The Bossticks - #29: Never Scared, Baby Fever, Long Term vs Short Term Decision Making, & How to beat a cold

Episode Date: September 20, 2016

Lauryn and Michael are very sick, but still find time to bring you "The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast." They discuss Michael having baby fever, the wedding getting in great shape, wellness, the difference between long term & short term decision making, using oregano oil to fight off a cold, what to do if you are scared to take the next step on a business/creative idea, and they answer the question did you miss your chance to start a blog if you launch in 2016? To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Bombshell Body Guide and Meal plan.  tired of combating inflammation & bloat? Want to feel lighter and sexier? Check out lauryn's latest 7 day meal plan. In this simple & super effective plan you'll find: + tsc grocery list with every ingredient you need for the 7 days. + what the f*ck to do when you love carbs guide. + quick and delicious recipes: breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and dessert. You will also find 28 weeks worth of fat burning, muscle toning, 27 minute long, effective workouts you can do at home with no equipment. USE PROMO CODE: HIMANDHER at Checkout for 20% Off  

The following program is a podcast one.com presentation. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

Hey guys. Welcome back to the skinny confidential, him and her podcast. You have me, Lauren Everts, creator of the skinny confidential. and my hot panicky fiancé, Michael Bostick. Here again, back again. But somewhere different today. Yep, we're back to basics. Actually, not too.

We're in the closet again. We're in the closet. Maybe you should say we're in the closet, because when I say we're in the closet, it sounds... It's not weird. We're in the closet with the dogs. I was doing like a joke about my sexuality there. I'm not in the closet.

I've been out of the closet. But I'm not, I've never been in the closet. So we're back in the closet together. We're in the closet. We have both the dogs here, kind of different today. We just didn't have time to go up to L.A., so we decided what the hell will podcast from the closet. Yeah, and I didn't want to get back to the whole deal where people were whining about the sound. So I've isolated myself and Lauren in the closet. The dogs are here. They're in the back. They're concerned. It's like a little bomb shelter right now. Not really, Michael. We have green juice and water and a bunch of other things here. So it's not really a bomb shelter, but, you know, So this is, we've made sound a little different because Lauren and I have been feeling like shit this whole week. Thanks to your office.

Yeah. I don't know who in my office was patient zero, but we definitely caught something. We've been battling it all week, which has been miserable. I hate being sick. I'd rather get the shit kicked out of me. I'm the biggest baby ever when I'm sick. You could do anything to me. You could beat me up, punch me in the head, throw me down some stuff.

stairs. I might be upset, but I wouldn't be nearly as upset as having a cold. I hate it. He's told me that he was sick about 680 times. I know he's sick. I know he has a cold. I did everything to avoid him. He was coughing without putting his hand over his mouth. I was taking herbs, oregano oil, drinking tons of water, and he still managed to get me sick. I feel like you licked my cup when I wasn't looking. I don't know. I mean, it's, I didn't mean to get you sick and I feel bad. But you know those people that think it's cool to like power through sickness and go to the office and be like, yeah, I'm tough. I work through it. Like those people suck because all they do is contaminate everyone else. So if anyone in my office is listening, if you thought it was

cool to come to work and you thought I was impressed, I was not. I was the exact opposite. So now everyone in the office is sick. My sickness has gone a little quicker than yours did because I feel like I'm doing everything with my witch doctor powers. But here we are Sunday, still feeling sick. So if our voices sound like shit, we apologize. Yeah. And for whoever got me sick, I hope you get sick. We get it. You're sick. There he goes. He's telling you guys he's sick. No one cares. Move on. So it was, it was troublesome because a few weeks ago, as you know, Lauren's sister had a baby and we became aunts and uncles, like we said. And now godparents. And now godparents. When I was made The Godfather, I put on the movie The Godfather and was walking around

like Marlon Brando. He was. He was. you guys, this is not a joke. I'm a godfather now. We understand. Don Bostic. Okay, Michael. So the worst thing is we committed to taking care of Faye's baby Daxton a couple weeks ago because she hasn't had a chance to get out of the house and go and celebrate

and run around with her fiance, Johnny. And it was her fiance's birthday. So they had this whole plan of like going to Houston's, getting a steak and then going for a concert. So I told Lauren, I said, hey, tell, I told you. I said, tell Faye that you're sick. I did. I told her. Yeah, but you told her the day up. And so, you know, Lauren's like the little girl who cried wolf. You know, she exaggerates sometimes as we know. No, I don't. Okay. You cut your finger and you call me and tell me your arm's gone. So, you know, I said we should give her some notice because if you tell her today, we're going to, she's not going to believe us. So lo and behold, she didn't believe us. And it's not that she didn't believe us. She just thought, okay, like, it'll be okay. So I went out and bought gloves and a mask. And I was wearing gloves in a mask. And I was wearing gloves in a mask. And I was wearing gloves in a mask. And I was. And I was wearing gloves in a mask. the entire time. I wouldn't touch anything near him. And Michael, thankfully, got sick way before me,

so he was feeling better. And he had to be the babysitter. I could not do anything. I did not want to get this little baby sick. So I just sat in the corner with my gloves and mask on. I should have Snapchat at this, but I was just not feeling good. And just sat there and watched Michael basically be a mother. I feel like you were a milkmaid for like five hours. I'm good with babies. I'm good with babies. For all the women out there, I'm really good with babies because my youngest, sister Tara is nine, 10 years younger than me. And I took care of it a lot when she was a baby. So he loves changing diapers. No, I don't love changing diapers, but I know how to change diapers. And if there's any men out there listening, sometimes I hear men won't change diapers.

That's weird. That's weird. I don't get that. Like the baby needs a diaper changed. Your girl needs some help. You most certainly will be changing my baby's diapers. That's for sure. I mean, I don't volunteer to change diapers, but I will change diapers. I mean, it's not a big deal. You most certainly will. So Lauren in this situation was. It's completely useless. Literally useless. Literally useless. She sat in the corner.

Reading us weekly. Reading us weekly. I heard all about Bethany's divorce. Yep. She wore a mask and gloves. And I basically took care of the child because I'm the godfather. And I needed to step up to the plate. So, you know, it's easy.

Fed him, burped him, put him to bed. Swaddled him. Swaddled him. Changed him. Watched a couple TV shows with him. Rocked him a little bit and done day. You guys watched a couple chickflex. He's just not that into you.

You were watching a couple different ones. But Michael was great with the baby. I was very impressed. And thank God, because I could definitely not take care of that baby when I was sick. I'm torn right now because I want a baby with you. But at the same time, we still have a lot of shit to do. And I feel like it's not yet time. Are you going to birth the baby for me?

No, definitely not. Are you going to gain the weight? No, are you? No, are you? I'm asking you. Nope. Are you going to breastfeed? Nope. All right. So let's just let's just get to it. But the time is ticking. We're getting up there.

Okay. I'm getting up there. Moving on. Bachelor in Paradise, men and women were very interesting on that show. I have been so far behind with The Bachelor. I've never been into it. And since I've been sick, I wanted to watch like mindless TV. So I pulled it up on Netflix. My jaw was on the floor. I cannot believe how some of these people are acting on this show, you guys. I'm going to be honest. I've never watched the show. I always thought it was like cheesy. The concept was cheesy. I don't get how you can go and fall in love with somebody in two weeks. And I just thought the whole thing was BS and it was just, you know, TV trying to sell me. But where do they find these people?

It's not that it's the people. It's just the situations of how desperate they are. I feel like if I was on that show, I would go in like being very strategic and like figuring out, you know, how to maneuver through everything and I feel like they go on and they're just crying and there's desperation and the girls are upset because the guy that they've met for two days don't like them. I mean, you got to just like hold on for a minute. I want to give advice to the women out there. Oh, God. But I don't want to, Lauren, because the men are just as horrendous on that show. The men are bad too, Michael. They are like crying and one guy's upset because he kissed a girl and then she's

kissing someone else. I mean, everyone's like hooking up with everyone. Like, what is getting passed around on this island? I don't have such a problem with that. I just have a problem. The behavior is, I mean... I'm a little weirded out by this guy named Evan, who's an erectile dysfunctional specialist. He is interesting. You guys have to watch the show. But basically, he's crying about a girl that he met yesterday. Then he ends up marrying someone that he met on the show. I feel like the show's two weeks long. So that's kind of like jumping again. Is that the guy that did the fake mock, like faked his death kind of thing? Oh yeah, he faked his death so a girl would like him. Was that what he did or was he? Yeah, that's the guy. He was like pretending to be knocked out.

Yeah, but he gives advice on boners. So I'm a little confused there. But anyways, so that's the show I've been watching while I'm sick. I can't believe it. I feel like we need to do a whole episode about desperation. There's so much going on with this bachelor show that I need to talk about. Yeah, I think you could fill a whole show, but I mean, we all know my takes on desperation. Just don't do it. it. And another point, if, uh, a point, if, um, I ever had dysrect, what is it? erectile dysfunctional. And I ended up showing up to the doctor and that guy was my guy. I would just, I would just, I would be done. I'm going to make you an appointment with him. That would be it. That would be it. And then Chad's a whole different story. That's another episode. He's also on that show and he's just,

kind of like the king of douchebags. However, I heard he's nice in person, but who knows. Okay. So we are prepping for the wedding still. I feel like I need to update you guys because it kind of changes week to week. Finally getting into planning, we are two months out. It's time to really kickstart it thinking I'm going to get my dress next week. I'm having anxiety for you. And I don't like, I'm not a guy that worries about that kind of stuff. Like where you're getting your dress.

I don't have anxiety. Well, because everybody keeps getting in my face telling me you need to have this picked out right now. You know, the wedding coordinator is calling me every second. We don't have anything planned. I think we're the worst engaged couple ever at planning stuff. No, I'm the type of person that works under pressure well. So once it gets to like the month before, I will kick it into high gear.

It'll be like me on crap. Yeah, but you've got to understand. You're trying to coordinate 70 people down to Mexico. We'll figure it out. You know what I always figure it out? Do you know it's weird too? We haven't even sent the invitations and I called the hotel and almost all the rooms are booked up.

Our guests are more on it than us. Well, great. our guests are on it, so I'm just being chill about it. I can't be Bridezilla. I just can't. So we're going to have to figure it out the month before. Oh, my God. Well.

So I'm doing a lot of wellness shots, a lot of vitamins, a lot of walking, some bone broth tonight, and I'm really, really zoning it on my skin care. Like, I feel like my skin's looking good right now. Looking clear. My mustache is going away from hyperpigmentation. We won't be. twins at the aisle. That's nice. So I've just like been picking up all these like easy tips and tricks to do to really tone down my hyperpigmentation. I've been staying out of the sun and I just feel like my

skin's really supple right now. That's kind of a gross word. I feel like Evan would use it on The Bachelor. But it's like supple and full of collagen. So you do look really bright. Nice and nice and clear. Thanks honey. Yep. If we're going to talk about my skincare routine, you guys need to know I am obsessed with oils. I feel like if you listen to this podcast, you already know that. I use them everywhere. On my arms, on my face, on my neck. I think they are the most anti-aging things ever. Would you agree? I agree. You even use them. I use them. So lately I've been using this oil called bioclarity and it's really made a difference in my skin. I like to put it underneath my makeup. It gives me kind of a glow. Bio clarity really helps with pimples too. I got this pimple the other day and I

put it on and then put my foundation on and I felt like instead of the foundation making the pimple worse, it made it better. So it's kind of a new acne treatment that was designed for adult young skin and it's natural. So it's amazing because basically it clears up your blemishes and helps you to maintain that clear plump skin because it's an oil. So bio clarity is one of the things I used to clean my face. It washes away dirt and oil. I especially like to use it when I'm in LA because I feel like there's a lot of pollution there and this just really helps with cleaning my face and getting away like blackheads or nasty pimples. It includes a powerful plant that's from green tea, which is super detoxifying cucumber, which is obviously cooling. And then it has kind of a

calming camemile in it, which is awesome. There's no harsh chemicals in it, which you guys know. I'm a huge fan of stuff that's natural with no chemicals. So I love that aspect of it. And then there's also a gel that penetrates your pores and attacks the bacteria, which is going to help more with that acne, too. So if you have pimples, amazing. Super interesting because I found out that the gel contains antioxidants from oak kernel extract, which is really cool. I've been leaving this on Michael's men's valet when he has a pimple. And the last thing is the restore gel, which has that green stuff that's in plants, and that kind of makes the product unique. I was reading up on it, and it's kind of different.

So basically, this is going to help you reduce the redness of your skin, the size of your pores, and kind of soothe your skin while preventing acne, which is awesome. So get clearer skin today. Just go to bioclarity.com. The skinny confidential listeners will get their first month for only $9.95. A lot of you guys have Snapchated me asking about inexpensive skincare. This is it. It's oils.

It's all the goodness. That's a $20 savings and it comes with 100% risk-free money back guarantee, but you need to enter my code Skinny at checkout. Bioclarity.com enter my code skinny. Okay, before we get into the questions, I think we should do our new segment, the him and her tip of the week. You can get right into it first.

I'm excited. I am excited. Okay, my tip of the week is about decision making. Are you excited? Yeah, honey. So many people make the mistakes of making short-term. decisions instead of long-term decisions. You ever fallen victim to that? I myself have definitely gotten into trouble making decisions this way in the past. It's always led to trouble when I

make decisions on the short term. So instead, think about making decisions for the long run. Don't worry about the next month or even the next year. Worry about where you will be in the next five to 10 years. When you start to look at life with that spectrum of time, it becomes much easier to figure out your path and make smart decisions. This can be applied to your business and your If you can't see yourself with someone five years down the line, maybe it might change the way you make decisions about interacting with them. When you start thinking about life and what it would look like in 10, 20 years from now, it becomes a lot easier to make the decisions and decide what to do. Making short-term decisions usually has adverse effects, both in our social

lives and business careers. So really think about this. And that's my tip. Yeah, that's kind of using logic over emotion. Yeah. And when you make decisions for the long run, it makes it a lot easier to figure out what path to choose. A lot of the time people are confused on what to do. That's because they're thinking about, oh, what's my life going to look like next month? What's it going to look like next year? If you start thinking like, hey, what am I going to be at in 10 years or 20 years, you can start to make decisions a lot easier because you're working towards those long-term goals. Great. I can't wait to hear after this podcast where your life's going to be in 10 years. I got some plans. Okay. So now for my tip. Okay. So as you guys know, I sound like I've been hit by a bus.

thanks to Michael's office. I really, really appreciate your guys in your office showing their germs. It's been awesome. Yeah. I am never ever going to your office again when someone's sick, ever. You have no windows in there like it's too much. So anyways, I found a way to kick my cold's ass really quick. Like I said before, oregano oil.

If you guys have not tried oregano oil, you have to get on board because here's the deal. You can buy it at a local health food store. It's a little expensive. but worth it. I think you can buy it online too. I'll leave the link on Twitter. I feel like it's on Amazon maybe. Make sure it's just plain oregano oil. Basically, I add six drops. That's all you need because it's so intense and it's so strong. You can smell it if someone drinks it. It burns if you're not careful. You can smell it across the room. If you sweat, like forget it. Your lips can go on fire. Your lips can go on fire. You guys know how I like it intense though. So I add it to my water and sometimes

I'll throw in like lemon, lemon slices, lemon rind, and a little bit of ginger. And then I just drink that shit down. I literally plug my nose and gulp, gulp, gulp. So it smells horrific, but it doesn't matter because it's one of the most powerful antimicrobials, which helps fight off infection. I swear that I was going to be sick for six days, but it's kind of, it's cut it down to three. Don't you feel like that? I don't know. I mean, I don't know if there's any direct science behind that. I know it works, but I don't know if you can say like it cut it in half. It cut my sickness in half. All right. I'll believe you. I believe you. I also have to mention that oregano oil contains antiviral and antifungal properties,

which is amazing. So you can kind of just do it whenever you want. You don't have to just do it when you're sick. So buy it, put it in your cabinet, be a witch doctor like me. I do want to point out it's expensive. It's like 25 bucks for this tiny little vial, but it lasts forever. So it's worth it. I promise.

Use it when you're not sick, when you are sick. Try it and let me know what you guys think. And expect a blog post on it because I feel like I have a lot. lot more to say. Yeah, that $25 is going to go a long way because if you have any more than four to six drops of this stuff, there's no way you're going to be able to handle it. If you ever cheat on me, I'm going to drop it in your eyes when you're sleeping. Oh my God, that sounds terrible. All right, with that, we're going to take a quick break before we come back with the questions. So, you want to hear what Heather Dubrow and some of the real housewives of the OC say when they're not

on camera? We've seen like you and Catherine, you know, a little bit of a rocky start. Did you know that they had cast those two women? Like, did they tell you who they had cast? No. Heather Dubros World, where you can hear all the things you'll never see on TV. I think the audience has a bullet pit meter, and when it starts going up, they don't want to watch. Download Heather Dubrow's World now at podcast1.com. That's podcast on e.com.

This is the skinny confidential, him and her. We are back. I have T-Boon Pickens, my Chihuahua, on my lap. I feel like he doesn't want to sit on my lap because of the oregano oil on my breath. He's snarling, running away. Not loving it. First question, let's get right into it. Nor asks, what do I do if I'm scared of taking the leap on business slash creative ideas

because of lack of traction, audience, or connections? Great question. I like this question a lot. You know, I always like an opportunity to get back into the business mumbo, jumble, jumble of the jumbles. and, you know, I would say that the easiest thing to do to begin is to actually just get started. You know, you're not going to have any traction to begin with. You're not going to have any audience to begin with. And you're going to have a really difficult time, you know, unless you get started.

I think a lot of people get really, really overwhelmed with the idea of actually getting started. They overthink it. Let's take this podcast, for example. We started this podcast with, you know, very little idea of the traction that would it would bring. We didn't really know if the audience would accept it, but we decided to get it out there, launch it, do our best to work and improve the show. And kind of my motto on this and with any business is do what you can on a daily basis. I'll use the company that I found a jetbed, for example. When we started that business, there was definitely no audience. We had no traction and we

really didn't have any connections to sell the product. So we said, hey, this is the idea. okay, and this is who we want to sell, okay. And then the next step was, okay, that's the idea and that's who we want to sell. How do we actually get to the point where we have a product that we can sell? And the first step with that is figure out what the product is, figure out how to build it, take the steps necessary to try to get it built. And just little by little, we figure out, okay, this is how you build it. Okay, now it's built.

Now let's try to take some steps to sell it. I think a lot of people get so overwhelmed because they're thinking from A to Z, when they should really be thinking from A to B. You know, once you get to B, then focus on C. Of course, you want to have a plan and idea of where you want to go and what you want the business to be, but you need to stop focusing so much on the end and focus on what you can do in the beginning

to actually get the business off the ground. Totally agree with you. Great advice. So I feel like there's this facade going on with this generation. And the facade is, that people think things happen overnight. And if they don't think it happens overnight, they think it happens in a year. And I am here to tell you that I have worked my ass off every single day for the last six or seven years towards a goal, and I am nowhere near where I want to be. I haven't even scratched

at the potential that I believe that the skinny confidential has. So it's a constant work in progress. and I feel when I talk to like an 18 or 19 year old or even like sometimes a 22 year old, they think that you just launch a business and you automatically gain traction and you build your audience. And that's just not how it works. I mean, I remember when I launched the Skinny Confidential, I think I had like a hundred readers the first day and those were all my friends and family. And instead of looking at those numbers every single day, I focused on the content and the value and the photos and the quality and the layout. and things that were going to provide that platform and foundation to grow the brand.

I didn't focus on the audience and the traction immediately. As you grow the foundation and the platform, the audience and the traction will come. It does not happen overnight. I cannot stress that enough. I've never seen someone just grow overnight. There's always bricks that have been laid before the growth happens. So I would say, get started, launch it, put it out there, really kind of baby. it, grow it, feed it, water it. And with that, you'll start to gain traction. But don't fixiate on it

and do not think it happens overnight because I promise you it doesn't. And sometimes I actually just want to note that I have seen a couple of bloggers grow overnight. I don't know if it's overnight, but it's quickly. And sometimes when you grow too fast, it's actually not a good thing because you grow way too fast and you oversaturate yourself and then you come crashing down like a drug. So sometimes that's slow build. And actually I'm going to go ahead and say that I believe that the slow build is the long game instead of the short game. Yeah, this goes back to the long term, short term tip I gave earlier. I couldn't agree more with you.

And speaking, not just on bloggers, but on business, product-based business, if my company Jetbed would have grown overnight like you're talking about, like the typical overnight success story, the company would have completely failed because we were not at a point yet where we could support a big enough customer base. And when the product first launch, we had issues with quality control. We had issues with shipping. We had issues with product production. So if we would have had that so-called overnight success, we would have actually been sunk. I want to do something kind of, I know the answers to these questions, but I think for the benefit of the listeners, I want to ask you some questions about when you started

the blog because I think it'll give a lot of people some perspective, you know, to not to, to, to, from where we, like where it is now to where it was. When you were thinking about launching, did you have any kind of traction prior to launching? No, I had no traction. I was going to San Diego State, bartending, teaching pure bar and Pilates, living for free at my godparents, um, finding my way. Like, I've been where you guys have been. I really can speak to that. I have not had the easiest family life. There's been, you know, a lot of hurdles that I've had to overcome. And I think that instead of making excuses of why you're not launching and why you're not putting yourself out there, focus on putting yourself out there, cut it out with the audience and the traction and all this and just lay

the foundation. Did you have an audience when you launched besides me and the dogs and your family? I might have had my sister and her boyfriend. That's it. So my point is, though, is that you kind of, Because I was there from the beginning, I saw you, you saw you say, you kind of just did what you could. You weren't working with any brands. You didn't really have a lot of experience with, you know, social media. All you did was, you just kind of worked on what was in your direct peripheral vision that you could work on. Well, here's the thing. I, above everything, love branding.

And that was such a fun part of the whole process was to create this brand from nothing. And to lay out the layout and to pick the colors and the, and the, vibe and the feel and the experience. So I can honestly say, and this sounds cliche, that I was so passionate about what I was doing that I wasn't really fixated on who was watching. I was just putting everything into it that I could put into it without worrying about everyone else. Yeah. No, I mean, I saw it all. And so to, you know, to get to the root of this question about being scared to take take the leap. I think, you know, with anything in any business, anything in life, you need to have an honest conversation with yourself of what are you scared up? Are you scared to fail? Are you scared that

you take a chance and people laugh? Are you scared that? Who cares if people laugh, though? Like, who cares? Well, that's my point is not everyone's going to agree with me blogging about vagina steaming and camel toes and enemas. My point, though, about being scared is what are you scared of and why? And I think when you really get to the root of answering those questions, then you liberate yourself. Okay. I think we answered that. Yeah. I mean, don't be scared. There's nothing to be scared of. Next question. Okay. The next question is, if you never launched the skinny confidential, where do you think you would be or what do you think you would be doing? Well, I kind of just touched on that in the previous question. I would definitely be branding. I love branding. It's, I mean, I would do branding for free. I love it so much.

I love to look at something and tell someone why I don't think it's working. Of course, this is my opinion. Why I don't think it's working and what would make it work better and then create like a whole experience. And I always will zone in on who I'm working with. For instance, like I just started doing something with a friend of my name Weston. We're creating something that's going to be off the skinny confidential. And what we did is we picked our consumer.

Like we actually drew her out, what she looks like, where she goes to school, what her hobbies are. Does she work nine to five? We drew her out. And when you picture your consumer, you can kind of create that brand and that experience that consumer wants to do. So I definitely would be in the branding arena somehow. If I wasn't doing that, I would do interior design. As you can see, if you go to my blog, I love building a home. I hate when people just go to like one place and buy everything at once.

I like to bring my experiences slowly into my home to create the home over time, which essentially is branding, kind of. Like, I feel like I've branded our house in our own way. That's like our own brand. You've definitely created the brand of no shoes in the house or else I get screamed out. If that's the brand you're going for, you fucking nailed it. Yep.

Well, that is certainly one of my brands. But our home in San Diego is very, you know, white with little pops of color everywhere. And it's very special to us. Every little thing in our home is something we got while we were on vacation or a memory or, you know, a beautiful photo. Art. Everything kind of comes together and is like kind of our own brand. And then we have a condo in L.A., which we stay at when we podcast. And it's very masculine with tiny feminine touches.

And I was very... That was more my brand. Yeah, he thinks it was. That's cute that you think it was your brand. I don't know how you can even debate... I peppered the whole thing, but he can think what he wants. So, yeah, I think that... Overall branding is what I would be doing in some capacity, whether that's interior design or just branding for a company.

I thought you would be a stay-at-home wife slash cook for me. Well, you know, with Blue Apron, you can be that stay-at-home chef for me. Ooh, that sounds kind of fun. So Blue Apron's mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone, which means that technically I am a stay-at-home chef. Technically. Technically. Blue Apron achieves this by supporting a more sustainable food system, setting the highest standards for ingredients and building a community of home chefs. Yeah, and the rad thing about Blue Apron is these established partnerships with over 150 local farms, fisheries, ranchers across the United States. And as a result, the seafood is sourced sustainably under standards developed in partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, beef, chicken, and pork comes from responsibly raised animals. Which I love. Yep, and Blue Apron can be delivered to 99% of the continental U.S.

So unless you live out in the woods somewhere in the middle of nowhere, you really don't have an excuse not to try. Cooking together builds strong family bonds. As you guys can see, Michael and I... We are bonding. We are bonding in the kitchen. Michael thinks he's a chef. I think I'm a chef.

Those who spend a lot of time eating out or at high-end grocery chains can now spend under $10 per person for a delicious meal, which I love. No, and it's, I mean, we're not wasting money. You know, I'm killing it. I'm cooking some summer udon noodle salad with some cherry, tomatoes, corn,

and summer sweet pepper. You know, I don't think you thought I would be whipping that up. I got some eggplant and chickpea tijin with islander pepper, tomato and kuskos. Yeah, so I'm cooking up a storm. So as you guys know from reading the Skinny Confidential,

not all ingredients are created equal. Fresh, high-quality ingredients make a huge, huge difference. So it's important to know where your food comes from. We have been just having a ball in the kitchen cooking, eating super fresh foods. We know where it came from. We don't need to worry about it. It kind of takes all the like stress out of it. Yeah. Yeah. And with all the stress I'm constantly under, Blue Apron really transports me to a different place. I can actually like focus on cooking. I don't have to worry about the ingredients. I know they're

all good. I know that they're all sourced properly. We can give a little bite to the dogs. Yep. And I don't have to worry about it. So for less than $10 per meal, Blue Apron delivers seasonal recipes along with pre-portioned ingredients to make delicious home-cooked meals. A lot of variety, flexibility, super easy. Check out this week's menu and get your first three meals free. My dad has actually used this with free shipping by going to blue apron.com slash him and her. You will love how good it feels and taste to create incredible home-cooked meals with blue apron,

so don't wait. That's blue apron.com slash him and her. Last and final question. Sumara Lamers asks, I read an article that says if you're starting a blog in 2016, don't. What are your thoughts and what's your advice to potential bloggers on that topic? Do you agree that there's better ways to get yourself out there and that we missed our shot to start a blog? Or do you think that's a load of shit?

Definitely a load of shit. Well, I would say it's a load of shit if you have the chops and you have the willpower to actually take the time to execute and work on your potential blog, on a daily and weekly basis. If you're thinking that you're just going to go out there and just kind of launch and hope something happens, then yeah, you probably miss that boat. Definitely the blog space has gotten more saturated than when Lauren first started,

but that doesn't mean by any standard that it's over. The internet's a big place. There's plenty of people that will read content, but the content has to be up to par. So if you have the chops and you're willing to put in the work and you have the talent to actually execute on it and the drive to execute on it, then I think that there's plenty of space for potential bloggers, new potential bloggers.

I would say that if I was launching the skinny confidential tomorrow, I would still launch it. I think that instead of looking at everyone else and what they're doing, I would just pull the trigger and launch what you want to launch. Yes, it's saturated. I would totally agree with that. However, I feel like now you can look at the industry and see where there's white, noise and see where you can stand out. Find that white noise, whether it's a podcast or you're going to stand out talking about something completely random on your blog or you have a very eclectic sense of

fashion. Find what your niche is and ride it. I feel like you can see the game plan now. You can see everyone's strategy in front of you. You can see all these bloggers and you can really zone in on what's different about you and put it out there. I agree with part of what you're saying. most of what you're saying, that you can go out there and you can see what people have done, what's made some people successful, what's hurt other people. But where I feel bad for, you know, new potential bloggers entering the space is that, you know, there's so much noise out there in the blog sphere, that's what you call it, that if you pay too much attention to all that stuff, you have a hard time finding your voice

and your identity in your audience. I'm a big practitioner and preacher that you need to, you know, find your own way, do your own thing because like Lauren always says, be yourself, everybody else is taken. You can't. And so where I feel bad for people entering the space is there's so much noise out there on, you know, like what Lauren was saying, what has this person done? What is that person done? What's this person doing? What's that person doing? That sometimes you can kind of throw yourself off because you're paying too much attention to that. So I think while it's important to pay some attention to that and kind of see what's worked. You still need to kind of remove yourself from that and do your own thing. I see a lot of people

kind of entering the space and making the mistake of, you know, copying or mimicking other people. And then it really comes off as confusing because you can tell it's not that person's voice. And I'm telling you, and this goes for any business, not just blogging, consumers bullshit meter is very high. They can tell when something's bullshit. If you're not doing something that's authentic and true to you, it can, the reader can tell. Absolutely. And they can also tell if you're being a copycat. I mean, the whole copying thing, I think that the way that you build a strong brand, a strong blog, it's you. And if you're trying to be other people and the way you're talking isn't the way, or excuse me, the way you're writing isn't the way you talk in real life. And your voice isn't coming through the screen. Like, I want my dad to

read my blog and say, that is the way Lauren talks in person. What you see, what you see. You is what you get. If that is not translating through the computer, I think that you're doing yourself an injustice and your readers. So again, and I say this all the time, focus on your own trajectory. But do I think that people should look where there is white noise, where there is space, where they can stand out, where they can shine. Yeah. And my, you know, I agree with everything you just said. But my favorite part about the internet and the biggest light bulb that went off in my head, the moment I learned that you could, you know, work on the internet, sell product on the internet, advertise on the internet.

That light on the internet, right on the internet. Yeah. Well, basically it told me, Lauren, that there is an audience for everything. And I've kind of talked about this in the past. We did a talk. What was that talk we did for that Ivy Connect thing? And there was one part where the people that we were speaking to looked at me like I was insane. I said, listen, if you want to dress up in furry suits, like,

mascots you've heard that where people go around and they dress up like those mascots and then they go and have fur sex. Have you heard about this? I have no idea what you're talking about. Okay. Well, there's a group of people that go and they dress up like mascots and they like get intimate with each other. If you tried to do this- Is that your new weekend job? Yeah. If you tried to do this 20 years ago and you put up like a billboard or signs for this, you'd come off as such a creep. But there is a demographic right now online that is into this shit that you can find with a click of a button. And my point is my point in this and like not. to go off on a tangent of furry sex is that you there there is a unique audience i don't know how big it is i don't know how small it is that is definitely interested in whatever you have to say when i say you i'm not speaking to laura and i'm speaking to anybody out there that's listening you can write about anything that you are interested in and i guarantee you the internet will have like-minded people that want to follow what you're doing but it's very difficult to capture those people and find those people if you're not being true to yourself it's also very difficult to to capture those people if you're not marketing your content properly.

And we've talked about this a lot. If you write great content and you write it every single day or you write it once a week or whatever you do, your job, as Michael always says, is to push the content. Distribution. Distribution. It's not to just write it, you know, close your computer and be like, I wrote a bomb-ass post. So now I'm going to go have a skinny margarita.

You got to market the shit out of that. And I'm a really big believer in not. doing it in a sally way. I hate to be overly sally. I like to do it in a way where I'm providing the audience or the reader with value. And so they can walk away with what they've read or what they've listened to with something that they can take home with them. Yeah. So I mean, don't be surprised if nobody reads your strawberry jam recipe. If you just throw up a great strawberry jam recipe, you need to figure out a way to get in in front of people that are interested in strawberry jam recipes. And I don't know why I thought a strawberry jam.

I think it's probably because... Are you craving it? We don't have to eat. I had some for breakfast this way. But my point is, is if you're just, if you just decide, hey, I want to write a post on strawberry jam and then it doesn't get traction and you're surprised that it didn't get traction. Well, there's nothing really to be surprised about it because you didn't distribute it properly. So if you're a new blogger or a new content creator in the space, your job is not only content creation, but distribution. And I've talked about this so many times it's important.

So, you know, in a nutshell, authenticity, hard work, distribution, and, you know, speaking to your niche audience. Being yourself. Yeah, being yourself. And then definitely there's an opportunity to be a blogger. I want to say that there's someone that I have been watching that's done a great job of distributing their content. It's gotten a little sally lately, but in the beginning it was amazing is Bethany Frankel.

So what she did is she had this product and she kind of led the audience to believe that she kind of brought the audience on the journey of creating the product. So she started on the show with Luanne talking about the skinny margarita that she ordered, and she ordered it on the show. And then it kind of evolved into a product. And then from there, she was in grocery stores. So you, you come on this journey with her where you feel, you don't feel bad for her, but you feel kind of bested. Yeah, you have hope for her. You're excited when she succeeds. So she took everyone on this journey and before you know it, she's selling, you know, this multi-million dollar brand. Now she's back on the show and she is constantly pushing this product. I mean, I can't even believe it to the point

of, you know, you're almost nauseous. You've seen it so much. And that's an example of even though she's made all this money and, you know, she's, she's wealthy and she has this beautiful home for herself. She's still pushing her product because she knows how important it is to distribute her product. Yeah, no, I think that's a, that's a perfect. perfect example of somebody who did some great content creation and then distribute it properly. And from there, she sold her product and obviously made millions of dollars. So, no, I'm a, I'm a big fan of everything she did. And I think it is amazing. Are you going to invest in my new idea that I'm going to distribute? It depends what that idea is. It's called guys that cheat.

And it's a bottle of oregano oil. And you can squeeze it in your boyfriend's eyes whenever he cheats. Oh, fuck that. Is that a good idea, though? I'm a lot. I'm a lot. I'm a lot. I'm I disturbing it right now? I don't think so. Okay. All right, guys, on that note, we are out. Just want to remind you if you're interested in tightening up, I know it's fall, but I am shredding for my wedding. Go to members.com. The skinny confidential.com and use code him and her at checkout for 20% off. Basically, you will get my full-blown seven-day meal plan, which is full of super easy five-second recipes that I make all the time. And it's kind of the guide that I'm following. for my wedding. So shred with me. You can also find my 27-minute workouts and a couple interval

tips. So it's all on there. Members.comfittantech confidential.com. Use the code him and her for 20% off. So thank you guys. Thank you for listening. We'll be back next week for another show. Not in the closet. Not in the closet. We'll be back in the studio. So, you know, sound will be on point again. If you like the show, please submit a review on iTunes. Remember to send in your questions to Twitter or Instagram. using the hashtag Ask Him and Her. Send us questions to our snaps, Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic. He loves to plug his Snapchat.

Yep, I sure do. Or email us at Podcasts at the skinny confidential.com. We are also thinking about having a call-in soon. So if any of you want to call into the show, like, you know, the old days. Super vintage. Super vintage. Send us an email at podcast at the skinny confidential.com and use the subject line call in. Very excited.

Next time we will not be sick. We will not be in the closet, and I am going to go work on my idea for cheaters. Okay. See you next time. Later. Thanks for listening to The Skinny Confidential, Him and Her, with Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic. Download new episodes every Tuesday at Podcast.1.com or subscribe now on the Podcast One app.