WHAT WAS YOUR REAL JOB AND EXPERIENCE BEFORE THE "CAROL CUT"?

Ever since IG has been popular I’ve been on it. When stories launched I was working for PMD Personal Microderm. My dad started it in my grandmas basement and built it into an incredibly successful business with a small team. I was lucky enough to be one of the 5 on that team.

I was in charge of large accounts including Ulta, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Costco and more. I trained hundreds of people how to use it and sell it. I also did all of the trade shows throughout the United States from Miami to NYC, Chicago to LA. I worked for three years and learned so much about building a business through influencer marketing 2010-2013.

When Aspen was born I quit everything. Ammon and I literally filed taxes and had made 17K the entire year of 2013. #truestory We moved to Traverse City, MI for his job at Sherwin Williams after graduating at the University of Utah.

When we moved Taggart was 10 months old and aspen had just turned 2. We had only one car so I wasn’t able to get out much. The winters were brutal (this is coming from a Park City, Utah girl who grew up in the snow.) It was a very isolating time in my life. Ammon was working between 70-80 hours per week and most days the kids didn’t even get to see him because he would be gone before they woke up or went to bed.

A few weeks after Helen was born I got two different calls on the same day completely independently of each other. One was my older brother Spencer asking if I would help a Non-profit with their social media strategy and the other call was from my younger brother Sam who asked me if I would help him create a conference to unite the door to door industry he had been a part of for over 10 years. I was the Director of the Confrence D2Dcon for 4 years.

Within a week Ammon got a random call from my uncle offering him a job back in Utah at Serve Pro. It’s weird how things in life change so fast when we are open to opportunities.

WAIT SO WHAT HAPPENED AFTER YOU MOVED BACK TO UTAH?

Well, we bought a fixer upper, Ammon worked a normal schedule and I was able to learn a ton more about influencer marketing and social media strategy as I helped grow the two companies I was with. I quit the non profit shortly after coming back and went full swing into D2DCON, the Door to Door convention.

We flipped another house, moved in and then Carol happened. We crawled our way out of debt over those years and worked our butts off by flipping 3 houses in 2 years, raising our three young kids, going viral, managing 4 jobs combined and creating our own products including a cookbook full of recipes from my families most delectable recipes.

ISN'T IT EXHAUSTING?

I get this question more than any other from people who actually know me. The truth is – we have worked really, really hard. We are always hustling for a better future. We know the life we want and we are willing to fight for it until we get there. Don’t get me wrong, we have loved working hard together to make our dreams come true and people looking from the outside in, can’t see the bigger picture sometimes. Is it exhausting? um… yes. Is it going to be worth it? Absolutely.

We are so close now and we feel so blessed and humbled to have the support of real life friends and family and the most incredible online community along our journey.

FAMILY?

Ammon and I have 3 kids – Aspen, Taggart and Helen. They are literally little mini us’. They are the best kids on earth – sorry to everyone else.

My family is a little cray and you’ll see them around – My parents had some big gaps:

Spencer – 40Kelli – 38Abi – 34Sam – 30Emily – 23Sophie – 16 – I know, Kelli had a baby two weeks after Sophie was born so we are like Father of the Bride part 2.

Ammon’s family is amazing. His parents had 8 children, 7 of which were boys and all within 13 years!

Brannon – 36Lindsey – 35Jack – 34Ammon – 32Casey – 30Nick – 28Hunter – 26Trey – 24

There is nothing more important to us than the people in this answer box. We love our families and are so grateful for our strong bonds and special relationships. We aim to raise our kids similar to how both our parents raised their families.

THIS OR THAT

Bagels or Muffins

Cat or Dog

Fart or Burp

Big Spoon vs Little Spoon

Actor vs Director

Tree House vs TeePee

Gun vs Arrow and bow

Fruit vs Veg

Hot vs Cold

Spicy vs Bland

Beach vs Mountains

Tacos vs Sushi

Vanilla vs Chocolate

Going Out vs Staying in

Day vs Night

Library vs Museum

Theater vs Movies

Coke vs Pepsi

Gold vs Silver

Spiritual vs Physical 

Ketchup vs Mustard

Pool vs Sea

TV series vs Movie

Chicken vs Steak

Sweet vs Salty

Your turn!

SO WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?

After a year and a half of playing around on IG and learning how can have fun and make money we realize that making quality content is our job. We are finally jumping all in.

We represent some incredible companies that truly change lives, we collaborate with other artists and creatives and we are building a platform of love, light and laughter. 

HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY ON IG AND HOW DO YOU GO ALL IN?

Well – there are three ways to make money through social media platforms.

Sponsorships or paid Ads.Kickbacks from affiliate links to products you enjoy.Selling your own product.

We try to do all three things. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have, what matters is connection, love and value.

I learned the best way to make money is to serve your audience. Connect, love and share value that you see in your own life and others will benefit. The money will come if you focus on others instead of money.

WOW ABI, RIGHT OUT THE GATE YOU'RE DIVING DEEP HERE.

I know, and this is what you can expect. We want to keep it real, raw and relatable. It hasn’t been the easiest road, but making the decision that day to laugh in the salon completely flipped our world upside down. It’s been so fun and incredibly humbling to figure out how IG works without a handbook.

All of the products we make are to inspire creativity, positivity, reflection and fun. We sincerely thank our audience and recognize that it is all because of your support. We never want to compromise that relationship.

ARE YOU A BODY POSITIVITY BLOGGER? A MODEL (no one has ever asked this)? A LIFESTYLE INFLUENCER? WHAT?

I don’t like to name things so we will just say I’m an average Jane representing modern day women who have to balance a million things at a time and I document it all. I do love my body.

Also, I’m flattered you think I could be a model.

WHAT ARE SOME FUN CAMPAIGNS YOU'VE DONE ON IG THUS FAR?

Man, IG is my favorite hobby. We experiment with tons of activities, campaigns, hobbies, products and share it with a huge focus group. Some are successful and others not so much.

Some things I’ve done lately are:

Blind Date Murder Mystery Reality TV series – We brought 14 singles together for a date to die for.

Copycat October Posts – Everyday I dressed up and highlighted a new person I love to follow.

Homesteading – We sold our home and are looking to buy our own little homestead with a couple acres to raise a garden, a cow, some chicken and some children.

CAR DATES? WHAT?

Car dates are a staple for Ammon and I. When we don’t have the gumption for a night out or can’t find a sitter, we put the kids down and jump into our parked car in the driveway to enjoy a little alone time with 50K+ other people.

It is one of the greatest things we have done for our relationship. We love messing around, shooting the breeze, interviewing random people, and/or eating food. From Sex and Family Therapists to a lawyers, a rapper and even setting people up on blind dates, it’s a hell of a time. My mom even pranked me during one pretending to have a heart attack and literally thousands of people and I had heart attacks ourselves.

If you have any good ideas for us – please let us know what you’d like to see next.

WHY A WEBSITE ABI? YOU DO BEST ON INSTA!

I know. I wish I didn’t have to have a website honestly. Way more work for me… but I think it will be way easier to understand what the heck is going on. I’m kind of spaz y’all and it’s hard for people to keep up at times.

Having a website allows me to dive deeper into important topics – I never thought I’d blog, but here I am. It allows everyone to find codes and products easily. It allows us to use other social media channels like YouTube and Pinterest and host everything in one place. And, if Insta goes away – so does everything I’ve done for the last few years so I get to keep everything I’ve done!

Don’t worry, I’ve got an amazing team helping me out so they can focus more on this and I can stay true to creating fun and valuable content to share.

WAIT YOU HAVE A TEAM!? YOU'RE NOT JUST DOING ALL OF THIS YOURSELF? I FEEL LIKE YOU'RE TRICKING ME.

I wish I could do all of this on my own. I sacrificed a lot of time, relationships and money not using a team and diving out the load. It’s not easy running IG alone. And for those who have and do – I salute you! I did it for far too long without asking for help. I have hired some of my best friends who understand what I am, who my audience is, what they want and how to best serve them. I cannot and will never again do it all on my own again. My family is too important.

Karoline – helps me with customer service emails, website and product management and is a total babe. We met when she DM’ed me to do a car date with her niece Chloe to sell Girl Scout Cookies.

Shelly – I hired her to help me with my actual job D2DCON (see next FAQ). An hour for her is equivalent to 10 hours for a normal person. I swear she’s on speed or something. She is an animal and keeps me straight more than anyone else helping me with scheduling, products, shoots, giveaways, conferences and other events.

Ammon – The best and greatest man, father and support ever. He literally gets the bottom of the barrel. He ships everything out. He cleans up everyones messes and makes sure we don’t drop any balls.

I will write the blog posts, I will write the emails, I will answer as many DM’s as I possibly can without sacrificing my top priorities. I also make each person on my team take one hour a week to dip into DM’s so they understand you as well. I want them to always put the audience first and it helps them understand how I can be doing better too. Plus a DM from Ammon always makes people’s day.