The Bossticks - Marianna Hewitt & Lauren Gores Ireland Like You've Never Heard Them Before - Tactics For Success As Creators, Founders, Entrepreneurs, & Hustlers

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

#379: On today's show we are joined by digital creators and entrepreneurs Marianna Hewitt & Lauren Gores Ireland, the founders of Summer Fridays. Today the duo join the show to discuss how they balance life as creators and brand founders. We also discuss tactics and strategies to find success as a digital creator and entrepreneur.  To learn more about Summer Fridays 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 The Skinny Confidential  The Hot Mess Ice Roller is here to help you contour, tighten, and de-puff your facial skin and It's paired alongside the Ice Queen Facial Oil which is packed with anti-oxidants that penetrates quickly to help hydrate, firm, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, leaving skin soft and supple. To check them out visit www.shopskinnyconfidential.com now.  This episode is brought to you by BETABRAND and their Betabrand dress pant yoga pants. To try these pants go to betabrand.com/skinny and receive 20% off your order. Millions of women agree these are the most comfortable pants you'll ever wear to work.  This episode is brought to you by Olive & June The Olive & June Mani system is the secret behind salon-perfect at home, all-in-one, no guessing, no messy nails, no salon price tag. All TSC Him & Her listeners can no get 20% off your first mani system with our code SKINNY. Visit www.oliveandjune.com and use promo code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off your first mani system.  This episode is brought to you by Rothy's Rothy's comfortable, washable and sustainable shoes and bags make getting dressed easy. Rothy's shoes are incredibly comfortable with zero break-in period thanks to their seemlessly knit-to-shape design. With many styles to choose from, Rothy's shoes are the perfect way to add some comfort and style to your closet. Check out all the amazing shoes, bags and masks available right now at www.rothys.com/skinny  Produced by Dear Media 

The following podcast is a dear media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

We wouldn't do Summer Fridays the exact same way if we started today versus three years ago because it's just different. And I feel like now everything changes. just so fast. Like even year to year, I try to evaluate both on like a personal end and then also on our business end of what, what's working, what's resonating, how do we need to change things? How are we reaching people? Because it just constantly changes. And that's where I think you have to be so open to that change. I feel like as new influencers or anything or brand now, niche is so important because if you go to somebody, you want to go to them for a reason. And if you don't have a niche, then have a personality because then you can only get the personality from that

person. The episode that you've been waiting for, This has been a long time coming. You are going to meet the duo behind Summer Fridays. Some of you, all of you may be familiar with their blue jetleg mask. It is iconic all over Instagram. You've seen it over all the skincare gurus feeds. I'm sure you've tried it. It's an amazing product.

They also have lots of different products. My personal favorite, I have to say. And I talk about it in this episode is their lip butter. It is absolutely incredible. The brand is owned by Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Gores. Mariana Hewitt is a huge beauty influencer. She also has a podcast on the Dear Media Network, and it's called Life with Mariana. And then Lauren Gores is a mother, an entrepreneur, a badass, an influencer. Both of them together have made this really massive brand.

I personally have so much respect for this as a content creator because I know that it's very difficult to manage content creation, podcasting, all the things that come with it, motherhood and then to add being a founder of a business is a whole different layer. So what they've created together is really, really impressive. And we picked their reign about their entire journey. This was a really fun interview to do. It's very full circle. I actually interviewed Mariana on the Skinny Confidential 600 years ago. When she had first started out as a television host, I saw her Instagram and I thought, wow, this woman is so influential. I need to interview her. If you want to see that interview, you can literally Google the Skinny Confidential Mariana, and it will come up. It's so vintage. And then Lauren Gores just creates the most incredible beautiful content. Her Instagram feed is absolutely gorgeous. And her journey as a mother of two is so inspiring to me. With that, let's welcome both of the Summer Fridays founders to the Skinny Confidential him and her show.

This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. I told you this a little bit off air, but I want to hear. your story before you guys were this big business. I want to go back to when you were like five and six and seven and talk about all the little things that you did that you think set you up to be where you are. Well, I'll say that we have a common goal of like we both wanted to be Oprah when we grew up and we still do. We are obsessed with Oprah. So what do you mean? How old are you when you decide you want to be Oprah? I maybe was like five or six, honestly. I love. We both have. We both have. We both. have an obsession with Oprah. But we also have, we have some like similar things with our upbringing, too, just in terms of like our parents, how we split our time. We both split our time between

our mom and our dads. And I feel like there's been these certain similarities over time. And I think a lot of that is why we work so well together now. And so what happened was we both wanted to go to school to be TV hosts and news anchors because we wanted to be like Oprah when we grew up. So we're both from the Midwest, Ohio and Michigan. We both went to school. Lauren graduated and became a news anchor. I wanted to become a TV host. And then we both started our blogs at the same time. But what you doing some TV hosting?

Yeah. Before you were. Okay. And more was a news anchor, like a real news anchor. I lived in the middle of Missouri. And I was a morning news anchor there for about four years. That is brutal. It's tough time.

It was rough hours. I had to be at work at 1.30 every morning. You needed an ice roller. I needed an ice roller. And I didn't have one then. When you have to wake up at 1.30 in the morning. and you have to be on air and it starts to become miserable, your dream that you think is your dream. And then you realize, oh, shit, I didn't realize what this was.

I think all dreams have a little bit of that, right? I mean, all dreams look really dreamy in your mind into the outside world. And then when you're actually in it, there's always the hard stuff. I will say that I still really love, I didn't love the hours, but I loved what I did. I really loved feeling like I was waking up Missouri. and I loved having that intimacy with people who are watching that show. So I feel like it just transitioned into something that I'm doing now. There's like some similar overlaps where I feel like now I can have this intimacy with my community

that I have a lot more control over and I don't have to get up at 1.30 in the morning, which is great. But I feel like that also just made me appreciate now my schedule, what I'm able to do. Like when you get up at 1.30 in the morning for four years, you like really appreciate, you know, waking up at 7. At your age I was going to bed at 1.30 in the morning. You're waking up. That's great.

Yeah, I was waking up. It's so fun for me to hear about what influencers and entrepreneurs did. That is something that got you closer to your goal, even if you didn't realize it at the same time. Like, for instance, I was obsessed with scrapbooking. And everyone's like, you're not going to make money scrapbooking. And now we're scrapbooking for a living online. 100%. So it's so interesting to me to hear all the little puzzle pieces that got people to where they are now.

It's like me. It's like, I never shut the fuck up. And then now look what I'm doing. I'm just going to do it for fun. It is like, you don't. You don't stop talking. And here we are. All my teachers said Michael said to be quiet.

I never listened. And look at me now. That's true. That's true. So with you, Mariana, when you decided you wanted to go into hosting, I feel like you did a lot of things that maybe people who want to get into hosting aren't doing. Like I looked at your YouTube. You were putting yourself out there.

You were creating your own content. You were doing videos, but you were also hosting. What are some things that you did to get into hosting? So I think there's like two different career paths. So like with Lauren being a news anchor, you have to go to a small town. You have to anchor and you work your way up. When you want to be a TV host, basically when I moved to Los Angeles, it's like a catch-22. You can't get a job without a reel, but you can't build a reel without jobs.

And then at this time, it was starting to be like celebrities starting to host things. Like at the time it was like Vanessa Manillo, like people like that. And so I would go on auditions and I would lose out every time to a celebrity when I would go on these jobs. So I took TV hosting classes and I built a fake reel, but I had to put this reel somewhere. So I put the reel on YouTube. And that was in 2012. And so I would use this YouTube channel as a place for this fake reel to try to get other jobs. And then because I had a YouTube channel with my fake reel, I started filming beauty content just because I had it. So it was like all the things that we wanted to do when we grew up. I just think it ended up becoming like a different

platform and dream. But we always had this passion for sharing the things that we loved with an audience. we just thought it would have to be on television, but now with YouTube, blog, Instagram, we can do it in our own way. We were literally talking about it in the car and the way here. Like, think back then, celebrities had to call it People magazine, like, oh, I'm having a baby. Do you want to cover this announcement? But now you're in control of everything. You can post everything you want online yourself. And so instead of having to hope that somebody hired us to be a host on a show, we have our own.

We hired ourselves. There's two things that you guys both have that I think is very unique and very essential to being an entrepreneur. The first thing is that you guys always find angles to get yourself into the door that you want to go through. I think a lot of people when they're told no, they just take that as no. It sounds like both of you weren't taking no. And the other thing that you guys have is execution. How important have those two things been to your career? Both really important.

I think we also both have an openness to be very flexible and to change quickly. So when we're told no, it's not necessarily. okay, we have to find a yes in that exact route, but it's we're going to find a yes that might take us down a different path, but we're still going to get to this goal that we have. And I think we still do that day to day in our business. Like we're told that things aren't possible all the time. And then we're like, okay, what's a new path that we can take to get there? And we always try to say like we literally every day remind each other to be super open and super flexible because things change quickly, you know, something that we might have had in mind that we thought would

work really well, ends up not working. And so we pivot and our team pivotes really well, too. I would love to know separately each of your stories on how you got into the influencer world and like very granular and micro. Like was there like an epiphany of how you got into it? When did you realize, oh my gosh, you know, this is something I can make money off of. I remember that I interviewed you on my blog. Yes. So long ago. And where I remember seeing you had influence and you're like maybe not even going to remember this is there was a picture on. your vanity and it was like lucite and it had all your makeup in it and you had like little heart filter over it. Do you know what I'm talking about? No, I have no idea. You have to go scroll back.

It's so long ago. And I was like, huh, I'm wondering what's in her vanity. I want to interview her. So is there like moments like that that you guys can go back to where you realized, holy shit, I can really make a career out of this? I think I didn't know that it was a career. So at the time, like you think now people see influencers and they aspire to be an influencer. But at the time when you started and when we started, you had to really do it as a, as a high. hobby, right? Like, we weren't making money off of it. It was like genuinely like loving to create and post the things that you share. And so because we always had that passion, I think we wanted to do it on a different platform, but the internet gave us kind of a different place to

do it. And so Lauren is a beautiful writer. And for her having a blog and a space to like physically write words that she loved being like a journalist was a really great outlet for her. For me, I really loved video content. I love sharing the products that I love. And, you know, I wanted to have my own Oprah's favorite things. But instead of having Oprah's favorite things was Marianna's favorite things. And I just genuinely, like, would be so offended if somebody asked or somebody bought something without asking me first. Like, I love giving recommendations for like any and everything. And so, you know, I started my YouTube channel in 2012. I started my Instagram in 2013. And by 2014, I could do it full time. Yeah. I would say, mine was a longer journey on the

influencer side. So I was broadcasting at the time and then I kind of had created this way. website just as like a journal. Honestly, I'd just gotten married. I was like, oh, just kind of write about things like new married life. And kind of to Marianna's point, I'd move to L.A. And a lot of the hosting jobs were going to celebrities or to big influencers kind of in that time. And I thought, okay, well, and everything that was on my reel were things that were hard news. So things like crime and politics. I was definitely not getting a job that was something lifestyle-based. So I kind of just started this website on the side and sort of doing like DIY-type things like it was the days of like Lauren Conrad yes and it was very much like this kind of that was

like for definitely the kind of vibe that I was kind of trying to achieve and I wasn't making any money on it I was just trying to create like beautiful content I was still broadcasting and then I noticed that I really loved it I loved to also write on it but I wasn't making any money yet at this point and I thought okay I'm gonna really try going into like more wellness focused things I've always loved my workouts and I've always loved you know clean beauty and things like that so I started focusing more on that, but I still wasn't really making a full career out of it. And to be honest, I really didn't make a career out of it until the year that I was pregnant with Evan, my now son, he's four. And the year that I was pregnant with him was also the year that we came up with this idea for Summer Fridays.

And during that year was like the first year that I really started to monetize off of my influencer work. So the nice part is that I already had kind of laid that foundation for years. I mean, for almost like a year and a half, two years prior to making money on it, I had had this. and I was writing and I understood the space. But I think it was like once something felt so genuine and authentic to me, which was like this role of new motherhood and starting a business and sharing things like my wellness journey, that's when I was able to really monetize off of it. But it took me a lot longer than Marianna to do that.

And I feel like for aspiring influencers now, they have to understand like Lauren and I and you too, like we created content for free every single day for so many years before we made any money off of it. People don't touch on that enough now because I think like, especially like sitting in the dear media seat now, like one of the first questions I get is like, how am I going to make money? And it's easy to have that conversation when someone has an established platform. But this is all three of you as like years and years of backwork, right? So it's like, okay, you can like talk through that and kind of estimate based on like where it is. But so many people

come in and like that's the first question. I always tell people like the first question you should ask yourself as a creator is like, how can I create content that people actually care about? Because if you do that, right, the other stuff kind of takes care of itself. But nobody wants to do that kind of, everyone just wants to know how do I make money, how do I make money? You have to genuinely want to be a content creator, influencer, podcast hosts. Like, you can't do it thinking like, oh, I'm going to be this big time person and make all of this money because it's really difficult and competitive now. There are spaces for everybody to succeed, but you have to genuinely want to do it because even now as a working influencer,

90 something percent of the work that you create, every single day is still for free. Every single piece of content you post is not monetized. So regardless of getting some sponsored work, you still want to genuinely create the stuff every day because you actually like it. So if you don't like being on camera or taking pictures of yourself or doing this, maybe being an influencer isn't the right role for you because you have to want to put yourself out there and do that for free all the time. Yeah. Back again with the beta brands dress pant yoga pants. And honestly, this is like so fitting because I'm wearing them right now. They are as comfortable as your pajamas. I have three pairs right now. I am so in to the black skinny ones. We've talked about.

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You are going to be so comfortable. Right now, all skinny confidential. Him and her listeners get 25% off your first order when you go to beta brand.com slash skinny. That is 25% off your first order for a limited time at beta brand.com slash skinny. You guys, find out why women are buying five different pairs of these pants. You're going to go to beta brand.com slash skinny for 25% off. There's a reason I have three pairs. I'm just saying. I always find this question interesting because I think the answer would differ at this point. Like knowing what you guys all know now, if you were going to try to be like an influencer today without the platform you've already built. Like would you take the same strategies you took in the beginning? Would you do it completely different? Because I think people look at

you guys and they'll look at a summer Fridays and they'll look at your platforms and say, hey, like that's what I want to be. But what I'll try to point out is like you can't take that same strategy where because you guys probably wouldn't do that strategy today either. No, I mean, I think it would be a different strategy. We even, even with summer Fridays and summer Fridays is three years old versus like our influencer backgrounds being much older than that, we wouldn't do summer Friday is the exact same way if we started today versus three years ago because it's just different. And I feel like now everything changes so fast. Like even year to year, I try to evaluate both in like a personal end and then also on our business end of what what's working, what's resonating.

How do we need to change things? How are we reaching people? Because it just constantly changes. And that's where I think you have to be so open to that change. I feel like as new influencers or anything or brand now, niche is so important because if you go to somebody, you want to go to them for a reason. And if you don't have a niche, then have a personality because then you can only get the personality from that person. But I feel like if I'm looking for gluten-free recipes, if I find a gluten-free blog or Instagram account, I know that I'm going to go there for this specific thing. You just started your skincare line. So it's like going to you because I know puffiness. I'm going to go to you for this specific thing for right now. And I feel like niche is so important

and across everything. It can't be as broad as it used to be. No, it needs to be. Honestly, and I've said this before, like that target girl, like so, I think so, so, so specific. And not that target girl, because now people are doing that already. It needs to be even more like what you said, like just gluten free. And I also think when we were creating content, blogs were very in. And now you have to be able to micro blog. And, you know, maybe you have to be able to use TikTok. I will say I don't go to a lot of blogs, but I still go to your blog. Like, there's not a lot that I actually go to. But on yours, I feel like there's a lot of resources. It's very detailed. and you have a lot of like links and information.

So if I'm searching for something, I know I can go there and it's a very like long detailed thing. But it's because it's providing some information. And it's also evergreen. So like if I'm looking for something a year from now, I know that I can go to your site and I'm going to find all of the information there. And I feel like you do a really good job of making people go there. Like swipe up because I'm going to tell you the full story here.

I'm not going to give me a whole thing. So she does that actually in stories that she tells me in person as well. Like I get like the first part of the first part. Then I have to like do this whole rabbit hole to figure out the rest of the story. I'm not kidding. She said check this resource and come back and talk. I do it. I go talk to you.

Yeah, it's weird, man. What is a tip that is so tiny and little that you think makes a big difference? Maybe a tip you haven't talked about with influencing. There's this book that I just picked up. I have not read it yet. But everyone says that you have to read it if you want to go into the influencer world called Invite Me. And it's all about how you include. everyone and you don't make it seem like it's this exclusive party that people can't get into. And I think

that's really interesting. Is there any like little tip that you do every day that's so tiny, but you think it makes a big difference over time? What shifted for me is I started really telling myself in stories, especially in talking stories that I was talking to my good friends. Like these were people that were in my home. These are best friends of mine. How would I speak with them? And that made a significant difference in how it was received. Whereas before, I think I went through this phase when I was kind of trying to figure out how to be authentically myself digitally, which sounds easy when you say it, but you know, it like takes some time to figure out how to actually come across as you through a screen. And that took me a little bit of time. And now I think about that every single time I open up

the phone. I'm like, what would I send to my sister right now? Or like, what would I tell my best friend? And that has really helped, I think, with just having that connection to people. And then I think for me, it's just tagging brands all the time. So I think, influencers now are like, oh, I don't want to give anything for free. But I'm like, you're working with brands. If you are an influencer, you should be tagging and posting brands all the time. If you're working with the brand, I like to show extra love either before or after the posts. I always throw up like an extra swipe up link or whatever. And like, if you want to be a working influencer, you need to have stats to show the brands. So don't feel like, oh, I'm not going to

post anything because I don't want to give away something for free. No, like think of this as added value and the brand will want to work with you because of these things. Because on the brand side, we know every single time somebody tags summer Fridays. We know every time they have a swipe up link. We have so much data on the back end on these like platforms that we use that even if you're not on our radar and you're tagging our brand all the time, we'll know who you are. So if you want to work with a brand, I feel like buy their products, tag their stuff, swipe up on their stuff and like don't think of it as like free work.

You know why people get that confused? I think like if you came to a place like Dear Media and I said, hey, work for free as a salaried employer, team member at your media. Like that would be weird, right? People were like, why would I do that here? But when you're an influencer and you're building your own business and your own thing and you're taking full control and like setting your own terms, like people get a twist because they think I'm selling myself shorter. I shouldn't do stuff for free.

But that's what happens when you build any business, right? Like when you guys build some of our parties, you've probably done a ton of things for free, right? Or like this for, like, I didn't take a salary out of this business for two years or like Lauren, you know, podcast, all these things. And I'm like, if you want to have the audacity to like set your own terms and build your own brand your own thing. Like there's so many things you got to do for free. And I think influencers get that twist. And I think I'm only going to do something to get paid. But they forget there's

so many people that are out there doing all this stuff and hustling so hard to get to that next level. Like you kind of have to. I think just eliminate the word paid and monetize and money from your vocabulary for a while. It's a future brand. And also what you said, it's, it's coming from an abundance mindset as opposed from scarcity. We are living in a time where there's enough for every one, you can tag brands, you can support small businesses without having this pompous, egotistical attitude of I have to get paid. It's a very short-term strategy. It's not long-term. When you guys know, I imagine you've gotten a ton of campaigns by starting with doing free work, right? Yeah, I mean, even I like got a campaign a few weeks ago from just literally commenting on one

of Marianna's posts. And I was telling her how much I left the bag. And then that company reached out and I ended up doing a paid partnership with them. And that also just kind of goes to show like the more love and support, I think, that you can show your peers online and liking people's posts commenting on them. And we talk about this all the time, like show that support. And we are full believers that that support comes back to you full circle. You both are really good at that. I notice, but I see that. You guys are very supportive of other brands, other communities. That's, that's another scarcity versus abundance mindset. Yeah, we think there's room for everyone. There's more than enough room for everyone. There's so much room. It's bad advice when these like

business consultants give people that are pursuing the separate career, that advice. They only do stuff if you're paid. I think it's like, because I know a lot of people give that advice. I think it's terrible advice. Yeah, and it's like, do you think about the potential of something versus just what is it short term, but what does this have the potential to be? And it's an investment. I want to know how you started summer Fridays, but I want to know like what the first conversation was. Or I want to know what the first like really take us back to like the story of how you guys started it and then how it's sort of tumble weeded. So this is in 2016.

And we wanted to do something together. And Lauren then was like very early pregnant with Evan. Yeah, it was I, it was seven weeks pregnant. I don't even know if I, you didn't tell me. I think I was still like pretty quiet with telling people. I was really, really early pregnant. And we went on a coffee date. And we had been at this point, we'd kind of been talking and like we knew we wanted

to create something together. We didn't know exactly what that was going to be. Why together? And I want to know why because, I mean, did you guys just like each other a lot. Like what was the reason that you felt synergy? Did you like each other's content? Like, did you just, you wanted something clean? Like, what was the, what was the energy like? I think, well, one, we had known each other for many years at this point. So we've been friends for more than a decade now. I don't know how many years we were friends in 2016, but it was a while.

We had known each other for a long time. But I also wouldn't start a business with every single one of my friends. There, you know, there's very few people that I would actually want to create a business with. I think for the two of us, we, we had the, we had the, this like innate trust in each other. We also have the same type of drive. We're very goal driven. We're very flexible. We're very forgiving. We're very open. And I think when you have that inherent trust and when you have this sort of bigger goal that's very clear, you work together really well. And I just, we felt that. And we're very lucky because we know that it's not common to have like the working relationship that we have with each other. Like people ask all the time,

like, do you guys really get along? Yeah. We're like, yes. We really do. We have such a great working relationship. And I think like our backgrounds of like being from the Midwest, wanting to have the same career, starting our blogs at the same time, starting to be TV hosts and news anchors around the same time. And we had similar work ethic like Lauren said, like she was going to work at 1.30 in the morning. I was going to work at 5.30 in the morning. We just, I don't know, there's just like so much synergy. And I think the biggest thing that Lauren said is like, just have a common goal in mind. So before you go into business with anybody, just make sure like, is this thing that we want to do together? there are we on the same page. And if you're not, that's not the right person to go into business with,

because every decision we make, we take our ego out of it. And it's like if it's the best for summer Fridays and if this is like the goal we're trying to get to, then we're in agreement that that's the right decision for our business. And short term and long term. Because I think there's sort of, there's the short term goals, things that you need to reach immediately, but then also a long term goal. And if you're not aligned on that, then none of the short term goals will happen. It sounds like also you married your need for clean beauty with your traveling a lot. Yes. Definitely. So yeah, so take it so kind of now going back to when we were first time in the I was early pregnant. I was like cleaning out my beauty dress like crazy, trying to kind of figure out like

what could I use. Obviously, Marianna was at this point working with every big beauty brand you can possibly imagine. And I was kind of really focused in this sort of like clean wellness space and trying to just sort of clean out my life in anticipation of my first pregnancy. And we had talked about a skincare line at sort of this first coffee day. Although at that point, it, it, it was a, It wasn't a skincare line. We had literally just talked about this mask, like the idea of a mask that was versatile, that was multi-use. And there weren't a lot of brands, like at least for me at the time when I was cleaning things out that were clean, effective, that had a brand story that was cool and that really resonated with me. There were a lot of clean brands and things that I could use,

but it just, there weren't a lot of things with a brand story that I felt, wow, I really resonate with that. And we felt like there was this kind of white space. So that's where the idea of the mask started. and then kind of the idea of a whole skin care line didn't come into later. Yeah. And then as far as like the packaging and branding, like we're so obsessed with how things look and how Instagram is. And at the time, like there's no Instagram stories when we're working on the brand. And so, you know, like a brand would send you something. You'd love the product. But maybe the packaging was like not so photogenic. So you would never want to post it because it's like, oh, well, it wouldn't go in my feed. Like my feed is so curated and like beautiful. And so we were like,

it has to be clean, effective and photogenic. And like maybe you're not thinking about that. And as we're working on packaging and developing and what the branding looks like, instead of taking pictures with a camera, we're like, how would this look in a square on an iPhone? So we're like really testing it and we're like, okay, make the logo larger because if it's in a flat light, I want to be able to see summer Friday's really big. And so we're thinking about it from a social first point of view, which at the time, I feel like a lot of brands weren't really doing. And that made, you know, this blue tube become iconic and stand out on an Instagram feed where like a lot of stuff kind of was looking the same. I spend my money on my time. That is, everyone knows that that is

the most important thing to me. I value my time. So there is nothing worse when I have to go to the nail salon and sit there without my arms. Like I need my arms. I need to be passively multitasking. It's the worst. I try to listen to a podcast, but sometimes I just don't want to do it. So what I've been doing lately is I've been using Olive and June's Manny system. And I'm obsessed with this because it is the only system on the market that I've seen that you can do both your nails. So what I used to do is I would do one hand and then try to do the other hand and one hand would look immaculate and the other hand would look like a five-year-old did it. So they have this thing. It's called a poppy and it's a patented brush handle that makes it super easy to paint with both your hands. So if I don't want to go to the nail salon, I'm in a pinch. I want to do my nails at home. I always use Olive and June's Manny system.

And here's the deal. I was using Shalak for the longest time and it sort of ruined my nails. So right now I'm just doing polish. But I will only use Olive and June. polish because it's so shiny and doesn't chip. It's almost like chelac, but it's regular polish. It's so crazy. It lasts a week. So not only are you saving time by being able to do it yourself and not having to sit there. You can also save time because you're getting a polish that doesn't chip, right? So you don't have to do your nails twice a week, which is so annoying. Michael's looking at me like, what are you talking about. But I feel like a lot of people out there will know what I'm talking about. My nails look amazing. Right now I'm doing a baby pink. Their mani system comes with six polishes, and that breaks down to $2 a mani.

That's crazy because I usually spend like $35 for one gel manny. It's the secret behind salon perfect nails at home all in one, no guessing, no messy nails, no salon price tag. And now you get to get 20% off your first manny system with our code skinny. Your new nail life is here. You're going to get 20% off your first manny system when you use promo code skinny at olive and June.com. We're done with expensive bad manis.

This is the new us. It is iconic. It's something that you recognize and you're like, oh, I bet a lot of the beauty brands were shaking. I bet you they were. You guys don't have to say it, but I'm going to say it because I feel like you leveled up the category. It was like, no, you got to do the whole 360 approach. The highlights need to be branded. You know, you also, I see working with a lot of micro influencers. I'm from the mindset now that I have product that I'm not so much. much interested in huge influencers as I'm interested in the micro communities. I think there's so much to be said about that. Do you guys feel like that with your brand? I think it's everybody. Like you can't just have macro. I feel like you need a little bit of everything. And now that you have a brand, you probably see like, I remember thinking like, oh, this really big person posted our brand. Oh my God, we're going to like sell out. And then like the sales are just kind of like the same. And so I think

you see now that you need people consistently posting and sharing your products all the time. And sometimes, like, the really big influencers and people, like, they're busy. They have a lot of, like, paid jobs. They're working with a lot of brands. They have a lot of stuff that they just, like, have to be posting. And I feel like it's not even micro that it's a number that's small. It's micro as in, like, niche that I talked before. So somebody with 10,000 followers who has 10,000 people who are obsessed with skincare is more effective than somebody with 100,000 followers that just talks about, like, everything. So it's not just like number micro, but it's like niche people who are very, very specific.

And there's a very strong online skincare community. Like so many amazing micro people who are like skincare obsessed and they're very educated savvy consumers. And if they like something, they'll tell you if they don't like something, they will definitely let you know. You know what else too is the audience. I think my audience, and I'm sure you guys feel like this too, my community and my audience sharing the product have created the most amazing content I've ever seen. Like, I didn't do any influencer gifting just to start. I just was like, I'm going to, you know, gift to random people in the community. And then anyone that buys it who wants to create content, I'm going to repost that. And that's been really incredible to see. And you guys, I feel like have

that same kind of community. Yeah, there's such a loyalty there. Well, that kind of goes back to what we were talking about before of instead of just thinking about the paid or the monetization first. I mean, that loyalty that people feel to you is after years of so openly bringing them into your life into your home, into your, you know, your day-to-day habits. So then you create something and they want to organically support you. But I was going to add to the kind of the different influencers that we work with and Marianas says this all the time. Like everyone kind of has this different purpose. So sometimes we work with people who are going to create beautiful content. Others, it's exposure. For other people, it's sales. And there isn't, one isn't necessarily better than the

other. It's just understanding that everyone has a unique purpose and you can work with a variety of people and really win at working with each person, even if it doesn't convert necessarily into sales, because it might have converted into this beautiful content or into massive exposure. I want to ask you both this. Lauren and I talk about this all the time. We joke around that we're going to do a podcast when they sell, yo brands. And it's just going to be like kind of talking to people about mistakes you make when you work with people like the three of you, right?

I'm sure you guys have seen everything. Now that you're running your own brand and you've also both been on the receiving end of running successful campaigns, are there certain things that when you work with an influencer, you're like, hey, these are what we need and this what we donate? Or there are certain things you stay away from that other brands have asked you to do knowing, like, hey, this works and doesn't? Does that make sense? It's hard because you're investing money into something, so you do need to get something in return. I would hope as a brand we're better and more flexible about working with influencers. But what we try to do is like, you know,

like the brief that you get when you work with the brand. We try to make it really, really easy to follow and like have the exact information per frame so you can check stuff off. So it's a confusing brief to read. So almost that side is better. And then there's certain influencers where it's like, okay, we need to kind of help you dictate what this content will look like. But there's other influencers where it's like, send them the product as long as they tag the brand and swipe up, give them the freedom to do what they do. Because like there's just some people where that works really well for them. So it's knowing on the influencer side, we have an amazing marketing and influencer team, they like are obsessed with these people. They follow them. So they know what works best. I mean,

you talk to too. So it's like, you know, they know what people. works best for each person. So I think the influencer person needs to really actually follow influencers and know this person's traveling this weekend. So send them jet lag mask. This person's really good if you just give them stuff and let them do this. This person's really great with, you know, ingredients and product details. So you have to know, you can't treat each influencer like the same person. So like they kind of need like specialized briefs per campaign. For me as an as anyone that follows me that wants to send me product to post, I'm like, I can't do a script. I'm not actress, go hire an actress. And I think that's so right. Every person's different. There may be

people out there that want this script. So you do have to have someone on the back end like you guys have watching everything. I think that's genius. I always laugh when I see you get briefs and it's like no cussing, no foul language. Like, oh, you're working with a wrong person. I just shut this campaign down. I also read the brand. Like if it's a brand that like I don't think needs, you know, you as an influencer too, you have to also read the brand. Read the room. I think, you know, it's different. But yeah, I'm probably not the person to go to for, you know. Was it challenging to transition from doing, let's say, like, blog, influence, or social work to running a business? Because obviously, it's a different beast.

And it's a total different type of work and management and, like, everything. I mean, I don't think they could be more different. Even though they marry the same areas of, you know, let's call it marketing, like they're different beasts. I would say what people probably don't know is like Lauren and I were actually running the business. Like we didn't, you know, start this company with the parent company where they plugged us into a team of people. Like, we truly start. It wasn't a licensing deal. It's like it's really our business. Like we truly started it. Like we were doing like operations finance. We were the international salespeople until we hired a salesperson. Like for a while. I remember we had like this. There's like this meeting that Sephora has like twice a year. And we went and we didn't really fully understand what the meeting was because nobody explained it to us. And then they were like, okay. So do you guys want to present? No. We were we got really good at kind of. We got really good at kind of. winging it and like fake it till you make it, you know, and you kind of just live by that. And we played so many roles for a while. But we also were super confident in our vision and our product. And I think that really helped. And we were always very personal and honest with people. So as time went on

and we realized, okay, we actually have to get some team members in here who are really well experienced in certain areas. We did that. And that kind of goes back to like what Marianna and I have said all along, which is we're really okay with pushing our ego aside. And we love to bring people on board who are the best at what they do, and we're fine taking ourselves out of that. And so I think at the very beginning, it was really difficult because we didn't go to business school. We've never ran a company before. We have never produced product before. So it was really hard, but I think being an influencer is the best role you can have before starting a business because you have to do so many things. People get mad at me for saying this, but I think the stuff that you had

to figure out for operations or is probably easier to figure out than the other stuff. I'm going to probably get some shit, all these people with MBAs are going to write in all pissed off. But it's true because you can go and learn from people because they've done this for, like, people have been creating companies for so long. What you guys do in the influencer space, like that is new and it's a moving target. It's constantly changing. Yeah. And we also built a company with that space and mind, which is why I think we were able to kind

of pull things off for a while without having this sort of like executive team because we were creating a company that resonated with us and then for people like us and for our community. So I actually think it really helps and still helps that we don't. always think of things in this traditional business sense. We just think about it as like, what kind of product do we want to use? How do we want to see it? You know, use on multiple people. Like we just think about it in a very different lens. And then we've now hired people around us who can obviously help us execute things efficiently from a business standpoint. And I think too, like starting with one product is also easier to execute as an independent

brand. So instead of trying to launch seven things, like I don't even know how we would have launched a whole line of skincare products at the same time because it would have been impossible. but from an operation standpoint and production and everything, making one or two things at the very beginning, even though it's still difficult, it's a lot easier. I think it's also easier for a retailer to take a risk on you because it's just one product on a shelf space versus like needing to find room for an entire assortment. And cost wise. And cost wise. So it was easier. So it's high risk, high reward. Like if it works out great, then amazing. If it doesn't work out great, then it's not good until your next product launches. We happen to get, you know, lucky. And I think it was, you know,

on purpose, a lot of thought went into it with Jetlag Mask. And then like Lauren said, with the team, we ended up hiring a CEO last year, who's amazing. So we knew at some point in time our company started to get large enough that there's things that we don't know how to do. And to serve our company best, we do need to hire somebody who knows what they're doing. And so we have an amazing CEO. He came from Drybar and he's just the best. And he compliments us in all the best ways. And we let him do his thing. He lets us do our thing. And then it's really an amazing partnership with him. It's been great to have them. I think too, like you can have sort of this kind of quick, big success, which we were incredibly grateful to have with jet lag mask and with these, you know, with our first products. And then I feel like

you can either sort of hit this kind of like middle point where you're, you're successful and you're doing good sales, but you're not necessarily having the growth that you want to have, but you're, you're doing okay, you know, and I think you can do that if you don't make a decision to bring on other people, but we felt like the decision to bring on a CEO, which was a big decision for us because obviously then, you know, we're no longer serving that role. It's a big decision, but I feel like it allows for significant growth that we couldn't have otherwise achieved on our own, at least in the amount of time that we would want to achieve it. Well, it's smart. You're scaling. It's very, very smart. Hold up. Do you know about the shoes that I have been

wearing the entire summer? They've been all over my Instagram story. I'm wearing them in France. I'm wearing them in Austin in L.A., kind of everywhere. You've seen them. They're Rothies. Okay, so here's the deal. They have all different colors, all different styles. I'm obsessed with their white ones, though, okay? They kind of look like a boat shoe. They're so fun, but here's the main thing. They're so comfortable. I feel like so many shoes just make your feet so uncomfortable. When the feet come out, you look like Schmeagle from Lord of the Rings, but on your toes. But these don't, okay? They're so comfortable. They're so comfortable, like you'll be obsessed. Every single celebrity is wearing them. I can't believe it. I see them all over Instagram. They're so popular, but they're so affordable. But my favorite part about them is that Michael always steps

accidentally on my white shoes. And this isn't a problem with Rothies because you can wash them in the washing machine, which is amazing. So if someone accidentally steps on your white shoes, no worries, you can just throw them in the washer. They're good to go. They're washing. They're and they're also sustainable. So they're made with materials like plastic water bottles. I'm so obsessed with this part. They're so sustainable. They're good for the environment.

They're cute. They're comfy. And they look like the boat shoe you always wanted. I would recommend the white ones. Like I said, though, they have all different colors. So you are going to step up your summer wardrobe with washable, sustainable, stylish shoes and bags from Rothies. They have bags too.

You're going to head to rothies.com slash skinny to find your new warm weather favorites today. That is R-O-T-H-Y-S dot com slash skinny. I'm telling you the one that you have to check out is the sneaker. It has five-star reviews. I'm not surprised. I have 200 pairs. I'm obsessed with the bright white ones. They have all different colors. Check them out. They're true to size. You are going to love Rothies. COVID. COVID hits, quarantine, all this stuff. I would love for you guys to both speak on micro failures, micro struggles during COVID. I mean, personally, professionally, like, it was a lot with what happened to this world, and a lot of pivoting had to happen. What did you guys do when all this was going on? Well, we had a launch literally like in April.

And so we were like, what are we going to do? Like, we, our first billboards just went up now a year later, but we had billboards set to go up around Los Angeles in April. We had events happening. We were supposed to go to Dubai for work. And by the way, we still thought. We're like, oh, it's a month later. Like, I think we can probably go still. We hadn't canceled our flights. our tickets. And then we ended up canceling our tickets. We canceled all of our events. We canceled our billboards. And then we were like, okay, what are we going to do now? So we took that budget, pivoted. And you saw, like, we did these, like, beautiful gifting and like at home deliveries. And we were sending people pizza and ice cream. Remember when you guys did that. I thought that was

rad. Yeah. And it was like, I ate the shit out of that pizza. Yeah. Right. No, people actually, we wanted to do things that people actually wanted at home. So we changed that budget around. And then instead of, well, first, we were like, oh my gosh, it's a lip bomb. Like, you know, people use their fingers. So we had to think about like, you know, being sanitary and how are we going to change the messaging? So we quickly pivoted the messaging to, you know, talk about applying it directly from the tubes so that you're not using your hands. And so you didn't think about everything. And then we were like, do we even cancel the launch? Do we push the launch? But we ended up moving forward anyway. And so it's not just like personal things that are going on, which were really heavy at the time,

but it was also like big business things. And then we had opened our summer Friday's headquarters Monday, March 7th. By Friday, March 13th, we were working from home. We were in the office for four days. Four days. Do you guys just stay remote until, like, I guess, like recently or still remote? Yeah. I mean, these are also, I have to board out, like, significant financial fix that we're going into this, you know?

I mean, to have billboards ready to go up to have an office that we just started to lease with a team of people that we needed to put someplace. I mean, these were really big financial decisions that we were just starting to make with our brand because we had just kind of reached this point where we could financially do it. And then we not only had to pivot, but we also. had to make sure that our business was financially okay to pivot, have our launch, but also take care of things that we'd already committed to. We did get, I mean, people were

very kind and generous in that time. And, you know, there were other businesses that allowed us to pivot or delay plans until there was a better time to, you know, to be able to execute certain plans. Well, I think you guys keep using the word pivot. I think it's really smart because so many people when this happen, listen, there's certain industries like the restaurant industry, like there's nothing you can do. Like, you'd be working as hard as you can and it's just like, you just really just kind of like got dealt a bad hand. But I felt like the businesses and the entrepreneurs that survived during this were able to adjust and pivot and change with the times as opposed to like being like, this is how I do things. I'm not, you know what I mean?

Because like you said you thought it was a month. I mean, we're here. It's like a year and a half later almost. We thought it was two weeks. Every Friday, we would email our team. We'd be like, we're still working from home this week. I'll never forget. I just. took this picture with my son on our couch and I was like kissing him and I'm like, I can't wait to have a few weeks at, I'm grateful for a few weeks at home with my son, you know, slow things down for a little bit. And obviously it was so much longer than that. I mean, none of us could have anticipated what it was. And we just kind of kept, we still, by the way, we're still pivoting and we're still, you know, kind of. And we've hired so many people in the last year that sounds like

you guys are flexible though. We're very flexible. So honestly, like, you know, the teams and the people who manage each teams, like they have been amazing at onboarding new employees and hiring people. People have moved here during the pandemic. There's some people that we still haven't even met yet in person. It's so fun to like finally see them because you see them on Zoom. You talk to them all the time, but to actually see them in person. And so we grew so much and like our team worked so amazing remotely over the last year. So it's like, you know, we're fine. Still working remote. We'll have a flexible schedule when we go back because if you're doing so great right now remotely, then it's okay to keep doing it. But there is something about working together.

with people in person, seeing them face to face, being able to brainstorm. I think there's just like small conversations that happen in person, like not digitally that are really helpful to the brands, hopefully later this year. We'll get back, but it'll probably be some kind of a hybrid, which I think is what everyone sort of, all businesses are figuring out right now is what, what does that hybrid look like? I love the word hybrid. That's such a great word. What are some tools in both of your toolbox that you use for optimization of your life?

I know that you're both incredibly efficient, balancing being an influencer now and a founder. And for you a mother, it's a lot. So what are like little things that you do that you just feel like streamline your life? Mariana is very good at this, by the way. She even helps me streamline my mom life and she's not even a mom yet. She's really, really good at streamlining. But for me, routine is everything. I just personally like thrive off of routine. And there was a period of time where I kind of threw it out the window. And I was like, I can't have a routine. it's too difficult. It's too. And then I started to feel really overwhelmed again. And then I got back into my routine and feel so much better. So I think certain daily habits, like I have every single morning,

I do the same stretches every single morning when I wake up. And it sounds like such a kind of silly, simple thing. It takes maybe three minutes. This isn't a whole workout. This is just like stretches. And I honestly think even that little habit makes a difference. And then it's like, I see my son. I go get my daughter out of her crib. I nurse her. But even just having that movement of my body makes a big difference. Can you teach Michael the stretches so he can do them butt naked in the morning every single morning? I would love for that. I would love that show in the morning. Every morning three minutes of stretches. I'm sure you would. Listen, I don't know. I don't know if anyone needs to see that. That's a great idea. I don't know if you've shared this on your Instagram

stories, your stretches. You have to share it. They're usually so like early and I'm probably half dressed and I have not shown this in my story. So I need I do. I do. I need to share that. but it's just like a little daily habit. And then now I have, so my son's four, I have a five month old also five month old daughter. And so like to be honest right now, I'm still kind of in the thick of figuring out my new normal. I haven't really fully gotten there yet. So I don't know if I have like the best hacks in this exact moment of time because I'm still figuring it out. Do you live by your calendar? Do you have, you know, like driving time in your calendar? What are like little tiny things that you do? Yes. I live by my calendar. Everything, everything. Everything

has a spot in my calendar from driving time to my workout time to even like came out with your lunch. Yes, to literally like solo time with my son. Like, we're going to go have an ice cream day. And it's in my calendar. And it's like a 30 minute moment in my calendar. Or it's like right now I'm nursing my daughter. I have I have her on a routine and a really strict schedule. And it's the only way we can operate. And I know like that's the time that I'm feeding her. And if I am unable to because I have a meeting, then I know like I leave milk. And there's just everything is just very, very specific. down to like if I'm going on a date night with my husband. Like whatever it is,

everything's really specific in my calendar. And then the way that my calendar is and like the best way I found to like optimize just because I have so much going on is each day is dedicated to a certain type of work. Oh God. You and Michael. Oh, you just yelled at me about this. I'm telling you though, it really is the change.

It's brilliant. Because you have to shift your brain, right? Exactly. And so I feel like from having so many people on my podcast, I was like I have to pick the brains of all these people who are like highly successful and I kept hearing the same thing over and over again. I'm like, okay, if all these people are doing this, like let me give it a try. So, and it, but it also works better because it's a huge win for me right now because I was just yelling at like this. I just switched over to it and it is, it's amazing. A life changer. But because Lauren and I have to do

so many things together, having us also on this shared same day makes it easier because what we know on Monday, every summer Friday's phone call, meeting Zoom. Obviously we work on the brand on other days, but at least we know this day, it's both of us dedicated. So Monday, summer Friday's day, Tuesday is podcast day. So Tuesday, I record new episodes. I edit the episode for the next week. I do everything, record ads and everything. Wednesday is my influencer day. So that's the day I create content. I work on all of my sponsored content, submit everything. Thursday is like a floating flexible day. So like whatever happens that day. Friday, no phone calls, no meanings. It's like a Marianna day to like be creative or like do personal appointments or whatever. And obviously we're still answering emails in

between. But I think knowing that I have each thing, especially with influencer stuff, like you want to be ready, right? But like, sometimes sometimes. you know, you just don't want to get ready, but you still have to, like, shoot sponsored content or shoot content, whatever you want to do. I know Wednesday I need to do my hair and makeup when I wake up because that's the day that I have to shoot stuff. But I just feel like having these set days, which I know it's not possible for everybody, but like because there's so many different types of jobs I have. I feel like it's the best for me. And then that way I'm like never behind because I can't be late with certain things. But I want to stay on this for a second because I think like the, no, because here's why.

Of course you want to stay on this. This comes up again and again. And I always tell people, like, when people come to me and they say they're a multitasker, I like actually look at that as a red flag because I say like there was a study I read a while ago and it was this, it was a Harvard study. And they did a basically people that were, they said to only do certain tasks compared to people that were set to do multiple tasks. But they all had to complete the tasks eventually. And the people that were like focused and only did the one thing at a time just destroyed the people that were multitask. I think we're like told this lie as we're in school or growing up that multitasking is a strength. But for you, like, people come and you say, how do you get it all done? How do you be an influencer? How do you run a business? How do you do this? And then get it all done.

It's because you're not really multitasking, right? You're focused. And I think having a start and end time to your day is really important. So I think people used to think like, oh, you're supposed to work really hard. And that working hard means working better. But I don't think that that's true. I think having a start and end time to my day and actually not working on the weekends. And now Lauren and I both do one day on the weekend, no social media.

it actually makes me work better during the week because I have that true break because before I was basically just never stopping to work. So I never actually felt like recharge. But now on Monday, I'm ready to go because I actually didn't work on the weekend. And then this new no social media day, which sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. One day a week. One day a week, we aim for it. I think to like the multitasking, I think especially as a mom or for any working parent, this there was sort of like this old idea I felt like at least, especially when I first became a mom four years ago with my son. And it was sort of this like glorification of the multi hyphenate. Like you're a mom and you have a business and you do all of these, like all of these different things that you're

doing all at once. And people, I felt like it was, it was just like this glorified thing. But then no one really talked about what happened behind the scenes to make that happen and what kind of village it required, what kind of help you need, whether it's from your family, a caretaker, a daycare, whatever it might be because you can't, to your point about multitasking, like I can't possibly be super present for my child while also responding to emails that are really important or that have some kind of financial statement attached to it. I can't be like nursing my daughter and answering that question at the same time. Please. So how do you do it? Do you like this is actually a selfish question for myself. I'm on my phone so much in front of the baby and I'm like, I do have time in

the calendar with her, but then I also want to hang out with her too. So I'm on the phone and I almost feel like it's better to just go in the other room and have a nanny help me. Is that the most efficient thing that you found? Yes, that's what I have found. So I have an amazing nanny, and that's exactly what I do. And I feel like I'm trying to always be really open and honest about this, because I'm not doing all of the things at one time. And obviously, when you're sharing things, sometimes you can only share so much in your day. So, like, they'll see, you know, I'll be with my daughter or my son, and then they see me going into work or whatever it might be. But it's hard to show like every single behind the scenes moment. That's important to touch on because people think that the five minutes

that you show of your day on Instagram is the whole day. And I feel like even with my friends sometimes, they're like, they're like, oh, like I saw you were here or this. I'm like, this is five minutes of my day. And I think even when I hire someone now, I'm like, it's not rosé and oysters and, you know, unboxing. Like, there's so much more behind the scenes. I think that's an important thing to touch on. 100%. There's five minutes of the day. There's a lot that happens behind the scenes. And I think especially with parenting. And it requires like, like not only do we have, you know, amazing caretakers, but it's also, it's my husband who's like such a true partner in our home life in like really supporting things on the business side and like, you know, really believing in what we're creating.

It's also my family, like my sibling step in a lot, my parents. So it really like is a team effort and requires a village of people to get it done. And I do find that if I can have some separation, meaning, for instance, when I'm nursing my daughter, has been a big goal of mine since I had her. I really didn't want to be on my phone. And it was a goal that I set for myself early on, which is hard in the beginning because they nursed forever in the beginning. And I really made it a goal to not be on my phone because I felt like when I would do it, I would get done. Even if I was nursing for 45 minutes, I felt like rushed after. Like I felt out of time because I was like trying to do the emails and trying to pay attention to her.

And I never felt settled. Whereas if I can have some separation and say like, okay, this is the time that I'm having with my children. And then this is my work time. I feel. more relaxed at both. I think what is going to be popular moving forward is the people that have the discipline to have absence. I think we've lost absence. There is a discipline in absence and getting off and putting it away. People think there's a discipline in just presence and posting and getting it all up and seven days a week and go, go, and hustle culture and this and that. But there's also a discipline in absence. And I think to be able to put the phone in the other room or my new thing right now is putting it on airplane mode and reading a book, like whatever that is, I think that's going to be

a thing. I love the new feature on the iOS update that's coming this fall. And it's like the not do not disturb. There's like some new word for it where you can set things where like Instagram or text messages won't pop up and it'll auto send a text message to the person and say, Lauren is in do not disturb mode right now. I'm going to be there forever. I love that. But I think it's amazing. It's like I forget what it's called, but there's There's like some word for it. I think it's such a great feature because it's like there are times where you can have your phone but you're not available. And the person will know like you're in a meeting or you're doing something. It's almost like a away message on Slack where people like will know that you're unavailable at this time. And it's like you can set emergency contacts. But I love this. But with like the, you know, the absence part, I feel like we have really enjoyed the one day of no social media. Because you have to think in any other job, you do get a weekend off. Right. But when you're an influencer, basically probably since you started Instagram, have you been on Instagram every day? I take time off all the time. Oh, okay.

Well, I didn't even go for you. I go block all the time. But that's a decision. It's a conscious purposeful decision. So it's like even though you post all the time, but you have to think like as influencers or bloggers, YouTubers, whatever, you're consistently posting content every day through the holidays. On the big moments, people want more content.

Like when you had your baby, I'm sure they're like waiting for your posts. So it's like, you know, in normal jobs, you wouldn't have that time off. So we're like, you know, it's okay to take a day off. And then on Monday, we're like, oh, we didn't miss anything. All my mentions are still here. I can still go look at people's posts and it's all good and we're really liking it.

Also, this is a new hack that I have. You guys probably already know this one but you can go to the mention and save it and post it on if you want, you know, like you don't have to post it in 24 hours.

So like if someone mentions me that like I really want to repost it I'll like turn the background pink and save it and then post it on like Monday or Tuesday. Does that make sense? Yes. I didn't know you could do that. Oh, that's helped me so much.

Oh. It's true for brands though too because you know brands sometimes You're not reposting things at that time so you can save them for later. This is very smart. It's changed my life. But you know, I also think like what I want to remind people of is all of this has been scaled into, right?

Like when you started, you weren't running a business and being a mom and doing the influencer. And I think people look at the three of you, right? If you're like a new creator and maybe even me once in well, but you could look at us and say this seems overwhelming, which it is if you were, like if you were just starting, I was like, you need to do all of this today. you'd be like, what the hell? You freak out.

And so I think people just need to, like, if they're starting out, they need to figure out, like, focus on the first thing that you're doing and then scale into all of these opportunities, right? Yeah. I mean, the only, yes, yes, but the only thing I'll say on that is that you can't always, at least, at least what's been my experience is I can't always control when an opportunity comes. Sure. So for instance, I never really intended to have a baby and start a business at the same time.

That was, like, never in, like, my plan book. and that's also really hard to do. But it happened and the opportunity came and we had the discussion and we decided to go for it. And then I also happened to be early pregnant. And so it was it like all happened at once. So I think for sure, yes, like find that focus and especially whatever your niche is and focus on that.

But then also know that there has to kind of always be this like willingness and openness for things that might come that you didn't plan for. This episode feels like it needs to be titled how to be flexible. Then it comes down. to like I imagine like the sacrifices that you're willing to make right like I told Lauren when we started the podcast in your meet I was like all right well I'm just gonna eat shit for three years I literally like I'm going to where I was in the beginning we're in San Diego I was driving back up in four three nights a

week we would take a salad I was like this is just gonna suck I was like this sucks I'm gonna have no social life no weekends like it's just gonna suck I think the unlock is that there's certain people that would be like okay I know this is gonna like there's gonna be a lot of sacrifices you're running a business you're doing like there's sacrifices you're making there's no way you're having it all. Like I always point that out to people. It's not like you're having this amazing life and doing all this stuff in your free time and like reading books or like you're making sacrifices. And Lauren made a lot of personal sacrifices. So like I don't have kids.

And so for me it's a little bit more flexible. But like when we're going and committing to a trip, Lauren's not just committing to like going on the trip. She's committing to like my husband has to watch the kids. And then Evan is going to do this thing. And so it's her personal sacrifices are a lot more than mine are. I think I want to ask a selfish question, which is text message. messages. And this is a very specific question. Your friends are texting. They need your attention. Birthdays, weddings. Just want to shoot the shit on a Wednesday at 12 o'clock. No, I can't get coffee with you on Thursday at 10 a.m. I mean, it's wild. These are the sacrifice I'm talking about. But I want to know how you guys handle friends, family demands with everything else you have going on.

Yeah, it is a lot. I also have a really big thing. family. I'm one of six kids. It's a lot going on at all times that I have my own family and there's always a lot happening. I will say I just had to be really honest with the people closest in my life. So, you know, friends of mine who are truly like my closest friends and then my siblings, my parents, all of that. I just had to have a really honest conversation and kind of just be like, look, I'm at this point in my life. And it doesn't last forever. Everything's a season, you know. And this is a season of life that I'm in where all of my energy and my attention is either. they're going to my business or it's going to my immediate family, my kids and my husband.

And as much as I want to be able to give my attention to everybody and shower all of the people I love the most with all the love in the world that I can. While showering, while actually showering myself and having any sort of self-care, there's just not enough, there's not enough hours in the day. By the time I like prioritize my workout, which I have to prioritize for my mental sanity. And then like, you know, taking care of my children, getting them off to wherever they need to go to, like saying hello to my husband and having some sort of conversation during the day and then running our business, that's like, that's the day. So, so when you get all these text messages from friends, are you responding right away? Are you, for me, I batch my text messages. I sit down

once a week and I respond to everyone. And I know that sounds obnoxious, but it's, it lets me check in and see what's going on and responding. I know you do it, doing your foot rub. During my foot rub, which I'm going to do. I can't wait. During my foot rub. And it really, really, really helps. Is there something that you guys do? Or do you answer, like, are you reactive to it? Like, say, a friend texts as you, like, do you react right away or do you wait? It just like depends really like what we're in the middle of doing. Like sometimes I just won't check my phone for a long time or sometimes like if I need, like Lauren even sometimes doesn't get back to me.

So it's like I need to go to like somebody else to like get like Lauren. And so I feel like it's hard because between like and especially all being like digitally right now. So it's like between Slack emails, text messages, phone calls, zooms. It's like how can you possibly communicate on your phone and then try to not be on your phone all day long. But I feel like our friends and family are just like really forgiving. There's no real answer. It's like, you know, you know our life. If we get back to we do, if don't, like, don't be offended. Like just text me again and then maybe I'll see it. The worst is like,

everybody DMs now on Instagram instead of texts. And then I miss the DM or I open it and I forgot. And then it's like seen, but it was, I didn't even really see it. Oh, that's the worst. And then they then they think that you read it, but you didn't really. And so it's like, please if you're my friend just like text me, don't DM me because I'm, for sure just going to miss your DM. Please, can we take off scene? I'm over the scene. I know.

I didn't read. It's so invasive. It's literally the most invasive thing ever. Take the scene off. I totally agree. But I keep talking about sacrifices. Like, there's two ways that I figured out how to get over envious. I heard two things.

I don't know if you ever heard this. But like the first one was Charlie Munger said that to not be envious because it's the most useless of the seven deadly sins. Right. It doesn't give you anything. You don't have me fun at it. So it's like, that's not good. And then the other one was, somebody was talking.

I can't remember who this was. And they said like, if you envy someone, like I say someone admires you, like someone's falling, like, oh my God, I would love to have her life. It's like, you have to be willing to trade every aspect of your life for every aspect of your life, right? Like friends, family, sacra, like all, you have to be willing to take all of it. And as soon as you start to think about it, like, oh my God, like, I don't want that person's life. I don't want to give up the things I'm doing. So you like move on, right? Everyone has a different priority list. You know, like we can all handle different things in a

different way. Like each of our, you know, we each have a different size cup. And it's like, how much can you fill it? And that's so personal to each person and what you're willing to sacrifice is so personal. So I think you kind of have to like list that out for yourself and then work backwards. Can you both leave our audience with your a couple morning routine? I know you listed a couple more, maybe how you make your coffee or your matcha or whatever, a couple morning routine tips. A couple morning routine tips. Wine down's important because the cortisol is real with work. Like I would love to know both. I wake up. I wake up. I meditate. I meditate twice a day. And then I write in my gratitude journal. I like to always write

in my gratitude journal in the morning. So I have a gratitude mindset. So instead of being like I have to do these things today, it's like I get to do these things today. I end it with like sending love to some people, whoever. So they're just like top of mind for me. I listen to the morning news USA Today like five things podcast. So I get like quick blurb every morning. I also like stretch to a little bit of physical therapy and walk my dog. And that's usually like my morning routine. If I don't do my morning routine. I feel so rushed to the rest of the day. I feel like everyone kept talking about meditating and like how amazing it was. And I kept trying all these apps and nothing was happening. I was expecting it to be like magic. And I was like, okay, none of this works. So I ended up taking

transcendental meditation when I had like a week free in December. I do it twice today. 20 minutes. It sounds like an eternity. It's really not once you're actually in it. It is so amazing. It was the first time I actually felt like meditation worked for me and I've done it every day since December now. I love it. And then selfishly, how long, how long is that? course because you're the second person that's come on here and said like three or four days but it's not like an all day course I couldn't figure out I can't figure out meditation either but you're the second person that said they did a course and like figured it out so you know that like weird time between Christmas and New Year's and you're like what do I do with myself and you're like no one's really working I did it in that break and because of COVID it was virtual so you could just do it virtually which maybe it's a little bit better if you do it's a little bit better if you do it's a little bit better if you do it's a little bit more than it's I can do it's because I kept me like why does everybody about how meditation is like the best thing in the world and I can't figure it out. And if all these

people are saying it and they've been doing it for like however long, I want to do this. And it really does help me so much because I'm so connected and thinking and I'm such an overthinker. Like I go to sleep at night overthinking. I like I have a brain dump. I write everything before I go to bed. But like I feel like it's 20 minutes to just not think, which is so hard to do. But in the nighttime routine, because of you actually have my red light in my bedroom. I put it on. I have my blue light glasses I watch TV. I did my phone 30 minutes before I go to bed and then just chill. That's pretty much my nighttime. I want to do that meditation thing because I think I'm the same way I can't get out of my head at night. Yeah, but the problem with you is that if we do that course, I'm going to be in

the room being quiet for 20 minutes and you're going to walk in and be like do like this shirt or this shirt. No, no, I wouldn't do it. How's my hair? And I'm going to be like I'm literally meditating. I can already see it. I can feel when it's like 19 minutes. Like I have this like when I'm doing it, almost know like when it's when the timer is going to go off because there's an app you can use. It's silent. So there's no music. You're not like saying or doing anything because like, you know other meditations. They're like speaking to you the whole time. It's literally just like this mantra they give you. It's not like a real word and you just sing it over and over again. But I love it now. It's amazing. Oh, you're so disciplined with that. She's, I do not meditate as often

as Marianna does. I wish I did, but I don't. I mean, honestly, my morning routine is pretty fast because it's also very kid heavy. We got two kids. I was going to ask you. I mean. It all goes out the window. Yeah. So like in my mind before I go to bed, I'm like, I'm going to wake up before they wake up and I'm going to do my workout and my stretch. I'm going to shower. And then my kids are going to magically wake up, which never happens. If I wake up early, they wake up even earlier. And it's just what happens every time. But I do have a couple of things that are like non-negotiable. One of them is the morning stretching. So I always do. It literally takes three minutes. And it's just a way to move my body right when I wake up. And then I try to down a bunch of water. I'll go and get my daughter from her crib. I nurse her usually. is like my son is walking in and then kind of get them situated. So things like to breakfast or like I'll be packing his lunch for when he goes to school and kind of getting him out the door is like a big part of the morning routine. And then I have some time to myself to then kind of like resituate myself. So that's usually when I'll do either each day I have a different kind of workout that I like to do. So like two to three days a week, I usually do a run. And then the other days I do something shorter like a 20 minute

Pilates workout that I do through an app or something like that. You look amazing after the baby. Are there any tips that you can give me and everyone? I think, well, one, I think it's definitely such a personal journey. And I know you've probably heard this a million times, but it's like comparing the postpartum journey to anyone but yourself is just so unrealistic because I think each of our bodies, we're so individual. The journey is so personal.

You know, your birth is so personal, all of that. I think for for me personally with both pregnancies, I do think that all of the daily habits that I put into place long before pregnancy, during pregnancy and after pregnancy, all really have had a significant impact in the healing process. I bet you they're on your blog. So I have written about that. Okay. I'm going to go read your blog. And it's just like it's it's it's it's all of kind of those wellness habits I think combined like the workouts that I've been really dedicated to. And it doesn't it I don't I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I. I. I. I I mean, I'm not a marathon runner. These aren't like crazy workouts. It's just a commitment to moving my body every day. You also eat well too. I eat well. Yeah, I've been Kelly LaVac.

Be well, but Kelly love her. She's open my nutritionist for a long time. And then we both work. Well, I work with Dr. Will and then Lauren's working with him now. Yeah, I just had a call with him.

Hi, Dr. Will. Hey, Dr. Bell. You have to send your, your sample into him. I'm not sure what kind of sample is. That's great. I'll connect you. Okay. Leave our audience with a book.

podcast or resource that's brought you a lot of value and then pimp yourself out. Jamie Kernlema's book is amazing. She is a friend and mentor to us as well. Her story is obviously like so incredible and inspiring. So her book is great if you guys want to check that one out. I love Jen Atkins book. I'm just finishing reading it right now. Really good. And oh, pimp ourselves out. On summer Fridays, summer Fridays.com, we're available basically like, you know, anywhere and everywhere, Sephora, called Beauty, Mecca, Revolved Netaporte, a space. S&K. I feel like I'm surely forgetting something. Yes. Word. You can find us now pretty much anywhere. Your own Instagrams. Mariana underscore Hewitt and Lauren Ireland. Oh, wait. I'm my podcast too. New episodes.

Life with Marianna every Tuesday. With your media. Yeah. So with Dear Media, actually was something that I wanted to do. Well, I wanted to do it before. There really wasn't just time. And then in the pandemic, I was like I actually had like some extra time while I'm at home. Because the biggest issue I felt like before with podcast was like, oh, it's like, I don't have time to go record or like do these things. But because I could do everything remotely, I love doing it. And I feel like it gives so much value back to people. And I'm really, really enjoying it. It's very time consuming if you're thinking about starting a podcast. So it's definitely not easy. But I love doing it. And so yeah, new episodes every Tuesday. Which episode should they start with? Lauren is on. So you guys can listen to Lauren's.

Melissa Wood was on. People loved her episode. Jen Atkin. There's one with Brittany Hennessy giving really great, like, influencer tips. So lots of ones on me. And I just have to say if you guys are going to start with any summer Friday's products, I'm sure that you guys have already tried them. I was just telling you guys off air, I'm a huge fan of the lip butter. It's so good. It smells good.

It lays right. You can wear it plain or you can even put like a color over it. I love it. Or you can do it the opposite way too. It's very versatile. Thank you both for taking the time. Thank you for having us. Come back anytime.

Thank you. Do you want to win a summer Friday's lip balm? the one I'm talking about throughout this whole entire episode. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostick. I'm telling you, you're going to love this. You want to win this one. Thank you guys so much for listening. Make sure you've rated and reviewed on iTunes if this episode or any of our episodes have brought you any kind of value. Cheers.