The Bossticks - #32: What's Gaby Cooking with Gaby Dalkin

Episode Date: October 11, 2016

Author of Several Cook Books, Food Blogger, & All Around Awesome Chef Gaby Dalkin, joins Lauryn & Michael to discuss how to pick the right brands to work with & still stay authentic, why knowing how to make a few dips & sauces is great for the beginner in the kitchen, how to work with your spouse comfortably, and some basic tips for the kitchen. To connect with Gaby click HERE 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

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All right, let's get this started. The following program is a podcast.1.com presentation. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cooking. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny. Confidential, him and her. Why do you have such a sharp straight shave today? I got my little, my photo shoot coming up. I know, that's the sharpest line I've ever seen. It was a little bit too sharp. It's a little bit too sharp. Yeah, you always do.

Welcome back, guys, to the skinny confidential him and her podcast. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Lauren Everett's creator of the blog and brand The Skinny Confidential. I love spicy nuts, making fun of Michael's anal bead necklace. He was wearing it the whole time in Hawaii and a cold, fresh beer. I was not wearing an anal-bead necklace. My name is Michael Bostic, internet marketer, investor, business owner, big deodorant fan. Lauren didn't bring any to Hawaii, so I'm now the number one fan of deodorant and the creative director behind the skinny confidential. Oh, projectile vomit. As always, we want to thank you guys for subscribing and rating our podcast. We really, really appreciate the reviews and the messages on social media. If you guys have not rated or reviewed the show, please do so. Even if it's a lot. a one star. Just drop us the line and let us know how we can continue to improve. If you like the show,

let your friends know so we can continue to grow this awesome skinny confidential community. The more friends you tell, the better. We're thinking of even hosting a huge ass giveaway for subscribers, so please, please, please share our podcast with anyone and everyone. We're hoping to grow this way bigger so eventually we can do live podcasts around the U.S. How fun would that be? We would do live questions, bring some champagne, hang out. All right, on that note, let me introduce you to today's guest, Miss Gobi Dulcan, creator of the blog and brand What's Gopi Cooking? So Gobi does it all.

Basically, she used to cook for Jessica Simpson. She whips up homemade bread. That's right, homemade bread on the reg and kills it in the food blogging world. She also happens to make me look very, very bad in the kitchen. Hi. Hi. She makes you look like shit in the kitchen. Did I make homemade bread last time you guys came over?

Yeah, it was like I made pita. It was and pita bread and hummus. Yeah. I still think about it. We had a little Mediterranean meze situation. And you peeled the chickpeas or something. It's the key to, I did this yesterday too for this event. You have to peel chickpeas when you're making a homemade hummus.

It's everything. No big deal. No, it's the best. Every time Lauren gives me an ice cold piece of gluten-free bread from whatever, shitty health store. She got it from, I just pretend it's the homemade pita bread. You can come over any time. The funniest thing is when we were at your house, he was looking at me out of his peripheral eating the bread with like this smile on his face, like he was going to kill me in my sleep because I don't make homemade bread. I could teach you to make homemade pizza. It's so easy. How is this easy?

It's not, there's like no, it's the least intimidating bread you'll ever make. Really? Mm-hmm. The least intimidating bread you'll ever make. And I don't like make, like, I don't, like, I don't have time to spend three hours in the kitchen. I'm a big fan of homemade bread. So, you know, I've been a big fan for a long time, but just, you know, long-in- You know, they make, like, breadmakers. You just throw all this shit into a machine and you have bread a couple hours later. Oh, okay.

That could be doable. You could make it. My dad makes it, Michael. It could be your, like, you could be the breadmaster. Yeah, I might have to. Get on it. Put your apron on. Let's see you make something other than, like, a kale leaf and a green drink.

How do you have time to do it all with your blog, your brand? I mean, you're growing into a global. brand and make homemade bread. That's a great. I'm a big fan of to-do lists, so I try and cross everything off and then I can go play in the kitchen. I mean, part of my job is creating recipes, so it's like when I was cooking for you guys, I was recipe testing for my cookbook, so it was kind of work, kind of play.

Okay, so tell us, like, anyone who doesn't know you, tell us kind of a summary. Sure, so let's see. My name's Gabby. I was a private chef for a number of years when I started my food blog. I did both of them, you know, in conjunction with each other. And then as soon as the blog kind of took off, I stepped away from private chefing. And now I write cookbooks. I do the blog.

I'm working on a product line. And the whole What's Gopi cooking brand very much revolves around being this like California girl where everything's approachable. You can wear flip-flops or a red lip. We don't take ourselves too seriously. It's very approachable. In fact, it's so approachable that Gopi and I met at Skinny Girl. We were both working with the brand to develop cocktail recipes.

Yes. And I was nervous to go because sometimes when you go to these blogging events, people are mean and clicky. And we have the same manager. And she was like, no, you have to go and meet Lauren. You're going to love her. And I was like, I don't know. And then we fell in love. It's a good thing you were there too because Lauren doesn't know how to travel without me, apparently.

You made it on time. You were at every event. I kind of made it on time. I was late going back. Did you miss your flight? Almost. By a hair. You can travel.

I'm not quite as aggressive as Michael is when I travel, but I'm always on time. I feel like if we travel together, we'd be on time. It would be no way. It would be no problem. Moore and I really have to battle to get her through. Yeah, it's actually a battlefield. But you did arrive literally three hours before Hawaii, the airport. We could have slept in for a minute.

And there's nothing to do in the Hawaii airport. No, it's so. Yeah. And it's outside. So it's like real. Yeah, yeah. Hawaii was, Michael didn't love Hawaii. It wasn't Michael's favorite. Not my cup of tea, if we could say that. Why? Listen, here's the thing. I get it. Hawaii is a place where people go to vacation, relax, take their hoard of children. I say

hoard because they're never-ending children in Hawaii. And it's just too much for me. And too little. It's too slow. It's too slow for me. I like a quick pace. But how's Mexico in comparison? He likes Mexico. He likes Cabo. We're getting married there, obviously. I feel like they put Xanax in the air. So we definitely like Mexico over Hawaii.

Well, the thing is, I mean, it's a long way to go. And I don't want to bash Hawaii because people fucking love Hawaii, right? Like, if you say the wrong thing about Hawaii, people will turn on you quickly. I hope people turn on you about Hawaii. But I'm just not, I'm just not a fan. You know, I think that half the population down there are people that are, you know, like, semi-retire. and they want to go down there to live out the rest of their life. And so they go down there and they, you know, they're chilling out.

But a lot of time they get jobs in the service industry. And then they're servicing you. Slowly. Slowly. Very slowly. Very lax. It's like, listen, I'm not retired. I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to move down here.

Yeah, he made everyone in Hawaii on edge. Everyone was on the edge of their seat. You were so annoying. You panicked the whole island. I'd never describe myself as a bored person, but I was a board person. Really? You were bored? I was bored.

Oh. I think island time and island fever. Because they just lay there. People, that's what you're doing. Why? You're just like lay there and get a tan. Yeah. I feel like I stimulated you with my smells, though.

Well, it was like every time I started to go into like relaxation mode, that smell would hit me. It was like a smelling cell just ripped me out of my coma. I forgot deodorant. I didn't realize it was so humid. It was incredibly human. I mean, it was the most human we've ever been. Well, the fastest we ever moved on the trip was when I was running as fast as I could to find the nearest liquor store to find you some deodorant.

We got some at the ABC store. Okay, so I want you to give some tips to some listeners that maybe aren't the best in the kitchen but want to try. Oh, man. I would say find like three or four recipes on blogs or in cookbooks that are, that have like 10 ingredients or less, doesn't require a lot of like pots or pans or just things that are really easy and then kind of put them into your rotation. I'm also a huge fan of, love like, dips and, like, sauces and things.

If you have, like, a really good salad dressing and you make it once a week, then you can jazz things up with it all week long. You could put it on roasted Brussels spreads. You could put it on a salad. You could put it on some grilled chicken or fish or protein. That way you're kind of experimenting without it being too, you know, scary. That's what your friend Stephen says, who's a chef. They say sauces and dips are the way to go.

Yeah. You need to really get it. I just need to learn like three sauces and three dips. You've been saying that for about three years, so let's get on it. I'll teach you. We'll make homemade hummus as one of them. Yeah. And then like a basil vinaigret and maybe a Chipotle salsa.

One time Lauren tried to serve me a grapefruit vinaigrette as pancake syrup. Okay. And I had... It was a raspberry vinaigrette. Whatever it was. It was fucking terrible. and she took all this time and it was like a romantic morning where you know like those like movies where the couple wakes up and there's like dough batter in the kitchen you're like holding hands

and like dripping it into the uh the waffle maker and everyone's everyone's super like you know like it's something you film as a romantic comedy movie but um you know so she was taking all this time to to make this amazing these waffles and the waffles were great but she didn't have any maple syrup or any syrup or whipped cream or powdered sugar yeah okay so she put a salad dressing on and I started crying when he wasn't eating it. I was trying to pretend that I like it. And finally I just said, you know what, fuck it and just threw it all in the trash. And it was terrible room the morning.

I almost broke up with you. That was so notebook of me. Yeah, but it was, you know, it was salad dressing. Okay, well, I'm going to learn a couple sauces. Clearly, I need to learn how to make syrup. Yeah, or just buy it in bulk. Or just buy it in bulk. I'll even take Aunt Jemima.

I like Antimima. I've seen your pantry. You have like every, you just need to stock it. I don't want to touch it, though. What do you mean? You don't want to touch syrup? No, I don't want to touch the pantry. Like the pantry is like a museum.

Yeah, I don't want to touch it. Oh, well, can you put syrup in the fridge? Yeah, I don't like to touch the fridge either. You need your own fridge, Michael. I have a little drawer. What? Yeah, it's this little drawer. Well, you made it for me.

But everything's just crammed in there. I don't know what it is. And, you know. No, he has a drawer with organized pretzels. He has a couple cheez-its, Annie's cheez-its. You have your, like, little, like, things. Yeah, there's nothing more exciting than walking in the pantry and seeing the container full of lima beans.

What the fuck am I going to do with? those. I wouldn't know what to do with no either. I don't know what to do with them either. They just look pretty. They're on brand. Do you have everything labeled? I don't, but now that you just said that, you need a label maker. I come home from a hard day. I can't wait to soak the lima beans for an hour and then just heat those up, you know. I'm going to make lima beans next week. I bet it would be really good with a raspberry vinaigrette. Yeah. In a salad. Totally on brand. Okay, so tell us about your journey. You start, you told me you were cooking for Jessica Simpson, who you said it's lovely.

Yeah, she's like the most incredible human on the planet. But before that, I was a private chef for a family of six. So I was cooking like a bajillion things tonight because like one of them was gluten-free. One of them was a vegetarian. One of them only ate meat, blah, blah, blah. And then I started cooking for Jess. And I cooked for her for like two years. And then eventually I just went full time with what's got to be cooking.

And that was like right before my wedding, which was a little over four years ago. And you're running a very organized, structured strategic brand. Yeah, I run a tight ship. And I don't have a lot of people working from, I don't have anyone actually full time, but I have, like, I have people that help me with social media a little bit. I have my best, my two best friends shoot all the images and food style, all the images for my website. So it's like a very well-oiled machine so we can turn out content and, you know, everyone focuses on what they excel at. So no one's wasting time. They call that a solopreneur. Michael's getting horny when you say that you run a tight ship and it's strategic. He loves it. I just, it's too, I also really love watching TV. So I have to like factor TV time into my life. So I, and if I didn't run a tight ship, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to watch the Housewives or like, whatever I want to watch.

I am not the most organized, but I still watch Housewives. Sometimes I feel like Lauren's ship. I was just watching the Titanic the other day. And, um, it's like this big, beautiful ship that's so amazing and it's put together perfectly. I'm going to stab you when you're sleeping. There's all sorts of different levels. But it's going full steam ahead. sometimes towards that iceberg.

Then that's why you're there to steer it away. Yeah, be my jack. I just fear that I'm going to turn out like, uh, I'm going to turn out like Leo and just be in the ice cold water dying as she floats away on the plank of wood. Never let go. Would you let me live? If there's a plank of wood. I would let you live.

No, you wouldn't. Your, like, your eyes are blinking. What I like about your brand, though, and I want to kind of give a BTS to the listeners. So what's really cool about Gopby's brand is that she does, like, I think it's a once a month, shoot in a huge industrial kitchen. Yeah, so my photographer and my food stylist, they're married. His name, the photographer is Matt, the stylist is Adam. And they have this, like, incredible studio down in Long Beach with, like, every single ceramic,

everything you could possibly imagine for a food photo shoot. And so, like, once a month, once every three to three weeks, we go down and we shoot, like, 10 to 12 recipes. So that means I have content for like two to three weeks, basically. And so I'm not shooting every day like I was when I was doing everything on my own. I would like make a recipe a couple times and then I would shoot it and then I would be on the blog the next day. This way I kind of stockpile content.

Like we have all of my Thanksgiving content basically done. Michael's horny part two. Michael's like literally like blinking and staring at me out of his peripheral. This is like another homemade bread moment. I mean, that sounds amazing just having all that done in advance. We get it, Michael. We get it. I really think it's a great idea.

It's a great idea, but also it's a little, it's tricky because like if a sponsored content comes up and they're like, we want something to be up for Thanksgiving, I have to like kind of rejigger my schedule around, which is fine. And it's helpful to let most of it's done in advance. So I can just like move my little post-its around on my editorial calendar. And then it's done. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay, so, I think you snapped a picture somewhere. You showed me the picture. You text me a picture. How did I see your... I think it was the first time you came over for dinner. You saw it. I said, what is that? I went in her office and there was these calendars, these four calendars with post-its all over them. And you can kind of tell us. They're like, so I, my management team always want, well, our management team always wants me to have like a digital editorial calendar so they can see.

where my mind's at. But I like crossing things off of an actual list. I don't get as much satisfaction, just deleting text on a computer. So I made, like, life-sized editorial calendar. So I have these four big calendars on the wall. And I have little tiny post-fits that fit each day. And it has whatever piece of contents going up, like mashed sweet potatoes. And it goes up.

And then when it's done and I promoted it and it's gone on every social media channel, I ripped the post it off and I throw it in the trash and move on to the next day. Isn't that sound nice to learn? ripping it off. Wait, Michael, actually, I went and got the calendars off Etsy. Yeah. You can go to Gobby's blog. Yeah, and she'll design them for you.

Like, she did yours a custom color. Yes, she didn't light pink. And, like, mine match the logo, the red in my logo. Yeah, they're super, super cool. We've talked about this on the podcast before. I think I've shouted you out about this, but you can go to her blog. Just Google, what's Gobby cooking calendar? Editorial calendar, yeah.

It's amazing, you guys. And they're like framed and every month I switch them out so I can always, like, yesterday I just put up January's, and I can't even think that far in advance. I'm capped off at November right now. What am I posting tonight? What's going on tonight? No, actually, really, what am I posting?

What's a little bit different for Lauren? Because, you know, a lot of the stuff requires, you know, her in the shots. So a lot of the times... Oh, I can't even imagine. That's so much more work. Well, no, that's not true, though, because cooking and buying and prepping, it's a different kind of work. It's a different sort. But also, like, I, if I post a picture myself on Instagram, people are like, unfollow by.

Yeah, right. No, they are. They're like, you don't look like a cookie. Okay, wait a minute. People love Gopi on Snapchat. She's super raw and real, and she gives you, I feel like you share a story of the day. I do. I feel like we both talked about this when we started Snapchat.

Like, unless you have to share like a beginning, a middle, and end, basically, there has to be like some sort of just some, I don't know. Like a story. Yeah. Without oversaturating. Right. And it can't be like too obnoxious or whiny. Like there's some people that just are like, I don't know. You just, you have to be good at it.

Wait, there's some people that are like, well, I just think ever since Instagram stories came out, some people are just like, I made this recipe and it didn't work. And you're like, I don't want to hear about that. Yeah. Like you want to watch something that's entertaining. Oh, meaning people will message you that they try to make the recipe that. No, like other influencers, you know, kind of complaining about their job or something. And I just think people are giving you or me or Michael, whatever.

They're giving you your time to watch your snap. chat story or your Insta story or look at your feet or whatever it is, you have to be providing them with some value. Like, you can't just be a weird subject. Michael's Horty, part three. Just can't be a weird filter of yourself with you like with the angel halo over your head. Or you with your headphones walking around spouting off random shit. I'm not spouting off random shit.

It's very calculated and informative and awesome. Snapchat. Michael Bostic. Oh my God. He plugs his Snapchat every second and it's with one S. Michael Bostic. No, no, two Ss is. Like boss.

Boss. We get it. Yeah, so Snapchat's been a really cool medium, I think, for both of us, because it's allowed us to kind of showcase our personality more than through the blog. And I think a lot of people have abandoned chip to Instagram Story, but I'm still kind of loyal to Snapchat. Snapchat all day long. Yeah, Instagram story's my mistress.

Like, Snapchat's like my main man. Yeah. There might not be that many snaps going on on my bachelor party. Where's your bachelor party? Oh, yeah. Where's your bachelor party, Michael? Montreal. Shut up, really?

That's awesome. The French Quarter. When are you going? Very cultured. I'm getting ready to go next week. Fun. The P.I.s are ready. It's yours at the same time?

No. Okay. No. That's too much. Too much too much. The conversation of joint bachelor, a bachelor, and we shut that down.

I don't want a joint bachelor out with you. No. No, I cut that down. I don't remember my bachelor at party. Really? Nope. Because you were drunk. Yeah.

Lauren's going to Palm Springs. Oh, I wish I had done that. I'm going to Montreal. Honestly, like, I just want to chill. I just, I don't need. So do I. And honestly, I'm fine, like, just chilling. And my friends are trying to, like, make this whole deal.

Like, my buddy Weston called me on the way here. Yeah, you want to read. He's in a deep panic. I'm like, listen, will there be books on this trip? Will there be? Literally your bachelor at party, your ideal bachelor at party is to go with the chihuahuas away from everyone in silence and read and listen to, like, heavy metal. Yeah, I mean, or Basanova.

Oh, you like Bostonova now. These guys, they're trying to set up there. Look, this one dinner. It turns into a club. Do you want to do that? Like, we got to get, everyone's trying to like scrounge together their pennies to see if they could pay for it. I'm like, I'm like, this sounds terrible already. They got one big Airbnb.

Yeah. At one point they were trying to share four beds with eight guys and I had to shut that down and get some. It's too much. Yeah. Yeah, it's tough. I don't know. There are just a lot of work. Yeah, you're going to have to change your diaper by 11.

Weston will change it for me. Great. That's great. That sounds really fun. Mine's going to be relaxing. We're going to have good food and just do nothing. take some Instagrams and that's about it. You're going to Palm Springs.

Yeah. You should stop that. You have to go to Workshop Kitchen. I'll go to Palm Springs anytime, but Workshop Kitchen is so fun in Palm Springs. Okay, I need to write that down. Yeah, it's great. Okay. I can't wait to recap that.

And I'm also podcasting at my Bachelor. What? Without Michael. Solo, just you? Yeah, thank God it's going to be so fun. It'll probably be the worst show that we've done. No. Probably the best.

Probably the best. I'm just kidding. No, you're excited about it. So anyways, yeah, Snapchat's still fun, still relevant. We're loving it. I think it's really important, like you said, to be grateful. Yeah. Like humble, grateful on Snapchat instead of complaining about your job.

Agreed. And I just like sharing valuable content. That's just what our business is all about. No one wants to hear about how you don't like your job on Snapchat. No. Before we get into the him and her tip of the week, I want to tell you about one of my favorite sponsors. Okay, so I've talked about bio clarity before.

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Love it, such a deal. That's a 20% savings, and it comes with 100% risk-free money-back guarantee. So if you guys don't like it, you can send it back, but I know you'll love it. That's bioclarity.com. Enter my code Skinny at checkout, S-K-I-N-N-Y at checkout. Don't wait, go to bioclarity.com today. All right. I'm going to share this tip of the week with everyone out there and you too.

It's all about sleep. I think you might appreciate this. I have a new bedtime ritual, which I bet you're both excited to hear about. I can't wait. Lauren's seen it already. I bought this really comfortable sleep mask. You ever used sleep mask? No.

Like for your eyes? Yeah, for your eyes. But you know that it's super annoying because they got the little straps that go over your ears, like you're in a science lab? Like the ones do they give you on airplanes? Yeah. So now I got this new one. It's like a silk satin thing.

And it has a Velcro strap and it goes all the way around your head and your ears. so you can't see anything. The lights, like, completely blocked out. This is a shit I have to deal with. I heard about it on the Tim, I was listening to Tim Ferriss show, and he mentioned it. I was like, man, I hate those sleep masks

with the thing. So this is a Velcro strap goes around your head. And then I got earplugs that go under as the Velcro strap goes over your ears. So you can't see or hear anything. This sounds like you have like a really high-tech strap on. Yes. Well, no.

And then I go a step further, and I drink a bunch of sleepy time tea. Oh, that's the best. Yes. Or my new favorite, which is the caramel bedtime tea by, I think, yogi tea. Yogi tea. Yeah, yogi tea always. And so now my senses are diluted. I can't see, I can't hear, and then the sleepy time tea knocks me out and I sleep all night. So my tip is to get the sleep mask. It's on Amazon. I think it's called like the sleep master. You got to leave the links on Twitter. Yeah, I'll leave the links on the show recap and the sleepy time tea and you'll sleep How many hours the night do you sleep?

Six to eight. Okay. How many do you sleep? I can sleep a lot, but last night I didn't sleep. It just kind of varies. I mean, I can sleep a lot. I could sleep nine hours. That's like a good night for me.

I'm an eight to nine hour girl. Yeah, yeah, I need a lot of sleep. If you really want your man to fall asleep, you can roofy them. Just sprinkle a little bit in their sleepy time tea and they'll have no fucking idea. Okay, on to my tip of the week. This is the her tip. I was going to do something on bridal curls, but I think I'll do it next week because I feel like my tip's fitting and we can kind of talk about this. My tip is iPads. Oh my God. You are the one

who introduced me to iPads. Really? Yeah. I bought them because of you. Okay. I love iPads. Aren't they amazing? Yeah. I don't even know what they actually do, but they make me feel awake. They make you feel awake and I put them on the second I wake up except for today. I was running out the door. But I put them on the second I wake up and I make sure they're really close underneath my eye. I like the ones that are all collagen. But these are like whatever you're wearing right now is very high tech. Like they're sticking to your face. Yeah, these are, um, Revelations RX. They're anti-aging fine lines. I'masks. And they do fill in the fine lines. Really? Don't you feel like that? I don't know. I just feel like I want to wear them out. Like I want to put them on when I'm in an Uber.

I want to wear them to the grocery store and I don't want anybody to judge me. No, they won't. You just put sunglasses on. No, I don't even want to do that. I just want to rock up. That's fine. That's totally acceptable. If you guys don't have eye masks get on board every single morning, I swear they are game changer and they're they kind of like plump your skin and infuse your skin with kind of collagen. I will do a blog post on this because I'm so obsessed with them. Are these ones from Amazon? Those are from Amazon. You can also get them on revelations.com, I think.

But there's tons out there. You don't have to go super expensive. I know there's some that are like $70 per pack. I got the Korean ones, I feel like that you were talking about once in fun time. They come in like a light blue package and they're white. Okay, I loved those. And then I was starting to investigate and ingredients. And there was one ingredient I didn't love.

What? I don't know what it is. It's something like chemically. It's something just weird and it's your eyes. So that's why I got these. And if you read what's in them, this is just vitamin A, vitamin C, hydraulic acid, and collagen. And basically it brightens and refreshes your eyes. It's antioxidants.

It's amazing, you guys. Try it. And if you're hung over, it's the best. Truth. Yes. All right. In the beginning, I thought you were talking about the Apple iPad. No, you didn't.

I did. And it wasn't until about halfway through your spiel that I got that you were talking about iPads. Michael has finally accepted it. It's time for him to get a little Botox. I have not accepted that. But I know I'm not. There's a bit of a cursive line on your forehead. I'm going for the Grand Canyon.

No. I have to look at it. We will be right back from the break. Season two of some inspiring podcasts from Forbes is now on podcast one. First, if you worry that you're not the type who could succeed in starting and running a business because you're not an extrovert. Hiding in the bathroom with Mora Arons-Mili will change your mind and maybe your life. Then Forbes contributor, author, and entrepreneur, Denise Restore, invites you into her New York City apartment to tap into her conversations with successful women who are sharing some mentoring moments.

And finally, hosts Christina Wallace and Kate Scott Campbell will blow the doors off traditional one career thinking and prove to you that the limit does not exist. Get inspired and download all three shows now on the podcast. One app, iTunes or at podcast one.com. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. Just like that, we are back, and we've got some questions. Putting Gabby in the hot seat. Lay them on me.

Yep. We're actually kind of getting like business blogging more than cooking, so we'll have to have you on for another cooking episode. Next time we do that, I'll bring all my food in and we can eat while we're talking. Love it. We can peel chickpeas. Yeah. Okay.

So I've kind of gotten into a lot of the, the answers myself on this show that I'm going to ask you. But I kind of want to, I want to provide some value to the listeners from somebody else's point of view, somebody that's in the same space. And then we can have a debate. And we can have a debate. So my question is, what's it been like being an influencer in the niche field of food and cooking? How have you been able to grow your brand and stand out in an industry that is becoming highly saturated, that industry being the influencer space? Yeah. So when I started what's got to be cooking, I had no idea what my brand would. I was just like, look, I'm in culinary school and I'm a chef and look at all this shit that I can cook.

And I don't think I stood out at all for the first couple years. And it wasn't until I really like honed in on my message of being this like really approachable California girl where you're only spending like 30 minutes in the kitchen tops and you're churning at all this incredible food that I did start to stand out. And I think I now I run my business with that in mind. So I always want to be providing people things like that are California girl related, even if you don't live in California. California. You could live in Nebraska and still live the California Girl Life. So once I kind of adhered to that, it made my brand stick a little bit more. And it's since grown because I always am telling this, you know, the story with the, it just continues up the road. So your advice to someone that's just starting out in 2016, they're trying to stand out is to really adhere to their brand. Yeah. Like, and you might not know it off the bat, but like figure out what you stand for, figure out what your voice is. If you want to have like this, if you're a really great writer, maybe you want to write a lot. If you're a really good photographer, maybe you want to take more photos.

But figure out what it is that you want to tell people and stick to it. Because I think we're so inundated with bloggers and influencers these days, you have to be really telling a concise story in order for people to relate to you. It's kind of like doubling down on your strength. Yeah. And I think it's really nice for brands too because brands know exactly what they're going to get when they come to you. And you can be really, you know, you're like, no, this doesn't work for my brain. and this is so off-brand, I can't do it.

Or, yes, this is exactly what kind of things I would do. You just said something, and Michael touched on it earlier this week when we were in Hawaii. You said it's about the story. And I think to stand out in this saturated influencer space, you do have to tell a story. And you said something the other day. You said, you're not telling the story that was your story five years ago. You're telling today's story. And you have to be able to pivot with your brand and know how to tell that story instead of telling

the same old story, if that makes sense. Yeah. What I was saying is, you know, if you captivate any type of audience in any field, people get bored with the same old story, like the same, you know, I was this and I've always been this and I'm going to continue doing this. That's great. Those are your roots. That's your core.

But you need to evolve the stories that people can come along for a ride for a journey. Then Lauren and I were talking. I said, listen, you know, your story and your roots were this. You were a broke bartender. You had an idea to start a blog. And since then, it's obviously, like, her story has changed. It's evolved. She's getting married.

She's met an amazing man. He's the best thing that's ever happened in her life. Literally, shoot me. Literally. Like, do you guys hear this shit? I have to fucking deal with it. It was so eloquently, like, laid out too. See, that's a story.

I brought you along for the journey and brought you in. But no, seriously, though. So now her story's a little bit different. She still has those roots, but there's different. You know, she has product line coming out. She's working. She's got a podcast. The brand's growing.

It's evolving. I'm assuming the same thing has happened for you. Yeah, I mean, I think, like I said, like I didn't have a brand, so I wasn't even telling a story six years ago when I started What Scabby cooking. But, you know, now I work with brands. I'm working on a product line. My second cookbooks in the works. So all of that plays into the story as I'm evolving. Like, I got married four years ago. I talked about that one day in like a billion years, maybe we'll have kids. So I don't know. I think all that kind of evolves with you. And I think there's been a lot of top-tier bloggers that had started out, you know, working from a nine to five. And their brand grew and they ended up getting married and having kids. And now you look at some of these girls and you're like, wow, you know, they have it all. It's been so easy. And you forget kind of the whole story and you just see the end with the kids.

And they've done a good job, though, of bringing these readers on because the readers are following along with the journey. Yeah, I also think it's really interesting because as like Snapchat, you and I both share behind the scenes kinds of things. things, but on Instagram our lives look really perfect all the time. But I love that people now get to see the behind the scenes on Snapchat and like, you're not always looking perfect or the kitchen's not always pretty or whatever it is. I think that helps tell the story and make you real and approachable and relatable, which is a big deal today. Which is why I love Snapchat. It's all about the story. And storytelling, we always say this, is underrated. It is. So if you could give a new influence or somebody going into a niche space, one piece of advice on how they can help themselves stand out,

what would it be? How to stand out. I know that puts you on the spot. Oh, man, how to stand out. I would say, I mean, this is just more general advice that I tell people, but if I have an idea, I'm just going to do it. Like, I'm not going to sit around and wait and think about it for three months. I'm just going to see if it sticks.

So I would see if it sticks and put it out there and see people's response to it and go for it. Love it. I 100% agree with that launch fast and adjust with feedback. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about brands. How do you pick and choose who you're going to work with while still staying authentic to the What's Gobby Cooking brand? Sure.

So this actually changed a lot for me since I figured out what What's Gopi cooking stood for. Because back in the day, five years ago, I would just be like, oh my God, you want to pay me $200? It doesn't matter if it's a cat food brand. Like, sure, even though I never talk about my caps. Now I know exactly what my audience wants. I know what my message is. So the brand has to fit into that as a whole.

And if there's a way to like kind of like, for example, Lulu Lemon, if Lulu Lemon came to me and was like, we want to work with you. I'm like, that makes sense. I wear your clothes all the time. Like I can put them on a Snapchat. I cook in my yoga pants all the time. Like I said earlier, if a cat food brand came to me now, I'd be like that doesn't make any sense.

I never talk about cat food. I cook human food. So whatever it is has to fall into the bigger what's got to be cooking picture. Love it. But I also made a lot of mistakes five years ago and I worked for brands or like a frozen lasagna company that I would never make a frozen lasagna. Did you get blowback for that? I sure did.

And so learning that about my audience was invaluable. And I would never make that mistake again because without our audiences, we're toast. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's really, really important to listen to your audience. I've definitely, when I first started blogging, made a couple of mistakes along the way of working with certain brands or advertisers. And I listen to my audience. And I listen to their feedback.

And instead of being combative towards it, I embrace it. And I want to know what they think and if they feel like something's off brand. You know, you just have to really pick and choose who you're working with. I mean, I've turned down things that for so much money, but it just doesn't make sense for you. Yeah. I mean, there was a product that someone approached me with that was a very good deal. and it would have been a very easy blog post, but there was soy in it. And I just didn't want to promote it.

It just wasn't the right fit. And I said no. And you have to do that, I think, to play the long game. Agreed. And I also think it helps for you to explain that. I get on the phone with brands before I say no to them and say, listen, my audience isn't going to respond to this. Like, you can pay me as much money as you want and I will deliver beautiful photos,

but it's not going to work for me. Like, this isn't, you're not going to have. a successful campaign with my audience. So I'm not your girl. So did they appreciate that you do that? I think so. I think maybe it's a little sad because they're looking at, you know, your number game and they're like, oh, we really want access to her audience. But they also, that's the PR team, you know, coming to me or whatever intermediary asking me to do this. The brand's going to have like real shit results and that's going to look bad for everybody involved. I think that's a great answer. If you guys are bloggers, take note on that. Don't make the same mistakes we made in the early days.

them for you. Okay, this is my last and final question, putting you in the hot seat. You also work with your husband, Thomas, who we all know here in love. Is it as awesome and chaotic as Lauren and I's relationship? So I don't know how to answer that question. I mean, Thomas works with me kind of behind the scenes. He does a lot of website development for me and helps me make some big decisions, but we're not together every day because he has a regular job, like a 9 to 5 job, he's in advertising.

But I've brought up him like working with me full time before and that's a hard no for him. He's not interested in working with me. He's like, I'll help you with your web design. I'll help you, you know, creatively. And he's just like, but I can't. He doesn't want to be with me all the time, which is fine. Listen, I fully get it. I think you have to have your own things.

And if he's making the conscious decision to have like his own. thing be his main thing. I commend him. That's very smart. That's what he should do because it is not easy. You know, luckily enough, I have a couple of my own side. You have your own, you have tons of things going on. But, you know, definitely this year has been trying as we've, as Lauren and I have jumped in this together. It's really interesting. Like, how do you turn, like, one time Thomas and I were in Palm Springs together and it was like 120 degrees and he wanted to sit inside, but there was really shitty light inside and I need good light for a photo. So I'm like, no, sit outside and he lost his shit on me.

God Thomas. Never gets mad at me. I mean, Kevin knows. I mean, sometimes we need to get the boxing gloves out even in the studio. Like, he's like, everyone's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's like two cats like fighting in an alley. Yeah, it's tough. But you learn, you learn.

We have learned what works for us, what doesn't. It's a learning curve. Absolutely. I think it's definitely doable. I mean, Juliana and Bill Ransick, I think are like such an incredible couple to watch working together because they just like get it. You guys, like, you just do it. I mean, I've seen you're, no, you guys are good.

Half the time we want to stab each other, the other half, he's okay. A hundred percent of the time she doesn't have deodorant. I'm not going to work on that. I don't like it. I think working together is very, very difficult. And I always say this, it's like a dance. And you have to figure that dance out and you have to figure out what works for you. I don't recommend it if someone is only coming in two.

your business. So, okay, Michael has his own thing. I have my own thing and then we work together. Right. A lot of couples, like one will have their own thing and then the other one will come into that person's thing. And that's the only thing the other person's doing. Am I explaining that right? Meaning like if I didn't have anything going on for me and I just jumped into the skinny confidential, that would probably be a problem. Because then you don't have anything of your own. Yes. And also the person like Lauren would probably resent me in that instance because she'd say, hey, you are jumping into my thing. Even if she knew, even if she didn't want to, even if I was really helping.

Yeah, it's because it's her thing. So, you know, this podcast was a way for us to kind of carve out our thing together. And then obviously I come in and help her when she needs help on her site. But also, I have my own things that I can, you know, call my own, put my flag in and keep separate. I think that's smart. I think that's really smart. So I guess our advice here is make sure you each have your own thing. If you decide to go into business together.

So you each can give energy to your own. thing as well as your thing that you're doing collectively. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And Michael, always have a smile when you're working with me. And Lauren, always have a stick of deodorant. Michael, come on. Do you have anything else you want to say to the audience?

I know you'll be back to do a cooking show. I bet they'll have questions. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, well, I'd love to hear the questions. I don't know. I can't think of anything. Where can everyone find you? So what's gobycooking.com is kind of my hub, like everything.

thing lives there. And then all my social channels are What's Gobby cooking? No G at the end, because Instagram cut me off back in the day when it started. Yeah, I'm on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook. Snapchat's fun, you guys. The most fun. It is the most fun. Instagram's prettier, though.

Instagram's prettier, but Snapchat's fun. The most. Definitely check her out. She will be back. We'll do a cooking show. Before we go, though, I want to take a minute to thank all our great sponsors and all of you listeners and readers for supporting the Skinny Confidential and him and her podcast. You guys are what keeps the show growing and you give Michael and I the confidence to keep going.

We really appreciate it and we will continue to do our best to bring you entertainment and value on a weekly basis for free. Now here's an easy way for you guys to show your love. Use our Amazon link to do all your online shopping. It costs you nothing, super quick. Just go to my podcast one show page and click on the killer deals button above the show list. Then click the Amazon banner and go shopping. Fun. There's even links for Canada and the UK.

So if you're in Canada or the UK, you can also support the show. Speaking of Amazon, you guys know how much I love books, I love wearing my headphones, love learning, I'm always on the go. So why not combine it all together? Click the Audible button right next to the Amazon button on our show page. It will take you to some awesome reading list that you can check out and buy from Audible. They're giving listeners a free audiobook when you sign up. I use Audible all the time, and it's a great way to catch up on books when I'm on the go.

Thank you guys again so much for downloading, subscribing, and of course, supporting. What's Gobby Cooking has been so much fun. today and remember to send in your questions to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag Ask Him and Her. You can send us questions to our Snapchats at Lauren Everett's and at Michael Bostick. Two S's. I'll be nice. Or you can email podcast at the skinny confidential.com.

We're also going to be doing more call-ins. We had fun doing those last week on Taylor's show. So if you want to call in, email us at podcast at the skinny confidential.com. Subject line, Colin. Again, that's podcast at the skinny confidential.com. Subject call in. ask us anything and we will do our best to answer or just drop us a line and let's talk. Okay, I'm craving some hummus.

We're off. We need to make some. Bye guys. 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.