The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - 5 Career & Business Mistakes To Avoid In Life & What We Wish We Knew Earlier

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

#596: Today Lauryn and Micahel are sitting down solo to give insight into their careers, how they've evolved and everything they've learned along the way as successful business owners. They get into the 5 pillars of what can make a career fail and lead to general unhappiness, what they wish they knew before starting their companies, and how they've evolved their work styles since the beginning.  Lastly they give tips on how to balance your life based on the phase of life you're in, when to grind VS when to relax, how to balance productivity and mental health, and how to leverage your skills for major success. To connect with Lauryn Evarts Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE To subscribe to our YouTube Page click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential This episode is brought to you by Sun Bum Sun Bum creates products to protect the world from the sun, specifically formulated to help protect those of us who love and live in the sun. Use code SKINNY15 at www.sunbum.com for 15% off your first purchase. Offer ends December 31st, 2023. This episode is brought to you by The Farmer's Dog It's never been easier to invest in your dog's health with fresh food. Get 50% off your first box & free shipping by going to thefarmersdog.com/skinny This episode is brought to you by Restylane Visit aspirerewards.com/skinny and you can save $80 off any restylane treatment, offer terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market Thrive Market is the go-to for all of your grocery and household essentials- and it's all conveniently delivered to your doorstep. Get 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift at thrivemarket.com/skinny or use code SKINNY at checkout. This episode is brought to you by Ritual Ritual is all about hot data and stone cold facts. Get to know your nutrients on a deeper level with 30% off during your first month. Visit ritual.com/SKINNY to start Ritual or add Essential For Women 18+ to your subscription today. This episode is brought to you by Westin Hotels At Westin hotels, there’s amenities and offerings aimed to help you move well, eat well, and sleep well, so you can keep your well-being close, while away. Find wellness on your next stay at Westin 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! Hello, everybody. Welcome back to The Skinny Confidential, him and her. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the skinny confidential him and her show. We have a solo episode coming in hot for you today. We've been getting more and more requests for these kind of episodes. And this is what the show started as. This episode is all about five career mistakes that we wish we knew to avoid when we got started in our career. I know there's many older listeners here, so don't feel like this is alienating you, the older listeners. This is still applicable. I think these are still career life and entrepreneurial mistakes that we still should

avoid as we get older or further in our career paths. But this is kind of an episode that Lauren and I put together on what maybe we wish we would have known or thought about early in our career. And I'm talking about, you know, right out of college when you're getting started, when you're thinking about either going into a profession or building your own business. And many of these things should be like dumb moments. But again, when you're a young person or when you're just getting started, you don't have experience. These may kind of go over the head. I know many of them did for us. So if you're new to the show and you're wondering, okay, why would I ever listen to these two on a mic? Tell me what mistakes to avoid.

I'll give you a little bit of credentials since then for listeners that have been here for a while. You may already know, Lauren and I together over the years, like maybe the last 15 years, I think we've probably built seven, eight, nine different businesses. They've all together done well over a hundred million dollars in revenue. We've employed over a hundred people at this point. We've produced not only our show, but 70, 80 other shows. And we've learned a few things along the way. We've wasted money, we've saved money, we've invested money, we've done good things, we've done bad things, and we've made mistakes along the way. So, you know, there's a lot of experience kind of packed here in the last, what are we almost 40 years old now, 36 for me, 16, 17 years of doing businesses and working in different professions. And we thought,

hey, why not share some of the mistakes we've made along the way? Let's get into the first mistake that you and I feel like is number one. So here's number one that I think it's applicable to all ages, but especially when you're young and you think that your actions may not have effect. And the first one that I would say to caution people against is anything that has to do with burning bridges, hurting your reputation, or taking shortcuts. All of these things are going to present themselves later in a way that's maybe not so positive as your career unfolds. So what would you give as a specific example of taking shortcuts? So for example, if there's something where, if anytime somebody comes to you and says,

hey, I have an idea where you can make a lot of income really quickly with very little effort, that's a moment to sit back and pause. I've had those moments in my career and every time they presented themselves, it's either been short money, short term, there's been no brand building, there's been nothing to show for it after.

The reputation on building those kinds of things doesn't go anywhere because people don't take you seriously because there's nothing been built after. There's no brand, there's no product, there's no business. There's usually like these present themselves and maybe some of these kind of like multi-level marketing schemes, you know, anything that sounds too good, fast cash, anything that you would maybe not be able to actually sell to another buyer is something that maybe you shouldn't think about doing. What I would add to that is when someone tells you that you absolutely need to make a decision by a certain date. And let's just say it's a Friday and they say, I need a decision by Saturday morning. And they're pressuring you and they're

giving you a due date that is so quick where you have no time to think, I think that's a really bad idea. In any business deal that I do at this point in my life, I have to have space to think about it before I pull the trigger. What I've noticed in a lot of mistakes that I've made is when someone says, I need a decision by this day. And it's like so quick. It makes me feel the sense of urgency is it works against you. You have to have time to sit and think. I always say to Michael, sleep on it. Maybe sleep on it for a few days. You want to give space to when someone needs a decision. Make sure if someone is asking you to sign something right away or they're asking you for money right away or they're asking you to sign something right away, or they're asking you for money right away, or they're asking you to do a deal or an investment or do something with your business, or maybe it's a creator who wants to work with you. Anyone who is putting you on this really

strict, quick deadline, I think you need time to sit with what you're doing before making a quick decision. Yeah. And I think when it comes to your reputation, if you're working on anything, whether you're working in a new career or you're working on your own business, if it's something that you're not proud to tell everybody you know about and scream it from the mountaintops, if it's not something that you would feel confident putting online, that's maybe a moment to pause and say, hey, is this something I should be doing? Now, let's not get it twisted. There are many of these kind of quote unquote shortcut paths that lead to short term money

that are enticing for a lot of young people starting their career or hell, even older people. But again, I keep trying to caution people. These are usually short-lived opportunities that aren't going to pan out to long-term success and that are going to hurt your reputation. Here's the thing. We have had personal success in our lives by guarding our reputation. And we've had to work for a long time to make ourselves and the properties we work on reputable platforms so that other reputable business people will want to work with those platforms. Whether that's a brand, if you're an influencer or a creator, you have to keep that reputation as someone who's going to deliver with integrity. If you have your own business, you want either investors or partners or bankers or other retailers to take you seriously.

And that all comes down to, do they believe you are an honorable person? Do you have integrity? Do you have a good reputation? So anything that's a shortcut that's going to go against that, that's going to harm your reputation is going to come back to bite you in the ass on the wrong one. So what I tell young people is sometimes these things that pull at us, whether it's quick dollars or quick notoriety, if they hurt your reputation, you're going to spend a lifetime trying to repair that. So again, pause, realize you have time. A reputation takes an instant to destroy and a lifetime to build. And that's something to keep

in mind. I think just from a micro perspective, if someone wants you to make a decision quick and they want you to give an impulse decision or they want you to react right away, what I like to do, this is so weird, but I like to read. And it could be any book. It doesn't have to be a certain book. But reading sort of gets you out of the problem or the decision and lets your brain take a beat in a minute. You could also meditate, anything that relaxes your mind so you don't make that impulse decision. Someone who I really look up to is Keith Cunningham. He wrote the book, The Road Less Stupid. And he talks about the importance of thinking time and actually sitting there with like a pen and a paper and actually really thinking of

how you want your life to unfold. And that could just mean in the next week, it could mean in the next month, it could mean in the next six months, but really being purposeful with how you want things to lay out. Where we get in trouble, like we mentioned earlier, is when you're forced to make these impulsive decisions or react in anger or something that would just destroy your reputation. You want to be really thoughtful about decisions, small or large. Speaking of anger, the last part of this first early career mistake is burning bridges. There's moments, especially early in your career, where you're developing your professional repertoire that sometimes something hits you the wrong way. Somebody sends the wrong email. Maybe an employer says the wrong thing. And what I would caution everybody against is recognizing that as you either apply for new

jobs or as you're in a current job, or as you start a business, it's really important not to burn bridges. There has been many times here running Dear Media where we've had incredible people that have come through and our job here is to try to create a great space for them to work. But if they decide to move on to something else, hopefully we can give a really strong recommendation so that they can go and pursue success in another avenue in another venture. But there's also been some instances where maybe somebody has come in here and I know we've been guilty of this too, and it doesn't end so well. And maybe you're somebody that's leaving a position or quitting and you do it in a way where it either burns a bridge, maybe you leave work undone,

or you just kind of, I think for a while there was that thing, quiet quitting. Here's the thing. As an employer, I get calls all the time from other employers asking what my thoughts are on previous employees or team members. And I have to give my honest feedback again, because I'm protecting my reputation. So any job as you're transitioning or any career that you're transitioning, you want to make sure that you left it better than you found it and that you transition in a way where you're not burning bridges. That is so important because you may think that first or second or third job doesn't matter, but it does because people talk and people share their perspective on you as a person, as me as a person, and it's important that they share only positive things. What's next?

Next, which I think is really important, it's not necessarily a mistake, but I'm going to classify it as a mistake, is when you're a young person or when you're starting out in your career, people make the mistake of not trying a bunch of different things, right? And I have so many people come to us and say, Hey, I can't find my passion or how do I find my passion? I personally believe the only way you can figure that out is by tasting and trying a bunch of different things. Ideally, when you're younger and before you have many more responsibilities and a lot more to lose. My whole entire career has been one giant edit. You edit and refine as you go. So I'll give you guys an example. I thought my first product launch six years ago, this is six years ago before the ice roller, before I even conceptualized the ice roller would be workout wear. And looking back, that is not what my first product should have been.

It should have been an ice roller. Thank God that's what it was. But I thought at the time that workout wear is what I should be launching. And I went through a whole experience with a really shitty business partner who was out of integrity in multiple areas. And that deal didn't end up working out. Thank God it didn't work out because these people ended up being scammers. But what it did for me was it taught me a lot about doing a deal. And also it refined what I wanted to launch in the future.

So because of that, I didn't launch workout wear. And then I got jaw surgery and I was able to have all these lessons in business and launch a product on my own without partners because of that lesson. And I'm just so grateful that I did end up launching an ice roller, which makes total sense to my story. Workout wear to me isn't very niche for me to launch. So what I'm saying is I was able to refine as I went on and learn from the mistakes that I made to actually get to the other side, which was the ice roller. So if something doesn't work out and it doesn't go your way and you're bummed about it, don't be. Take it as a lesson, refine it, edit it, rinse and repeat, and go to the next thing. Yeah. And it's something honestly, like we've been speaking a little bit more publicly. And one

of the things I'm passionate about talking about is I feel so many young people or just people in general are put under this immense pressure to immediately know what they want to do in life. And they want to know their passion right away. And you have these people all the time saying, pursue your passion, pursue your passion. You know, I'm still figuring out what my passion is. It's clearly one of those passions is building businesses and talking. I do that a lot. Obviously I still, I wasn't one of those guys that got out of school and just knew exactly what I wanted to do. Many people are lucky and they, Lauren was one of those people. She always knew she wanted to be a creator of

some sort. For me, I wasn't that lucky. I didn't know. And the only way I figured this out is by trying things. I get asked all the time now when I'm pitching to your media or pitching myself or just pitching in general, people who are unfamiliar with me, they ask, how do you describe yourself? What do you do? And I always start off by saying, if you were to track my resume on a linear path on a piece of paper, it would make absolutely no sense. And here's why. I started in real estate. That's what I thought I was going to do. My family was in real estate. That experience taught me a lot. It taught me how to work with a team of men. It taught me how to manage a process. It taught me how to manage a team. It taught me how to deal with hard knocks because this was in 2008 when the market was bad. That experience quickly led me to realize,

okay, real estate's maybe not going to be my passion. And also the timing was wrong. I then pivoted and was in an aviation space doing something completely different with my father, where we were building and manufacturing and selling beds for aircraft. That was a whole nother random thing, but it taught me how to run a payroll process. It taught me how to do manufacturing. It taught me how to deal with customers. Again, not my passion, but just stumbling along building these life skills. And then when Lauren started her blog, I started getting into online marketing. I learned how to sell online. Lauren was doing it in parallel. And then eventually we led this into this podcast, which led to Dear Media. My point being that none of this would make sense from a career path. If you told a professor at school that this was going to be

something you'd pursue, that person would look at you like you were crazy because it doesn't map out. But all of these little micro experiences have led me to what I'm doing today, which is really exciting for me and has been our most successful business to date. So what I'm saying is you can't figure this stuff out unless you try a bunch of different things. And the advice is typically counter to that. The advice is you stick with one thing, one path, and that's all you do. The problem with that is if you go down that path and you realize you hate it, which happens

to many doctors, lawyers, all sorts of different people, not picking on doctors and lawyers, but you know what I'm saying. And you get to the end of that rope and you say, hey, this isn't for me. You haven't tried enough stuff to figure out what is. And so I really, really suggest that everybody starting on their career, taste a bunch of different things, try a bunch of different things, do it before you have a bunch of different responsibilities and see where it leads you. I am a sun psycho. We all know this and you should know that I'm a sun psycho with my kids. So sunscreen. The brand that I have been using on them is Sun Bum. I like this sunscreen. It's called Baby Bum because one, it's mineral. Two, it's SPF 50. But three, it's fragrance-free. But the holy grail of why I like this and every single mother on the planet will understand what I'm about to say is it's a spray, okay? There is nothing worse

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not going to have all these hefty vet bills because your pets will be healthy. Lauren and I have seen an immense improvement in all of our dogs. And like I said, these are personalized vet developed recipes for as little as $2 a day. So it's very cost effective. And of course, like always, we have an incredible offer for listeners of this show. Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at thefarmersdog.com slash skinny. Plus you get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com slash skinny. Plus you get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com slash skinny to get 50%. That's thefarmersdog.com slash skinny. Go to thefarmersdog.com slash skinny to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Small tweaks, not drastic changes. That is what I want when it comes to my derma fillers. I have filler in like

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So I get a lot of questions about which kind of filler to use, and this is the one that I would recommend. The Restylane family of products are indicated for people over 21 years. The most commonly observed side effects are swelling, redness, pain, bruising, headache, tenderness, lump formation, itching at the injection site, and impaired hand function. To learn more about serious but rare side effects and full important safety information, visit www.restylaneusa.com. For Skinny Confidential listeners, you can visit aspirewards.com slash skinny. You can save $80 off any Restylane treatment,

offers and conditions apply. So again, visit ASPIRErewards.com slash skinny to learn more. That's $80 off any Restylane treatment. I always say that if you want to taste a bunch of different things, instead of getting one job, like instead of going and interning or in working a nine to five, what I would recommend is go work in the service industry at night. So go be a hostess or a cocktail server or a bartender at night. That's usually the shift is usually from like three or four to midnight. And then during the day, work on things that you're passionate about and build that up. I look back on my career. And yes, I knew I always wanted to be in the creative space and always be entrepreneurial.

But I look back at little things that I did that have helped with this career that I have now. So let me give you an example. When I was behind the bar, I was able to deal with a lot of different personalities at once. And I also had to do that while I was balancing making drinks, getting food out, putting stuff into the computer, cleaning, whatever it was. So I sort of learned how to passively multitask while I was listening and being engaged. I also had to learn people's names, what their favorite drinks were, what their kids were named, what their wives were named. It was like very much like really taking time to learn about people. So that's no surprise that I talk on a mic now.

I also, you know, look at jobs that I had when I was younger, even when I like worked in a boutique or when I created stuff and everything was very creative. So you take what you learn from these little jobs along the way and you sort of put them together to master a certain craft. A really great book to read if you're looking to master something is Mastery by Robert Greene. It's a fantastic book to learn how to take all the little things that you've tasted and put them together and edit and refine as you go to create a career. Yeah. And the biggest thing, I think the final takeaway from that is just realizing that when you're young and when you're starting out, you have plenty of time to figure out your passion in life. I mean, I'm almost 40 years old, like I said, and I feel like I'm just getting warmed up

and just getting started. But it took a few decades to figure out, you know, what kind of path I want to be on. So again, there's a lot of pressure, especially on young people to figure it out right away. You don't have to have it figured out right away. Nobody expects you to except for yourself. And by tasting all these different things, it's going to put you on a much better path where eventually you will stumble on what you love. Okay, number three, and I think this is critical, especially, and I will say for the younger listeners, or at least the listeners who do not yet have other obligations

like family, children, you know, other things that are going to, I don't want to say slow them down, but demand more of their time. And that is this. It is a huge mistake when you have the time to not put in way more hours than you think. And when I say way more hours than you think, I don't mean working 10 hours. I mean, way more hours than you actually think you need to put in. Don't even think about a nine to five, you know, eight hours a day working. I mean, really pushing it in here. And here's why. By the time you have children and other obligations, even if you want to work like that and you want to put in those extra hours to get ahead, there are so many other demands that will

get put on your time, especially when you have a wife or a family or a husband or kids. You're also just overstimulated. It's just it's like there's there's things that Lauren and I did in the past that if we wanted to do now with where we are, we could not do. And also additionally adding to that, like, I don't want to be on my phone in front of my husband and kids all day long. Like I have boundaries around my phone now because I want to be present for my kids and present for my husband. And I think that you, as you get older, you have to be less selfish. So take the time when you can be selfish and fucking pedal to the metal.

Yeah, because like I said, people ask, if you were to start Dear Media today or start the podcast today, what would you do differently? And I say, I don't think I could. And it's not because I don't have the drive. It's because during that period in our life, when I started Dear Media and when we started the podcast, we were both running separate businesses that had nothing to do with podcasts. Because during that period in our life, when I started Dear Media and when we started the podcast, we were both running separate businesses that had nothing to do with podcasts, what Lauren's business did, but we weren't doing anything in audio.

Dear Media did not exist. I was running another company. We had no children. We were living in a different city that had nothing to do with where we were recording. We were driving two hours multiple times a week up here, both early in the morning. You were driving. I was getting chauffeured. I still have leg issues from it because that posture sucks.

But the point is, is if we wanted to do that kind of thing now from scratch, we just don't have the time and don't have the hours. And I don't think enough people talk about this. When you're young and you don't have the obligations to family, to children, you have so much time, not to mention you have a fuckload of energy that you may not have as you get a little older. Another thing that I want to touch on is there's a lot of people online being like, oh, the hustle culture is over. It's soft girl season or whatever. I think that you can simultaneously be hustling, but also be in a soft girl era. And let me tell you what I mean by that. So I am gentle with myself at certain times of the day. I actually have it scheduled in my calendar

to be gentle with myself. And what I mean by gentle is I mean, I have my workout. I have my morning routine. I have my nighttime routine. But when it's time to work, you better bet your ass I'm 100% focused on what I'm doing. I'm in the moment and it's deep work. And I think the difference is, is that a lot of people, like Michael said, think you have to work all these hours. Yes, you have to put in the hours, but the hours that you do decide to put in need to be completely focused on the task at hand. Here's my issue with these headlines that make people feel good and fuzzy. Like, okay, I'm not pushing hustle culture. I'm just, I'm going to tell you a blunt truth here. If you take someone like myself, who's got a lot of work ethic and wants to go, go, go,

and you tell me to compete with somebody who wants to take it easy and doesn't believe in hustle culture, doesn't want to work as hard, I'm going to eat their fucking lunch. And this is the problem is people are told something. I will say this, don't do just what people say, actually do what they do. The people that are getting ahead in life and moving really far and living that dream life that everyone will live, I guarantee you they're working their fucking faces off and they're doing things that you're not seeing behind the scenes. What you see on social media from Lauren and I

is 2% of our life. The majority of our life is working and hustling and being with our family, but it's putting in the hours. I'm not going to sit here and lie to anyone and say this has been easy. There has been multiple, people still don't understand.

The podcast is the side hustle. This is the side thing. We do it eight times a month. I can't tell you how many people, you know, that I work with at Dear Media can barely keep up with four times a month. Like you got to put in the work. You got to put in the work with your family. You got to put in the work with your wife. You got to put the work with your gym. You got to put the work in your business. You have to work. If, and I'm going to say if, if you want to have that extraordinary life where you demand your own time, where you have more money than you can spend, where you have everything you want, all of your ambition, you have to work. Nobody's going to hand it to you. So I'm not saying you

have to waste your whole life away working, but if you want certain things and you want to build a certain career, then you have to work. And what I'm saying is it's better to do it when you're young and with little obligations. And when you you have the energy than when you actually have a bunch of obligations in a family. I also want to caveat this with something. I know to be 100% focused and 100% effective in what I'm doing and working towards. I have to put in the work in other areas to support the work. And what I mean by that is going to the gym for me is a non-negotiable. It's in my calendar. It's a commitment. It holds me accountable. And that hour sets the tone for my day. And I think it makes me better at work. So I also am in the

mindset of I'm like an athlete when it comes to my business. I need to have the pillars around me to support me to be completely focused when I am working. So just as important as the work is, it's important that you have the support around the work. Just like an athlete. An athlete wouldn't go play basketball for two hours a day and do nothing else. An athlete is cold plunging, they're sauna-ing, they're getting in a cold shower, they're doing things that are uncomfortable, they're walking, they're running, they're moving their body.

You have to do the things that can support you to do your best at work. Yeah, and speaking of work, like here's the thing. I don't want people to just think I want everybody slaving away. I just want to tell people, if you want this extraordinary life on your terms,

front load it. Front load all of it. You don't want to be one of these people that makes it to your 50s, 60s, 70s, and you're still slaving away and still working. Everybody's stressed about money. You want to front load it as early as you can. The more impact you can drive the earlier in your career, the more you can coast later. And you may not want to coast, but you want the optionality at later in life to just say, I'm working because I'm choosing to, not because I have to. Does that make sense? Let's be honest here. For me, I would rather be rich when I'm young than rich when I'm 80. Like I just would. I want to be rich when I'm young

and have flexibility. I want to have, I want to be agile. I want to have time. I want to be present for my kids and do fun things instead of waiting until I'm 80 to be rich. Well, there's a lot, there's an episode that I personally want to do pretty soon around how to generate more income because I think there's a lot of incredible financial advisors and gurus and people that speak on the subject. And most of it is geared on the long patient path, which is not wrong, right? There's certain things, yes, invest in index funds, yes, save your money. But there could be other things happening simultaneously. But you want to front load your income and you want to be able to enjoy life early on because

it gets harder and harder. Maybe you want to... There's just important... And I'll do that episode later. But I guess what I'm saying here is I believe in your early 30s, definitely in your 20s, you should front load as much work as possible, put in more hours. If that means you finish your first job and you go to a second job, if that means you finish your job and then you start a side hustle or a consulting gig, while you have the energy and before you have the obligation of family and children and many other things that come in life, do it now because you're going to thank yourself later. You'll never have more energy in your life and you'll never have more time. Some staples that are always in my Thrive Market order are the Yum Earth Organic Licorice.

They have this flavor that's strawberry. It's the best candy. My whole family loves it. What I do is I take a big bag of popcorn. I get this from Thrive Market too. I put it in a bowl and then I sprinkle the licorice on top and eat it. And then I also have organic pumpkinrive Market too. I put it in a bowl and then I sprinkle the licorice on top and eat it. And then I also have organic pumpkin in my order because I put pumpkin in my dog's food sometimes. I also always get the raw almond butter. It's the best almond butter. And what I love about Thrive Market is they have like a filter. So they know what to look for when it comes to non-toxic eating. I can go on their site. Everything's already curated for me. And the best part is it delivers straight to your door.

So here's the deal. You go on their site. And as a Thrive Market member, you save money on every single grocery order. On an average, I noticed even I saved 30% every single time. You have all your organic groceries and household essentials at your fingertips. And like I said, it gets shipped straight to your door. They've been a partner of this show for like five years. We're such fans of this brand. You can join in on the savings with Thrive Market today and get 30% off your first order plus a free $60 gift. Go to thrivemarket.com slash skinny for 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift. That's T-H-R-I-V-E market.com slash skinny thrivemarket.com

slash skinny. I consider myself a pretty well-researched person when it comes to the supplements that I take. I have had access to some really incredible people and been able to really ask the hard questions. And the multivitamin that I take is one that I'm very proud to say I take, and that is Ritual. Ritual is all about hot data and stone-cold facts. They're super science-y, and they also use ingredients that are traceable. And the best part is it increases your vitamin D levels by 43%. I can be low sometimes on vitamin D, so this is really important to me. The one that I like that they have is the Essential for Women 18 Plus. This is one that I've been taking for a long time. I love the brand so much that I had the founder,

Kat, on our podcast. And everything they do is just with such care. Everything is bioavailable. It's non-GMO. It's gluten-free. It hits all the points in something that you're taking every single day. I mean, if you're going to take something every single day, it's important to know what's in it. I also want it to be like a pleasurable experience. So this is one that you can take on an empty stomach. You don't have to worry about that. And also, like I said, it's minty. Like I said, Ritual is all about hot data and stone cold facts. Get to know your nutrients on a deeper level with 30% off during your first month. You can visit ritual.com slash skinny to start ritual or add Essential for Women 18 plus to your subscription today. I am someone who travels a lot and I'm constantly trying to be healthy when I travel,

but it is a struggle. But leave it to the Westin Hotels to fix this issue. Okay, you guys, first of all, they have over 200 destinations around the world and they're committed to all things wellness. So what they've done is they've made travel an opportunity to actually enhance your well-being. They have like this whole situation that's dedicated to move, eat, and sleep well. They even have a Westin workout fitness studio. It's equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, and you can customize your workouts while on the go. They have like Bala products that you can borrow during your stay. They really thought of everything. You can do your own thing in your guest room with workout and recovery gear.

It's all available on on-demand through Weston's gear lending program. You should know they also have Eat Well. They have Weston chefs and craft design dishes to keep your well-being in mind. So they've really zoned in on portion control. They think about nutritional balance. They're just committed to helping you eat healthy, nourishing meals. And lastly, they have Sleep Well. This is all about recharging your body and mind with a restorative sleep. Weston's even has

a renowned heavenly bed. So they really thought of all the things health and wellness wise at Weston Hotels. There's amenities and offerings aimed to help you move well, eat well, and sleep well. So you can keep your well-being close while away. Find wellness on your next day at Weston. If you're working nine to five and you want to make more money, I think a really smart thing to do if you like being in front of the camera is to start creating content when you're off. Instead of going home and scrolling your phone for two hours, create content and whatever that looks like for you. Maybe you don't like to be on camera, but you like to talk in a mic. Maybe you hate the camera and you hate the mic. So go and write.

Yep. And the last thing I would say is there's going to be a segment of the audience, because there always is, that are going to complain and say, well, I don't, that you're wasting your life. I don't want to just work all the time. I want to relax. That's fine. Work at your own pace. I'm not telling you that you have to do it this way. What I am telling you is that if you want to get to that extraordinary level where you can basically set your own time, have an extraordinary business, you know, command the amount of money that you want to command, it's going to require work and it's going to require front-loading it because nothing's going to be given. And the people that you're competing with that do want that kind of life are working that way and with that kind of

intensity. And so all I'm saying is do it while you have the time. Okay. Number four. And I think that this one is important. And again, it's counter to what many are taught, especially in traditional schooling settings and by our parents and by our friends. And that is, I believe you should be taking massive risks when you're young as much as you can. I think that before you have children, before you have a family, before you have a mortgage, before you have debt obligations, when it's just you relying on yourself and nobody else is relying on you, this is the time to take the risks. This is the time to take that big nest egg and put it into something that you're not sure

is going to work. This is the time to take that trip that's super expensive that you're not sure you can afford. This is the time to spend more than you think you need to spend. And here's why. All you have to lose is the income that's supporting yourself. You can always build that back up and you can always figure out how to support yourself. What you don't want to do, and you see many people do this, it's called a midlife crisis, is you have these people later in life that start risking their family's nest egg, or they start taking huge risks or career risks when they have family obligations, when they have, in my case, a wife, when they have a mortgage, when they have real things to lose. So what I'm suggesting to everybody is if you have that itch to take a risk,

do it while you're young and before you have the obligation of supporting anyone but yourself. I also think it's easier to put yourself out there when you're young. Now that I'm a mother of two, I don't have the same time and the same flexibility to put myself out there as I did when I was younger. So I remember being like 21 and dropping business cards in Starbucks and like pinning it to the bulletin boards like during the day when I was bartending at night. I was able to sort of create my own career from scratch because I didn't have kids and I didn't have all these commitments that I have to do now as a mother. The younger that you can take risks, the better. But that's not to say that you can't

take risks as you get older. I have noticed talking to some of my friends that are 50 plus is they almost get to a point where they're so comfortable that they can't fathom being uncomfortable and taking a risk. I don't want to be one of those people that's like, I can't take risks because I'm pregnant or I'm have kids or I'm older. Sure. But that completely reinforces what I'm saying, which is as we get older, you're not as comfortable with risk because you get used to a certain life. Also, maybe you don't want to like, you know, if I crash and burned when I was in my twenties, I'd be like, who gives a shit?

It's just me. And I don't care what everybody thinks. If I crash and burn now, I mean, I'm still, you know, I still take a lot of risk, but if I crash and burn now, I would have to think, okay, how's this going to affect my wife? What are my children going to think? What are my partners going to think? There's more considerations than when it was just me. It was much easier to crash and burn before I have all these things that you got to think about and you have to protect. And for the younger people that don't have those things yet, now is the time because if you crash and burn, your only thing is you just start over where you started a few years ago, right? Like you're fine. And you have many years ahead of you and you don't have any other obligations. So now's the time to take the risk. Now's the time to do the great trip, like all of these things.

And one thing I would mention, and this is a completely side tangent, I personally, and this is just my personal stake, I value my time and experiences more than I value money. So it's always easy for me to make a decision around monetary decisions when it comes to protecting my time or creating great experiences. And I think when you start thinking about it that way, you'll start to get a little freer with the way you spend and the risk you take. What's the final one? The final one, which honestly may be one of the most important ones, if not the most important, is really auditing your partnerships, auditing where you work, auditing who you work with. It's really important to create a space where you feel

excited and empowered and impacted by the people that you're deciding to work with, whether it's in a job or a business you're starting. I've seen so many people, and I've been victim of this, where you start a business or you work with the wrong people and it's such a disaster and it can be avoided. I was talking about this with you today in the car. I would be really heavily impacted if I was married to someone who was constantly telling me why I couldn't do something. I think when I come to you with an idea, maybe even if it's not a good idea, you're like, okay, how can we refine this to make this work? Or we talk about the pros and cons, or you uplift me and say, go for it. I think it's really important to be with someone that's not

always fearful and telling you why you can't do something. I don't want to hear all the time why I can't do something. I want to hear how I can make something work. Everything is figureoutable. I love that book. But I think it's really important with who you choose to let into your bedroom. Whoever you choose to let into your bedroom is going to have a huge impact on who you are as a parent, who you are as a business person. I think that it's really, really important to be thoughtful about who you're marrying. Yeah. I mean, the first person that you're going to spend the most time with in your life is your spouse. And then I think some of the second part is the people you decide to do business with.

You're working with them every day. You're part of them every day. I feel like for some reason people make flimsy decisions when it comes to this. I know I did when I was younger. You have a friend and you sit there and you're looking at each other on the couch or out at the bar and you're like, hey, that's a good idea. Let's start a business together. Next thing you know, you're running a company in a bank account, but nobody's actually sat down and thought, hey, is this going to hurt the friendship? Are we actually compatible as business partners? Is this going to go well? Or you decide to work in a company and you're just doing it for a paycheck. Maybe you can't stand the people you work with. You can't stand the culture, but you're there. These are things that are going to weigh on you time and time again.

What's that quote? Show me the five people you were hanging around and I'll show you your life. It's the same thing when it comes to deciding who to work with. You've got to make the right decisions. And when you're young, that's really when you start to develop a lot of these relationships. You've got to pick right. I think when it comes to working with friends, one of the main things people are like, don't do it. I think you can do it. I work with Taylor, who's one of my best friends, our producer. I work with Weston. I work with Mimi, who's my sister.

Here's what I've learned. Yeah, but at the same time, we've worked with friends that have gone the other way. And I would say more so than the ones that have gone the right way. So but here's what the friends and family that has worked working with us are the ones that are able to look at things in a non-emotional way. And what I mean by that is when I call Weston or Mimi or Taylor with a problem when it comes to work, they completely keep it separate from our friendship. So Taylor and I will be like texting about work and it'll be like a problem. And then I'll see him in person and like he's able to compartmentalize. If you're going to work with someone and they don't have the ability to compartmentalize your friendship and work, it's probably not going to be a good fit. It's when it

bleeds into the work. The friendship and the family shouldn't bleed into the work. They should be able to separate it. I think it comes down to the communication that you have in a friendship or if you're in a position where your boss, maybe you start a job and they're already talking short form with you. Maybe that's a little bit of a red fly to say, hey, this is not as professional an environment as I want to be in. It's not maybe going to be as productive. And then also if you're on the other side, if you're maybe started a company or with a friend and you have that short form and you can't be professional, then again, emotions fly high. So a lot of people's gut reaction when a friend approaches them with an idea or invites them to work in a company they're in or to work for a business that they're working on, like the

gut reaction is like, oh, that sounds great. That's my friend. It's going to be recommended. But I think taking a step back for a second and deciding, okay, is this a friendship or is this a professional career decision that I'm going to make that's going to be productive for me in the long run? It is so important to audit your partnerships, where you work, who you're working with. That is going to have a massive impact on your life, both mentally, physically, emotionally, all of these things. And so you really got to spend some time choosing and picking right. We all know that person that when you walk in a room they're like it's raining out and this isn't working and that's not working i don't want to be around

that kind of person i don't find that to be inspiring to myself or a team. I want to be with someone who's resourceful, who's looking for angles, who brings energy, who's not just an anchor. And I think that when you start to identify who those negative anchors are, you can remove them and it'll make everything float to the top. So to recap for those that have been listening and just want the quick bullet point notes on the five career mistakes that we either wish we avoided or think we could have avoided or want you to avoid. Here they are. Number one is burning bridges, hurting your reputation and taking shortcuts. Avoid that at all costs. Number two is not trying different things. It is so important to try different things, especially early in your career so you can figure out what you want to actually do. Number three is not putting in way more hours than you think, especially before you have obligations, a family, kids, a mortgage, all of those things. Put in as much time as you possibly can because as you get older, you do not get more energy, you get less. Four, not taking bigger risks. I really believe that when you're young, taking risks,

crashing and burning, doing the things that hurt a little bit is important, especially before you have other people that are relying on you. And number five is really auditing your partnerships, where you work, who you work with, all of those things. These are things that are so important and mistakes that people make and mistakes we've made that we wish we didn't. Have you audited me? I'm still auditing, but... You're still auditing. I'm still auditing. I'll let you know in a few years of how, you know, what I decide.

All right, guys go follow at TSC podcast on Instagram for all our podcast updates and check us out on the podcast app. You can rate and review there and Michael Bostic and I will do more solo episodes. If you want, let us know what you're thinking. I think it would be fun to get you on a mic to talk all about finances. Maybe I'll interview you. Well, I did that finance episode a while ago, but I want to add to it because I feel like there's a lot of people telling people how to quote unquote save and invest, but there's not a lot of conversation going on around maximizing more income, which is a big part of it, right? Like you don't just want to save, you want to earn more. You've been talking about this episode for a long time, so I'm going to hold you

accountable. Well, I feel it's one of those things like these finance people, they give like 80% of the equation, which is like, yeah, you should do that once you've said once you have a stable income and you're like all that. But what I wish they would do more is like, hey, don't just save but here's how you earn more as well. On that note, go bug Michael Bostic at Michael Bostic on Instagram. And we are on to our next podcast. On to the next. Bye, guys.