The Bossticks - BONUS 3: A Keynote - Brand Yourself, Align Your Image with Your Brand

Episode Date: May 23, 2017

Lauryn & Michael have a treat for you! They showcase their speech at The Collective Conference, that was hosted at the Trunk Club offices in Los Angeles. During the gathering, Lauryn & Michael highlight personal branding, cultivating an audience, building an authentic brand, how to stand out in a saturated market, and how to find your target audience. 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

Thanks for downloading this show from PC1. Before we get rolling, here's a word from one of the folks who helped bring you this podcast. 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 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. Welcome back, guys. It's Tuesday. We've got a super extra special episode for you. Yeah, so a couple, I'd say a couple months back or a couple weeks back, we spoke at the collective conference in L.A. at the Trunk Club. And we talked a lot about personal branding and marketing and kind of everything. Yeah. And it was one of the first, you know, it's one of the first times I actually did, I don't want to call it a speech, but publicly spoke in front of a large group of people. You were great. I was all right. I gave you an A. But we got into a lot.

lot of valuable stuff. Lorne and I both wanted to have a place to showcase that talk so that, you know, you guys could get some value out of it. Yeah, I just feel like a lot of you guys couldn't come because you're from around the world or around the U.S. So it's really important for me for those of you who wanted to come, but couldn't come, to be able to access the info. And just before we get into it, I want to let you guys know that we will be doing maybe some live podcasting and some more speeches like this around L.A. and San Diego, maybe New York. So with that, I guess we'll hop right into it. This is our interview with the collective at the trunk club.

You guys, it is Kelty Knight, Jack Bannick and Becca Tobin from The Lady Gang. And we are so excited because this week we have the one and only Rue Paul as our guest. That's right. You better work. See, isn't it already so good? You're going to be inspired. You're going to laugh. You're going to cry. You're going to have a home in.

It's going to be the best. Oh, we can't wait. Download now at podcast.1. or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. So now it's the moment that basically we've all been waiting for, right? For Lauren and Michael to speak. So I'm going to give a brief intro, and then after that, I'm just going to let him talk.

And you guys can ask them questions. So Lauren and Michael are the power couple behind the skinny confidential, which is a blog, a book, a podcast. podcast and also soon to be product line at the same time. So you're going to be speaking with serial entrepreneurs who are experts in the lifestyle fields of fashion, food, travel, health and wellness. And I'm just going to welcome them to come up. So here we go. Lauren and Michael, this is my good side. So much for coming. This is incredible that you're always getting a lot of. This is incredible that you're all here on a Tuesday night. There's a lot of things you could be doing. It shows me that this is a room full of hustlers, which we love. So if you guys don't know

us, I'm Lauren Everts. I'm the creator of the blog and brand Skinny Confidential, and this is my husband. So my name's Michael Bostic. I'm an entrepreneur, investor, internet marketer, boring side of the Skinny Confidential. Handle a lot of the back end. Try to keep up with this girl. We're finally married. It's taken about 10 years. That's a whole different story, though. So I want to tell you guys that if you have Snapchat, there's a geo filter. So make sure that you use the geo filter. It's really cute. I'm going to make you use it too when you snap yourself in headphones after this. Okay, so basically what we want to talk about here is personal branding. I think that's kind of the theme.

So on that note, I'll just tell you a little bit about myself. So I started my blog, when I was at San Diego State. I was going there, and I wasn't into the sorority life, which a lot of the girls seemed to be into. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It just wasn't for me. It was not stimulating. And I also was a bartender.

And so I was working from like 3 o'clock to 1 in the morning, paying for my own college, paying for my own car, paying for my own shit. And I was teaching Pilates and teaching peer bar and just hustling. But it kind of wasn't enough. And so I would go on campus, bored by myself, no friends, because I wasn't in a sorority. And I would modify the foods there.

I would do like no tortilla on a taco from Rubio's and like all these just little random things. And I was like, how can I share this with all these women? There's all these sorority girls here. How can I kind of show this to all of them in one swoop? And then I thought bigger. I was like, well, how can I show this with women everywhere? and how can I get their tips and tricks and secrets? Like, how can we all just share and spill?

And so a blog came to mind, and I just thought that was the perfect platform to launch kind of a brand based off that. And for me, when I do something, I'm psycho. Like, that shit. So I wanted everything to just be perfect. I went and I got a poster board from Rite Aid, I think like four poster boards from Rite Aid,

and I just filled them with textiles and paint swabs from Home Depot and all this stuff. And just so you guys know, I had $200 in my bank account. Like dirt poor, living with my godparents. That again is a whole different story. So I filled all these boards with all this inspiration. And then I kind of showed my homemade website to a web developer. And this is this web developer that I found off Christless

that was $500, dirt cheap. One thing I'll say about myself, I'm resourceful. I kind of always figure it out. If I want something, I will find a way to get it. And so at this time, again, I had no money. I'm working until one in the morning, and I figured it out. So I got this web designer, and I was like, can I pay you $100 a month to build this website? And he agreed.

So over five months, I paid him, and a year later, the Skinny Confidential launched. And if you guys were to see what it looked like, it was horrific. It was like bright throw-up projectile, pink, just really ugly. My pictures were off. I didn't know what I was doing. and I have to give Michael credit here because he was finally like pull the trigger, you're obnoxious,

you're being way too much of a perfectionist, just launch this shit. So finally I launched and I was getting, I think I was getting 200 hits a day for like a year. And what I did there is I didn't look at the numbers.

And what I'm noticing now and we'll get into this is that everyone is so fixated on numbers. And for me, I went into this not looking at numbers, not looking at money. It wasn't about money. And I can really, really say that. It was about building a community and

connecting with other women to hear their tips and tricks, and they could hear mine. And so what I would do is I would interview and reach out to supermodels on Twitter or actresses or everyday girls or other bloggers. And I would just, I cultivated like this community for the first year. And it was all about health and fitness and skinny tips

and little tricks you could do. And what I always say is like an upside-down triangle. So you start with your niche. And I've talked to some of you guys tonight and you've told me some of your ideas or your blogs. Like my recommendation out of all of this is that you guys start with your niche. And again, we'll get into that too. So I started with health and fitness and I slowly, slowly expanded out.

I've been blogging for six years, seven days a week. So it's definitely something that takes time and patience. And so today, I still got a long way to go. I have not even done, you know, half of the things I want to do. and I'll let Michael tell you guys a little bit about what he does and what he does on the back end of the skinny confidential. Okay, so if you would have asked me three years ago, if I'd be sitting here doing this,

I would have looked at you talking about. In 2008, I had a lot of pep in my step, and I said, you know what, this is the year that I'm going to crush the real estate market. 2008 is the one that's going to make it happen for me. So I went out, raised some money, said, this is, you know, I'm the guy for you, I'm the one you back, and I did my first residential remodel. Lo and behold, the market crashed. That sucked really bad.

The ego went down to the floor, and I was like, okay, what the hell am I going to do? So my dad had been flying planes for a while, and we had an idea for a product for people to be able to sleep on corporate and private aircraft. and we decided, hey, let's start this side business so that I could rise from the ashes like a Phoenix and that business is called Jetbed. And I've been operating that business now for 10 years. It's the largest corporate and private betting company for aviation in the world.

And from there, I said, you know what? This is a lot of fun, but I'm also interested in marketing. And I got into Facebook advertising, Google advertising. And I started doing that for other brands. and I learned a lot. I learned how other brands worked, how they sold online. I learned that there's a bigger world than real estate and niche marketing. And I said, you know, I'm going to go help other businesses brand themselves.

And so around the time, you know, finally, and this, you know, was a couple years after I got my ass kicked. I said, okay, Lauren, you keep bothering me at dinner and you keep talking about this blog. Like, my ears are bleeding, just launched a thing. And so she did. And, you know, it's funny, because I've always really believed in Lauren. I was telling Taylor earlier, who's right there filming, that, you know, when investing and when I look at people and I look at projects, I say you always want to bet on the jockey and not the horse.

You can have the best idea in the world, but like my real estate idea, if you don't execute properly, you're going to run into some trouble. So I always believed in Lauren. I always thought that she had a lot of charisma. I just call her a compelling person. She has what I call strength and warmth strength, meaning you believe she'll get it done, and warmth meaning

you believe she has the best intentions of helping other people. So, I said, you know what, launched this thing, and she did, and she really focused down on a niche, which I think is important. And, you know, over time, I watched and I watched her develop this community of women. That was

really amazing, and she was, you know, really developing trust and providing value. And I'm, I'm I'll go back to value on branding a lot. It's important to provide people with value and not just say, hey, give me something. And so she was doing that and she was doing it really well. But this was really early on in the, you know, kind of the blogging atmosphere, but maybe 2010, 11.

So it was still a little early on, and she wasn't monetizing, and it was just, you know, a labor of love. But I could see, like, okay, there's a very strong community of women. She developed a lot of trust. Her content's good. She's really passionate about it. And so I said, yeah, write this. And, you know, having the background of marketing and running my own businesses, I've just

kind of been there every step of the way, either encouraging her or helping her with analytics or helping her get her site up or just, whatever it is, just I try to be, I don't want to say an advisor, because that kind of makes me sound like I'm here, when I'm not, for equals. But just somebody

that she could confide in and somebody that, you know, could kind of help her along the way. So in terms of personal branding for me, I don't know if I have done the best job of branding myself, because I never set out to do that. I kind of just set out to help her do that and kind of be the background. But a couple, about a year and a half ago, she had jaw surgery, and it was really aggressive, really aggressive. I mean, for a while there, it was like a big pumpkin. And I was sitting there and I was newly engaged and looked around. And I said, hmm, this is interesting.

But at this point, she had developed a community of women and the telescope was on me. And so she turned her Snapchat on me and started filming me a lot in really compromising positions. Maybe didn't look the best at times. Maybe still don't. I like it. It's fun.

And around that time, I started my own Snapchat at and I started getting a lot of messages from a lot of different people from all walks of life saying, you know, how do you market this or how do you brand this? How do you set up this type of business? How do you set up that type of business? And I realized the things that I've been doing privately and kind of without the social media behind the camera, some of the information was really starting to have an impact on some people. And so I said, you know, I really like this. I like helping people. It gives me a better feeling than any kind of dollar I've ever made, any kind of business I ever started

and I said, you know, I want to if I can help more than just one person, which is like, you know, Snapchat, you only get to interact one-on-one. I said, hey, let's start a podcast. And I have no idea how to start a podcast, much like I had no idea how to be in real estate or to sell pets for aircraft

or market online. And I said, let's just do it. I have tailored by some really bad equipment. We have some terrible reviews from the beginning and Lauren wanted to kill me. We have been doing it on a weekly basis, and we've been communicating with a lot of people. We've got some interesting guests,

and yeah, it's interesting what social media and personal branding, it's interesting where it can take you. Because like I said, I never thought that I'd be sitting here talking about any of this, ever. Okay, so let's get into personal branding, and we're going to open it up

so you guys can have a conversation with us. We do not want this to be formal. Think of questions. guys came out here on a Tuesday, like I said, like, let's talk. It can be anything. And definitely we're recording this, by the way, for our podcast, because we want to put this on our podcast. Before you ask your question, say your name, say your blog, push yourself, and then ask your question, and we can totally have a conversation. But before we get into that, we just want to go over what personal branding is. So I'll let you start on you. Personal branding to me, basically

building a jurebout. And we talk a lot about authenticity. Context is loss of authenticity. It doesn't mean, like, oh, you've got to be honest and you can't be fake. It means when I think of authenticity and building a personal brand, I mean this. I can get up here and I can see what other speakers do or I can see what other bloggers or influencers do. And I can try to mimic or copy or kind of, you know, kind of do act the way that kind of emulate. Yeah, that's the right word. What they do. And that to you, to everyone listening, is going to come off as inauthentic.

It's going to come off as like, eh, what's this? guy about and so when I say building an authentic brand I mean really like if you're a guy that likes wearing you know long black cloaks and collecting absurd amounts of vinyl that don't mean shit to anyone Taylor but that's your truth then then do that because there's a there's a demographic on the internet that's going to identify with that and they're going to say that's true and that's what this person's about and the beauty of the internet that I learned a long time ago is that you can really, really niche down. You don't have to go

and reach everybody. While I hope everybody in here really likes what I'm saying and identifies with me, I also understand that there's going to be some people that it doesn't, and that's okay. I'm living my truth, I'm being exactly who I am, and that's going to speak to a certain demographic.

And when you do that, and you do it well, it's a much easier to capture an audience, and it's much easier to build trust. And when you do that, when you have that trust, then you can drive conversions. And I don't just mean conversions in the sense like, oh, I'm going to wear a shirt and I'm going to sell it to you.

I mean in the sense that when you produce content, people are really going to care. Maybe not everybody, but the people that do, that is much more important than the macro number that everyone's so concerned with these days, which is like we have hundreds of thousands or millions or however many. It's more important for me personally,

and I think it should be more important for more brands and more individuals, to really hone in on your audience. And the way you do that is by branding yourself and being authentic to what you are branded. Okay, so I totally agree with you. I think it's much more important to really take care of your audience

as opposed to go out and get more people. I actually set an hour aside in the morning and an hour aside at night to go through all my Snapchat messages and respond to everyone. The reason being with Snapchat is that I feel like it's extremely one-on-one. It's like I'm texting the person that's writing me right away.

It feels very immediate, and I think that that's kind of where we're headed. So if you've cultivated an audience, don't leave them to go over here to another audience to capture more. I'm noticing nowadays that everything is about numbers. I really choose not to look at numbers, and what I mean by that is I don't look at my Google Analytics. He does, but I don't. It's kind of counterproductive for me to look at it, I just really let my audience lead the way. And that means that if my audience is constantly asking me about skin or hair or Instagram captions,

whatever that is, I will do a blog post on it. So instead of me saying, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that, I'm constantly taking note on what the audience wants. And for me personally, what the audience has really wanted is real topics. You know, I'm going to do a post on shaving your face. Guys cover your ears. I'm going to talk about, like, that's a thing that actresses in Hollywood do all the time, and no one talks about it because it's weird. I mean, I do it.

It's this twinkle razor. I'll do a blog post on it on Amazon. And it's amazing for exfoliation. Like, I'm talking about these things that a lot of other bloggers aren't talking about, which is, I think, what has made the skinny confidential stand out in any way. It's like, I feel like a lot of these bloggers on Instagram, you're like scrolling through. And it's, you know, they're perfect cup of lots. and their perfect shoe. And not that there's anything wrong with that. And I totally do that stuff too. It's just I personally need more like of a raw side. And I think that the audience appreciates

that. And I'm not saying that being taboo is talking about boojogs and camel toes and vagina steaming is for you. But that's kind of the way that my audience responds. It's what they like. I also think that if you say decide to be a fashion blogger, you really have to stand out. It's so saturated right now. What makes you different? I mean, how many times can one see the same person in an outfit? I'm so bored of posting myself on Instagram. I tell Michael, I'm like, I mean, it's boring.

So I think that if you are in a fashion blogger or beauty blogger, like what makes you different? What makes you stand out? What's your niche? And get really deep. Whenever I ask someone what they do and if they're a blogger or a brand, if you can't explain it to someone in 30 seconds, you got to practice it.

And it is practice. It's not something that you just wake up with one day and you're like, oh, I'm perfect and I have the perfect Instagram feed. It's something that's constant practice every single day. That's what I believe, and that's the experience that's been for me. Maybe some people it's different. No, I agree with that. You know, I kind of want to touch on why a person is, the biggest mistake for the rest of your life. Wherever long that is, wherever short that is, that's your brand.

That's you. I'm not changing you into somebody else. So I think the beauty of a personal brand, if I decided, hey, if I had decided, hey, I'm going to be the salad guy. And I'm just using this because I saw a salad over there. If I'm going to be the salad guy, and all I'm going to talk about forever is salads. My blog's called the salad guy.

Well, all of a sudden I'm going to come in and say, hey, guys, have you heard about this marketing campaign? What the fuck is this guy talking about? Sorry, I can I curse? Anyways, you're going to, and so the beauty with a personal brand is if I build Michael Bostic, and one day I like talking about marketing and blogging, it's okay as my audience comes with me,

on whatever journey I'm on, to transition into other things. And that's going to happen. I mean, when Lauren started, she started in health and wellness, and she still touches on that a lot, but it's evolved. It's evolved into her life. It's evolved into her travel. It's evolved into fashion. It's involved into all sorts of different things.

And I think what she's done with the skinny confidential is she's made the skinny confidential Warren Everett. So when you're thinking about a personal brand, it's okay to knit yourself down, and it's okay to focus on that niche, to start, to capture people. But as you go on, you want to think, okay, how am I going to carry my name and my brand into the other areas of my life? You know, as we get older, as we have kids, as we have families, as we get married, you know, as we get older, you're able to deploy strategies against that timeline that can really enhance your brand. Where you get in trouble is when you say, listen, I need to do this today, or this person over here did it in six months.

And when you're doing that, it really, really does a disservice to your personal brand, to your message, to if it's a blog, if it's a product line. But if you can deploy patients and say, listen, I'm going to ride this thing throughout life, not through the year or the quarter, but life, you can really deploy some strong strategies. I think speaking on strategy, I think that it's really important to create a strategic future. And I've talked a little bit about this. but one of my best friends coaches CEOs around the world and he's taught me the importance of creating a

strategic future and so what that means so say you guys are in the audience and you want to have a huge block, maybe you already have one instead of thinking of goals that you want to hit think of think backwards so what I did with the skinny

confidential is I know where I wanted to be in five years, in 10 years and 20 years and opposed to like working there, I've thought backwards. So everything that's happened to me hasn't really happened to me because I've created my own future, if that makes sense. And if that doesn't make sense, we can talk about it more because it's kind of confusing. But basically, you lay out the backwards plan on how to get to where you want to be. So I like to create systems as opposed to goals on how you're going to get there. I find that calibrating is like incredibly important to me because I'm

horrific at time management. So a calendar really keeps me focused. And I mean, if you guys follow along on Snapchat, you know that time walking has really changed my life. It's this stupid cube that you can get on Amazon for like $10. And

just time walking my day really helps because when I'm all over the place, there's too much chaos and I'm going away from my goal. So if you go home tonight, like work backwards to where you want to be. And I always say this, but I have to say it. Stay in your own lane. Stop looking at the way Sally did it and the way

Bobby did it. Like stay in your own lane. Like people are going to say negative comments. That's part of putting yourself out there. The things that I've heard about myself online blow my mind. It doesn't even bother me anymore because I just stay in my own lane and unless it deserves a response, I don't respond to it. And with that, I think we'll open it up to you guys because we don't want to talk too long. We want to hear what you guys want to talk about. You guys can say your name, your blog. Question. You can ask us anything, by the way.

We're pretty open. You know, we start with an easy one? It's not too hot. It's from me. I'm Jen. I have a site called Toast Meets Jam. Love it. I do brand building for bloggers and business babes.

So this is my jam. My question always for people who've built really big brands is, what are the few key things that you did that were really pivotal? So I know a lot of it's just incremental, but were there moments where, you did something and just like step changed your business for me

there really there really has not been no there's no epiphany like it's just tiny little steps like I guess an epiphany would be like when I had a book launch party but there was all these little steps I took to get there I think the pivotal steps

like sure there's moments but what's better to look back on is all of the tiny little pieces of work I've done like the Friday night that I decided to stay home instead of go out the trip that everyone thought I was traveling on it looks like I'm traveling on snapchat but I'm working until two in the morning like there's so many nights like that that have contributed to the growth of the skinny confidential that there's not like one epiphany where I'm like wow like that was

so great that I did that it's just really for me chipping away like it hasn't and I'm sure there's a lot of other bloggers out there that would stay different but for me it's really just been hard work patience consistency, being authentic, being real, and sharing my life. I think, you know, it's, and Gary Vee, who's one of my huge idols always says, like, it's about documenting, not creating. Like, people are over the overly curated all the time, 24-7 shit. I mean, I am all about curated shit, like throwing it in sometimes, but I think it's really important to show the behind the scenes and show the audience, like, who you are and, and

your husband or your boyfriend or your friends, I think that people want to see that. And people are voyeurs and they smell bullshit. Everyone smells bullshit. So if you're bullshitting, I mean, they're going to smell it. That's true. I think every business I've ever been involved with, I think maybe if I like step back from when, like,

and looked out it from outside of myself, maybe you could find something where there was like a kind of an epiphany or an aha. But when you're in something and you're working and you're going day after day after day, it never really feels like that. It's kind of like, you know, I think the first five, I think the fifth year with Jetbed, we did more in the first quarter than we did in the first four years. And you'd think at that time that everybody would be jumping up and down and celebrating. But it really wasn't like that.

It kind of felt like, okay, it's just normal because you're so in and you're working so hard. I think, I don't think there's really, in any kind of business, there's like that, oh, aha, epiphany. Like, sure, you're going to get the big sale, maybe you close a deal, but when you're in something and you're working day after day after day, and you're struggling and struggling, it just doesn't feel like that. So to answer that, honestly, I haven't felt that, but there's probably been some things that have happened that have maybe changed the business direction. Yeah, that was the moment. I was like, yeah, who's next? Oh, okay. The pink. You.

Cute bow. When you said that your, all I could think of was like, I think I'm the only one more. No, you look so cute. I love your outfit. Thank you. You've been like casual, what, like, what is that, like the, casual chic.

Casual chic. Yeah. At leisure, right? That's the trend. Okay. Hi, guys. I'm Ashley Streff. I'm a photographer.

You can find me, Ashley Struff. That's my Instagram handle. But I had a question for you guys because as a photographer, I've been working on my craft. I went to school for it. It's been like 13 years now, but I've been working on it. I've been represented by Vogue, and I've... Yeah, that was pretty cool. A little milestone, and I built Lou L.A. when social media started.

And now I do a lot of social media branding content for people. and even though that we do a lot of behind the scenes, a lot of authentic posts, how do you feel professional photography is still like, is it a key point in someone's brand? I think it depends on the medium. And I think that if anyone can leave here with anything, it depends on the medium. You have to look at the medium that you're writing. All of you guys are different. Some of you are in e-com, some of you are bloggers, some of you are just primarily on Instagram.

I think that on Instagram people are sick of the professional photography unless it's mixed in. If it's done right, like I think a whole Instagram of professional photography, it doesn't work. But if you sprinkle it in, it's fine. The best Instagram I've seen right now, and it just is, and sorry, it's the Kylie Shop. She is so ahead of it, and she gets it. And if I were to look at anyone as the queen of influencers, it's Kylie Jenner. And some people don't like that. It's true.

The team she has behind her, she is fucking slaying it. So if you want to look how to pepper in professional photography, I would look at Kylie Cosmetics, the Kylie Shop. She does it in a way where it's not overwhelming, but she also peppers in the behind the scenes. A good Instagram account to me is something that mixes it up. It's a couple graphics of quotes that I love when people to do. too. This is just like off the bean path. But I love when people do like their quotes branded.

So your quotes are branded. You have a couple of professional pictures. You have behind the scenes. You have what you're eating. The worst is when you go to someone's Instagram and every single picture is of them for me because I need more. I want to see what you're eating. I want to see where you're going. I want to see what you're doing. I want to see what you're bringing to the table. I want to see other people. So professional photography, I, definitely don't think it's dead. I think there's many ways you can utilize it. I think podcasting, like people want to see a beautiful photo. They don't want to see, you know, something behind the scenes. I think on the blog, definitely I use a professional photographer

because people want clear, crisp images and quality is so important. Facebook, I still feel like responds well to professional photography, but if I were you, I would definitely be practicing video because everything is going to video. And I believe that 2017 is the year of live stream. Everyone wants it live. The filters, like, everyone's over it. They want a live, real connection. She's pretty much answer to that. I don't have a lot, I don't have as much to say about it as her, but I think mistakes that people make when they're running a brand is that they think on the macro level and they think what everyone wants. And I think what you need to, what you really need to focus on is what the audience wants, what the consumer wants. So to

answer that, yeah, of course, certain pictures and certain type of photography works on different medium, but to niche down even farther, it depends what the audience responds to. You might have an audience that doesn't respond to professional photography at all. Maybe they want that kind of behind the scenes, raw, real look. Or maybe you have a feed that that's what the audience expects.

So I think where brands run into trouble is they don't niche down and they don't focus on what the end consumer wants. They kind of look at what everybody else is doing and say this works for this person, so it must work for me. I think for me, like if you saw me posing outside in my leather jacket with professional photography, my friends would probably beat the hell out of me, and people would be like, what the hell is this guy doing? So I don't use it.

It doesn't work as well for me. For someone like Lauren, maybe when she's doing fashion stuff, it might work. So I think to shorten that up, focus on the end user and who your audience really is and not so much on which medium it is. Does that make sense? The guy in the blazer. Hello. Hello. Hi, Kvon.

Thank you for going. You're so fun. Hello. I'm Kvon. My company and brand is called Girl Meets Strong. You want to ask your question you told me. I will, yes.

So our whole mission is to inspire a culture of strength, and we do that by sharing stories of girls and women in different sports. I have a very specific question, and I want each of your answers. right now we're looking for a social media manager part-time. If anyone's interested, come see me. I've gotten over 30 applications, which is amazing, but I don't know how to narrow it down.

So my question is this. If you were to give them one exercise or one or two exercise to see, like, oh, this person really does know social media or does it, what would that be? When I hire an intern, there's two things. The email's got to be short. 400 pages, like, everyone is so busy nowadays. Everyone's attention span is zero. The girl that got hired as an intern, she now works for me. Two sentences.

So simple. She attached a resume. That's the kind of person I want working for me. I don't need a 400-page email. Like, what's the point? Let's get on a call. Let's get to it. The other thing I look at, and a lot of people aren't going to want to hear it,

but this is the resume of 2017 is your social media. So you can attach your resume, by the way, one page. It doesn't need to be more than one page. This is what I think. Now, I'm not saying this is the end-l-l-b-all. For me, what do you look for for social media? For social media, I look at their Instagram. They've got to have...

Just look at their own... Personally, if I'm hiring someone for my social media, I'm going to immediately look at their Instagram. Because I want to see the aesthetic. I want to see the captions. I think that Instagram says a lot about a social media strategist because you can see the captions to me. Like, for people to waste

the captions is such wasted space. The captions are gold. I spend more time thinking about the captions than I do the photo. You're going to intrigue the audience with your caption. You do a beautiful photo. It fits with your feed. There's an app, by the way, if you guys don't have it, you should download it.

It's called Snug. And basically, you can see your entire Instagram layout, so you can move photos and decide, like, if you've done too many selfies in a row, you put, like, a picture. or food in between. You can kind of plan your layout. I definitely think if you're going to apply for a job in social media, that your Instagram should be beautiful. And then again, a short email. So that's what I would look for. Thank you. Pretty much any of this stuff,

I look for practitioners. When I say practitioners, I mean people that actually use the channels and the mediums on a regular basis, whether it be for their own brand, whether they're just intrigued and want to do it for fun. I don't want somebody that comes to me from an agency or that's worked with somebody at one time and says, oh, well, this person taught me this way. Because with social media and the landscape, and this goes for Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and all these things,

the landscape and the algorithms change on a regular basis, so I want a practitioner. I want someone with taste, obviously, but I want somebody that's using these mediums on a regular basis and is not scared to evolve. They're not scared to make mistakes. They're not scared to ask questions.

So, in a nutshell, look for practitioners. If they come up to you and say, I can do this and you look at their channels and they've never done it, you can't expect them to do it for you. So, practitioners. Awesome. Thank you. Let's come up. You don't have to raise your hands. My name is a Toncha,

director, and I have a costume for people for shape, teachers. Basically, everybody is called shape, really crazy costumes for sports. So you can run bike in every costume. And then what my question is, is I get a little of these right now, is because the company is basically me.

the geek side, the text side, the computer side, I make the designs, I do everything like that hard. So I want to do the social media things, but it takes a lot of time. As you guys know, it would be full time, plus doing all of that things. But I'm wondering, for shapeshifters, should I, as far as the personality of the brand that comes forward,

is everyone always talking about being authentic, I'm not sure if my personality is the brand. How do you, like, and distinguish those too? because I'm fun and creative. I'm a creator, but my customers may not be. They're more athletic and comedians, which I'm funny. I'm funny. I'm goofy stuff. But how do you know the difference between your personal identity and your brand identity in social media? That is a great idea because it's so niche.

Like, incredible. So these are the act of work. I love it. That is such a niche idea. You want to answer this first? You're so excited. So the reason I wanted to answer this is because I run into this a lot. I consult with brands and I help the market.

And when you're really, really close to the brand like you are, and it's your baby and you're the one working on it, sometimes, you know, there's a difference. A lot of this talk has been about personal branding, but then there's the brand that you're trying to create, which maybe you don't want to incorporate so much your personality into, but you want to build a brand. And I see a lot of the time with this is the brand has a brand.

its own identity and then you have your own personality and you either need to make the decision of we're connecting the two and it's going to be my personal brand or this is something separate and so I get frustrated a lot of the time when I some of the clients I consult with

when I go on their social media and it says like okay I'm down here I consult for a motorcycle company I'm down here on the track and in this and we're riding on these trails I'm like listen are you is that you or is that the brand so if I'm hearing you right and this is

you're building a brand outside of you, I think you need to come up with what that brand message is, what that's about, and you need to run that completely separate from yourself. Luckily, the company, luckily the brand does kind of match me and then it's edgy and funny and strong. But I don't know, as far as the social media, do I put my dog? No, I'm there. Oh, you don't do that.

Okay, that's what I even learn. I don't know how personal it needs to get. The dog's wearing the wrong. No, I'm going to be blunt, but I do this out of a place of love. If it's your brand and it's, you know, a product-based business or a service that has nothing to do with your dog, then don't use your dog. But if it is something that has to do with your blog, if it's something where someone's coming to see you and you're building a brand around you, then yes, do that. For example, we'll just use JetBet as example because we talked about it. If we're talking about betting for aircraft and I have a customer base that really has no idea.

of my involvement with it. They're just looking at it from the product alone. And then all of a sudden they see me and my golden retriever smiling. They're going to be very confused. And so what you don't want to do with the brand is cause consumer confusion. You want to have a really clear, concise message, and you want that brand to be separate unless you want to do a personal brand. See, that's where I feel the same way, but everyone keeps telling you I need to tell them my side of my personality. Because I used to be a pro wrestler and I go from around all the time, But I still feel like it's not an athletic company, you know.

This is what happens whenever we speak, you guys. He steals the mic from me, and I have to physically remove it. For your brand, what I see, and I've never, like, seen the whole scope of it, but just from what you're telling me, what I would do is I would make it bigger than you. Yeah, it's right. I would make it way bigger than you. So, and I try to do this as well with the skinny confidential. The skinny confidential is not just me, and I think you do have to look at a personal brand.

You have to make it bigger than you and about providing value and adding value to people's life. So what I would do if I were you is on your Instagram and on your social channels, I would create movement. And how I would do that is I would have different people in your costumes every single day doing some different sport. Now, you said, can I put my dog on it? You can put your dog on it if someone's wearing a costume with your dog. You can put your dog on if your dog's wearing the costume. Everything that you do and everything that I do on social media has to come back to the brand. So whenever I'm doing anything, I don't care if it's a five-second Snapchat, how does it come back to the brand?

So I think you can do anything you want, but it has to come back to the brand. And I wouldn't just make it about you and your personality, not that you're not amazing. I'm sure you are. I would make it about other people, other sports, different sports. different sports every day, something funny, but I would also make sure that pictures are aesthetically pleasing. Don't post something that's in the dark with all these people in the background.

Make it pretty. It doesn't need to be professional, but pretty. Did you want to say something else? So I understand how it can be challenging at times. What is a tip or a few tips you can give to surviving, working with your significant other or just a team in general? It is hardworking with people in general. If you steal my tip.

You were going to steal it. I'm going to let you go first. He was going to steal it. Yeah, you were. You stole it before. My tip's recovery. You were going to steal it. I was going to tell.

So recovery, it's so important. Michael and I fight all the time. All the time. For anyone, like these perfect relationships, if anyone thinks, like, no, it's not perfect. We fight all the time. He drives me nuts. He is so anal and so da-da-da-da-da-da.

And I take a while to wrap my hands. had around things. I have to like think about it and let it sit in and think how I'm going to weave it into certain things. I can't just make a decision. So my tip would be recovery. You have to like forgive the other person and move on. And if you're not going to recover quick, then what's the point of being in a relationship? Relationships and working to intertwine them is very tough. In fact, it's definitely one of the toughest things I've experienced in the last two years. It's very hard to shut it off. When you go in the bedroom, sometimes I'm like, shut the fuck off. I don't want to talk about business right now. You've got to set boundaries.

You have to say, okay, like it's 10.30 at night, like it's over. Read a book. What I do lately, which is a great tip, is I just put earphones in or earplugs and put on music. And I'm like, no, it's over. So I think shutting down and recovery, and when I say recovery, I'll just like reiterate this, it means like getting over shit fast. Like there's no reason to hold a grudge. Like, let's get over it. Let's move on. Unless it's some like monumental thing, then just get over it.

Because it's just toxic. And what I notice it does is it was waste my energy. And when I wake up in the morning, my energy thermometer is like this. And to fight with him makes it go like this. And I need this energy to grow my brand. So back off. Okay. So my tip is about recovery.

Oh, my God. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, that's true. Lauren, one of my wedding vows was, I promised to try and wake you up like a cat every morning because she told me that that's what I need to do. The only problem is I still don't really understand what that means. So each day my approach kind of changes,

depending on the mood I think she's in. But no, I mean, Taylor over there could probably write, you know, a book longer than Game of Thrones about the arguments. It's difficult for sure. You get two personalities that have their own ideas and their own vision and want to do things their own way. And you're in a relationship and you're sharing a bed and you're waking up in the morning and you're living in the same place. So it's difficult. Lauren and I have really had to work at it.

And I think a lot of the time the problem is people, you know, even if you're not working together, let's say you get in a relationship, and we say, I can't wait to have kids in two years. Well, maybe the other person, that's not their idea. Right? And so you're in this relationship, and you've kind of said this perfect world for yourself, but you haven't really communicated with your partner and said, okay, is this your goal as well? So what I think is help Lauren and I is creating a strategic future.

And we talk about this. Luckily, we have some people in our life that we look at as kind of like mentors. And we sat down literally one day for 12 hours, I think. It was really miserable, honestly. And we really, like, when I came on board with the Skinny Competential, we said, okay, what is our common goal? Where do we both see this going? And, you know, Lauren took the lead on that primarily because Skinny Competential is her baby

and her business. But we both kind of said, okay, we're going to do this and we're both committed to this and this is the common goal. And when you do that with a partner, whether it's, you know, in your personal life or in your business, and you kind of both are on the same page of this is where we want to take it. This is the direction and the destination we both want to end up at. It makes a little easier. But then I think

the second thing, which may be equal to importance, is defining the roles. I don't get into Lawrence Creative Spheres at all. I don't write her content. I don't take her pictures. I don't tell her how to do shoots. I don't do

any of that stuff. If I did, I probably wouldn't have a head on my shoulders right now. I'd be laying somewhere dead. And at the same time, she doesn't deal with a lot of the business end of it. She knows how. But we kind of define the roles and we say, okay, this is what

I'm going to be doing on the day to day, this is what you're going to be doing, and this is our common goal, and I think that's really helped. But there's still fights. Also, don't throw it away. And why I want to say this is, like, if you're a blogger right now and you've been blogging for two years and you want to throw it away, don't throw it away. It's the same with a relationship. every single thing that has ever happened.

I keep saying happened because I don't believe things just happened to you. Every single thing that is good in my life that has ever happened to me comes with struggle and it comes with pain. And you can't get comfortable, I believe, without getting uncomfortable. So a relationship, a blog, a brand, you got to get uncomfortable. And I could literally stand up here and name six million moments where I've been so uncomfortable. comfortable to get comfortable. So in a relationship, like, just don't throw it away over something stupid. You have to work at it. Okay. Next question. Tori.

Tori doesn't need to watch it. Thank you for the intro. I'm actually wearing a watch that we're about to release in March if you guys want to come look later. So yeah, as she said, I do influenza marketing for movement watches. My question was, the presenter mentioned that you guys have a product coming out. Are you long to give any deep? I can talk about it. I can talk about it. product coming out and I don't I hate to be like I can't tell you what it is the reason that I don't want to jump the gun and just like say what it is is because like the blog it needs to be the right way before I present it to the audience I would never want to present the audience with something that's not a hundred percent so that's why I'm not saying what it is yet product is a very different beast than blogging I've found blogging is my specialty I like to write I like to engage with the audience I like to take the pictures I like to create, I like to edit. So product has been really kind of a different thing for us. If you are in product, I don't feel like I am the best person to give like 100% advice on. It's definitely a learning game. And just like anything, like I said, it's going to require

practice and struggle and getting uncomfortable. And that's kind of where we're at right now because like I said, it's got to be right for the audience. I can say that it's something that I will use every day and I think it's something my audience will use every day and I'm listening to my audience as opposed to doing what I want and it totally intertwines with this going to be confidential lifestyle Christine Lucita I'm on Instagram Christine Lucita and so I am coming from the fitness world and I've sort of built a career in the media as a fitness and lifestyle expert I sort of kind of done everything a little bit backwards. I would imagine after doing a lot of national shows, I've been

coached like why didn't have a product to sell. It's kind of like a waste it hits. So I put my energy in a different direction. So now I'm really starting, I want to build a community. I build a successful business, sort of one-on-one training. And now I just actually sold

a book, which I'm so excited, the perfect diet solution. Thank you so much. I'm thrilled beyond words. And so now I'm trying to figure out, how did you target your audience? Because I don't know how to figure out who wants to hear from me. And so I'm wondering, you know, you coming from that space, like, how did you know what people, how did you know where to target?

I mean, I know in my heart what's there, and I'm all about helping people find their true authentic self. Because I believe there's no right around workouts, there's no right around diets, it's just it works for you. But how did, like, how did you target someone? Congratulations. Thank you. I literally talk to my audience every single day.

Every single day for the last six years I am in contact with them, whether it's over email. And sometimes it's so overwhelming. I want to, like, cry just because I want to respond to everyone and I do the best I can. But the audience, to me, and I notice, like, a lot of bloggers, okay, we'll put up, like, a picture of a dress and choose the hat. They're a fashion blogger. and someone in the comments will say, where'd you get their hat?

Oh, that hat. And you can see the blogger responding to other comments, but they don't respond where they got the hat. It is your due diligence as a blogger, in my opinion, to respond to your audience. You are not a celebrity. Like, you're not. You're a blogger.

You've signed up for this. You've signed up to share your life. You've signed up as a fashion blogger to show your clothing. So for me, like, the audience is number one. And it's to the point where it's caused, fights, it's obnoxious. with how much I'd listen to my audience.

So that would be my number one. Number two, I think it's great. You did it backwards. I think concentrating not on a product, but on your audience and doing your book is awesome. I think going into blogging just to sell a product is very short game. I think you got to go into it. This is your lifestyle.

This is what you're going to do. And the product comes naturally. Like, I am in no rush to push this product. When it comes, it will come. And if that's in two years, since in two years. I'm not like sitting there like, I can't wait to push this on my audience.

It's going to be a very natural thing. The main thing, though, that's helped me target demo my audience. It's not Google Analytics. It's not numbers. It's Snapchat. And how that is is I snap things, for instance. Like this morning, I snapped like bath salts. They were all natural bath salts, not the drug.

Bath salts. That's in Taylor's pocket. Bass salts, I Snapchat at them, and I can look to see how many people screenshoted it. So what that tells me is that if they're really interested more in the smoothie I make than in the basaltz, I need to pay attention. And again, it's not something that I'm like doing right away. I'm just paying attention to the screenshots. I'm looking every day with their screenshoting. That's why I love Snapchat so much, just because I can really see what they like.

And I'm, again, letting them lead the direction. So I don't know if you have a Snapchat. and definitely get on and here's why. Let your personality shine through. See what they're screenshoting. See if you can move your community from Instagram to Snapchat. If you can do that as a blogger and a brand, you've cultivated a community.

And that is how you convert. You know, I haven't built, like the audience that Lawrence talked about, but I think watching and being familiar with this industry and seeing some people, you know, that we know in the space, I think on a macro level, it's gratitude. When I say gratitude, I see so many people They start out and they capture 5, 10, 15, 100 people That are really interested in what they're doing

But because everybody's so concerned with numbers And because everybody wants to have it right now They are not grateful for that small community that's come to them And said, we're interested in what you're saying We're listening to what you're saying And what they do and they neglect that audience Figure out how to speak to a community And how to build your audience is you're going to get them

And you're going to be so grateful that you have those first 10 people You're going to listen to what they want, how great your content is, how it's how they're enthusiastic about it. Where I think people run into trouble is they don't deploy gratitude and they jump ship when they've captured. I mean, you, me, anybody who's lucky if even one person's paying attention what you're saying. And I think on a macro gratitude. This is Bianca Bonus, and my Instagram is Bianca underscore bonus. I'm a yoga instructor and I own a lifestyle brand called Girl Get Outside. My question's too bold.

What would you say is the landscape for, um, influencers in 2017. And then the second part of my question is, do you have any guidelines for when brands reach out to you to work together? So collaborations and sponsorships and things like that. The landscape, I think, is different for everyone. Like, you have to find what medium you're good at. If you're really funny, like, get on Snapchat.

If you're really inspiring, get on Snapchat. If you're better with photos and curating beautiful outfit, get on Instagram. If you're really good at live streaming, get on Facebook Live. I think you need to really get real with yourself and have a real conversation. And also ask your family and friends.

I ask my family and friends all the time. They're like, you're obnoxious or whatever it is. Like maybe you shouldn't go on Facebook Live for and you cuss a lot. Like ask your friends and family where they see you to be fit and utilize that to the best of your abilities. So the landscape is anything, want it to be. For me, I'm going to say this again, I definitely think live streaming is going to be

huge because people want to see kind of the raw real BTS. I'll like you to answer this question, then we can go ahead and answer the next one. For me, again, on the macro, it's where consumer attention is, right? If, you know, there's people that have amassed huge Twitter followers, but Twitter's, you know, there's no attention there right now. So to sit there and just pound Twitter and just hope that one day it's going to turn around, you know, you might be sitting there for a while. So for me, as a marketer, there's more marketing side and not somewhat,

there's more marketing side, not somewhat the brand side, you've got to go to where consumer attention is. Right now there's a big debate between Snapchat and Instagram stories. There's, you know, the Facebook Live, there's Instagram Live. I think you test all of it, and wherever you have the most attention, where you have the most consumers, you focus on that.

I think a mistake people make is they try to do, everything and when you do that you spread yourself thin so for me for example i only i really only focus primarily on snapchat um i like the rapid fire of it i have a small community there i can i can do it quickly i don't focus as much on facebook or instagram um since it's not for me but yeah like i said it's where the attention is and that's where you want to focus your time um as far as collaborations, and I feel like this is a question that a lot of people have, I really, really think that it's got to be worth it. You got to use it or you got to love it. I made the mistake like three years ago of promoting a company that I absolutely don't like, and my audience immediately knew

and I never did it again. Flat tummy tea, sugar bear hair, protein world, like, everyone knows it's sponsored. It feels too silly. I personally, boned. go there, even if it was the most amazing company, just because I feel like it categorizes you and it devalues your brand. I think that, again, you need to have an honest conversation with yourself with where you see

collaborations going. So, you can start really small. I remember the first collaboration I did was $200. This is like, I think the second year I started blogging. It was like $200 and it was like a footpad company that I used. It went in my heel.

But it was something that I used and I liked I put it on my blog and people liked it. I think you have to start really, really small and not kind of look at what everyone else is doing and just kind of zone in on the collaborations. I will say, though, I see a lot of bloggers

putting all their eggs in the collaboration basket. The reason that I am doing product is because I want to build the skinny confidential brand. I don't want to build everyone else's brand. So I'm very picky with who I choose to put on my blog. I don't have any advertising on the blog. Personally, I think advertising is very like 2014

to have it all over like penny clicks, banner ads. Honestly, to be really real with you guys, I would get it off. It looks like projectile throw up. Everyone knows that it's an ad. I would get it off. And again, if it's not something that you really use or you'll really wear, don't do it. I mean, I was approached by Crocs.

Remember that. And it was a very great partnership, and it was really hard to turn down, but, like, I don't wear crox. So sometimes you have to say no to, like, the short-term money to kind of go towards the long-term goal. I think that pretty much nails it. And there's something, like, really specific. Also, like, I guess the topic of common. So I'm an aggressive negotiator in the sense that, if I have something in my head, then that's my number, and I know it's right for me, I don't compromise on it.

And a lot of the time, it's really, really difficult to do that. If I would have taken a deal when I initially, when we started JEPA, you know, now we provide beds for a lot of the large OEMs, if I would have taken the first deal in the first, I think it was year two or three that they offered me, the business would have gone out of business that same year, and it would be dead in the water. So at the time when you're really struggling, you're like, man, this money looks good, and this could really help me out right now, you have to, like I said, three, five, ten years down the line, is this going to protect your brand? You have to protect the brand above all else.

And you know if something doesn't sit right, right? Everybody knows. You can feel it. It's just difficult. It's, you know, it's discipline. It's deploying patients. It's saying, you know, that's not right from my brand. And I think a big mistake people make is they take short-term money at long-term...

Yes, I had these two on our podcast, The Billion Dollar Body. Nicholas Bailey. I'm the CEO of the billion-dollar body.com for the number one health and fitness platform for male entrepreneurs and influencers to look and feel like a billion bucks. And my question is we got the company started four and a half years ago. based on health and fitness. And now we're trying to communicate the other facets of the community and brand after you get fit what comes next. And so we're throwing our first live event in May.

And so that's in downtown San Diego to really communicate that message. We're going to have 100 high-level entrepreneurs, influencers there. So the question is, how do we communicate more of those facets besides just health, the success fashion forward, our communities around 21 to 35? It's our main guys. And they usually, they have seven, eight, nine-figure businesses. Okay, first of all, these two are so young, the billion-dollar body. They're 23 and 25.

And when I was 23, I told you guys earlier, I was, like, naked on the bar. So let's just give it up. I don't think personally, if I were you, that I would go anywhere but where, like you are. I would stick with fitness and entrepreneurship. I love the two mixed together. I think the name says it all. I think adding in fashion is just extra fluff

that you both don't need. And that's after being on your podcast and listening to a couple of your episodes, I would stick with your niche. I think you guys are on to something. You're young, you're a hot couple. I would really stick with it and write it out. And in two years, I think you'll be shocked

with what that does. That's what I would do personally. I'm not saying that's the end-all be-all, but that's what I would do. I guess my question is, why is there, why does this need to occur right now? Do you feel like you've kind of hit the ceiling of groin and said, if you're like, hey, you know, we're just, we want to expand, we're born, then that's a whole other conversation. Because at the end of the day, you've got to do what you want to do. But if you're having success in this niche right now, like I said, deploying patients and waiting, I don't think it's ever a bad strategy.

Not that they haven't deployed patients because four years is a long time. Yeah, so I can say just like in Europe, but right now with where we're at, the guys are, they're calling themselves a brotherhood that they're moving all together as successful men that are humbling themselves in their health because they're successful, but they're failing at a certain area. And I don't feel like they're feeling the freedom to be able to talk about anything else inside the community besides what they're doing in their health. So I just want to have it more free where they can connect a little bit outside of just that subject. that makes sense. Space where the only topic of discussion is health and wellness. And so your community is saying, hey, we want to branch outside of that and talk about other things?

Yeah, they want to build more community and relationship inside of it, talk about business, success, and what they're doing because they're getting healthy, what result that's accomplishing to. But a lot of the guys haven't felt like they have the freedom. They're going, oh, I just feel like I can only post my transformations. progress, things like that. I would do a webinar. Cool.

I would do a webinar face-to-face. I think, too, when they see you guys, you guys are a young, like, hot couple. Yeah. I would do a face-to-face webinar about expanding, I would actually call it, beyond fitness and money. Or, you know, use better words than that.

But you know what I'm saying? Like, I would do beyond the surface and maybe open the conversation, but I would let them lead it. Got it. I would not lead it yourself because, as I said, let the audience tell you where they want to go. It sounds like your audience is telling you they want more and they want to learn how to be more. So open the webinar.

It was really cool because I did a webinar a couple months ago and everyone kind of asked me questions and told me where the webinar was going. And the reason I say webinar as opposed to a podcast is because you can instantly talk to them. Also, Instagram Live. that's a great one but personally for you guys for some reason I really see a billion dollar body webinar and then you pull it through to

Instagram Live and Snapchat I think a webinar would do really really good with what you're doing Can we do two more really quick? My name is Jen my blog is called Latte's and Lasthabs I first want to give a little accolade to Lauren

because she's totally right with for like getting back on Snapchat. I might like write to her at 8 p.m. one night and then the next morning she writes back at like, I don't know, 10 a.m. So just want to say thank you with that. My question kind of piggybacks with the brand partnership question. And I guess my question is, before you get to the point of picking and choosing,

you know, when to say yes or no, what is your best advice to pitching brands? or is your advice not to pitch brands and wait for them to come to you? Is it to collab with other more successful bloggers and build your brand that way? Like what does that process look like for you? Okay, so this is a two-way question. Okay, so say you love a Mighty Leaf green tea. Put it on your Instagram, put it on your Snapchat, screenshot it,

and approach Mighty Leaf tea. But do it very, don't do like a 500-page email. Just be like, hi, I'm born from the skinny confidential. I absolutely love your tea. I drink it on a daily basis. I would love to work with you in some capacity attached to my press kit. That simple. That's one way to work with brands.

The other way to work with brands is to do what I just said, but let them court you. So then they're courting you, and the terms are more kind of in your power to negotiate. I think as you grow, that's probably the way I would recommend. But the other day, I Snapchatted this bone broth company, and one of my employees, without me even knowing, went to the bone broth company, was like, she loves your bone broth, and we decided to collaborate because I really eat their bone broth every day. So that's a way.

Another way is Bill reach out to you. And I can't say this enough just because the company reaches out to you. You want to have the power. You don't want to just give it up. Think of it like a guy, okay? You don't want to just give it up on the first night. Like, I like to wait a couple months. I made you wait a couple months.

Yeah, I did. Don't look at me like that. I made you wait a couple months. Okay, well, I did, you guys. You can get into that later. That's another seminar. Like, let them wait. Like, you don't need to just give it up right away. So there's three ways.

First way, you put it out there first. The second way, you put it out there. You don't say a thing. And the third way is you just let them come to you, and that takes a lot of patience. So you just kind of got to pick which one you are, and always tag on Instagram. So you're wearing this whole outfit tag every single brand, because that'll get you out there. Collaborate with other bloggers is great. That's probably, I mean, that's definitely collaborating, not competing is like a huge mantra I live by,

but to get to brands, definitely just show what you like. Do this quick, because I know we've got to go. I want to play devil's advocate a little bit and go both ways because, you know, brand side, you have influencers reach on and says, hey, if you pay me this, I'll do this. Why? You know, why? And then on the brand side, when you're starting out and you're starting a new brand, and you go to a big influencer, you say, hey, put this on your blog.

Or I'm sending you a gift so that you can put this on your blog. No, again, why? So I think the problem is on both sides, whether you're the brand or the larger influencer, whether you're starting out as an influencer or you're established. I think when you're starting out as an influencer, there's nothing wrong with what Lawrence said. Do a post. If you really like the product, do it. Then go to them and say, hey, I just want to show you, look what I did for your brand. I really like it.

Here's the traffic that went to it. Here's what my community said about it. Here's how my audience is reacting to it. And that brand will probably come back to you. say, okay, and on the brand side, don't just think that because you're a brand that you're going to offer any push or something that they're going to do it for free. It's got to be value both ways. Hello, my name is Nika Adams, and I am the co-founder of an active undergarment wear line. I'm not going to say the name yet because it's not trademark. We're in the infancy stages.

And my question was actually what she just asked. It was more so if you guys can dig a little deeper on, I'm on the product side. So blogging and Instagram is a whole new. game for me. So if I'm starting a company and I say I'm targeting Lauren, what do you want to see from a company? If you can kind of dig into that more, what would be appealing to you as a startup company? To get a feature? Yeah. This is so specific because influencers are getting, so first of all, it can't be some generic copy and paste email that everyone's done. Everyone smells through it. Everyone, like, sees it. It's some PR email that you hired a PR agent and it looks lazy. The way to stand out for me personally, and I don't know if this is across the board,

is to just be like, hey Lauren, like, my name is Sue. You know, I, I just read your post on blah, blah, blah. I really liked it. Longtime reader. I would love to send you, you know, my new hairband company. I'm not expecting anything, just send over your address. Immediately that makes me, oh, she's read my blog, like, so cool. I'm immediately going to Snapchat that 100%. The worst is when someone wants to give you something, and they send it to you, and two days later they say, where's the feature?

And it happens all the time. So now I've actually had to be a bitch. For four years, I was so sure, thank you. You can't do that because you get walked all over. So what I just say now is I just say, you know, thank you for reaching out. I appreciate it. Like, I'd love to check out your product. And like, if I like it, I'll Snapchat it.

If I don't, then in nice words. But what I would do if I were you is I would say their name, say something personal. Don't do a copy and paste. Make it short. attach like the lookbook or the website. People love to click an Instagram. I want to go straight to your Instagram to see what it is. And what I'll do is I'll screenshot something I like and just send it back.

It makes it easy. And I keep saying this, but it's really important to just get to the point because you get so many emails as an influencer that the quicker you can kind of get to the point the better. It's 15 seconds. It's a value proposition. I'm going to bring you value. Not what can you do for me, but what can I do for you? that's literally whether you're on the brand side or you're on the influencer side it's value bring some bring somebody value and it'll pay dividends if you don't if you're all about yourself

and what somebody else can do for you you're probably going to be there for a little while i think that's the most important thing you can leave everyone with his value yeah like if anybody got anything out of this i hope that people got value out of this i you know it's not this is not for me where you know i know maybe one and i'll have an indirect you know benefit of just you know to point gratitude and having your ears for the last hour and a half, which is awesome. I hope that we are bringing value. That's the most important thing. And like I said, 10, 15, 20 years down the line, when you guys are all crushing it,

you sit back and like, hey, remember that one time? Like, maybe we'll do something with those people. You know what I mean? It's important. Thank you, guys. Thank you for having us. Thank you guys so much for listening to our speech with the collective. We hope you enjoyed it.

Make sure you are subscribed to our podcast. podcast on iTunes, The Skinny Confidential, him and her, and make sure to rate and review us. 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. Hey, buddy, I'm Heather Dubrow. And I'm Dr. Terry Debrough. Every Friday, check out my podcast, Heather Dubrow's World. We also have a brand new show, The Doctor and Mrs. Guinea Pig show every Tuesday.

So don't forget iTunes and Podcast One. Tune in to Dr. and Mrs. Gini Pig on Tuesdays and Heather DeBeros World every Friday.