The Bossticks - Overheard LA's Jesse Margolis - The Man Behind The Overheard Brand On How To Build A Business Using Social Commentary

Episode Date: April 30, 2019

#185: On this episode we sit down with the man behind the popular Instagram account and now brand; Overheard LA. Jesse Margolis started an Instagram account using conversations that were Overheard in LA. Since then the brand has grown to multiple accounts and works with companies like Uber, Le Labo, & Bumble to create content using social commentary. On this episode we dive into the man behind the scenes who makes it all possible.  To check out Overheard LA click HERE To learn how to take a Cartier Bracelet off 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 ROTHY'S. Rothy's shoes are stylish, sustainable, and comfortable enough for every day wear, anywhere. Rothy's will blow your mind that they're made from recycled plastic water bottles, because they're the softest shoe you'll put on your feet. You can feel good about wearing them.To try ROTHY's go to ROTHYS.COM and enter PROMO code "SKINNY" at checkout This episode is brought to you by FabFitFun Sign up for FabFitFun today! These boxes ALWAYS SELL OUT! Use our code TSC to get $10.00 off your first box! Go to fabfitfun.com to sign-up and start getting the box for a life well-lived! - that's over $200 for only $39.99!  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 along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

Aha. But if you think about people you really like, like whether it's Humans of New York or it just very much knows what it is. and I think it's about like pick one thing and do that very well. You're posting into a maelstrom of content, you know, that's both original and terrible. Like I think one of the cool things about Instagram is you're seeing all these artists emerge. Like we work with a lot of illustrators and stuff. So like if you're an illustrator, you do that one thing. And that's what it is.

And people resonate with it or they don't. And I think you kind of have to approach social media that way. How we doing everybody? How we doing everybody out on the inner webs? What are you munching on? I just got down. I had a Hershey kiss. Hershey kiss.

Is that the only thing you've eaten all day? And I'm drinking some Trump water. Is that the only thing you ate all day? People were devastated when they heard that this Mountain Valley scream is called the Mountain Valley water is called Trump water. It is the best water. Mountain Valley mineral spring water. But they drink it in the White House and so now it's called Trump water, which I don't

know. I don't know if I'm endorsing that or not. I'm just telling you it's damn good water. Mountain Valley Spring. I like it because there's minerals in it. And I've talked to a lot of experts and they said that the first thing you want to do when you wake up is drink a water with minerals in it. So I'll either do this water or I'll do like a hydroflask with mint and lemon and a little pinch of pink Himalayan salt.

Welcome back, everybody. Here we are. Back in the studio, another day, another podcast. Is that really the first thing you've eaten all day, though? No. I had a smoothie this morning. I'm on a big intermittent fast kick right now. I'm in peak state, hyperfocus.

Listen to the Jorge Cruz episode, everybody. We talked about intermittent fasting. I learned an interesting fact. I was with our buddy John Durant the other day. And he was telling me, actually not just John, but also, Tara, it happened two conversations I've had this past week around intermittent fasting. And they told me an interesting fact, men actually have an easier time than women. And I'm not saying, I don't know if that's true or not, but this is what they told me with intermittent fasting because traditionally or historically, through the evolutionary process, men were the ones that were out hunting. So they had to go for longer periods without food.

and women were more of the gatherers, and so they could kind of like munch and feast on whatever they were gathering while they were gathering. I'm going to gather you a go macro bar. Yeah, go macro bars. I had two. No, I did. I had three of those today.

I had the Mountain Valley Water. I had a blueberry muffin. But no, I haven't, I'm not really, it's not my first thing, but yeah. Anyways, Lauren, what's going on? We need to work on your nutrients. I feel like it's really important, Michael. I don't think you've seen a vegetable in the last few days.

I don't got a lot of nutrients. That's true. I don't got a little nutrients. Neither just Taylor though. No, I'm better on the vegetables sauteed spinach, broccoli. Anyways, guys, we got another interesting episode for you here today. Not just interesting, exciting. And it's with Jesse Margolis, the man behind one of the most famous Instagram accounts. You've all heard it or seen it and love it. Overheard L.A. I kind of want to discuss something with you that I noticed has been a theme for you and I the last two weeks.

Wait, is this, if it's what I think you're going to say, it's been a theme for you for the last two weeks, but it's been a theme for me for the last 32 years. I have been really studying successful high-level people. Oh, never mind. I was taking that in a different direction. One of the things that they all do, and bear with me, because this sounds weird at first, is they set aside time in their calendar for thinking time. Oh, never mind.

No, that's right out my alley. Okay, so I've been looking at high performers like Keith Cunningham. you guys have to listen to some of his podcast. He's so good. He's a guest on podcasts. Keith, please come on our show. I'm begging you. And he talks about how important it is to set aside 30 minutes to 45 minutes of thinking time twice a week. And what he does is he goes into his thinking time with intention. So he goes into this thinking time with a question that he wants to ask himself. And he has a journal and a piece of paper. He says no computer or phone. And he just spends time thinking. So he got this tip from one of his mentors and it became a huge theme in his life to do his thinking time. So now I am calendaring in pink on my schedule 30 minutes twice a week thinking time. And I'm going to go into each session of thinking time with an intention. What do you think about that, Michael Bostick? Well, I think it's a deeper issue. I think a lot of people don't have the ability to sit alone with

their thoughts anymore. They don't have the ability to sit alone and just be bored. You know, if you go back a few years, there was a time you're sitting in the doctor's office and what do you do? stared on a wall, sucked on your tooth. If you're lucky enough, maybe they had a little magazine, pick up a little reading material. So that's what you did. You sit around in a line. What do you do?

You just sit with your thoughts. So that was the way that we've evolved throughout history. When you're bored, when there's nothing to do, there's nothing to do. Now with the access of the smartphone, everyone, what do they do? You're sitting alone for a second, pick it up right away. And most of the time you're on social media, probably looking at accounts like overheard L.A. So I think that people have been, we've evolved into a species that is scared to be alone with our own thoughts. And so I think it's not so much just setting time to aside to think, which I think everybody

should do. I do it and put it in my schedule intentionally. But it's also being okay with being by yourself and your own thoughts. I would agree with you. I think that the older I get, the more I want to be alone and go introverted and really spend time thinking. I think so many problems that that have happened in my business or in my life have been because I've been reactive instead of proactive. and I feel like going into a thinking time with a question that I'm asking myself. For example, the latest thinking session was, the question for me was, what am I not seeing in my business? What am I not seeing? And I sat down and I really examined what I'm not seeing.

So I think having that question at the top of your journal and just sitting with your thoughts like you're saying is super powerful. Well, it's important to look in. I mean, I think where people are running into a lot of trouble in life in most cases is they're looking out to external things. Can this person help me? What did this person do to me? What if this event happens? It's not a lot of internal reflection and saying, what can I do? What do I think? What do I actually even really want? That's the biggest thing is a lot of people are going down and working at a certain job, they're pursuing a career, they're pursuing a company, whatever they're doing, the pursuit of relationship and they're just going and going. The next thing you know, you're just like going down a rapid river.

And you don't even stop to take a second and say, wait a minute, is this what I actually want? Is this what I actually want to be doing is the end result actually something I'm craving. And so a lot of people, if they could just take a step back and analyze for an hour or two a day or a couple hours a week, you're going to have a little bit more clarity as to what you're doing. Totally. It's like what Warren Buffett always says. He says, think about what you want in how long? Well, he likes to plan out for like what is he wanted seven years and back into one. Yeah. But no, I mean, even people like if you're going to go down to Warren Buffett, which and those guys, which are obviously high, high level, Even people like Bill Gates at the height of Microsoft and during its biggest booming years, he would take a week off work just to go think.

Go off into a cabin somewhere. I'm slowing down to eventually speed up. I want to spend a lot of time just with my thoughts and not scrolling through social media and looking outward, but just really being inward. So that's been a big theme for me lately. And I like to share things that I'm experimenting with with you guys to further optimize my life. And Michael and I have been on the same page with this one. Well, questioning your beliefs. Questioning my beliefs. Why do I want to do this? Why do I actually think this is beneficial?

Yes. Why do I crave that end result? Like actually questioning why and what value you're putting on things and actions, that's important. I agree. With that, Michael, why don't you introduce the episode? This one's a good one with At Overheard, L.A. If you guys have not heard of this Instagram account, it is iconic. So we're talking to Jesse Margolis today.

the man behind the account that we all know and love, Overheard L.A., which has turned into Overheard, New York, a bunch of other properties on social. And we just wanted to dive into why this account exists, what they're doing with it, what the man behind it is doing, and just really get into it. I think it's kind of a unique interview in the essence that we're living in an interesting time where we're starting to see personalities arise behind things that we might not have seen a few years ago. Like this random Instagram account and it's all about people talking and saying absurd things in L.A. And all of a sudden there's millions of people paying attention.

That's a strange career path. And so we wanted to dive into that with Jesse and just, you know, get his take on everything that's being overheard in L.A. with that guys. Welcome Jesse Margolis to the show, Overheard L.A. Maybe there's a couple things that'll be overheard on this episode. All right. Before we get into that, let me talk to you about Rothies. So if you know me, like really know me, you know I am fanatic about white.

shoes. Like I wear white shoes, I think, every single day of the week. They're my favorite things. There's something about them. I feel like they're very flattering to the feet. And they also just get me all nostalgic. They just remind me of a boat shoe. You know what I mean? Super nautical. Anyway, enter Rothies. So I actually have three pairs of these shoes. There's other colors. Now, I like white. Okay. This is one of my favorite partnerships because it's so easy to talk about because I wear them all the time. You've probably seen them on my Instagram at least five times a week, okay? I know you guys are going to love these because they're really, really easy to slide on when you're running out the door and you're running late like me this morning with iPads on. Also, they're super stylish. They're

cute. They're nostalgic looking and even Megan Markle. Where's them? This specific shoe, the one that I like, is really flattering to the foot and in white, it's even more flattering. You guys know how specific I am and this shoe is going to make your foot. look nice. Rothy's are a deal for this. Like I said, I got the white slip-on shoe. The fit is true to size. I got a seven and a half. And there's no break-in period. All right, before I give you the deeds on where to get these shoes, I have to tell you that they're made from recycled plastic water bottles. Okay. So they're the softest shoes you'll ever put on your feet and you can feel good about wearing them. That makes me feel good. They've reached almost 20 million bottles

recycled. All right. Check out all the amazing styles available right now at rothies.com slash Skinny. All you have to do is go to Rothes.com slash skinny. That's R-O-T-H-Y-S-D-com slash skinny to get your favorite new pair of flats. Comfort style and sustainability. These are the shoes you guys have been waiting for. Head over to Rothes.com slash skinny today. And make sure you pick up the white pair. Now let's get into the interview. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. I'm glad we're popping your podcast, Cherry. Oh, yeah, you're like my, you're penetrating me.

Oh, my God, your version. Yeah, I'm being penetrated by the skinny confidential. It's very, very exciting. You always remember your first, good or bad. So, welcome to the show. I mean, just the double Cardiardier love bracelets alone? You know what? I forget that I have this thing more.

I was making fun of him yesterday for this. Yeah, I know. It might be to L.A. We just moved from San Diego. So this is. I couldn't tell by the match. by the matching. I'm going to saw that off him tonight, I think.

I actually think it's cool because you're looking at the love bracelet, but you also have these tattoos underneath. Just a position. It's a contrast. It's like a tough guy standing in front of the fountain at the grove. Yeah. That's a perfect analogy. Tough guy's saying, except I don't know if I'm so tough anymore.

I got like bones creaking and everything, you know? No, he's not. It's like dealing with a geriatric. Like I am changing his diaper by 6 o'clock. He's in bed, ready to go to sleep. 8 p.m. I'm done these days. It's over. It's really.

He doesn't want to drink anything anymore. He just likes water with lemon. Our relationship's evolved. The water from the White House? Trump water that you've let us know. Yeah, so Mountain Valley water is from the Wachita Mountains, but it is the official water of the White House, which they also sell at Airwant.

So it was Obama water. It was Millard Fillmore water, and now it's Trump water. Michael won't drink anything less now. I know. Well, say what you want about the guy, but he knows his water. He does. He does. How do we get here?

How do we get here? Overheard, L. Let's go back a little bit. How did you get here? Let's get a little bit of background. Yeah, so overheard sort of fondly started by accident. Like, my friends made me an Instagram account called the Thin Jewish. I guess this was back in the day when nobody knew that the fat Jewish existed.

No, like they didn't know what memes were and they thought, you know, he was doing all his stuff. And so I guess they were really into it. They're now off Instagram and act like they're too cool for it. But, yeah, so they made me this account. I used to kind of screw around on it. We'd make like, you know, take pictures of latte that my barris, you know, sort of insulting my barista and this foam work or like making emoji book screen covers and just kind of screwing around. And then, yeah, I just heard these two women like at Air One, I was sitting outside one day and these two women walked in and they were just like talking about Lisa and like this total bitch in their life who just like love swag and has this pit bull. Was that me?

It might have been. It might have been you. Yeah, but it was all about freezing their eggs. I mean, the conversation just went, so I just sort of compressed it into a paragraph, wrote it in notes and screenshot it on my private account. Instead of getting 16 likes, I rocket it up to like 30 likes for my friends. So after like a week or two of those, a friend of mine, a screenwriter, convinced me to start the account. What were you doing, like what were you doing for a career or for a job at the time?

I don't think I had a career. I definitely was very dissatisfied professionally. Okay. I was doing, I had been, I had a streetwear company in my late 20s, early 30s. and that kind of went under. It was really cool, but I had no business theory behind it. And then I was bankrupt, which I can tell, but like the bracelet you one day will be bankrupt.

Or maybe have almost been multiple times, right? Yeah, great. That's an indicator. But I was definitely like down on my luck and my, you know. And then I used to spend a lot of time at Air One. And then I started working in doing like casting for docuseries and reality TV. So I had like a freelance job, which I despised. And I sort of always lamented that I'd never done anything.

I always thought like, oh, if I could go back in time, I would have done something in comedy or advertising. And now I've sort of luckily stumbled into both. Into both, yeah. So how do you go from that to where you are now? Because now you have multiple accounts. I mean, there's overheard L.A., there's Overheard, New York. There's overheard. Is there Overheard Miami?

How many overheard are you? You're like the real housewives have overheard. Like, we have, they're all over. You know what I mean? So how do we go from you at Airwam... Have you ever had that analogy before? No, I think she's just defending you because of the bracelet. Yeah, she's digging in here.

Yeah, good. Defend me, yeah. How do we go from where you started at Airwant to where you are today? Is this just rinse and repeat seven days a week work? How are you building the team? What's sort of the A to Z? Yeah, it's been a lot of just kind of feeling it out because I didn't understand the landscape of social media when I started it.

So in my mind, when I started over our head, like we have eight accounts now, five of our own. LA, New York, San Francisco, London, and University. And we have three branded accounts. Our original one, which is with Lelabo, which I smell like right now. I don't know if you want to lean in. Smells great. Nobody's doing cocaine.

It's just Lava. And then we have an account with Bumble. And then we just launched last June an account with Uber. It's a small, tiny company. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. A little mom-and-pop artisanal car startup. I've heard of Lyft. I haven't.

I truly haven't. Never used to lift. This is going to be a weird episode. Oh, do they sponsor you? No. No. Well, definitely not now. Yeah.

Sorry, Uber. Taylor, edit that out. No, maybe not. Keep it live. Keep it going. So a lot of it's been just feeling it out. Like, the first year was just, like, maintaining overhood LA and sort of like, I had these rules I came up with, which is like, no images, no cheesy hashtags,

no, like, you know, chasing after following people. none of this like these meme accounts do this like carousel posting of like you know wine and I'm so tired and all these memes and they just sort of you know there's like a way to strategically grow just stuff they know that we'll get some viral activity on there's a way that you can strategically grow and we just never did any of that it was just like this is going to be about the content this is not going to be anything else it was before there were instagram stories and then with the help of my friend mercedes we launched overhood new york and once that kind of hit because you know There's that line.

If you make it in Miami, you can't make it anywhere. But like, you know, once the New York account took off and I realized this was replicable in such a, you know, a city that has such high standards and stuff like that is when I sort of started to have an idea of what this could be as a business. Was there somebody that posted or shared that like made it just go ballistic? Or is it just slow build? It was a slow. It wasn't a slow build. It went straight up. It was basically Ireland Baldwin found it when it had like a thousand followers.

and that helped us. And then Jennifer Morrison, who's a really talented actor and director, she was on like Once Upon a Time and House and stuff like that. She kind of boosted it. And then it just kind of went. Do you guys collect all the content from other people? Do you find it?

Is it a medley? How do you go about having all the content for the week? So we have editors now. Like we have an editor who does San Francisco and an editor for London. And then, I mean, basically it's mostly UGC. So people send stuff in. they sent in a lot of really terrible stuff. We just did a really fun story called DMs to the editor

where we posted like the biggest assholes that have ever done our stuff. Like, you know, like complaining about, you know, there's no Jones in studios, like yelling at us that the account's fake because there's no Jones in Studio City and then they're like, oh, my bad, there is a Jones in Studio City, sorry. You know, fuck you or whatever. You let a curse?

Yeah, fuck you. Awesome. So, yeah, it's mostly UGC. I mean, there's a small portion of it that comes from conversation from friends and dinner parties and things like that. But mostly people send stuff in. So when you're vetting this now, like what is the vet? I mean, what does the vetting process look like?

Just has to be funny? Or, I mean, like, do you go and say, does this person actually live in L.A.? It's very specific. It's a very specific type of humor. It's very specific. And in some ways, like, the New York account is a lot more free. You know, I feel like the New York account,

those are the two sort of bigger accounts that have a million followers. And the New York account is more random and the submissions tend to be like, a little more interesting. L.A. is more like yoga, kale, avocados, you know, celebrities we don't mention, like, you know, all that stuff. So it's trying to keep it fresh, but also kind of just it's hard. Like sometimes I'll tweet stuff. I'll use Twitter as a little bit of a testing ground, which makes no sense, but I'll just, we have a Twitter account, so I'll just tweet a bunch of

submissions. What I find funny about it is that people accept this absurdity here in L.A. Like, it's like you read something and you're like, yeah, that's normal. That's a Even though it's so out there, like, we've all just, we've all just say, like, hey, yeah, that's acceptable, because we're in L.A. Is L.A. the craziest? L.A. is the craziest. I mean, some of the things that we post on that I was reading, I'm like, it's amazing. You read it, and it's so absurd. You're like, okay, but I accept it. Yeah, but it's real. Like, I got a text from a friend of mine the other day that's, because I have, like, you know, some minor health issues because you have to, if you live here, it's, like, part of the, you're nobody if you don't have, like, some kind of ailment. Yeah.

And, you know, she sent me this thing. She's like, I need you to see my healer. name's blank. She's in Van Nuys. My friend had ovarian cancer and now it's gone. And that's just a text. Like, and it's, it, maybe that's true. I don't know if that's true. But it is a particularly Los Angeles thing. I think LA's always been a little like, like, you would never get away with that if you were in the Midwest. And like, listen, there's this guy. I know you got this cancer. You got to go here. You're seeing him and you'll be like, people are like, what the fuck are you talking about? I just think what's fringe in other places is mainstream here. So like, you know, Christianity is massive. It's not that big here. It's like, oh, no, but like, you know,

whether you're a Libra is going to affect how you know which freeway you take so so you know there's always going to be in the Midwest some kooky healer person who's like a little different you know like some gypsy friend like we've had some on the show yeah sure how have you built a team because this is a unique business because it's new I mean you know social media to me is still obviously the wild wild west how have you built a team and how do you know sort of when to pivot and make moves and how will you build this out into potentially a product or a podcast? Yeah. So it's, again, it's been very much like guttural, like feeling it out. Like, and it's been a lot of luck. Once I was, I realized I was able to monetize the account and

stories came along and we try to do it very delicately. You know, we try to do like two to four ads a month. Never treat ourselves like a billboard. Always sort of like do, you know, sort of co-create the brand collaboration with whoever we're working with. Yeah. So Mercedes came on early. She's brilliant. She runs all our branded account. and does a lot of content for us. And then that was just sort of like a happy accident. And then Bridget, who's sitting here with her slightly overweight dog, Kathy overheard Kathy, can't break 800 followers if anyone's interested.

At Overheard, Kathy? Get it a thousand. Kathy with an I-E or why? Why? The only account of overheard that can't take off. Let's help Kathy out. Anyway. So Bridget came along. She was just really enthusiastic, and I had a little bit of extra money. I sort of started off as an intern. And then we hired her full time and now she basically kind of runs the place.

I partnered with my best friend since kindergarten because I don't know anything about business and mostly just Cartier bracelets and White House water and just, you know, cocaine. And then we just hired someone to sort of do like operations and we work a lot of freelancers. So it's been very much like stage by stage. You know, we're self-funded. We haven't raised a penny. We've never bought a follower. We've never, you know, sort of cynically used to have.

You don't have to answer to anybody. It's great. Yeah. Well, it's great. But it's also, you know, it would be. fun to raise a bunch of money so you can just sort of do things faster. Get some cardio bracelets. Stack them up like Courtney Hort. Let me ask you this. You get into any of this meme drama with, you know, I heard, you know, we mentioned Jilly, Jilly Hendrix was on this network for a while.

She was talking to all this crazy stuff about all these different meme accounts that go to war with each other and they get into all this drama. You encounter any of that? No, I've never looked at overheard as a meme account. I know that technically like that white square of text is a meme. But I've just never looked at it that way. And we intentionally like don't really follow me accounts. I mean, we follow a couple from try not to engage with them. And I think memes are hilarious. Like, there's, like, really funny memes are

amazing. There's stuff on Twitter. But it's a little bit different than what you do. But we just, I've always tried to, it sounds snobby, but I've always tried to treat overheard like it's better than the platform it's on, you know, and we've tried to appeal to a sense of irony and satire and...

It's a bit. It's like a great bit. You study comedy when you're younger? No, but I'm Jewish. So, you know, with sort of the natural neuroses and all that stuff is always, you know. You talked about anonymity before you came on. Can you kind of speak on that of why you decided to stay behind the scenes? I just think like, I mean, if I were, if I were 25 and like going out to nightclubs and like at one oak, like, you know, John Stamo, I don't know, like with whoever

would have been there at the time, you know, like, I think it probably wouldn't have been anonymous because I would have wanted to be a part of it and wanted the benefits of whatever that sort of pseudo celebrity is when you have Instagram stuff. But I just think the platform itself is a lot more powerful without a face. To me, it's reflective. Like, yes, there's a lot of stupid stuff on there, but there's a little bit of that in me and there's a little bit of that in all of us. And I think having it be about the city, about dating, about culture, and just be this sort of like, it's not a black mirror. I guess it's a much less well done white mirror. But I just think that's more powerful. You know, it's not like I'm some wannabe

Banksy, I just think bringing my face. Well, because you bring the face to it, everyone's going to just start associating with you and the way you have it set up now is it feels more like us. Does that make sense? Yeah, but look at the difference is bad timing, but look at the difference between the fat Jewish and fuck Jerry. Like, they both took off. They were like the sort of Rockefellers and Carnegie's of Instagram. I wonder if they've ever been described like that. That's a good way.

Probably. Probably flattered. But, you know, everyone, there was this whole crisis moment with the fat Jewish because there was someone to go after. You know, there's this person He came on the show and talked all about it when that happened. He was talking about what he went. He was like, listen, how do you know where memes came from? And in his defense, I get where people were pissed.

For me, I always look at those guys. What I find funny about the accounts is the commentary they put behind the memes. Does that make sense? Like the captions? Like the captions. Like I think, because in the defense of that, like a meme can get circulated all over the place. Do you remember back in the day E-Bomb's world? Do you ever used to fall?

That was the jam back in the day. Like nobody knew where that came from, right? What the fuck is that? Oh, come on, Lord. I got really sad because I saw eBom's world on Instagram and it had like 50,000 followers. I was like, you invented the internet. It's the original. I used to just sit in college and look at that and probably why I didn't get the best grade, just stare at that. But nobody knew where that came from.

True. But there's a, I think there's a, there's a contrast there because it's like, okay, so you write funny captions, does that mean you get to make millions of dollars a year? And there's someone to be said for capturing the audience. I just think, fuck Jerry, obviously there was a recent scandal, but they did a much better job of like, what is this, who is this, Fetjewish did amazing stuff, but I think you just pay the price for having an ego persona attached to it. You know what?

I think you do a really good job at. I think you do a really good job at making a community. Because what you do essentially is you put the bid up and then underneath it you tag the person that heard it that they've submitted.

So you start to sort of grow this community and the community becomes the hero, which I think is really, really smart to make your consumer the hero. We're going to talk more about that, but first let me tell you about FabF Fit Fun. Okay, so the 2019 FabFit Fun post-Spring editors box is on sale now. This guys is such a great gift. Mother's Day is coming up if you need something creative. This is so fun. So basically with FabFit

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Go to fabfit fun.com and use my code TSC to get $10 off your first FabFit Fun box. You'll love it and you'll love the full-size beauty products. I'm telling you. Yeah, I don't think it was intentional. Like when I was like, we posted our first submission after like three or four weeks. I think it was, I can't know something about like. like a nine-year-old having a yoga birthday party in Brentwood or something. Something like that.

But there's something about it. Like I've actually been overheard, you know? Like I've actually sat somewhere in Silver Lake with my friend, had a really cynical conversation and had someone not know it was me and submit it to me. Yeah, right. Which was it? Can you say what it was? It's in the little intro to our book.

Okay. But it was basically just me complaining about like, you know, girls dating only one of 12 guys in L.A. you know like this me too actor and this like magician and this you know like whatever and then she submitted it and i was like oh you made my day but yeah there's it's it's accidental i think instagram made a lot of really amazing developments that have just helped us like bridget and i always joke like instagram just our best friend like the stories came came along so now we can like use images and use visuals without screwing up the sort of spirit of the accounts can you speak about your book

can you tell us about that yeah it's i mean it's just kind of i mean we're we're we're We're planning on doing a bunch of different stuff, but this was fun. It's called We Only Dated for 11 Instagrams. It's about the two of you. We've got a few under our belt now. That's incredible. It's the 6,000 Snapchat Street. The 80th snap.

How many stories your highlight having to know? Too many, probably, right? Mine? Yeah, how many stories are in that highlight? Like hundreds. Yeah, same? Way more than one Instagram. Did you guys meet on Instagram?

No. We were 12. Did you really? Yeah. Oh, you want to go into that? Like at Burning? This is not overheard L.A. This is overheard Minnesota.

Oh, so this is what happens when you come. From San Diego. This is what happened to. You worked for Amy Klobuchar? So tell us about your book. Oh, yeah. So it's called We Only Dated for 11 Instagrams. It's a book.

So who cares? It doesn't really matter anymore because nobody reads. And also it's been written with other people's words. But yeah, it's basically got an intro from the mayor, Eric Garcetti. And it's just kind of our best of. It's divided up into like dating and digital life and, you know, fitness and food. It's just kind of like, you know, a coffee table, bathroom book of like our favorite quotes from the first couple of years. And how do you guys continue to scale the business?

Do you think there'll be product? Like, what's the next steps? Yeah, so it's interesting. Like, right now, you know, it's basically advertising. We do, we work with brands on our platforms and we have these branded accounts, but we're launching like our first project off social next month. It's going to be like a print project, which is kind of a surprise. And then we're looking to activate more at events. So, like, how can overheard be experienced, you know, at an event or at a place? You're building a media company. Media companies are all going out of business, so I don't want to say we're building a media company. Don't tell me that. No, but in essence, you're building a new media company.

Like, I know what you're saying. A lot of media companies, as they exist right now, are going out of business. I think there's multiple reasons I don't want to get into right now. But you're building a media company with a new form of media. And you're going into areas, like what you're able to build now books and activations and advertising platforms, Like, you're able to do this with a very nimble and small team. And to be able to do this on the scale that you've done it now in the past, you would have, you know, 100 employees.

Exactly. You couldn't do it. Yeah, I have a really douchey way of describing it, which is it's sort of micromania company slash creative services agency. But I do think, like, what fuck Jerry's done, you know, excusing the whole fire festival thing. I mean, I saw you there. It was crazy. I was in one of the houses.

No, I saw it all going down. someone because they try to get near your 20-tenths that you're protecting you grabbed like five mattresses yeah but you know I think they've done a good job of of laying out how you can monetize like he has that game and they have he has it like you know he's got his media company yeah exactly sir client service company our path is you know growing on instagram growing on social um you know starting to get more into video and storytelling content events you know we want to do stuff as as silly as like you know in a hotel elevator I mean an of a new hotel have quotes whispered, you know, into it, which would just be for fun to, you know,

working with brands on billboards. How does our IP go into the world and then sort of get reconsumed back on social? So the print project, which I'll tell you guys about next time, you know, merchandise, events, you know, that kind of stuff is what we're sort of looking to do. If there is an audience member out there listening that wants to submit to you, what is the most strategic way to submit? Is there any little tips or tricks you could give them? Well, first is like really read the submission and think to yourself like, does this suck? Do you know what I mean? Like is this something that everyone's heard a thousand times?

Because I think a lot of, you know, the account's two or three years old now. So it's like stuff that we would have posted two years ago. It's like, oh, that joke's done. Like we all know about, you know, the yoga teacher talking about politics, you know, as they're want to do. So I would say like, you know, make sure it's funny. And then just we read every single submission. It's just we don't allow them. So people think we don't read them because it doesn't have the red receipt, but everything is, and then if it's good, we'll allow it and we'll send a release, which we've been doing it.

I go what you're saying. So, like, you see it, but you don't necessarily hit allow unless it's good. Because the Instagram's DM functionality is so terrible. You can't actually, like, we can't really communicate with our followers. You know, it's not on those first 10 or 20 DMs. I know, and you're getting hit up all day on DM. It's like, you know, where'd you get that bracelet? What's the deal? How do you go from Minnesota to San Diego to LA? I'm gonna saw it off you to know. I actually think it's dope. Well, you know, I think it's... Why'd you cover it?

Well, because I just didn't want to get... I didn't want to get berated so much. Listen, I'm very delicate, man. It's silver. It's not gold. You know what's bothering me more than the bracelet? The ring. Well, no, this ring...

Well, this is my wedding ring. No, I love the concept of the ring. No, this one is that one... But he keeps wearing it every single minute. It, like, tracks your heart rate in your sleep. Oh, my friend. Orah. I was about to get one of those.

No, it's legit. It's good. I like... You have to hear about his sleep. I like it. If he's had a good day or a bad day. You do look like a biohacker though. No, I'm such a biohacker.

I'm not, but I never, like, I just got given this and I was like, holy shit. Like, now I can see how poor my sleep is. And we have to talk about it every single day, like all day long. And it'll tell me like, okay, you're ready for the day or you're not. I need a new subject. I've heard about this. My friend Taryn posted about this. And it's this ring.

It's like $4,500. And it tracks your sleep, but also like. Heart rate. Stress levels. Yeah. I drank this weekend and the heart rate spikes and I'm like, oh shit. Now we can't drink. Now I'm like, whoa.

I'm like, what's going on there? Lucky me. Because they're like a fucked up influencer that chases after you going like, like, my precious. It basically like tells you it's like, hey, man. The other day I got a message and it's like, hey, dude, you better take it easy today. Today's not a good day for you to do any activity. And then some days you're like, hey, step it up. And I'm like, oh shit.

And so it kind of, it's like a game. Yeah, it's like a game. I wish you could wear it as a toe ring though. And then you get into competition because I have some buddies that have it and they'll send me their shitty score. And then like if I'm if I like did really well that day and then if I didn't do well that day, I just won't send that day, you know. No, but apparently you can do all the stuff. Like if you took Valerian route to go to sleep, for example, you can like track that and see how that affected your sleep. But she said they're updating it with some like last night. Like, I hit the CBD pen before I went to sleep. And then I was like, oh man, I got really good REM sleep. I'm going to be honest with you. In my backpack, I have really bad anxiety. Mm-hmm. It's fat, like trendy right now. And so I bring, I carry CBD with me. Yeah. Not THC, but it has a trace amount. And I had it for the podcast. and I spilled the entire bottle in the pouch of my backpack.

So when I was in the waiting room and all these like, all these like, you know, people that look like they work at Condonast are like walking around, I dipped my hand into the backpack and just sort of soaked some up with my fingers. I would have done that too. I would have done that too. Yeah, yeah. We got to put CBD in your water or something. You could use the, you have anxiety too.

Well, fuck yeah, I mean, look who I live with. For DMs, how do you, like, how do you guys not feel overwhelmed? You must get a thousand DMs a day. I don't think we get like a thought. We definitely get a couple hundred submissions a day. We get emails as well. What do you do? How many people in there going through them?

I go through L.A. And then we have editors. So basically, for the London account, for example, like we have an editor who will, you know, go through them all, submit, you know, we'll sort of look at, you know, a month's worth of content. L.A. in New York, we turn around quicker. So, yeah, we're basically just in there every day. Where do you think the best submissions come from?

Which city? You think it's still L.A. or New York? I think if they're at their absolute peak, L.A. is the best. But I think New York is amazing. I think the New York account has amazing. New Yorkers are really funny, too, I feel like. L.A. may be a little delusional. But that's what makes it so funny.

Yeah. New York just has a freedom to it where you're like, you can just picture anything. It's something about public transportation and bashing up against each other and being in a true city that's a little different than, you know, like the sort of sanitized. L.A. has a lot of cliches and tropes. You know what I mean? Has there been anyone that's done, like, I'm sure you guys got a lot of press, but is there anybody that's, like, compiled a list of your top posts? Yeah, let's read a couple.

Let's go through a couple. Or have you not even gone through that. Well, we made a book with our favorite one. Yeah. But we don't have access to the book right now. That's true. I would have brought you guys a copy, but I just wasn't. You know, what would have been smart if we timed this around the...

We'll have to do it when we do like a cooler book. We're going to do like a art book or like a dry book. And I'll have a bracelet for you. Yeah. The NUvo ring will be like a joke. It's tacked with you love bracelet Like you love like a choker Elon Musk's scoliosis brace

That tracks all you're like I just want to strap into like a machine You know I'm basically weighing out life I'm hoping that eventually Like if I get to like If I make it to 60 that I can just turn into like part robot You know what I'm saying? Oh great

Yeah I actually recently had stem cells Did you? Did you? We had a guy on here Do you know Luke's story? I know the name? He got stem cells in his dick Where'd you get yours?

Yeah, where'd you get yours? What do you mean? I got my in my arm, but they target, they do like a thing and target your brain. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. So like, because I have like an autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroid issue, which we can talk about

in detail right now. Yeah, tell us. No, no. No, no. No, that's interesting. But, you know, like, it's a legit thing. Where did you go to get this done? You know, we, we, I keep bringing up stem cells on the show because I'm super interested

in it because, you mean, it solves a lot of problems. You've heard that story. You heard that story about Mel Gibson's dad? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw the podcast. You saw the podcast. You saw the podcast. Crazy.

So, so you went and did it. where did you go and do it? It's this neurologist's office in Santa Monica. Oh, you're able to do it here? Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know if Mel Gibson had some sort of like, you know, chupacabra stem cells that he got in Mexico. I don't know.

But yeah, so I did this thing. I don't know if you know Neil Brennan, the comedian, but he talked about a show about TMS, which is trans. I can't remember what it stands for, but it's basically magnets on your brain. It's really good for anxiety and depression. So I did that, which is a sort of new treatment. And it's incredible.

And in the same office, they also do stem cells. and stuff like that. So did you feel the effects of it right away, or is it something that takes a while to feel? It takes about a month to kick in. Okay. And you just sort of feel like increased energy and stuff like that. It's basically like going to Airwane and getting a ginger shot.

I've still never been to Airwane. Oh. Wow. I'm new to LA. Really? Yeah. I look like a guy that would be there. Yeah.

She does. To be honest, you have more of a Whole Foods vibe. Yeah. Oh, fuck. That's not bad. Yeah. It's just more related. No, no, no, Whole Foods.

I'll work my way up. I'll work my way up. But everyone keeps talking about this. Wait, what's so great about Airwine? I've only been there once. Isn't everything $80 million? Yeah, it's very expensive. I think, well, whole foods is good.

You know what I mean? Glasses is good. I think Airwant, you just get sort of indoctrinated into the, I think what separates them is they have this tonic bar. So they make these, like, Chinese herbal tonics and, you know, $18 things, ice creams that people go and eat because they don't eat real food and stuff like that. And there's just like, it's like a daytime nightclub. Okay, you need an overheard air one.

Well, that's where it started. I mean, that's basically over. But can we get an overheard air one account that's just about the $18 tonics? I don't think they'd pay. It's too niche, huh? Too niche. It feels like a lot of money in time to like promote them. And I feel like they're making a lot of money.

Yeah, you're selling an $18 tonic costs you about $0.60 to make. They're really smart. They make a lot of money, I think. What advice do you have for someone that wants to get into? Social commentary? Social commentary. Call it. Call it.

Okay. What advice would you give to someone that's starting out right now today in 2019? But specifically with a meme account or just to sort of promote them? I think it's like anybody that wants to build a career

like you have using social. What do you think the criteria is for that? It's going to, I mean, it's going to sound really sort of standard, you know, but like I think authenticity is key. You know, like if you think about the people that have, well, that's not true.

But if you think about people you really like, whether it's Humans of New York or Subway Creatures or whatever. Like, you know, it just very much knows what it is. And I think it's about like pick one thing and do that very well. You know, like there's no, you're, you're posting into a maelstrom of content, you know, that's both original and terrible. Like, I think one of the cool things about Instagram is you're seeing all these artists emerge. Like we work with a lot of illustrators and stuff. So like, if you're an illustrator, you do that one thing. And that's what it is. And people resonate with it or they don't.

And I think you kind of have to approach social media that way. Have you read the book by Gary Keller called The One Thing? No. You'd like it. Did I just write it? Well, it's funny because, I mean, like, if that's your natural instinct, like, it's spot on, like doing one thing. Well, I think where people get all over, when they get all over the place,

and they try to do a bunch of things as well, it causes so much confusion that nobody can jump, nobody can get behind that cause, right? You're like, what the hell does this stand for? I think with what you're doing, it is just one thing. And so people can identify with it. They can feel like they're part of a community. They can get involved in it. And it's because you've chosen to stand on one thing.

And it's fucking funny. Yeah. I mean, hopefully, you know what I mean? Like I didn't do it on purpose in the sense that like when I launched it, I was just like, this is a good idea. I'm going to come up with some rules. And I didn't go into it trying to make money. I was just, I was describing it to my friend as like a primal squeak. I was just so pent up like creatively and career wise.

And I was just like, do something, you know? But I think if you can genuinely find something that resonates with people, and you have to, like, you have to try different things. Like, I was goofing around on my private account and tried, like, three or four things that were, like, mildly funny. For whatever reason, text on the Instagram platform, you know, sort of enshrined in the filtered Instagram platform that was, you know, user generated and reflective of the city. Like, that worked. People just got it. So it might not be your first thing, you know? And I see these people on social media with, like, a paragraph of hashtags and trying to be. be this or that. It's like,

people don't want that. No. What's a book or a resource or a podcast that you can recommend to our audience? I know you told us earlier some podcasts. Maybe you could tell us those. I don't know. I don't think the audience is going to like my podcast. We like your podcast. Skinny Confidentials number one.

Yeah. Skinny Confidentials number two, three, four. I was listening to the one about the Theranos lady. What's that? It's called, like, I can't remember what it's called. It's this one. Anyway, it's basically, I think it's from frontline.

I like Sam Harris' podcast, Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan. I don't know. I mean, we're sort of considering what our podcast would look like and, you know, how, what overheard would, how it would manifest in audio. I would listen. Subscribe. I would subscribe. I would read the deal.

You would overhear it? I would overhear it. Books. One of my favorite pieces of nonfiction is by David Foster Wallace. It's a compilation of stories called a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again, which Bridget, I know, has done many times. And the last story, it's about a cruise. and it's 100 pages, so no one will read it. But for the few people that still know how to read,

it's basically this neurotic Jew, brilliant guy that goes on this like Carnival Cruise for a week, and it's just the unrelenting tale of his experience on like a floating piece of Oklahoma. I'm going to check this out. Yeah, it sounds good. Yeah, and it's like, you know, two-page long footnotes and he's, you know, playing chess with an 11-year-old girl

and getting beaten, and it's just hilarious. What's your day-to-day, like, no? Your real day to day. What's your real day to day? Not like the inflated day-to-day that everyone gives, like, your actual real day-to-day. So we have an office now. Like, we have a sort of, you know, there's, Bridget and Justine are, like, in the office along with me. And then, you know, my business partner's in there two days a week.

So, you know, I try to maintain some modicum of office hours, even though I have no ability to focus and concentrate at the point in time. But basically, making sure the accounts are running well, making sure we have, you know, like compelling story content. Like we just did something for the Oscars where we did like the overheard Oscars and sort of turned our content into like, you know, best cinematography. And it's like someone talking about how their Instagram aesthetic is fake carefree. So there's that. A lot of phone calls and meetings. Like, you know, we have a meeting with a really awesome brand at 5 o'clock today. Bridget's usually working on proposals.

So we get, you know, it's just, I'm sure you guys know about this, this whole hidden world where people hit you up, you know, to work with you and, you know, you have to submit proposals and figure it all out. try to come up with, you know, semi-creative ideas where, you know, and then kind of trying to push forward these initiatives, you know. It's a lot of phone calls and meetings. The good thing is you have leverage now. Don't let those brands for you. Get the leverage. Yeah, I think we're really lucky.

Like, the brands we work with, like, I don't want to sound, again, I don't want to sound douchey, but the brand we started with was Lelavo, and the next brand we worked with was Bumble. And so we've tried to avoid the mermaid blankets and the cheesy stuff. We've screwed up once or twice. Mermaid blankets? You know, like the stuff you see pitched on. Have you never worn a mermaid blanket? No, what's that?

It's like a thing that was going around Instagram for a while where it's like a mermaid thing and you, it's like a snuggy for your legs. Okay. Why are you buying one right now? I don't know. Can you Amazon prime me one with that book? Well, it's sold now. I just add to cart.

But like we're lucky. We work with Parachute Home and Foresigmatic and Uber and... Foresigmatic is the best. Yeah, they're amazing. We worked with Airwam before on, like, promoting their stuff. I've worked with Alfred. We're doing a collab with them in April. That's a great collab.

How fun is that? Great brand. It's a good $10 latte. Pimp yourself out to our audience. If you guys don't follow Overhaired, L.A., you are missing out. That's my favorite. I'm being honest. It shouldn't surprise you, though.

No, it's the original. It's my favorite. Yeah, Overhood L.A., Overhood New York. Overheard of San Francisco. There's about a bunch of other accounts that aren't ours that I can't claim to. Overhood Lalbo, Bumble, Uber. over hurt Kathy fighting.

She's just fighting. She's an abandoned dog. She needs help, guys. Bridget found her in a park tied to a bench. Is that true? Yeah. Wow. Last year.

She looked pretty good. And she just can't break a thousand followers. So we'll see how much you're all. If our listeners want to support a dog that was down and out tied to a bench. Yeah. Please, guys. And if they don't, I don't even want them as listeners. Unfollow Michael.

You don't need to see his love bracelet. Go follow over her. Can she try your bracelet off? I don't even know how to take it off. I got to get a screwdriver. So, Lauren, do you get... I already ordered one. You gotta get a power drill.

But the move nowadays is not to have one. It's like, oh, you have one? It's like, I know, you have to have like seven. And it's like, oh, the Russian oligarch gave that to me. Oh. You know, I was just talking about this yesterday. I've had this on the restaurant owner. I just...

We don't need your whole life story. Thank you so much for coming on, Jesse. Thank you for scooping CBD out of your Jan Sport backpack and gracing us with your presence. Thank you so much. Follow Overheard, L.A. guys. and overheard Kathy. She's got no chance.

Do you want TSC cheeky pink, flirty stickers? I mean, they're so cute. I like to decorate my hydro flask with them. I put them on my phone case, maybe my AirPods case. You can get fun with it. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram, and I will send five of you TSC, cheeky, pretty, Barbie-ish stickers. Make sure you've also rated, reviewed, and subscribed.

to the podcast. It takes five seconds. And your support is what keeps the show growing. Tell your friends. And with that, we get to hang out with you twice this week. We have an episode going live on Friday. Taylor, who's the guest? We have the wellness mama. And I think everybody will like it because it's really informative. Yes, she is so informative. You guys are going to freak your lover. With that, we'll see you on Instagram at the skinny confidential and at TSC Podcast.