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Pull up a seat at our table, where badass women from all walks of life—fashion, beauty, design, music, philanthropy, art, and more—come together to share honest stories, serve truths, and dig into the realities of modern womanhood.
Johanna Almstead:
Hello everyone. As everyone knows, if you've been listening to this podcast, the impetus behind this is the fact that I have the great, great privilege and the great joy to get to sit at dinner tables across from extraordinary women with extraordinary stories. So each episode is really an invitation to you, the listener, to pull up a chair and be my guest, also, to sit, to be inspired, to listen, to be challenged, to be provoked, and to be nourished by me and by my guest.
I am menu planning today for my next guest, and I think I am going to go a little light [inaudible 00:01:02]. I am going to do some radishes and butter. I'm going to do a couple snap peas and a little green goddess dressing. And I'm going to do this lovely, just sort of... It's just a simple cucumber, tomato, onion salad. I still have some really nice tomatoes, some really nice cucumbers coming in from the summer. So I'm going to do that to start.
And then I'm going to make a cod in parchment paper. So you make a little kind of like package, and within the cod you put cherry tomatoes, olives, capers, little garlic. And you wrap it all up and it bakes inside and makes this really, really deliciously juicy, flavorful. We put some fresh herbs in there as well. I'm going to serve that with some yummy jasmine rice. I might throw a little tiny bit of saffron in there to the jasmine rice and some spinach salad. Simple spinach mushroom salad, I think.
And music-wise, I'm feeling like Steely Dan, maybe a little Lana Del Rey. Definitely some Kacey Musgraves, which will make sense in a little bit. And we're going to just keep it light. I don't really know what she likes to drink, or if she likes to drink, so I think I'm just going to open the bar. I'm just going to let her choose.
I'm going to have a bunch of nice bubbly sparkling waters and spritzer kinds of things. I'm going to have some white wine, some red wine. And I don't really serve beer. I always forget about beer, but maybe I'll put some beer out. Who knows? I personally think I'm going to have a glass of French Chardonnay, like a white burgundy with [inaudible 00:02:31]. That's what I'm thinking.
My next guest is beautiful. She is kind-hearted. She is talented, she is creative, and she is cool, and I cannot wait for you guys to meet her. So, let's dig in.
Hello everyone, and welcome to Eat My Words. I'm super happy today because I get to talk about two of my favorite things, which are good design and horses. I might have to change the name of this podcast to Eat My Words and Listen To Me Talk About Horse Stuff when I feel like it.
My guest today has been a copywriter and creative director for several brands. She's now the founder and editor in chief of a stunningly beautiful magazine that marries the worlds of fashion, art, design, and horses in the absolute coolest way. She is an entrepreneur. She is a horse girl. She is a new mother, which I can't wait to talk about. And I believe she is a tastemaker. With the founding of her magazine, Calling All Horse Girls, her goal is to support horse girls at every stage and to inspire and excite them along the way. Emmie Strommen, welcome to Eat My Words.
Emmie Strommen:
Thank you so much. That was so nice.
Johanna Almstead:
Thanks for being here.
Emmie Strommen:
I'm ecstatic to be here.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, I'm ecstatic to have you. And I know this is a super-duper busy time, so we'll get right into it. I know you have a lot going on, but thank you so much for taking the time out of your super busy life to talk to me today.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, I'm super excited to chat.
Johanna Almstead:
Yay. So I always like to give people a little bit of a background of how we know each other, and you're a new friend. But I've been an admirer for a long time. So I found your magazine through another guest on this podcast, my friend Danielle Prescott, who's a writer and a fashion editor, and she was like a secret horse person.
I didn't know she was a horse person. We had worked together for years alongside each other when I was at brands and she was at magazines. And then all of a sudden I was like, "Wait a minute." What's happening? You're a horse person?" And she had posted one of your earlier volumes, and it was when you had the posters. I can't remember which poster it was, but I was like, "A horse girl poster? Like, yeah, I need it."
So I went down the whole Calling All Horse Girls' rabbit hole, bought a bunch of issues, bought a T-shirt, and then I finally got to meet you through one of my friends and one of my clients, who's also a fashion and horse girl, Cecilia, who has a beautiful brand. She's also been on the podcast. So we got to talk about brand collaborations and fun stuff.
Emmie Strommen:
So fun.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. So I feel like the horse girl connection is very real, don't you? When you meet someone?
Emmie Strommen:
It's very real. It's very strong. And I feel like Danielle's a great example. I met her through one of my advisors, Emilia Diamond, who just connected us, and Danielle's been a fan from afar for a really long time. She was in a magazine, I can't remember which one, either volume two or volume three, and then she framed the poster and put it in her bathroom. And I was like, "This is peak horse girl energy and I love it so much."
Johanna Almstead:
So much.
Emmie Strommen:
And then dear Cecilia, CC, I got a Facebook or an Instagram ad of her brand, and I absolutely fell in love and then all the world's connected. We just naturally gravitate towards each other.
Johanna Almstead:
We just find each other.
Emmie Strommen:
It's so fun.
Johanna Almstead:
I feel like one of the things I love about what you're doing at the magazine is taking that horse girl energy and putting it through this really intensely beautiful design filter, which I feel like there's a lot of horse stuff out there that does not go through a great design filter. Or if it does, it goes through a Ralph Lauren, which is a beautiful thing in another way, right?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, tried and true.
Johanna Almstead:
Tried and true. You can't go wrong. But what I feel like for you, you brought it to this sort of aspirational, very cool way of looking at the horse world. So I think that people who are not even horse people would think the magazine's really beautiful, because it is.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, we've had a lot of responses from people that have seen the magazine and then just say, "I want to be a horse girl now." Just because they can relate, to your point, they can relate to really good design, they can relate to really good storytelling, it just happens to have horses involved. But I think that's been-
Johanna Almstead:
It's like secret recruiting propaganda, actually.
Emmie Strommen:
100%. Yes, I am secretly making a horse girl army.
Johanna Almstead:
We're like, "Hey, we'll get you at the design, then we're going to get you on a horse."
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
I like it. Okay, so I like to start off by asking this question because it's always interesting to see where people go with it is where would you say your journey began?
Emmie Strommen:
I would say my journey began... Is it cliche to say my journey began as a child being on my first horse?
Johanna Almstead:
No, not at all.
Emmie Strommen:
I think a lot of horse girls can relate to that journey, like starting and feeling the connection. Although my nephew, who's two, is so obsessed with horses in a way that I can't even quite comprehend. He loves horses through and through. I keep thinking it's a phase and it's not. And I look at him and I'm like, "Wow, I didn't even really comprehend horses the way he does at two."
Johanna Almstead:
And he's two?
Emmie Strommen:
He's two.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that.
Emmie Strommen:
Actually, I'm working on something for him right now with Calling All Horse Girls.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. Amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
I would say my journey began when I was four and I was on my first horse, and I think that it was a subconscious ingraining, imprinting forever kind of thing. And then I think it really comprehended what my relationship with horses was when I had my first horse, Bernie, who's actually the name of my nephew too.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. Is he named after your horse?
Emmie Strommen:
No, it's a family name, Bernie.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. I love it.
Emmie Strommen:
My great-grandfather.
Johanna Almstead:
And did you name your horse Bernie?
Emmie Strommen:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, because my grandma got me him.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my gosh. Grandma.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
What a gift.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, my grandma, she's the reason that I'm a horse girl. She put me on my first horse, she bought me my first horse. She's been just a huge support system for that.
Johanna Almstead:
I love grandma.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, grandma's great. But yeah, I would say that any connection that I've had with a horse is largely why I am who I am today. And so I would say that my journey started when I first had my connection with a horse.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Okay. And then you grew up and you had a career in design and copywriting and creative direction and that kind of stuff?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. And you were living... Where were you living then? You were living in New York?
Emmie Strommen:
No, I was living in... So I think I need to take you back one step, because it's important.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, let's go back.
Emmie Strommen:
I went to college for equestrian studies.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. Did you-
Emmie Strommen:
I did.
Johanna Almstead:
You go to Finley? Where'd you go?
Emmie Strommen:
Mm-mm. I went to a place called Johnson & Wales University, which is actually a culinary school that happened to have a horseback riding program that I went to. And I had terrible grades in high school, so my options were very limited going into college. And I actually was on probation when I first got to college because my grades were so bad. They were like, "If you get below a C in a class, you're immediately expelled." I was like, "Okay, cool.'.
Johanna Almstead:
They took you on that. They were like, "Okay, we're going to take you and we're going to let you come to this college, but you're going to start off on probation."
Emmie Strommen:
Yes, yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Wow.
Emmie Strommen:
Okay.
Johanna Almstead:
I mean, good for them that they gave you a chance.
Emmie Strommen:
I know. It's super nice. Super nice of them. But I ended up graduating top of my class and becoming what they called-
Johanna Almstead:
Pulled it together.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, centennial legacy, which I just think is hilarious.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, that sounds so important.
Emmie Strommen:
It does. I still don't really know what it means, but it felt nice. So I went to school for equestrian studies.
Johanna Almstead:
You should make a T-shirt that says that.
Emmie Strommen:
I don't know what it means, but it feels nice.
Johanna Almstead:
I don't know what it means. Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
Went to school for equestrian studies, and then I had always been doing art on the side. I was in studio art. I went to Savannah College of Art and Design for a summer. I went to Parson School for a summer. I did Minneapolis College of Art Design. Studio art was a big part of my life.
So when I got to college and I was in equestrian studies, I was missing the creative side a lot because I was in the counselor's office every two weeks. I was on probation, they had to check in with me. I was like, "Hey, I'd like to switch my major." So I switched it to the only thing that said the word creative in it. I looked through a hundred majors, it was creative advertising, and I was like, "I have no idea what advertising is, but I'm going to go for it because it says creative."
So I switched my major, and that was kind of the beginning of my journey away from horses and back to horses. It started my career. I became a copywriter, like you mentioned in the beginning, and moved to New York and did the whole thing. I'm so grateful for the journey. But yeah, it's not a linear track to.
Johanna Almstead:
I mean, it rarely is.
Emmie Strommen:
Right. 100%.
Johanna Almstead:
What I think is interesting too about these, there's a thread with these horse girls, is that we go off and do this other thing. We go off and have a career and try to build a life and do all this other stuff, and somehow it always comes back to the horses. We're like, "Wait, I can try to figure out how to make a life with horses."
Emmie Strommen:
100%. Yeah. There comes a point where you're like, "I don't want to do this anymore without horses." And that was me. When I moved to New York, I tried to ride, and it was just really difficult at the time.
Johanna Almstead:
I mean, it's still really hard. There's nothing close to New York City, first of all.
Emmie Strommen:
It is. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Nothing worth really doing.
Emmie Strommen:
I know.
Johanna Almstead:
That's close.
Emmie Strommen:
I think I might've told you this, actually. When I went and I took the train into Connecticut and I got dropped off. Uber wasn't really a thing yet. I'm walking down on the side of the road, and a sweet old woman picks me up and is like, "Hey, are you going to the barn?" I'm like, "Yes." And I rode to the barn with her. I'm like, "This is not sustainable." It wasn't until I moved to LA that I was like, "Okay, I'm going to get back into horses." And then horse girls started.
Johanna Almstead:
So you started it when you were living in LA?
Emmie Strommen:
I started when I was living in LA, yeah. Because I had a car and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I have free-range now to drive around." And I found a barn at the time called Far West Farms, which that specific barn doesn't exist anymore. I think it's actually a pickleball universe. It's really sad.
Johanna Almstead:
Good for the pickleball people, but it makes me sad.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. And I got to the barn and I was like, "Where is everyone?" Where are, to your point, the horse girls that are going through the journey, that are starting their careers and becoming mothers? And they're not the high schoolers and they're not the older generation just doing this as a passion, but where's that middle group? And so I just started an Instagram to see if they were around, and they were, and now we're on volume eight of the magazine.
Johanna Almstead:
My God. That's amazing. Okay, so when did you make the jump from like, "Okay, I've started this Instagram and I found these people," to being like, "This needs to be a physical magazine in the world"?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, that's a good question. I didn't know what I was doing in the beginning at all. I think my advertising background lent me the opportunity to just play around and storytell and find what kind of felt good. So it started out as... The first thing I ever did was a sticker sheet. And I often joke that the company was built on stickers.
Johanna Almstead:
I love it.
Emmie Strommen:
I did a giveaway where I just gave away free horse girl stickers to just start to grow the Instagram, and then it was a water bottle. At the time, it was called the Horse Girl Co. And I had planned on making a podcast called Calling All Horse Girls Podcasts.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God.
Emmie Strommen:
And I was like, "You know what? I actually like that name for the company." And then I was like, "How do I keep building the world of horse girls? I don't want it to just all be on Instagram." This was 2019 at the time. It's like, I don't want it to be all Instagram. I don't want it to be all products. I want a bigger world. And then this idea of a newspaper came into my head and I was like, "Well, maybe I make a newspaper and I can bike around at horse shows and pass them out." That's where my head was. Never in a million years did I think that I'd be making a magazine at this scale and having no experience. Editorial and advertising, very different worlds.
Johanna Almstead:
Very different worlds and often counter intuitive to each other.
Emmie Strommen:
Often, yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes.
Emmie Strommen:
And I had no connections. I had no experience in the editorial world. I was so naive, I cannot believe volume one was ever created. I truly can't. It's a miracle. And I actually worked with my creative partner, Michelle, who we worked in New York together at our first job out of college, working on Charmin toilet paper and Bounty paper towels. And she happened to move to LA, and I was like, "Hey, do you want to make this magazine with me? It's not going to be that hard. I already have a plan. It couldn't be that hard."
Johanna Almstead:
She was like, "Sure."
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, it took us like a year.
Johanna Almstead:
And you funded it all yourself, and you found a way to produce it and did all this.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. Yeah, it's still self-funded.
Johanna Almstead:
That's brutal. I understand though. I can relate.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I can relate. That's why you have so much freedom. Okay, so that was... How many years ago? Four years ago?
Emmie Strommen:
2019.
Johanna Almstead:
2025. Six years ago.
Emmie Strommen:
Six years ago.
Johanna Almstead:
Six years ago. Okay. And then since then, now you've just launched volume eight, right?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
So that's crazy. And you recently pivoted, because you were doing more than one issue a year. Now you've pivoted to just doing one issue per year, right?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. Yeah, we were doing two a year and just didn't make sense. The magazines are... So you've seen them obviously. They're like-
Johanna Almstead:
They're so beautiful. Everybody listen up, buy them. They're so gorgeous. Put them on your coffee table, even if you're not a horse person, you'll make friends. It'll be good.
Emmie Strommen:
So true. Great conversation starter.
Johanna Almstead:
Exactly.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. No, they're meant to be cherished.
Johanna Almstead:
Collected.
Emmie Strommen:
And collected and shared and displayed and all the things. So it just felt like two was too many. One has enough time to shine through the year. But yeah, volume eight is a big one for us because so much has changed from volume one to volume eight. I mean, I have so much more experience now. I have an incredible team that's supporting me. And I had a baby during volume eight.
Johanna Almstead:
As one does.
Emmie Strommen:
As one does. And Mallory came on as our editor, Mallory Rice. She's just such a bad ass, and is in the editorial world, knows that world really, really well. Had a bunch of connections, brought in really cool contributors. So yeah, volume eight is a pivotal point.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I was going to say you leveled up majorly for volume eight.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Do you want to tell people who's on the cover?
Emmie Strommen:
Kacey Musgraves.
Johanna Almstead:
Holy shit. Kacey Musgraves. Okay, we need to talk about this.
Emmie Strommen:
It's a big moment.
Johanna Almstead:
Because you have had some major fucking people in this magazine.
Emmie Strommen:
I know.
Johanna Almstead:
Kacey Musgraves, Helena Christensen, Justine Skye, Zosia Mamet. Number one, are they all tried and true horse girls? And number two, how are you getting these people? That's amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
I don't know how I'm getting them. I don't. I often say-
Johanna Almstead:
They fall from the sky.
Emmie Strommen:
They do. Calling All Horse Girls just kind of has its own enigma and its own world, and I'm just trying to catch up with it, honestly.
Johanna Almstead:
You're like, "I don't know."
Emmie Strommen:
I'm hanging on for dear life.
Johanna Almstead:
That's so good.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, it's been interesting. They all are horse girls. All different varying degrees of horse girl as we do in the magazine, trying and support the many different perspectives that the horse girl world brings. I think Kacey Musgraves is the first one where I feel like this is crazy alignment in terms of just the overall vibe. And when I interviewed her, it was just like talking to a friend. It was true just horse girl hanging out at the barn. She was so chill and just so cool and really excited about, just had gotten her first horse, has since purchased another one just in the world and really fun. So I would say, I don't know how these celebrities are getting involved, but they are. And it's really as easy as DMing them.
Johanna Almstead:
Really?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
You're like, "Hey, Helena Christensen, gorgeous supermodel of the ages. Do you want to be on my magazine?"
Emmie Strommen:
So that volume is a little bit different. That was a big learning moment for me, because that was the first time we had gone into the fashion world. And we had a producer who was a very famous producer in the fashion world. It was a really, I'm not going to say tumultuous, but it was hard. It was a really hard learning experience because I was so out of my depth. I mean, Helena Christensen and Justine Skye, they were so kind and awesome to work with. But everything surrounding it was a huge learning curve. And even in that volume, we have Ali and AJ. Do you know Ali and AJ?
Johanna Almstead:
No.
Emmie Strommen:
They were like Disney stars.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, yes. Yes.
Emmie Strommen:
They have the Breakup Song, they're in that volume. And they alone are... That was just such an amazing experience to interview them. It's like that volume was so overwhelming.
Johanna Almstead:
It was so many big things.
Emmie Strommen:
So many big things.
Johanna Almstead:
And that was the one that you had the flipped cover, right? Didn't you have two covers for that one?
Emmie Strommen:
The theme of that one is Rowdy, and I say it really lives up to the theme. I highly recommend, if you have not purchased Rowdy or seen Rowdy, flipped through it, you have to. It's a crazy one.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I mean, it's really good. It's really sexy and really good.
Emmie Strommen:
It's wild, it's wild. Yeah, thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
So when Zosia was in it, she talked about her big horse girl reveal, revealing herself as a horse girl to the world. And I remember when that happened. I remember on her Instagram, or I want to say I almost saw it on a horse-
Emmie Strommen:
I'm sure the New York Times broke it.
Johanna Almstead:
But I felt like I had seen her name on a horse competition.
Emmie Strommen:
Oh, yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I had seen it like Insider-y-
Emmie Strommen:
That's funny.
Johanna Almstead:
... before, and I remember just being like, "That can't be, but that's the only person with that name."
Emmie Strommen:
Totally.
Johanna Almstead:
And then two weeks later or whatever, it came out. And I remember just being like, this is such a weird... It's so funny, but it is a real thing. And it was shocking to some people, and it made some people mad and made other people really happy. And it's so funny that that's such a point of conversation if you're a horse girl or not.
Emmie Strommen:
100%. And at the time now, six years later, after starting the company, horse girl is not as stigmatized or maybe it's cool. When I started it, it was not cool. Nobody wanted to be called a horse girl. People couldn't believe that I had horse girl in the name of my company. It's hard to imagine that that was actually even a real moment in time. But to your point, Zosia coming out as a horse girl is a big deal.
Johanna Almstead:
And then Bella and Gigi.
Emmie Strommen:
Of course.
Johanna Almstead:
That helped a lot.
Emmie Strommen:
They've done great work for the cause. They've done great work for your brand.
Johanna Almstead:
Thanks, Hadids.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Actually, I had a funny moment. So my kids are 9 and 11, almost 12, and they're both horse girls. And we were away a couple weeks ago with a bunch of other horse girls' families. And they do the thing, I don't know if you did this when you were little, but they canter everywhere even when they're walking.
Emmie Strommen:
Oh yeah, for sure.
Johanna Almstead:
And they jump everything. And they're always counting their distances, they're always counting their steps. So for people who are not horse people, when you say counting your distances, you're counting the amount of steps that you need to get in before you jump over something on a horse. But my children do it in real life. Anywhere they go, they're like rolling over garbage cans, or not rolling them over and jumping over them tall. And one of the girls had a stepsister who's 21 maybe, and she's cool girl but not a horse girl. And she was like, "Oh, what are they doing?" And I was like, "Oh, don't you shame them for being dorky horse girls."
Emmie Strommen:
No.
Johanna Almstead:
This is what they do. This is what they do and they're happy. But yeah, I mean, the horse girl thing is real.
Emmie Strommen:
It's a rite of passage, I think. I remember one of my neighbors had a dog that I would go over there, set up jumps in their front yard, take their dog on a leash and jump the dog route.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
And they were like, "What are you doing?" And I'm training clearly. We've got things to work on.
Johanna Almstead:
Obviously. This is a working animal and I'm a trainer.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, you'll make anything horse related. Yeah. I even still do that. At the airport, the walkways, the movie walkways, I will still count my step to try and get off the walkway at the perfect time. Counting my strides.
Johanna Almstead:
Yep, there you go.
Emmie Strommen:
It doesn't go away. It never goes away.
Johanna Almstead:
No, it never does.
Emmie Strommen:
We did a piece on hobby horsing, I think it was in volume five, and obviously that's very polarizing on the internet.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I can imagine.
Emmie Strommen:
It's the same kind of that feeling you had of, don't judge them for being quirky horse girls.
Johanna Almstead:
Totally.
Emmie Strommen:
It's the same thing. It's like if that was an opportunity for me at that age, you better believe I'd be hobby horsing.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, a hundred percent. I mean, my kids were doing it already.
Emmie Strommen:
Hundred percent.
Johanna Almstead:
And then we saw that it was a competition. And I was like, "Well, maybe we don't need to compete considering you do actually on real horses."
Emmie Strommen:
Yes, totally.
Johanna Almstead:
But for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, there's actual competitions in the world. They tend to be mostly in Europe, it seems to me, like sort of Nordic countries. But they are competitions where people, even adults, not just children, are riding around on a hobby horse, which is essentially a broomstick with a horse head on it, and they are jumping courses. They're in an arena and there's things for them to do, and they jump over things and they do different... Do they do different? What is it called? Canter?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, gates.
Johanna Almstead:
Gates. Thank you.
Emmie Strommen:
What I love about them is each horse is a different personality, and some horses are naughty and refuse jumps.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, really?
Emmie Strommen:
And I'm like, that is-
Johanna Almstead:
Amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
The storytelling involved to keep all your horses. Okay, that one refuses. So I am going to have to-
Johanna Almstead:
One's a little spicy.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, and it's a stick. It's incredible.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. I feel like you know what it needs to be is like a Christopher Guest movie.
Emmie Strommen:
100%. 100%. Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Right? And you might need to be a contributing producer to it or something.
Emmie Strommen:
Oh, yeah. No, call me.
Johanna Almstead:
Christopher Guest, if you're listening, we've got really good shit for you.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, some big opportunities here.
Johanna Almstead:
Major. Major. Okay. So you are a creative and you're a business woman. How does that live in you? Which side is more natural? Which side needed to be cultivated? What do you struggle with?
Emmie Strommen:
Creative's really natural, business has needed to be cultivated. I always think about the product first and prioritize the product. And I'm just now starting to prioritize-
Johanna Almstead:
Profit?
Emmie Strommen:
Profit. All the Ps, people, profit, products. I mean, those are the three things, I think. And the product has always been number one. And I think I have the right people now. I've had incredible people involved in the magazine, but they come and go because I don't have full-time employees. But our designer, Anna, is just absolutely incredible. She's been with us since volume four. Michelle, my creative partner that helped me from the very beginning and is very much a reason that this exists. Amelia, who's a great advisor. Mallory. An editor, and I just hired a marketing person who's just amazing, out of Amsterdam.
So I would say the business side of it was harder to cultivate but is becoming more fun for me, which I would never thought would be the case. I'm really enjoying the problem solving of the business side and making budget decisions and all of that.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. And do you attribute that the fact that it's become more fun to the fact that you have really good people guiding you and helping you in that side of it? Or just the fact that you're just getting more comfortable in it?
Emmie Strommen:
I think it's alleviating bandwidth. I was doing so much in the beginning, and I still do so much now, but it wasn't... All I could think about was getting the magazine done. And as you know, there's so much that goes into getting a magazine done. I couldn't think about long-term profit goals or even marketing the magazine. I've done a really poor job at that, I think, in terms of we make this incredible product and then just hope everyone sees it.
Johanna Almstead:
It's open, someone buys it.
Emmie Strommen:
So that's been a big shift for me is letting go of the product creation because I know I have an incredible team that can do that and start thinking about the post-product.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. What's the best part about your job?
Emmie Strommen:
So I actually have two jobs, by the way.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. What's your other job? Your second job? Another job.
Emmie Strommen:
I have a full-time job.
Johanna Almstead:
You do?
Emmie Strommen:
Mm-hmm.
Johanna Almstead:
What is that?
Emmie Strommen:
It's really cool, actually. So I'm the president of a company called PD Instore, and this is going to come all full circle for you.
Johanna Almstead:
This is crazy. Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
So PD Instore was founded by my great-grandfather, Jack Bernie.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
So that's where the family name comes from. And Jack Bernie was a copywriter at an advertising agency way back in the day, obviously. And he didn't like the print quality of his work, so he started his own printing company. It was just out of his garage with a screen printer. And him and his wife, my great-grandmother, Arline, started building this company.
He went off to World War II in 1945. And my great-grandmother, Arline, built the company up to the first 15 employees and they were in their first warehouse while he was away. And now, today, 2025, I'm the fourth generation at the company. And we do printing, but we do so many other things. We build worlds for brands in store. So the advertising side of it was building advertising brands and storytelling through digital.
Johanna Almstead:
Like in store signage and fixtures and things like that?
Emmie Strommen:
Exactly. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, and tech. It's really bringing the brand to life in a tangible way in the store. We have 700,000 square footage of manufacturing space. We have all the capabilities to make these incredible fixtures and displays. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. That's so crazy. And why have you not... You haven't put this in the magazine, have you? You need to put this in the magazine, because it's printing.
Emmie Strommen:
I know. So they don't actually print the magazine.
Johanna Almstead:
I was going to ask, do you get a family discount?
Emmie Strommen:
No, we don't have those very specific capabilities to print the magazine. So I've printed the magazine elsewhere. But have you seen my horse girl office?
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
It's like the green built ins and the wallpaper. So they did all the green built ins. That pink desk that I have, they built the pink desk.
Johanna Almstead:
Do they make the little magazine stands?
Emmie Strommen:
Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
I just almost ordered a bunch, and then I was like, "Slow down. I just need to-
Emmie Strommen:
They make those. They are like pop-ups is all through PD Instore. Those are very small scale things. We do stuff for the world's largest brands. So they're doing me a favor by creating some horse girl stuff. But that is my day to day. I'm like-
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, I had no idea.
Emmie Strommen:
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Wow.
Emmie Strommen:
It's a lot.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, that's a lot.
Emmie Strommen:
But that's also why the team at horse girl is so important.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, because now you... So, wait. When did you start doing... Have you been doing that for a long time? You weren't doing that when you were in New York and LA, were you?
Emmie Strommen:
Nope. In New York, I was in advertising at a bunch of different agencies. In LA, I was the creative for a celebrity's cannabis brand. And then when COVID hit, I went part-time with that brand and started the magazine. So that's where the real engine for the magazine came at the time.
And then when I moved back to Minnesota, in 2020, which is where I'm from, I was working exclusively on the magazine for maybe six months, and then I took a job at PD Instore. There was a couple of things that made me feel like this is the time to be a part of the family company, and this is a huge opportunity.
It's very surreal to have this thing that I made that I absolutely adore and believe so much in, and there's so much potential, and we've just merely scratched the surface of what Calling All Horse Girls can do. And then also the opportunity to be the president at multi-generational family company that's doing super cool stuff in the world. It's like, how do you... You don't pick one.
Johanna Almstead:
You just don't choose. You just do both.
Emmie Strommen:
You just do it all.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. And so are you working with your family? Who from your family are you actually working with on a day-to-day basis?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. So my uncle's the CEO and my dad is... He doesn't really have a title, which is so funny. They've both been there for 30 years. They've done every job available there. But he runs the largest account, which is Apple, and he's just such a badass. And I learned so much from the two of them. And then my brother is there and my sister is interning there right now.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, that's amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
It's so fun.
Johanna Almstead:
That's amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
It's 300 employees. They all feel like family, honestly.
Johanna Almstead:
Because you grew up with them, obviously.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, a lot of them have known me since I was little.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, that's amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
I know.
Johanna Almstead:
Wait, and now you also have a baby.
Emmie Strommen:
I also have a baby, Leo.
Johanna Almstead:
How is that going? And when do you sleep?
Emmie Strommen:
I don't know what I did to deserve Leo, but he sleeps through the night. Like, through the night.
Johanna Almstead:
And how old is he now? He's like six months, eight months?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, six months.
Johanna Almstead:
Six months. Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
Mm-hmm.
Johanna Almstead:
And he's a sleeper already. That's amazing. I know.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, he's been sleeping through the night since... I don't want to say it out loud, because I heard you're not supposed to say this because then it reverses everything.
Johanna Almstead:
We're knocking on wood. Knocking on wood.
Emmie Strommen:
Knocking on wood. Two months.
Johanna Almstead:
Shit.
Emmie Strommen:
But here's the thing. So he has Down syndrome. And when he was born, he needed a little bit of more oxygen. And so he went to the special care nursery, which is like the NICU but not as scary. So in the special care nursery, they're on a very regimented... Because he had a feeding tube at first. He's eating this every three hours, I'm pumping every three hours. Everything was very structured. So when we got home from special care, he was still on oxygen. We had the oxygen tank around, which was not fun at all. But he had a structure, so we just kept that same structure. So I can't take any credit for him sleeping. It's not me.
Johanna Almstead:
I mean, will you kept the structure? I think that's good.
Emmie Strommen:
I guess that's true. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
And you birthed him. I know. I feel like you get all the credit anyway. You just do. Just take it.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
It's okay. Leo, okay. Oh my God. And he's a little dream.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, he's a dream. He's the best.
Johanna Almstead:
And does Leo come to the office with you? What does Leo do when you're doing all these other things?
Emmie Strommen:
My husband's a musician, so his schedule is more flexible than mine. So he watches Leo once a week, and then my mother-in-law watches him once a week. And then we have an incredible nanny that watches him three times a week.
Johanna Almstead:
Amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
So, he's covered.
Johanna Almstead:
So Leo's getting all the love from every direction.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. So how has that transition been from not being a mother to being a mother? Because it's real.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, it is. It's so real. And I would say that it's not anything that I expected at all. A lot of my friends around me were so excited to be moms and couldn't wait to have a baby in their hands and they got baby fever every time they saw a baby. And I hope this is relatable to someone out there, this is why I'm saying it, because I didn't have any of that. I didn't even know if I really wanted to have kids. I was like, because I felt like I don't have the same visceral response to being a mom. But it's come so natural to me to be a mom, and it feels so like, "Oh yeah, duh." That's kind of the feeling that I have, and I'm so grateful for that.
Johanna Almstead:
That's good.
Emmie Strommen:
I know. I guess so, yeah. It feeling like no-brainer kind of thing where leading up to it, I was like, "I don't understand how people do this. I don't know if this is right for me." So I guess all of that is making this much more surprising. And that's why I say it's not what I expected because it just feels like this is what I'm meant to do, which I'm so grateful for.
Johanna Almstead:
That's huge. That's like a real gift to feel that way.
Emmie Strommen:
It is a real gift, and I'm realizing that more and more as I have other friends. I've had some friends that have had postpartum depression, and I've had friends that are going through the IVF journey right now and can't even get pregnant. And there's just so many different ways to be a mother. And I think also with Leo having Down syndrome, I felt like nothing in life is guaranteed or nothing in life is going to go the way that you think it's going to go and your greatest superpower is being able to just ride that flow. And Leo is really... He's been so patient with me. I know he is only six months, but truly, he's so patient.
Johanna Almstead:
He's your little teacher.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, he is. He really is. And I know that's kind of cheesy, but it's true. It's so true.
Johanna Almstead:
And did you know that he had Down syndrome before he was born? Did you do genetic testing?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. Yeah, it was a journey.
Johanna Almstead:
Was that an intense realization?
Emmie Strommen:
Yes. I mean, yeah, because just like no one goes into being pregnant thinking, "I hope my baby has Down syndrome." Some people do, actually. I should take that back. Some people actually do. But it's not what you assume when you think about your life and the kids you'll have. And for some reason, my Christmas card kept coming to mind. I'm like, "My Christmas card is going to look so different than I thought it was going to." Just little tiny things.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
It was super hard to process and walk through. And then eventually I got to this point, this turning point of nothing in life is guaranteed and what a blessing it is to get to see the world from a different perspective. I just took it as the gift. I took it as an opportunity.
Johanna Almstead:
Have you read the book Expecting Adam?
Emmie Strommen:
I'm halfway through it right now.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God.
Emmie Strommen:
So good.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God.
Emmie Strommen:
So good.
Johanna Almstead:
Isn't it fucking brilliant?
Emmie Strommen:
Insane.
Johanna Almstead:
Gut-wrenching. I laughed, cried, sobbed, all the things. That book is so beautiful, for people who don't know. I don't remember who wrote it. If you remember.
Emmie Strommen:
I can't either.
Johanna Almstead:
But it's about a woman who has a son named Adam, who has Down syndrome, and basically talks about all the gifts that he brings to her as a mother. I have another friend who is one of four or five, I think five kids in her family, and one of her brothers has Down syndrome. And she says all the time that he is the light of their family. He's the glue that keeps them together. He is everything. And when I say the entire family is just obsessed because he is the joy of their life. So I'm really happy that you're going to get to go through that as a parent. I think that's going to be beautiful.
Emmie Strommen:
Thanks.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm sure it already is.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I can imagine that that's a really... When you're pregnant, you go and you get the genetic testing and you just sort of are like, "Ah, what are they going to say?" You never know.
Emmie Strommen:
It was like, "I'll find out the gender. That's fun." You don't think anything else.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
But then you do.
Johanna Almstead:
But then you do. Then you learn things and life happens, and then you get your beautiful boy and you learn more, right?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. And then you just realize like, "Wow, it's just not..." It's funny, everyone says that if they have someone with Down syndrome in their family, that exactly what you just said, it's the glue, it's the light. But when you're going through it, you're like, "You can't comprehend that." It's like saying everything gets better with time. It's like, "Yes, I know, but the time has not yet happened.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. And this doesn't really make me feel any better.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. But then you get there and you're like, "Yeah, you were right. It's amazing. This is a special, this a gift. All the things you said. I just wasn't ready to hear them."
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Yeah. I think you also have to, at a certain point, I don't know, I think with motherhood, I was not ready to hear most things. And I feel like I've become evangelical about telling people how fucking crazy it is, and they don't really want to hear it either though. They're like, "Okay, thanks, Jo." I was like, "Well, I don't know. It felt like to me that I got in a car crash."
Emmie Strommen:
100%.
Johanna Almstead:
And that was really hard, and there was a lot of things I didn't expect. And these are the things that happened. And people are like... I've had one woman who was like... I pulled her aside. I gave her a proper shower gift and then I pulled her aside, and I gave her like a tuck this in your bathroom cabinet shower gift, which had ice packs and smash underwear and all that stuff. And I was like, "You don't need to talk about it. Call me when we're at the party. You don't have to do this now, but I'm just put this under your bathroom."
Emmie Strommen:
That's a great way to do it.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. And she literally opened it eventually when she went home, and she was like, "What the fuck is this?" I was like, "Girl, here's this rundown." I gave her the whole rundown. I was like, "This is what you're going to need. Witch Hazel. You're going to need ice pads. You're going to need all this stuff." And she, to this day, is like, "That was the best gift I ever got." So some people are ready. It was so good.
Emmie Strommen:
So often motherhood very much is like, you will know when you need to know. And the people that know what you're going to need to know, there are certain varying degrees of when you're ready to hear that.
Johanna Almstead:
So true.
Emmie Strommen:
That is just the best.
Johanna Almstead:
On a need to know basis.
Emmie Strommen:
Seriously. And I think the one thing that I was shocked by is nobody said the words sleep deprivation. They said, "Oh, you won't sleep. You won't sleep. You'll be so tired." But nobody said sleep deprivation. That's actually-
Johanna Almstead:
In the same way that they use as a torture technique.
Emmie Strommen:
Exactly, exactly. I was like, nobody was clear.
Johanna Almstead:
No. My favorite is my friend Amy. She got married pretty young. We had one other friend who had had babies by then. She didn't know that babies didn't sleep. She literally had no idea and got home from the hospital, and after two nights, called our friend, the only other friend who had any babies at the time, and was like, "What's happening? I don't understand this. The babies won't go to sleep." And my friend, "Well, yeah, they don't sleep. They're up. You have to feed them every two hours." And it was all news to her. Complete news flash.
Emmie Strommen:
That's wild. What a journey.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Okay. So speaking of your picture, speaking of your Christmas card, did you have a picture of what having it all meant or would look like when you were younger?
Emmie Strommen:
Oh, that's such a good question. Having it all when I was younger was living in New York. That was the dream. We had visited New York as a family every year during the fall. And everything I've loved in life, I've always been like, "Oh, I'll do that in New York."
I went to school to be a professional makeup artist. I was like, "I'm going to go do that in New York." And when I was riding, I was like, "I'm going to figure out how to do that in New York." I was just always like, "I'm going to New York." So when I first got my keys to my first apartment in New York, I was like, "I've made it."
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, you've made it.
Emmie Strommen:
I've accomplished the goal. That to me was having it all together. Being able to look at a building in New York and actually have a reason to go in it was happening all together.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
It was like, that's the one I used to see and home alone.
Emmie Strommen:
Totally. Yeah. It's like, "Oh my gosh, I actually work in there." So to feel a belonging to New York was, to me, having it all together.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. And then was that hard when you decided to leave or were you ready to be done?
Emmie Strommen:
Mm-mm. No, I wasn't ready. But the opportunity in LA was... And I always told myself, because we had done an advertising new film a lot in LA for commercials, and all my advertising friends, I was like, "I don't like LA. I don't want to be in LA. I'm never going to LA." And then I ended up moving to la. I wasn't ready. And I could have probably lived in New York longer, but now it's like that was a moment in time. And I go to New York every year for... Usually it's for horse girl, actually, just for work.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, I could have lived there longer.
Johanna Almstead:
So it's a little different than living in Minnesota, working for your family business, and running a horse girl magazine.
Emmie Strommen:
A little bit different, yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Just like a smidge. Do you have any moments in your life, major, pivotal moments when you look back and you think, "Oh, if I had not done that, where would my life be"? Big decisions you made, because you made some big ones. Big swings.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, that's a great question. Part of my brain just does not allow me to... I'm so much a person. Everything happens for a reason that my brain won't even be like, that was not an option because you didn't pick it. It might've actually been an option, but it wasn't the right option because you didn't pick it.
Johanna Almstead:
That's a good way to live. And you're also forward-thinking, I think.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, always forward-thinking and always learning from the choices that I made. And I also think I just really believe that whatever choice I make, whether it's good or bad or hard or easy, is something that I can handle, whatever that means. I guess Leo with Down syndrome, it's like, okay, I have a belief that I can handle this. Where that belief comes from, I don't know.
Johanna Almstead:
I was going to say, is that something that you've always had? An inner sort of compass or an inner strength that you've known before? That you've noticed before?
Emmie Strommen:
It's so funny. I always credit it to horses. Truly.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm telling you, man. I say this all the time about my kids, it's crazy.
Emmie Strommen:
They fine-tune your intuition and fine-tune the voice and the energy connection and being able to read and feel energy and all of that. I really do credit it a lot to horses, and my parents.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Give them a little bit of credit.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Just a little. Yeah, that's amazing. I say that all the time, particularly with my older daughter, because she started riding a little bit older than... Her younger sister was dragged to the barn and kind of was always at the barn. So it's harder to see the before and after with her.
Emmie Strommen:
Totally.
Johanna Almstead:
But with my eldest, who is a really hardcore horse girl, she's very, very competitive, she's very determined, all roads lead to the barn all the time.
Emmie Strommen:
I love it.
Johanna Almstead:
And she's a different kid than she was before she started riding. She has gained... And maybe it just would've developed in another way, but I attribute it so much. She's gained this inner strength and this confidence. CC and I always call it like the horse girl swagger.
Emmie Strommen:
Love that.
Johanna Almstead:
She's just got this like... Yeah, you should do a story on it. I'm pitching it to you right now. It's like there's just this inner confidence and this inner sort of autonomy, I think, also. She very quickly learned. It's like she and the horse are the team. It doesn't matter what other riders are doing, it's just her and her horse. And so I say it all the time, and that for me is that's one reason we will never give it up because I think it gives people so much joy, exercise, all the things, but this other thing that's kind of intangible.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, the unspoken. Especially for kids, what an opportunity in today's world.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Okay. Now that I know that your life is even more complicated than I thought it was because you have another full-time job, how do you balance it? Because one of the things we talk about on this podcast a lot is, I mean, there's no balance, at least in my life. I do all the things all the time, and some things fall away. So how do you balance being a new mom to Leo? How do you balance being president of a company? How do you balance being a founder and editor-in-chief of another company? What's your day-to-day? How do you stay centered?
Emmie Strommen:
Okay. How do I want to word this? I believe if you have... It's not even a belief. I do the things I have the energy for, and there are things that I do that I don't want to do necessarily. I don't want to change a bunch of diapers, but I do that anyways.
There are things in life that you do because you have to do them. But on the whole, the things in my life give me energy. So it doesn't feel like this overwhelming feat of how am I going to do all of this? It's just like... And again, I know this sounds so cheesy, but it's like I get to do all these things because I like to do these things.
Working at my family's company, I absolutely adore. And yes, there's hard days, and I am in the office five days a week, and that's its own kind of drain. But overall, it gives me energy, and Calling All Horse Girls gives me so much energy. Leo gives me energy. My husband gives me energy. My house gives me energy. It's like, I'm not compounding a bunch of hard things, like grinding through it, fighting through to get to the other side. It's like, I'm doing the things that I have energy for, and they happen to be a lot of things at the same time.
Johanna Almstead:
That's really beautiful.
Emmie Strommen:
Does that make sense?
Johanna Almstead:
No, it's beautiful. I mean, what a beautiful place to be in your life and a way to live. I think that's amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
Well, yeah, and I think because often people think... They ask me that, how do you do it all? And I don't want it to be like this, well, if you just worked harder or if you just really dug deep and powered through. That's not what I'm doing, and I don't want anyone to get the illusion that I'm working triple time. I think when you have the energy to do things, like this podcast for you, I am sure this gives you energy. And you have a million other things you could probably be doing right now, but it's like you have the time to do this because you have the energy to do it.
Johanna Almstead:
That's such a good point. You make the time. Right.
Emmie Strommen:
You make the time.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, because it's so fueling for me.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. And obviously, my office job is a very unique circumstance. But other people that I know that are in office jobs, it's like finding the parts of it that give you energy and leaning into that, and then doing the things you have to do. I mean, I'm not saying that my life is... I don't want it to sound like it's easy or I don't have hard days, because I definitely do. It's just like the balance for me is doing the things that fill me up.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Someone just in another podcast I just recorded was talking about people who are either batteries or vacuums, and they either give you energy or suck your energy, and I think it's sort of interesting to apply that to the work you're doing or the way you're spending your time. Is it a battery or is it a vacuum?
Emmie Strommen:
That's exactly what I'm trying to say. Said more eloquently. Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, someone else said it, so I just repurposed it. I'm just really good at rehashing.
Emmie Strommen:
That's perfect.
Johanna Almstead:
Have you had to make any sacrifices?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
What do you sacrifice?
Emmie Strommen:
I mean, I sacrifice micro and macro things. And maybe I don't even know that I'm sacrificing them at the time, but I look back and be like, "Oh, I wasn't doing that, or I didn't take..." Horses were sacrificed for a really long time while I was focusing on my career. And my body was sacrificed for a really long time, not taking care of myself. Yeah, there's always something. I think having a baby has allowed me to be more in tune with that time priority, which when you have a baby, your time is just prioritized in a different way. So there's definitely things being sacrificed. What they are, I can't really verbalize. I don't know why.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Well, sometimes it's hard to even know. It's often in hindsight that I realized what I sacrificed.
Emmie Strommen:
I know. It's so true.
Johanna Almstead:
I don't always know it right now. Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
It's so true.
Johanna Almstead:
When Leo is old enough to listen to this podcast, what do you want him to know about this time in your life right now?
Emmie Strommen:
Just how exciting it is. Just what a... In contrast to I think the world around us and maybe some of the fear and the violence or all of those things, and the unknowns of the world, and AI coming and all those things. Right now, at my core and in my safest space, I'm just so incredibly excited about the future because of him.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. That's amazing. What is an achievement that you are most proud of that you've done?
Emmie Strommen:
Moving to New York, but I already said that. I'll say another one.
Johanna Almstead:
You can still be that
Emmie Strommen:
Volume eight.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
And I say that sincerely. Volume eight is such a pivotal moment. It's like all these things that I've learned and learned the hard way come together for this. And I'm really excited for it to be in the world, and it's time. It's Calling All Horse Girls time.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I love that. What's something that you've once believed about yourself that you've since outgrown?
Emmie Strommen:
That I'm dumb.
Johanna Almstead:
Did you think you were dumb?
Emmie Strommen:
Yes, because as you know, I had terrible grades in high school. I went to a college preparatory high school. I had ADD, I did not fit into the mold of education, and so I just really thought I was dumb. I couldn't catch up with my classmates. I just thought I was dumb. And now I don't think that.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm glad. Very happy for you.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, but it was a narrative that really stuck with me for a long time, feeling like I just wasn't... I mean, at its core, I wasn't enough, right? And I think I've learned to allow myself to be enough without feeling like I have to be better than someone to be enough, but that I can just be myself and that's enough. I heard someone say recently, you're not better than anyone else, but no one else is better than you. I love that even ground. And that was really hard for me to... I always felt like if I wanted to be confident, I had to be better. But you can be confident just as yourself.
Johanna Almstead:
Just as yourself. Yeah. That's a mindset shift there.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Is there anything that you've said no to that you wish you said yes to?
Emmie Strommen:
I do not say no a lot is what I'm realizing now as you ask me this question.
Johanna Almstead:
That is also a trend on this podcast, by the way. You are not alone.
Emmie Strommen:
I believe it. I believe it.
Johanna Almstead:
I think that we have a lot of yes people on this podcast. It's wild.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. I mean, there's got to be something. Often things like this come back from ex-boyfriends. It's like if I had said no sooner, maybe I wouldn't have dated that guy for that long. Little things like that, it's like that probably would've changed life differently. But no, I don't know. I guess I am a yes person.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I mean, it seems to me that you are.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, so now we're at the very exciting time in this interview of the lightning round of Silly questions.
Emmie Strommen:
Yay.
Johanna Almstead:
Most of them are food related. A lot of them are food related because I just like to talk about food. So that's basically the only reason. And I think that people's answers say a lot about their personalities, because I think food says a lot about people's personalities.
Emmie Strommen:
This is like a Myers-Briggs personality test, but Jo's food test.
Johanna Almstead:
Totally not researched or made by real scientists or anything. It's just me. Just me and my weird brain. So don't overthink it. Don't worry, there's no grades at the end of this. You are enough already. You are enough.
Emmie Strommen:
Thank you. Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
Favorite comfort food?
Emmie Strommen:
Pizza.
Johanna Almstead:
Can you get good pizza in Minnesota now?
Emmie Strommen:
Okay. I also don't eat cheese, which is hilarious, because what the fuck?
Johanna Almstead:
You're not allowed to say pizza with no cheese.
Emmie Strommen:
Vegan cheese has gotten so good, I swear. I swear.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. All right. What's something you are really good at?
Emmie Strommen:
This is not food related?
Johanna Almstead:
No, I said most of them were, but not all of them.
Emmie Strommen:
I was expecting all food.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, sorry. Sorry. I did not set that up well for you.
Emmie Strommen:
What's something I'm really good at, you said?
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, in life.
Emmie Strommen:
Something I'm really good at in life. Showing up for the people that I love.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I like that. That's a good one. What's something you're really bad at? Deep breaths.
Emmie Strommen:
These are supposed to be fire around, so I feel the pressure of needing to respond quickly.
Johanna Almstead:
No, no pressure.
Emmie Strommen:
I have been told that I talk really slowly too, by the way. I take a lot of breaks. So maybe I'm bad at talking quickly, but that won't be my answer. Actually, I'm good at finding out what I'm bad at and allowing other people to do that.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I think that's great.
Emmie Strommen:
So it's kind of like a combo answer of the two. I would say I'm bad at some of the logistical follow through on things. Really good vision, big picture. I know how we're going to get there, but I might not necessarily take the steps to get there, I'm already there. I'm really bad at that.
Johanna Almstead:
I can relate to that deeply.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm a thinker. I don't like to do things, actually do them. I like to put them in the world.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. My designers are really patient with me.
Johanna Almstead:
That's good.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
What is your least favorite food?
Emmie Strommen:
Mushrooms cooked poorly.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, okay. What does that mean for you?
Emmie Strommen:
Soggy. Oily. Too many mushrooms in one bite. If the texture of mushrooms is wrong, it's so wrong. But mushrooms can be done well in which I like them. But mushrooms done poorly, can't do.
Johanna Almstead:
Do you like mushrooms that have a little bit of crisp on them, like they're not soggy?
Emmie Strommen:
Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
Give me a fried mushroom. That's great.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, yeah. Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
Like breaded.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Favorite word. Being that you were a copywriter and you're an editor of magazine that has words in it.
Emmie Strommen:
My favorite word. I can give you my favorite grammatical... Grammar. What is it even called? My favorite punctuation.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, this might be a new question I have to ask people. I hadn't thought about that.
Emmie Strommen:
Well, because it's kind of a thing right now. So my favorite punctuation, and I use it all the time, is the em dash.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
It's a long dash.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
AI apparently also loves the em dash. So everyone thinks that if you're using em dashes that you're AI.
Johanna Almstead:
And you're like, "No, I've been using the em dash for years."
Emmie Strommen:
I've been using the em dash for years. It's part of the way I type and write. It's just like the em dash is in there. So I just want to get that out so that more humans are saying that they like the em dash.
Johanna Almstead:
Maybe you need to start a magazine Calling All Em Dashers.
Emmie Strommen:
Calling All Em Dashers.
Johanna Almstead:
Non-ChatGPT em dashers.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Is that going to count as your favorite word?
Emmie Strommen:
No. No, that's a bonus question. My favorite word is probably... What's your favorite word?
Johanna Almstead:
I don't know. I wasn't expecting that.
Emmie Strommen:
This is such a hard question.
Johanna Almstead:
You know what someone said the other day, which was awesome, cacophony. She was like, "Cacophony is my favorite word." And I was like, "What the fuck? That's amazing."
Emmie Strommen:
Can you use that in a sentence for me?
Johanna Almstead:
Like the... Oh, God. Oh, I'm supposed to be a writer too.
Emmie Strommen:
I couldn't.
Johanna Almstead:
The cacophony of the room reverberated through my soul and made me feel excited.
Emmie Strommen:
Oh, interesting.
Johanna Almstead:
It's like the noise. It's like noise and energy and excitement in a room.
Emmie Strommen:
Okay, I have my favorite word.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. What is it?
Emmie Strommen:
Context.
Johanna Almstead:
Context.
Emmie Strommen:
It's my favorite word.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. Do you use it a lot? Do you put things in context a lot?
Emmie Strommen:
I do. And I use context clues a lot, which is how I used what you just said, which is how I got to context.
Johanna Almstead:
All right. Context clues. That's so funny. I feel like that's a term my kids' teachers used a lot now.
Emmie Strommen:
Really?
Johanna Almstead:
For reading. Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
Another fun thing as to why I thought I was dumb. I had glasses really late in life. I was just a little bit too late to get the glasses, so in third grade I missed crucial parts of reading. So I had to use a lot of context clues to understand what the hell was going on.
Johanna Almstead:
There you go. Best piece of advice you've ever received.
Emmie Strommen:
The best piece of advice I've ever received is probably from my parents. Don't know which one one. One of them said it to me, or maybe it was just a constant theme. I don't know if it was the exact per quote, but it was like, "Trust where you are in life."
Johanna Almstead:
That's a good one.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, and I've done that a lot. Even if it feels like, what the hell am I doing? It's just like, trust that you're exactly where you're supposed to be.
Johanna Almstead:
It's a good one. I'm going to remember that one because I feel like I sometimes forget that. If your personality were a flavor, what would it be?
Emmie Strommen:
So funny, the first thing that came to my head was sumac, but I don't even know what sumac is.
Johanna Almstead:
I was like, I don't think I know what sumac tastes like. Isn't it a tree?
Emmie Strommen:
Hang on. I have to Google this. Sumac. Sumac is prized as a spice, especially in Iranian cuisine or other eastern cuisines.
Johanna Almstead:
Why did I think it was a tree? Is it a spice that comes from a tree? Is there a tree called the sumac?
Emmie Strommen:
I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
Johanna Almstead:
Do you like Iranian food? Do you know what sumac tastes like?
Emmie Strommen:
No, I don't think I do. What is the seasoning used often in Japanese food?
Johanna Almstead:
Miso, soy, ginger, garlic, wasabi, bonito flakes. What is it? Those fish flakes. Okay. By the way, there is a sumac tree, just so you know.
Emmie Strommen:
Okay.
Johanna Almstead:
In case we go back to that.
Emmie Strommen:
So we're not crazy. Okay, hang on. I think I... Now I'm getting really serious about this. I need to-
Johanna Almstead:
You need to figure it out.
Emmie Strommen:
What I'm doing right now is I'm actually going to Sweetgreen because they just added it as one of their toppings, and I add it to everything because I love it so much.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
So start with an M.
Johanna Almstead:
I think it does. What the hell is it called?
Emmie Strommen:
Umami.
Johanna Almstead:
Umami. But isn't umami a flavor profile?
Emmie Strommen:
Well, that is what-
Johanna Almstead:
You are. You are a flavor profile.
Emmie Strommen:
I'm a flavor profile.
Johanna Almstead:
Umami. Oh, it's like the shroomami to the mushroom one they have at Sweetgreen.
Emmie Strommen:
Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Shroomami. Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
Umami is... Sorry. A monosodium glutamate is one of the basic five tastes, including sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Umami means delicious, savory taste. So I'll be umami.
Johanna Almstead:
You're umami. I'm into it. Oh wait, I forgot to ask you what your least favorite word is. What's your least favorite word?
Emmie Strommen:
Squirt. I hate it. Oh my God, that's amazing. I really dislike it.
Johanna Almstead:
You're a lot younger than me, and maybe it's a Midwest thing, but there was a soda. There was like a pop called Squirt. It was like a grapefruit or something.
Emmie Strommen:
Never touched it. Never touched it.
Johanna Almstead:
Just because of the name. Squirt. That's a first. That's a first on this podcast, I'm into it. Okay, so it's your last supper. You're leaving this body, this earth tomorrow. It's not sad because you've just graduated to the next thing, the next realm. It's all good.
Emmie Strommen:
Thank you for that context.
Johanna Almstead:
There you go. It's not sad.
Emmie Strommen:
Okay.
Johanna Almstead:
If you want, you can take all your loved ones with you. It's fine. Cool. What are you eating tonight? What would your last meal be?
Emmie Strommen:
My last meal would be... If it were today? If it were happening today, right now?
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, it's tonight.
Emmie Strommen:
So I haven't had meat in 10 years.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, okay.
Emmie Strommen:
And not because it's just a natural thing. It's just like I don't eat meat. But I've been telling my mom recently, I feel like I needed a cheeseburger just so it doesn't go too much longer because 10 years is a long time. So I would do that probably tonight. I'd be like, I need to eat a cheeseburger so that before I die, I didn't go the rest of my life without eating meat.
If I were to just go on the path of my patterns, I would want a very good vegan pasta. And I know that sounds so gross, but there's a place in LA that makes homemade pasta. And they have the best. It's like homemade vegan cheese, so it's like cashew and nutritional yeast. I know it sounds so bad, but it's not. I swear, it's so good. And a good Caesar salad, like crispy with some bread. Italian.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Vegan Italian.
Emmie Strommen:
Vegan Italian. Don't knock it until you try it.
Johanna Almstead:
I don't think I'm going to try it. I'm just kidding.
Emmie Strommen:
No, that's fair.
Johanna Almstead:
No, I was vegan for a little while, so I got into all the cashew, nut cheeses and the nutritional yeast. I can't say I'd be doing it for my last meal.
Emmie Strommen:
It's a very specific, what does that say about me, I guess. That's the bigger question. Is it obvious I lived in LA?
Johanna Almstead:
Yes. Very much so.
Emmie Strommen:
I actually became a vegan when I lived in New York, but that's for another time.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, that could be a whole other podcast. Are you drinking anything with this meal? With your vegan pasta?
Emmie Strommen:
Nice crisp water.
Johanna Almstead:
Wow. Clean living.
Emmie Strommen:
Maybe an iced coffee. Maybe an iced coffee.
Johanna Almstead:
A coffee?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
So you're like jacked up when you...
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. There's nothing better than the first sip of a good iced coffee. Cold brew.
Johanna Almstead:
Cold brew iced coffee and vegan Italian.
Emmie Strommen:
I don't even like it anymore. If I were listening to this, I'd be like, "That poor woman. She needs to live."
Johanna Almstead:
I feel a little sad.
Emmie Strommen:
She needs to live.
Johanna Almstead:
I feel a little sad for you.
Emmie Strommen:
Hey, my first answer was a cheeseburger. We can just keep that.
Johanna Almstead:
We can keep that. Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
Because I haven't eaten meat in 10 years. Let everyone know that I'm okay, okay?
Johanna Almstead:
Let them be the judge of that. Or y'all can come of comments on social media. Is she okay? Give her a steak. Someone give her a glass of wine and a steak.
Emmie Strommen:
100%. Yeah, we're not big drinkers. Actually, I would do maybe a spicy Mezcal Marg. If I were going to do an alcoholic beverage, it would 100% be a spicy Mezcal Marg.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, okay. That's a theme on here too, people like those. I don't like Mezcal. Interestingly, you don't drink that much, but when you do you want Mezcal. Because it's pretty intense to me.
Emmie Strommen:
I love Mezcal. I love the smokiness.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I don't like it.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. Or chilled red.
Johanna Almstead:
Chilled red I get down with all day long. All day long. I talk about chilled red on this a lot weirdly, because it's controversial.
Emmie Strommen:
Is it controversial?
Johanna Almstead:
Yep. There's a lot of people get mad at chilled red.
Emmie Strommen:
See, I don't know these things.
Johanna Almstead:
Yep. See, you should listen to my words more often. But there are so many really important facts that you need in life.
Emmie Strommen:
Duly noted.
Johanna Almstead:
You're missing out on the controversy around chilled red wine. Okay. Have you ever had a moment in your life where you've had to eat your words?
Emmie Strommen:
Oh yeah, for sure. So many times.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Can you think of one?
Emmie Strommen:
The one that comes to mind, I guess it would be eat my words, I typed them out and I needed to take those back. It was when the computer first came out or when the computers were first in homes. So all I wanted to do was be on a computer and click-clack. I just wanted to type because it was just so fun. And I typed this beautiful story, made-up fiction story, and I emailed it to someone, a friend of mine, about how his girlfriend liked someone else. Completely fictional.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Meant to be fictional or meant to be provocative?
Emmie Strommen:
No, he believed it was true. So then he called my mom, crying. Or his mom called my mom. It was really bad, and I felt so bad they did end up breaking up. I felt so bad.
Johanna Almstead:
You caused the breakup?
Emmie Strommen:
It's very possible I caused the breakup.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, geez.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
I still think about it, I feel bad about it. I was so young and I wanted to type.
Johanna Almstead:
Did you mean for him to believe it, or did you think he-
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, you did? Okay.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
So you're a shit starter.
Emmie Strommen:
I'm a storyteller, Jo.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, you're a storyteller. I'll give you that. All right, this is going to be funny because I feel like the people who are going to feel sad for you about your vegan last meal. If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life every day, you don't have to worry about it'll sustain you. It's fine. Don't get all nutritional on me if you don't... Well, you probably will anyway. What would it be every day all day?
Emmie Strommen:
Eggs and avocado.
Johanna Almstead:
Wow. Bleh.
Emmie Strommen:
Eggs and avocado.
Johanna Almstead:
You really did live in LA. I feel like eggs and avocado is such a thing in LA. It's become more mainstream now.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, the avocado toast is like a thing.
Johanna Almstead:
Also, the combination of eggs and avocado, which I feel like-
Emmie Strommen:
It's so good.
Johanna Almstead:
... it's fucking gross.
Emmie Strommen:
You don't like eggs and avocado?
Johanna Almstead:
Not really. I like eggs, and I like avocado, but I have issues. There's too much mush. There needs to be a crunch.
Emmie Strommen:
Well, yeah. I definitely have bread. I'm not like a no-carbs gal. I eat all the bread. There will be a nice thick bread with some ghee on top of it.
Johanna Almstead:
Ghee.
Emmie Strommen:
Avocado, eggs, maybe some sriracha.
Johanna Almstead:
Maybe some umami.
Emmie Strommen:
Maybe some umami. I don't know. I'm so curious, Jo, what would you eat for the rest of your life?
Johanna Almstead:
Pasta probably.
Emmie Strommen:
Okay. I mean, I said pasta for my last meal.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I think it would be pasta. I really weirdly love pasta any time of day. I like pasta for breakfast. I like pasta for lunch. I like pasta for dinner.
Emmie Strommen:
For sure.
Johanna Almstead:
I could eat pasta many meals a day.
Emmie Strommen:
Well, that's fair.
Johanna Almstead:
Where's your happy place?
Emmie Strommen:
The barn.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Do you go to the barn a lot now? Do you have any time to ride?
Emmie Strommen:
I'm just back in postpartum now, actually. And I went last night, and I just really got present to how safe I feel at the barn and how peaceful I feel at the barn and how meditative it really is. And it was a super busy day and so many things happening in my personal day and then also in the world, and to just go to the barn, I was like, "Wow, what a blessing."
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. It's one of the only things that I can do where I don't think about anything else when I'm there.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, you really can't. That's the beauty of it.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, you really can't multitask when you're on a horse.
Emmie Strommen:
It's forced meditation.
Johanna Almstead:
Which is the kind that I need.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Because I'm not really great at just sitting and doing nothing.
Emmie Strommen:
That's fair.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. What do you wear when you feel like you have to take on the world to the photo shoot with Helena Christensen or to a meeting with a publisher or to some major thing?
Emmie Strommen:
Hopefully it's fall because that's when I feel my best.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. That's like your wardrobe jam season.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, yeah. A really nice jean with a boot, with a heel. A little heel. Always gives me a little power. A T-shirt and then a nice cool jacket. Some sort of I love jackets, live for jackets.
Johanna Almstead:
Like a blazer or some other kind of jacket?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, it could be a blazer, it could be a lightweight jacket, even a little bit thicker of a jacket if it's really cold out that I might wear the whole meeting. Because I do do that, which I know is kind of like-
Johanna Almstead:
Like it was part of your look. No, I understand.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I'm going to do it.
Emmie Strommen:
Probably that.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Go-to coping mechanism on a bad day, like shits going sideways. You didn't sleep last night. Well, Leo was not up all night, because Leo's a fucking dreamboat and sleeps. But you or whatever and things are going haywire, what do you do?
Emmie Strommen:
Breathing techniques. That is my quick go-to.
Johanna Almstead:
Do you have a specific one?
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, the box breathing, which I'm sure you've heard about.
Johanna Almstead:
Someone else talked about that on this podcast.
Emmie Strommen:
It's just such an easy go-to.
Johanna Almstead:
I like it. Okay. Dream dinner party guest list. Dead or alive, you can have as many people as you want. Who's coming to your party? And please don't serve them vegan Pasta.
Emmie Strommen:
No. I don't make other people partake in that. No one in my life is vegan besides me. It's so funny, this is a question that you should assume someone asks you at some point in your life and you should just have an answer for it.
Johanna Almstead:
I know. I don't have an answer for it and I ask it all the time. And it seems so cliche, I always go back and forth about should I include it, because it seems sort of dumb. But it's fascinating to see what people say.
Emmie Strommen:
Totally.
Johanna Almstead:
And it really-
Emmie Strommen:
It was not a dumb question. I think it's a great question.
Johanna Almstead:
It really flubs people up sometimes though.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
People feel pressure. Don't feel pressure. You can have as many or as few as you want. It could just be a little intimate affair.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, it could just be a one-on-one?
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
Something that's coming to mind for me right now, and I guarantee you my answer next week will change.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, that's usually how these things go.
Emmie Strommen:
But right now, I think it'd be really fun to have all of the women entrepreneurs that were coming up at the time that I was living in New York, so like Ty Haney, Emily Weiss.
Johanna Almstead:
Like the girlboss generation?
Emmie Strommen:
The girlboss generation.
Johanna Almstead:
What's the name at the club? The Wing?
Emmie Strommen:
Yes, and I was a part of The Wing. All of that. I actually should probably get their name.
Johanna Almstead:
What's her name? She has a hotel now.
Emmie Strommen:
Audrey Gelman and Sophia Amoruso.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
Founder of Girlboss. My nasty gal. Maybe a couple other ones. I just think it'd be interesting because now that I am where I am and I was such fans of them, and they all have gone through their own journeys and ups and downs and lost their companies, taken back their companies, there's just so much time that's passed from that kind of really exciting time. And then maybe add in Jesus just because I got to know. You know what I mean? Keep the conversation diverse.
Johanna Almstead:
That's my favorite. I think that is going to be a really good dinner party.
Emmie Strommen:
I think so.
Johanna Almstead:
Maybe Jesus just brings the loaves and fishes and makes the water into wine and-
Emmie Strommen:
He's absolutely in charge of dinner.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
He'll be hosting actually.
Johanna Almstead:
He's like this with his arms out.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Okay, last question. What is one thing you know for sure, right now, today in this moment? You don't have to know it next week or last week, just now.
Emmie Strommen:
It's funny, I knew you were going to ask me this because you ask everyone this. And yet I still don't have an answer teed up. The thing that I know for sure today is that my family is the most important thing in my life, the greatest gift. And my family is really, obviously, I work at my family's company, but my husband and my son, and then my siblings, I'm the oldest of four, and my mom and dad and their significant others, all of them and my cousins. Family is just such an incredible... Family is generational wealth, having a family. Regardless of the monetary component of it, I feel so blessed and I just know for sure that that is the most important thing.
Johanna Almstead:
That's amazing. Are they all local to where you are now? Is everyone-
Emmie Strommen:
Mm-hmm.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. We actually have a dream of all buying land and moving on it together.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, that's amazing.
Emmie Strommen:
That's what I'm currently manifesting.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm into it. I'm into it. Let's put it out there. Please tell the nice people who are listening where they can find you on Instagram, Substack, your website, all those things.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah. Calling All Horse Girls' on pretty much everything. Substack, TikTok, Instagram.
Johanna Almstead:
Are you on TikTok? I couldn't find you on TikTok.
Emmie Strommen:
Not really. I don't know why I said that. I am on TikTok. We do have an account, I just never post on it.
Johanna Almstead:
Really? I couldn't find it.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, I'm going to keep looking. I didn't dive deep enough.
Emmie Strommen:
And then my personal Instagram is, heyhihowareyoudoing. I love that. I don't know why. It's just forever what it's going to be.
Johanna Almstead:
Because you're cute and you're funny. Okay. And volume eight is out now, so everyone needs to purchase it because it's beautiful and amazing. And they can purchase it on your website, but they can also purchase it in beautiful kind of arty design-y bookstores around the world. Are there any particular ones that you want to call out or there's just your local cool place?
Emmie Strommen:
I mean, yeah, we're in 80-plus retailers around the world. There's a really cool one in Copenhagen that, I think it's called Super in Copenhagen. And Casa Magazines in New York, which is a huge opportunity.
Johanna Almstead:
The best place in the world.
Emmie Strommen:
I walked past Casa Magazines every single day on my way to work. So that's a surreal moment. But yeah, I'm sure-
Johanna Almstead:
That's the full circle moment, huh?
Emmie Strommen:
I'm sure it'll be near you, so go check it out. You can get it on callingallhorsegirls.com. We're really excited about it.
Johanna Almstead:
I actually saw it. I was going to send you a note. I saw it in our local... There's this really cool shop in Bedford, which is horse country, called oHHo. They do cannabis seltzers and gummies and stuff, and they do this really cool brick oven pizza stuff, and then they have this beautiful shop in the back that has just gorgeous design stuff. And they had Calling All Horse Girls.
Emmie Strommen:
I love that.
Johanna Almstead:
I was like, "Oh yeah, this is a good spot." It's a really good one for you.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah, it's been fun to have it be in those type of environments. It's not like in tax stores and only at horse shows. It's like it's in the world.
Johanna Almstead:
It's in the world.
Emmie Strommen:
We're around.
Johanna Almstead:
Like in cool places.
Emmie Strommen:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Well, congratulations on all that you are doing and achieving. Congratulations on beautiful Baby Leo.
Emmie Strommen:
Thanks.
Johanna Almstead:
And thank you, thank you so much for taking so much time with me today. This has been a dream.
Emmie Strommen:
It's been so much fun chatting with you. And I'm glad that we are in each other's worlds.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, me too. Wait, before we cut, I have to tell you the story of this morning because it was the cutest thing ever. My daughter, I was like, "Come on guys. We're on a tight schedule this morning." My eldest, she's the one that has to be up and out of the house by 7:30, and so I was like, "It's a tight day today." And she's like, "Why do you have your makeup on already?" And I was like, "Oh, I'm interviewing someone today." And she said, "Who are you interviewing?"
And I said, "Do you remember that magazine that I got you, Calling All Horse Girls?" And she's like, "Oh my God. Yeah." And I was like, "It's the editor-in-chief. It's the founder of that." And she was like, "Mom, that's like a huge celebrity." And I was like, "Yeah, it is. It's major."
Emmie Strommen:
That's so sweet.
Johanna Almstead:
She goes, "That's like the Sabrina Carpenter of magazines, mom."
Emmie Strommen:
I will take that. I'll take that.
Johanna Almstead:
Take that.
Emmie Strommen:
I don't deserve that, but I will take that.
Johanna Almstead:
And just play that over in your head all day long today, and then you can tell Baby Leo that you are the Sabrina Carpenter of magazines.
Emmie Strommen:
Of horse magazines.
Johanna Almstead:
She didn't even say horse magazines, she said magazines. So Anna Wintour, look, watch out. Watch who's coming for you.
Emmie Strommen:
Yep.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Emmie Strommen:
That's so sweet. Thank you for telling me that.
Johanna Almstead:
Isn't that the cutest? I was like, "Oh my God-
Emmie Strommen:
That's precious. That's precious.
Johanna Almstead:
So thank you, thank you, thank you. This has been amazing. And I'll let you get back to your crazy day.
Emmie Strommen:
Thank you so much.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, that was so fun. She's hilarious. I hope. Are you guys sick of hearing about horses yet? I'm going to try to spread it out. Okay. But I hope you're feeling inspired by today. I hope that you learned something. I hope that you feel inspired to follow your passion, whatever it is, to try hard things, to do all the things that fuel you and light you up. And as always, I appreciate you tuning in. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
If you haven't done so already, please follow or subscribe to the podcast on whatever media player you're playing it on. Also, please follow us on social media. These numbers really, really matter when it comes down to growing our platform. So we are @eatmywordsthepodcast on Instagram and TikTok, and we appreciate every little follow, every little like, every little heart, every little comment. Get in there. I'm also, I'm personally in all those comments, so please tell us what you are enjoying or not enjoying and tell us what you want us to talk about.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. We are growing bit by bit, and that's all because of you guys. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Catch you on the next one.
This podcast has been created and directed by me, Johanna Almstead. Our producer is Sophy Drouin. Our audio editor is Isabel Robertson. And our brand manager is Mila Boujnah.