Silicon Valley Girl: AI, Tech and Career Growth - Cassey Ho: I Built a Multi-Million Dollar Brand With Zero Ad Spend | @Blogilates

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

She started with YouTube workouts for 40 people — and ended up building two multi-million dollar apparel brands. In this honest, behind-the-scenes conversation, Cassey Ho (Blogilates) talks about content, community, AI theft, burnout, growth, and what it really takes to build something real in 2025.Links: Follow my Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconValleyGirl⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠⁠

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a new problem, problems on problems, and like you think you're going to explode. It looks like you were dealing with a lot of online hate. People just shaming you, et cetera. People sent me the video of her wearing the pirouette score. I went numb. I couldn't even feel anything. Swifties just started coming over, they found it. And then we get like 16,000 pre-orders for that one score in that color. I absolutely hate AI. There have been instances where my videos are just stolen off of my page. They've used AI to actually change my face. I'm going to keep fighting because it's not right. I can't work for free for somebody else. As a principal, I will never stop fighting. Hello everyone. Welcome to Silicon Valley Girl. I have bloggy lattice today. I am so happy that

You're here. We met in 2022, I think, the creator. Summit. Right? I remember. Yeah. And you were doing this Pilates thing in the morning, which is amazing, and I still have your mat. Oh, good. Which is a huge business for you. So I'm excited to chat about AI, taking over everything. And I'd love your take on what it's like to run a business in 2025 as a creator and also a woman. So welcome, welcome to Silicon Valley Girl. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Can you tell me what's going on with your business right now? So there's two brands. There's Blagallottis, which is the retail exclusive to Target brand. And just at the top of this year, we launched Apparel at Target for the very first time. It was all 1,800 stores in the very front gateway, which was so cool because it really felt like winning the retail Super Bowl. Like, you just don't get those opportunities. So that was fully manufactured by our team. We're the vendor.

that was such a crazy thing to pull off because in under a year, we had to figure out how to produce 1.1 million units. Yeah, and we had never done anything like that before. The Paflex brand is my D to C brand that we mostly sell online and that one is at a higher price point and really focused on innovation and performance and also just like testing all sorts of things. I would say the Target one is more active wear, whereas PopFlex started out with active wear and then has now evolved into swimwear and underwear and like casual dresses and stuff. So I'm having a lot of fun playing around with innovation over there. That's amazing that you have kind of just similar, but at the same time, different brands. How does it work when you think about launching a new

product, which brand does it go to? Popflex is where the innovation begins, where I get to have fun. Nobody tells me what I have to do or can't do. Well, actually, no, the customers tell me what I have to do. And so I love going into the comments and figuring out, hey, what are they looking for? What problems do they need solving with? But with PopFlex, we innovate, we product develop, we try it out. And then with Target, pretty much the playbook right now is that we take what works really well with Popflex and I redesign it so that it can hit a lower price point for the Target audience, which has been really great because one of the biggest, complaints we get about PopFlex is it's too expensive. I can't afford it. And like specifically,

please launch at Target. And so when that happened this past January, it was, it worked. And I was afraid, though, because here's the thing. You launch with a brand at a higher price point. And then my next question was, is launching a brand at half the price point going to cannibalize my original brand? Right. And this was really just up in there. We didn't know. But the weird thing is, when we launched at Target for Blagelotti's, it actually helped increase revenue for PopFlex, which is crazy. But if you think about it, it was like marketing. Being in front of the store, everyone got to see it.

Things sold out so quick. There were like three specific styles that 90% of the inventory sold out within three days. It was insane. Fascinating. It's crazy. But then on the tag, on the tag, it tells a little bit of a story about me. And it says CEO and head designer of Popplex and Blogalates. And so people can go and.

figure out, oh, maybe there's more if I can't get it here. So I think it was really, really great for legitimacy as a brand and as a designer. How do the margins work? So with Target, you get a licensing fee or you get like, how does it work in general? Okay, that's a really good question. So with the apparel, it wasn't licensing. That was fully like we are the vendor. So essentially, we are selling wholesale to Target and then they mark up how they decide to mark up in the front. However, there is a fitness section where you see the yoga mats and the dumbbells and things. That is a licensing deal. And so I get paid a percent royalty on that.

But the apparel is all manufactured by us. Got it. In terms of revenue split, what does your business look like these days? Okay. So this is a really interesting question because us both coming from the creator space, from the YouTube space, it is not what most people would think it is. Not like Google assets. Yeah. I had just talked to my husband, who's also the CEO of the company.

I was like, oh, wait, let's look at these numbers again. It's actually less than 1% of our revenue comes from anything related to, like, ads or pre-rolls or anything like that or brand deals because I do not do brand deals anymore. And let me tell you, I'm so happy about that because, honestly, any tension that came between me and my husband were like about stick to the brand deal guidelines and they told you to do this, but I'm like, but I did do that. And he was like, but legal says. And it was like so much.

Like, I hate that. So, yeah, over 99% of our business. revenue comes from the apparel businesses in terms of marketing what works these days for marketing it's organic which is also very different than a traditional d to c online brand who from what i hear they rely heavily on you know meta ads and things like that so luckily for me because i do come from a content creator background i really enjoy making content and so you probably have seen some of these videos where i'm talking about the design um the why where it came from what problem we're solving. I show them the actual sketch throughout the development, some

samples, things that didn't work out. And taking people on the journey behind a product is really interesting. And I didn't think it would be, but people are really interested. And what's crazy is that what is a fun piece of content for me to film, edit, voiceover? And by the way, I still do all of that myself, which is kind of crazy. Wow. I know. I know. I know it's like really unconventional it's it's really hard it's too much going on at once but like one 60 second video takes about nine hours to make and I am literally the one editing in cap cut and in shot on my phone but I choose to do this everyone's like Cassie you need to get an editor and I had that life before I had the life of horizontal content long form fitness videos we had an editor we'd come back

you know you go in I forget what that program is but you know put the notes and everything but that I lost the joy in all that and being able to talk about the product and the design because each design feels like my baby has brought the joy back into editing for me. How many videos a week? I'm averaging one right now, but sometimes I feel like it.

I can do like two, but it's a lot because it's like I'm part content creator, part CEO and head designer. And so like during the normal workday, I have the normal meetings and product development calls and fittings and things like that. It's only after hours when I can like, like sit in the corner of the couch and like I'm just editing for like seven hours straight until

my hands cramp. But anyway, what I was trying to say is that the organic videos, they work and they sell. Like sometimes if video goes viral, the thing can sell out within a few hours, which is insane. So that's working for us, which is very atypical of a D to C business. Now that's the Bloggalates. And this is where it gets confusing. So I started out on YouTube with the screen named Bloggalotti's. So essentially these days, I think if people start it out, it'd be like at Cassie Ho or something. So anyway, blog glotties is my, my channels across the board. So I make my content from my pages.

Nobody touches that. However, I will say that there is a Paflex, IG and YouTube and TikTok, and that is a separate marketing team. So we have videos go over there too. And I will say organic videos on both sides really do sell really, really well. And one type of organic video that sells well on the Paflex side is what we produce at what we call a content house. And so we reach out to women in our community sizes extra, extra small all the way to 3X.

So that's nine different sizes. And we put the girls in like the same baby doll dress or something. And they all get to walk out, model. And now people get to see, oh, this is what someone like me might look like. Okay, that's a medium. That's a one X. That's a size small. And it's really fun to like create with our community.

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when it comes to your small business insurance. Thank you. One size, absolutely, does not fit all. Get a quote or find an agent today at thehartford.com slash small business. How does it work? So you just DM your customers, like, hey, do you want to be in the video? So we do an open casting call. We do an open casting call.

People have to send in videos. Because honestly, it's not just even about the modeling. It's about the personality that's charisma, like what shows through the screen. And also the girls having a good time with each other because they're all nice and kind. And so luckily, the ones that we have put on, everyone is just so excited to be there. Of course, they get compensated through pay, but also they get to keep all the clothes that they get that day that haven't been released. So that's super exciting for them too. Yeah.

So on the organic side, that is what's working for Blagallates and then for Popflex. But I will say something really interesting we should talk about is TikTok Lives. Oh, yeah. That's a huge thing these days, right? Huge. Oh my God. Okay. So this was wild. Sam and I were on a little weekend trip and we're just checking like Shopify sales and we're like, whoa, did someone just mention something like what's going on? We started seeing like all these pirouette scores, which is the score that Taylor Swift wore and my panted score. Just like for whatever reason, it was just going like up and we're like, what's going on? We couldn't figure it out. So we go on Slack. We're messaging everyone like, hey, did something happen? Did someone mention us? And we find out there's this girl with 1900 followers on TikTok. So she's not like, really a big content creator at all or creator at all. She has gone live for like five or six hours and she's just showing the score that she's wearing and answering questions.

And she brought a huge spike that day. Oh, wow. It was insane. There's something about like, I don't know, like this is also another conversation, but like I feel like as the influencer industry has evolved, it's like consumers have lost trust in it because it's become almost like this fan. pedestal like thing whereas a normal girl with 900 followers she's going to tell you the truth like or at least that's the perception right and she sold some skirts so that was crazy talk to me about

taylor oh my god okay so i am a huge Taylor swift fan i've been listening to her music since 2008 tear drops on my guitar and she's honestly like my favorite musician singer-songwriter and honestly business woman so um when And on April 19th of last year, people sent me the video of her wearing the pirouette score. I went numb. I like couldn't even believe it. I couldn't even feel anything because I was feeling everything. Do you know what I'm saying?

Like I basically died. And it was insane. One, because that was like ultimate dream fulfilled. Like out of any celebrity in the world, if there was one person I wanted to wear Popplex, it would be her. And it happened, which is so crazy. Did you send it to her? No. No, no, no.

no no people ask me all the time oh did you send it her like no like Taylor was a billionaire she can buy whatever she wants right and also she's very intentional with what she buy so sometimes I wonder I wonder like did she know all the stuff I was going through fighting for you know the rights to protect my design in the same way that she protects her music or does she just see it on TikTok and she liked it and she but I will never know what happened to sales oh yeah okay so that digital lavender pirouette squirt sold out within one hour on the website like swifties just started coming over they found it. And when Taylor Swift styled, the Instagram account, like, confirmed it. That's when the sales started coming in, like, wild. And then within two hours, every single color of that

score, it started selling out. And then we're like, okay, well, what do we do? Right? Because we're getting all this traffic. We've got to do something. And we usually never do a presale, but we're like, okay, maybe it's time to do a pre-sale. I don't know. So immediately we put a presale up that night, and then we get like 16,000 pre-orders for that one score in that color. Wow. Yeah, which was insane. And then we had to work really hard to get that reorder up and going because, you know, we've got to weave the fabric, dye the fabric, cut and sew.

Like, it's a whole process. And people eventually got it a few months later and I'm just so happy. That's amazing. Such a cool moment. Okay, with all the crazy things that you're telling me, have you ever had thoughts like, let just Sam, your husband, handle it. everything and I always just enjoy life. You know what Sam says that to me all the time. He is he's often tired. He's like what what if what if we just like chilled out for a second? What what if all this

growth was enough? You know like what if we just sailed? But like it's the way my parents raised me. I'm just like nothing's ever good enough and like we must keep growing and and to be honest like it's fun. But at the same time I do feel especially this year, you know, writing two different brands. I am exhausted. I'm exhausted mentally, often emotionally too, because not only am I dealing with bigger problems with the business as we grow our team, I'm now taking on the emotional toll of what my team's going through. So if they're tired, then I'm tired for them. And so, yeah, it's extremely exhausting. And I think what is not helpful, but maybe helpful, is that this way in which we hire is I think it's different that how other businesses may hire.

I hire slowly because I've been through toxic employee periods. And I'm terrified. I'm terrified of that because that can crumble everything. And it almost did in like 2017, 2018 times. And so any fractures that we're seeing right now, they're stress fractures. And it's coming from our growth is outpacing the pace at which I'm hiring. And so that's something that I'm trying to deal with right now. Like, I know there are good people out there, but it's not just about the skill.

It's about the culture fit. And what we have on the team right now is so good. And I'm just terrified of breaking what we have. How many people do you have? So we have 30 people right now. And that's so cool. That's a really lean team. Very lean.

Very lean for what we do. I think that's why we're all really tired. Yeah. What do you think is going to happen with AI? What is your take? Are you automating things? What apps are you using? So my husband is a very, he's a fan of chat GPT, but me coming from more of a designer artist background. I absolutely hate AI when it comes to stealing from original artwork because AI would not be able to do what it's doing without pulling from previous work.

So in that aspect, I absolutely hate it. I think there needs to be some type of royalty built in or something so that if you are taking inspiration from, you know, whoever artist and you have to type in that person's name to get that look, then just based on that alone, okay, 5% needs to go back to original artists or 10% or whatever. I think that needs to be in place. Then I think people would be less mad. But right now, it's like totally Wild West with AI. That's how I feel on that front. but in terms of like, you know, travel plans and like fun little searches here and there, it's helpful. I'm warming up to it.

But like on the artist side, I absolutely hate it. But do you see it helping you stay lean with your team like because you're utilizing more AI tools or it's not there yet? No, right now I don't really see at least with, on the apparel and the apparel and product development side, I don't, I really don't see how it can help us right now. I think we've dabbled in a little bit of it with the copy on our website. There probably are different areas we could start using it. I think there could be, because what I'm seeing right now as we're growing our design and development team, there seems to be like this lack of new young people in the technical designer space. Because I think everyone wants to be a fashion designer or a graphic designer,

but technical design is really like architecture of clothing. It's very mathematical, very science. and I just wonder that's probably a good area for AI to begin helping, especially if the young people don't want to get into that field. Like I'm actually having a lot of trouble hiring in that specific role. Yeah. So maybe someone will come up with something to help with pattern making. Yeah. Yeah.

That makes it easier. And I know that's probably different than how more of the techie people feel about it. But it's just because I've been so burned and taken advantage of just even without AI or no, actually. with AI and just my patented products too. And like, you know, they've been duped by the Sheeans, multiple vendors on Amazon, TikTok shop. And these days, the big American retailers have gotten in on the game, which is insane. Right now, I'm dealing with Nordstrom Rack, T.J. Max, Coles, J.C. Penny, just recently, V.S. Pink, as in Victoria's Secret. And these are patented products. And what I'm dealing with right now is that, you know, I pay thousands of dollars to get my design

patent approved. And obviously, it doesn't automatically get approved. You have to prove a lot of different things. Anyway, pay thousands of dollars. The USPTO issues me a design patent. You would think that's enforceable. And for the most part, it kind of is. But when you get to the stage of having to deal with big billion dollar corporations,

it's now a money game because do I have any type of police helping me enforce this patent? No, actually, it's me paying thousands of dollars an hour for my lawyers to talk to their lawyers. And this is kind of where I am right now. And it's extremely frustrating because, you know, it's my artwork, my work for free, them capitalizing off of work that they've stolen from me. So that's how I feel about that. And in terms of AI, there have been instances where my videos are just stolen off of my page.

They've used AI to actually change my face. Oh, yeah. Happens to me all the time. Oh, my God. And you see a modus cam with your face. Yeah. Oh, my God. No, it's crazy.

And they can't do anything. The platforms? Because they just start new accounts. Yeah. So what happens when bigger companies, they steal your pad and you try to sue them or talk to them? Have you ever been able to win something or it just goes like that? Well, right now, my immediate goal.

is get it off the website or get it off the platform. And it's completely a game of whackamol. And what the problem is is that the platform puts it on the small business, the creator, whatever, because they're hands off. So you fill out this form. It's such a long form, but you fill it out like multiple times a day. Like just for example, the other week, just on that pirouette score that I was talking about, the one that Taylor wore, I think there were, what was it? Like, 233 or 433, I should look again, dupe's separate dupe listings of that one score on TikTok shop alone. I'm not even talking about Amazon, okay?

I'm not talking about Timo. I'm not talking about Ali Express. That was just TikTok shop. And my frustration with it is, okay, sure, we could be losing, you know, money from whatever that we could have made from the real thing. However, my bigger fear is that it cheapens. the design. You see it now everywhere. It's no longer special. And then confusion. I mean, I've even had fans DMB and be like, oh, do you also run this subbrand? Because they've not only copied the designs, they've copied my marketing too, even the angles of where I film, hiring a model

with my body type and my skin color. Like, it gets so deep and so confusing that it ends up hurting the brand reputation. And I've actually had people what I think bought for one of these fake videos, right, it links over to their stupid drop ship website. They buy it. And the pictures are my model pictures, my description, whatever. So they're completely duped. Then they'll receive the product and then come back to my page and blame me for Yeah, slow shipping, bad quality, like things they call it that like is not even on

the real product. Like that's the level of confusion that is so dangerous and tarnishing to a brand. But it feels like at this point, it became part of the culture and there's, I don't know if you can do anything. Like Louis Vuitton back. The fake ones are everywhere. And you're like just accepted it. Have you ever thought of like, you just know.

No, I can't accept it. I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep fighting because it's not right. I can't work for free for somebody else. I just, as a principle, I will never stop fighting. I can't. Yeah. Talk to me about that.

Yeah. You also, you stopped posting, right, the long form. And from what I read, it looks like you were dealing with a lot of online hate and like people just shaming you, etc. Yeah. Do you think you stopped because of that or was there any other reason? That was a big part of it. So I've never really talked about this officially, so I'm glad you brought it up.

So I used to make long form fitness videos since 2009 as a Pilates instructor. That is crazy, though. Yeah, 2009. Is that insane? Yeah. So I did that because I wanted to stay connected with my real life students and it was meant for 40 people. I put up a video for them because I was moving. me from L.A. to Boston for my first job. And that's it. I wasn't planning to start a YouTube

channel. I wasn't starting a brand. Nothing like that. You couldn't even make money on YouTube back then. And then that video ended up getting thousands of views and hundreds of comments and blog glotties became like this fitness channel and community. And what I didn't expect, because this never happens in real life, was for people to say something negative about my body. Because if anything, I'll tell you, I was afraid to be like, oh, she's not point. her toes enough, her legs aren't straight enough, oh, like her form is bad. Never got any of those comments. The first mean comments I got were, oh, why is she so fat? Why is her butt so flat? Why does she look like that? And having grown up chubby and having to deal with my own like body

insecurities that just hit me so deep in a place that I wasn't ready to like, I was barely even healing from it inside and now I'm having to heal or not even heal, but just like, deal with it head on in front of millions of people. And so that was just a constant thing that was happening in the background. But that wasn't why I stopped everything. If I'm being completely honest, I was no longer feeling emotionally and mentally challenged with my content. And just as the person that I am and content being an extension of who I am, not just something that I do, I want to find the joy in it. And towards the end of when I posted my last long form video, which is probably like 2021, I wanted to show people more of the other things I was doing. Like, yes, I was doing the fitness videos

that you saw, but in the background, I was running an apparel business. And I wanted to show people that side of me. And so my first short form video was just showing people like, oh, the science behind Camel Toe. Like, why does that happen? And I was honestly really surprised that it did well. And I was like, oh, maybe I can try to make more of these. And they ended up working. They ended up selling the product. And they ended up helping me show. show a different side of myself. And like I said at the top of this interview, it brought the joy back into the editing for me. And so I also, I switched my content for me so that I could feel happy with what I was producing and, and also challenged with what I was producing.

But have you ever feared that going back will not generate as much views as it used to? Or you're never going back to one form? Well, here's the thing. I've never made an official announcement because who knows? Like maybe I will one day want to be like, oh let's just like do a squat challenge or something like that's still there um in this moment right now i'm just so in love with product development design that that's the content that i want to make um and should i go back like let's see i think the other day not the other day the other month when i was um launching the the blogelotti's for target brand i taught a fitness class in front of a group of people which i haven't done in a long time and it was super fun like that part of me will always be

here because I've been teaching since like 2006. So that group fitness instructor Cassie will never go away. I love fitness. I work out every single morning. That's part of my routine. I just really needed a break from that. But I will say too, the moment that I switch from fitness content to fashion content, not one person has said one negative thing about my body, which made me realize, oh man I was dealing with a lot of toxic like yeah negativity for a long time feeling so bad about my body for a long time and it was like I was in the wrong industry yeah yeah and I also I didn't look like the other girls you probably get negative comments still right probably now about your business yeah it's like like here's the thing they they don't attack my body which is like

they just swish a different topic yeah they might attack like oh your scorts are too short like Okay, like I can deal with that. What I can't deal with, though, is one time, this is the worst one. I remember they attacked, this is back in the fitness days, one of the comments was, oh, if you cared more about your career, you would lose some weight. And that one hurts so much because not only did it attack my body, it attacked my work ethic. And nobody attacks my work ethic because I work so hard. And so if any comment today, you know, say what you want about the peril.

Everyone is subjective and it has their own. you know, likes and stuff, but say anything about my, my work ethic and that really hurts because it's just untrue. But, you know, with the negative comments from back in the day, there was a video that I made, forget when it was, like probably 2015 or 2016, where I honestly could not take it anymore because it was coming from every angle. And I really was crumbling on the inside. And so what I did was I took all these negative comments and I produced this video called the perfect body where I photoshopped on camera how these comments wanted me to look. Thinner waist, bigger boobs, bigger butt, bigger eyes even, right?

And that for me was something I needed to do for myself to heal because when I heal, I like taking the negative energy, turning it on its head and turning it into something positive. So I put that video out for me. What I didn't expect was for it to go crazy viral. I think that was like my first crazy viral video that got on like good morning America on like every single news out. Like like it was insane and I got messages from fathers telling me they shared it with their daughters and their wives and it had like this profound impact. And around 2016 was also like the body positive movement. And so I think during that time that's kind of just what everyone needed. So there was good that came out of those negative

comments. But man, they they really hurt. Can you give advice to girls? girls, oh, anyone going online these days trying to make something and getting all this hate and maybe they're thinking of stopping to do what they're doing because of that. Here's the thing. If you really believe in what you're doing and you're not hurting anyone and you're having a fun time, just do it, right? Like at the core of all of this, we can't keep going unless we're having fun, right? Because we're the content creator.

But in these comments, some of them are hateful, but some of them can't have a little bit of truth. So I read all my comments all the time. Oh, you still do? Oh, my God, yes. Do you not? I read them for the first couple hours because I know these are my loyal subscribers watching, but then when the video goes viral, like I don't really care. Oh, yeah, it's too much.

It's true. I agree on the first few hours, like reading everything in and writing back. Because it's fun. Yeah, it's fun. These are your friends, really. Yeah. But then if it starts getting more attraction than average and all of these people come in and like start commenting on my age, whatever.

Oh, my God. Well, when it gets to the right. wrong side of the internet, it's bad. But it, when it's viral, when it's viral. No, I know. I know, I know. I know. But yeah, I mean, look, I think there's truth in some comments and there can be self-reflection. But look, if you're having fun and it's working, like, just keep going because your content will find the right people. Yeah. So if you stop making your short videos today, how would that affect your sales? Ooh, I think that would affect the sales. Because right now, around, I think 70% of the revenue is brought in by organic videos.

Yeah, whether it's organic videos by you or by me, by by blog lotis like me or by the Popflex organic videos, but mostly by at blog loties videos. Oh, that is huge. Yeah. 70%. Yeah. That's a lot. I know.

It's very, very different than normal DTC brands that rely on the ads. Yeah. Yeah. So it's good, but also again, if I stopped. If I stopped. look I think there would be an impact but I don't think the brand would die because our SMS as well as our newsletter does really really well like the click through and the open rate are really high people love it honestly what's been really cool to see is that sometimes people might follow popflex but

not follow me or like they might know popflex but not know me and I really like that because that's showing that this is a brand beyond you know any influence or influence or influence or Or just, you know, anything that has to do with Cassie Ho. Because my goal is for Popplex to become a legacy brand that lives on for hundreds of years after I die. And that foundation for this type of brand and this type of product needs to start now while I'm still alive, right? So, yeah, but if I did stop, it would make an impact. Yeah. So your number one marketing strategy would be your content.

The second, the content that your brand produces, are you tapping into UGC or live shopping? So personally, I haven't done the live shopping myself. I should try it though. should try. I should try it. Perfect for it. You'll see, I think you'll see another update. I should try it. I should try it.

I also like, I like being front of the camera. It's fun. What was it? UGC. UGC. So, okay, I don't know about you, but I think UGC is trending down over the past few years. They've become less effective for our brand. Okay, because it feels, there's something about it that feels to produce or something

like that. And like, we, you know, I would say three, years ago when UGC was like super new and brands were using it instead of like highly produced content it was interesting but now I don't know I just it doesn't feel as authentic what feels authentic right now are team content videos so like I'll have the marketing team come to my house and like we'll film like some fun videos and stuff and like that does well for us and then also the the content house videos where we bring our customers over in nine sizes and we wear the same dress and we model around but yeah for some reason like

UGC and just in the likes that I'm seeing on the IG post, like not as good as they used to be. Interesting. The reason why Bloggalotti's has been around for so long is because I ebb and flow with the algorithm, with the trends. You just don't know. Like, is TikTok going to be here in the next 90 days? Like, I don't know. It seems to be changing all the time. So I'll change as it changes, but I can't really tell you how I'll change because it's kind of dictated by the social media environment.

Even in the failing, we're going to figure something out. because we have to. I love that. I love that. It actually gives you some condensile. Yeah, of course. Like, you've made it this far. Like, what's stopping you from, like, figuring it out again and again and again?

Like, I feel like every, literally, every day, there is a new fire, a new problem, problems on problems. And, like, you think you're going to explode, but you don't. And you just figure it out as painful as it is. And you get stronger for it. Yeah. I read, I think it's on Wikipedia. Your father's quote when you told him you want to be a designer. and he said, you're not going to have friends.

Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. What does he say now? Unfortunately, this is a ed area where I still need to improve our relationship. Honestly, we're not really talking too much right now. Yeah. And I think a lot of this goes back to, I was always the obedient daughter. I always did what my parents wanted.

And when I finally decided to live for myself in college, and drop out of that last class I needed to take the MCAD and possibly applied to med school, I think that was really disrespectful for them. And I became this rebellious person. And unfortunately, regardless of everything that's happened now, my mom's different, but my dad, my mom is very proud. She's very proud. But I think my dad still holds a grudge for many things.

Interesting. Yeah, yeah. Respect runs really, really deep, I think, in like, the Asian culture and Vietnamese and Chinese background. And I think he is still hurt by that and some other things that are in parallel to that and because of that. Well, I hope it improves. Can you give advice to everyone who's starting a business in 2025? Ooh. Starting a business in 2025.

You know, whether it's 2025 or in the future or, you know, you know even way before then you have to find the joy in what you're doing at least for me i have always followed my heart and it's always taken me to the right place even if it's the most windiest painful path it always takes you to the right place and it's what is going to keep you going when you feel like quitting your passion can take you over those hums um that's one thing just on the internal, but on the external, look for a problem that hasn't been solved yet. If you can solve that problem, you've got a business, period. And I guess third, I guess I'm just going to tack out now. Like, use social media, have fun, make content about the process. People love that. They love being

taken on the journey. And I think with those like three different things, like let your personality shine through. Because the business is more than just a thing that you're selling. It's more than the marketing of the thing that you're selling. It's the story. It's the brand and it's the journey. And the customer wants to be a part of that journey. Love it. Thank you so much. This was really inspiring. What I'm taking away is that phrase that will have in my head now when I have this fear of like, what if it all goes down? I'll figure it out. You're going to figure it out because you have to. Yeah. You have to. I love that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Relax and let Ralph's delivery handle your grocery shopping this week. We start with only the

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