E10 - Allison Holker Boss, star of HipHop Nutcracker on Disney+ and So You Think You Can Dance

Hi, and welcome to Visible Panty Lines, AKA vpl the pod. I'm Janae Luciani Sena. These are transparent conversations of encouragement, inspiration, and overcoming adversity. So first, I guess let's talk about what you're talking about today and your collaboration with hp.

I collaborate with HP because I've always had an hp. We actually have two. We have one in my office. I have one at my home. I just find it to be, like, the best and easiest to work with as far as companies and brands for printers. Like, what's what. We've always stood by, but I love being a part of the HP Instant Ink program. It's a subscription model, but literally during the pandemic, like, I found I started printing off everything because everything was going digital with, like, the schoolwork and everything.

Like, I was like, no. Like, I want my kids to physically have their homework in hand. I want to print off schedules for them. I want to keep them, you know, accessing things. I feel better for, like, their, like, their retention, comprehension. And I just found it to be so important because everything was just, like, through the screen. And I just could. I could feel losing my kids a little bit as far as, like, everything just started feeling like the same for them. Everything they're reading. It wasn't really, like, staying with them. And I really did find that printing out their work was helping so much. So when HP reached out to me, I was like, easy. Like, I do this. I know what you guys are about. I get it. And it really did help us out a lot. So, yeah.

Yeah.

Having the Instant Ink program, it's like, I don't know if you've ever heard of it or use it yourself.

No, but I do have an hp. And the funny thing is, like, I have one printer in my house. I've been working from home forever, and the kids, like, fight. We literally, not even just the kids, we all fight over the printer. And then I end up, like, trying to figure out ways to make it off limits to the kids because they love to print out pictures of their friends at school, right? Soccer team, whatever, like, inspirational quotes, stuff like that. And the ink runs out, you know, and then I'm like, I go to print something that I actually need for work, and it's not there. So I think the program sounds like it's brilliant for families and working families, you know, people that are not just utilizing it for school, but families with working parents in the home.

Oh, no. It's honestly been a game changer. And that's why, like, literally, When I was like, absolutely, I'm already a part of the program.

Yeah.

There's been so many times exactly what you're saying. Like, I've gone to print stuff off and it's like, been terrible quality because, like, my kids have used all the ink.

Exactly.

But now with the HP Instant ink, it actually tracks your ink so it will send it to you prior.

Oh, that's so cool.

At your door. It's already there. And printing it sends you paper, if you like paper as well. So I just found it to be like, so convenient for our family in like, every way possible.

Yeah.

And I really encourage my kids to do it. Like, even my daughter, like, even going into this new school year now she's in high school. And she was like, oh, mom, like, everything. We're just using our iPads now. And I was like, I don't care. Like, if you have notes, I'm like, I'm telling you, if you just print it and keep it in your folder, it's track. You can do it at the same time when you're on your iPad for a different thing at work or at school. So for me, I just, like, I'm trying to keep my kids doing that. So I love this program. Not just, but also for teachers as well. Like, I just think it's a game changer in the house.

Well, I always need to print stuff out. Like, I. Even as a journalist and, you know, someone that does all the different things that I do and wears all the different hats, I need to see things. Like, I don't know if it's just an old school because I'm like Gen X millennial, you know, slash millennial. Right on the cut there. I don't know if it's like an old school thing, but I really always just need to see stuff in front of me and like, sometimes the screen, like, gets lost in translation. So you mentioned your family. Let's talk a little bit about. About your family. Like, I mean, I know. So you have this busy career, right. And you're a dancer. Most people probably know you right from your work on, so you think you can dance and then. But you also are a mom. So tell me like a little bit about your family and like juggling and everything that, you know, goes entails. That entails.

I like to describe our family as beautiful chaos.

I love that. Oh, my God. Isn't that all of them, though? All of us barely hanging on by a friend.

I feel like I talk to a lot of mothers and a lot of parents and a Lot of, you know, people in a space that live their life very busy and they have a lot of like different hats that they're wearing all the time. And I find there's this like common denominator where everyone's trying to find the way of making it all work and being perfect at it. Everyone's always like, oh, like, you know, if I did this different, if I did this. And everyone's trying to like change what they're doing. And I love that people are trying so hard to advocate for easier ways. But yeah, I'm like, it's, even if you change, it doesn't necessarily mean it's not going to still be that chaos. So instead of trying to look at it as being such a bad thing, why don't you just like live inside it and enjoy it? Because it's, that just is what it is. So I try to teach my kids that even on the craziest of days, like, it's really fun, it's really beautiful. And I try to like sit, celebrate it almost.

I love that. Live in the present. Like that's something that so many people just don't get that concept. And I know like, personally I get a lot of like, mom, you're always on your phone, you know, from my kids. And that's like heart wrenching because I try to explain and usually I probably don't do it in the best way. I end up snapping at them. But I try to explain like, mom is working so hard because we want to go on vacation to Aruba every year and we have this nice house and we, you know, like it's like you try to instill that in them. Like, hey, you work hard, there's rewards. You can, you know, we have a big family, we have a lot of expenses, like value of money and all that stuff too. But it's like, you know, being self employed and having so many different things going on and you know, like being in the entertainment industry, like if you're not available at a time when someone reaches out to you, like if a producer contacts me to go do a show or a talk show or whatever it is, and they don't hear back, they move on. So it's like that industry where things are moving so quickly. So it's like, how do you make your kids understand, balance that time? Like the whole thing of having office hours or certain times a day or my husband will say, shut off your phone. It's like that doesn't apply to us. Right? So it's like, what do you do.

I mean, for us, like, we definitely run into everything you're talking about. Like, we're workaholics.

They all run into.

I love what I do.

You know what I mean?

So it's not that I'm. I'm addicted to it for power. I really do enjoy the process of being creative and I love the meetings and the creative space we find ourselves in. But it does get really hard because I sometimes feel like for my kids, because we sometimes even work with our children, I did notice that they were like, man, it feels like work for them every single day. So something that we really implemented, and this is news. I'm still trying to figure it all out for myself and our family, like how to make quality time. But something that we've recently implemented. Both my husband and I is dating our children. I know that sounds weird.

Oh, I love that too.

So I don't mean that to sound gross or take it out of context.

Right.

But I, like, make sure I take like each individual child out for personal time away from the other kids.

Yeah, that's a game changer.

And I love to say we do.

It once a week. This.

It's not necessarily.

Even if it's once in a while, they remember that. That is so smart. Like that one on one attention. That's something that we struggle with too, because we have four of them and you know, two are very close in age. The two, and they're the girls and they're the older ones and they feel like they already. Right now I'm in the process. I just tore apart my whole house because they want to switch rooms because the girls don't want to share anymore. So there's four bedrooms upstairs. So it's like, okay, how do you. You know. So now the boys are going to share a room, so everything's torn apart. But we're like, trying to make them happy because we understand, like, they already lose their identity to some extent when they don't have their own space. Right. So, like now you don't get individual time with mom or dad either, which makes it challenging. So we try to do the same thing, like, especially if we notice one of the kids is kind of like, you know, not being themselves or something's wrong. My husband will be like, okay, I think I'm gonna take like, Ava out to dinner or. Or do this, you know, because that is so important. And I think, like, no one really talks about that aspect. And it's like, I guess no matter what you do for a living, like, what you choose to do with the rest of your time really matters, but then that lends itself to a whole other discussion on, like, okay, now not only do you have so much pressure on yourself to, like, keep your household afloat and whatever else is going on, but now you have this pressure of, like, did I give the kids enough time or did I? You know, so it's just, like, yet another thing.

It doesn't even have to be anything crazy. Like, sometimes my daughter and I. She's 14, me just driving her around the block.

Fun age.

Isn't it the best time? We have conversations because being that we are a household of, you know, five individuals, if we're only always together, a lot of those vulnerable moments are gonna happen because the kids are fighting over, like, who had the top, like, the doll, and who's. Who's the taller one in the family. It's like, you know, like, you're always bickering in a family.

It's like, even if it's, like, totally still.

Yeah, serious. But there's just always constant conversation or something going on. Then if you don't take, like, personal time, like, even with your partner in life, like, if you don't take that personal time with even your children, you might not ever get to those, like, really vulnerable moments of, like, honest conversation before.

So true happens.

And then, like, now it's like a situation that something happened, and now you're having to correct it instead of, oh, I'm already in communication with my kid. You know, even if it's. It doesn't necessarily always have to be something serious. But what's going on with you and your friends? You know, like, what happened? What's. What happened this week? You know, what's. It's just keeping involved. And I think that the personal time is really where, like, the conversations open up. So that's, like, a really big thing for us that we barely, like, implemented. And I've seen a difference already, you know, like, even, like, my youngest, like, she's two, too, and I'm like, let's go get yogurt, just you and I. And then, like. But the other kids don't get mad, but she's like, mommy and I went and got ice cream and the Mazda, but can I have a date like that with you? And so they all understand, and I can, like, see the benefit of it. But we're also really, really big about our family dinners, so we can't do it, like, every single day.

So you don't have a lot of sports going on in your household, or you do oh, okay. Because I feel like the dinners are, like, impossible with sports.

Yeah, it's crazy, but we definitely, like, we try to navigate that space together, like in our home as much as we can. So even if it's just a couple nights a week, that's like always our goal. And we actually do something that, like, is really special to us. We do, like table topics.

Oh, I love that. Yeah.

And sometimes, like, the questions are really like, you know, silly goosey. Like, you know, if you had a superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it? You know, but then it's like, if you could impact the world in a way, what would you change? You know?

And.

Yeah, so the questions are diverse and they change. And it seemed weird doing it with like, young kids at first because we like some of the questions. My son, who's six, like, it goes.

Right, Oh, I have a six year old also. Yeah. But then other than they ask, you are like, yeah, everything just is spider man.

So it's like, oh, yeah, Spider man. You know?

Right.

But then sometimes they surprise you and they have like this really beautiful thought and you're like, wow, like, so that's like, we do the dinners mostly for that, like, conversation that's had and it's really fun. We've been doing that for years now. And honestly, the kids are like, can I ask the question tonight? You know, So I found that for our whole household, like, quality of time is like going on like little dates. And then like, our dinners are like a big part of our day.

That's such a good tip. Like one year on Thanksgiving dinner, I got this thing that's like a turkey. And the turkey feathers are like paper. And each person in the family writes like, what they're thankful or grateful for on the p. Like a feather. Yeah. And that sparked. You can use it as a conversation starter. So I mean, I guess you could apply like your concept and this sort of thing. And outside of Thanksgiving. But what was really neat was like what everybody wrote down and then kind of discussing it after. And it like, kind of made everybody feel good. Where, especially in family settings, a lot of times there's a lot of drama. There's a lot of like somebody's mad at somebody. Like you said, throw in like a mother in law, grandma figure, you know, anybody else. There's like negative energy coming. There's all kinds of stuff going on. So it's like, nice to start like on a positive note. And especially when it's like something you're sharing that's Like a meal. That's great advice. I love that. And I feel like that's something that families kind of can feasibly incorporate no matter how busy you are. Like, hey, here's a little thing that you can do. You know, just if you feel disconnected.

Your kids to talk too, because.

Oh, and put the phones down when you're doing it right? Put the phone down.

That's like, yeah, but that's also why we like it. But like, you know, I find like, sometimes I talk to like my friends and they're like, oh my gosh. Like, all I ever get from my kid is like, school's good. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, there's not word answers, right.

These kind of questions kind of open it up where maybe it's not necessarily about their personal life having at school, but then it teaches your kids to feel like they can have conversations with you so they feel a little more comfortable explaining what happened in English or in math instead of just being like, it was fine.

Well, it really changed that dynamic. I'm going to wager to guess that our kids, I know my kids are a lot like me. Your kids are probably a lot like you. So there's no one word answers coming out, like.

Right?

You know, and I'm saying like, the personality is there or whatever. So I'm like, I don't really have that problem with my kids. In fact, with my daughter especially, it's like too many words answered like the opposite. I'm like, okay, I've had enough, Gigi. Like, especially in the morning, I'm like, there's too many words. My brain is like, can't compute. It's like.

Right? So when people say stuff like that, I'm like, really? Your kids give you one word answers? Because like, I can't get mine to shut the F up. You know, basically.

Like, sometimes you just need a break. Or it's like first thing in the morning, you haven't had your damn coffee yet. And you're like, okay, you can't do this. My daughter gets on the bus at 6:30 in the morning. Yeah. Now where are you based? Are you on the west coast or. Yeah, west coast, California. Okay, so what's going on in la? Okay, I was just there last week. I do a regular segment on Access Daily. You know, used to be Access Hollywood Live, called Problem Solving. So I go about like once a month, which is fun because I'm in upstate New York. So it's a nice change of pace for me. But as you know, challenging with kids and all the other stuff going on and you tend to miss games and everything else. But what do you have going on, like work wise and what's going. What's like new with you?

Well, we have actually.

My husband.

I say we. My husband, I. We actually have a holiday special coming out that's on Disney.

Oh, so cool. We love Disney plus.

So it's a new quiz on the Nutcracker Run is in it. It's all about celebrating dance and music. And it really does pay homage to the original Nutcracker, but just in a new age way. And it is so much fun. It's gonna be coming out after Thanksgiving to bring in the holiday season. But that we just wrapped on that and it was such a fun experience. And you know, when you see the cast, it is people, you know, it is obviously very, very dance heavy as it's.

Right. It's a dance, I'd imagine. Right. Dancing is involved.

Almost every single cast member has had like such an important role in our lives. And so every day walking to set, it was just like family. And like there was. I know it's gonna sound cheesy, but there were so many times, like me and multiple of our friends would just start crying because we were like, we're so blessed. And we're here doing the hip hop Nutcracker with Disney. I mean, everything Disney.

Oh, that sounds so fun.

I can't wait to see it, you know, celebrating and. Yeah, so, yeah, that's gonna be coming out. It's.

So do you know the exact date? Do you know the exact date? Because we would definitely run something the day that it actually comes out.

I believe it's the day after Thanksgiving.

So is 26th or 25th somewhere around there? Okay, so day after Thanksgiving, send it.

Over and double confirm. But yeah, 99.9% sure.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that. That would definitely be a cool thing and I'm excited to see that. That sounds like, so fun. So good. And obviously, yeah. Oh, my God, I can imagine that there's amazing dancing and obviously you love what you do and that shows and that's like so important. And. And I think, you know, your family will see that too. Your kids will grow up seeing that. And that's like so special and so important. So is there anything else that you wanted to add personally or anything that people should follow you, promote you? Anything like that that you want to add?

Follow on our socials? Like, we're so active on our Instagram.

Is he a dancer to your husband?

My husband is a dancer as well. Doing dance videos together. We're constantly bringing the whole family. We actually do these workouts on YouTube that are called the Boss Family Workouts.

During the pandemic, and we were just encouraging people to stay moving. And it's for all age ranges. Like, a lot of the following that do these workouts could be anywhere from, like, children to teenagers to, like, their parents to, like, grandparents.

Oh, I love it.

Really, really wonderful. So, yeah, our YouTube page is official Boss Fam.

Official Boss Fam. Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. Everything.

All of that and above.

Oh, I love it. So cool. Well, thank you so much. It was so nice chatting with you. Good luck on everything.

Thank you so much.

Yes. I had a blast. And this was really some good tidbits in here.

I was cracking up during this. This was such a fun conversation. Thank you so much, Janae.

Oh, yeah.

Thank you so much, Allison. All right, so, Dan, we'll be in touch. Take care. Bye.