LadyGang - Sophia Amoruso

Episode Date: October 6, 2020

THE Girlboss herself, Sophia Amoruso is here to help us get in touch with our inner Nasty Gal. She’s talking about her long journey into business, being a boss, how to keep employees motivated and communicative while fighting for your worth in the work environment. Shout out to this episode's sponsors!  THE BACHELORETTE PREMIERES TUESDAY OCT 13 EIGHT SEVEN CENTRAL ON ABC!!! Albert: Install Albert from the App Store or Google Play and get a bonus of up to $40 when you start an annual subscription to Albert Genius! Each & Every: Go to www.eachandevery.com/ladygang and use code LADYGANG for 30% off your first purchase! Best Fiends: Download Best Fiends FREE today on the Apple App Store or Google Play! Daily Harvest: Go to www.dailyharvest.com and enter code LADY to get $25 off your first box! Martha Stewart CBD: Head to www.LadyGang.MarthaStewartCBD.com and use code LADY15 for 15% off! StoryWorth: Go to www.StoryWorth.com/lady to get $10 off your first purchase!   TalkSpace: Go to www.talkspace.com (or download the app) and use code LADY to get $100 off your first month!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The Lady Gang. Things are about to change around here. Each week we catch up with Hollywood's hottest girl posse, Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Lady Gang. I'm Becca Tobin here with Jack Vanek and Kelty Knight. Hello. Hi. Hello. Wow.

How's it going? Wow. I'm starving, guys. I hope I don't get hangry. I just ate a chicken quesadilla. It was delicious. Sorry. So good. From where? It's so good. Don Cuco's. It's this restaurant, very authentic Mexican restaurant in the valley. Oh, it's so good. So good.

I'm starving. Well, let's jump into it. It's time for... Good week. Yes, it is. bad week oh no who wants to go first i'll go um okay so my bad week um i haven't started with a bad week probably ever so my bad week is way to be a downer jock but it's they're connected and it's gonna end up like tying into my good week so my bad week is i got a few ear piercings right before quarantine happened like three days before everything went on lockdown and it was the really

the only thing kind of like getting me through. I'm like, at the end of this, I'm going to have a cool ear, you know? So a couple low standards, a couple, that's all I had really like getting me through coronavirus. Okay. So during, you know, the next few months, like you're supposed to care for the ears. I'm caring for my ear. And then I wake up one day and I have a gigantic blood blister on one of my piercings and it's infected and it's oozing pus and it's the nastiest thing I've ever seen. So long story short, I had to take out one of my earrings and it really sent me into the hell zone that day and it like ruined my life. So that's my bad week. My good week is I didn't want my other piercings to have the same fate. So I was really starting to research. I think it's

because I was sleeping on it because I have to sleep on that side and it was irritating my ear. so in my research I found the whole pillow what wow it's a pillow she's showing it to us I can see your face in the middle of it uh-huh and you just sleep on the pillow like a normal pillow but you just put your little ear right in the hole and how is your healing and then it doesn't touch anything it's amazing and I can sleep on both sides of my face and it's wonderful but the thing is I got it and I went to go show Jared I was like Jared look what I got and he got like really excited for a moment thinking it's like some sexual glory hole yeah he's like oh you know i had a similar thing it's not a blood blister it's called something else

did you look it up a keloid a keloid no mine wasn't a keloid mine was like a pussy crusty like rejection situation going on i was i i had like a you know digital doctor thing that was well I have a great transition into my bad week because it also has to do with pillows can I go Becca yes please we heard I'm dying to know this so um I have been I had been sleeping poorly and then I got sleeping really well and then I've regressed to sleeping like an 11 month old again where I'm waking up like every hour but I don't remember waking up and I'm in the weird zone. So I woke up a weird zone of like your sleep, you're asleep and you know, you're awake and you're peeing and you're not sure. Like, anyway, so I woke up the other night, middle of

the night, I was wearing this black, like kind of romper sleeping things. It's hot. It's the summer. And I go to pull it, I pull it down to pee in the middle of the night. And there's like brown shit all over the romper. And I'm like, what? And I'm like looking at it. I'm like, did I poop my pants in the middle of the night? And I was like, I don't know. So I pull it up close to my face. I smell it. It's chocolate. So I go, no, I'm like, that's so weird. I must've gotten some chocolate when I was eating my daily ice cream Klondike sandwich, watching TV at night before I go to sleep, which is my quarantine hack. Um, I must've like dropped some chocolate and it's Is that a hack? That's like what I do. For happiness? No, because a Klondike a day keeps

the sads away. That is true. It is true. So I get naked. I take the chocolate romper off and I go back to bed, right? And then I'm having this fitful sleep. I'm having sleeping. I'm wet. I'm sweating. I'm like, you know, I'm just not sleeping well. I wake up in the morning. In the middle of the night i have decided to snuggle and eat a large dairy milk chocolate bar by myself in bed it is completely slathered the side of my bed there is a chocolate shaped kelty like self tanner on the sheets i wake up in a chocolate dream it looked like poo and i had to like clean it up and then chris is like why are you changing the sheets it's a tuesday and i was like oh i had an accident and I was like, it was chocolate. Were you on Ambien? No, I was literally just

having a little chocolate. She was in the weird zone. I guess I was in the weird zone. That is so funny. Like sleepwalking. I was sleepwalking a chocolate bar, which you know, is just bad. That is amazing. Oh my God. That's like one of my faves. So dumb. Anyway, good week. I went on a ginormous six hour hike in Malibu. Uh, this is a few weeks ago, but I had it on my list and I want to say it. I went on a hike and I went with my two best guy friends, Dwayne and Joe, and we play cards together and we're like real nerds. And I just love them so much. We're like a little foursome. It's like three boys and a babe, you know? And they're so cute and so supportive of me. But they only see me in my sweatpants with a mask in my hair. This is the friend that I was

dressed up for like a work once at the Hilton hotel, the Beverly Hilton. And Dwayne, my friend was walking towards me for some reason. Like he was walking past me and I was like, Dwayne. And he didn't recognize me. Like, he was like, who are you? And I was like, yeah, because I'm usually so ugly when I see them because they're like my card playing, like sweatpants, shit friends, you know? So anyway, we go on this hike. So they have no idea. Like they, they never, like, I'm always like playing the same joke I play with you where I'm like, I'm so famous. You guys better and watch me on TV tonight. And they're like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Gross girl. So we're hiking up, but we'd go for the four of us. We go, went for a hike in Malibu and we're on the trail three

minutes. I swear to God, three minutes. And I'm walking Callie and this girl walks by and she goes, and then she goes, hi. Oh, why are you here? I love you. I love the lady gang. Like right at the top of the thing. And she was like, I'm sorry. I recognize Callie first. Anyway, Jasmine, what's up girl you made me look so cool i'm sorry we didn't stop for a picture i felt like it was because we were social distancing and those people are in my pod and you're not um that was very cool you made me look good in front of my friends that think i'm a loser thank you good night oh wow all right wow how do i follow that up um easily i have my good could have just been like i got recognized on a trail but i like to tell the whole story very long-winded i have to say yes

My good week is that, you know, Orly has a few options of where she goes to the bathroom at this house. And one of them is like the backyard. There's actually like a pretty big space of like grass. She gets to run around, but when it's dark out, I don't like her going down there because the coyotes and whatever. Sure. So I've been like doing this thing on the balcony with like the, the grass patch, like the little whatever. And I got so excited because we've been doing the artificial grass and it grosses me out. Cause you like have to like rinse it off. It like the urine lands in a tray. It's all disgusting. So I bought the like real grass that they shipped to you. It had been on shark tank. I had this exact thing for hobo. Yeah. And

it's great. Like it's, it's real grass and then they'll send you new ones when that one dies or whatever. So I was so excited cause she was also getting weird about going on the other one. So this one she was like going on cause it's real grass. She knows exactly what to do. So that's the, that's the good week. It's so nice to just pop her out on the balcony before we go to bed. Pop, pop, poop, poop, pee pee. Exactly. Bad week is one day I let, I opened the door to let her out and she's being so weird. Normally she just knows what to do. She goes to the pad, She sniffs around. She does her thing. She's being so weird. And she runs back inside. I'm like, what the go outside. I'm like, go to the bathroom. I know you have to go. So I like walk

her out there. I lead her out there. I turn the lights on and there's poop that's already on the grass, but it's not dog poop. It's like raccoon. It's raccoon scat. Oh my God. Why was I going straight to a human i didn't think about it because i was like what animal can get up here this is so weird there's like a little tiny space that it could have come from the side of the house up to the balcony and it did that little bitch found a grass patch like is it terror are raccoons like dogs where they want to like mark their territory yeah like i did not know but i also had to like google what raccoon shit looks like which is disgusting maybe it's just like more comfortable for them. Cause it's like a nice soft underfoot. I think the raccoon really wants to be

a pet. Maybe somebody take me in, but now Orly won't go on that thing. The smell is still there from the raccoon. Oh shit. Literally. Literally. And I made Zach pick it up. Cause I was like, there's no way that I was definitely something in there. Yeah. Well, yeah. Anyways, who do we have coming up? Hi, I'm Barbara, AKA your nursing educator on Instagram. I'm a registered nurse and I make content that's all about helping nursing students thrive. One of the first and easiest things I tell nursing students, if you haven't already done so, upgrade your scrubs to figs. Out with these stiff boxy scrubs, in with the ridiculously comfy well-designed figs that were specifically designed with us in mind. They're super soft, lightweight, and breathable with

four-way stretch and moisture wicking fabric that keeps up during long shifts. Pockets are exactly where you need them, the fit feels modern and tailored, and they hold their shape wash after wash whether you're in class at clinical or working the floor you deserve scrubs that work as hard as you do go to wherefigs.com and use code figs ca for 15 off your first order that's wherefigs.com code figs ca we have the og girl boss you're listening to the lady gang our guest today has been building businesses for 14 years she built nasty gala to a 100 million dollar biz she built and then sold girl boss in 2019 she had a next netflix show about her life and she's a dope podcast with over 20 million downloads and now she's helping all of us with

her business class an online entrepreneurship course to help create your own successful business she also has a super rad newsletter who's doing your fonts they're beautiful you can sign up to get weekly inspo right into your inbox please welcome back to the lady gang the og girl boss Sophia Amoroso. Welcome. Thanks. Welcome back. Um, how, yeah, I mean, it's been years, years, so much changes, so many changes, but I think what's really, I wanted to, I was thinking about you in the shower last night. Why would I shower fresh? Um, it was sexual. I mean, have you seen the fonts? You know, a good font. No, I was thinking about you because, uh, I think it was in January, February of this year. You were still at Girlboss doing the rallies and the

company had reached out to us and they were like, Hey, do you want to be a part of one of these live shows or something? And I remember being like, Oh my God, Sophia thinks we're cool. We're cool. She wants us to come to the rally. Like we're official. We made it. And then of course COVID hit and like that doesn't happen anymore. And then since COVID hit, you've changed, pivoted your life as well to, to this class. And so I was like in COVID man, we were this close to being cool. No, you guys are very cool. And we've been buds for a while. You guys came to like the nasty gal store opening, or I don't know, it was like a celebration. We came to celebrate you on the so weird that year, you know, that was probably in June of 2016. And then the husband, you guys

met there. I remember you guys were chatting with him. He left the next month in July. And then in November of that month, Nasty Y'all happened. This was a long time ago. So let's start closer in. But 2016 was a brutal year. I'm just saying, I've known you guys for a while. We sold your stuff, Jack. I know. Back in the day. Yeah. I've decided to now take everything that I've learned over those 14 years, you know, I'm an accidental entrepreneur. I'm not like an MBA business person. I've learned the hard way by doing stuff and doing some of it great and blowing it at the rest. And I've seen the landmines and I've stepped in them and I know where they are. So I can, you know, hopefully step over as many as I can now. And I just want to share that with people.

I'm at a phase in my career where the whole Sophia show victory lap thing, the glamor of entrepreneurship for me is kind of like, I just want to make dinner at home. And I did that before COVID, you know, like I'm not trying to, you know, get on a red carpet or have Getty Images shoot me or be on lists or whatever. Like I did that. And so sharing everything that I've learned is just, it's really, it's so rewarding. And I've been doing it with a focus group who I'm sharing with course content, my upcoming course called business class. Um, and just getting their feedback has been like so awesome and it feels really good. And so when I say business class, that sounds like the most boring name for a class ever for an online course, but it's also the best because

it's all airline themed. Oh my God. I'm talking about the fonts. Oh yeah. I worked with an incredible branding agency called outset on this. And, um, they just done an amazing job. I think it's like, I feel like it's like the best brand I've ever done. I had nobody. I don't even know if anybody cares about it yet. It's very early days, but the copywriting, the puns and wheels up and your passport to whatever, get your ticket doors are closing. Like all of that is just like, I love copywriting. Um, and then there's a scholarship, there's a scholarship program. So we're giving away $200,000 of scholarships. Wow. Good for you. Underrepresented groups, um, who will have access to the course and the community, uh, that we've launched called the

lounge, which is an app where we connect and our flight crew is supporting people along the way. Oh my God. It's so fun. And then we also have a, uh, a scholarship with outset, the creative agency who did Marie Kondo's brand. They did a daily harvest. They they've worked on some incredible, incredible startup brands and there we're having, there'll be an application process, but one student or passenger will get a full on like brand build out from these guys. When you buy the course, get this. Oh my God. No matter where you are in the world, I just can't believe we can do this internationally because the course is open internationally. There's a binder called a flight manual. That's baby blue that

comes in a burgundy satin bag and a box, well, whatever, a box. And it has tabs inside that match up to the 200 pages of worksheets that I'm creating that I've created for the course. And you can print them out and put them in there. And it's just like a delightful kind of gift with purchase that you can have on your desk and have like a little physical representation of what it is that you've committed yourself to and a Bible of all your worksheets once they're done. You know, I love a worksheet. Kelty is orgasming right now. I love a printable worksheet. I really try to, I'm a recycler. I have two electric vehicles, but I like printing things. Sometimes you need to write it out. I'm really big on that.

I like paper. Yeah. I love it. I like paper. It makes me feel important. Yeah, right. I was just saying the other day, there's nothing better than that feeling of like, when you cross something off a list.

I'm official. So based on this course and you being back with us today, I think since it's been a few years since we last had you on, Lady Gang has also been through many, many pivots. and we've put some stuff out in the world that has been crushed and burned. Well, we thought it was going to be great. It wasn't, it didn't turn out the way we hoped. And I think like, you know, learning to pivot in business, like we didn't also didn't go to business school. We are also sort of just jumping in headfirst and when it doesn't work, it's like heartbreaking. But at the same time, you learn so much in those moments. Like there's can be 24 hours in a day where

you're like, wow, I learned five years worth of lessons in this like one post or whatever it is. And so I thought it would be really interesting for us to kind of talk about the pivot and the resiliency because so many times, you know, we say it all the time. People are always like, what's the best quote you've ever heard? And we always say, well, when he had Sophia on, she gave us this quote, like don't compare your hustle to their highlight reel. I use this all the time. All the time. Like we use it all the time. When you're on top of the world, it kind of makes you lazy. Like you lose, you know, it's good to fail. Yeah. Yeah. That's when you learn, right. When, you know, when I was every winning, winning and winning and champagne clinks

for revenue milestones and press and whatever else we were doing at the time awards, it was awesome. It was a great ride, but you know, I didn't see the, you don't see the crash and burn coming because you're so, you know, those high highs, you can be so out of touch. And so they ground you in a way that I've been really grateful for. And it sounds like you are too. Yeah, for sure. And I think like you have been a big role model for us in the sense that you didn't try to hide any of the missteps and you've been very vocal about the landmines you've stepped in and the lessons that you've learned and the quote on paper failures. But I think that for us, I don't know if we would have had the courage to come out and say, hey, we messed this thing up,

but you know what? We got a lot of things right. We were just so worried about covering up the thing we didn't do perfectly. And I think that you've set a tone in female entrepreneurs in this entire generation that shares and like it makes it more of a human experience. And I think in turn, it makes women feel like, and just people in general, that you can do it. It's not this perfect ride and this sparkly thing. Totally. And just for the record, I have no idea what you're talking about. So you think everybody knows and heard about whatever you did or didn't work. I have no idea. And I'm paying attention, but it's like people are so obsessed with themselves and their own problems. So just remember that whatever you're beating

yourself up over, most people have like moved on. It took me a really long time to realize that I was lashing myself for so long after nasty gal fell apart and would talk about it. Like, Oh, I don't know if anybody's gonna, you know, I'm damaged goods, you know? And people started telling me like, dude, move on. Like your audience has moved on. Um, like stop dwelling on that. And that was a really, that was really great and kind of healing. And the best way you can heal things that you've done wrong is by getting up again and doing them right. You know, there was so much I messed up at Nasty Gal that I did right at Girlboss. And then I was able to prove to myself like, oh man, like I, it was, it was really like, you know, in some ways

an exercise in making sure that I wasn't like an awful leader or, you know, all the things that ended up on Glassdoor when I was a much younger entrepreneur. So that was just really like really girl boss was an extremely validating experience. And I think I regained a lot of confidence through having started another business. You know, for us, we were lucky because when we've hit failures, I mean, a couple of things like maybe I wouldn't say our TV show was a failure, but it was definitely a learning experience where it didn't feel right in our guts. And then we kept pushing and pushing and our audience was like, Hey, this doesn't seem like something that you're really into. Um, and we had obviously network people and people around us. Um, but, but mostly

it's the three of us and like one employee. Right. So I was just wanted to ask you about like being the center sort of neuron of a universe and people being like, Sophia, it's Sophia's fault. It's Sophia's fault. Like how you deal with that? Because we sort of, we're lucky. Cause we, I just, they're like, it's Kelty's fault. And I'm like, it was Jack. you know you guys are giving me praise for being like so public about failure but it's like i didn't have a choice so you know you can hide or you can show up and say hey like i you know i messed up people are always going to point at you as a leader so even if there are other circumstances behind the scenes with a network or anything else or in my case you know executives

who I trusted and didn't know how to hold them accountable to, you know, run the business right. And this is not an excuse, but that was a huge part of, you know, the, you know, what happened over 10 years at, at my first business. And no matter what people are going to point at you and the whole corporate, you know, the whole corporate, we recognize that we could have done better and we are committed to thing, people just don't, people just see right through now. And it's felt at times like I was a lamb led to slaughter. Just like, I didn't choose this. Like who, what, you know, but you put yourself on the cover of a book or you put yourself on television and you're kind of signing up for it. Oh yeah. Yeah. So people are always going to point at you

And you do have to take responsibility, even if you have no idea how some, something came about or went down or, you know, you know, when you, when you have hundreds of employees, especially, it's like, you definitely don't see everything that happens. Well, I think it's interesting too, because, you know, when things are going well, everybody wants to take responsibility of the work that kind of led you to when things are going great. But when things up, then everybody else is pointing their finger probably to the same person. So it's, you kind of like get the short end of the stick in that sense too.

That's true. And I think there are varying degrees of this. So I don't want this to sound like I'm making excuses for anybody or anything or any kind of anything that's come to light, especially in this era. And I certainly built a crappy culture at Nasty Gal and am largely responsible for that because I never set up in the beginning what I wanted culture to look like. Ultimately, when you do something, and I'm an accidental entrepreneur, you guys are too, but when you do something unintentionally or at least don't set intention for how you're going

to hire a team, how you're going to work together, what things are acceptable and unacceptable, how projects run, how people communicate, how people are led and managed, when that starts to scale, it's a mess. That doesn't scale. So you have to do it at the very beginning, which feels really corporate and weird. It's funny because Jacqueline Johnson from Create and Cultivate, when she was on, she said the same thing. She was like, when I first started, I just want to be best friends with all my employees and hang out and go to drinks and stuff. And then I had to set these boundaries. It's really true what you're saying. It makes them feel weird when you share stuff about your life. Like, oh man,

like I hit this milestone or personally like, Oh my God, like I got a new car cause I'm a founder and I need some money. Like employees are like everything that comes out of your mouth as a leader is a reflection. The first thing people think is how does this affect me? If you think that they're just like listening and whatever, and they're like, she's distracted. Is my job in jeopardy? Or she said something about another boss in the company. Is that all going down? It's like anything you say is amplified times 10 by anybody who works for you. And the first thing they think about is their job. All right. On that note, we're going to go for it. When we come back, Sophia is going to fix your life. Now back to the Lady Gang.

All right. And we're back. So I don't know if you remember from the last time that you're on. So this part's called ask the lady gang. We have our girls writing questions about everything, but we got some like career focused questions that hopefully we can fix some lives. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. First question comes from anonymous. She says my husband of 10 years and I met at work 13 years ago when he was my boss, we had an instant attraction. And as our careers have progressed, we have both stayed with the same company. However, through the years, I went from his employee to peer to recently being promoted over him for a key leadership role in the corporate office. He won't admit it, but his ego is completely crushed. If we only talk

about non-work stuff, we're fine, but it's like walking on eggshells if anything about work comes up. Anytime I try to address the elephant in the room, we get into a massive fight. This can't go on forever. Do you have any advice? Oh my God. That is such a difficult question because I think there's so many of us, you know, and I don't know what your relationships look like and so many listeners, right? I mean, I was never given the directive to go find some like loaded guy and just chill. And that's not really what matters to me in a relationship. So I've always made, I mean, it's, it's probably going to be the case no matter who I date, but like, you know, I, bring in more than my partners. And that can be challenging. It can be awkward at times.

I think for something like that, I mean, holy shit, I'm glad this isn't a live pod thing. I mean, what do you do? I've never experienced anything like that. It's so hard because I think making more money and being a successful career woman over your man is one thing, but being at the same office and being above is very challenging, but also starting out being below and then having those roles switched. I think that's such a tough situation. Um, that's completely different. Yeah. Then to just like being in completely different careers and you have enough to make more money than right. Your dude partner. Cause guys need to be really proud. You know, they have big egos

and that's just how it is. You know, I want to be like, you know, the whole playing field's like totally level. It's just like, that's the psychology. That's like our brains aren't how it works. And if I denied that I'd be single, um, which is fine, but you know, in that kind of a dynamic, it's enough to make more than your partner. And then to she's managing like his boss. I just think you choose your relationship or your, or your workplace. It's not your that you're choosing your career he one of them has to make a career one of them has to go somewhere else it's just like if that's not working the obvious choice would be to change to change the you know variable to change the situation so there's one less thing or maybe

like encourage yeah encourage him to go he didn't get he got passed over like maybe encourage him to go find an upper job at another company. It would be a really great reference. I'll write you a really nice letter of recommendation. Damn, damn Sophia with the truth. It's also like women have an incredible ability to be more empathetic. I think this is generalizing, but I would also say that this isn't even like a male versus female thing, but how would she feel if she was at a company, her husband or her boyfriend came and you know, bypassed her, she would be bummed out. So I also don't think you need to like judge your significant other for feeling crappy about it. Cause I think anybody would feel that

way. I don't think he's like, you know, rejecting it cause you're a woman. I think it's just really tough pill to swallow. So like have empathy and don't judge him for feeling crummy about the situation. But also I agree. I think that you have to go to different places or this is weird. Money is just such a huge thing in relationships. You're managing it together. You're building a life together. One person can afford more. I can afford vacations that none of my friends can. It's very different. So learning how to communicate about that seems like the key. And that's something that is challenging, right? I haven't, I went to couples therapy for a little bit, not about this at all with that, that ex-husband. Um, but haven't done that since. And there are definitely things we could learn to communicate about better.

And that's one of them, you know, it's like contribution can mean a lot of things in a relationship. Right. Um, money's one way to contribute. Um, you know, my house is falling apart. Like, you know, they're just there and I have a very handy guy. He's awesome. It's the best. And he's like, he's like a crop of the most beautiful heirloom tomatoes I've ever

seen. I mean, he's just like out there growing strawberries and like basil. And it's just like this bounty of like beautiful things that come into the house. And, um, yeah, so, so, so I, I think there are ways to, to consider a contribution in a relationship as long as it feels like things are even, but in this scenario specifically, I just, it sounds like it's, you can go to therapy or you can choose to, I mean, I don't know why you have to work at the same company. It sounds like you've both been there for a long time. Also, your resume looks weird if he works in place for like 10 years, like people don't do that anymore. So maybe she jumps. Don't tell our lady gang employee that.

She's listening right now. Just kidding. You can't cut it out. She's on the line. literally just never want her to leave us ever, but no. Okay. We're going to go. Sorry. As long as people are happy, you know? Yeah. Okay. So next question says, hi ladies. I'm a young entrepreneur in the arts and entertainment industry, and I'm looking to work under high profile slash successful figures to gain experience and a good reputation. I'm very dedicated, passionate, and extremely hardworking, but how should I reach out to the higher ups to get a foot in the door when I'm new to the industry and don't yet have industry references on my resume. I still want to stand out. Wait, so what industry, what was the beginning part?

Entertainment and arts. So I guess like have, have any people reached out to you that are just like totally green in the field that have like made themselves stand out in different ways? Yeah. And junior roles, definitely. There are people who email and email and are really thoughtful and there's no typos and they articulate in some way why they're qualified or capable and why they'd be, you know, why they're super enthusiastic. And a lot of the time enthusiasm and a love of the product or the company goes so much further than experience, especially in those earlier roles. Um, you know, reaching out to really senior people directly can be challenging. But I think Elaine Walteroth has an example of that where she wrote

the editor-in-chief of, I think it was Ebony Magazine, and just went to New York, met her. I don't know what the exact story is, but she hustled, wrote a letter. People do notice this stuff. And I've definitely hired people who have written me out of the blue being like, you know, Hey, I saw your social media intern role. I worked for Maria Menounos for a while. I've mostly done broadcast stuff. I'm just out of college, but I'd love to help you. And there are definitely, you know, people out there who, and this is Megan, who's my intern. We have more experience with social media. I mean, she has her own social media and it's great. But I hired her over anybody else because she was so articulate and so thoughtful and persistent. And, you know,

and really, she just really convinced me. For someone who's new to an industry, I think you have to get some experience before you start reaching for the top. You know, you have to, if you're going to switch industries or be new to an industry, you have to put the time in. um you've got to have something on your resume before you you know for the most part before you go reaching out to ceos or super senior people you gotta you know and and often when we change industries people expect to go from pr to meet the music industry or something rep you know managing people or something for example um or an executive assistant to like the music industry and do something specialized. A lot of executive assistants want to go do something. They hit 30

and they're like, I don't want to be a generalist. I need a career. And they all leave. But if you're going to make a career pivot into a new industry, you have to accept that you might have to take a pay cut because you were really good at the thing you were doing, but no one's going to pay for your crash course. If you're going to do that, expect a pay cut because if you go out there demanding the same salary that you had before, you might be in for a rude awakening. The Lady Gang. I get a lot, probably like 50 a week texts or emails or whatever that just say, hey, I'm really interested in doing what you're doing. Can I take you out for a cup of coffee and pick your brain? No, I don't have time for a cup of coffee. You can't pick my brain.

If you, but if you're like Alex, who's here now and you write an email and you know, you know, you have a little bit of, you have a lot of experience and you also can ask for exactly what you want. Hey, I'm V I love what you're doing. I'm very interested in working for you. Here's what I have to offer you. And I meet you and tell you all about me. Like that is the kind of email I'll respond to, you know? Well, it's like, you have to be your own hype man in that situation and like, yeah. And tell you, tell the person what you can provide for them rather than being like, what can I get from you? Can I pick your brain? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's actually, there's a whole script in the course for reaching out to people or press and pitching

yourself to a podcast for how to write that, to pitch yourself to a partner. If you want to do like a collaboration or partnership, there's a script in there for that. And then there's a script as well for reaching out to mentors in a way that is appropriate. And it is that sandwich of, hi, I'm so-and-so, keep it brief, flatter them. I love what you do. Specific, love that you launched this thing. Do some research and toss in. When I write a marketer at whatever, Coca-Cola or something, love that campaign that you did. Bad example. Not one campaign. this is what I've done. This is what I think you can do. Like, oh, wow. I even have ideas for you or, um, you know, I, I would, I would love to do something for you. I think generosity goes a long

way and flattery really does go a long way, honestly. Absolutely. I love that. Okay. Last question comes from Liz in the biz. She says, I'm currently living with my mom in Chicago and I just graduated college with a degree in design and business. I have an opportunity to work for a major fashion company in downtown LA, but the problem is it pays so low. I'm nervous. I won't be able to make ends meet starting out in such an expensive city. Honestly, can you survive on less than $30,000 in LA with no car? I want to believe I can take on a side hustle, but I don't want to struggle forever. What would you do? I think you can, you can get a really cheap room. You can move downtown, you know, get on Craigslist, move downtown, walk or, you know, ride a bike or

scooter or whatever, you know, use hand sanitizer. Becca, when you first moved to New York, do you remember how much money you made your first year? Well, I was in college, so I, but I did work at like a boutique. What I will say is that you, if you want something badly enough, I mean, within reason, I think that you can make it happen. I mean, there were years in New York where I made like $200 a week doing regional theater. And I lived in a one, one bedroom apartment with three girls and it sucked balls, but I wanted it so badly. And I think that if you want something really badly, and it's not to say that if you don't want it that badly, that it's like to frown upon. It's just, if you're crazy enough to want it, you'll figure out a way. And so.

Yeah, well this reminds me literally of every one of my friends when I was just out of college as well We we had eight people living in like a five-bedroom house and everybody was making like no money So I think that this is actually pretty common for that age and especially in somewhere like la Because you can take on those side hustles and you can work these weird jobs And it's not the same thing as maybe somewhere in a different city So I think if you have the opportunity and you really want to do it, then why not try? You can always move back home. And it's too bad that clubs are closed because honestly, I was an amazing go-go dancer in New

York City and it was like $200 a night, honey and a booty shot. Oh, I did that. I did that in San Francisco with a giant fake ponytail, like whipping around. I got practice stripping in Portland too. And I've talked about that a little bit, but that was fun. That's amazing. Exactly. This is something else to do that from stripper to online educator teaching course and listen and what a business course it is. So if you guys want to check out, uh, the course it's on sale registration begins September 22nd. It ends on October 9th. Um, you can head on over to Sophia. She has the link in her Instagram, which is just Sophia Morozo. I know you're already all following her. Um, we're really excited about it. I, we got a chance to like check out some early, um,

versions of different pieces and it looks incredible. Um, and, and the community you're building around it is going to help so many people. So continuing her reign of empowering women to go after their shit unapologetically, um, we love that. So business class, you can check it out, um, and sign up for her newsletter too, because it comes every week and, um, is very inspirational and beautiful and kind of keeps you motivated. And what I've done is I, during COVID, is I unsubscribe to all my shopping emails and subscribe to all my like community emails where it's like, I'm just getting inspiration from the universe. God, you're just such a good person, Kelty. You know what? I really am not. She's not. I'm trying to be.

I think we're all trying to be, but yeah, it's, um, you can take the course at takebusinessclass.com. perfect yeah it starts at like 99 a month so it's pretty easy to get in there and learn stuff see you in the air yeah yeah wheels up wheels up bitches all right we will see you next tuesday lady gang is produced by alex inberg will sterling and steve delamater make sure that you rate and review this podcast where you listen to it please it makes a huge difference and also subscribe so you never miss an episode and if you really love the episode we want to hear from you on our social media channels at becca at kelty at jack vanek at the lady gang but more importantly we want to see you sharing the lady gang with your friends so be like oh my god i just listened

this episode was great okay here you go here's the link i love it love it love it okay thanks for listening and we'll see you next tuesday