Living Good in Lex with Anne Livengood!

We're joined by Anne Livengood, the force behind a wildly popular Walk Club in the Warehouse Block, to talk about how she helped turn the National Avenue area into a weekly meetup for people who want connection without the intimidation factor of a run club. The result is simple, welcoming, and surprisingly powerful: show up, walk, talk, and actually get to know your city.

From there, we zoom out into Lexington, Kentucky real estate and why "the market" is never one single story. Anne breaks down seller's market reality, why some homes still fly off the market, and how neighborhood micro-markets can change everything. We also dig into why finding the right agent matters when walkability, older homes, and downtown access top your list.

And of course the fun stuff: Lexington's food scene, taking kids to great restaurants, and how Anne uses her marketing background to spotlight the people and places she genuinely loves.

Transcript

Finding Your Place In Sports Parents

SPEAKER_00 0:06

You're the interesting mom that everybody's like doubt it. Definitely America.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Well, they definitely are like they have their own little they're nice. They're super nice people. I really like them a lot, but like they already had their own thing going. So I'm trying to figure out like how to navigate into their world a little bit more because I'm like, because at first I was like, it doesn't matter. I'm not gonna see these people because he was switching teams so often, but now he's like in this league where like this is his home base for a while. You're gonna know those people for a while. I know. So I was like, I guess I'll put in some effort and he sticks with it.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

My my nephew just graduated um high school and he played high school basketball at Henry Clay. But like ever since he got to like middle school age, I mean, I feel all the kids that he ended up like graduating and playing with, like varsity. Yeah, I felt like I had seen those same kids since they were like 10. Yeah, which is wild. Yeah, and it's like a cult, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

You know, like once you're in and we got to know all the families really well.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, and like that wasn't even my own kid. That was my nephew. Yeah, I mean, I went to every game.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

You're such a good aunt. That's so nice. Just the one. Yeah, so it was like yeah, you're not spreading yourself too thin. No. That's the last thing you need, Ann, is like another thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

I'm like sad that he graduated. I'm like, can I come watch you play club basketball at the Johnson Center? Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

He's like, no, no, get out of here. You're so much better than me. I'd be like, can I pay you for me not to be there? The last thing I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Well, it's not like So we are a role.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Okay, cool. Oh, say it's if you can keep it close to your shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

You don't have to like here all the way. Yeah, dude. Like, is this good? Yeah. Okay, I'm just trying to find like somewhere natural I can like rest. Absolutely. That's why I don't want to be like oh.

Welcome And Meet Anne Livingood

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Okay, great. We're good. Great. Hi. Hi. Welcome to the Inside the Block podcast. I am here today with Anne Living Good, kind of a local legend around here. You have like real I don't know about that. It's true. No, you remember the first time that you and I met, it was you were contacting Chad Walker about wanting to start a walk club for the warehouse block area. So what prompted that? How's it going? Give us updates. It has become wildly popular. How did you do it?

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Well, okay, it's funny that I remember that first meeting really well because I I came in really confident and hot. I don't know if you remember that because I felt like I was gonna have to like sell you all on it. Like I was like, I need to like convince them. And and like now when I think about it, it's like, why wouldn't they let me run a walk?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Like, yeah, yeah. No, I just remember you walking in being like, who is this?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

But I was like, I was like, I'm gonna, I was like, you know, the Wessex Run Club. Oh, we're gonna do that over here. It's gonna be the East Side walk club.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Absolutely.

The Idea Behind A Walk Club

SPEAKER_00 2:45

We're taking it down and I felt like I really had to say, and you all were like, that sounds great, wonderful. How can we support you? It's like anyway. Um, but yeah, so I actually started the walk club. It was a conversation I had with Avina, who is one of the owners of the Willow. Um, she um, you know, she knew that I had made a career transition into real estate. Yeah. And uh she knows, like, you know, I have deep ties to this, to Little National Avenue. I've been hanging out over here before it was even what it is now. So, anyways, um, you know, we both love this part of town, and she was opening the willow, and she said, you know, I have a really great idea for you. She was like, I think you she called me one day and she was like, I think you should start a walk club over there. Oh, so it was Avena's idea? It was Avena's idea. I did not know. She she pitched it to me and she knew that. So I used to teach fitness classes a long time ago, also on National Avenue at L Fitness.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Can't get rid of you.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, I know. So many years ago, my fitness journey started over here, but um, so she knew I was like looking for a way to get back into like leading people in movement. Um, and so uh, you know, she that was just kind of different and um very like community focused, and she just thought that I would be a great person for it. So she pitched me the idea, and I immediately was like, I love this, you know, like how can we make this happen? And so her and I were kind of just chit-chatting on the phone and um, you know, pinging ideas off of each other. And so then my next phone call was to Chad Walker, and you all were super supportive and I mean made it happen.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Absolutely. I mean, it couldn't have been a better idea too. And like are walking clubs like popular? Like, I don't live in that world as much.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Well, I mean, you know, so I've been to a ton of different run clubs. I think West Six does it really well. I mentioned them earlier. Um, they've been doing that um really, really well. I think they do it on Tuesday nights, I want to say, um, over on the west side of town. And uh, but the I think the usually the case is that it's like a run club, but you can also walk. So it's usually like a run slash walk club. Totally. I think the the um discouraging part about that for some people is if they even hear the word run. You know what I mean? Exactly. So it's like if you're if you're not a serious runner, sometimes you can be like, oh, that's not for me.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Totally. Or you immediately think, like, is this a marathon situation? Like, am I wearing a number? Like is this hardcore, like a marathon or something?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

And that can kind of, I mean, that that uh, you know, runners, like the culture among like, you know, runners is like, you know, that's it's a lifestyle, you know. So it can I think it can feel a little like intimidating to people. So um, so I wanted this specifically to be a walk club. I didn't even want to put run, like I'm a runner, actually. But I didn't even want to put run in the name. I wanted people to know, like, you're showing up just to walk. Yeah. You can run if you want, but you'll be leaving us behind. We're walking.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, yeah. Walking and talking, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah. So that was the other part too, is like I'm a runner, but I'm a solo runner. Like, I don't want to like chit chat. Yeah, yeah. Like I wanted this to be very social and very like I want it to encourage connection and like, you know, we're getting light movement in. This isn't really like the main focus, isn't necessarily like fitness, you know, even though walking is a great form of um exercise. Um this was more about like social connection and enjoying our city and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Speaking of so the routes are all through like Kenwick essentially, or like where all do y'all head?

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, and you know, you you should come on one and then you'll go.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

I have plans. I have plans to I'll you you would said, oh, the runners will be like way past us, even as the walker, I'll be in the very back.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

So it's really it's true.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Well, so yes, we do like a two to two and a half mile walk each time, and we rotate. Wait, which is no sounds, I'm just kidding. No, it goes by really fast. I mean, look, we're done in 45 minutes, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Two two miles in 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

See how little I live in this world.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Like, I have no idea like how long that would take. Yeah, that's not a fast pace. It's not a long distance either, apparently.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

But um, yeah, and it goes by fast because you're chatting and it's like, you know, we had really great weather. Shockingly, even though it's we're here in Kentucky. I was worried about the weather, but there was like three days the entire season last year that we needed to cancel for weather, and that was it.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

But yeah, so we go through, we rotate through about four or five different routes. Um we walk through Belle Court and Mintel and Kenwick and Ashland Park. We we go over there by the Henry Clay Estate on some routes. We walk through Woodland Park on some routes. It's my favorite park in the city. Oh, why? That's great. Oh, I love Woodland Park.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

I mean, all the trees and like you just it's just like a mature kind of a park where it has like all the coverage.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

I used to live right by Woodland Park, so I've always like had a a love for Woodland Park. But I think my favorite part about Woodland Park is it just always feels so like alive and like so much energy in that park. You could you could like 8 p.m. on a Tuesday walk in that park and you might see someone, you might see like a play happening.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, you might see like and it also it's so funny. It has like the little skateboard park. Yeah. So you've got that group, and then of course, like pickleball and tennis, and then you got the woodland art. It's like it's never not doing something.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Never, yeah, never. It is always so alive, it is always such an eclectic mix of people. I just think it's a like special little part of our city.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Totally, completely agree. So, do you live in Kenwick now? Is that what made your or sorry? I don't know, I don't. You don't live in Kenwick.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

I don't know. Okay, we're I live in Mettethorpe. So my sister lives in Kenwick, she lives over on Kramer, and she um she kind of helps me with the walk club. She'll walk over and like, you know. But no, I actually live in Mettethorpe. Um, we moved over to the west side of town, which we love it over there. It's a wonderful neighborhood. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

It's mid-century, right? Like those built like 5060s. Yep, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

19, our house was built in 1950.

Why Real Estate Fits Her Skills

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Well, speaking of houses, tell me about real estate in Lexington, Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Oh, I got a little bug flying around. Um, real estate in Lexington, Kentucky is wild.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Okay, like I'm fast, because you know I'm on like the historic preservation side of things. So, like I have, you know, because of my job, I've really had to get into and find fascinating, like zoning, H1 stuff. Like, and real estate is obviously like a major part of that too. So, like, what trends are you noticing lately? Like, let's start here. Tell me about your journey heading you towards real estate, like why real estate?

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Okay. Well, um, really the short answer of why real estate is really and truly, I just felt like it was the this is the first career opportunity I've had where I feel like I get to merge all my skills. Uh and and really feel connected to my city and feel like a community connector. Um so I um started out in uh video production, um, did that for, you know, at the beginning of my career and like worked in like local news and media. I had no idea. Yeah, okay. While back. Okay. Worked for UK athletics for a little while doing video production. Um and then I made the jump into small business ownership, actually opened my first business with Miss Avena Kylie as my partner. I had no idea. Yeah. What was the business? Um, Bar Fitness Studio. Okay, cool. So yeah, we both were taking classes at L Fitness over on National Avenue and then eventually went to Asheville, North Carolina and opened our own studio. So anyway, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

What haven't you done? I don't know. It's a while, yeah. My career has taken some different twists and turns. I love that. And and people should like know that that's okay. You know, I think some people just feel like they have to like, you know, hunker down with one career and just like make the most of it for 40 years. And it's like, no, totally you're collecting skills, and those skills should be applied in different ways.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

And they can be applied in different ways. You're never just starting over. Everything you've done at the past, you know, like that that's why I feel like real estate really allows me to merge all my skills, you know, even like the video and media stuff. You, you know, I use all of that knowledge to help promote my listings and market myself. Um, you know, I I also worked in marketing for a while. I worked for Kentucky for Kentucky as a marketing director. Um, you know, small business ownership and wearing many different hats, all of that. So this, yeah. And then getting involved in the community, all of this, everything I've done in the past really has um feels real estate feels like a great way to merge all those skills. Totally. So yeah, yeah, I really loved it.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

You got into real estate, was it a year or two years ago?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Oh a year and a half ago.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Okay. So it's like the beginnings of like what is what's been the biggest fresh. Fresh baby. What has been the biggest like shocking thing about getting into real estate? Or something you didn't expect.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Interesting. That is a tough question.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

What weirdos you see at like open houses and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Well, you know, um because that's that would always be me. I'd be like the looky loo, you know? Like I'll get a lot of looky loues. Yeah, I'm sure. But but listen, I love that. Listen, I'm like Really? Yeah. Oh, you don't know. First off, no one ever wants to host an open house and it'd be empty. Like give me all the looky loues. At least it's full and at least I'm not here twiddling my thumb. Talk to somebody, yeah. I mean, I want to show off whatever home it is and talk about it. And like, you know, I've obviously done my homework before I got there to host the open house. So at least with a looky, at least you get to tell somebody about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

At least they're looky and looing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Um, but yeah, I guess maybe the surprising part is like, you know, you'll you'll get to work with people and and everybody is just so different on what they want and what they prioritize.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

What they want in a house. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Yeah. And what they, you know, their priorities. So I'm always, you know, I'm always surprised by that, but you just gotta Yeah, I don't I don't know. That's a tough question. Yeah. Well, it's so many things. Oh, I'm surprising for me.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Well, and it has to be weird too, because like you're you're really, you know, it's a service for clients, and those clients are all wildly different, I'm sure. And like what their priorities are, where they are in life, and what they what they want in a house.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

So what is oh please. Oh, well, I try to really zone in on my kind of my niche is like urban walkable pockets in Lexington. Love that. So that's like primarily where I serve my clients is you know, over here in like the Kenwick area, um, you know, Ashland Park, all the all the surrounding neighborhoods here, um, walkability is huge for me. Um so I'm I kind of apparently yeah, Southland, I do a bunch of stuff over there, Metathorpe where I'm at, like, you know, um more kind of centrally located, closer to downtown neighborhoods, um, older neighborhoods. I tend to do deal with a lot of older homes and um yeah, very walkable. Yeah. So that's that's like that's who I am. Sure. That's how I've you know, that's how I live my life. And so that's how I'm naturally drawn to that. Yeah, and then the the people who want that are the ones who find me.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yeah. No, I didn't I you open up my eyes to the idea of like there's obviously, you know, you're shopping or like, you know, you you shop around for the right, you know, caterer for certain things, or you know, like a planner for whatever, but it's like you really want to work with a great real estate agent that like feels the same way that you do about certain, you know, uh lifestyle priorities and like whatever you want. Yeah. So it's like you you don't just go with like who your mom used, you know, to sell her house. Like you shop around.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Like this this will be a partnership for like months. Definitely. And and I mean, unless you and your mom have a lot in common, right? No, which I love my mom, and but we don't live the same kind of lifestyle. So it would make no sense for us to use the same agent, you know. Absolutely. Um, but yeah, people I think do often unfortunately make that mistake.

Lexington Housing Market And Micro Markets

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Yeah, just like go with yeah, yeah, yeah. Um tell me about Lexington real estate though, and like what are the hot new areas? What are what are the some trends that you've been noticing lately?

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah. Well, so Lexington has remained a seller's market, despite like nationally, you know, things have definitely been kind of trending more towards a buyer's market. Um, Lexington ha remains like pretty good demand, which is great, you know. Yeah, um, there's really good, there's a good cost of living here. I mean, comparatively.

unknown 14:56

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Um, and um, so yeah, the demand remains strong here. Um, but you know, things have started to kind of cool down, like, you know, oh for sure. Meaning, yeah, like, you know, um days on market are a little bit longer, you know, than uh the past years, which is good. I mean, it's just not as much of a frenzy, you know. You um it gives buyers the chance to kind of like think about things and not feel so rushed. And um, but you know, I say that, and then also at the same time, you know, I just sold one of the Midland town homes right over there.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

And I mean, we were under contract in 24 hours. So I mean, it really it depends. It's that's the thing, is like a people ask me all the time, like, what's the market like? And honestly, the answer to that is is the it's it's so dependent on there's all these little micro markets, you know, it's dependent on the neighborhood. It's a bit like it changes from neighborhood to neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

You know interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, and like it just depends on the specific scenario. Like, you know, those Midland townhomes, they go so fast. The last few ones that have sold, they've gone within a day or two. Yeah. And the reason for that is like there's not a lot of townhomes, uh especially in walkable um neighborhoods in Lexington. So, you know, Lexington was kind of late to the game on the townhomes. Um, so if one of those uh one of those opens up now, it usually goes quick because now the demand for them is there.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

That's so who who who who is your the general like townhome, like resident who wants it, like anybody from any background generally?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

I mean, you know like retirement kind of a like over there at the Midland, yes, you do get some. I sold a couple, um, I sold to a couple last fall that like their kid was going to college in Kentucky and they had sold their like family home that they you know raised him in and they were downsizing. It was just the two of them, and so they wanted and they also travel a lot because now their kids out of the house, so it was like they wanted something. So, yes, you get people like that that want a townhome. Yeah. Um, and then over at the Midland townhomes, you'll get a lot of the like UK residents and things like that. That creates a strong demand for those. Um so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

So I wonder why Lexington was late on the townhome game. Is there anything behind that?

SPEAKER_00 17:14

I I mean, I think that um, yeah, I think it just has um I mean, I think for the most part, like Lexington is seen as like, you know, like there's a lot of suburbia.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Like, you know, for the wide majority of buyers are shopping for like single family residents, sure, you know, like single family homes. Um yeah, I think that Lexington has just changed in in the way that um, you know, there's like a lot more young professionals moving here. There's just um like the food and beverage scene has changed, like walkability in places like areas like this, like pockets like this, are just so much more desirable, you know. Absolutely. Um, because of the continued development of this area. So yeah, yeah. It's just Lex knows really shifted in that way.

Favorite Lexington Restaurants With A Kid

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Um, we do have a pretty great food scene lately, don't you think? Excellent. Yeah, yeah. Where do you eat? What do you do? Oh my gosh, I can like I just have a three-year-old, right? We were talking before we started recording, which I thought was like chef's kiss about you take your three-year-old everywhere, like even to like the fanciest of Lexington restaurants. I think that's so great.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Oh yeah. We'll go to Meletta and he sits at the bar with us, or which is like one of our recent recent favorites. We go to 310 and Eppings. We love Eppings. We go to Eppings all the time. Yeah. Um, Eppings is one of our favorites because it's also like shockingly set up for kids. Oh, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Cole, Cole or you just talked about how like he, you know, there's two sides to it. He's like, so you can do, you know, anybody can sit anywhere, but we really wanted it to be as kid friendly as possible. Like, because he wanted to always take his kids to nicer places too. And he was like, I whenever we were planning the space, we kept that in mind. So that's great that like it comes across that way too and very much the room. That bathroom's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

I like crazy, I like take photos of it and send it to my friends who like live out of town in one bedroom apartment. I mean, it's wonderful for a family.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Because otherwise, we're like, you know, we're in the like potty training stage. So we're like packing portable potties with us in a bag and stuff. Great.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Yeah, yum. I know, right? Always fun. Always good.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

So we love Epic. We're like, we don't even have to bring that. No, no, it's wonderful. Ready to go. Where else do you eat? Pearls. Pearls and you love downtown. I knew that. I do love downtown. Yeah. Pearls and 310 have been big favorites for us lately. County Club. Yeah. I'll forever be a county club. Same girl saying. I love Smithtown and Wessex. Like everything we to Michael does is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Absolutely.

unknown 19:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

But um, yeah, our food scene is I mean, it's crazy to me. I worked, I got my first job downtown Lexan as a hostess at Decheys. Oh, Deche. Oh, R.I.P. When I was 17 years old. Amazing. Right across from Rup. So that was 20 years ago. Isn't that wild? Yes. That's great. Anyways, right across from Rup. But yeah, so um I've worked, and then I worked in Harvey's Bar for a little while. Um is that where you met Avena? That's where I met Avina. I bartended there for like six or seven years. Um, also while Hugo's was open, R.I.P. Hugo's. Oh, I loved Hugo's. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

That was that I've made some mistakes in Wii Us. Yeah, yeah.

unknown 20:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

But yeah, um, so anyways, just working downtown for a long time, uh, I've seen the downtown landscape change so much. And the downtown food scene changed. Yeah. Oh my God. I remember like when the original, like table three ten, I remember when that first opened. I mean, that was such an interesting concept. New concept for Lexington. You know, like you just didn't. I remember that really kind of changed the game. I remember when County Club opened, you know, and that felt very I think he even came, I think Johnny Shipley came from 310. Is that right? Table 310. I think he was like the chef there and then went to Open County Club. I might be wrong about that. Don't anyway. Yeah, yeah. No in fact, check me out. Well, they're all but they're also all connected. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Like there's a whole like they all had their hands and lots of stuff. So yeah, it wouldn't surprise me.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Um but yeah, like I just I remember when the original Table 310 opened and that was so new and different for Lexington, and now you've got so many, like, you know, you've got Cordalima and Pearls and all these very like, you know, New York feeling, absolutely like true downtown personalities.

Downtown Lexington Then Versus Now

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Totally. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So what was it like being a waitress at Dechais?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Well, I was a hostess.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Oh, so sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Even better.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

I wasn't old enough to serve yet. No, not yet. Um, it was good. It was interesting. It was always funny to me. I remember like the anytime there was something happening at Ruperina, we were just like slammed. And I people would come in and be like, you know, what's the wait? And I'd be like, oh, um, it's gonna be two and a half hours. And they'd be like, all right, but Her name on the list, and I'm like, Yeah, I'd be like, Goodbye. Yeah. But that is what I'm saying. Like now there are so many more options downtown for like fine dining and stuff. And there were other options then, but not near as many as there are now. Right. Anyway. Yeah, yeah. So that was the only like it was that or nothing basically back then? It wasn't that or nothing. I can hardly remember. There were a lot more like casual restaurants. And I think Bellini's was open then. They were like down a little ways. Uh-huh. But we were definitely one of the only, like right there in uh what's it called? Victorian Square. Yeah. Victorian Square. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, it's it's like now my memories feel I feel like it's failing me, but I don't remember. You know, you know how there's like Pies and Pint there, you're in Tapster and all those different, like there wasn't any of that. Yeah. I can't even remember what was there.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Yeah. Um Victorian Square is really interesting just in general. It is. I think isn't that an interesting spot downtown? Sometimes I go in there for whatever reason. It's so gorgeous. It's beautiful. And but you're the only one. I know. You know, like you're walking through. I mean, it's a cool concept. I love the architecture, but sometimes I'm like, are my female spidey senses like perking up? Like who's gonna, like, I don't I never know, you know?

SPEAKER_00 23:16

It's definitely an interesting space. They've done a lot to bring foot traffic. Like it was a lot more quiet, if you can imagine that, back when I was 17 years old, taking my breaks from Dachets, like eating cornbread in the in the You're painting a really great picture right now.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

I'm like, I like neither argue.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

There was a little table. Like a little like two-person bistro table, like out right out the back of Deche. Did you see cornbread there? Oh yeah. The cornbread was amazing. Did you know? I don't remember it very well. It's gonna be like, yep. That was like what Deshays was known for.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Was known for? I had no idea.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

It was like a very, I don't know what the recipe was, but it was like a it was like a sweet cornbread. It was very good. I like cornbread in general.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Oh, too bad.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

I wonder if anybody has like the old Dechay's cornbread recipe. Oh, I'm sure. Well, I think they still have a location open, like in Maysville. Maysville, I've heard that, yeah. Just recently.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

So you could probably track it down. Yeah, okay. Would it be worth a drive? Yeah, absolutely. Would it be worth a drive to Maysville for this cornbread?

SPEAKER_02 24:21

So yes. Sure, sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

That's like an hour drive from here. Absolutely. Listen. Depends how much you love cornbread. I will go get some cornbread with you one day. I love make cornbread. I think it's the cute. Yeah, and now that I'm remembering, it was their butter too. They made like a butter in-house. It's like some kind of honey butter. Yeah, it was worth it. Yeah. Yeah, we need to go get it. We need to do it.

Building LivingGoodAndLux With Marketing

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Well, speaking of you putting all of your um skills together in certain, you know, like you've had this incredible trajectory of like collecting really great skills to be able to put them all to use for this new endeavor. I think your online presence is something that's like really inspiring to me. Like you I've been noticing lately that you've really been, I mean, I don't know, like I hate the term influencer, as I'm sure you do too. But like, because really what you're doing is more like these are the places I naturally go that I just want to highlight on my Instagram and to kind of like, but the branding is really cool. Like, how, how, where did that come from and how do you approach it? Well, thank you. I mean it. I mean it. I think and I've been noticing there's other like higher up institutions in Lexington that have been, I think, stealing a little bit of your well, maybe just inspired. Okay, listen. You can say inspired, I'm gonna say steal.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Well, um, yeah, so I um I have uh quite a bit of marketing experience in my brother. So that that kind of started with um when I opened a business when Avina and I opened Soundbar, um, which was like learning on the fly? Very much so. Okay. And that was like a crash course into like marketing, you know, small business ownership, like all the things. But I got really like I, you know, I was mid-20s and I was, I don't know, my ego. I think about this now and I'm like, what is wrong with me? But I moved to a city where I knew no one out of state and opened a new business. And so I got really good really quickly. Well, I tried really quickly. Yeah. Yeah. To like figure out marketing and how to best market us. And, you know, that was when that that was a while back, but that was when social media was like, you know in its infancy. Yeah. But like taking over, and like, you know, everybody was on Instagram and it that was the hot new thing and whatever. So, anyways, I started using all those tools to market my own business. Um and then I was getting better and better at it. And so um I started getting, you know, I got approached by a nonprofit there and they asked me to do their marketing. So I started doing some of that, and then um, and then I eventually took on a part-time job working for a very fast-growing uh jewelry company that was based out of Asheville, and I was running kind of like their sales, their B2B sales. And so, anyway, all of that. And then I eventually, once I closed that business and moved back to Kentucky, I got a job working with Kentucky for Kentucky as their marketing director, yeah, sales and marketing director. And um so I had, I guess, all of that to say, I had a solid background in marketing. But you know what's not fun? What doing marketing for other people? Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, it is. Don't get me wrong. Like, I enjoyed those jobs. I got to do a lot of fun and cool stuff with Kentucky for Kentucky, but this was the first time that I was like, I get to market my city and the places that I love the way you want, the way I want to. And no one's gonna tell me, no one's gonna stop me, no one's gonna I you're the client.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

And I'm like, I get to highlight the things that I think are important. I get to highlight the people that I think are shaping the city and you know, making a difference in the way in our communities and the way we live here. Um, so I'm passionate about it. And so that's why I, you know, that's why I said thank you because I I don't care about being an influencer. Right. But I do care very much about the way I'm representing Lexington and the people who are, you know, pouring a lot of love into our city. And absolutely. So uh so I honestly I'm having fun with it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

I was about to ask, is it like reinvigorated that side of marketing for you? Very much so.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

And like I have a I've always kind of enjoyed graphic design. I'm not a graphic designer, but I enjoy like, you know, I mean, I feel like my graphic design friends are probably gonna puke when they hear me say this, but like I love like playing around on Canvas.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

I love Canva, like I love, I don't care who you can puke all you want. I love and Canva is doing incredible things lately.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah, but I also really love collaborating with graph, like I still like I love collaborating with creatives. So I still do. Like I reach out to my friend Eric, who you know very well. I love Eric. I'll be like, hey, you know, take some photos of me from around for around town and send them to me. Or I'll I I I love collaborating with creatives. Um so, anyways, I have fun doing it. Um, and uh yeah, it's just been it, it's yeah, it's been a lot of fun for me.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

So I'm glad.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

I hope that comes across. I hope people enjoy it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Oh no, for sure. I and it's helpful because you'll be like, you know, this is what's going on lately, or these are the things that I plan to attend, or and it's it's a good mix of like a little bit of history, a little bit of recommendations, a little bit of like current events, and it's it's so it's a well, you're doing a well-rounded account. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

And I mean it. I'll to be honest, I felt like that was missing. Yeah, and I and that was part of that was one of the conversations I had had with Avena. Um, you know, I would show her, I would be like showing her different things that other people put out in different organizations around town, and I would be like, Yeah, but if I was doing it, yeah, I would do this, this, and this. And and I was like, I feel like there's room for someone else to do this a little differently. Absolutely. And apparently there was because it's gotten great traction.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

The old the old version of that, of that model too, was very much like I'm being, you know, paid or I get a kickback in some way of going out to this place and highlighting them because they're they they want promotion, right? And yours is from a much more like personal, organic, uh like this is just you know this is my lived experience in Lexington. A living good experience. Yes, yeah. The living good experience. That's right. Living good experience. You have the best last name though. I've heard. So I've heard. I mean, I would kill for it. It's so good. Like, what does it do you know the origin?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Oh, not really. Lexington, Kentucky. No, I'm like, I think it I think it's like German and Irish. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

It's like couldn't be a better last name for everything that you're doing. Because I know, and for those people who might not know, your handle on Instagram is Living Good and Lux. Yeah. Right. Okay, perfect. Living Good and Lux.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Yep. Um, yeah, I it's actually it's my uh maiden name. Like it's my and and I got married to my husband and it was like a two-second conversation. He was like, Are you gonna die? I was like, no. He's like, cool. No. He was like, I wouldn't either. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Yeah, because his like his last name's not as cool as Living Good.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

His last name is Acuff, but like there's very few names that are gonna be as cool as Living Guys. Heck.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

No, I mean we're not gonna what could he even present me with? I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The battle was won the day you were born.

unknown 31:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

So what's up? What's next for you? I mean, you're in a huge busy season of life right now. Before we started recording, you're saying that in real estate, your busiest months are March and April, which I found. So, first of all, what is the re like people are just like, Well, I've done my spring cleaning, it's time to sell this house. Like, why is this a hot time to sell or buy?

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Well, it is notoriously the the spring is the busiest time. I forget what week it is, but it's like maybe like the some week in April or something like that is like notoriously the the biggest week of the year for buying. So weather has an effect. Sure. You know, people get uh, but also like people get tax money back and things like that and can use that towards like closing payments, down payments, whatever. Um, but also um I think people also too, like this is a good time of year to start shopping and and trying to get in somewhere because it it also lines up a little bit with school. Like if you have kids, you definitely want to get in somewhere before like during the summer, like at least like close in the summer or something before the next school year starts. Makes a lot of sense. That's another reason why things things definitely die down. Usually real estate stays busy like through the summer for the most part. It'll be slow in July for a little bit and then um a little bit of a fall pop, but like most people, especially with kids, want to get in somewhere before you know August hits.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Absolutely because they're moving into potentially a new like school district or like area or whatever, and to be able to start.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Even if they're not, I mean, to be like moving and trying to get settled in a house and also like starting school, it's just a lot of people, you know. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

No, that makes total sense. So what's next for you? I mean, you got this busy season right now, you have a three-year-old, which that probab that keeps me the most busy. Sure. I don't know. We were talking before about potty training. I just can't. Yeah. Plus your heart. Yeah, like I uh that keeps me very busy.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

I have one child. That's that's it. That's it for me. One and done.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

One and done smart and living guys. I'm one of five. I'm one of five. Are you really?

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Where do you fall? And I'm the second. Oh, okay. But I'm like, that was fun. I loved it. I love having a lot of siblings. I'm I'm very close to my siblings, but I'm also like, that was for my parents. That is not for me. Totally, totally. Are they all girls? Um, first three are girls. Uh huh. Youngest two are boys. Ah, okay. Youngest two are much younger than me. They uh they're they're my mom and dad split. They had the three girls, and then mom remarried and had the younger two boys.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

I can totally see you being like older sister, older sister vibes, you know. Try to be a very cool message. Well, I'm sure you are. Especially when you go into your nephew's basketball games and stuff like that. Speaking of your sister, though, I don't know which one it is, but when I see you two together, like sometimes like you look so much alike to me. You have sort of like the same like vibe and like energy. Yeah. Are you guys like really close?

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Very and you're probably saying you don't know which one it is because no one ever knows which one it's all three of those look very similar. We're all three close in size, we're all three very close in age. Like we're my older sister's 17 months older than me, my younger sister's 18 months younger than me. Irish triplets almost, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so, um, and we're all we have like similar demeanor, like we, you know, so we sound kind of similar. Cool. Yeah, yeah. So we get that a lot.

Walk Club Details Discounts And Swag

SPEAKER_01 34:33

And you're all three here in Lexington together? Yeah, what a blessing. Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, awesome. Right? Sounds great. Okay, so anything else to tell us about, especially Walk Club. Like, what can we expect? What days are they?

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Yeah, well, I'm stoked to restart Walk Club. It starts back March 25th. Cool. And the response to, you know, it starting back up has been massive online. Yeah. Um, so I'm I'm super pumped about it. We're gonna meet every Wednesday starting March 25th. We'll walk every Wednesday um at 5:30. We meet right by Void Sockey in the lot here on National Avenue. And um, that'll run all the way through um we end whenever the time changes again or whatever, whenever it starts getting dark early. So that'll run all the way through November, I think. First week of November or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So I we're giving away free swag and stuff to the first 50 people to come out to the first one. Yeah. Last year we had 43 people uh show up to the very first one. So this year we're trying to get 50 plus um on the first one.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

I mean, like when I remember you when you came in and talked about it with Chad, you know, we were all thinking, even you, you were like, you know, if there's a few people, that's great. If it grows, that's great. Like it was all very, but like it was a real it was a major uh reaction to this. So I mean, like it was like people are hungry to walk.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

I know. Yeah. So I will say I was, I remember that first week last year that we did it. We launched we launched it on April 16th. I remember really well. And and it was like right around 5 30, all these cars started pulling in the parking lot, and I was like, people are getting out of their cars, and I was like, Are you guys here for an event? Like, what's I would put yeah, and everybody was like, We're here for walk club. What are you here for? And I'm like, You're here for my event? Like, I was feeling so good. And oh my gosh, it just got a massive response right from the beginning. So I think people just like are hungry to connect and like it's free. Yeah, like it doesn't cost anything, you know. And like we walk in a beautiful part of town. I mean, and when the weather's so nice, like I mean, you can't lose. Last year we got really lucky, it was like a perfect weather day to kick it off. So I'm manifesting that for you for this March.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Yeah, me too. Yeah, because it's it's March is dicey, march is dicey.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

So I really I I went back and forth. I was like, should I just wait till it people were like already like messaging me and being like, but when are we starting back up? So I'm like, all right, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Yeah, well, best of luck to you with that. You're gonna be out here walking. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna come walk at some point. I'm gonna walk up and see y'all, and then you'll go off into the distance, and when you come back, I'll buy you a sake. How about that? That sounds good. No, I'm kidding, I'll go I'll go on the walk here. But isn't that a part of it too?

SPEAKER_00 37:15

You guys go to different places after each one? Yeah. So everybody, all the businesses on the warehouse block have been like incredibly supportive of it. Yeah. So all of them, like Void, The Willow, um, Salve's Ice Cream, Wildfire Wellness, and Wildfire Yoga. Yeah, I love it. Lex Salt Cake. They all offer, like we give out these little walk club uh cards. Um, and all of those places um offer some kind of discount to walk clubbers. So it's like exclusive to walk club. Yeah, so yeah, I'm done gonna go. Totally. You can stay and hang out and like grab a glass of wine afterwards, or and we kind of rotate, like each walk will end at a different spot, you know. Um, so yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Final Thanks And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Yeah, for sure. Well, people need to go. Sounds great. I mean, it's a huge response and exactly what this area needed. So congrats. Thank you. You're so welcome, and thank you for being on our podcast. It's really nice talking to you. Thank you for having me. Always sounds good. All right, thanks.