like she's bringing a whole new take on true crime that a lot of people don't really do when they start true crime. And that's unfortunate because those do need to be talked about.
Yeah, so she does hers in seasons. So I think she's on season. I lied. Wow, she's in season 10, season 11. My gosh, she's got like 15 episodes a season. So go check out Beyond the Rainbow.
Yeah, binge worthy content right there.
Binge worthy content. For sure. Yes. How about Mallory?
Mallory Robinson. Mallory Robinson.
Mallory, what a sweetheart, man. I loved her. Yeah, I love her. Let me find her website real quick because she does a trans sensitivity training. And let me look real quick.
So Mallory's website runs a hateful homicide.net. And on her history, just a little bit of a synopsis about her podcast, A Hateful Homicide is a True Crime and Investigative Journalism Podcast since March 31st, 2021, by transgender advocate Mallory
Jenner Robinson. The cases cover all trans identities in the US and abroad. So her mission statement is, A Hateful Homicide's mission is to assure that all trans victims have a voice by assuring accurate, adequate and affirming case coverage.
Yeah, absolutely. And one of those things that when people start a true crime podcast, not to diminish anybody else that does true crime, but one of those things that it's a different angle, it's a different voice that needs to be heard.
Absolutely. So she does post these transgender empathy training sessions. And so the vision is that transgender empathy trainings are provided online, hybrids and in person Monday through Saturdays 11 to 7. I think she's in...
I think she's in LA. Is she in LA? I think she is. I think you're right. I think you're right. Either way, just Google A Hateful Homicide.net. All the information is there. I think that the trans empathy training is a huge, huge thing.
Especially in LA, that like is such a big hub where so many people are, you know? For sure. Definitely something to look into. Definitely go give Mallory a follow. Yeah, thanks for your work, Mallory.
Absolutely. And just to shout out a couple more podcasts that we did get a chance to talk to. Malice and Mocktails, the girls are really amazing. I love talking to them immediately. It was so nice.
You guys, please hit us up. I know that we, I think we might have exchanged numbers with them actually. I think we did. Nefarious Nightmare, those girls are great as well. They're the bees. The bees. I love the bees. I found Lisa, one of our listeners. I was over at her place recently.
And she does charm bracelets, not charm bracelets, but like phone charm beads. And then she started doing friendship bracelets for the Taylor Swift concert that's happening. Oh my gosh. But she had a whole set of bees, like bee bees. Oh, I love it. It was so cute. Anyways, it reminded me of them.
Yeah, no worries. Crime and cocktails is really great as well. Super nice girls. Tiffany, yeah. And there's Vanish. That was really great. I'd like to hear the take on that. It's like a history podcast as well. As well as murders and mimosas. That is a mother daughter duo. They are so sweet and so great. And there's a couple of paranormal podcasts as well that went obviously, hence the name.
Yeah. There's a Paranormal Chicks. A paranormal chick. Which I love physically on words, a pair of normal chicks. Their booth was so cool. It was lime green with like this caution tape. It was so fun. And then Seuss Deux hosted by Adrian. That was a really interesting booth. All of his stuff looked so cool. And I want a Seuss Deux shirt. I love it. And then there's also paranormal putas. Paranormal putas. Love them.
And then PNW Paranormal Pacific Northwest. Right? Yes. PNW. We know what that means now. Right? Because we had that, what happened, it was the Batter Minhoff. Right? Yes. It definitely was. We saw PNW. And then somebody was like, what is that? Oh, Pacific Northwest. And then CJ said, PNW, right? Yeah. We're like, no, we know what that means.
So last couple of shoutouts was Gary Howard from Truck Stop Murder, super nice guy. And then Robert from the Broken System Podcast. Robert. Awesome people. Thank you guys for everything. Also Heather and Brittany from Nature vs. Narcissism. So nice talking to you, gals. And thank you so much for all the advice, as well as sinners over sayings. The girls were really great. And I did a little bit of trivia at their booth. And that was really cool. I feel like a genius as I got all three right. It happened to be all three cases that I've covered.
Yeah, Jen from Vanished. We have some pretty good conversations too about, you know, just criminalization of mental health and all, just the cycle, the pattern that can happen. The pattern is going to talk to you. Absolutely awful. And as far as listeners go, huge, huge shout out to Jill and Ray from Louisiana. We had such a great weekend with them. I think I met Jill on Friday night and we hung out with her in her room. Almost every night.
Almost every night. Just such great people and just such great stories that we were able to share and hardships that we were able to relate on and share. And just a great couple on it. Don't really have another word other than great. They're so amazing.
Oh, the cast of the Double Tree was hilarious. The cast. The staff. The staff was great at the Double Tree.
Like it was the Truman Show.
Yeah, Arif, Mehmet and Arma. Yeah, they were great, great people. They were so nice to talk to. So they're pretty much in the bar restaurant area.
Yeah, for sure. And then lastly, I got a chance to talk to a couple from Vegas by the names of Sean and John. Sean and John are a married couple and we were, I had a conversation with them for probably an hour. I was like, at the end of it, I was like, I am talking.
Y'all's ears off. Please be quiet. And then John kept inputting his input. I was like, okay, he's trying to talk. He's still willing.
He actually tagged me in a post recently or tagged us in a post recently on Instagram. And it was like a political post, but the guy was kind of going in circles and he was like, wasn't making any sense.
But he was trying to relate like mental health and violent crimes and it just wasn't working. It was like, dude, you did like a serious change of heart.
We forgot to finish the story about Kimber.
Yeah, oh, we did. Oh my gosh. Okay, over here, people are like, dang, they don't like that one girl.
But like, it'll come back around and it never does. It's like the polar bears and the lost one.
So yeah, speaking of the story with Kimber, so we had our booth backed up to her. If you guys don't remember her QR code was showing on our side and she wasn't down there for us to talk to.
So Kuella and I made the decision like, you know what, it's not a big deal. It's our first year here. We're here to learn. We're not here to, you know, nitpick anything or anything like that.
We walked down and all I said was, hey girl, do you mind if we hang up our second flag? She turns around and she goes, oh my God, yes.
I'm so sorry. She's like, please, please use my, do you want some, whatever, like some zip ties? She was so nice.
She was, I mean, she didn't have to do that and it was so nice, her and John and they helped us put it up.
And then Friday night it actually fell and the next morning we showed up and it was back up and we realized that John, who was at the booth with her, put it back up for us.
Put it back up for us with safety pins. With safety pins. They were just so nice.
Honestly, could not have asked for a better booth buddy and just a whole experience. Like everything was so great.
If, you know, I had no confidence going into it, honestly, not no, but not a lot and coming out of it, I'm like, dude, everyone is just like us.
Everyone is just trying to get their voice out there and just trying to have fun while doing this as well.
Yeah. And raising awareness, honestly, talk about the Bexley box because you talked to that lady at the booth.
Yeah. So I was able to learn a little bit more about Project Bexley box.
I'll just give you the little synopsis here. On February 16th of 2022, a man by the name of Jared was actually shot and killed in front of his two year old daughter by the name of Bexley.
Jared would leave behind Bexley. Three of his other children and his wife, Kristen, after this night.
Bexley was alone for several minutes between when her dad was shot just a few feet away from her to win a kind bystander removed Bexley from the vehicle and actually wrapped her in a blanket.
Bexley and her mom actually spent hours at a police station that night without any materials for the baby at all.
So the goal behind Bexley boxes is to equip police stations with simple toys, blankets, food items, other necessities such as diapers, wipes, etc.
to ease the anxiety and pain children experience when finding themselves in similar situations to Bexley.
I know that this just started in late 2022 and they've already donated, I think, over 30 boxes, which is so cool.
And that was just a synopsis I read from the Instagram page.
The Instagram page is called Justice for Jared B.
And it has a bunch of information. It actually looks like they did make an arrest earlier in the year, but there is still multiple people that they think were involved in this.
So if you have any information, please call your local authorities and donate to Bexley Box if you can because it's a really great cause.
Yeah. And you said they keep up with the expiration dates and all that with the money left.
They do, yeah. They make sure they keep in contact with the police stations so that they can continuously have restocked boxes.
We also met a man by the name of Jason Watts. He is a private investigator who is an advocate for missing persons, family of missing persons.
And currently he's looking for Jason Landry.
Jason Landry at the time of his disappearance was 21 years old and a college student.
His car was found crashed and unoccupied in Luling, Texas.
This is on the eve of December 13, 2020.
And it is believed that he was traveling from his college apartment in San Marcos, Texas to his hometown of Missouri, Texas.
And items belonging to Jason were left behind in his car and strewn about the area, but he has yet to be found.
And I know that Jason said that they had searched like the mile radius around the area where they believed he was.
He has brown hair. He has 6'1", 170 pounds, brown eyes.
He is a white male and he has olive complexion. But if you know anything about the disappearance of Jason, there is a reward up of $20,000.
Yeah, absolutely. And Jason's parents were actually at the festival as well.
I think it's super admirable that they were able to go out there and do that and just put the word out there for anybody that is willing to take a flyer and listen.
The more that his face is shown around, the better the chances are.
So we figured we would also put that out here on our platform.
Absolutely. And Jason Watts is also looking for Kay Alana Turner from Tumble, Texas.
She was 28 years old and she was last seen near the block, 1800 block of Country Hills in Tumble, Texas.
She was wearing a long pink dress at the time of her disappearance.
And if you have any information of her, contact your local authority.
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really impressive that this con is one of the, if not the only one that is focusing on advocacy as well, like forward.
I think that's a really big factor in getting, you know, a lot of people on board.
And I just think it's really great because a lot of people, I think, not in cons specifically or festivals, but in the true crime world in general, I feel like we have a lot of people that are trying to exploit certain aspects of true crime.
And we have a lot of people that aren't.
Yeah, I agree with that. And I think that we also can't forget that this is also a very real aspect of true crime, our missing people and family members that are left behind as well that also needs to be taken care of when a crime happens to them.
And we definitely met, we met quite a few people there that had loved ones that had been murdered or victims of homicides or assaults.
And this is why they do that. And I think it was when we were having a pretty real conversation with, I want to say it was Jen, Jason, Robert, I think even Brandy and Chris were out there when we said there's something that brought us here.
Yeah.
There's something that is in our past that makes us passionate about doing this and raising awareness in any sense of the true crime world.
And I think that, yeah, there's a reason we're all there. And it was, again, so lovely to meet such supportive people because we all, again, we all have a history here.
Yeah, absolutely. And we're super looking forward to next year when not only are we walking into Denver, but we're walking in with like 50 new friends.
I know, so cool.
So thank you guys so much for the support. And obviously thank you for the amazing listeners that came and saw us. We really, really, really appreciate it.
And it's just crazy that we were able to do this and we're going to continue to do things like this. If you know of any like local things that we can go do a panel out, like please let us know because we're still looking.
We're new to all of this. That was our first exposure to the networking world. So please, please reach out to us. And again, if you have any case suggestions, you always want those. So email us and DMS on Instagram and stuff.
Yeah.
Oh, it's like an end of an era. It's also a two year.
Wrapping it up. Yep. Happy two years.
All right, guys, we will talk to you later.
Talk to you later. Love you. Bye.
Yeah.