Local Threads

I am always inspired by the people that I am privileged to talk to and this week is no different. This weeks guest is none other than THE Christy Felix, Hustle List Founder and Chief Hustle Officer. Christy is equal parts admirable and inspiring, someone you meet and just know they're going places. Hearing her story reminds me of the good in the world and the things we still have power to impact right here in your own community. Enjoy. 

How to contact Christy: christy@uhustle.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christy-felix/
Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehstlist/
https://www.instagram.com/rentpartyofficial/
https://www.instagram.com/communitycontentday/
App Store & Google Play:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-hustle-list/id6751056710
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thehstlist.android&pcampaignid=web_share&pli=1
Events:
https://posh.vip/g/thehustlelist
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thehustlelist
Articles:
https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2026/01/29/boston-cash-mobs-small-businesses
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/boston-mob-crawl-aims-to-boost-spending-at-black-owned-stores/ar-AA1VIZRy?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds
https://baystatebanner.com/2026/01/21/community-rallies-around-dorchester-thrift-shop/

Creators and Guests

Host
Molly Rae

What is Local Threads?

Local Threads is a storytelling podcast documenting the voices of New England's creative community. Artists, organizers, and culture makers who shape spaces, movements, and shared experiences.

Molly:

Welcome to this week's episode of Local Threads, a podcast all about the artists and community builders across New England. I'm Ale, your host, and this week's episode is with hustler and community builder Christy Felix. Christy is a Boston born Haitian American innovator, graduate of Georgetown, and someone you've probably seen online promoting local businesses on the hustle list. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're in the right place. We talk about the origins of the hustle list, what it takes to build something on your own, and the resilience to keep going when the odds are stacked against you.

Molly:

Let's get into it. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for coming.

Christy:

Yeah. Thank you for inviting me.

Molly:

First, before we get into the hustle list, congratulations, you were on the news. Thank you. I saw that and I was like, that's so awesome. Yeah. It was picked up by MSN too.

Christy:

I didn't see that.

Molly:

Yeah. Because when I was refreshing my interview prep, I was like, update the interview prep, but using like the news articles and it it picked up Axios. Oh. And then it said also that Axios articles pushed to MSN, I think as well.

Christy:

Yeah. I didn't know that. I didn't see that. The Axios I knew about. Yeah.

Christy:

But when I saw on the news, I was like, what the heck? Miss Deb, who's the owner of that thirst shop. She called me. I was at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She called me and I saw her call come through, but obviously I couldn't answer.

Christy:

And then the voicemail was like two minutes long. And I was like, what's going recorded the whole segment in the voice mail. I'm like, Christy, listen to this. And then she put it to the TV.

Molly:

That's so cool.

Christy:

Ms. Deb is so sweet.

Molly:

Yeah. Before we get into that, which I'm excited to talk about, the impact you're making. But first, let's tell everybody about you. Where are you from? Yeah.

Molly:

So

Christy:

So I'm from Cambridge. I was born in Boston. I lived in Haiti for the first four years of my life. So after I was born, I went back to Haiti and then I came back to Cambridge and that's where I was raised. I went to school, middle school and high school there.

Christy:

And then, after I went to school, I went to Cornell. I was there only for two years and I transferred to Georgetown. And then after graduating Georgetown, I

Molly:

came Where's Georgetown? Is that Washington?

Christy:

Yeah, DC. Yeah. Yeah. And then after I graduated Georgetown, I came back home to Cambridge. Yeah, I am Haitian American.

Christy:

I am first generation American. I've always loved community service. I used to do a lot of community service in my high school. I actually started a community service club.

Molly:

Of course you did.

Christy:

Everything I'm doing now, I've always been doing. I started a community service club in high school called One Problem at a Time, where you just volunteered at a bunch of things. And then I also volunteered, my internship was at this organization called Spare Change News. I think they're still around, but Spare Change News is located in Harvard and they sell newspapers to the homeless that the homeless can sell for profit. So yeah, I've always been into the community work.

Molly:

Now, did you get that from

Christy:

someone in your family? Did someone in your family like show you the way? I think obviously my mom is like such a big empath. I'm also an empath. I just feel things so deeply when I look at things and I see someone struggling with something like I feel it and I want to do something about it.

Christy:

Yeah. I remember when I was younger, I don't remember what age I was, but my mom would tell me stories like, yeah, like you saw people, it was a hot day in Cambridge and I saw people, doing construction outside and I put a bunch of waters in the freezer and then kept it there for an hour. And then came back and just gave people some water. And she was like, I didn't know what you were doing. You just left the house and decided to give people some water.

Christy:

I just, I just feel things, but I feel like that hasn't always been the best thing at times.

Molly:

Yeah. Definitely can mess with your mental health

Christy:

for sure.

Molly:

Because there's only so much you can do.

Christy:

Exactly. Yeah.

Molly:

And I love that you channeled that into actionable things because action definitely overtakes like that rumination and worry and and defeatism that can come with being empathetic to people and all the things that happen in the world because it's constant.

Christy:

Yeah. I've gotten sometimes questions about like, why do I do certain things? Like I remember in high school someone was like, oh, Christy's only doing this because she wants to go to a good college. I mean, yes. And there's so many different things I could be doing right now other than volunteering at a homeless shelter.

Christy:

Like there's so many different things I could be doing. Yes. If it helps me get into college, that's amazing, but that's not the sole reason. And I think I've gotten those questions. There's not like a lot, like I'm just bringing it up because it kind of bothers me sometimes.

Christy:

I get those questions like, are you doing this for a reason? Or an ulterior motive? None of this pays me. Yeah. Like I started getting followers on the hustle list when I started posting on the hustle list in September.

Christy:

I've been doing this way before. I don't know why I do it. I just like it. It's like, it feels like my purpose.

Molly:

And

Christy:

those questions, it makes me sad too because it's like, dang, is the world just not that

Molly:

The world is very cynical. Yeah. So much so that I've never gotten those questions, but I always, that's my big insecurity is like, am I riding the coattails of these successful people? Because I think I'm preparing for those questions. Or, I don't know, it's just one of those things where, like, I've always had people say some shit Mhmm.

Christy:

And I'm just ready. Like Yeah.

Molly:

Or not ready, but, I just I don't know. Yeah. I definitely understand that. Like Yeah. Doesn't always have to make sense to everybody.

Molly:

I've done the thing that made the money. It had no purpose

Christy:

Yes.

Molly:

For me. And that almost put me in a mental spiral. Well, it did put me in a mental spiral. Yeah. You have to find passion and purpose first.

Molly:

Yeah. And I'm so glad that you're finding that you found that early. You've stuck to that. Yeah. Because I'm in my forties, and it took me a long time to figure that out where I just felt imprisoned by the things that I was doing before Yeah.

Molly:

Like a lot of people do Yeah. And was too afraid to do anything. Yeah. So that's amazing. And you started in high school.

Molly:

Yeah. Thank you. So once you got out of high school and you got to college, you started U Hustle.

Christy:

Yeah. So I went to Cornell out of high school

Molly:

and Which also congratulations.

Christy:

Thank Isn't that an Ivy League school? It is. Yeah. Thank you. I went to Cornell and I had to pay money out of pocket.

Christy:

Obviously, you know, so I, yeah, it's so expensive and also it's like really far from home. So I can't just go home and get something to eat. Like everything came from my pocket. Because I was raised by a single mom. We're a low income family.

Christy:

So I was like, let me pick up hair braiding. So I used to braid hair in high school. I picked up hair braiding in college, you know, started getting a few clients and that was helping me pay. And it's not like, okay, I need to pay for these books or whatever. Cause some of the, most of the books I went to the library, I rented it out and I gave it right back.

Christy:

Like I wasn't trying to buy a lot. Sometimes it was just like, I want to go hang out with my friends. I'm going go to a party. I want to go, you know, buy some food. I want some burgers.

Christy:

Like it was money that made me feel like a normal college student. Like it helped me make me feel normal. Compared to all these people that could go and they buy whatever they want and go on shopping sprees in New York City whenever they want. Like they just made me feel more normal. So then I picked it up and then my second semester of freshman year, I took this entrepreneurship class.

Christy:

I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And he went around the class, the professor and asked everybody, what's the problem that you're facing right now that you want to fix? And when it came to my turn, I was preparing, I was ready. I was like, okay, I have these three ideas or these two ideas or something. My first idea was, oh, it was a fridge that you can tell it when you like go grocery shopping.

Christy:

So then it can store the dates that you're putting something in. So it can tell you, oh, the lettuce is about to expire. Or like, you need to use the celery or whatever. He was like, then he responded, oh, but everyone's going to spend like all that time scanning their items or putting it into the fridges system before putting it in the fridge. I was like, oh, okay.

Christy:

Yeah, that's legit. And then I was like, okay, second idea is maybe having one universal price for these streaming platforms. These streaming platforms can come together and then we can give a one universal price and it's all discounted, but it's like, you can access these streaming platforms. She was like, isn't that just like cable television? I'm like, okay, all right.

Christy:

So then the second one, it felt like it came like out of nowhere. Like, I feel like it came from God and it was like downloading my brain. I was like, well, I braid hair and I want people to find me on campus. Maybe I can build a platform where you can find students with side hustles on campuses. Then he paused.

Christy:

He was like, oh yeah, that sounds cool. Then he walks away. When I said it, it was like, I was hearing myself say at the same time I was saying it. And I was like, that's a dope idea. So that's when I thought of You Hustle, but I sat on it because people who would go to Cornell, you know what I'm saying, but like Cornell can be a very depressing school.

Christy:

It's in Upstate New York in Ithaca. I'm already first generation college student. I don't have anyone back home. Can call and say like, yo, I'm like, first you're dealing with imposter syndrome. You go to an Ivy League school.

Christy:

So everything's so competitive. There's no sun. The sun doesn't come out. Like it was just, I was struggling mentally and then, you know, trigger, but like a lot of students were just passing and that was new to me.

Molly:

Passing away?

Christy:

Yeah. Really? Yeah.

Molly:

They have a suicide problem?

Christy:

Yeah. Really? Yeah. And I don't know all the time, every time I got an email saying like a student passed away, no foul play, no foul play. They never said what the reason was, but Cornell has had history with students committing suicide.

Christy:

And I don't know if they're just not seeing the reason why, because

Molly:

They don't want back.

Christy:

They don't, right. But these students kept passing and it just kept affecting me. It- It is really Yeah.

Molly:

It's a lot because then you're faced with your mortality at such a young age.

Christy:

Yeah. I never experienced, like I've never had someone close to me pass before, even till this day, I can say that like that. I'm so grateful. But like being, I just was thrown into this environment and these students are just struggling. Maybe, you know, someone, I spoke to a cousin of mine, she's like, oh, maybe you're just not built for it.

Christy:

And I'm like, well, I guess not. I guess I'm not built for it. Like I can't, can't, I'm an empath. That's where it came in. I feel it so deeply.

Christy:

It takes so long for me to bounce back from it. I don't even know some of these students, but it took me so long to keep bouncing back, but it kept happening. And then it started to affect me. And I started to feel like, oh, I don't want to be here anymore either. And I called my mom one day and I was like, I gotta leave this school.

Christy:

Like I was crying. She was like, I've never heard you say you want, I love school all the time. I've never heard you say you wanted to leave a school before. Never, I was like, if I don't leave, I might not come back to you. Then she was like, oh, what do you want?

Christy:

That's when she was like, oh, she's not happy. Because I've been telling her I wasn't happy for a while, but she's like, she's really not happy. Yeah, that was my first semester of my sophomore year when I made that call. And then I decided I'm just not coming back. Like, I don't know what the option's going to be.

Christy:

Cornell is not an option. I'm not coming back here. Cause I feel like if I come back here, I'm not coming back to my mom and I need to come back to her. So I decided I'm not coming back to Cortnell. I didn't register for classes the next semester.

Christy:

Me neither. I didn't, you know, I just started packing up my stuff and I was like, I'm not coming back. Whatever option there is, there's gonna be another option. Community college, Bunker Hill, you know, whatever I gotta do, I'm just not coming back there. And that's legit what I did.

Christy:

I started packing things up every break in between the semester. I took a charter bus back home. I would bring more and more stuff back home because I knew I wasn't coming back. I remember telling my friends like, oh, I'm transferring out. And then they were like, where are you going?

Christy:

I said, I don't know yet. And they laughed. And I was like, oh, you think I'm, I'm not coming back here. I'm gone. Sorry.

Christy:

That was such a story It's real. Trauma dump. Okay.

Molly:

You know, it's part of your story. It's part of a lot of people's story whether or not they have had a chance to talk about it on podcast. Yeah. Mean, it's real, and people will resonate with it. It's just part of life, unfortunately.

Molly:

When did you feel like the world needed a platform for hustlers? Yeah. And I guess define hustlers.

Christy:

Yeah. I define hustlers as creatives and small business owners who are working hard towards their dream. That's how I define them. Well, yeah, college was when I first realized like people exist, but we can't find them. There's a reason why, like a lot of the directors, a lot of the platforms, they're focused on certain people, people that have more experience or have been in the industry for a long time, have a physical location.

Christy:

So people like me who are doing it in their dorm, going to people's houses or, you know, sometimes, you know, when I was doing social media management on the side, I'm only online. Like where do I go? You know? And then if I do go places like that, how do I compete? Cause, oh, I just started doing social media management a month ago.

Christy:

Like, who's going to look at me every time you're on a new platform, there's this hierarchy that they do is focus on, you know, tenure, it's focus on how many clients you've had. So if you're young, if you just got started, you're on the bottom of that barrel fresh out and you got to dig your way up top. And I understand like we do need to respect the people that have been in spaces for a long time. We do need to respect the people that have, you know, paved the way and like taught us how to do things, but sometimes They're expensive. Yep.

Christy:

They're expensive. So

Molly:

they've priced themselves out of the younger market or even just not even younger, but per se of like age, but like of like someone starting out like me. I need an editor, but I can't afford a $100 an hour. Yes. You know?

Christy:

And that's exactly why I thought of You Hustlers because who says you need to go to someone who's been in the game for ten years? Why can't you go to someone that just started out? You don't know if they're, talented sometimes too. Some people just got it. Yeah.

Christy:

Some people just, and you can't teach that in school. You can't, there are 16 year olds who are taking, you know, photographs for like huge celebrities. They started when they were 15. You know what I mean? Like people, some people just got it.

Christy:

And so we're telling them, well, you can't compete because you don't have a physical location. Don't have tenure. You don't have a degree. You don't have all these things because you don't have all these things and these special certificates and things that just remind me of a TikTok since you got your degree. Yeah.

Christy:

Isn't you know everything? Since you know everything. Just because you don't got that, that means you can't, you can't get some work. You can't get a job. You can't get an internship.

Christy:

That's not fair. So that's when I was like, no, there needs to be something. A lot of the people that do it fresh out, they don't really consider themselves entrepreneurs. They just consider themselves like, oh, I'm just doing it. Like a lot of them.

Christy:

That's why I use the word hustler specifically. Cause it came from the word side hustle at first. But the reason I started using hustlers, even with the connotation, everyone told me not to use the word hustlers. No, I love it. Because a lot of them don't consider themselves entrepreneurs.

Christy:

Yeah. They just consider themselves creatives or, or I just take photos. Like that's the response I hear from some people. I just do it. And I'm like, you're good.

Christy:

Like you need to, you know, so I used that word hustler because it felt more universal than creative or entrepreneur.

Molly:

Yeah. There's just like this thing. Like, I would not call myself an entrepreneur, but I guess I am. But it feels weird.

Christy:

Yeah. Some people don't like it.

Molly:

Yeah. It does. It feels other. Yes. It does.

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

What did the earliest version look like? You mentioned so the hustle list is a kind of like a graduation from you hustle.

Christy:

Yeah. Exactly. It was so ugly. Oh my god. It like, I still have the clips of me doing my video tours and my demos of my website.

Christy:

I'm like, Oh, I was trying to get people on this. This is horrendous.

Molly:

So the hustle list is

Christy:

an app. You hustle was a website at first. Yeah, it was a website marketplace and the marketplace was also a web app. Okay.

Molly:

So like whenever you have like the mobile view version, that's a web app. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense.

Christy:

So, so I had the idea my second semester freshman year at Cornell, when I transferred to Georgetown a year and some change later. I was in one of these classes that one has to take. I forgot what the name is. But at the end of the class, had to do a pitch competition. You could win money.

Christy:

You could win $5,000 And I was like, oh, okay, cool. So of course I'm a minority in this class and I look around and I see four other black students and I'm like, oh, here's my team. Like we're going to be on the team. Already looked at each other. We kind of knew.

Christy:

So then when we came together, was like, Hey guys, like I had this, I have this idea. It's at first I called it Ivy hustle. Cause I was at Ivy league. So at first I called it Ivy hustle. I have this idea it's to get like, you know, entrepreneurs or people that have side hustles on campus on one platform so that people can find them.

Christy:

That's my idea. In my mind, I'm thinking this is going to be more like a, like a chat room or like a social media platform where people can post about what they're doing. That was the first idea. It was like, going to be that. And they were like, oh yeah, this is dope.

Christy:

Like, this is a cool idea. So we did the class at the end of the class. We won $5,000 I didn't continue working with a lot of them because it was just for a class project at first, but one or two like continued over time and over time it just ended up being me. But it was so rewarding because that first $5,000 was the start of me doing pitch competitions. And then I ended up winning more and more.

Christy:

And then I ended up winning $65,000 by the end of my Georgetown career just in 2020.

Molly:

So in one year you won $60,000

Christy:

Two years. Well, over two years. Yeah.

Molly:

Still, that's like a whole salary.

Christy:

Yeah. Yeah. And I was just I I going to every pitch competition. I was pitching this, and I wasn't just pitching it. I was I was building it as well.

Christy:

I was building it myself on WordPress at first. So I built the first version. That's when I started getting into like website development stuff. I built that version on WordPress. And then after that, tried, because I started getting checks.

Christy:

I tried to hire some developers and stuff like that. Kept getting scammed. I kept getting scammed by the money I won. It just kept going away. And I'm like, what am I doing wrong?

Christy:

And I'm thinking I'm being frugal by doing this and this and this. And a lot of times he was just didn't know like what I was trying to build, but they were trying to just get the track of and I didn't know that they didn't know. I didn't know what questions to ask. So I was like, whatever. And then I spoke to this one guy.

Christy:

I didn't end up hiring him, but he, there was one of the consult calls. I don't remember his name. I think I found him through Fiverr, Upwork or something. Don't remember. But then I was telling him the idea.

Christy:

I said, oh, it's going to be like a platform where you can find people with side hustles. It's going to be like, no social media platform or whatever. He was like, I think what you're trying to build is a marketplace. For some reason that was the Eureka moment for me. I'm like, yeah, actually, yes.

Christy:

And then that's when I started to look into how to build marketplaces. And then that's when I learned about white labeled apps and white labeled platforms.

Molly:

So I know about white labeled products. Yeah. So is it the same like you basically have a shell of something and you just put your name on it?

Christy:

Exactly. Yeah. So there are white labeled marketplaces where you can have it and you just put your brand on it and you can call it your marketplace. I wanted my marketplace to be for college students specifically. So there's some guard rails I wanted around that.

Christy:

So I had the white labeled solution, which was Share Tribe. Share Tribe is a white label, one of the best white labeled marketplace apps. So if you ever want to build a marketplace, ShareTribe. And then I hired a developer. I think I found them through Upwork to make the customizations, to make it for college students specifically.

Christy:

So once I found them, it was after I won my biggest check yet, which was $30,000 That was actually the last check I want. Yeah. Thank you. And I was like, oh, I have this check. I don't need to be scrappy anymore.

Christy:

Cause I was scrappy. Like when I launched, when I did my launch party for the first version of the app, I had negative $300 in my bank account. You know why? You know why? Cause I was like, I'm going to do this.

Christy:

Yeah. This app is gonna be something real. This web app is gonna be something real. I'm gonna do this. I was so scrappy that day I had negative $300 I paid for a zip car to drive around, to go grocery shopping for the launch party, which was a barbecue at the back of some of the entrepreneurship house at Georgetown.

Christy:

I bought all the food. I dropped all the food there. And then I said, go put the zip car back where I got it, which was pretty far away, but I didn't have any more money to go, from where the zip car had to be parked back to school. So I walked like an hour and thirty minutes back to school. And then after I walked, I went to that entrepreneurship house and I prepared all the food for the next day for the launch party.

Christy:

I was up till like three or 04:00 in the morning.

Molly:

Finger cool. Like, obviously not being in that play that being in that place sucks. Mhmm. But at the same time, having that passion to drive you even with like, that's rare.

Christy:

Yeah. It's rare. Yes. I was just

Molly:

And it feels good.

Christy:

It feels good. Despite it all. Like it

Molly:

feels like sucks, but I know this is important.

Christy:

Yes. It feels like it's going to be worth it. That's why you keep going through the suffering. Like one day it's going to be worth it or I'm already helping people. By that time I was already, I was doing videos similar to the things that I do for the hustle list.

Christy:

I'm following the same thing I did for you hustle. Was doing videos for student entrepreneurs. I was connecting student entrepreneurs to opportunities, getting them paid. I wasn't getting paid through those, those connections I was making. I was just like, oh, they're DJ.

Christy:

The, I forgot what the department is that they do all the planning for freshmen on campus, like parties for freshmen. They needed DJs. I had a few DJs in my like directory. Okay. Connect them.

Christy:

I got four DJs hired for, from the school for an event. And I was like, this feels like I'm doing something. Like, I felt like it. Those teachers got paid. I helped hairstylists get paid.

Christy:

I got photographers money. Like I was, I felt like And you are. Doing it. Thank you. You still are.

Christy:

Thank you.

Molly:

And how long ago was that?

Christy:

I started U Hustle in 2018.

Molly:

Okay.

Christy:

Yeah. I had to stop in 2020 because of the pandemic. Mhmm. I went back and tried to do it again in 2022 and then ended up just letting it go by 2023.

Molly:

And why'd you let it go?

Christy:

When I had to stop it during the pandemic, it was my last year of college. I was a senior. So I was graduating. I graduated, you know, in 2020. And then students were on campus for two years.

Christy:

And my app was based off of college students on campus doing side hustles. So all of that momentum was lost. I tried to continue it through the pandemic. No one was doing it. A lot of people stopped doing their, whatever they were doing before.

Christy:

So I looked into new hobbies, you know, social media, TikTok, all of that momentum lost. I even had had investors lined up. I had pitch competitions lined up, lost. 2020 just, it was just Yeah. I was even thinking about doing it full time post grad, but then ended up just taking a job in investment banking because I was like, yep, this is done.

Christy:

And then I decided, let me try again. I don't wanna have any regrets. So I tried to get in 2022, had no connections, but I had a friend at NYU. So I was like, let me try at NYU. Nobody was picking up while I was putting down.

Christy:

Also I wasn't a student. It was just weird. Who is this lady coming? You know, I put thousands of flyers all around NYU's campus to spread the word about U Hustler. Nobody signed up still, but they did sign up to, I did a raffle where I gave away like some, AirPods.

Christy:

They signed up for that. They signed up for my marketplace, which I had the marketplace at that time, which is crazy. Cause I built it through the pandemic. It was, yeah. But it's okay because that season where I tried it at NYU, which is also a struggling season because I didn't have a job.

Christy:

I moved to New York from Cambridge. The character I have now is because of that season.

Molly:

Yeah. I mean, that was just preparing you for the vassalist.

Christy:

Yes. Yeah.

Molly:

Which is for everybody. Yeah. Not just college. Yes. Can be used, you know, even high school kids.

Christy:

Yeah. So it's great. Yeah.

Molly:

Yeah. Did you get your degree in?

Christy:

Oh, business management, innovation and something else. They had a long name. I don't know why, but it was like business management. That's the name of it in innovation.

Molly:

Definitely innovation. All right. So it's 2023. You went to investment banking. When did you decide I'm gonna give this another shot?

Christy:

Okay. So yes, I let go of you hustle. I said, okay, I'm gonna go back to finance. I went back to finance. I was working in investment banking and they just didn't see my value.

Christy:

Like, I don't know why they hired me Molly. Like I, to this day, I'm so confused why they hired me. They hired me and someone else, the person that they hired, she had her MBA. I don't even have my MBA, but they hired us as business analysts. All we did were put in requests for people, get lunch for people.

Christy:

Like we did the smallest things and we're looking at each other like we could do so much more. I'm not gonna toot my own horn, but let me toot my own horn. Like, I started a startup. I founded a startup. I went to college.

Christy:

I I'm a hard worker.

Molly:

And not only did you go to college, you went to big colleges. Like my college I did online. Like, whatever. You know what I mean? But you went to Cornell and Georgetown.

Molly:

Like, that's not nothing. Yeah. Huge.

Christy:

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Molly:

But people take that for granted

Christy:

and people's age.

Molly:

Like Yeah. It's so annoying. Like, I'd rather work manual labor than work somewhere where they don't they're, like, they're elitist with everyone or you need to do your time.

Christy:

You need to do your time.

Molly:

Like, why don't you just tell me how to do my job and let me show you I'm gonna do it better than you.

Christy:

Yes.

Molly:

Oh, wait. That's because you're scared because you're coasting. Like that's, I can't stand it. And that's why I don't think I'll ever work for a big company again.

Christy:

I just, that was the moment where I was just like, dang, like every time I kept going back in the finance, I did my college internships in finance. I worked at two banks, investment banks. And every time they just kept putting me in the same boxes, kept giving me the most administrative jobs out of everybody and not challenging me. I always wanted to do more. I always felt like I could do more.

Christy:

Like, it felt like, like I felt so invisible. And it was also like, it was making me question myself. I'm like, do am I not? Like I feel like doing something

Molly:

way the system is designed and it has been for so long. Like, they wanna put you in a box and then you start questioning, okay, what do I need to do to get out of this box? Yes. But then you never then you've realized this box never stops. It's just a different Yes.

Christy:

Shape. Yes. And then

Molly:

you're like, oh my god. Yeah. I hate this. Yes. It's so stifling, and it is so inefficient, and I can't handle that.

Molly:

Like, my brain, when I see an inefficiency, not

Christy:

in my own process,

Molly:

don't even get me started on how inefficient I am, but, like, when I'm working at a company and I see an inefficiency, and I ask why we're doing this way, this will be so much faster, nobody wants to hear it, and then I get really frustrated and burn out, and I gotta go. Yeah. So I'm gonna I'm gonna cuss you out.

Christy:

Like, I what you said about, like, the box just changes forms. Like that is so legit. I did internships at two different places when I was in college and I worked at two different banks post grad. It's the same box. I'm thinking, oh, if I go to a new place, then I'm gonna, they're going to see me.

Christy:

Oh, it's the same box. It's the same box each time the box just changes form. It changes shape and you think, oh, this is going to be new. When I started that job, Molly, I started it. I think it was January 2024.

Christy:

First day I cried when I was walking home because I knew immediately they didn't need an analyst. I know what an analyst is. They didn't need an analyst. They needed an administrative assistant. You didn't need someone with even a college degree.

Christy:

Really. You could have had a high school person do my job. Yeah. Why? Why?

Molly:

Yeah.

Christy:

And then, and then it makes sense why the job market sucks so bad. Everyone wants someone with a degree, with two degrees, with these certificates that can speak multiple languages to do what?

Molly:

To sit by a phone. Yeah. I have had one of the worst jobs I ever had. I just sat there and I waited for the phone to ring. And mind you, I went from like a really fast paced position to that.

Molly:

And I'm like, I don't give a shit how much money I'm making. I can't do this. Yeah. Like, goodbye. I quit.

Molly:

That was the first time I ever, like, quit a job, and then I, for whatever reason, I'm really good at it now. I was like, bye. Here's my badge. Here's my phone. Here's my laptop.

Molly:

I'm not coming back. Yeah. And was that professional? No, but I don't really care.

Christy:

You gotta do what you gotta do. No. Like when I quit this, so I was working at that former job, basically doing assistant work and you know what sucked? Oh my gosh. When they would celebrate you for doing the simplest tasks.

Christy:

Yeah. I feel like such a child. Yeah. Thank you so much. You did a great job, like getting us rooms and like getting us our lunch.

Christy:

I'm like, please do not. Yeah. And they gave me a a gift card for it. And I'm like, okay. Thank you for the gift card.

Christy:

That's amazing. But I feel like such a child. Yeah. Like one of those, oh, mommy, here's the painting.

Molly:

Mhmm. Let me put on the refrigerator.

Christy:

Yeah. The bosses are definitely dumb

Molly:

more than who they hire.

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

And so you're constantly like thinking what am I doing Mhmm. Working for this moron.

Christy:

I'll say one thing. But the bar seems so high in that environment. Mhmm. But looking back, the bar was so low.

Molly:

Yeah. That's what it is. Like, yeah, they put these administrative, like, HR roadblocks.

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

Couple that with the application process, which no one actually looks at resumes anymore, and they haven't for probably a decade. And if they were, it wasn't the hiring manager. It was somebody, like, three tiers down

Christy:

Mhmm.

Molly:

In a different department. Mhmm. So not only are you not seeing the experience of someone, you're just really and not even seeing the education. You're just seeing they have it.

Christy:

Mhmm. And

Molly:

so by the time you get through, somebody already got the job because they knew someone. And so the bar's low, the nepotism is high.

Christy:

Yeah. I got into finance because I was in this program for like low income kids. And they connected me this program. They're trying to diversify the interns that they had at this big bank in Boston. Yeah.

Christy:

Got

Molly:

told one time that I was double diverse because I was a woman and I was a veteran. It's like, cool. You get tax. And he was like, yeah, we get tax breaks. So basically your position is free.

Christy:

That's what I learned. I learned that if they don't reach their

Molly:

Not anymore.

Christy:

Their threshold. If they don't reach this threshold of diversity, like they, the, like the department will get in trouble by the firm. What? Imagine they hired me to do this job because I'm just don't even, that would make me so mad. Cause for me, it just felt like every day I was just wondering why did they hire me?

Christy:

Why did they hire me? My coworkers, she was going through the same thing. Luckily she ended up getting a job and she left after a year. After she left, they decided, oh, let's give Christy more responsibility. Same pay, no job title change, nothing.

Christy:

Going back to your initial question. Me being bored, me not being challenged at my job on my nine to five, me feeling like, I don't know, there's nothing really to do. I wasn't really using my brain. That's when I started putting my effort into other things. I started looking to other things.

Christy:

I started, oh, I want to go travel to Martha's Vineyard. I want to do all these cool things. I want to go to these networking events. I started, you know, thinking outside of my job because my job wasn't challenging me to think. It's like, I need to read books out of here because I feel dumb.

Christy:

So then, yeah. So I decided I wanted to do all these things, right? So what does a girl do when she wants to go out more and do more things? She wants to get her hair done. Right?

Christy:

She wants to get her nails done. She wants to look pretty. And the year prior, 2024, my house caught on fire.

Molly:

Oh no.

Christy:

In Cambridge. It's the house that I grew up in. It was a public housing unit in Cambridge, but it caught on fire. And I'm thinking it's just got a little fire, right? Like other than a lot of water damage, because you know, the firefighters and stuff, I think I could go back home or whatever.

Christy:

No, I was out my house for three months. Me and my mom were going to hotel after hotel and we were just struggling and I never saw my mom be as depressed as she was then. Was also very depressed. We were trying to hold it together. Someone was sleeping on the couch, someone was sleeping on the bed.

Christy:

And mind you, I just came out of the year where I had to let go of my first business, my first passion. And then now I'm going through a house fire and I'm sleeping on couches and sleeping in hotels. So I just decided like we're going to buy a house together. So we ended up buying a house in Brockton together. Expensive ass house, expensive ass house.

Christy:

Forgive me, Lord, that house is expensive. Yeah. But I'm grateful to have a house. This is the first property we ever had, but like, woah, I didn't even know how expensive being a homeowner was.

Molly:

Oh my God. I hate it.

Christy:

Like, why did I choose to buy a house? I low key, I kind of miss apartments.

Molly:

Yeah. I need someone else to be in charge of all these things that are breaking.

Christy:

Yes. It's too much. Breaking maintenance, HVAC, garage, car. Like I was anyway. Yeah.

Christy:

So we bought a house together. I also got surgery that year because I had some fibroids. So 2024 was shit. It sucked. I hated it.

Christy:

2025, I decided I'm going do more things. I want to lose weight. I want to look good and I want to go out. All I wanted to do was get my hair dyed. You see the color, but all I wanted to do was get my hair dyed.

Christy:

My difficulty finding hairstylists in Boston is what made the hustlerist become the hustlerist.

Molly:

It's always like that pain point.

Christy:

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And so no one, people weren't responsive. Their policies were crazy. I had to dispute a charge for an appointment because they just never, their website automatically accepted the appointment, but they never confirmed.

Christy:

The date of the appointment passed, I never heard anything. But her website took the money for the deposit. And I was like, hey, can I get the money back? You never did my hair. I'd actually never heard from you.

Christy:

I'm DMing her. I'm emailing her. I'm texting her. No response. I was like, okay, now I have to go to my bank for an appointment you never even confirmed yourself?

Christy:

I was just like, this is ridiculous. So I kept asking people, I need a hairstylist. I need a hairstylist. On social media, on Instagram, on TikTok, I have my friends sending me pages, but they're not sending me websites of hairstylists, like booking platforms. They're sending me their hairstylist Instagrams and TikToks.

Christy:

So now I have all these Instagrams and TikToks that I need to look through and see, but then I'm also questioning how do I know they're good? Because the ones that have not been responsive, they were referred to me too, but how would I know if these people were good? Maybe I should create like a platform where you can like add a service provider and rate and review them. And then you can also connect to like their social media. Not only can you find them know their area, but you can see their social media and then people can rate and review them.

Christy:

So you can know whether or not they're good. Yeah. That was the hustle list. That was the idea of the hustle list. I thought of the idea on August 13.

Christy:

I was at my job that was not challenging me. I wrote it down in a notebook and I said, I'm gonna do it. I started building the app the same day I launched the first version. That was last year. No.

Christy:

Yeah. 2025. Yeah. 08/13/2025 started building the app launched the first version in two weeks. I launched it on 09/01/2025 had 200 downloads just from one TikTok video.

Christy:

Then I posted another TikTok video. That video helped me get 500 downloads. By the end of the month, was at a thousand downloads. Wow. And all I did was just think of it.

Christy:

And I launched it and I spoke about it. No ads, no investors. I'm using money that I don't really have because you know how expensive it is to have a house and the, you know, and I was less scrappy. I was scrappy as hell. Luckily when you start an app and no one's on it, it only costs like 50 or $75 to maintain it.

Christy:

People started getting on it. Yeah. People started putting a lot of photos on there, a lot of reviews on there. I'm like, damn, this is great. But damn, this is expensive.

Molly:

Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. And you don't really know what that next tier is gonna be.

Christy:

Yeah. It's like a surprise. Every time.

Molly:

We were talking at the Network Network event, which was at shout out to Nadish Yeah. Salon.

Christy:

Creations. Yeah.

Molly:

Or Creations in Randolph Yeah. For hosting. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah.

Molly:

Do you only do, like, the Boston area right now?

Christy:

Technically, New England. New England. So I have people from New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine.

Molly:

Do you have like region lock?

Christy:

Yeah. I did that because It'll be too big. Yeah, it'll be too big. I can't handle it. And then the app, will get way too expensive.

Christy:

I try to just keep it. First of all, it for Boston area And then it, people from Providence started getting added on there. And I was like, okay, let's just call it new England. Then someone from, a couple of people from Atlanta found out about the app and then added their businesses. I was like, oh, we, I can't.

Christy:

Can't. But yeah, that's an amazing problem to have. So I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but like, Well, it's

Molly:

an amazing

Christy:

one,

Molly:

people think, like, we were we were talking before, like, during preproduction that, you know, people just think you just popped out of nowhere Yeah. And and made this app and got traction, but you've been doing this for a really long time Yeah. And it's not your first time. People if anybody is building an app or think that it's easy to do and, like, oh, yeah. You can just have AI build you an app Yeah.

Molly:

Or something. Yeah. There's so much more that goes into it. Yeah. People, one, have to know about it.

Molly:

Two, you have to have money

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

To to host it. Yes. And you have to be good at what you're doing and offer something that people want.

Christy:

Yeah. And you have all of those. Yeah. I actually didn't use AI to build it.

Molly:

Right. Built it You built it yourself. Yeah. People always think the AI is gonna do all these things for you. No.

Christy:

Yes. You have

Molly:

to know how to use AI in order for it to do anything useful.

Christy:

Exactly.

Molly:

Otherwise, it's just talking to a two year old. Yes. No,

Christy:

exactly. I think at first I was questioning my ability to even know how to do it. I used the drag and drop app builder, which is basically like, you can have a template for basic things, but what I wanted to do a directory, there was no template for it. And I was like, if I use AI, I won't understand the workflows. And it was very important for me to understand the workflows because I didn't want my app.

Christy:

At first I compared it to the T app. You know, the T app? At first I compared it to the T app because I needed the real T on hairstylist. Yeah. But I didn't want it to be like the T app where it's just bashing people.

Molly:

I would much rather leave a positive There's very rare occasions where everybody messed around with a negative review.

Christy:

The opinion based things, it just got so, so I read about the origin of the T app. It was supposed to be a dating safety app where you can know whether or not someone was dangerous. Now it all became, oh, well, in my opinion or this vibe and I'm like, these are real people. And maybe it's the empath in me. So I needed to know the workflows because I wanted to protect the business owners, even if business owners were doing things that were not great, you know, they were unprofessional or whatever.

Christy:

It doesn't mean they need to be bashed. So I didn't want to use AI where I couldn't know. There's some protections I wanted to have around there. Like on the hustle list. Now, if you say anything like any negative, any swear or any like derogatory term towards a human being, your review is automatically flagged.

Christy:

I don't care if your experience was like, this person's horrible, whatever. Don't use any of that language. I don't wanna see any of that there. The people are desensitized. Yeah.

Christy:

And I'm very sensitive still. Me

Molly:

too. I think I've gotten more sensitive. I'm glad that you're putting you're wanting to put positive things out there but for also like for reviews, like if they are, once they do come in through and they're like negative, if they don't have like profanity or whatever, like, do they go through a review process before they're published?

Christy:

Yeah. I look at every review that's submitted. And thank God, I haven't had to put down any the only review I put down temporarily is that they posted a screenshot of conversation, but it had the person's number up top. So I put that down and I took out the number and I put it back up. Thankfully, everybody has been very like understanding.

Christy:

One of the things I put when you're putting a review on the hustle list is focus on the hustle, not the hustler. Focus on the service that you got or the product that you got, not on the person. You can focus on your experience with that person, but don't focus, oh, this person is this and like, There are things like I do allow people to say, like, can say like this person has scammed me or I felt scammed by this person, like things like that. But if it's like, you're saying something derogatory towards that human being and calling them something that's out of character, that's just not nice, then that's when I take it down. But your experience is valid.

Christy:

So you could have negative experiences, all that. I leave that up there. As long as it's not putting someone in any types of danger, they're not being exposed and they're not being dehumanized.

Molly:

Yeah. That really helps too, like if somebody because, you know, review bombing is something that is part of the culture.

Christy:

So I don't

Molly:

like, trust I see people that are speaking out about, you know, politics, then they're then the Internet goes and review bombs out, and then, you know, they have to deal with all of the Yeah. Craziness. I could see that being overwhelming. Yeah. But it's good that you don't have that many to deal with.

Molly:

Yeah. It seems like people are self governing in a way that like, let's try to like get this sorted out before that. Yes. Yeah. Before I post your review.

Molly:

Yeah. And it's like an understood thing like, I'm gonna review your service.

Christy:

Yeah. People have been pretty fair. I would have to say people have been really fair.

Molly:

And I think most people are. Yeah. I just think there's like

Christy:

Nobody wants to have a horrible experience with this. Nobody wants to go to a hair salon and not get their hair done the way that they wanted to get it done.

Molly:

That's my worst nightmare. Yeah. I'm getting my hair done tomorrow. I'm really excited. It is a struggle.

Molly:

It really is, but I'm also crazy. Never left a bad

Christy:

review went to Malden to get my hair colored from Brockton.

Molly:

Was doing Salem at one point.

Christy:

Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's why, that's, you know what? That's

Molly:

why you always exist.

Christy:

There are people local that are good at what they do. I've discovered so many new people, not just hairstylists, but everybody like tax pros, dog sitters are around. I would've never known.

Molly:

I need a house sitter. See? Because it's so expensive.

Christy:

It's expensive. The people that are doing it, like they're new, sometimes they're just experienced or sometimes they've just been hidden. Like they've been doing it for a while, but nobody knows about them, but they've been doing it for

Molly:

their Or they know better than to be on another app because they're not going to get paid Exactly.

Christy:

So in my app, the reason why I love it so much and why it's different from new hustle. And I'm just grateful for that. New hustle was a marketplace, but when you're creating a marketplace for people who are already in close community, it doesn't make sense. After the initial connection, I'm going to go outside the platform. I'm going pay in cash.

Christy:

Same thing with Fiverr and Upwork. Like I've done that before. Like you find someone, you like them, they get fees taken out of their side. You get to, you get extra charges on your side. Why not just pay them directly?

Christy:

Yeah. So with the hustle list, I don't want to be a marketplace. I want to stay a directory, but the reviews are teaching me what businesses need. Yeah. So that's what taught me like, oh, for example, content day, that came because I did a survey to the business owners on the app and I asked like, what's missing?

Christy:

What do you need? And they said, oh, content. That was the number one answer. Oh, wow. That's why I thought of content.

Molly:

That's such a good resource because you, yeah, you can just survey folks.

Christy:

Yeah. And I look at all the reviews so I know what people are missing. So that's when I created the chat bot because a lot of people say that the communication was the issue for them. So the chat bot answers on behalf of the business owner. People are asking them the same questions anyway.

Christy:

What's your pricing? What's your policy? How much do I get charged if I come late? All that stuff. Put it in the hustle assistant.

Christy:

That's what I call my chat bot. The hustle assistant responds on your behalf. So the reviews are teaching me what tools I need to build. Similar to like being in finance and not being seen. That's how I feel in entrepreneurship.

Christy:

That's standard though. Like women, women, female entrepreneurs get less than 3% of the VC dollars that circulates. It's so much worse for black women entrepreneurs. But I know I have something good here. I focus on the product and I thought, okay, if I got the product and someone saw me, then the dollars would come.

Christy:

The funding would come, come to realize they see me, but they want to contribute. They want to collab with me. So it benefits whatever they're doing already. Or they see me and they think, well, this is only for black people, right? And I'm like, no, actually I have all types of people on my app, but because I started with my community, a lot of the videos that I do are people in my community.

Christy:

I can't help that that's my community.

Molly:

Yeah. Also get more comfortable seeing black and brown people on social media. Yeah.

Christy:

Like it, and, but that's the thing. Because someone told me one time, they're like, you need to start diversifying who you take

Molly:

photos Oh, but more white people, please. You know what? Was like, come on, did they also like, about what they

Christy:

just said? You know, I'm like, yes. You want me to diversify because I have too many minorities on my, but you know what? This is the thing that made me upset too. When a white person or a white founder starts a business and there's only white people, nobody tells them to diversify.

Christy:

Nobody assumes what they're doing are only for white people. But when a black founder focuses on her community first, Oh, you're doing this for black people only. That's my community. But white founders get the opportunity to do that. They get the opportunity to only post their friends who are white, who are, you know, who look like them, and they never get put in a box like you're doing something only for your your community.

Molly:

And I think too, like, for people outside looking in, people that are cognizant of inserting themselves into black and brown spaces. I think that also this will be this is a good discussion because people can recognize that it's not that, understand where you're coming from with, like, doing things within your community. Yeah. And be more I guess if they were hesitant, they can jump on board.

Christy:

Yeah. I mean, also, it's a lot easier to find white businesses.

Molly:

Yeah. It is.

Christy:

The point of the hustlers is to find businesses that you can't normally find.

Molly:

Which we already know social media is biased. Yeah. So.

Christy:

Yeah. It's a lot easier. The reason why, if I think about it, my work is a lot harder. I'm finding businesses that are invisible. They've been made invisible.

Christy:

I can go to any business in a white owned business, a white owned coffee shop, a white owned, whatever. It's easy. Hair salons, whatever it's easy.

Molly:

And you know, the first video I think I saw of yours was it's a bookstore coffee shop

Christy:

in Yes.

Molly:

Oh my goodness. I still haven't been there yet, but I I

Christy:

I was just there earlier today before I came back.

Molly:

So those things, I mean, just knowing that those things exist, like right in your backyard. Yes. Like, that's kind of what the podcast is for too because Yeah. I'm trying to explore. Yeah.

Molly:

And I don't know people. And social media has been such a good asset for that. Also, wears my brain out. But no. Yeah.

Molly:

It's so crazy. Yeah. Or, yeah. VC spaces are are gross.

Christy:

Yeah. And I remember I was posting about the difficulties. Timberland actually, Timberland the producer, he actually reposted what I shared on his story. I was talking about the difficulties of being a black founder. I was like, this is just so discouraging.

Christy:

Like, can't, I'm applying to grants and I can't get grants because they say I'm an app. The grants I'm applying for are community based grants. So city of Brockton, city of Boston, whatever. Oh, but you're an app. This app is not for this city in particular.

Christy:

I'm like, okay, all right. I mean, I guess, yeah, sure. But it is benefiting like you don't see what, okay, whatever. I'm gonna let that go. And then I'm applying to these VCs as like accelerator programs or incubator programs.

Christy:

And they're looking at me and they say, well, the man the demand is not gonna be big enough because you're focusing on your communities, like, of smaller communities.

Molly:

I hate to tell all of VC land. Mhmm. We're about to flip it because nobody gives a shit about Target. Nobody gives a shit about Walmart.

Christy:

I haven't been to Target in how many years? Two? I don't one year.

Molly:

I mean, I understand that people are in, like, shopping deserts and and that. So, I'm not saying fuck you with your I mean, shopping there because you gotta get whatever you gotta get.

Christy:

Yeah. And some

Molly:

people don't have options. Mhmm. And honestly, sometimes you just have to get what you gotta get and get home. Yeah. And it is what it

Christy:

is. Yeah.

Molly:

But if there's resources in the community, I wanna go there first. Yes. And I wanna know they're there and I wanna put that money that I have so that it goes into the community, it stays in the community.

Christy:

Yeah. Because every business that I have gone to, they've always spoke about how they give back to the local community. Oh, we give away free at this time.

Molly:

And they don't have to.

Christy:

They don't have to. They're doing it because they actually love the community that they're in. I don't see Target doing free giveaways.

Molly:

No, what did they do? It was the black Friday thing.

Christy:

But was it that like the bag thingy?

Molly:

And it was all trash

Christy:

So pretty I would rather, you know, I'm going to DAC thrift shop. That's where I did my first mobbing. I got, I don't know how big it was. It was like this Tom Ford perfume. That's originally like $350 She gave it to me for $50 That's awesome.

Christy:

Like she's given it to me. You know what I'm saying? Like the I'm over here finding actually great things. I got a gold plated, inklet. I've been looking for inklet for so long.

Christy:

How much? $2.5 My community. You know what I mean? So I, you know, it's like, I'm too big for the grants. I'm too small for the VCs, but everybody starts community first.

Christy:

I mean, at least you should. Every business starts community first. You're not just going to go and like, I want to be national write off. Everybody starts with a niche first. So you shouldn't be looking at me because I mean And

Molly:

you had to region block it because you can't like, so

Christy:

because I can't handle

Molly:

the It's not like it wouldn't.

Christy:

It's just the growth. I need money to sustain this thing. And you're looking at me and like, oh, well, you're too small. Yeah, I'm too small. Cause I need money to watch what I, if I could do this with no money, with no external funding, only using things that I have.

Christy:

Imagine what I could do with a couple thousand dollars. Imagine what I could do with some actual money. Just, you know what I mean? So it kind of pissed me off. I'm not going to lie.

Christy:

I'm like,

Molly:

damn, like

Christy:

I'm stuck. I'm like, there's nowhere to turn. I'm stuck. But my community that when I told, you know, posted that video that I was like shutting down the app. My community was like, no, like one person said, what you've done in the last four months, people haven't done in years.

Christy:

Like how have you contributed to the community?

Molly:

When you think about community is kind of died and you're resurrecting it because people have been, you know, in the house. They don't wanna leave. Mhmm. There's they're just they don't have time. Yeah.

Molly:

And they forgot how enriching it is to be a part of the community. Yeah. To do something for other people that may not you're not gonna get anything out

Christy:

of it.

Molly:

Yes. And it's been such a transactional society for so long. Well, I'll do this for you if you do that for me. What about just doing something because it's the right thing to do or it'll make you feel good? It'll make you feel That's good enough.

Molly:

Yeah. Because we feel bad all the time anyway. Sitting around thinking about how bad the world is. How about like, you don't have any friends, like whatever, like you gotta go get that. Yeah.

Molly:

And I can't take credit for this comment, but like, because it was on Instagram, I'm like just a parrot now, that the cost of community is inconvenience. You gotta get out of your house. Yes. You gotta go.

Christy:

You gotta do something.

Molly:

Like, did I wanna go talk in a panel? No, I'm not good at that, but I did it. And I loved it because I, you know, was so energized by talking to that entire room and Yeah. Hearing the

Christy:

Peter, oh my gosh. Peter was like, when he was about to leave or I don't remember, but he was like, I got a client today. I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah. Like I'm helping someone out with their website after that.

Christy:

And I was like, no, you're not gonna, she already put thousands of dollars. Said, you do not need to put thousands of dollars. Get on a call. I have a call with someone that I met at the networking event next Monday to talk her through how to manage her own website. Sometimes it doesn't even need to be, oh, I'm going to get something out of this.

Christy:

For me, it's like, if I can tell you this, you tell someone else, you tell someone else, people are not going get scammed anymore. Cause I've been scammed way so many times. So now when I hear it, it pisses me off. So honestly me doing it, I am getting something out of it. No one's going to get scammed like I got scammed.

Christy:

That's what I'm getting out of it. But yeah, the cost of community is inconvenience. And if we truly want to maintain our community, sometimes we've to go out of our way. Sometimes we have to let go of Walmart for a second and go to a thrift shop. Like sometimes that's what it is.

Christy:

And I hate the connotation that you're losing something out. If you go to your community, you don't know what you're gaining. Most times they have better quality things. You're gonna leave an experience. They're gonna know your name.

Christy:

Miss Deb writes down everybody's name that comes down to her shop.

Molly:

I still need to get there. I so, like, to explain to everybody, you do cash mobings.

Christy:

Yes.

Molly:

And that's kind of like a form of joycotting. So instead of not going to a business, you flood the business. Yeah. And how do you end up doing that?

Christy:

Yeah. Okay. That's yeah. So I started doing videos for the businesses on my app to promote the app. So I was like, let me go to these people that are on the app, getting good reviews and actually test them out for myself.

Christy:

And I'm going to review them and I'm going get a video for them. And at first it was just supposed to be like review content. But then while I was there getting a service or just, you know, looking at them, do whatever they were doing, started asking questions and I'm like, oh wait, but you have a story. So then I started doing the story content, like hearing I'm a, I consider myself a good storyteller, but I can also hear your own story and try to cut it up so that when people look at the video, they're also learning more about the hustler itself. So a couple of those videos started doing well.

Christy:

And I did one of the videos for JC, who you met. And I met JC through the app because she's one of the most reviewed people on the app. So she caught my attention. I was like, dang, I kept getting notification, notification review added for hair by Alexa J review added, review added. And I was like, I'm going check this girl out.

Christy:

At the time I didn't need a braids, but she did retwist and my brother has locks. So I booked an appointment for my brother to get his hair locked by JC. JC also was one of the first people that commented when I launched the hustle list. She was like, this is dope as a hairstylist. I think this is amazing.

Christy:

She was one of the first people that joined. She sent it to all of her clients. Her clients wrote reviews for her. Her clients added photos. Honestly, like JC, she was my proof of concept.

Christy:

Like I talk about her all the time. Like she was my proof of concept.

Molly:

Like I said, we were talking earlier, like all it takes is one person to believe in your vision. It's gonna be your biggest hype. Yes. Man. Yes.

Molly:

Woman.

Christy:

And then, but it also made me feel like, cause I was afraid. Cause I did compare it to the TF at first, but not to the bashing thing. That was always something I said I didn't want. But I was afraid of responses by hairstylists. She didn't have a better, she looked at it and said, oh, this is good for me.

Christy:

Like I could be found easier. And then I was like, okay, cool. So when I met her, me and my brother went together so I could take the video and do content and stuff like that. I learned about JC and how much stuff she does. She does hair.

Christy:

She does photography, social media management, marketing. I'm like, Oh, you're a hustler. Yeah. Like you are a hustler. And then I looked at her and I was like, something in me felt like whatever is in me that makes me like who I am.

Christy:

And that makes me like so obsessed with purpose or whatever that's in her too. So I did that video for her and I posted it. And then texted me sometime after and she was like, Hey, my aunt has a thrift shop in Dorchester. She's been around for some time. You struggling with traffic.

Christy:

Can you come and make a video for her? I already like JC. I'll say, yeah, I'll make a video. I'll go. Sometimes people ask me to make videos for them.

Christy:

I automatically feel like, should I? Do you ask me now? Cause I wanted to be organic. Yeah. But because I like JC already, I was like, yeah, I'll go.

Christy:

Miss Deb is the reason why The Hustlers now is known for doing this community work. Yeah. Because when I met miss Deb, first of all, miss Deb is so inviting. She's so kind. She's like, I don't know.

Christy:

She's just so sweet. And I learned about her story. She has this thrift shop because it was one of her dreams when she was a little girl. Like she wanted a thrift shop. Before that, and she's still a nurse by the way too, registered nurse.

Christy:

For that. She was a teacher. She's been living in Dorchester all this time. She told me how people used to tell people to go to her house if they needed help with something, if they needed clothes, if their kids needed jackets or whatever, people will go to Ms. Deb's house.

Christy:

And I looked at her. I was like, oh, you're not just an entrepreneur. Like you are a pillar of this community. And then she was telling me more about the thrift shop. I started falling in love with Ms.

Christy:

Deb. And then something in me was just like, how can I help her more? I knew the video was gonna do well when I posted it because I felt it. Like, I felt like, oh, I'm passionate about this. Like I started out the video talking about like how many women have been losing their jobs and how many people are unemployed and how that's horrible.

Christy:

Ms. Deb, by that, when I met her, it was like almost her one year anniversary of the thrift shop. She already had to shut down the thrift shop twice in one year. She had challenges with her family, things like that. Like it's just, I don't want to see this beautiful woman, like, fail.

Christy:

Yeah. And she's only failing why? Because nobody knows about her. Because when I went to that other shop, was like, oh, she got some good stuff. She got new items.

Christy:

She got perfume. She got jewelry. She got books, she has furniture, she has brand new appliances still in its packaging. And I'm like, there's no reason why you should be failing right now. While people are going to Goodwill and Savers and

Molly:

It's paying

Christy:

way And too paying too much. And I've never found things as good there as I am finding at her thrift shop. So I was just like, whatever I could do for this lady, I'm gonna do it. The video did well. She called me and she said, thank you so much.

Christy:

I really appreciate it. I said, yeah, no problem. You know, I didn't feel like it was enough. And then I saw a TikTok of, I think her username is the popping chick or the real popping chick or something, but they did a mobbing for a business in the DMV. It was a bunch of black women that went to this like store and they did a mobbing for it.

Christy:

And it was like viral, went viral. I think it was that person in mobtheblockorg or something like that. They posted it. When I saw that video, I was like inspired by it. And then someone called me, Shalia from black owned Brockton.

Christy:

She called me because she wanted to mob a food truck in Brockton. But ended up he had to shut down the food truck for that day. And I was already feeling passionate about mobbing. So I was like, let me try to see if I could do a mobbing. That's when I planned the mobbing.

Christy:

I started playing the mobbing for Dack their shop. I contacted JC because I wanted to stay secret. I didn't want misstep to know. JC was already playing JC and Miss Deb were already planning to do like a thrift miss that day where people can shop after hours. And so I was like, JC, like, would love to, to, you know, do a mobbing.

Christy:

I want to make sure she's prepared. I want to make sure, cause with mobbings, if people aren't prepared for it, it could end up being more bad than good. So I want to work with someone every time. And then, we worked together to make sure that everything was prepared, that they had enough help that day. And, you know, JC and her mom came and there was like other people in the community coming.

Christy:

So they're already doing Thrift Miss. JC was heavily, marketing Thrift Miss. And then I started doing the mobbing, marketing and the mobbing. It was all in one day. It's all happening.

Christy:

I contacted everybody I could contact. I was DMing. I DM'd GBH's show Rooted. I DM'd everything. I was like, you guys should come to this thrift shop.

Christy:

And then, yeah. And then that was the first mobbing. I think there was, I don't know how many were there, but Ms. Deb told me, she said the people, the amount of people that walked through my shop in that one day was more than I've seen in a month. That's when I was like, I'm going to keep doing this.

Christy:

Yeah. That's the history of the mobbing. It came from JC texting me and I was just like, okay, yeah. Did the video after the video. I felt like doing a mobbing and I did the mobbing.

Christy:

But I wanna make sure people know I am not the creator of a mob. I don't know who it who started the phenomenon. I don't know if it's something from a while ago, but I know for me, the inspiration came from this TikTok video. Yeah. Yeah.

Molly:

And you have also partnered with the Boston city council.

Christy:

Yes. To do a bigger one. Yeah. So I continued doing videos. When I posted about the mobbing, I didn't think that many people saw it.

Christy:

So I didn't know how people saw it. It was because someone from the Bay State banner came to the mobbing and posted an article about it. But then I think even before the Bay State Banners article came out, Steph from Axials DMs me and was just like, I saw the mobbing. I would love to chat. Steph is great.

Christy:

Steph is amazing. And I think if Steph never wrote that article for Axios, I don't think people wouldn't even know about me. But anyway, so yeah, Steph, you know, and I were working on an article, but when the Bay State banner came out, Wood C, the Boston City Councilor at Large, she saw the article and that's when she DM'd me and she wanted to do a mobbing for a couple of businesses. She wanted to go back to the thrift shop. I was just like, oh yeah, well, I always do the thrift shop.

Christy:

I don't wanna feel like, you know, nepotism or whatever. But like, let's make it like a mob crawl.

Molly:

Yeah.

Christy:

And she was like, love it. So immediately she's, I'm the type of person that if I say I'm going do something is already in my mind. I'm working. I'm, you know, so I schedule, I started DMing folks. I scheduled to go to those businesses.

Christy:

I took, I already took content of those businesses I'm going to post soon. And, and then I was just like, okay, the mob crawl, we're gonna do five businesses. And Root Tea also helped because I don't really know where the, lines of the neighborhoods end and start. So like, we didn't want all Dorchester businesses or all Mattapan businesses, for example. So she helped like, okay, this one is in Dorchester, this one, you know.

Christy:

Yeah. And I was just, yeah, I went to all those businesses. I hit them up. Ruth C is contributing a lot too with her platform and she posting posting it on her platform as well. And, yeah, we decided to do a mob crawl.

Christy:

So the article that Steph had already planned to write about me, I was already planning to do a mobbing for mom Mitch, which is a restaurant in Dorchester. Yeah. It's a restaurant in Dorchester that was robbed. Someone broke in, took a brick, threw it through the door, broke the window, broke in, took a cash their cash register, then the cash in there. People don't know that at the end of the night, most people clear out their cash registers.

Christy:

Like, I don't know why people don't know that. It only had a $100 in there. Like, most people clear it out and put it in the safe or something like they broke all that for a $100. You did all that damage for a $100. I hope you're proud of yourself.

Molly:

Yeah. I hope they couldn't figure out how to open it.

Christy:

You broke the window, stole these people's cash registers for a $100. The door itself is gonna cost way more than the $100 that you took. You could have just asked for a $100 at that point. Yeah. But I spoke to, when I spoke to the owner and I learned her story and I'm like, yeah, you're the next one because she was just so positive.

Christy:

She didn't shut down. After she came and she saw the door was broken, whatever she said, we're gonna keep, we're gonna sell food today. They got a blanket and they covered the door. It was freezing. They're like, no, we're gonna keep working today.

Christy:

They got a blanket. They covered the door and they continued to sell food. That's hustle. That was inspiring to me. So I was like, okay.

Christy:

I already told Steph I was gonna do the mobbing for mom Mitch, but then when Ruthie contact me wanting to do a mobbing for businesses on the same day, I said, perfect, let's do this. So then I texted Steph and I was just like, we're actually gonna do a mob crawl. That's when she put it in the article. A couple of days later, she released the articles released and everybody knew about the mob crawl. I did not know Axios was so well connected.

Molly:

Yeah, that's big. I didn't know that.

Christy:

And when she said she was from Axios, I was like, okay, like I'm thinking, forgive me. I'm thinking it was just like a local, like news, like something, you know, I didn't know she was so like this, this-

Molly:

National.

Christy:

National. I did not know So the whole time I'm speaking to her and I'm saying all this stuff and she's giving me tips. She's like, you know, when you speak to a journalist, this is you know, she's so kind. She was like, just so you know, this is what you do. She would pause the interview.

Christy:

Like, are you comfortable? Like, I'm like, yeah. I probably would if I had known it was that big, I probably would've did things different or spoke less or like so I'm grateful that, you know, about Axios.

Molly:

But also, it's good that she, like, explained those things because that's good.

Christy:

Yes. But

Molly:

there's still, like, legit journalists out there because

Christy:

Yeah. Very kind. And so, yeah, that's when posted the article. Was so confused. When miss Deb called me and told me I was on the news, I was like, what are you talk how am I on the news?

Christy:

What did I do? This this episode will release afterwards. Mhmm.

Molly:

But I'm gonna link everything in the show notes so people can go back and and look at it. Yeah. Is it the twenty first?

Christy:

Yes. February? Saturday, February 21. Yep. We're doing five businesses, Bogo Split, Just Bookish, Mummich, Boston Flower Co, and District Seven Tavern.

Molly:

Okay. So we talked about the origins

Christy:

of the Hustlers. We talked about

Molly:

how you've always when you see a problem, you wanna fix it.

Christy:

What I can talk about is like the challenges of keeping it open. Yeah. Because that's one thing that I've been struggling with. I and that's the reason why I have Gus is I was like, what? Today was one of those days where you question what you're doing.

Christy:

Yeah. You know what I mean?

Molly:

I do that every day. Every day. I'm like, why am I even on a podcast? Who the hell am I? What am I doing?

Christy:

Some days you feel like some days you feel like it's worth it. And then some days you're like, oh, you're dumb. Like, what are you doing?

Molly:

Yeah.

Christy:

And thank you for the space by the way, because I just, I came here really heavy and I just feel so light right now. Good. So I wanna thank you for this, the space that you've given me. Yeah. Like the hustle is just great.

Christy:

There's a lot of impact. There's a lot of good things that it does. I built the app myself. I'm so grateful. But everything that someone does, even when it looks like it's, I don't know, it's not too much work or whatever.

Christy:

Like I'm not doing a huge festival or whatever. There are costs associated to it. And when I started the hustle list, I knew it was something special. So I wasn't thinking about the costs up until things started to add up. And then last month, my gas and electricity bill was a thousand dollars.

Molly:

Yeah. That's crazy.

Christy:

Right. And then my mom's car needed new brakes, dollars 1,400. In one month, my bills went from, oh, this is what my mortgage is to now paying an extra $2,400 And then I'm looking around my house, guess what I see? The snow is so heavy that my balcony in the back of my house is now caving in. That's another $3,000 I'm looking around my house and I'm like, all this stuff.

Christy:

And I'm putting everything on credit cards and I'm trying to keep it going. I'm like, it's not worth. Is it worth it to keep this thing going? It's not paying me, but my house needs me. My mom needs me.

Christy:

My family needs me. And I'm chasing this dream. It's like you have a house already and it's on fire, but you have this passion to build a new house. Does it make sense to keep building that new house when your house is on fire? It doesn't make sense for me.

Christy:

That's when I had the thought. I know I was thinking about this for a while. I knew I was on borrowed time. I knew I was on borrowed time when I started it. But when I started, like when the expenses started to double and double, cause it's cold in New England, like gas and electricity and whatever.

Christy:

I told myself by January 30, if things, nothing shakes for me, if I don't get an opportunity, if nothing opens, no door opens for me, then I'm just going to let it go. So no one knew this. Because when I posted the video, everyone was like, what? I just spoke to you yesterday.

Molly:

I was surprised.

Christy:

Everyone was like, I just spoke to you yesterday. I just did it. It was already in my mind since for a while. Because I was just like, it doesn't make sense. Like there's so much my house needs and just it doesn't make sense.

Christy:

I posted the video and I'm thinking like, it's just the app really. Like, what what's really popular is the videos I post, like in the mobbings and stuff. And that can happen outside of the app. Like I don't need to have the app. Like I could bring the app back on a later date or whatever, but the responses I got, I was like, no, like, what do you need?

Christy:

And I remember this one person, she's a nail tech. She said, I got so many clients from this app, not the videos, the app, like clients. Someone else on a last check, she was like, I got clients from your app. These people, I didn't make videos for at first. I didn't go there and go to them first and then make a video.

Christy:

And then it was because of the app that they were getting clients, not because of the videos. And I'm like, so the app really does have impact. I can't see it because when I built the app, I just built it for the connection. So I can't see there was like a sale complete. One person I spoke to, Neotech, she said she tripled her income.

Christy:

Wow. Because of the Hustlers app, the app. Then I was like, damn, like, I didn't know the app had impact. Thought people liked my videos. I didn't know people were actually getting clients.

Christy:

Nobody was, nobody, I don't ask like, oh, have you gotten clients yet? Or how many clients have you gotten? Or I don't ask. Then people started DMing me and telling me like, no. Like, I've been making more money.

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

Because of this.

Christy:

Because of this. I didn't know I was impacting people. Yeah.

Molly:

It's time to do a survey. Yeah. Because then that's more data for pitch deck.

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

Yeah. You are definitely making an impact.

Christy:

Yeah. I didn't know it was impacting people. And then all some of them, a lot of people actually was like, we would pay a monthly subscription for this. Yeah. I never thought about charging for it.

Christy:

Cause I was like, it's just a directory or whatever. Now I have people in my DMs asking me like, how do I get on this list? Cause I was already shut down the app at that point. Was like, they're like, how do I get on this list? I'm like, yeah, you want to get on this?

Christy:

Like, this is something you want? Yeah. I'm just so grateful because this came because I failed for so long. I failed for eight years straight. I launched this thing four months ago and it's working.

Molly:

Yeah.

Christy:

It's not just working like people are getting on it. It's working. People are getting money from it. It's working. And then, so many people, including you, it was that conversation I had with you and Alex at the networking event.

Christy:

You're like, but can't you, like, guys were helping me find solutions for it. At that point, was already done Molly. I was just like, I'm just letting the app go. I didn't expect people to really want it to, I didn't expect that. There was that conversation I had with you and Alex, you're like, people would help you.

Christy:

People want to help you. You helped me, Molly. Like Molly,

Molly:

you

Christy:

helped Oh, you.

Molly:

You're gonna make me cry.

Christy:

No, no. You me. I'm glad. And it means a lot to me because I think when you're doing something, because it's your purpose, you question like the worth

Molly:

of it. We're gonna cry. No. I totally understand. And it's it's because I am at that place every day, like, wanna quit.

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

And the only reason I keep going is because when I talk to people like you, it makes it gives me something to do other than stress about my problems and stress about my mental health that always has an issue in this world. Like, for whatever reason, I can't get rid of that. But this helps. This gives me a purpose. And so when I I see people like you having such an impact, like, there's no way I couldn't be like, just keep going.

Christy:

Yeah. Just keep going. That's the yeah. So I wanna thank you because it wasn't just like, the advice was enough just to push me to, you know, do crowdfunding and stuff. And I was like, oh my god.

Christy:

People are really willing to contribute. And I just questioned my value. I questioned my value for so long. I questioned the value of what I was building. It's getting rejected.

Christy:

We're just taught that

Molly:

if some asshole doesn't think what you have is worth it, then they like, that must be true after a while, and it just sucks. Yeah. Like, I see so much potential in all of the people around this city, this this region. Yeah. And there's just, like, a grit out here that the rest of the country and world doesn't get to see.

Molly:

Yes. It's so undervalued. All they see is, like, Seaport, like, on B Roll Stop or MIT or Harvard. Yeah. They have no idea the, like, passion and everything, the pulse of this area that's got so many different cultures, so many different talented people.

Molly:

It's

Christy:

yeah. Stop. The hustle especially is what goes under recognized. Yeah. It's only the success that people recognize.

Christy:

Yeah. It's not the grit. It's not the process that takes you to that success. A lot of people are doing things purely because they love what they do. They're not even charging sometimes.

Christy:

People are not charging for what they do. It's purely because they love it. That's what, if I could do one of my dreams, and I'm going speak it into existence, but I want to have a Forbes 30 under 30 type thing. You're going to have that. But for hustlers.

Christy:

Oh, Like I I want to do it

Molly:

for you. I was going say you're going to be on there.

Christy:

Oh, yes. One day that was one on my vision board for a long time, But I wanna have like an event where I'm celebrating the people who hustle. Yeah. The people who are just doing the damn thing. Not because you have a million followers or like you're making a 100 You thousand have an have an IB degree.

Molly:

Because that's not approachable. And also, I think it's 2026. We don't care about degrees anymore.

Christy:

No. I don't give a damn.

Molly:

No. Because I can learn it all myself now.

Christy:

Yeah. So I get it. And people are like, yo, I gotta work three jobs and then just I get it. Like, I gotcha. Like, you know what I mean?

Molly:

So what's next?

Christy:

Yeah. Okay. So I have a couple of events coming up in February. I'm going to do content day in March on March 21, but at four different locations. Yes.

Molly:

That's so cool. So you're going to have like, you can't be in four places at once. No, I'm

Christy:

only going to stay in the Boston one, but after I posted about content day, so many people were like, oh, I wouldn't want content day near me, but I'm in Maine or I'm auto in Providence or I'm in Springfield, dah, dah, dah. And also content studios reached out to me and were like, oh, we would love to collab. But I don't want to have it so that, oh, we do New Hampshire one day, but we can't do Boston and people are now like missing out. Yeah. So we I partnered with four different studios.

Molly:

So you're doing the content day.

Christy:

Mhmm.

Molly:

How can people support you in general? I know you posted your Cash App and your Venmo.

Christy:

I did. Yeah. So I have a my Cash App is linked to my bio now. And I also started someone told me about this platform called Buy Me A Coffee. Yes.

Christy:

So I started a Buy Me A Coffee, so that you can subscribe if you wanted to, or just donate, coffees. It's basically like a $5 donation. I posted it on LinkedIn as well. Yeah. I don't know where I'm going to be when this podcast comes out.

Christy:

Cause honestly, every day is new to me. I'm still questioning, if I can't get enough crowd money in crowdfunding, do I keep the app up?

Molly:

If you are a VC or you know a VC Yeah. And you're interested in in setting up a meeting

Christy:

Yeah.

Molly:

All the information is in the show notes, so you can email me, and I'll get you the information.

Christy:

Pitch butt and business plan have been ready for months now, so I'm waiting to dust it off and actually show you guys what I got.

Molly:

I'm merging conversations now. Anyway, it was so good to have you. Thank you so much for coming and sharing your story and being vulnerable and because I one thing I can't stand about the the tech or even startup landscape is the hubris and the gatekeeping Mhmm. And the elitism. Yeah.

Molly:

And we're not here for that either.

Christy:

No. I want everybody to eat. Yeah. Every single person that

Molly:

can we're in a point where things are changing and things always get worse before they get better. And I'm hopeful that that's the climate we're in right now. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. And if you would like to support the incredible work Christy is doing with The Hustle List, check the show notes on how to do so. If you're an investor, let's get Christy and The Hustle List a big fat check.

Molly:

If you've made it this far, please follow, rate, review, subscribe to Local Threads wherever you get your podcasts. And as a reminder, full video episodes are available on YouTube. It really helps the show. And until next time. Bye, y'all.