The Bossticks - Happy Hour with Lauryn's BFF, Erica Stolman of Fashionlush - Branding, Misconceptions, Monetization, Growing, & Common Mistakes

Episode Date: May 31, 2019

#192: Lauryn's best friend, Erica Stolman & her mom, Linda Stolman drop by to talk blogger strategy, high school, relationships, influencers, & so much more realness. Lauryn also discusses her anxiety in the beginning of the episode & shares tips and tricks for people dealing with anxiousness.  To connect with Erica Stolman click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential 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 Blog-Doo Whether you are just getting started or looking to elevate the strategy behind your blog, the blog-doo secret tips eBook will help get you on your way to turning your blog into your business. The eBook includes case studies from industry professionals, interactive worksheets, tips on monetizing your blog, social media best practices, photography tutorials, a complete list of blogger resources, & now… When you purchase the Blog-Doo Secrets eBook you will also receive a bonus audio segment from our founders, Erica Stolman of Fashionlush & Lauryn Evarts of The Skinny Confidential. They share their launch stories, tips on how they grew their audience, secret photo editing tips, & much MORE! Visit www.blogdoosecrets.com and use code HIMANDHER for 10% Off your order This episode is brought to you by FitVine For Him & Her listeners, FitVine is offering 10% off your first order a www.FitVineWine.com. From now until July 31st, use code SKINNY10 at checkout to redeem your discount. Plus when you order a case, shipping is included! Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. Guys, this episode is brought to you by BlogDoo. You may have heard of BlogDoo because it's owned by me and Erica, aka Fashion Lush. So we started BlogDoo a couple years ago because we saw a space in the market for bloggers. And off that, we've created this incredible community on Facebook and now we have an e-book. This e-book is basically every single one of our tips and tricks on how to be a blogger and how to create content in one spot. blogging is hard work. It's not a joke. But with these tips and tricks, you will take your blog and brand to the next level, which we love. We're offering all TSC, him and her listeners, 10% off for a limited time. Go to blog dosecrets.com and enter the code him and her at checkout for 10% off your copy today, especially if you want to take your blogger brand to the next level. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Mike.

Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Aha! I do think there's nothing more that bothers me than an influencer who gets. You look so pretty. Where did you get your shirt? I love those shoes.

What size did you get that sweatshirt in? And they are not responding. That's your job. That's like that and creating content are your jobs. And without that audience, you're going to ignore them. You might lose them. I can show you the world shining, shimmering splendor. Tell me, princess, now, when did you last let your heart decide?

Oh my God, I spilled coffee. Oh, fuck. Welcome to the skinny confidential hymn and here podcast. I just spilled coffee on a brand new table. Lauren, welcome to the show. Wow, the way you pronounce words is worse than me. I mean, guys, Michael is out of office. So me and Taylor are doing whatever the fuck we want to do.

And we wanted to introduce it with a Disney song with Taylor spilling sticky, sugary coffee. I don't know what that is. I don't know why. We got to get you some new coffee. Michael's literally going to kill me. He'll be fine. Michael's eyeing us with his peripheral, though, outside the studio just to let you know. He just winked at me.

It's never happened. Guys, we are back. We are here. We're live. You just have me today. Well, just for the intro. And then once we get into it, you're going to have Erica, who's been my best friend since we were 12 of fashion lush and her amazing, and I want to say amazing mom, Linda Stollman,

who's been quite the sensation on Instagram. But before we get into it, I wanted to check in, say what up, do things my way since Michael isn't micromanaging me. Taylor, you know he does that. Like, he's so stiff. He really does. He's always watching out of the corner of his eye and making just these, this grimacing face marks just to be able to make sure that we're basically beating to his drum.

Yeah. And so when daddy's out of the office, we play. We do what we want. And today, I just wanted to check in and see what's up, kind of tell you what's been going on in my life. And maybe, you know, I don't know, kind of tell you what's been going on in my life. So for the past two weeks, I have had the worst anxiety ever. I don't know why.

Well, I do know why. There's a couple things. A couple family things that I've been dealing with that I'll maybe talk about soon, but not at this moment just because it's not my story to tell. And then just like a lot of transition and travel and being all over the place and chaos. And I don't know why, but in the last two weeks, it's gone out of control. And I know there's a lot of bloggers that talk about anxiety. So I'm not saying that I'm unique. I'm just saying that I think that part of my platform is sharing my journey and my story. And if there's anything that you can take away and apply to your own life, that makes me

happy. So I just wanted to hop on here and get real and tell you guys how I've been feeling. So like I said, anxiety has been at an all time high the last two weeks. Out of control, kind of anxiety that's like prickles through your body, like pit in the stomach, as the toasters would say. And just not feeling 100%. So I wanted to give you some tools with how I've been dealing with that because I finally am starting to feel better. So I notice that when my anxiety is at a high, it's typically because of outside forces, which is not very stoic of me. And that's something that I'm really trying to work on. I try to work on that by writing in the morning pages, which I talk about on the skinny confidential. It's basically a three-page mind dump every single morning where I just projectile my thoughts on a small

piece of paper, three pieces of paper. And then I don't judge myself. You know what I mean? Like I'm not judging myself for my writing or what I'm talking about. I'm just getting it out. And then also, you know, I practice Stoicism from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday. It's basically this book where you start at the date that you're at. So if you opened it up today, you would start at today's date. You wouldn't start at the beginning and you read a page a day and you just take notes on each page. And anyway, I noticed that when I fall off of those two practices, the anxiety gets worse. So when the anxiety started to creep in two weeks ago. I started making it a point to do my stoicism and my morning pages every single morning. Another thing, and this is so boring, but it really does help,

is meditation. Meditation has really helped me the last two weeks because it's just been grounding. And here's a hot tip. I was meditating in my bed every single morning for 10 minutes with headspace. So basic bitch, and I feel like it's overheard L.A., but that's the truth. And I was opening the shades because I like light in my bedroom when I wake up because I feel like it tricks your brain into thinking, yo, it's time to wake up. I have this like little rooftop area in my house and I go and I take a towel and I just sit up there and take my coffee and meditate outside. And I don't know why, but I feel like it's grounding. And I'll tell you what grounding is. People think this is crazy, but it's actually a thing. You can Google it. So basically what grounding is is when your feet actually

touches the earth. Now, I'm not touching the earth with my earth. my feet because I'm on a rooftop, but I'm just outside. I'm getting all that natural energy from outside. I mean, of course, I'm sitting under an umbrella, because let's be honest, I don't want to be in the sun. But at least I'm getting the fresh air. I'm around the sky. There's plants on my rooftop. It just feels very grounding to me. And grounding is basically, if you really want to do grounding, right, you go to the beach, you take your shoes off and you walk down the beach. And all the ions from the sand, like, seep into your skin. I know this sounds crazy, but it's actually a thing, scientifically proven, the ions from the sand and the earth make you feel really good.

And if you think about it, when is the last time your feet actually touch the earth? Like, Taylor, really think about that. And again, if you're out there rolling your eyes, go Google it. It's a thing. It's called grounding. And also just breathing in the ocean air feels really good. My tip here would be to wear a hat because you're in the sun. But you know what I mean?

It's just that natural environment makes you feel really good. another thing that is really helping with my anxiety is my husband and I really when I'm in my anxieties at a high I have to talk it out with someone and Michael's a really good sounding board and you don't have to have a husband or a boyfriend or whatever you just I would recommend going to someone who's logical not emotional so I'm not going to call my most emotional friend when I'm feeling emotional and feeling anxiety and blah blah I'm going to call someone who's super logical and even keeled, even though Michael sometimes isn't even killed, Taylor, sometimes he is, sometimes he isn't. Like, you just don't know what day the week it is. Recently, Michael's been

very even keeled. He's always logical and he sort of like talks me off the cliff. Like he just gives me real facts as opposed to making the situation worse. So I would recommend finding a friend that's logical. It could be an outside perspective too. It doesn't need to be your best friend. and sometimes talking to someone who's out of the situation is really powerful. Another thing that I've been doing every single day since my anxiety struck was walking. So whether it's on a treadmill, is it treadmill or treadmill? A tread meal would be something that you're eating. Okay, but I say treadmeal and you say like a lot of weird words that you said in the beginning.

Treadmill. Okay, whatever. I'll do that or I'll just walk outside while I'm doing my conference calls. And even just like getting that movement feels really good in my system. I make it a point, as you know, in my calendar to work out seven days a week. I usually hit five or six of those. But the point is, is I make a commitment to myself. And I notice when I lack on the commitments to myself, that gives me anxiety.

Because if I can't keep the commitment to myself, then I can't keep commitments to other people. If you notice yourself saying, I'm going to lose five pounds by this day, here's how I'm going to do it. You have your whole strategy and you don't do it. That's breaking a commitment to yourself. If you say, I'm going to wash my face every night before I go to bed and you don't do it, that's breaking commitments to yourself. And if you're constantly breaking those little commitments to yourself, how is anyone else supposed to take your commitment seriously to them? And I've learned a lot about that through Ed Milet. That's a podcaster that I always turn on in the morning. He's super intense. But I mean, I love intense. We know that. But I just feel like the way that

he runs his life is how I want to be. He runs it with a lot of integrity. He runs it with integrity to himself. And he's constantly trying to better himself. I never want to get comfortable. We're kind of going off on tangents today, but that's okay because Michael's not on the show to micromanage me, right, Taylor? He loves to micromanage everybody. Taylor's scrolling through porn on Instagram. So there's that. Pornhub.com. What's up? Yeah. You jiz. Shout out to you jiz. I started to step back outside of my anxiety and see what was causing it. And we talked about this. It was outside forces. And this goes back to stoicism. I have to constantly remind myself that if I can't control something and it's not in my sort of bubble in my space, I need to let it go because there's

nothing I can do. And that's something that I've really learned this year. I recently wrote a birthday post on the Skinny Confidential. You pull up the blog. I think it's like a couple posts down and it's three things I learned this year and that is one of them. It's like if I can't control other people's reactions, I can only control my own reactions. So that's something that I feel when I get off base with gives me anxiety. And then I think that with anxiety, it's really important that you get enough sleep and this is so boring again, but it is like it's, it makes the anxiety better when you can get those eight hours in, at least for me. And so I'm very, methodical about how I wind down. And I've done a podcast on this and I can do another one because

it's always changing and evolving. But I just really create this space that is the opposite of anxiety when I wind down. So we painted all of our walls in our room black besides the wall behind the bed, which is like a snow leopard, which I feel like we need to do like a home decor podcast. But anyways, our room is like very dark when it gets dark. And then I try not to watch TV before I go to bed anymore. I just read. Right now I'm reading Howard Stern comes again and it's fucking amazing. And I put on my salt rock lamp. Like I have a whole thing that I do in order. So I go put on my salt rock lamp. I put on my salt rock nightlight. So I'm getting this orange glow across the room that's signaling my brain saying it's time to go to bed. I wrap my dogs up in 40 barefoot dream leopard Kardashian blankets.

We all know this. And I have my own. Michael has his own. And then. I get my satin pillow. I want my satin pillow with my satin sleep mask. I do my skincare routine. I turn on. I have this. So I have a white noise machine, but then I was like, I went to Charleston and I saw at the hotel that we were at that they had this little machine that played wave noises. And there was something so therapeutic for me going to bed with the wave noises and waking up with them. It was like I was in Cabo and Cabo is like Xanax for me. So I went and bought the this wave machine. We'll leave it linked in the show notes. So the wave machine. So it's just wave sounds super light. Turn that on. And then I'll add a couple of CBD drops, if I'm being honest.

They're like the liquid ones to my tea or my four-sigmatic, whatever I'm drinking. It's one or the other always. With a huge bottle of water, I'll add like a curleaf hemp. They have this cinnamon flavor that's really, really good that I've been obsessed with lately. So I get in bed. I have all my my stuff next to me, my retainer, just because we're getting so specific. And I'll get into bed and just deep breaths and wind down. I think that I try to wind down at like 9.30, so I'm asleep by 10 lately, which is so nuts because I used to go to bed so late, but CBD's changed my life. And I think that that promotes less anxiety. Where my anxiety gets bad is when I try to stay up until 12. And I'm thinking and I'm going over all situations and my phone's on.

really gnarly brightness and I'm responding to text messages. It's just not good for my headspace. And then in the morning, and this has really, really helped, I do not check my phone. And I cannot say this enough. When I check my phone, my anxiety is off the charts. Because what happens when you check your phone is automatically, you are reactive. You're not being proactive. You're reacting to what everyone else wants you to do. You're reacting to their to do list. So I have, have a very clear morning, which we can get into. If you guys are interested, let me know on my latest Instagram and I'll get very into this. I have a very specific morning planned out. And the reason I do that is because it sets the foundation of my day and I need to have thinking time. I need to have time to think

in my own space. Think how I want to work on my business, not in my business. Think how I want to react. Think how I want to show up and think how I want to be for my husband and my friends and family that day. If I don't have that space in the morning, it triggers the anxiety. And I'm just being, I'm not saying any of these things are going to work for everyone or they're medically proven. I am just telling you, when my anxiety is off the chart, these are the things I do. One non-negotiable, I have to just say this because I've gone off on a tangent is I have to work out or sweat because that is not even about my body. It's just about that physical movement and getting my blood flowing and my circulation going. So yeah, those are some things that I do when I'm feeling super anxious.

I don't ever want to paint a picture on social media that everything's perfect and life is amazing because that's just not the case. I have 500 dynamics going at all times. My life has always been very chaotic. I grew up in, you know, a lot of chaos. I mean, I had great parents, amazing parents, and I had amazing sisters and brothers, but it was a lot of chaos. So for me, when things start to feel chaotic like that, I have to step back and be like, okay, this is bringing me back to my childhood. How do I want to react to this? And how am I contributing to this? That's another thing. I don't want to contribute. I want to be stoic. So that's my rant today. If you guys like these rants, let me know. Maybe I'll do some more solo

episodes. I have fun with the mic, Taylor. You know, I get into it. With that, let's get into this interview. Erica Stolman is the blogger behind Fashion Lash. Fashion Lash is a fashion and lifestyle site that is a fucking powerhouse. It's been around for 11 years. She started blogging before anyone knew what blogging is. She edits her Instagram better than anyone I have ever seen. If you don't believe me, go check it out at Fashion Lush. Her aesthetic is freaky, guys. It is, I don't even know how she does it. Like, she must not sleep. I don't think she sleeps. And her mother, Linda Stallman, has been, like, a second mom to me.

I have known Linda, again, since I was 12 years old. She is such a bright light. She's smart. She's savvy. And she's just the coolest mom ever. I am so excited to let you guys in on this conversation. It's a conversation that we would have over Rose. Erica just got engaged.

So be sure you're following her on Instagram, because I'm telling you, The Bachelorette party, it's probably going to be really cute because I'm throwing it, right, Erica? Anyway, at Fashion Lush, at Linda Stolman. With that, welcome Erica and Linda to the skinny confidential him and her show. Before we get into that with Erica and Linda, I'm going to talk about something that needs to be discussed. How many of you wake up in the morning feeling like shit from wine the night before? I mean, I feel like we've been here, we've done that, Taylor's shaking his head. it happens you know what I mean you have one too many maybe even one sometimes which is super creepy

and you wake up and you feel horrible okay if you're like me that happens so recently my friend jenn introduced me shout out to jen to this new wine it's called a fitvine wine this is like heaven on earth you guys okay all fitvine wines have less than zero point zero nine grams of sugar did you hear that again, that's 0.09 grams of sugar. Most wine is filled with like 40 grams of sugar, which is just absurd. So no wonder we don't feel good in the morning. Anyways, Fitvine has 90% less sugar than the average wine. There's also 118 calories, which we love, and 3.9 grams of carbohydrates per glass. I'm obsessed with this. Give me wine that I can drink and feel great in the morning. And I mean, what's better? Like, it's better than six. I feel like this is also another

important point that we need to discuss. It doesn't sacrifice the taste. So it still tastes amazing. It still tastes like wine. Like the rosés are crisp and refreshing. You're basically sipping them in the south of France, but without feeling like shit the next morning. You know what I mean? Fitvine wine has alcohol content that you'd expect from like a fine wine. To get specific with it for you, they have 10 varietals. Okay, they have red wines. They have white wines. They have a rosé. So there's a wine for everyone. You should also know that Fitbine's wines are lab tested. which we love. And the wine has no traces of pesticides, molds, arsenic. I know that's so crazy that's in wine. And it's also free of flavor additives. I mean, I don't want to drink wine with

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included. Cheers. This is the skinny confidential him and her. The classic donut place. Is Zach excited? Oh my God. About marriage? He's excited, huh? You can't wait to get married so that I can get pregnant. Really? That's like, I think why

if you get pregnant before me, I'm in a be like, it's going to be crazy. No, that's all Zach went so. No. You thought I was going to go first. Oh, yeah. But Zach, Zach, Zach, uh, can't wait. Can't wait.

I think that's like the main reason. You know what? I think that you have acted like for so long that you aren't going to do the whole wedding thing and I'm going to go ahead and predict this on air that you're going to be like really into it. Um, and I think you're embarrassed. Listen, I'm not going to be a bridezilla, but I'll be into it because now everyone on Instagram so you're going to have the sickest wedding.

I'm like, shit, the pressure's on. I'm going to have the sickest wedding. Now I have to like really up the ante. I was ready to go to Copenhagen and get married, and that was like what I thought we would do, but that's not going to work out now because there's too many people I want to invite. I don't think she realized, Linda, when the ring got on the finger, that it was going to be like a very bridal year. Oh, yeah. And yet, she fell into it very quickly.

Because she has been studying places like venues. And it has become, let's say, a major part of her conversation. No. Really? No. I have been looking at venues because there is no venue I like. So I'm like, what am I going to do? The only place I like is a Catholic church and I'm Jewish.

So we've got a problem. But it's not a Catholic church anymore. So we're kind of opening up the idea. This is the advice. would give you on or off air. Weddings are fucking annoying. Like they are. Like, sorry if I'm hurting people's feelings,

but they can be very fucking annoying. There's a lot happening. There's 500 dynamics. Emotions are running high. So the best advice I can give you is it needs to be fun for everyone. Make it fun. And I felt like our wedding was fun. Your wedding was fun because you had a destination wedding.

It was fun. Yeah. A destination wedding is always fun. If you think of my wedding, like, what do you think? Fun. Fun. Okay, that's what, like, you know. Mexico, fun, party.

Tequila. Let's make it fun. Cabo. You're not going to remember, you know, all the little details. And I know how you are, because I know how you are with your Instagram. You're going to remember if it was fun or not. You got to get everyone a drink the second they put a toe anywhere near anything. Jesus.

Like, you guys know, you guys sat down. There were drinks. We got married there with drinks. There was so much alcohol at your wedding. That was enough alcohol. That was funny. Just look like all of Cabo. Yeah.

I think they said that was more alcohol than they've ever served at a wedding. Yeah. And that's 45 people. So that's good. I mean, that's a, you know, prize. Yeah. Oh, you're looking at numbers right now. I can tell in your eyes.

Oh, God. How did you get down to 45? I only invited people that I was obsessed with. And that was like Auntie M in, you know, Arkansas didn't get an invite to the auntie. We were like cruel. Well, we are going to have

Auntie M. and her husband, Mr. Am. Really? Oh, God. I guess. I mean, because you get to the point when you're writing down this list is like if you invite that person and you have to invite that person and then that person comes with four family members. But you really want to invite this first cousin but if you invite this first cousin, you have to invite

the second cousin. Fuck the second cousin. How did you get away with all that? And you still remain friends with all these people you didn't invite to your wedding? No, they probably hate her. Yeah, they probably. here's what I think. You either go huge or you go so too. I like that. You go huge and a lot of things. Right. Or you go home. Yeah, you got to go huge or you got to go real refined. Like you got to

whittle it down. God. You know, a lot of Michael's friends, I wanted to invite people. I was like, it's not a plus one wedding. It's just, it's just our best, best friends. And everyone who was at our wedding would have been in our wedding. You know what I mean? That is so interesting, a plus one wedding. It being, you know, because typically you might say, well, you know, you're invited to the wedding and it's plus one, you bring the boyfriend. But to say, no, you don't bring the boyfriend. You come because you're the friend. Yes. It changes the dynamic to when, you know, Bobby Bill brings Cindy Lou. Right. I don't know Cindy Lou. And it cuts down on the food bill. And got, it cuts down on a lot. But my question is, you want to feed Cindy Lou. Get to you want to feed Cindy Lou. No, but my

My question is how you... And I've heard Cindy's a big eater. My question is how do you differentiate? I'm not having... How do you differentiate like, you know, this person's my good friend and I'm also friends with their significant other? I'll tell you exactly what to do. If you haven't gone out to dinner with them in six months, it's a no for me.

Oi. Wow. Yeah. Cut-boom. Man. Man, that is rough. I mean, here's the thing. The most important thing is the energy. And if the energy's not on, because there's people that you don't know or someone that's going to be, I also, you know, snapping all these pictures when you just want to chill with, you got to think about all these things, you know?

Oh, God. Yep. I'm not ready for this. I feel like you've written your list out, though. Well, I just want to copy the formula from your wedding. Like you already did it. Well, no, the formula for like the Bachelorette. Do all this.

The Bachelorette. So what are we thinking for the Bachelorette? Yeah, what are we thinking? My bachelor's party was epic. Maybe we should go to that same house. That looked so cool in Palm Springs. Yeah. How can you beat Palm Springs?

Yeah, I don't want. We could go to that house. We could. I think we should do that. But you guys, it's like we've got a year and a half probably. No, but we need to start. It was a year. When did it turn it to a year and a half?

Because they say it takes a year from when you book your venue. So the second I booked my venue, it's a year. And I'm not ready to book a venue because I don't like anything. Everything is like rustic farm vibes. I like a mason jar I have no mason jars I can't do a mason jar I said I need to hire a funeral plan or do my wedding

That's appealing That'd be cute That's appealing I would get more like on my level of Oh my God it'd be so cute She does not Coffin she does not want a Joanna She doesn't want a Joanna Gaines wedding

And I like Joanna Gaines Who's Joanna? Sorry She doesn't you don't want What's her? She's doing J-Lo's house Who is that? Yes Interior designer.

Right. And she and her husband had the show, and they have that line. Yes. Yes. They have a line of clothes. So we're not doing a rustic wedding. No, I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do.

There's nowhere I want to get married. I've looked at like all these places and these menus. And I'm like, you've been married for, you've been engaged for one second. I know. But everyone's like, people are messing me. Like, do you have your, the not wedding planner yet? And I'm like, no. And they need to order that off the Amazon.

And I like looked at it. And I was like, that's weird. I don't want to get that. I didn't look at one pitch. Pinterest website. But you had a wedding planner. I ought to be honest here. You didn't really have one. I ought to be honest. I put so much energy

into my business that I don't have a ton of energy what I was getting married. To like... Okay, but your wedding was perfect. I wouldn't say it was perfect. There was a couple of things. It was pretty cute. It was all black. Yeah. Well, it was egg plant. If we're getting... Eggplant. It was eggplant.

And I don't even think anybody minded that you were 30 minutes late to get to the ceremony. If I wasn't late, If I wasn't late, how awful would that been? Really? That was so weird. So strange. So weird.

Michael just walked up and brought a chair, just sat down and said, I'm here for the, you know. It would have been very off brand if you weren't late to your wedding. I think that you should have one of your friends that's not like your best friend, but a friend marry you. She's marrying us. Can you believe that they want me to marry them? That's really cute. I mean, who else would be better at it? No one.

Nobody. Of course. No one. I know. Like, Zach and I are going to Florida with my mom next month. Like, we're best friends of three of us. Well, they're going to South Beach and I'm staying in Sarasota with old people. But we're going to spend some time together. Okay, but when you went to the cool place. And you go running to your mom. And they're leaving me. Oh, my mom's a Libra. So when Zach and I fight, when you and I fight and I go running to my mom. When Zach and I fight, when my sister and I fight, my mom's always, well, maybe you said that a little too harshly. Maybe you heard his feelings. Maybe you should have said like that. My mom's a Libra. She's never. takes aside. You know what I do with Erica when she goes off on a tangent when we get in a fight now?

What do you do? It actually works and it's not a mean thing. It's just like it's better for both of us. When Erica and I get into fights, she texts 8,000 text messages to me. Like it's pages and pages and pages. You just turn your phone off. No, I just block you for the day. You have a very unique relationship. You really do. Like sisters. Yeah. Thick sleeves. Yeah. It's really thickest thieves. We've known each other since we're 13. Yeah, since you were 13. I mean, every time we get in the fight and I call my mom, I hate Lauren. She's like, okay. Like, you guys will be trying. You know, you love Lauren. And, you know, so that's today. So tomorrow, you know. My mom has heard this argument since we were literally 12 years old. Yeah. Because. I want to go back to what we were 12 years old. Oye. Yeah. Let's talk about that. Okay. So we met in Earl Warren, Middle School. girl and middle school. San Diego. We didn't like each other at first.

It wasn't love at first night. You didn't like me. I was a child in a school with women. I was really overdeveloped for my age. I was very underdeveloped for my age. We fixed that real quick. I came right in. Lauren was smart and she and she gave me, and I, you know, I got in the group and

we were all a squad. We had a little squad. We were the first squad. Yeah, the Diamond Diaz. The Diamond Diaz until one dropped. And then it was the first squad. Fine nine. And it was a fine nine until another drop.

I feel like everyone was the grade eight. The great eight. We kept losing members. We did, didn't we? What do you think the problem was with your club? Probably that Lauren made us all wear the same color on Wednesdays. Do I really? When we saw the movie Mean Girls, we were, Erica and I'll never forget this.

We're crying, laughing, but there's one part in Mean Girls where they say, everyone knows all girls go to Barnes & Noble to take a shit. And our high school during lunch would have a line of women like in line to take a shit. Did they have really nice bathrooms at Barnes & Noble? No. Or did they let you take like a newspaper in to read for a while? No. I swear on my life.

It was just a thing. You're not going to believe this. Why was it? You're not going to believe this. There is an article that just came out that said something in Target and bookstores. There's a smell that makes you go to the bathroom. No. Swear to God.

Think about when you're there. Like when you're. I never have to go to the bathroom at Target. And I don't go on bookstores anymore. I feel like you've had a turtle head in Barnes and Noble. She's so sick. Thank you. Oh, my God.

No, we laughed so hard at the movie Mean Girls because it's just so many. I mean, it wasn't necessarily us, but it was definitely the school we went to. You could totally relate. Yeah. The school we went to was, I feel like they based. Do you think that's because you're in California? Do you think we're California people? Maybe.

I think it's different. I mean, I would love to go spend one day at Torrey Pines and see what it's like today. That's the high school we went to. Wouldn't that be fun? I've said, let's go back. Let's do a vlog for high school. And then somebody said maybe they have guards and you're not allowed on campuses anymore.

I'm putting this on the record. So Erica and I, like we said, have been friends since we were 12 or 13. And when I was in college, Erica launched a blog, Fashion Lush. This is way before the Skinny Confidential. I copied Erica. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, what did you just say? I copied Erica. Oh my God.

Erica had fashion lush. Tell everyone how you started it. Because it started very differently than influencers start today. Well, because, okay, when I started fashion lush... Ten years ago. I had a Dell laptop. I was in college.

My bed was on the floor. Like, I was just a college student living in a room in a house with six girls. Like, there was nothing, like, glamorous about my life back then. There was no bloggers. No, there was three bloggers on the scene. Susie Bubble, Brian Boy, and Rumi Neely.

Those were the three bloggers. I love Rumi Neely. I love her. She is the sweetest, nicest, coolest. Well, you met her in person, and that's like, makes me, like, so happy. Yeah. She's so cool. Yeah, she is cool.

I mean, I would say that her, I was obsessed with her blog. Obsessed. I was obsessed with Brian Boy and I was obsessed to Susie Bumble. Those were the three blogs that I read regularly. And I actually ran out of space on my computer because I would say, save so many photos of like Mary Kate Nash-Jolson's outfits and all these different celebrities or things on blogs.

I remember that. And I ran out of space because I had a Dell laptop. So I started a blogger just to post like my inspiration. So I would be like you know, hidden wedges. And it would be a post all of just hidden wedges I liked the outfits they were with. It was a hobby. I didn't have

any formula to follow. It was almost like you were doing a diary or scrapbook online. Yes, exactly. That's exactly what it was. And sometimes I would do a project in school and I would take a picture and my mom would read about it and like my dad and my sister and they would see what I was doing in school

and I was just having fun with it. Did you ever think that she was going to monetize off this line? No, because the term, think about it. Ten years ago, the term blogger? It wasn't even a word. Yeah. Not a word. Yeah.

So, I mean, I'm thinking, what is she doing in there all the time? Yeah, no, so when I graduated college, I was, well, I was in college, but when I graduated college, you know, it was, that was me. When I graduated college, it was get a job. That was just the formula everyone did get a job in an office like everyone else. So I got a job in social media and I worked as a couponing woman named Cheap Sally.

I was the voice of Cheap Sally. The voice of Cheap Sally. And in that company, they were hiring Mommy Bloggers to promote them. And I saw what the mommy bloggers were making from the company I worked for. Give us an example of what they were making back in the day. I mean, it was probably like $450 to $600 for a post But I was like, that's a post on Facebook

A post on Instagram, like this is crazy, that's money Like, you know, at the time I was making very little at this little desk job So on my lunch breaks, I would bribe my coworkers, I'd buy them lunch If they took photos of me And these were the shittiest photos I think you should put one on your Instagram

I'm not joking and do your edit And be like, and tell the story of this Okay, Lauren's my bread But, you know, it wasn't shitty at the time because there were no picks to compare to. No, at the time, it was great. There's nobody to compare to. At the time, it was great. I went on with this.

I would also have my coworkers braid each other's hair and I'd take photos and this. And I started to take it more seriously. Then at my job, my whole department got laid off. And this is where Lauren comes in. Everybody was crying. And I was like so stoked. I didn't have to wake up at 7 in the morning the next day. And it wasn't my fault.

Like, it wasn't my fault. So I could go and tell my mom it wasn't my fault. And I get unemployment for a while. So I leave the office and I call Lauren. I was like, what do you think I should do? At this point, she had started the Skinny Confidential. He had just started it. And Lauren said, give it six months.

And if you don't make a paycheck, go back to the working world. And I was like, okay, I can do that. And I told my mom, and she was like, okay. And then I got, I did have to get a job at a clothing store to make, like, some extra money. But within, I think it was two months of being unemployed. I got like a recurring job with Forever 21. And then that was it. How long is that?

this since you started to monetize because I want the audience to hear how long it took you to make money. Oh, how long it took you to make money? So, like, I had started, I started in probably my junior year of college three years, three and a half, three, probably three and a half years. Of work every single day. Yeah, and it wasn't until I took my blog seriously. Like, I would say those first three and a half years

were like building a little bit of audience. I don't think when I started even Instagram was like a thing yet. Yeah, but it wasn't. It wasn't. I also did not. I was so hesitant to get on Instagram. I got on last of everybody. That was only Facebook. Yeah. But you and I, I think, have done a good job of pushing each other harder towards our potential.

Like, if you edit a graphic or whatever, like, we're always trying to, not in a competitive way, like, trying to push each other to do better. So I think when I launched my blog and I was like, this is what I'm doing. I'm taking this seriously. You were like, wait a minute, I've been doing this. And I'm like, not in a competitive way. I don't know what a sister way. I guess. Yeah.

I mean, I saw, like, obviously it wasn't competitive. I came to you. It was my first thing. What should I do? And you were like, do the blog. And, like, that's when I saw that there was, like, real potential. Especially because when Lauren, when Lauren launched her blog, she launched, like, a business, which was something I didn't even understand at the time.

So I feel like, I feel like you and I started at the same time because I, that's when I really, like, started. And then it was within three months that I got the thing with Forever 21, which wasn't even a fashionish collaboration. I was kind of working for them and their blog. But that did help. help me get an audience. I mean, people need to hear, too, how long it takes. The first question I get asked by so many bloggers is how do you make money? And for me and for you, we weren't even asking that question.

That wasn't even a thought in our heads for the first. There wasn't an answer to that. How do you make money? We didn't know. Monetize it. Who's going to pay you? So when you saw her start to make money, Linda, were you like, holy shit? She's on to something?

Or still were you not sold? I don't have to give her money ever again. Wow. I think that both my parents were like, I think that I don't think either you or my dad are traditional, but I think in the working world, there is a traditional way of which my dad did things. And my mom was less traditional, but she was an amazing saleswoman. So anything she did, she did great in. But I think when I told them blogging, they were like, when is this?

But then when I told, when they saw what I was doing, now, you know, they're my biggest fans. Talk about, you just said, your parents are not traditional. You have to, like, explain the whole situation. How do I explain it? Go ahead, honey. Well, my mom is gay, and my dad is unhappy. Not thrilled.

They're both, they both smoke a lot of weed. They're just, like, chill, amazing people. Okay, but you hold on. That sounds terrible. What does it sound terrible? I was raised by the two most amazing people. I mean, look at me. Her parents are amazing.

Like, my, okay. This is how amazing she is. we invited her to the wedding. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And guess what? I don't even think we had lunch six months before. So I was definitely an exception.

You're a very, very different. Okay, first of all, I did not grow up with pot smoking, partying parents. My parents are very responsible. Very much what you would imagine in a two children, two parent little home. Right. Smoking in the closet. Smoking in the closet. I had no idea.

I told Zach the other day, I said to Zach, I said, yeah my mom we were talking about meditating and how I can't meditate and I said oh my mom used to go in the closet and meditate for two hours and come out and say it felt like 20 minutes he said erika are you serious said what she was she was going in the closet to smoke weed of course it felt like 20 minutes she was like michael said the first time he smelled weed he goes wow mom this smells like aunt karen's house that's funny like his whole childhood that's amazing that's funny Okay, so go back, so go back like when you're 12 years old and your parents got divorced, how old? I thought you were 12.

You were about 12. I was probably about 12. Okay, so go back to that. Like, talk about that. Well, I think, I don't really remember much. I'll tell you. She can tell me. Okay.

Well, I was married for 22 years and then, and that was great. And then I met someone whose energy was just, just. just wonderful. And it's not that I said, oh, now I'm gay. You know, today I'm gay. I just met somebody who's, yes. And it was great. It was chemistry.

And it was, you had mentioned before. Energy. But before we continue, my mom and this someone have been together for 25 years now. So she was right. Who's amazing? She's my stepmom. Shout out. Shout out.

Hedy. What up. What up, girl. Hey, girl. Hey. Hey. Okay, so I want you to go back and tell me how you felt when this happened because I just want to point this out to our audience. When we were 12 years old and this happened, it's very different than it happening now.

Like, everyone is so open now, which is so amazing. It is. It was very, it's very different back then. Like, now I feel like this is like, I mean, not a big deal. I mean, I think for me, I found out by listening in on a phone conversation that I shouldn't have, you hadn't had. You hadn't had the chance to tell me yet. So I listened in on a phone conversation, and I was like, I was, I think, I mean, I was upset.

I was a little girl and, like, I loved my daddy and, like, I thought he was so hurt. And, you know, I was worried about him. And then, you know, I would go to my dad's house and just divorce parents, whether it's a woman or a man, it's hard because I would go to my dad's house and, like, as much as I loved being with my dad, then I wanted my mom the second I got to my dad. And it was vice versa. When I was my mom, all I wanted was my dad. I was a little kid.

As I got older. I was more okay with it. I think my dad ended up moving for work. So I was with my mom full time at that point. And I was fine. I, you know, I loved Hetty. I had grown to call her my stepmom now. She's definitely my stepmom.

And then we all moved to a house together in Cardiff. But when we moved in together, this was when my mom and Hetty had moved in for the first time. I was fine with it at home, but I wasn't ready for my friends to know because we lived in a different era, a different generation. It wasn't something like common. And everyone knew my mom and loved my mom. And I just was concerned what everyone would think. So when we moved in this new house, there was double doors that would lead to my mom in

Hetty's room. And then I had a room in the back. And then Hetty's daughter, who's my age, she had the guest suite. And what I would tell my friends at this time, which is very heartbreaking, is that we were too poor. So we had to live with Hetty because I didn't know how to tell people this. And when I told people, everyone was like, cool. Like no big deal.

None of us cared. Nobody cared. I remember being like literally 13 years old and not like no one cared. But I really did appreciate that go fund me account. That was really cool. She's saying because I said we were poor. We were so bored. They had a go fund me account.

They didn't have go fund me back then. Yeah, you got to like throw your Venmo out, you know? No, it was just something I said because I was a little kid and I didn't know how to tell my friends that and I didn't know what people would think. And I was, I wasn't actually, at this point I wasn't that little. I was probably my freshman year of high school or maybe my, maybe eight grade. worse, which is worse because you don't want to be judged. You just don't.

When I was in high school too and you can attest for this, I was highly emotional. Let me attest to that. Hold on. Let me pull out the school. Understatement of the year. I don't know how you and I even became friends because I'm like, Erica, hold it together. I was practicing stoicism in high school. I'm like, you got to like calm down. I had to tell her the other day.

You have to stop crying. I did. She's crying still today? Sometimes. There are times when little things bring her. to tears. You got to, like... Like fights with my friends.

You can cry. That's okay. But, like, when you were in high school, it was... When I was in high school, I was off my meds, let's just say. Yeah. I mean, you were crying about everything all the time. Yeah, I would cry all the time. We would get in a fight, you would cry.

Remember that one time you dressed up at me, just up with me at a party? No? I don't have a good memory. You don't remember that? No, well? Everyone had to dress up as somebody, but I wasn't there. And you dressed up as me and you should just get to scared running down your face. No, I can't.

She had mascara running on her face, and she was just a busweet. Because she was crying. You weren't like Lauren Conrad in the Hills when you cried. That's what you said. No, but I think that once all my friends accepted it, I just stopped. You know, I don't care now. I think it's the greatest thing. My mom's the greatest person in the entire universe.

You know what's funny that I was thinking about the other day? Chris Jenner and Training. We just saw Chris Jenner. We think we did. We're not sure. No, Lauren's her. You really? I'm pretty sure.

Oh, my God. The car. was driving it was like it was not a normal car no it was like a black rose it was like a rolls or a belly and then it was like everything was decked out it was very chris genery it's it seemed like it or it was chris jenner wannabe yeah yeah right um you know what i find so interesting that i was thinking about the other day so when i was really little i remember all my friends would would go and you know do what normal little kids do and i would go to the store called flashbacks oh my god and i would scrapbook. And I have

these beautiful scrapbooks that I would spend hours like designing the backgrounds and putting pictures on and I was blogging. Scrapbook about what? Lauren was like, what were you talking about? Fashioned. No, I think it's funny because I was blogging when I was little. Like scrapbooking is blogging. Right?

So this is, so I'm taking a step further. Erica, when I were in high school, we had this thing called D.T. Which is diary time. Diary time. And we each had our diaries. And we would scrapbook in these diaries. And what's so funny to me is we were blogging then again in high school, but it was just like these diaries, let me just tell you guys.

They are works of arts. They are works of art, works of art. They are works of art. They are works of art. They are like relics of our lives. It is. Do you have yours? Yeah. It's unbelievable to read through it. It's unbelievable. One time, I thought Lauren was moving to Nevada and I wrote this

whole thing about what am I going to do with my life if she's not here because she's moving to Nevada at 16 with your high school boyfriend. you're moving to Nevada. Oh, I think- And I was sobbing crying when I was writing it. I was like, I just can't stop crying.

I'm going to lose her to Nevada. And then I didn't move to Nevada. She didn't move to Nevada. That was an overreaction. All those tears for nothing. All right, hold up, pause. Sense Fashion Lush, aka Erica is on the podcast

with her lovely mom, Linda, today. I am going to tell you about blog due. I feel like you guys need to know about our new secret e-book that just launched. Okay. So what Erica and I did was we put all of our tips

and tricks about blogging, creating content, podcasting, everything in one spot. What's also fun is if you don't want to read it and you want to multitask like me, you can also listen to the audio version. So basically what you're going to find in this ebook is tons and tons of value, tangible takeaways. I mean, I feel like you know what to expect when it comes to Erica and I, when as bloggers, we're always trying to provide you with the best content that you can take away and actually apply to your own life. If I had had this ebook when I just started, it would have saved me a fuckload of time. Like I'm telling you, it would have saved me money. It would have saved me a lot of dirty work, you know? So anyway, Erica and I went in. We put all

of our tips and tricks, like I said, in one place. It's really cute and designed very chic. Like, you want it on your office table. You know what I mean? Like as a reference or a resource, a couple specifics for you. So the e-books affordable. It's real. It's fresh. We all know that building and designing a blog's expensive. And there's so many get-rich quick schemes out there. And blogging is actually hard work and applying yourself and executing. So we basically just gave you the tools and tips and tricks to propel that forward. It's full of updated and fresh content for 2019. So for $89.99, you'll get all of our resources and secrets in one place.

So like we said in the interview, Eric has been a blogger for 11 years, which is so nuts. And I've been a blogger for nine years. And between us, we get millions of page reviews to our blog. So we just wanted to put all of our info in one spot because we gathered so many questions from you guys. So that's the book. It's a one-stop shop resource for bloggers, entrepreneur babes, and aspiring content creators. Basically everything you need, all the tools. Like, if we want to get really specific here, which we do, it's like how to start your brand. So thinking and coming up with a blog name, building a cohesive aesthetic, especially on Instagram. So if you're stuck and

you want to be a blogger or you're trying to build a business online, definitely go to blog dosecrets.com and intercode him and her for 10% off at checkout. Let us. know what you think, give us feedback, and follow us on Instagram at BlogDew. I'm fucking buying it right now. Get out of my way. These things are so funny. The things we would cut out of magazines, remember the Lifesavers ads? No.

How do you remember always? It's amazing. I have to show you. You'll remember the Lifesavers ad. We like collected these Lifesavers ads. Uh-uh, I don't remember that. You got to show me that. We'll show you.

So, and then in middle school, we would, we had a journal that we would write back, back and forth. And it's just so funny to look back on because our career was like, we were doing our career this whole entire time, it's just in a different form of media, which is crazy. It is crazy. That's wild. But then when you realize, you know, you were really enjoying, like, communicating that way. And maybe that's, you know, where the whole idea of Facebooking and talking to people online and sharing feelings, it took, it went from the DT book to a much, much bigger audience.

Yes. That's why if your child is doing something like YouTube or something where you think you can't make money, I always say there's creative angles. And you should always, this is, I mean, this is so cliche, but do what you love because there always is ways to get creative and strategic when you are doing what you really like to do. I don't, I mean, I don't think people should waste one fucking ounce of their time doing something they don't like.

I agree. I don't mean like. Well, that would be a perfect world if people didn't have to do that. But let me refine what I meant. Sorry. I meant I don't think people should work in a job that they don't like. I think that, yes, you have to sometimes work. Like, I was a bartender for eight years while I was blogging.

Like, was that my favorite job ever? No, but it was a lily pad to get to the next step in my life. So yes, you have to get uncomfortable to get comfortable. But at the same time, whatever you're working towards should be something that you love. Like I do. If you're going to spend eight hours of your day, five days a week doing something, it should be something that at least you like to do, right? Yeah, and if it's not that and you're not working hard to what it is you want to be doing,

I don't want to hear you complaining. A lot of complainers, isn't there? A lot of complainers. A lot of complainers. I'm just saying, like, you know, if you don't want to be working at, you know, that hotel doing whatever you're doing, and you want to be doing something else, and you have to be using all your free time to be doing that other thing and getting to where you want to be.

And if you don't, then you got to stop complaining. You got to do like two jobs at once. Basically. I mean, that's what I did. Yeah. Until my blog made money, I always did two jobs at once until my blog made money. The blog was always there. What tangible advice would you give our audience for someone who's starting out in 2019?

Well, I do think that if you have something to offer that is different than everyone else, because there's one of everything now. There's, no, there's 20 of everything. So if you have something different to offer and you have a voice that can really stand out from the crowd, go for it 100% because right now the micro influencer industry is still it. It's like where it's at. Honestly, sometimes I'm upset that I'm no longer in that category because that's really where the money making is. So don't be deterred by a small audience. Even smaller than the micro, I think is the tiny.

I don't know. There's a term for it. Smaller than micro. So micro would be like 40 to 100,000, I would say, 50 to 100,000, but 20 to 50,000, there's a new category for that. And that's a really good place to be right now? And why is that a good place to be, to be a micro blogger? Or even smaller than micro blogger, because first of all, a company, and this is not fortunate for us, but we have other things. For a blogger the size, the company that's paying, they want to work with these bloggers because they can go across different bloggers, they can go through different bloggers and hit different markets with all those bloggers. And sometimes the conversion is higher for a blogger at this size. Yeah. So if someone,

if a brand, like if beauty blender comes to, you know, a manager and says, I have $30,000 to distribute amongst your influencers. And, you know, for someone who has, you know, eight million followers, say it's, say it's 30,000 to post an Instagram on their page, which is, you know. For $8 million. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe even. more than 30,000, to be honest. So if you give that all to one person, you're only siphoning and leveraging that one person's audience. If you can disperse the money that Beauty Blender has given you as a manager to all these different communities of influence, it's actually more strategic. And, you know, when I launch product, and we can talk about your product that you're launching

too. And when you launch product and, you know, we sit down and we talk about like what you want to do, I would tell you, and I think you would agree with this, to take your marketing budget and disperse it between these people that have communities that are, you know, like really niche small communities. Well, and I also think as an influencer when we launch product, we can look at an influencer's page and know if it's converting authentic. Like you, I can just look at them and say, this person has a really great conversion. I want to send them stuff.

Not too many comment pods. I mean, yeah, like it's, it is the engagement is so important. I also look at if an influencer comments back. Yeah. Oh my God. That's my biggest type of you right now. I think as an influencer, I don't care how big you are. You need to engage with the people that support your platform.

I got blocked. Well, actually, there was a glitch in Instagram. I thought I got blocked by trying to say thank you to everyone who wished me. Congrats on my engagement. That was a feat that I wasn't, I wasn't prepared for. I didn't know it was going to be like as big of a reaction as it was. But I do think there's nothing more that bothers me than an influencer who gets, you look so pretty.

Where did you get your shirt? I love those shoes. What size did you get that sweatshirt in? And they are not responding. That's your job. That's like that and creating content are your jobs. And without that audience, you're going to ignore them. You might lose them.

You know what's worse? What? If it's a fashion blogger. I can't. I look through. For me, if I asked those questions or I was interested enough and nobody returned my answer. Be done with that. Yeah.

There wouldn't be. I'd sort of leave. I'd move on. Yeah. I mean, obviously, she's not interested in. It makes, well, not only. Well, not only does it seem rude and not respectful to your audience, it makes you, like, kind of unreachable. And I think that the big trend right now in influencing is to be relatable.

Like, you can't, like, nobody, you know, everyone's going, like, not everyone, but I've seen the Bali vacation. I've seen the, you know, we're going to Timpuktu and we're going to do this and do all these unattainable things that you will never be able to do. I don't really care for that anymore. Boring. It has to be value. Has to be value. I mean, and it's not, I mean, not even. even like value, yes value, but like I don't even need to be overloaded with value. I want to see

your creativity. I want to see you like creating good content and engaging with your audience. I love Indy Blue. I'll shout her out. She's not providing a ton of value, but her content is so good. And she has a cult following. And I see why, because she's relatable. She's a girl that's new to LA. I just think that everything about her is relatable. And she has an audience who loves her and she's not trying to sell them on every single thing. I totally agree with you. What I always think about is when I'm creating content, I'm taking people's time to consume my content. And when you know that you're taking someone's time, you start to respect their time.

And if someone's going to read my post or my Instagram caption or consume my Instagram story content, it has to be worth their time. And if it's not worth, if it doesn't end up being worth your time, they're eventually going to tune out. And one thing I love about podcasting is people can go get their nails done or do their makeup or jog while they're listening to the content, which is such a powerful medium because there's not any other medium that respects time like podcasting. So I think that that's important to remember starting out too is like people are using their time to consume your content. What are they getting out of that? That's so important. And if they're not getting anything out of it, they're moving on to another, to. to another influencer, to another blogger, which is not like it was 10 years ago. You didn't have so many choices. And I don't think retailers knew much about blogging and R-E-I and ROI return on investment. They didn't know all the things they know now. Now they expect more out of influencers. Now they're starting to think about, well, if we pay them, we'll get this much back. She has this many people. And they are researching so much more. And they're researching. And the people they hire are young people.

you know, people who are hip and happening and, you know, 20s, 30s, 30s, 40, and know how to take apart these numbers when you look at a blogger's experience. And you really can say, oh, not that she just has great pictures, but look at that, look at her audience, look at, look at the numbers, look at those things. So I do think, yeah, it's become a huge business. Yeah. A huge, from something where you didn't even know the word blogger to a huge, huge business. Yeah, and I think it's also, if you're going to start in 2019, it's so important to run it like a business from the beginning. Run it like a business from the beginning because that way, if you run it like a business from the beginning, then when it becomes a business, you're ready.

And I also, this is back to like the content and providing value. I think providing value is so, so, so important. But not everyone can do it the same way. Totally. I think that's the problem. I think when you say providing value is like I was, and there was a time you know, Lauren has very high engagement she's my best friend. I'm not ashamed to admit there was a time that I was like if I you provide the value in my content

the way Lauren does I'm going to grow my audience and I did that and I love Lauren's content but that didn't feel like me that didn't feel like me so I provide I have I provide value in different ways it might not be you know this that and the other thing but I just found a groove and the more

I feel like you're doing what feels true to you, the more you will attract people to you? A hundred percent. I feel like, I can read your content and see that you're like, this doesn't feel like the person I'm looking at. Yes. Yes. And what you, what the gem of what you just said in there is that the key to success, in

my opinion is practice, practice, practice, put yourself out there day after day after day. That's the formula. Yeah. And not a lot of people want to do that formula because it's every single day. you it's like what erika said she was she put herself out there she put herself out there she tried this like you said you tried to like do like something that was high high value like content it wasn't working and then so she adjusted because she saw that it wasn't working as well as what you're doing now is working yeah and then you just keep practicing putting it out there putting it out there putting it out there day after day and it ends up you find your

groove yeah i think that i think a really good example for it with me in particular is i would not admit to my audience that I smoked weed. I was so embarrassed about this whole thing. Did I not tell you over and over? Yeah, she said, just say it. You know, and I'm like, I just feel like people are going to judge me. Who cares? But the second I let that cat out of the bag...

It's a big cat. That's a fucking tiger. Let that tiger out of the bag. It attracted not only a new audience, but it made the people who are already following say, I knew that's why I loved you. I knew that's why I followed you. I smoked wheat too.

And then it's like, I already attracted that audience, which was, like, amazing to me. I honestly, listen, you're not always going to, you're, you're not for everyone. Not you. I'm saying people in general. You're never going to be for everyone, you know, Baskin-Robbins has, you know, 31 flavors. Not everyone's going to like fucking pistachio, you know? Yeah. Like, you just have to know that.

And if you know that, I think the people that do judge you for smoking weed probably shouldn't be following you. Yeah. And that's what you realize is that you create a more authentic. to audience that way. And then in the future, if you're honest from the beginning, which I'm telling you right now, I wasn't, but if you're honest from the beginning, you build an audience who connects with you for who you are. And then when you branch out and go in different directions, they feel true to you, they feel connected to you, they feel they have things in common with you. I mean, they want to get high with you. Oh, they man, do they want to get high meetup?

We should do that. We should do that. We'd have to find a place where we can publicly host that, but I'd be down. That would be really cute. You could come to my house. Thanks. We'll have it at your house mom. Okay. Is Jeeves the Butler still there? Jeeves is there. He can be holding on to a nice big bowl of flour. Do you know how many times that fucking butler scared me in the middle of the night at your house? They have a butler that's a stuffed butler.

It's as tall as a man. He has a big penis. Yeah. Lawrence checks. Okay. Good to know. Wait, wait, wait. Do you remember our mouse?

Yeah. No. Vernon? Vernon. Yeah, we had a mouse. You know who's selling that's authentic to themselves? Who? Linda?

Tales you die. Taylor? Yeah. Mom, do you love Taylor? Yeah. Taylor. Oh, you know what? I actually...

Taylor. Publicly, I can actually say right now, congratulations, Erica. Thank you. Thank you. I believe I commented, but I... Don't not comment. No, no. Trust me, I've been in some trouble before not saying congratulations to someone on their wedding,

which is just an accident. But, Erica, I love Zach. I think Zach's awesome. I think he's a perfect guy for you. I think what you guys have is magical. I really do think that you guys will probably live, outlive, or not, well, not outlive, but your wedding

will be successful for the rest of your life. Thank you. That was the nicest. That was so nice. Thank you, Taylor. Taylor. Taylor Googles, actually actually has a thothoris

underneath his desk. A what? A thesaurus. What? A thesaurus. Do you know, a thasaurus. Okay.

Wow. Where did, that's really taken it back. Who knows what thes ares is anymore? Taylor has one. What was? Is it a... Is it a... Encyclopedia?

Yeah. Encyclopedia. Yeah. Taylor's speech at our wedding, you remember. It was beautiful. How could we forget Taylor at your wedding? 6.5 inch penis? Uh-huh.

You're the Jeeves, the Butler. Mm-hmm. And then he came on the podcast. Never forget. Hashtag never forget. How did that work out for you? Through the wedding weekend. It wasn't working.

It wasn't working. Okay. Kind of like Pete Davidson, a lot of disappointment. Hope not. Yeah. Yeah. It was, you know. In Mexico?

Yeah. How did you miss that? I missed that. There was a lot. There was an onion happening. Like there was all different layers. Yeah. I lost my mind.

I mean, well, I remember that. Oh, yeah. Never forget. What do you think that was? Do you think that was fear of marriage? I think she was hungry. No fear of marriage. Have never had fear of marriage with Michael.

I think she was hungry. I was. fucking starving. And there's so much stress with all your family and friends there. You want it to, like, be seamless. Right. And then on top of that, like, you're just, you're just stressed in general. Like, that's why I might have, that's where I might turn, like, a little psycho.

I don't like stress. I don't like stress. I like these to be super chill. And there's this old sign-fold. What about a weed wedding? That'd be cute. That would be so cool. I would like that.

I know you would. That would be really cute. That would save on alcohol. We just do weed. The only thing about weed is it's green. and I don't love green on my feed. Pre-rolls. Green's getting chic.

Trust me. Oh, green is so chic. Green's getting chic. Maybe you should do a green wedding. We're about to pass out, so we had to have a bite of a cupcake. But I will say, if I do the weed wedding, that really cuts the guest list down in, like, a lot.

You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. But, yeah. Because I just couldn't invite a lot of people. Like, you know, some family in the South probably wouldn't like that too much. You should for sure invite Taylor to your wedding. Okay, actually, actually, wait, that is a good point.

Mom, I'd be surprised because my mom says so many people that you think don't smoke weed, smoke weed. Smoke weed. Really? Oh, absolutely. Growing up, she said a lot of the parents. Really? Sure. Well, I mean, come on.

I mean, back then, if you're, you know, part of the 70s or the 80s, what are you doing? You're smoking weed. So what, you have kids? Why would you stop smoking weed? I mean, no judgment. Hey, if you got to smoke a little weed, smoke a little weed. No, she's... I was a much better parent by smoking a little weed.

Yeah. She was so fun. Well, you know, I just feel like I was calm. She's the best mom. You know, I wasn't like, you know, freaking out. Oh, no, you're terrible. You're a terrible kid. I go, hey, you're cool. I just think there's such a stigma with it.

I mean, I don't even think we need to justify she was a good mom. There's just such a stigma with it. Of course she was a good mom. Right. You know, I mean, that's saying, gee, I'm surprised. I smoke dope and I was a good mom. You know, no. You know what I love about social media and podcasting is,

you take things that used to be taboo and it's like, who fucking cares. Who cares? You know, my mom never smoked weed while she was pregnant. I won't smoke weed while I'm pregnant, but I will smoke weed when I have children. I don't intend to stop that. It only makes me a happier, better,

more chill, mellow person who can enjoy life better. If Michael doesn't have a fucking bottle of chilled champagne in this pink ice, when I give birth, divorce is happening. No, we'll get you one of the bras. Yeah, what's the bras? It like fun, like you fill it with the champagne.

Yeah. Just so you'll have your hands and it's just like filling champagne in your mouth. It's like a wine bra. And then after my surrogacy, when I have my thirdborn. Yeah. Okay. She's doing one surrogacy. Two surrogacies, I think.

Yeah. That's good idea. I'd like to get all surrogacy. I have a fear that I have to overcome. Yeah. You know what's weird? That's a story for the other day. I don't think about it too much.

Like, I don't think about getting pregnant too much. That's cool. Are you scared of it? I'm indifferent. Well, your sister was just pregnant, and it was a good experience. God, her little boy's cute. And he's adorable. He is so cute.

I think Whitney and Faye need to get together with them. Yeah. Because they both like to do, like they're such good moms. They like to do, do, do, do, do. Like Whitney being Erica's older sister. My sister, shout out. I'm so proud of my sister. She's like.

Faye's amazing. I mean, it's every single day. She's doing 25 activities with him. She's a really good mom. In fact, when I have kids, I'm just going to be like, all right, mom needs to get a blow out. the car, go to face. I'm tired.

I'm already exhausted. I know. I told Michael, I go, I'm not going to be one of those moms that hops out of bed at five in the morning and cooks the kids' bacon. No, it's like at the petting zoo and the aquarium and the play group.

But you know, it's hard to say who you'll be. True. Until that baby is right in front of me. Because I think that my mom wasn't the before she had us maternal. Like you were... I didn't feel particularly maternal.

I wasn't the person that said, oh my God, I love babies. I love babies. I can't wait to have a baby. baby. You can always drop the kids off at Uncle Taylor's. Oh, that sounds like to give your number to everyone here. I'm actually not. And your address. I'm scared of kids in a weird way. Well, they might be scared of you. They're fragile. Yeah, I just, I know they're so delicate. I never want to drop a baby or something.

You know that when I have kids, I'm literally telling my kids that your uncle creepy. Like, my kids are actually going to say, Uncle Feester. Oh, that's a good one. We can get creative with it. I would let you babysit my kids. I think Taylor would be great with kids. I'd play video games with them if they did. Let's not show them your video games, though, because you have multiple amounts of porn on that computer. That reminds you of a story.

I'll tell another time. Can't wait. Can't wait. Let me guess you got caught with porn. Too, we continued. That's another show. He tries to do, like, little words here and there, so he gets people excited.

Like, for a story that's coming. Yeah, he came on the podcast, and he talked about how he was in a little. One minute man. Did you listen to that episode? I don't think that's something to be talking about. No, I didn't.

It's a great episode. We broke it all down. Not in like a judgmental way. We broke down how he ejaculates in a minute. I think it's actually 30 seconds, but. I mean, if you want to. I mean, did you time it? Because that's where you get into the real facts.

Get the iPhone type. You went, oh, I'm done. If anything, there were times when I think even cloned it a minute was over exaggerated. Is this a regular occurring a thing? No, he fixed it. He fixed it. How? With edging.

It's a thing exist. Oh, oh, it's where you masturbate and you get close to the edge and then you stop. Yes, exactly. That helps increase your libido. That sounds horrible. Horrible. That sounds horrible. Yeah, what does that feel like?

Self-flagellation. It's blue balls. Walk us through that. It is blue balls. 2017 was a summer of edging. Oh, my God. 2017. It was the summer of edging.

It said no one ever actually. 2017. The summer of edging. Oh, wait, so now you feel when you get in bed with a girl that you can perform for longer than a minute. Absolutely. And this was just by one summer of edging. Yeah, it was an intense summer.

So was it something that you practiced, like we practiced blogging, where you would just do it day after day after day to make sure that you were. You have to get good at the crap. I'm not joking. You literally have to sit there and go, okay. Here we go again.

When I go into Home Depot, and look for an edger. I'm going to have to be very careful about what they give me. Don't ask for it. Don't ask for edging. I won't be asking. I mean, is this a new age thing?

I've never heard of this. Edging is new, right, Taylor? It's new-ish. It's like tide-pots. I've heard it over the years, but again, I never took it seriously until that episode, and then I did research onto it, and I found out that it was fairly common

and that that's one of the more, I want to say the more serious ways to fix it. Or the actual way, other than people, there's a lot of things online that go like, oh, take these herbal medicines or take this or take that. This is the one actually tried and true. Does Viagra work? I mean, I don't have any. I definitely do not have any issues getting it at all. So that was your only shortcoming.

Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Shortcoming. Shortcoming. Okay, so, Erica, tell us about your product line before you go that's launching. I'm so excited for you. We want to hear you guys are doing a mother-daughter duo. We are. Yes.

So we have... Again, pot related. Pot related. It's on brand. Look, it's on brand. And the world is legalizing pot. That means everybody wants to smoke it in some way or else it wouldn't be legal. And I even use CBD cream on my sarto.

And it's another... We have matching sortoes. We both have the same sartoes. It's not sorto anymore. It's like all better. I hate a sorto. Basically, we have... So we have...

Fashion Lush is my blog and brand, but we are sure. starting a spin-off called Fashion Cush. And... They have an Instagram at Fashion Cush. It's so cute. It is really cute. It's really cute. Every day, you blow me away with these things you post. You blow her away. What a pun. What a pun. Blow her away.

And we love it. We're working together on some very exciting things to come in the future. In the very near future, I would follow because we're launching some very cool things that stoner or not you're going to want I already want it. I already want it. I love it. And I'll tell you, we're not shipping dope.

We're not selling pre-rolls. We're not selling weed. We're not doing any basic bitch shit. No, we're not doing basic bitch shit. It's going to be very cool, very high, very high fashion, very chic, very fun, very fashion kush of us. There's a few things launching that would be very exciting with Fashion Kush, and I'm just lucky to get to work with my mom. Yeah, that's true. Where can everyone find you guys on Instagram, pimp yourself out? Okay, you can find me at Fashion Lush.

and you can find us at Fashion Cush. And Mom, where can we find you? Yeah, Linda's funniest shit, you guys. T.J. Max, probably. One of the bigger stores. I don't like the small satellite stores. And Home Depot looking for an edger. Exactly.

Okay, all right. I'll be serious. Marshals. Marshalls. Fine. Fine. Fine. But if you want to follow her at Linda Stolman on Instagram, she posts some pretty

interesting things. Once in a while. Congratulations on your engagement. Thank you. I cannot wait. It's going to be fun, and I feel like the Bachelorette party is going to be major. Can I come to the Bachelorette party? If you don't invite your mom to the Bachelorette party, I'm not planning it.

I'm so excited. Of course she will come. Okay, perfect. I don't want any dirty grouse trippers, sorry. Okay. Can I come? None. Whoa.

Can I bring weed? Yes. Okay. Taylor, we'll talk. And Taylor, if you guys want to follow Taylor. Taylor, if you're everyone's man servant. Just continue. At the edgeman.

At the edgeman. No, he's at Tails you die. Guys, thank you so much for listening. Thank you. Let us know your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram at The Skinny Confidential. And we will send you some fashion lash and TSC popsockets. We'll pick a bunch of you. Oh, she's all out.

She whispered. I'm working on new ones. You'll work on new ones. Yeah. Guys, we'll see you next week.