The Bossticks - #82: Create & Cultivate with Jaclyn Johnson

Episode Date: October 3, 2017

On this episode we are joined by the founder of the wildly popular women's conference Create & Cultivate (@createcultivate) to discuss how she created the conference and how it's evolved into the powerhouse that it is today.  We cover a lot of ground on this episode including perseverance, wages in the work place, getting over hurdles and hardships, and how to create a thriving conference in any field. To learn more about create and cultivate visit their site HERE  To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by THRIVE MARKET. We use Thrive for our online grocery delivery on a weekly basis. They provide the highest quality products and ingredients delivered straight to our door with unbeatable prices.  Be sure to grab our deal by going to to https://thrivemarket.com/skinny to receive $60 of FREE organic groceries from Thrive Market + free shipping and a 30 day trial!" Keep in mind that Thrive Market's  prices are already 25- 50% below retail because they cut out the middleman. And now they are offering $60 off free organic groceries!  

The following podcast is a Bostick media production. 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. What's up? We are back from a day and a half trip from Austin, where we did a podcast. interview and we just had dinner with Michael's parents. Of course, we had the devil's eggs at Bankers Hill, which are so good. They're treble fries too. If you're in San Diego, you got to go to Bankers Hill. Yeah, this is like, it's a little sleeper in here in San Diego. It's a sleeper. It's one of our favorites. You're probably running into us, right? Yeah. What did you drink tonight? I had a grapefruit Collins, which is basically a Tom Collins, but instead of lemon, it says grapefruit.

Wow, that's super girly. I had a Pinot Noir. Um, so today we're super excited to talk. to Jacqueline, who is the founder of Create and Cultivate, which happens to be one of the main girl bosses of 2017. For those of you who don't know me, I am Lauren Everett's Bostic. Got to add the Bostic now, since we're newly married. And I'm the creator of the blog brand and podcast, The Skinny Confidential. The Skinny Confidential, for those of you guys who don't know, I just wanted to recap it, is a place where women go to gain inspiration to unapologetically be the best version of themselves. I have posts on kind of everything and anything. So if you're looking for boob job tips, glowing skin tricks, skinny recipes, and or posts on running a business in the

digital space, I got you covered. All you have to do is head over to the skinny confidential.com for more. And I am Michael Bostic, this lovely lady's husband. Sometimes she mistakes me for the fiancee still. Or a boyfriend. I don't like that word fiance. I'd rather be boyfriend or husband. The other day you were a boyfriend for a minute. Anyways, Michael Bostic. I'm an entrepreneur and marketer. Over the last 10 years, I've specialized in product development and marketing. Both are my own companies and for others. Our business jet bed provides beds for some of the largest companies in the world. And I got involved with this podcast with Lauren to hopefully bring some to some of you young businessmen and women who want to grow or contribute to the brands that you're

working with. You didn't do it to flirt with me? I did it to kind of come on here and flirt with everyone flirt with the world okay michael i feel like that's like it's super weird and here we are okay you i'm going to introduce you to jacquelin johnson jacqueline is a blogger who turned into a badass ceo which eventually turned into starting a business known to plan one of the biggest influencer conferences in the world she's been working in the digital marketing space for the past ten years and launched her first company at the age of 22 and like i said she runs one of the biggest influencer conferences called Create and Cultivate. So Create and Cultivate was started specifically for female entrepreneurs in the digital space,

which I am so happy to showcase on the skinny confidential him and her. And I just feel like what she's done is just so badass and so cool. Anyway, Jacqueline wanted to create a conversation around entrepreneurship and being a woman in the modern digital world. The conference gathers hundreds of thousands of the next generation creatives, entrepreneurs, and girl bosses to spark conversation around the topics they're passionate about, from influencer marketing to building a brand to even raising money. Create and Cultivate has become the fastest growing conference for millennial women hosting talents

such as Chelsea Handler, Jessica Alba, Rachel Zoh, Nicole Richie, and so many more. The conference regularly sells out, which is insane and has brand partnerships with Microsoft and the Marriott. Jacqueline also invests in female-owned businesses such as away luggage. I love their luggage and is an advisor to several startups. Oh, and let's not forget to mention that she's also been named Forbes 30 under 30 for marketing and advertising and is a woman of note by Wall Street Journal. I feel like this is a pretty strong intro because, you know, shit, she's a pretty strong woman.

So with that, let's welcome Jacqueline Johnson to the Skinny Confidential, in her shell. Hi, hello. Are you guys members of Thrive Market? Because I can honestly say it's my number one favorite place to buy organic groceries, especially because they're delivered straight to your door. What's also cool is they've offered $60 in free organic groceries to all TSC, him and her listeners.

You guys get free shipping and a 30-day trial. Simply enter the URL, not the code. so there's no code. It's a URL. It's a confusion with the code. I know. It's a URL. So it's Thrivemarket.com slash skinny. I should also mention that the prices are already 25 to 50% below retail, which is amazing. It kind of takes out the middleman and the delivery service is legit. Michael thinks there's a Thrive Ferry in our house. Well, listen, anytime I don't have to go to the grocery store to pick up food or supplies. It's ideal for you. It's a win for me. My dad, you know, I grew up, this guy constantly going to the grocery store.

It's constantly, you guys. Constantly. Like, if I ever can't find him, that's where he is. And I think what it did, it just, like, it scarred me for life. And you know, the other thing is, when you were saying, like, hey, Michael, go and pick up this jam or this butter or this egg. And I get there, and there's 50 choices, and I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, I like Thrive because they take the best ingredients already, and they just put them right to the front. So I can't, I can't go wrong.

Yeah, and you always get the wrong thing. So I just like to ask the threat. And I'm not even, and I'm being dead serious. Like, I just, it takes the, it takes the difficulty of choice out of the equation for me. I just know I'm getting the right stuff. I mean, I feel like this is a win-win. In fact, my sister actually texts me for the URL the other day. And I feel like you know it works when I'm using my own URL.

That's thrivemarket.com slash skinny. So obviously there's many fun things to add to your cart, but I have to say I'm a huge fan of their raw unsweetened nut butter. and their Aztec Clay Healing Mask. You know this if you've listened to the last couple podcast. I just feel like it's so hard to find raw and sweetened nut butters, and they have all my favorite brands available. I add the nut butters to crackers or rice cakes, even salaries good too.

And the nut butters that they have come in small packets, so you can just throw them in your purse so it's super easy and accessible. As far as the Aztec Clay Healing Mask, it's under $5. and I just have to say this, it's the same mask that Cleopatra used, so I feel super boozy when I'm using it and it's still under $5. So you'll go through this real quick. I love it in the shower. Like when I'm showering, I'll just throw it on.

Super easy. You mix it with apple cider vinegar. It takes like five seconds. Another thing I like is they're liquid aminos. I should replace your soy sauce with this. You won't be sorry. It's just better for you. taste basically the same. Another thing, you guys have asked me what I like from Thrive. I like

their brown rice cacao crisps. You can add this to almond milk. You'll be so happy about it. Little blueberries, maybe even a sprinkle of chia seeds. They also have organic coconut chips that I love to top on French toast and oatmeal. I just feel like there's so much available and I feel like I should stop talking and you guys should go stock the situation. So be sure to get in on their incredible offer. It's $60 of free organic groceries to all TST, him and her listeners, and you get free shipping with a 30-day trial. Simply enter the URL, not the code, thrivemarket.com slash skinny. Happy shopping, guys. Have fun. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. So tell us about your backstory that led you to create and cultivate. So it's kind of like a windy road,

But essentially, to go way, way back, I went to NYU, and I was studying journalism and ended up working on an ad agency in New York was like on a super corporate track at a few larger companies, one being IAC, which if you don't know what IAC is, they own a bunch of dot com. So like match.com, weather.com, ticket master, et cetera. And I was like working my way up the corporate ladder was like, this is going to be my journey and my career. and ended up getting transferred to Los Angeles to work at city search and got laid off, like within a month of moving here. And so I was in L.A. I didn't know anyone. I had no sort of connection to the entertainment industry, which is where the bulk of the jobs were in Los Angeles. So super depressed.

And basically was like I just moved across the country. I was always killing it at my career. I've now jobless, no, no one. So definitely was like feeling like, okay, maybe I'll be a yoga instructor. I went through like this whole crisis. and ended up emailing a few people and being like, help, like, I need freelance work. Ended up getting a few clients. Ended up getting a few more clients.

Ended up having a few employees. Ended up getting an office space. Ended up starting a marketing agency called no subject, unbeknownst to me. I remember that. Oh, yeah. It's like a thing now because everyone's like, are you no subject? Create quote. Like, it's very, my mom still is like no idea what I do.

She's like, I'm so confused. But essentially I started this marketing agency and really was like kind of tapping into influencer marketing, which this was 2009. So kind of at the beginning of it and was saying, one, I had a blog, so I understood how influencers were sort of coming to the forefront, but also realizing by getting emails from brands, they have no idea how to work with influencers. And what year was this? 2009. 2009, you said, okay. So it was like kind of at that beginning phase where like brands were getting on Facebook and brands were starting to work with influencers. And like, but they were still setting like press releases to influencers. And you were like,

what am I going to do with this? Like very, very weird. But, I happened to kind of jump into that industry early on and was like, there has to be someone that can do this better. And so kind of positioned ourselves as like it bespoke influencer agency and event company. And it really sort of took off, especially being in LA. Like there wasn't that many people focusing on like fashion beauty lifestyle.

It was mostly entertainment at that point. So we attracted attention from brands like L'Oreal and Simon Malls and things like that. And we're putting together really compelling influencer campaigns and events, which was, Awesome. And cut to you seven years later, I sold that company to a PR agency out of New York and was able to go full-time at Create and Cultivate. But in the midst of all this marketing agency stuff, I ended up kind of figuring a lot out on my own. So I was 24 when I started no subject.

Oh, my God. Which like in retrospect, I'm like, oh, my God, what a disaster. But it was great because I was so naive. I just kind of went into it thinking, I got this. Like, I can start a company. In retrospect now, I'm like, oh, my God, I learned so many lessons. It made so much. many mistakes. And that's really what create and cultivate was born out of. I was pretty isolated as like a young female founder. I didn't feel like I had mentors or people to ask questions. And I went through a really bad business partner breakup two years into my business. And I thought it was the end of the world. Like I was like, that's it. Like everything we've worked for is gone. Like and also I felt really shameful that I was like, this makes me look like a bad business person because this didn't

work out. But when I started talking about it with other people who had companies, they were like, oh, yeah, that happened to me or this happened to this person. And did you do that? And I was like, maybe I should be talking about this more and learning more from other people. And I ended up being like, let's do like a 50 person female retreat. And we can go to the Ace of Tell. We can do like DIY workshops. That's like when DIY was like super hot. And we called it Create and Cultivate. And we went and it was like the miniest, miniest version of what it is now. And we all just kind of talked about what we were doing in our businesses and I never in a million years thought it would turn into anything. I thought it was like one and done.

And then it was like, hey, when's the next one? Hey, when's the next one? And then Levi's is like, hey, how do we get involved? And I was like, I don't know. It's just like this side project. And I honestly lost money on them for the first like three years because I was just like putting so much into it, but not really thinking of it as a business more as like a marketing opportunity for myself and no subject.

And then cut to like three years. I was like, maybe this is something. Maybe I should invest some money into it and hire. some people to actually work on it. And three years later, here we are. I want to go back just a little bit. So how, why marketing? Like, how did you, how did you even get in the space? Because that's young to start and especially starting your own firm and not going and, you know, getting a job and doing what most people do and saying, like, okay, I'm getting a marketing job and learning the world. You just started a marketing agency. Yeah. So it's really intense. So I was definitely right place, right time in social media.

So for me, I was, I thought I was going to be a magazine editor. I, like, had watched all the movies. I was like, that's going to be me, super chic. And I interned at Connie Nass throughout my entire college career. So I was like, this is it. Road to Success, got this. And then I found out how much magazine editors make. And I was like, I can't live in New York on like $18,000 a year. That's it.

Yeah, that was entry-level editorial assistant salary. And they offered me a job. And I was like, I'm not a trust fund baby. I have like student loan dead and like cannot possibly, you know, do this. And I really was upset about it. And I remember telling them, like, I'm going to make this work. I'm going to get a job on the weekends. And they were like, no, you'll be working.

on the weekends. This is like nonstop. And it was so devastating for me because I was like, this is what I thought I'd be doing. And I saw a Craigslist ad when I was looking for a job. And literally this is what I said. I said, looking for female account executive who likes fashion in the internet. That was it. And I was like, apply. And it was this company called Attention, which is now one of the largest social media marketing agencies. And I was the third employee. So I walked in the door. It was two guys. They were like, we started this thing. We believe in word of mouth marketing, which is now social media marketing. And we have this client, Bluefly, and we know nothing about fashion. And I was like, I love Bluefly. I know all about fashion.

Let's do this. And at that point, I had started my blog, which was called Some Notes on Napkins, which I don't do anymore. But at the time, was, like, innovative and, like, very cool. And so I got in really early at this agency and ended up doing the first social media marketing campaigns for BluFi and Estee Lauder. We launched the Barbie and Mac collaboration. We were, like, on forums and stuff that now is laughable, but at the time was super innovative. So by doing that, you know, I was super young. I think I was 21 when I had that job. And it was, I was killing it.

I loved it. It was like I felt like we were having, I was in huge meetings with huge clients, like selling in these campaigns and really kind of watching the CEO of that company kind of figure out how to charge money for social media because no one really at that point knew what they were doing. Like, what are we charging for? Are we updating someone's Twitter? getting paid for that. Like, what are we doing to get in front of these, like, influencers and

bloggers? Are we, like, sending them product? Are we paying them? It was, like, kind of, like, at the very beginning stages. And I just happened to be, like, there. Newsflash, they still, a lot of them still don't know. Yeah, yeah. Seriously, though. I'm not kidding. Still figuring it out. We were talking about that with, with influencers, like, you're not going to get a black and white ROI because that's like saying you do a billboard. You don't know how many people actually go and tell their grandma and their mom about it. You don't know how many people actually go and buy it. from the billboard but people still get billboards which is nuts it's crazy and like that's the thing that i think it took so long for brands to get over the hump with that i was like guys like exactly like a

vogue ad i mean you're paying like half a million dollars for that and you literally have no idea if anyone's actually gone out and purchased it at least with bloggers they can click links and you can see how many people click that link or how many people got there you know from a to z which is really valuable there's another side of it too which i always explained to clients and brands like when you if you pay a celebrity per se and you put them in an ad, right? Let's say it's a magazine or a TV ad. First, you have to pay for the ad. You have to the creation and their time and paying the celebrity,

but then you also have to pay for the distribution so that that content gets seen. With an influencer, they already have the platform to showcase that content, right? So you're getting a little bit of a media property, you're getting distribution, you're getting word of mouth, you're getting PR. It's a different form of marketing,

and people have, they're having difficulty correlating that. Yeah, exactly. And the influencer can tell it in their own way, in their own voice to their own audience that they've been cultivating over the last years. Totally. And people trust the people they follow. You know, I think it's like, you can be like, yeah, Vogue is an expert in fashion per se.

And you're like, I'm into that. But I don't know them. I don't feel connected to them. Whereas like, I know your story. I feel connected to your story. And then I trust what you say do wear. And from there, I'm like more apt to like buy something than I am just like flipping a page. Totally.

It sounds like you've been a pioneer in this industry to teach brands a new narrative. narrative. Yeah, I mean, it was really, I just like, I think it's so funny looking back at some of the early campaigns and some of the early conversations we were having and now it's so antiquated. But at the time, it was, you know, it was really hard and a lot of brands did not get it and we're not down to do it. And I have to say beauty and fashion was the first verticals I saw that really were like, all right, like this, we're doing this and this feels like it has a lot of value. And like those brands, like I just remember like we launched this origin's organic thing and me packing totes and like mailing them out to people. And I feel like they were so confused by that. They were like, but why don't we just send them to like beauty or like makeup artist? And I was like, no, we will. But like these are women like especially at the time. I'm like who have these like massive followings online and their audience wants to know what they're into and it blew up.

Like it was honestly like they couldn't even control the traffic like, you know, close down the site. And they were like, oh my God, we need to do this with everything. And I just remember them being so overwhelmed by it and like sort of confused. But it was so exciting. because it was like, wow, we're really on to something. Because we too were testing it. You know, we didn't know if it was going to work.

We were like, okay. And then seeing it work, I was like, wow, this is going to be a really powerful new medium. It's always so strange to me that people don't, like common sense would, you know, hey, there's a person that has 500,000 people looking at them. The common sense would say, hey, if they talk about something, that is a, that's good, right? That's a lot of bang for your buck right there. It's always strange to me that people don't make the correlation like, oh, this is smart to do. It's just, it's crazy to me that they just, it's common.

sense would say hey this is common sense i think especially in the fashion and beauty industry for so long it was like democratized by like this very specific editor right like they're like only the editors know the editors are going to tell the people and when it was like no the people are going to tell the people they were like wait what like but we've had this whole system we've worked this whole system for so long they hate change they hate change they were like this is very weird to me even if you're like this gets the same readership as this they still couldn't like understand because they had done that for so long and worked so hard to cultivate those relationships with editors. And when all of a sudden it was like, hey, that doesn't matter as much, it was like,

it's changed. I mean, the Vogue article that came out that said, you know, why are bloggers sitting front row? I mean, I think that bloggers should be sitting front row. Absolutely. I mean, there are some of the most influential people on the planet, of course. You know, I mean, you know, editors are there too. But at the same time, I'm like, of course, why is a celebrity sitting front row when they have nothing to do with fashion? You know, it's like, totally.

All those questions could be asked. Not just to mention like influencers are consistent. Yeah. Like you know on a consistent basis you see their life. You see what's going on on a weekly basis. With celebrities you're like, okay, like they pop up here. They pop up there. But you don't really know what's going to.

Yeah. You don't know what's going on between. Yeah. It definitely feels like less authentic. Totally. So for anyone that doesn't know that's listening, really explain create and cultivate. Like give us the whole, the whole spiel. The whole spiel.

So we are an online platform and offline conference for women looking to create and cultivate the career of their dreams. And what that really means is for anyone who is starting a new business, who's an up-and-coming content creator who wants to learn how to start monetizing their content better, maybe quit their full-time job and go full-time blogging, for women who have corporate jobs who are looking to be a little bit more creative or start a side hustle, it's really about building a community that is supporting one another, but we want you to leave the conferences and any other events that we're doing, feeling entertained, enlightened and informed to go off into the world and start your own thing. enhance the thing you're already doing. So for us, that comes in the forms of conferences, of which we do three a year and have around a thousand women attend each. And our online content, which we're doing a ton of content, five to seven pieces of original content per week. And your content's great. Thank you. Thank you. You're actually one of the only blogs I read because it's so informative. Thank you. Yeah. We really, I mean, we're lucky that we have a staff of like 10, 21 to 35 year old women that are

literally like, hey, this is something I want to know. Or like, I'm working on my tax returns. Can I write this off? I'm like, great question. Let's write about it. You know, let's like, because if we have these questions, other people have these questions. So we're always trying to take that information and make it as accessible as possible without like sugar coding everything and doing listicles and things like that. We really wanted to be like hard hitting content that you feel like you're walking away

being like I learned something new. The other day you guys did a post on salaries. Yeah. And I immediately clicked. You gathered all these women and you did like a, a. graph of salaries. I thought that was so interesting. Yeah. So that came about because we were talking about equal pay day and like there's so much buzz around equal pay and equal pay and equal pay for equal work. And we were like, yeah, like we're all for that. And then I was like, but do you know like how much

people typically make in your job? And they were like, actually I have no idea. Like I know what I've made and what I've made along the way, but I don't really know what other people are paying. And I was like, I think that's the problem is like women can ask for more money. But if you're already making less money than you're supposed to be making, it doesn't matter. So in order for there to be real change, where, like, people need to have the conversation about how much money they're actually making. And again, it doesn't have to be like, I make this much and this is who I am. It can be anonymous. But it's important to have that information out in the world. And so we culminated with Career Contessa over a thousand women's salaries in different industries, in different

states. And it's fascinating. It's really fascinating to see. And there's been some surprises for me where I'm like, oh, wow, I didn't know like that, you know, profession made that much money. wow, I can't believe that they make that little money and like how they're surviving off that. So and I think it's been interesting and hopefully it's like inspires some women to ask for raises. Is this like is this being compared to what the men are making or is this being just in general what these certain jobs make? I'm a little bit behind on this. It's all women. And it's basically their name age, location, job and ethnicity.

And so what we're hoping to do by the end of the year is like sort of pull that data and kind of compare and contrast. like this is what an art director makes in Los Angeles. This is what an art director makes in Arkansas. And like how those things are differentiating. We don't have the data on men, but I feel like that's probably more public than it is for women. But that would be interesting to kind of see those side by side. So when you're looking at the data,

do you find people are underpaid, overpaid, or I guess it's kind of all? It's kind of everywhere in between. And so our goal is to kind of see, and kind of come up with like a number that women can arrange at least that women can look at and be like, I am entry level editorial assistant, for instance. I should be making between, you know, whatever it is, 24 to 35,000 and like knowing that. And then so if you're making $18,000 a year, you can go in and be like, hey, I need to be making

at least this much. This is like the medium salary for this job. You have to do, after you guys do this, you have to do one for influencers because I get so many questions of how much they should be charging. Totally. I talked to this girl today about blog due. And she asked me, how much should I be charging? And I said, I cannot tell you that because I'd have to see your analytics, your conversions.

like your followers, like, I'd have to like see everything and then be able to give you like the right answer. But it's such, it's such a gray area with influencers right now that we almost need some kind of chart. And I also feel like a lot of the influencers, sometimes they're funny about even letting their audience know they're making money. Totally. Which I don't think you should have any shame. I mean, the creating content is a job. You know, so I think that conversation could be super interesting as well. Definitely. I mean, I think that's, it is a little bit of the Wild Wild West still when it comes to how much influencers are charging. And I think people have no idea how much they should charge. But it's funny because in Seattle, one of the panels, someone raised their hand was like how much I'm a freelancer, like,

I'm not sure how much I should be charging. And one of the panelists, and I'm like totally forgetting who it was. But they said, whatever you're thinking, double it. And they're like, that's a really good rule of thumb. And I was like, wow, that's really interesting. And she was like, double it and see what people say. And if you get that reaction, you're going to be like, oh, my God, I can't believe I was charging whatever it was you were charging before. And if people say yes. And that's the way it was with no subject, too. Honestly, like when I was starting out, I remember I was so excited we would get $3,000 a month retainers for marketing services. And like, I remember one time, I was like, I didn't really want this client.

And I was like, I'm just going to put $10,000 a month and whatever. And they were like, great. And I remember thinking, shit, I am not charging enough. Michael's going to have a field day with this. So like, I'll take clients on and I'll just say like my minimum retainer. I'm like, let's say X. Yeah. And they're like, why?

And I'm like, well, because I'm just not going to do the work for less. Like, there's actually no science behind it. Like, well, what's the reason? I'm like, well, if you want to work with me particularly, like, that's the retainer. And then we go from there and we do the add-ons and figure out what your cost for me. But like, that's just, it's not, it's not quantified behind like science. And it's just like, that's what I, this is what it's worth to me to do it. And then if it's worth it to you.

And at the same time, like, the client has to have a win and I have to have a win. But I think it's interesting when you get into pricing when it's wages or speaking fees or like I believe that in any job or any fee you get what you can get. And the whole conversation about like what's fair and what's not fair to me and maybe this is maybe it's going on a hot button subject here is kind of irrelevant. Right. Like if you're not happy with the wage at a certain place, go somewhere else and try to get it there. And if your boss can only afford to give you what he can afford and either can convince them to pay more or she or he or whatever. or not. Like it's not, I don't think there's a science behind it.

I don't think there's a right or wrong. I think it's just you can get what you get and there's people that are willing to do it for less, people willing to go for more. Totally. And I think it also depends on your personal situation too because it's like I remember with no subject at the beginning. I like couldn't say no to any dollar amount because I was trying to build a company. So I was like, I'll do that for like whatever. And I was just like hustling so hard. And I remember getting to the place where someone, like it was some pitch I was doing it and there

like, oh, sorry, can you actually do it for like, you know, 3K, like half of what we're offering? And I remember being like, no. And it was one of the most empowering moments to be able to say no to something. And I think it's like once you get to that place where you're like, I can actually do this, I don't need that money. That's such a powerful place to be at. And then you're surprised what comes in when you have that power to be like, I can turn down that money and I don't need it right now.

More money comes in in waves. And it's just such a funny predicament to put yourself in as an entrepreneur because when you're starting out, you kind of have to say yes to everything. And like it's not sexy and it's not the fun client. Totally. And then you finally will get to that place where you can be like, oh, I don't have to do this. And I can actually take on the stuff I want to do and make the money I want to make. But there is that road to getting there.

You have to use your intuition. Yeah. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs run into trouble, right? Because they need to get that first client and they need to make that revenue. And so a lot of times they'll agree to something that they maybe shouldn't agree to. But it's like it's out of necessity. Yeah. But it actually ends up kind of hurting you in the long one because maybe you say no to that one.

and then you find someone, like you said, the person that says yes to 10,000. You're like, oh, wow, I didn't need to do those three other jobs that are a huge pain in the ass where they ride. But you also learn from experience. Like, I mean, I did a collaboration a long time ago, like five years ago that wasn't right for the skinny confidential. I'll never forget this. And I learned through the audience what not to do. And I haven't made that mistake again. So it's a dance.

I mean, you learn, you use your intuition. I want to ask you about the speakers of creating culture. So I love your speaker. I think they're the best. Like, your conference is insane. The people that you bring, like, they're the top influencers. I mean, and I don't just mean bloggers. I think the words influencers, right?

Yeah. So tell me, like, who's your favorite? Why? I want to know quotes. Oh, God, all the things. Okay. So, I mean, it's been, it's so funny because everyone's like, how do you get talent? Like, and I think, honestly, we've been really lucky.

Like, I, when we started out, it was honestly cold emails. Like, just, hi, I'm starting. I have this thing and da-da-da. And it's one of those things where you get one person, you start getting a lot of people. So I remember one of my first big get was actually a conference. I think you were at the Chicago conference with Grants Doray. I was supposed to go when I was too swollen from Drossary.

I remember that. Your teeth. I was so sad. But whatever, you made up for it insane. But yeah, we had Grantsoray. And I remember me, we were like, oh, my God, how did you get Grants? And I literally called, like, info at Gras. And I was like, hi.

And that was such a big get for me because I'd followed her for so long. And, like, you know, she was so amazing. And then cut to Gloria Steinem. I mean, it's like feminist icon. I couldn't believe she said he has. Like it was honestly so amazing to like be in the same room as her. And obviously, Grants, Gloria, two totally different like realms of womanhood. But influencers.

But influencers and like really women who like are pioneers in the space. And we just rap Seattle where we had Issa Ray, which I was so excited about. And I was in the green room with her. And I was like, I actually emailed you like five years ago to speak. And I like showed her the email and she was dying. She's like, first of all, that's the wrong email. I was like, I'm pretty sure I guessed it. Like I was like, I was trying to get the right.

Just do info at just like, it was literally like info at awkward black girl. But she was like, oh my God, I would have totally done it. I just didn't like I must not have gotten the email. But she's like was so honored. She was like, I can't believe you been following me for that long. Because now she's like everyone, you know, obviously insecure is like huge. And she's like it's so amazing. You've been a fan for a long time.

And I was like, yeah, you know, I was like hustling to get speakers, right, you know, five years ago. Like, hi, hi, hi, high, favor, favor, favor. And now we're in a place, luckily where we're able to. like, you know, email people, people know what the conference is, people make recommendations. But it's honestly, it's one of my favorite parts of the conference is kind of picking different speakers who have different, you know, points of view and like really can bring a lot to the table. But, you know, I think some of my favorite speakers that we've had, the founders of SoulCycle were awesome.

I spoke at that event. Yeah. They were lovely. I got to sit next to them at the end of the table. They were cool. So cool. And their advice was really good. You know, I really liked, like, like they were talking about how.

they were like we put we racked up like a huge AMX bill like our first like four months of starting the company and I'm like that's not something a lot of people talk about you know it's like the things that when you're first starting out that you do that aren't you know great now you're making millions of dollars amazing but like when we started out we were in debt trying to start this company and I think those stories are so important it's not just the glamorous road to success like it's talking about all those things sort of in between that have really um kind of gotten you where you are and Kendra Scott's another person. I love her so much.

She's been such a supporter of Creight and Cultivate. And we had her speak in New York. And her story is so amazing. And she talks a lot about her first company that failed and what that taught her. And she said something that I always loved is she's like, when someone tells you no, tell them thank you. Like that's fire for you to keep moving, keep going until someone says yes. And I thought that was such good advice. Yeah, you guys are so much about collaboration over competition.

I mean, you guys have a sign. at every single one, right? Yeah. So that's like something. It was so funny because we come up with these like, you know, Instagramable cool moments that we want people to like feel inspired by like right when they walk in the door. And the collaboration of our competition thing really came about because we were feeling

a lot of like people kind of like emailing us and being like, oh my God, this looks exactly like what you guys are doing or like this thing is actually word for word what you guys are doing. And it's hard for me because I'm like, look, like the more female empowerment stuff there is in the space great. Like it's good for everyone. And it is frustrating as someone who works really hard at your job to see those things pop up and be like, oh, it worked so hard. And like, you know, people are sort of like, you know, taking that idea from you.

But we wanted to come out with like a strong message. And we had no idea. People would like react so strongly. It's our most Instagram moment. I see people post it from all over the world. Like sometimes not even knowing where it came from. And I was like, wow. Like, that clearly was something that resonated with a lot of women is like they're feeling that way.

like there's so much stigma about women being catty and jealous and like not helping each other out. And that is true. And I've experienced it. I'm sure you've experienced it. But we can stop that. Like we can change that narrative. And I think that's what we're striving to do. I thought it was incredible.

I mean, I feel like I've built my whole entire platform on collaborating with other women. Yeah. And speaking on when you said when people say no, I mean, I've emailed thousands of women to be on the skinny confidential, not asking them for anything in return, just getting them on. And I've gotten thousands of nos.

You just have to keep hitting it. I want to get into the Instagramable moments because I feel that you have created this conference. And more than just the conference, everything is Instagramable, which I think is genius because you get a thousand women in a room and there's all these different arenas and experiences that they can Instagram. And I think it's been a big part of building, create, and cultivate. A hundred percent. It's been a huge part of it.

And where that sort of stemmed from was, you know, I'd gone to a million conferences before, and it was always like a stale, weird hotel room. And then I'd gone to blogger events before that are beautiful and curated and amazing. And I was like, wait, women everywhere should be able to have this sort of premium experience that, you know, bloggers are getting access to you. I'm like, there has to be a sort of combination where you can go to a conference, you can hear amazing speakers, you can learn a ton about business. But you can also have a glass champagne and get your hair done and be surrounded in a beautiful,

environment. That's like what being a modern woman is making money and like being able to spend that money and like do things you want to do and feel inspired. So for me I was always like we're not going to, if we're going to do a conference, it has to be gorgeous. Like it has to be an experience where women walk in and feel immediately inspired by it. Because if you walk into like a dingy room, even if it's the coolest speaker in the world, you're going to be like not excited about it. If the lights off, you don't want to Instagram. Totally. Like if you're in a dark room, like you're not going to be excited about it. We have to create something that embodies what we're about. And like really that is creating all these like amazing little moments and just a beautiful environment. Like why not?

Why not be in that? Why not enjoy that? Especially, you know, if their, you know, tickets are cheap. So it's like we want to give them that premium experience. I love that. So to anyone who's out there and who has an idea, what's something that you can recommend like a starting point? Like where do they start? Say they have a huge idea like you had. Where, where do they begin? So I feel like starting is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur. You know, I think that you can have this great idea. And what I think you need to do is just go for it. Don't overthink it. Don't spend too much time building out your business plan. I know like that's horrible advice for some people. But for me, I had no business. It's the best advice. Yeah. I, I literally had no plan whatsoever and was just like, well, I'm just going to try this out and figured it out along the way. And I feel like,

that's something that we hear all the time at conferences is women are like throw it out there see if it sticks go for it and like honestly that's how it works I think it's the people who think over think it to death never launch their site whatever it is and then all of a sudden someone else launches the site before them of the same product or the same idea and I'm like just get it up I have a rule it's like you can tell me about your idea two times the third time you tell me you can't tell me ever again yeah you have to either do about my idea for a year straight because because at some point it just becomes like it just becomes a conversation it's not it talk about yeah and it it gets irritating at least for for me i think for everybody i just think maybe i'm more vocal about it but

no that's really good advice though like stop talking about it start doing it yeah he likes to launch fast and hard you should have seen the first podcast episode we for people that listen to this podcast they know but i kind when we started this it was not anywhere near up to the quality that it is now not in terms of like us speaking but just the sound and the way we were producing it and the way it was born. The way you interrupted. It was just not good, right? As you interrupt me. And then Crane cultivate, same thing. Yeah. But I think you can't, you can't figure those things out unless you do it that way. A hundred percent. Like, I look back at like some of the first crating cultivates and cringe over things that happen. Like, I just remember like Mike's going out or like things like

that and like not knowing how to handle it at all. And just being horrified or like, you know, there was always like these like growing pains of people that like, you know, I was gluten free. and have a gluten-free option. Like things you don't know until you throw a conference and you're like, okay, well, we need to have a gluten-free option. We need to have way more bathrooms for a women's conference. We need to, you know, all those things that you like don't think about until you do it, but you'll never learn unless you just do it.

The issue, the biggest thing is it, what I've seen. And like, I don't want to put anybody down or making me feel that. But it's when that happens to somebody for the first time when they like feel that got punched and they're like, oh my God, this wasn't perfect. My whole thing that I thought for all these months was not great. Because I can almost guarantee anyone that when they launch something that they think is going to be perfect, it won't be. It's never perfect. It's never. Nothing. I've never looked at something and I'm like, this is perfect. They get so defeated. And I think you got to look at it the other way. It's like, okay, don't do it that way anymore.

Continue to evolve. Continue to push forward. It's a lack of commitment when you get your like stomach punched in the first time. And I think that's what separates like true entrepreneurs from people that like maybe shouldn't. 100%. I always say I'm like starting a company's easy, running a company's hard. because anyone can start anything, it's getting past that first year, those milestones. Like, it's so much ebb and flow of like the good months, the bad months. And I remember my first bad month and being like, oh, well, I'm a failure. Like, that's it. Time to like, you know, turn it in.

And my parents are entrepreneurs. And I remember my mom's saying because we had a month where we like broke even. And my mom was like, we have years where we break even. Like that's part of entrepreneurship. Or years that you lose. Or years that you lose. And that's okay. Like, that's part of the story.

And I just didn't know that. I thought I was a failure. And you sound like a perfectionist like me. Oh, 100%. You put a lot of pressure on yourself. Totally. It's funny. Like one of the girls said to me the other day, they were like,

God, you always think of everything that could go wrong. And I was like, that's my job. Yeah. Like, 100%. Yeah. I will say to people, like, there's no, there's no such thing as clocking out. Right? Like, I don't, there's no, there's not a moment where I'm like,

okay, it's five o'clock finished. I can go and just chill out for whatever. it's constantly something and most of the time it's putting out fires and dealing with problems. 100%, especially when you're the CEO and you run the company. And that's something where it's funny. Like I used to, I wasn't as good as I am now, but it's something that you learn over time is to really deal with the problems and the fires. And over time, you get better and, you know,

you'll start making like heart-wrenching really difficult decisions like that. Right. And it just becomes second nature. Yeah. And it's one of those things that's hard to get. there because your first fire you're like oh I don't know how to handle this and and now it's like you know okay this is going to go here I'm going to get this person involved we're going to do this to make them feel better whatever it is but that comes with time and experience and again it comes with

actually just jumping in and figuring it out I always think it's getting resourceful yeah you know we have we had a conversation the day with a friend of ours a lot younger and it was basically like the person was saying like I don't want to be uncomfortable and Lauren and you were like listen that's just like not a reality and as soon as you start to understand that, then you can start to move forward because I don't think I've been comfortable for 20 years. Anything that makes you comfortable, I think that's happened to me in my life, I've had to get extremely uncomfortable. Oh, totally.

Like, nothing has just like showed up. So I kind of want to go back to Instagram. Sorry, you guys. Yeah, no, no, no. Just because I love your Instagram so much. I think you do such a good job. Can you give us any tips, not just for influencers, for businesses, too? Yeah.

So Ellen Bennett, who runs Headlane Bennett, said something the other day, and I was like, that is so accurate. But she was like, no matter what your business is, you're a media company. And I thought that's so true. I mean, she sells aprons. No, that's genius. And you're like, oh, right, you sell aprons. But she's like, we have to put out a story about these aprons every single day.

And I think that's something that's really important for entrepreneurs to think about. Like, you are, your company is your message. And even if it's not the sexiest thing in the world, you can come up with content that feels compelling and exciting and engaging. And I think for small businesses, one suggestion I would say is stock photography. There's really beautiful stock photography that's been coming out that you can use because obviously you're not going to be able to take professional photos every single day. But slowly integrating in a few stock images that like represent or embody your brand into the mix

is a great and easy way to keep up with social media and not feel like overwhelmed by it. Where do you find the stock images? Like a shutterstock account or something? Shutter stock is like a little basic. I'm asking her, not you. I'm asking her too. Gross. There's this site.

Oh my God, I'm going to totally blank on the name, but something that's like non-shitty stock images. Like it's literally called that, which is so funny. We'll leave it in the show notes. Yeah. And there's actually this new one that we, it's called tonal. And it's awesome because it's stock imagery featuring people of color, which is surprisingly hard to find.

And it's all like hip, cool. Like you would just, it looks, it doesn't even look like stock photography. It looks so amazing. And that's a really cool company. And we also, there's also a bunch of different like sort of sites that you can use that are like, they're like non-licensed too. Some of them are free. You can pay for batches as well. But it's a great way to kind of integrate your product in.

And some of them, Go Live HQ, which our friend Promise runs, also has stock images that you can use where you can like, it's like an iPad and you can put in, you know, an image that's your own image. it just looks beautiful laydown shots that you, you know, obviously don't have time to style as as a small business owner. That's a great tip. I would say also what we do, or one of the things that we always do on ours is we do a color scheme. So we always are like sticking to like, okay, it's going to be like pink, pink, pink, and then we'll slowly get to green, green, green, and all that stuff. And I think that's what really has made our feed like very visually stunning. And it's hard to do. You have to like put a lot of effort into it. But for us, I'm like, I always look back and it feels like very, very cohesive. We also regram a lot of images from influencers and awesome women.

And that does really well for us and people really are like, wow, I saw a huge bump in followers. So it's good for them, it's good for us. You know, we're able to kind of combine those two things. And so for us, again, like we don't, you know, once a conference is over, we have so much content to work with. But in between that, we sort of intermix with regrams and stock photography to kind of get our message across because for us, Instagram is more about driving to our content that we're creating. So it's sort of a medium to get to the site or to whatever it is that we're promoting. You guys also use all the same font. Like I pay attention to this. Like it's all like the captions are like everything is very branded. I know. Yeah. Yeah. We put like we

finally built out a brand guide like again like start by starting. Like we're like we need to have a brand guide. And we were able to kind of like lay out like this is our look and feel. Like these are the fonts we use. This is the language we use. These are the emojis we use. Your newsletter is also amazing. Thank you. I just think you just, in the digital space in 2017, it's really incredible the way you, you know you're looking at creating and cultivate when it comes through. That's the goal.

And, you know, it's hard to get there. It's hard to create something that feels so specific. And of course I have moments where I'm like, let's completely redo it always. But, you know, I think for us, you know, we've really created this brand that people are resonating with and that, you know, feel a part of. So for us, it's like that consistency across. Instagram, across our newsletter, across the conferences. I think that consistency has really lent itself to building an audience that recognizes what

we're doing. Totally. So I want to just ask you this. What do you look for speakers? Like if there's an influencer out there that wants to speak, like, what are you looking for? So it totally changes by city. But for instance, it's like, well, I think submitting yourself and being like, hi,

you know, this is me, here's like what I'm doing. Here's what I can speak about. That's really important. So if you're like, I can speak about raising money. I can speak about gaining Instagram followers. Like being specific with what you are, yeah, you're talking about. So that way when I'm thinking about a new panel, I can be like, oh, right, like, that's perfect. So for instance, in LA, we have a body positivity panel, which we're really excited about.

And again, I'm like, I know women that I've like met over the years and like gotten emails from and like have been on our list for a while that I'm like, oh my God, they'd be perfect for this. So just putting your name out there and there's nothing wrong with following up on it as well. but if you want to be a speaker, you know, you have to put yourself out there a little bit. And so just throwing it out there and being like, these are my topics. This is what I'm good at. I'm willing to travel or I'm in this city and can bring like these amount of people to the table. If you're like heading to Chicago or wherever. And then if you don't hear anything after six months, just being like, hey, following up on this.

Like we get so many increase. It's hard to keep up. But don't like I always tell people follow up, follow up, follow up. That's good advice in anything. Yeah. You just write following up, right? It's not like a talking points thing. It's like, hey, I got like a book to promote.

You're not interested in that. No. No, no. Probably not, right? It depends. Like some people, like, you know, if they have a book coming out and they happen to be on a circuit, then great. But it's not like you're going to do, we don't ever do something where it's like overly promotional. Like, I have a 30-minute speech I do about my book.

Right. No, what's your, for instance, we had Dory Schafrier, who is one of the senior editors at BuzzFeed. And she just put out a book about startup culture and sort of all of the sexual assault allegations. And again, like, I was like, one, she's been in the internet world forever. She works at BuzzFeed. One of the biggest, you know, sites in the world was that Gawker. And then now this timely topic, I'm like, she's perfect to kind of bring into the mix. And her point of view was so fascinating for our audience, you know, and she was on a panel

with, you know, Emily Schumann and Gallo Gonzalez. And it was bloggers. And she had such a different point of view. And that's what I love to, like, see. It's like, how do we like mix it up? So it's like a little bit outside the box. So even if you're like, I'm not a blogger, I don't know if I should like apply for this conference, send it to us. And if it's not a blog, if you're not a speaker, maybe you can do a blog post.

Great idea. Did you guys hear that? Everyone's listening. Okay. So how is create and cultivate currently evolving? What's next? Give us the 401. Yeah.

So we have some really exciting things we're announcing in the next couple months. But, you know, obviously we have the conferences. We're moving into speaking of books. There might be a book in the future, which is, really exciting and we're also doing a lot of one-off events that we're really excited about so not just the conferences but like we're heading to houston next month where we're doing a pop-up and fundraiser for the victims of hurricane harvey and we have sophia bush speaking and we're really excited about and that's a free event you can just come and obviously make a donation if you want to but we want to do

more free events as well because we know not everyone has the means to fly to a city and buy a ticket per se but just really want to build our community as much as possible in these offline ways and not just in big cities, but in some of these smaller cities as well where we can kind of, you know, grow and expand. You are a total girl boss. Tell everyone where they can find you, where they can email you if they're interested in trying to speak. Yep, totally. So we are at cratecultivate.com, and I'm Jacqueline, J-A-C-Cultivate.com. And Instagram? At crate cultivate. And you guys follow their Instagram. It's so cute. You won't be sorry, especially if you're a blogger. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. This was so fun.

we'd love to know what you guys got out of that interview. If you've been to any other conferences that you think would be beneficial to Lauren and I, you know, I've been to Create and Cultivate and it's an awesome conference. It's definitely more female geared, but, you know, the times I've been, I've enjoyed it. Any other conferences you guys could recommend or you think would be good for us, we'd love to hear feedback. And also any feedback on what you learned from this episode, because we, you know, we want to keep providing value and doing our best to provide as much content as possible.

Thank you guys so much for your attention. We hope you enjoyed that episode. Now, we also have kind of a special thing. If you guys rate and review the podcast on iTunes and send us a screenshot of your review, we will send you my five favorite beauty hacks, tips and tricks straight to your inbox. All you have to do is review it, screenshot it, and send it to Ask Lauren at the skinny confidential.com. That's Ask Lauren, L-A-U-R-Y-N at the skinny confidential.com. And with that, we will see you next week.