The Bossticks - Hannah Bronfman On Angel Investing, Starting A Company, Parenting, IVF, & Nutrition

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

#564: Today we're welcoming Hannah Bronfman to the show. Hannah is an Activist, Angel Investor, Author, On-Camera Personality & Wellness Expert whose goal is to help minority founders who make 'better for you' and 'better for the planet' products and platforms. Today Hannah's coming on the show to talk about a range of topics, from her childhood & what she learned growing up in Manhattan, her experience with discrimination and racism at 16 years old, to stories and lessons she had to learn the hard way from launching her first start up. She also gets into her entire experience with IVF & gives details about the process and reasons behind fertility issues, why she now aligns her nutrition and exercise routines to her cycle, and what parenthood has been like for her. She also dives into her career, why she invests in minority founders and wellness companies, and what she looks for in the companies she works with. To connect with Hannah Bronfman click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat-only therapy sessions. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy & you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/skinny . This episode is brought to you by Ritual Ritual knows it's basically impossible to get all the nutrients you need from your diet 100% of the time, so they made a multivitamin that helps you focus on what's important. Like filling key nutrient gaps to support foundational health. Go to ritual.com/skinny to receive 10% off your first 3 months. This episode is brought to you by Topgolf The Topgolf experience has a vibe – it's all about play and having fun. Download the Topgolf app today & book a bay. This episode is brought to you by Masterclass With MasterClass, you can learn from the world's best minds - anytime, anywhere and at your own pace. Get 15% off unlimited access to every class at masterclass.com/SKINNY This episode is brought to you by 21 Seeds 21Seeds Infused Tequila makes the most delicious and easy margaritas and cocktails so you can focus on the fun! Visit 21seeds.com to find 21Seeds near you & enjoy responsibly. This episode is brought to you by Vegamour With Vegamour, you're able to have visibly thicker, fuller, shinier, longer hair, all without the harsh ingredients. Vegamour's products are 100% cruelty free and not formulated with any harsh chemicals. Visit vegamour.com/skinny and use code SKINNY at checkout to get 20% off your first order. Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com slash skinny and get on your way to being your best self. I think it is so amazing to have the tool of therapy in your toolbox. But what's even more amazing is that you can have this tool in your toolbox and have the ability to use it at any time in the comfort of your home. That is what BetterHelp is.

connects you with a licensed therapist who can take you on that journey of self-discovery from wherever you are. Nice and comfortable on the phone with your licensed therapist. There's nothing better. You could also do video if you want. They give you the option, which is incredible. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suit your schedule, which we love. So here's the process. You go on, you fill out a brief questionnaire, and then you get matched with a licensed therapist. An amazing part of this is if you don't like vibe with the therapist, you can switch at any time for no additional cost. So you can just be like, this doesn't work for me. I want to try someone else. What therapy is, and we've learned this through even talking to Dr. Aman, as it's all about

deepening your self-awareness and understanding. And when you know why you're reacting to the way you do to things, you can talk through it and you can have better tools in your toolbox to go out into the world. So you want to try therapy from the comfort of your home and discover your potential with better help. You can visit betterhelp.com slash skinny today and you get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash skinny. 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 along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Aha. I kind of grew out of dancing, and there was a lot of stuff around body image, like a lot of self-talk, a lot of eating disorders. It was really intense. I very quickly realized that I didn't want to be around people who were starving themselves or throwing up or constantly criticizing

their body parts or saying negative things about themselves out loud and around other people. Like, it was a really toxic environment and I opted out of that. I never felt obligated to change even though there were this, there was a group of people who were maybe telling me I should change. Coming in hot, coming in heavy. Welcome back to the skinny confidential him and her show. That clip was from our guest of the show today, Hannah Bronfman. And today we're talking all things investing, angel investing, how to develop an on-camera

personality, wellness, all the things covering a wide range of topics. But for those of you that are interested in how to be smart with your money, invest, angel invests, get involved and save for a better way or a better future. This is the episode for you. So who is Hannah Braunfitten? Hannah is an activist, angel investor, author on-camera personality and wellness expert whose goal is to help minority founders who make better for you and better for the planet products and platforms.

And like I said, Hannah is coming on today to talk all things angel investing, how to save, how to identify products that you might want to be partnered in and so much more. We talk about our childhood. We talk about growing up in Manhattan, New York. And we talk about her advice for aspiring creators and what made her want to work with small businesses. We also talk about the IVF process and her experience with that and why sex education is important. So we're really covering the gambit here.

Investing sex, IVF, you know, everything as usual. With that, Hannah, welcome with the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. All right. Let's get some background on you. You grew up in Brooklyn. Manhattan. Why did it say you grew up in Brooklyn?

I don't know, but. Somebody's fired now. We're off to a bad star, Lauren. I did go to high school for my last two years in Brooklyn. But that seems a little... You know what, though? It might say on the internet that you grew up in Brooklyn because the internet has a lot of lies on it.

Totally. I'm checking Wiki immediately. I feel like it says that I have like four sisters. And like it says like your weight and your height, not you, but like everyone's like wrong. It's like wrong hair color. I think it says I have one kid. It's true because the internet says a lot of bad things about me and it's all not true. Because I'm, you know, everything's great.

The internet says he's 4-1. Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm dead. They're kind of accurate. I mean, I do love Brooklyn. My husband would never move there, which is actually very upsetting to me. I love Brooklyn so much.

But no, I grew up on the Upper West Side, between the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side of Manhattan. What was your childhood like? So, my childhood was, like, I mean, honestly, growing up in New York, like, you grow up really fast, you know? It's just kind of like one of those things. You have street smarts here that you just don't have growing up in other places. like it's just it's a realness that kind of just hits you at a really young age. I danced a lot when I was a kid. I danced with the Alvinale like school, ballet school.

That was like a really, you know, ballet really kind of shaped my discipline like a lot in terms of, I think about it all the time actually. Like I feel like it gave me a really great background in terms of knowing myself from like a self-confidence perspective as well as like kind of like a group setting. even though it's also a little bit of an individual sport, even though you're in this kind of group situation. And then I kind of grew out of dancing, knowing the fact that I would not become a professional dancer and then really kind of like threw myself into sports and played so many sports growing up. And I got kicked out of high school. I went to an all-girls school in New York

called Spence. I actually like don't really talk about this, but it's like, fuck it, whatever. I went to a school called Spence. I was five girls basically had been told on. We didn't get caught doing anything. We had been told on allegedly smoking weed on a school trip. Allegedly. Allegedly. And I was the only black girl in the group and I was the only one expelled.

Wow. Yeah. And then I ended up going to... What happened to the other girls? Three of the four girls reapplied and went back to Spence that following year. graduated from Spence and the other girl left kind of in solidarity went to a different high school and she's still my best friend and actually I'm going to her wedding next weekend. Wait, so let's back up for a second. First of all, going back to what you said.

But nobody had, wait on, nobody ever got any proof? So it was just all. No, yeah. Everything was hearsay. Wow. Yeah. That wouldn't happen. I feel like no. No. And there were also like girls in the grade above us who were caught red-handed doing cocaine in school and they were not kicked out. Yikes, Spence. I know. I know. And you know what. Yikes in general, like, again, New York City private school.

I think, you know, we were, I was in 10th grade. I was 16. Not necessarily too young to be experimenting. But I feel like this is definitely, you know, it's not euphoria by any means. But, you know, when we talk about growing up fast in New York, this is like kind of like what I mean. You know what I mean? I was going out to nightclubs at 15.

Well. Our school was euphoria. So, my. my God. And I was smoking weed out of apples. Oh my God. Death. And that's wild that you got expelled for that because I feel like everyone was experimenting. But also we were in public school and I feel like private schools, they get like, especially here in the city, they get, they get kind of crazy with the rules. It sounds a little elitist though. They do. But to be honest, like a lot of schools have a zero tolerance policy. My school wasn't one of those schools. And I didn't have three strikes.

In fact, I was like like a really good student. I used to do like, I used to take. I used to take. prospective parents on the tours of the school, which actually, looking back, like, makes me cringe inside just because I, you know, being one of, like, five black girls in my grade and the fact that I was, like, you know, parading around, like, as, like, this, like, you know, Spence girl. And then they, like, did me so dirty just makes me cringe from the inside out. And I was, like, one of their star dancers. Like, it was, they had, like, they did me dirty. Well, and that's dramatic at that age, too. when you're being alienated out and kicked out of a school,

especially where all your groups of friends, I'm assuming most of your friends were there. Totally. You're just all of a sudden you're out. Yeah. That's a traumatic experience for any young kid. Yeah. I want to go back to two things you said.

You said you grew up really fast in New York. I think about this all the time. What it's like to grow up here is totally different than another city. It's like fast-tracked. Everything is, I mean, like you said, you're going to club so soon. What was it like? Are you like walking down the street by yourself at like six years old?

Like, what are the differences looking back? No, no, no, no. Okay, I mean, I mean, I guess the differences, at the end of the day, like, our city is definitely rooted in, like, the subway system. So, like, I would go on the subway with an adult. Okay. But, like, that was a mode of transportation that was, like, widely accepted. Like, I was, and then by the time I was probably 14, I was taking the subway by myself. I mean, that's young to be taking the subway by yourself.

Is it? Yeah, it is. Like, I guess it's probably, it's normal to you because that's, Seems totally normal. It is normal. It's normal. I've talked to a lot of New Yorkers here, but I feel like in California. It's scary to think about your own kid if you're not from the city going on the subway alone at 14. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But it's the norm here. And we have all sorts of different people, all different walks of life and backgrounds on the show. And it's, you know, that is your normal. You wouldn't know any different. So it's like from an outside, you're probably like, this is regular. Totally. And like, you know, you just have interactions with people in a different way. Like even like I've had interactions on the subway at a young age. But. like other like school kids, you know? Like, it's like that, like for some towns, that happens on a school bus. And for me, it felt like it happened on the subway.

You know what I mean? And I guess also growing up in the city, it's just like, you know, we hung out a lot in like public parks, you know, Carshall's Park, which is on the upper east side on east end avenue, spent a lot of time there, spent a lot of time like in Central Park. Like, you know, you kind of just like, that's where you like meet up with your friends and stuff. It's like if you want to not be at your friend's house or under supervision of your parents, it's like you're hanging out in these like random like public spaces like stoop and parks. Yeah, I don't know. Listen, it's different from California, but I think it sounds so much fun to grow up in.

It's yeah, it's definitely cool. I mean, you just get exposed. I mean, I was going to Broadway shows at such a young age all the time, like just concerts and like my mom's really into the arts. So did a lot of that growing up. When you're in ballet was the ballet that we're thinking of center stage. Is there like all these different things with body image? Or was it not like that at all? No, there was. There was a lot of stuff around body image, a lot of self, like a lot of negative self-talk, a lot of eating disorders. It was really, it was really intense. And I actually, I like have always loved food so much that I quickly learned that I like didn't necessarily like fit into the type of body, like desirable body type and or mentality, really, in order to, like,

kind of climb that ladder. Like, I very quickly realized that I didn't want to be around people who were starving themselves or throwing up or constantly criticizing their, you know, body parts or, you know, saying negative things about themselves out loud and around other people. Like, it was a really toxic environment and I, I opted out of that. And I think that's honestly because my mom has always given me such a, like, you know, she's really like rooted me in, like, positivity and confidence. And I just, I don't know, I don't know. I, maybe it's a Scorpio thing, because I'm a Scorpio, but, like, I just have always felt like very comfortable in my skin. And so I I never felt obligated to change even though there was a group of people who were maybe telling me

I should change. You know what I mean? That's amazing to have that confidence to young. It's a topic that comes up on this show all the time. People write in and say like, where does confidence come from? A lot of young people, I think, are seeking confidence. And I think to some degree, maybe some of it is natural in genetics and your upbringing. But I wonder if there's, if you've always been like this. Because you walk in the room and obviously you're a competent person. Your career speaks for itself and everything you've done. I think you have to have confidence rather. Is that something you've always had or is that something that's developed over time? And if you've developed it, what tools do you think you've put in place to

be able to become so confident? Yeah, that's a great question. I think about this a lot too. I do think a lot of it is I was born with this confidence, but I do feel like there have been times in my life where I have had imposter syndrome and the things that I would kind of tell myself are the tools that I would use in order to build up my confidence were things like media training, for instance. I remember when I had my first startup and I needed to go and do like investment pitches. I really wanted to feel confident in that pitch. And I knew that the only way I was really going to be able to do that is if I knew exactly what I was going to say and had practiced multiple scenarios of like potential things that people would say to me so that I had answers

already lined up in my back pocket. So I spent maybe two months with like a media coach and went over my pitch and kind of, you know, just studied that as if I was an actor setting a script. You know what I mean? And really like almost thought about myself as like owning this part, right? I am, this is where I want to go. This is who I want to be. And I needed to practice and kind of visualize seeing myself doing it. and kind of having these not fake scenarios, but, you know, essentially recreating these scenarios for myself offline so that I would feel prepared walking into a room. Now, as much media training as I did, which wasn't that much, I mean, I was with this coach for two months, but nothing would prepare me for what actually went down. You know, being 25, black, first time entrepreneur,

I was not prepared for some of the things that, you know, white male VCs said to me. And I think, goddamn white male VCs. I know. We, you know, some of them are great, but some of them are also problematic. And, like, I definitely was really grateful that there were other people in the room when things were said because it validated my experience. Because I think for a lot of people, you know, when there isn't that other. person there. It's he said, she said. And I've always also kind of in terms of the confidence

building, I've always said like, what doesn't kill me will make me stronger. And that every setback, every closing of a door or every failure is like a building block. It's something that, you know, becomes part of my DNA that I get to learn from and grow from. And there's no shame in that game. You know what I mean? And so kind of owning that narrative also empowered me to kind of have that confidence. What are some things that you look back and pinpoint that were a struggle at 25? So at 25, I had this startup and it was me, my girlfriend, and a male co-founder. We were three. And this guy withheld equity from us in our own company. He wouldn't allow us to take salary. He invested in the business and then did this. All three of us were equal co-founders. We actually all put in the same amount of cash up front. And yet we did not have the same amount of equity on the back end. He was the only one allowed to take a salary. And he created this very toxic environment. Microw managed us to the point where we felt so uncomfortable that we were trying to not go into the office. He also, you know, my role in that business was,

very much like marketing. He was tech and then our third co-founder's, third co-founder was sales. And so was this because he maybe, at the time, you didn't have the experience to structure the deal that when he did some things and he put some things in the deal about? No. In fact, actually, my girlfriend and I, Annie Evans, who has an amazing company now called Dream Ventures, she and I brought in all of our capital. He didn't raise any capital. In fact, He rubbed everyone the wrong way. And yet we, he still bullied us. And he didn't bring up, he didn't bring in any capital.

And he really was owning the tech product. And then if we got a press piece and it was my name and Annie's name and not his, that would like really infuriate him. And he was also bipolar, but he wasn't transparent with us about that diagnosis. And it created a really manic environment. whenever we would try to have this conversation with him around, like, you know, changing our equity, especially because our investors were concerned about that. Sure. Those were just things like, I didn't go to business school.

Instead, I started a business. And those were the things that I learned very quickly that really, like, you know, it was a fast-track MBA. Like, it's like crazy to think about those dynamics and some of the decisions I made at that time, even, you know, choosing him to be our co-founder. We were so desperate to get this business off the ground. And he kind of came in with the tech in place. And so we wouldn't have to like build from scratch, right? And instead of really doing our diligence on this guy, we just kind of were like,

this is it, right? He's got it. Like, let's go. And it ended up completely, you know, shooting us in the foot. At what point did you know that you were fucked? And that you had to get out. Basically, there was a moment when it was, I think, our probably, we had launched in three cities. We were in New York, L.A. and San Francisco.

And we were looking to raise more capital. And so we went out to our investors and we said, listen, we need to raise a bridge around. And a lot of our investors said, okay, but we don't, we don't really want him a part of the business. Can we dilute him? And that's when the equity piece really came at like to the front of the conference. And so when we tried to have a conversation with him to kind of even out our equity a little bit more and it turned into this blowout fight, we knew that we needed to like get him out. So we kind of, we went to our investors and we said, listen, this is a problem for us and we don't really know what to do. And we need your help.

We've never been in this position before. And they were very much like, okay, we're staging a coup. This is what's going to happen. and here's how the steps are going to be made. And honestly, there's an amazing, amazing VC who came into our C round. And he held our hand throughout the entire process. And right before we served him papers, he served as papers an hour before. Wow.

So he knew. He knew. He got wind from the tech team. And because we were trying to get all the passwords in order, et cetera, et cetera. He shut us out of our company a day before. Thanksgiving, 2014. And at this point, you have a social media following. Do you go to the social media following or do you do everything behind closed doors?

I do everything behind closed doors. I do everything behind closed doors. Actually, no, that's a great question. For better or for worse. I don't know. You know, I think now I would have probably been way more transparent about what was going on. But then I didn't even know what I was doing on Instagram. I was just literally using it to showcase like my lifestyle, not necessarily.

I was also DJing a lot at that time. I think that's when I first saw you on Instagram when you were a DJ. Yeah. And, you know, also like being kind of new to that entire scenario and vibe, like I also wasn't trying to be problematic publicly. You know, I didn't need to draw attention to myself in a negative way. So not to say that it would have, I just, I don't even know how that scenario would have played out then.

But I do know that when, you know, six months later, when, like, you know, it was just like arbitration was going nowhere. Like, we had to take him to court. And it was, you know, we were in circles. And my husband, my boyfriend at the time, who's now my husband, was really like, you know, you've spent so much time and effort thinking about what you're going to do to this guy. You need to focus that effort on your phone and on this community that's growing called Instagram because I think that's going to be something that's going to give you new life.

And honestly, the best revenge you'll ever get on this guy is for your face to be everywhere that he'll never escape you. I think you did it. Yeah, totally. He's in the basement somewhere. Actually is. Kind of pivot question for you. There's a lot of aspiring creators that listen to this show, people that want to build a

following like you or my wife. And I think many of them the dream is like, hey, I'm going to build this great following and then brands are going to work with me. I personally always try to caution people and say like that is, that's a good ambition, but it also could be very short-lived because as you know, the collab world is up and down, up and down. You're always at the mercy of a brand. I think what you've done very well, my wife's done well, is you guys have taken attention and you've transferred it not only to that, but also to your own businesses and to investing into actually building brands. equity and then equity for other businesses. I wonder if that was always the goal for you or if not, how you kind of fell into that because I think it's interesting for people to hear about just based on creating actually longevity for yourself. Totally. That's a great question.

So it definitely was not always my vision. In fact, in the beginning, you know, I feel like you and I both kind of grew parallel to the explosion of social media. And therefore, like a lot of what we were doing, we didn't necessarily know how this was going to grow or what it was going to grow into or how big influencer marketing would really become and how influencers were going to be this, you know, new marketing stream for companies in the way that it has, right? And I think for me, it was really the moments, like I've always kind of been a health guinea pig. I've always wanted to try all the things and talk to my audience. about them. And that was really like my angle kind of when I was, you know, early days on

Instagram. So I would find these companies that were like, you know, in their infancy. I would talk to the founders. I'd ask them what kind of what their strategies were, especially because I was, you know, I came from growing a tech company that we launched in three cities. I mean, we raised some venture capital. We had users. Like, we had to market our products. So I was really interested in all of like the learnings that other brands were doing too. And I've always been like the ultimate consumer. I love products and I have since I was a kid. And so I would find these kind of off the beat in bath products and I'd want to know how

they were growing, et cetera, et cetera. And what I realized is that all these conversations started turning into like mentorship. And that's when I kind of mentoring them. Yes. And that's kind of when I started to realize that I wanted to work with small business owners and entrepreneurs and women who are looking to break into new fields and get into the weeds on products and technology and all the things. Sort of like almost a taste maker consultant branding expert.

Kind of. I mean, those are some of the things I put on my like resume now in terms of like as an advisor, you know. Advisor. Yeah. And so what it kind of started out there. And that's when I realized that there was going to be. a potential new situation happening built off the back of Instagram and social media.

Yeah, no, I just, I think it's really smart. And the reason I kind of say this is almost a cautionary tale to people whose ambition is to be quote unquote in influence. Right. And that's, I mean, when Lauren and I started here, like people, that term didn't even exist. Like, people look at you crazy. We even started podcasting like, what the fuck are you doing? We had to create videos to show people how to listen. But I think there's a lot of people now that look at your life and look at Lauren's life and other people on this platform's life. And they're like, that's the goal. But what I always try to guard against is like, okay, that could be the initial goal, but like what's the ultimate vision? Are you investing? Are you guys in companies? Are you starting

around? Like, what do you control that is not at the mercy of a third party platform like a TikTok or an Instagram or a YouTube? Because you've, I mean, you've both seen it. People come up. They fly up and then all of a sudden you never hear of them again if they don't kind of like build a base. Totally. You know, I think for me, my, what my ultimate was like the vision really was, was that I wanted to be a household name. And if being an influencer was part of that vertical, great. But for me, it was really like, you know, I saw that there was a, my mom always laughs because I would say like, I want to be the black Betty Crocker.

And she'd be like, what? Like, this is crazy. But like there really was like this opening. And there still is for, you know, a millennial voice, someone that looks like me who sits in between like a Martha Stewart. an Oprah and like that type of vibe. And I kind of worked my way backwards from that. Like I remember early days of Snapchat.

I had like a pretty large following on Snapchat. And then brands started going to Snapchat and saying, oh, we want to create shows on Snapchat. And I remember the Food Network came to me and wanted to do a show with me on Snapchat. So I was like, okay, this is amazing. Like regardless if the show does well or not, I'm going to get on camera. experience and I get to like do what I've always kind of envisioned myself doing. So I had this show on Snapchat and it really wasn't, it didn't do a lot. I mean, really didn't move the needle. I mean,

we all know Food Network has a really hard time, I think, reaching a millennial audience. Oh, Shade at Food Network? I love Food Network. They know I love them. But like, you know, it's also, they haven't had anyone new in years on their platform. We got to keep evolving. So, you know. They should just film me in the kitchen making toast. Oh, my God. I mean, hilarious. Your show would last 20 seconds with them.

It would be like, hey, here's me not ever making one thing for their husband. He's starving to death. Hey, 20 seconds. You can get a lot done, Michael. Yeah, that's true. I made like a gourmet breakfast for myself in literally three minutes today. I was so hungry trying to get out the door on time for you. You can't tell us that.

And they'll tell us what you made. Well, I have this like artisanal sourdough toast at home. Excuse me. What's the brand? It's from this bakery called. Libreya and I just whipped that up with like some scrambled eggs with parmesan and salt and pepper and then also have this like I also wanted a little bit of sweet so I also did aside like a half toast with this pear jam from Isles of Us which is a very new chic artisanal.

That's like a better breakfast than I have like ever. So okay. I literally did it. I like make it crack on his head and I'm like, eat this bitch. Oh my God. But like food is a love language for me. So, you know, it's how I like also, it's like a little act of kindness I do for myself. At what point looking back on your life did you realize that you were an influential person? You know, when I was in college prior to social media, all of my friends at school would ask me, who's my dentist, who's my tailor, who's my hairdresser, who's, who's, person I'm going to for my nails. Who's this person? Who's that person? And I was like, oh, everyone wants like the recommendations from me. Like, that's interesting. Was it because I was like

the native New Yorker out of the group? Not really. There were other native New Yorkers. And I was like, hmm, maybe it's because of like my taste level. But then I was like, I don't really, I've got like crazy taste. I had a shaved head in college. So I was like kind of like, is this what it is. But people still really wanted my opinion. So I don't know. That's kind of when I really. realize that like, okay, something's up here. I do think that trait, which you both have, is something that you either have or you don't. I think it's like, I don't think you can even describe it. Sometimes there's certain people that people gravitate towards for that kind of advice.

Where do I go? What do I wear? All of that. And I think that is very hard to duplicate. Of course, you can work towards it. But some people have that, I feel like some people maybe just don't. Something also that I have, which I don't think necessarily a lot of people do have, is that when people meet me, they're telling me their secrets within five minutes.

of meeting me. Oh my God. See that I think is a curse for both of you because they do that happens to her too. I could be on the elevator with someone. Literally same. And they will tell me things that I'm just like, I look at Michael and I'm like what's happening? I love it. I love it. I'm not like making fun of it like go ahead and tell me everything. I mean I've had people literally say to me oh my gosh, you know I haven't even told my husband this yet. But like wait we will meet someone and I like I can struggle to get the name out of it. And the wife says. And the wife says, sitting there telling Lauren about an affair she's having for 13 years. And I'm like, what's like, nobody, I'm like, what's going on here? No, literally. Yeah, I told you, it's something you

and it's something. And it's not just women. Guys feel very comfortable telling me things as well. Like, you know, his friends sit on my lap within one minute and I'm like, get out, like, get away for me. They always want to talk about their like their issues, something that happened, that mom things. I'm like, oh my God, we're really getting, we're getting so deep, so fast. I don't know how we got here. Like, I was going to ask you're Gemini, but you said you're Scorpio. Yeah, I'm a Scorpio. I think this one's going to be a Gemini. Yeah.

Do we know the date? The date is supposed to be May 30th. Okay. But I had a dream. Okay. I had a dream it was May 21st. First of all, that's my birthday. So it is going to be May 21st.

Okay. Second of all, I had a dream with towns that he was born on 69. And my due date was the 13th and he was born on 6.9. It was, I swear to God, she told me the due date four months before he's when. She said, he'll be born on 6. No, no, what we talking about? He was born on 6.9. It was weird. Your baby is going to be born the 21st. May 21st. That's why I just asked you. Wait, that is so weird. Ritual vitamins, I have been talking about this multivitamin for women 18 plus with high quality ingredients and traceable key ingredients in clean bioavailable forms forever. And it's because they're so transparent with everything they put in this vitamin. So ritual has this essential for women 18 plus. And it's one of the things.

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they even have like a ball picker up or cart thing. And they have a whole bunch of things that are not golf. So they have loud music, giant targets in their giant fairway. They also have TVs and handcrafted food and even a beverage menu. You go there, you have this beautiful day where you're eating, you're drinking, you're watching TV. So like I said, you're getting an experience. This is so fun to do with your kids.

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Talk to us about pregnancy. Okay. We kind of talked a little bit off air. When you decided with your husband, you're going to get pregnant, were you, you someone who thought, I'm going to get pregnant. Yes, immediately. I thought I was going to get pregnant and it would be no issues and, you know, I'm a very healthy girl. I've, you know, I take care of my body. I thought that I would be just getting pregnant very easily. And what turned into a two and a half year kind of, you know, journey ended in IVF. Luckily, IVF was very successful

for us with one round of IVF, which I, you know, I know for so many people, it's not necessarily like that. And then after IVF, it really was like, IVF was kind of the win I needed mentally. And in fact, I was so upset by the fact that I was even going to have to go through IVF. It took me like a week to really wrap my head around the fact that that was going to be my narrative. And once I committed to like, okay, this is going to be my narrative. And once I owned that, I felt so much more confident. That's what I started telling my friends. That's why I stopped like, you know, feeling shame around everything.

And the journey prior to IVF was it made me so anxious and definitely like depressed during certain moments of that. I mean, every month you're expecting you're going to get pregnant and it's not happening. Explain the nitty gritty. To someone who's listening that maybe has three kids that has no idea what you're talking about, what is the nitty gritty before you decide to start doing IVF? Yeah. So basically for seven months, we tried naturally. It wasn't happening. Then we went to go see a fertility specialist. And then they put me on like hormones that would kind of indicate when I would be ovulating hormones like clomid. And I forget like the other one. But like like it make you feel insane. Yeah. Insane. Like it makes you like literally like I mean, I'm not someone who's ever experienced high mood swings or or uncomfortable periods or anything like that. And I was so irritable. I was I was not myself. I did not feel like myself on on those drugs. And I got pregnant on one of those drugs and then we had a miscarriage. And then that also was part of my spire. role because then I was like, I'm on the medications that you told me to go on and yet this is still

not the outcome. Then obviously we wanted to have, not to mention that the day that I ended up having a miscarriage, I had a book event that night for a hundred women in like a very intimate setting. And you know, and you still went to the book? Yeah, I did. I did. You know, in some ways, it was actually kind of nice because I was able to compartmentalize for a minute. and not feel the pain that I was feeling. But everyone grieves in different ways. I think I definitely, like, grieved throughout, like, the next three months after that and continue. You know, it's not something that, like, you know, just, you just get over.

But you kind of have to jump back on the horse, right? The goal still is to have a baby, right? So it's like, you kind of have to just get back on the horse and start trying again. And then I started doing IUIs. Now, IUs are otherwise known as like turkey-based stain method. So you're, again, maybe you're on the hormones. Maybe you're not. But they're taking your partner's sperm and they're implanting it in you when you are ovulating.

Are you awake? Yes. It's like literally a turkey baster? It like, yes. But like, no. It's like a little bit more scientific than that. But it's like it's not uncomfortable. It's like you're not.

But it's a sure chance to get the spencer. to the egg, right? Well, not a sure chance, but I mean they know, like, it doesn't have to do the swimming. It just, they can put it right back. Exactly. You're bypassing the swimming. Yes. Didn't work for us. So we did probably four of those. So again, like every month, I'm waiting, you know, to have a positive pregnancy test. And instead, I'm getting my period. And, you know, it's just like that's like devastating. I could see how it would be devastating, especially as a woman. I think this isn't talked about enough. When you're young, when you're like, say you're 18, you think, oh, I'm just going to be able to get pregnant right away.

You don't, no one sort of like tells you that that's not really always the way it works. Yeah. I feel like sex ed, there needs to be some layer of talking about this conversation because what ends up happening is that women like you come into the world, you get married and you think you get pregnant right away. Yeah. And there's no education. 100%. I mean, there really is no education. And I think that the education needs to happen outside of the schooling system because obviously we know that the agendas that are being pushed in school are completely different than like what's rooted in reality. And at the same time, you know, there is this stat,

which is pretty staggering, that 50% of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned. Right? So a lot of people actually are the other way. Yeah. And so I always say it's a, it's a really, real spectrum, right? So for us when we finally, we were like, okay, we're going to do IVF. And I felt like, okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to give it my all. I'm going to give myself my shots every night. And it's going to be the thing that like empowers me as opposed to me feeling like, woe is me for having to go through this. I feel like the mentality of all of that helped my positive outcome. I really do. I think, you know, your brain is also. what triggers your egg to ovulate every month.

So there is correlation if you ask me. I'm no doctor. I'm not a scientist. But I think that there is direct correlation between your mental well-being and your stress and everything that goes along with creating an environment to have an egg thrive in your uterus. I said that on a podcast and everyone came for me. everyone. I think this splits the audience because there's some people that like, I believe

it, but you said is correct. This is a past. When you're when you ruminate on something and you're so stressed about it all the time, it sometimes doesn't, it works against you. 100%. And I will say as someone who was stressed for two and a half years getting pregnant, if anyone dare to tell me to relax, I would literally punch them in the face. Well, I think that's why it splits the audience. Your body is in fight or flight. Yeah. There's the last thing you want to hear. And you're waiting on something that you can't control, which is you're waiting to see if you're going to get your period or not.

So there's that element too. You feel out of control. But there's an amazing acupuncturist that I swear by. Her name's Dr. Amy Rout. And she put out a book around the whole idea is that you can help change the quality of your eggs. through diet and mindfulness, et cetera. And I do think that there is something to that, you know, depending. The thing about fertility or infertility, I hate using the word infertility.

But the thing about it is that, again, the spectrum is so wide, right? It's not necessarily some people, it's the egg quality. Some people are dealing with fibroids. Some people are dealing with a misshaped uterus. Some people are dealing with one fallopian tube. We had someone come on that took the blame for 12 rounds of IVF and said that it was her and it was actually her husband's spurt. No.

And not to like point the blame, but like she took the blame on her show. Exactly. Bling Empire. Exactly. So there's that there's that as well. Like there's two people here in the equation as well, right? And that's also a big, big factor. I was trying to explain this test.

This was actually from a doctor that told me about this. that basically, and we had doctors on the show now, and they basically said the fertility issues are split 40% male issue, 40% female. That's never talked about. But the 40% from the male issue, which is basically even split between men and women, is not talked about nearly as much as fertility issues. Yeah. And so they do this test for men. It's like, oh, the sperm looks good and it can swim. But there's another test called the cap test to see if it's shaped in the right way to actually penetrate the egg. And they don't do that test normally. So what happens is the woman gets most of the blame in many cases where it's actually the male's issue. Right. And imagine the stress that puts on the woman because she's

sitting there thinking, this is me, but it's actually the guy. Right. And there may be no issue with the woman. Right. And I think that's just not talked about enough, one, because the lack of education and conversation on it. Not because people, men are trying to push that narrative, but people just don't, they're not educated here. Totally. On another note, you were talking about how you're potentially your mindset and the way you think could affect your egg. I believe that has to be true because it's the same way, and I'm not a woman, but if you want results from a physical standpoint in the gym, if you're constantly worrying about your body and your image and your stress about your weight, it's so much harder to get that result you're looking for in the gym because that cortisol is all over the place and throwing your hormones

off. And then you can't, you know what I mean? It's like when you're constantly fixated on the stress or something, it actually makes it way worse. But if you sit back and relax and say, I'm just going to join into the process and be happy with the process. It makes it a lot of times the result much easier to achieve. I do agree. And I also think that, you know, it's so complicated being a woman, you know, expected to have all of these different, you know, levels of achievements from every aspect of our life, as well as being maternal, as well as look a certain way and to, you know, have a business and, you know, feed your kids. I go, honey, I'm not an octopus. Yeah, exactly. I'm so excited to my toddler. Literally. Not an octopus. And, you know,

it's interesting also for like the gym girlies especially who are really looking to like look a certain way and they put in a lot of effort, you know, and they're, they're diligent about their diets. The other thing I get frustrated about is that a lot of these mainstream kind of like biohacking movements are really geared towards men. They don't have women's hormones in mind. So a lot of the things that the women are doing are actually not benefiting them in the way that they're hoping to. Like what? Well, and call it out. And this is your opinion, call it out. Like, I don't think keto is a way that women should be eating all the time. I actually think keto would be really good to be while you're in your follicular phase of your cycle.

But that's like for four days of a month. We just had Gracie Norton come on and she like naturally healed her PCOS. Oh, Gracie Norton. She's adorable. British? No. Oh, sorry. Okay.

And she's, she loves. like eating to her cycle. Yes, me too. Me too. I love eating and working out to my cycle. So explain that. Like explain a month. And you gotta bear with me because I'm not good with this period cycle thing.

Okay. So, okay. So basically, let's start with the bleeding. Okay, that's your mental cycle. That's usually the time when you are a raging bitch.

Well, okay. So honestly, if you were to implement this, it kind of helps optimize your hormone. that you aren't feeling such intense mood swings. Perfect. Let's stay on this for a while.

Okay. Okay. So when you're menstruating, there are certain foods that you should be eating. A lot of them are rooted in like miso and kind of root vegetables, brown rice. A very kind of almost for me, like an Asian cuisine is how I like to think about it. Okay. Which is funny because I always used to create like Asian food when I'm on my period. That's also when you should prioritize napping, when you should not push yourself to go to the gym,

but rather like maybe you should do a restorative yoga class, maybe get out for a walk. But that's like really it. Then when you move into your follicular phase, that's like the phase right after your period's done. Okay. You usually have a surge in energy. That's when like juicing is great and eating more raw foods is really good. And that's also when you could do some intermittent fasting if you wanted. And that's also when you should be doing cardio.

Okay. Like a soul cycle, dance class, whatever. Okay. Then you move into your ovulation phase. Ovulation, I'm forgetting exactly. I mean, I'm seven months pregnant. So I have like, I have things like saved on my phone that I refer to all the time. So it's just easy for me to like, you know, if I'm out at a restaurant and I want to be, you know, eating something in my ovulatory phase, like all.

look and it's like, oh, don't quote me on this. But like salmon, shrimp and scallops are great for this phase. Like, I'm going to order the scallops on the menu. You know what I mean? That's kind of how I like Is this the flow app that you follow? Yes. That's what it's called. Yeah. I got to get this flow up. Everyone says this. So I interviewed Alyssa Viti, who's the founder and author of this book. She also wrote Woman Code. I interviewed her six years ago. And she is a fascinating woman. And she's the one who's like talking about sarcadian rhythms, but for women,

it's called the infradian rhythm. It's this 28-day cycle that has been kind of like ignored by mainstream fads. Well, the reason it's been ignored by me is because I'm very overwhelmed

already with the calendar. Like, I don't know what the date is. Do you know what the date is right now? I live and die by my calendar. So what's the date? Today is the eighth. If you paid me a billion dollars right now,

I would have said the third. Today is the eighth, next Wednesday is the 15th. Okay, so my brain isn't wired to like think like that. So then to have to add another month. Like, it's just very unfair to me that the woman has to also keep track of this.

Well, can't you just like... You think it's unfair that you have to know what day it is? No, I think it's unfair that I have to also like track my whole cycle and all. Like, it's, it's annoying. Sure, but... It's not not annoying.

Listen, it's not as, it's not, but it's no, it's complicated being a woman. Oh, it's like they do nothing. I do agree with you that like a lot of these practices, I mean, listen, and this is maybe in a 2023 world a controversial statement to make, but I think when it comes to health and health optimization and wellness and those routines, I think bucketing men and women in the same buckets and having them operate the same way is not necessarily the most beneficial way to go about.

No, it's detrimental. Yeah, right? And like, I mean, people don't like when you say that. Here's another one. For example. Doctors don't even know how women metabolize pain. For example. I don't believe that women should take intermittent fasting as far as men do because I think our body's composition is different.

So if I do a 16 or 18 hour fast, that may be good for me, but it may not be good for my wife. Another one that someone said, which was super interesting is I am obsessed with cold plunging cold showers, like anything cold. Oh, you love cold? Everything cold. But I have a friend who's trying to get pregnant. And she's and her Chinese medicine doctor said, do not get cold. No, don't get cold. At this moment, I'm not trying to get pregnant, so I will be in the cold. But that makes sense about what you're saying. It's like you have, as women, it's great for men. He goes in and tightens everything up. But here's the other example. For men, getting hot when you're trying to get pregnant is not good because it takes the spread. So that's a perfect example. For women, you should not be cold. For men, you should not be hot. And if you know what I mean? If you don't have that distinction, it's difficult. It's true. It's true. No, you need to be warm. You need to create a warm, cozy, beautiful.

environment in your uterus. I used to do this visualization, which I don't know. I smoke a lot of weed in my life. So here I am, but this is what I thought about a lot when I was trying to get. Allegedly. Allegedly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Is like, you know, this beautiful, like, plush, pink velvet bedroom, like, clam bed. And, like, my little pearl egg is, like, nestling in and just, like, Netflix and chilling. Like, that's. That's what I want. That's what I wanted to happen every month. And that's what I visualized. And that's what I really, I honed in on that when I was doing my implantations. And yeah, I don't know. That was just a good little visual that always kind of helped me, like, actually think about the end result and like getting there. When you found out that you have to do IVF, you, when you decided you were going to own it, you said that you were like relieved and you owned it. Did you take your audience along with you the whole process? Yeah, not in. real time, but I videotaped absolutely everything and then put out like a whole thing about it later, about the process of myself giving my shots. And, you know, when I, I did two implantation. So the first

implantation I did didn't work. And so I was very transparent about that as well. And I never talked about how many embryos we got just because that's such a sensitive thing for women going through IVF. But because some people, you know, they have to go through multiple rounds and they don't get anything or sometimes they go through a round and only have one and then they do the transfer and it didn't work it's just it's such a fragile it's such a fragile process so i tried to be as transparent as possible with showing like you know what it looked like what happened to me with also being very you know emotionally aware of other people's journeys what was more bothersome to you pain wise when they and i'm i'm going to flub the words when they do the ember or they

Take the eggs? When they do the, yeah. Or when they implant. It's a horrible word. It's definitely. What's the right verbiage? It's literally disgusting. I hate this word.

They call it the harvest. Is that not the most disappointing thing? The way you said it. No, it's disgusting. It freaks me out. Your ex-business partner made it up. So that, by the way, is way more painful than an implantation. An implantation actually feels like nothing.

So taking the eggs and. and creating the embryo with those eggs hurts more, that process. Just the taking of the eggs. They create the embryos not inside of you or anything. So it's them extracting the eggs. And think about it. Like the whole process of IVF is to make multiple eggs. So normally your body makes one.

And now your body's like making several. So you feel really bloated by the end, right? Because you're essentially like, again, sorry for this terminology. You're like carrying around like a sack of eggs. Okay. And that's what they're taking out. And that's, they put you under for that. Okay. So, and the recovery for that is like three days on the couch with like Netflix, allegedly smoking weed and having a lot of bone broth. Okay. So to prepare for the implementation, is that what you call it? Yeah. What was that like was that hard? Did you have to do a bunch of shots before then too? No, but I did a lot of holistic things. So I went to this woman who does this like ancient, ancient. abdominal like Mayan massage and she really like organizes all of your organs and like organizes like your energy to receive genius yeah and so I did that I'm pretty sure like I did a yoni steam I thought you have to do a bunch of shots before you get implanted with no egg no you don't

you don't I actually went on like I'm pretty sure my what I did was I went on estrogen patches so that we knew, because I didn't do like a natural cycle. I wanted to do a medicated cycle, which means like I just wanted to know, I wanted to schedule the day that we were going to do the implantation. I didn't want them to have to like take my temperature or blood work every day to know when I was ovulating. And so then I took shots. Then I take progesterone shots in my ass.

Yeah. Is that the big needle? That's what my friend did. Yeah. The needle's huge, right? Yeah. It's that's. For how long?

14 weeks. Wait, how many months is that? We're not good at math. Three and a half months. You took that needle. You guys, this needle, my friend Faith, showed it on Instagram.

It is a baseball bat. Yeah. Okay, don't freak everybody out. It's a big needle. It's a big needle. Listen, I was so nervous that my body wasn't going to do what it was supposed to do on its own

that I would rather stick a needle in my ass to make sure that my body was going to receive the nutrients and hormones. Okay. To keep the baby. Did you do that yourself? I did. My husband has a tremor. So there's no way I'm letting him near me with a needle.

He has a tremor too. Great. Yeah. The old tremor. I know. I know. I know. Wait.

So, so when you had to do that shot every single day, I'm so petrified of needles. Are you having to mentally prepare yourself or do you start to get used to it? You start to get used to it. So it's not. a big deal after what? Well, the motivation is there, right? The motivation is there. Yeah. I mean, listen, I hated needles too, but going through IVF got me comfortable with needles. And then, like, the progesterone shots are really, I mean, for lack of a terrible pun, a pain of my ass.

But it really was, you know what, it was the one thing I felt like I could control. Okay, that makes sense. Did you get pregnant your first time doing IVF? So I got pregnant the second implantation. So after I did IVF, I took like three months off because I was like, I just need to mentally get back to a place where I feel really excited and good and not drained emotionally, et cetera. And so my first implantation didn't work. And then the second implantation did work. Okay. And so now you have a two and a half year old. Yes, I do. And then what about with this baby? Second implantation as well. Second implantation. I actually did get pregnant with the first implantation, then I got into a bit of a scooter accident and I miscarried shortly after getting pregnant.

God, you've been through it. Yeah. But there must be a plan with these babies. 100%. 100%. Everything happens in the time it's supposed to. And I know that that's also a really hard thing to hear or really believe when you are like in the thick of your journey because it just feels so unfair.

But I don't know. I do believe that there is divine timing. Let's take a pause to talk about one of our new partners, one that I personally could not be more excited about, and that is Masterclass. Lorne and I have been huge fans of the Masterclass platform for years now. We have both actually taken multiple Masterclasses, which I will share in a minute. But for those of you that are unfamiliar with Masterclass, let me share a little more. Masterclass is accessible anywhere you get your online content, your phone, your computer, the web, and even your smart TV. They offer classes on a wide range of topics taught by world class instructors who have reached the pinnacles of the

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listeners get 20% off their first order by going to vagamore.com slash skinny. Use code skinny at checkout. That's vagamore.com slash skinny code skinny. You save 20% off your first order. V-E-G-A-M-O-U-R.com slash skinny, Vagamore.com slash skinny. How are you balancing everything that's going on? You're pregnant. You have a two and a half year old, your husband, your businesses. How do you balance it all? It's definitely a lot, but I like feel so grateful and passionate about what my work is.

I'm really excited to also have Preston and this new baby, like, know what like it's like to come from two working parents. Like my mom was a stay at home mom and did so much for us and was such a proactive parent. but I didn't see her work in the way that I, like, feel like I'm going to show my kids what, like, my work ethic is like, I just feel so grateful to do the work that I do. Like, I get to find cool companies, invest in them, mentor them, get to work with different brands, create content that I love, engage with the community that, like, has been a part of this journey for the last, like, you know, decade. And I feel like we are a new breed of working women that we didn't necessarily see before. us and that's really exciting to me. And I don't know. I just have a, I have a lot of ambition and I have a lot of energy and I have help. And so I feel like for me, that's kind of like what I'm excited about every morning when I wake up. Can we talk about your work a little bit, specifically

the investing side? And I think you're the perfect person because like I said earlier, there's a lot of aspiring business people listening to this show, whether they have a business or they're looking to invest themselves or learn more about it. And I think the top. The top of the top of the time. And I think the topic of investing can become so overwhelming, right? You think, to your point, a bunch of guys in Patagonia suits sitting in our blaze, whatever the hell those things are, the puffers. Yeah, yeah. And thinking, you know, about investing. I don't picture it as a puffer. Well, you know what I mean. You know how I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah. It's those goddamn white VCs, those people. But, you know, and people like, how do they get investment dollars? How do they

even take it out? If they're a business themselves, when did they think about it? If you're thinking personally about writing angel checks, I think this is a broad topic, but you have done a lot of this. And I think maybe taking it from the perspective of getting started, potentially investing, or if you're a business that is looking for investment dollars, that perspective as well. Okay. Yeah. So why don't we start with like the angel investment side of things? So for me, I really started angel investing about six years ago. And what kind of started out as mentorship and advising then kind of grew into like a financial commitment. And so I remember one of the first people I ever invested in was a girlfriend of mine who had sold her business and was starting a new tech

company based off of the pain point of her last company. She had run a studio based in New York. And she said her biggest problem was that she couldn't have the, she didn't know where to get the retention for her instructors. It was a lot of turnover and she had a lot of hard time like sourcing that talent. She created a platform called talent hack, which basically is a LinkedIn for all workout professionals. She's actually the first Latinx woman to raise over like $15 million in her like tech company. When she came to me with like when she was raising money for that, I had known her already as a as a founder. She'd someone who had sold her business. And I was like, okay, like I would love to invest in this. This sounds really interesting. I also know this industry

really well. And I would agree that this is a really, that this is a really, that this is a really, is necessary for fitness professionals. I know so many people who want this. That's kind of how I thought about my first investment. Now when I'm like the criteria of which that I'm going to write you a check is very different. The landscape is very different now. I've refined kind of what my thesis looks like. What are those points?

Now it's really I'm investing solely in minority founders. So a lot of people of color and a lot of women and a lot of women of color. And wellness is my North Star. So whether you're direct-to-consumer brand CPG or B-to-B technology, hardware, SaaS, like, these are all different verticals of kind of what your business is classified as. And then who is your audience? Do I resonate with that audience? Do I think that the audience is big enough? Are you, is it a crowded space or do I really see a potential of like extreme growth?

Who's someone that has hit those points that you've invested in that you can talk about? So there's an amazing company called Topicals. They're one of the fastest growing. So cute. I know exactly what you're talking about. You're one of the fastest growing brands in Sephora. Adorable. She is 26 Ghanaian and she in under two years, I mean, they closed their series A.

She has a $100 million valuation. And I mean, this company, I spoke to her during her pre-seed round when she was first raising her first, you know, capital. And she told me that where the company was rooted from or rooted in, which is that in dermatology, melanated skin is really not studied. And so a lot of the solutions that are out there are not made for melanated skin. Therefore, women with melanated skin are having issues finding the right products for them. So she wanted to make a company that was kind of rooted in skin issues that are normally for like derms,

like, what's it called when you have eczema, sorry, like eczema, hyperpigmentation, and other kind of skin conditions like that. She wanted to create topical ointments that were going to be like a problem solve for women of color. Wow. Yeah, which you're like, oh, my gosh, that's so smart. And then she took it out of the Durham's office and put it in a direct-to-consumer. Cute packaging.

Very cute packaging and really omni-channel approach. She has killed it with her marketing. She's really brought a new consumer to Sephora, which I think is also very hard. She's hitting her numbers like crazy. And she, yeah, she's really, she's killing it. But there are a lot of brands that I've invested in that I've drewing really well. Like gold, for instance, which is now sold in Target. Sienna natural is also sold in Target a hair care brand.

There's Wellery, which is a kind of Noom competitor, but for millennials that are, it's really, and actually they just got covered by insurance. And then I do a lot of stuff in fertility. I did an SPV. So we can go into that too. Sure. An SPV for Kind Body, which is the largest female fertility company in the U.S.

Actually, last week they just raised another $100 million and now are valued at $1.8 billion. Oh. This CEO is an absolute rock star. Gina Bartassi is someone who I look up to. And I'm grateful that she even took a chance. on me. So I had a call with her. I got connected and it was their Series C, which is very outside of

what I normally invest in. I normally invest in pre-seed, seed, maybe a Series A. When I realized to the magnitude of the amounts of money that she had already raised, I kind of was like, oh my God, like my check size like as a penny compared to what you've done. But could I have a large allocation because I have a lot of women who would want to invest in this? I'll do an SPV for you. First of all, didn't even understand the words that were coming out of my own mouth. I had never done an SPV before. And I wasn't going to tell her that it was my first time doing one. And on the phone, she was like, yes.

And I was like, oh, my God. So I hung up the phone. So you brought a collection of different investors into this vehicle. That was your vehicle. But at least you were the principal of that vehicle. Yes. And I got, and I will make a principal kind of commission on that. I'll take a management fee oversubscribed on that allocation.

and that was my, that was really an exhilarating experience for me because I got so many women, mostly, I think all women actually, in that SPV, including some amazing celebrities. And Gina was so impressed that she put out a press release about it. She asked me to go on CNBC with her. And I'm like, you have like crazy people on your cap table. Like, are you sure you want me? She's like, yes, I want you. And your story really resonates with our audience about your own journey with IV.

And then I was like, oh my God, this is so reward. Like, I can't express how rewarding that was for me. And their Kind Body's whole thesis is really to reduce the cost of IVF and have it like very readily accessible because IVF has been in the shadows for so long. And it's so expensive for most people. It's not covered by insurance. And now Kind Body has a huge enterprise part of their business as well where they have Amazon, Blackstone. Walmart all kind of and Disney all on their enterprise they're building kind body clinics on those properties one in Orlando one in Arkansas that's very smart because remember when like

remember when like I think it was like I want to say like 15 years ago when all these celebrities started having twins and there was no talk of IVF like I never remember equating the the surge of twins with IVF. Neither did I. And now you look back and you're like, oh, they had access to these things that weren't accessible to anyone. Right. That was probably 10 times more expensive than it is now even. Totally.

That's really cool to be able to make it accessible to everyone. I think that's awesome. Yeah. And then when you bring in social media, like, so then the SPV thing got really exciting to me. I was like, oh, I could do this for a couple other brands. I mean, it took a lot of work. So I was probably like. You've got to bring everybody else in, right?

Yeah. You've got to kind of almost sell them to trust you and the decisions you're making. Exactly. And coordinating that is a lot. And getting people to open their checks, checkbooks, period is something in itself. And it's like, it really is an art. And it's not one that I'm like, you know, great at. But I have a really good eye on the companies that I want to do these types of SPVs for.

And therefore, I can sell it. But I would never take something on that I didn't truly believe. So I was doing an SPV for a company called Poppy Seed Health, which is an amazing telehealth company, also covered by insurance, that is a mix. You've, like, your poppy tribe. So be a text for, like, I think it's 50 bucks a month. You have access to a lactation consultant, a nurse, and a doula. You can text support with them.

So, like, you can text about anything and they'll write you back, like, immediately. Wow. And they also have a miscarriage hotline support system, which is really incredible. I was hosting a breakfast for potential investors for this SPV that I was doing. And the founder made all these gorgeous materials. And so I thought to myself, you know what? Everything looks so beautiful. I'm just going to put some stuff on my Instagram stories and let people know that I'm doing an SPV for this company.

Smart. I said, if you want to learn more about this SPV, fill out this Google form. I probably had like, I don't know, 25 people fill out the Google form. From that Google form, I sent out an email with more information, et cetera, and I ended up having four women come in, which equated to almost $90,000. Or into the SDV. There's people, I say this all the time, there's people that are following you, that are looking to invests.

And a lot of this, I was going to touch on it. This is like access, right? Like, you may get access to some of these founders that even regular investors who want to deploy, they may have capital, don't get access to you because they're not, how do I say this nicely? I may find you and say, look at this amazing platform and following you've built. I want to have a conversation with you about potentially getting involved in the business where somebody else who doesn't have that platform or that following. They may have a big checkbook, but they don't get the conversation. I don't even know they exist. Which then, you know,

that whole experience and bringing in capital through Instagram stories, like really sparked, like, how can we democratize access to capital? You know, why aren't there more crowdfunding platforms. Now, crowdfunding is still kind of considered a taboo thing in the world of venture capital. And like, why is that? Why, you know, the systems we have in place right now are so, they do not allow for newcomers, right? It's like IVF, though, how it was 10 years ago. It's, it's very parallel. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, you're not wrong. As much as investing in picking good companies, it's also about having visibility into those companies and having the inbound to even see, you know, what's out there. One question, because I know we're running up on time,

from a founder or operator's perspective, what are some mistakes you see people make that are seeking capital? They come to you and maybe it's a pass or it's a no and it may be the common mistakes potential founders can avoid when they're seeking out capital. I think a common mistake is that people need capital to start their business. You do not need capital to start your business. In fact, as an investor, I want to see that you've bootstrapped your business and gotten it to a place where we know there is product market fit. And that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for at least a beta of something, you know? And it's, you need to go out to your friends and family. They'll keep more equity if they do that too. 100%. Exactly. You will be less diluted at the end of

the day if you are able to create something that is already standing on two legs as opposed to just a concept. Because if I come to you for a check and I have nothing, you're taking a huge chunk because there's nothing yet. 100%. And I do think that at the same time, this is a little bit unfair to say because we know that black and brown founders historically do not have the same network that white founders have. And therefore, their friends and family, you're working with a much smaller pool of capital. But now that there are so many different crowdfunding platforms, there are ways and bank loans, etc. Like, you need to be savvy and have a bit of a hustler mentality because there are ways of bringing in capital. that will allow you to like have more ownership at the end of the day. And then once you're going out to raise money from, you know, friends and family angels or VCs, it looks like you've got your shit together in a completely different way. Yeah. I also think it's worth being said and sometimes people really, in my world, if I get pitched like an idea, I always tell people when they get mad

of this. The idea to me is worth nothing. Everybody has an idea, right? I'm looking for the execution and everybody thinks that this unique idea has some value because it's their idea. I guess, guarantee you, you're not the first person, especially in this world. And so I think what you're saying is by seeing someone who's demonstrated that they can execute and stand something up and bootstrap it, they've taken it from an idea to an actual thing, an actual company, an actual product, which then is worth something. But an idea to me is worth nothing. Right. I think it's also really important for founders to understand their strengths and understand their weaknesses. Like not every founder is a CEO. And that's okay. You know what I mean? But to understand that, you know, maybe you are the

marketer or maybe you are the finance person. Like, you know, understanding that you want to bring in that other role is really important in the ecosystem of your of your business. I'm working to become the janitor of my business because I'm tired. I'm just kidding. But no, I think all these points are so valid. And, you know, to your point, this world seems overwhelming, the world of angel investing, VC investing. And I think people don't know where to begin. And they have this idea and they say they bootstrap. They got this thing. It's like, where do I even go? Who do I and reach out to. And I think understanding that there is this optionality is important. I think that everyone will kill me if I don't ask you about like your morning routine. You got to

give us your morning routine before you leave because you are so known for wellness. Give us some wellnessy things to do. Okay. Do you scrape your tongue? Yeah. Okay. Good. Of course. I mean, I can't hang out with people that don't scrape your tongue. I don't oil pull though. That's okay. As long as you should. No, it's too much and it fucks up the sink. It's too much. It's too much. Also, I've had like a crazy dental journey. So like these teeth are all. fake. I had three of my teeth pulled. Your teeth do not look fake. They look beautiful and white. Thank you. Yeah, I got into a bike accident and broke my four of my front teeth. Your teeth look beautiful. Thank you. It's been a long

journey. So yes, I do scrape my tongue because oral health is really a huge, huge thing in my house. Side note, you should stay off bikes and scooters. No more. You know what? That is a very great observation. We always say that in my house. No more two wheels. No more two wheels. No more two wheels. So yes, I do scrape my tongue. I also do like facial acupressure with my. You know what my little, we're actually putting out an HB fit reflexology, facial reflexology tool. I'm your girl. You got to send me one of those. I will be sending me one.

I mean, I'll buy it. But like, no, no, you got to send me for that one. It's up. Yeah. It's because, you there's so much you can do. Like, your face has all of these different points. So I'm always giving myself a facial massage in the morning, you know, helping depuff, et cetera.

I brought you pink balls to depuff. Oh, amazing. Balls on your face. Love balls on my face. Yep. Great. Perfect. Taylor, pull that clip.

Yeah. Exactly. And then what else am I doing? I'm starting. My toddler even says he's like warm water for mama because I start my day with a big glass of warm water, either with a little bit of salt, some lemon. And then I mean, during this pregnancy, like I'm eating like first thing in the morning. Normally, like I don't get that hungry until like kind of mid-morning, but I'm like eating breakfast with my toddler at like 7.30 in the morning. I don't know. What else am I doing in the morning? It could be night too. Any wellnessy things that you love.

facial massage, like facial reflexology. I love a long shower. Sometimes I'm like, what am I doing? What food do you think is going to have a moment? Any food that you think is like up and coming that like we're not paying attention to? I think that the rice category is going to have a big West African influence. Like Jall off rice is going to come into more ethnic, like exciting brands are going to be kind of shaped. shaking up the goyas of the world. I'm into it. I have a rice cooker out, out and ready.

You know what? Rice is such a good thing to have around for a toddler. I love rice. Rice cooker. My daughter wakes up at you in the morning and screams rice when she's hungry. Oh, my God. Rice is loud as she can scream. Scream.

So rice is great. You know what? Rice water rinses for your hair is also like a big thing and they're not enough. They're like aren't really that many hair products that are rooted in rice water. I feel like that's an. H-B-Fit product that needs to come. It could be. It could be. Yeah. And then what else am I doing? I don't know. We have covered a lot of ground. Oh, I love my L-A-D light masks. 100%. But like, I feel like that's

not even wellness anymore. Like that's just like, but I guess it is. It's wellness. It is. What can we expect to find on your site? HB. FIT's marketplace is a highly curated marketplace where we have some portfolio brand products as well as other brands that we just love and are obsessed with. curated by you that you love. Absolutely. So we can essentially go and shop all the things that you've picked. It's kind of like you being in college and people being like, where can I find it? Exactly. It's my shop. I love it. I love it. Which we're really excited about. So we've been building that out. New brands are coming to the site like, you know, every week. So that's been really, really fun and exciting. And these brands are really excited to come onto the site just because I think

curated marketplaces in general are also a very interesting new kind of world of marketplace. It's like kind of like curation as a service. Yeah, it's like having your own like market. Yeah. You've picked everything. Exactly. I love it. Where can everyone find you, follow you, DM you. Okay, so you can find me on. Get on your cap d'able. On Instagram and on TikTok. I'm Hannah Bronfman. And then you can follow HB Fit on Instagram and check out our website. We also have newsletters that go out. We have an HB Fit newsletter and then my personal newsletter as well. It goes out bimonthly and I think that's like everywhere I am. I know that people have wanted you to come on this podcast for so long. I even feel like I DM'd you in 2020. You literally did. And I like saw it

recently. I was like how that's okay. This was meant to happen like this. Okay. You can come back anytime that we're in New York. Thank you. Your baby is going to be born on March or your baby's going to be born on May 21st. I I think it I think you might have like the witch. witchiness. Like, I think it's... If it happens, then, like, I'll fully be like she has it because I've seen it a few times now. Oh, my God. I mean...

And Riki flipped my baby in my stomach. Okay, let's not go down the rabbit. You mean Rakey? Wait, Reiki. I was like, Riki's a person or Rakey's the thing. You have a big pronunciation issue. I have a pronunciation issue on the show. We get a lot of terrible reviews about it, but it is what it is at this point.

My mom's like a Rakee master. Yes. And I'm like a Rakey one, but I haven't really practiced in a long time. Is the baby breach? No. Okay. If anyone has a breach baby, Rakey.

Okay. Reiki. Okay. Okay. Okay. Hannah, thanks for coming on. Guys, thank you so much. This was amazing.

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