The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - BONUS 3: A Keynote - Brand Yourself, Align Your Image with Your Brand

Episode Date: May 23, 2017

Lauryn & Michael have a treat for you! They showcase their speech at The Collective Conference, that was hosted at the Trunk Club offices in Los Angeles. During the gathering, Lauryn & Michael highlight personal branding, cultivating an audience, building an authentic brand, how to stand out in a saturated market, and how to find your target audience. To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Bombshell Body Guide and Meal plan.  tired of combating inflammation & bloat? Want to feel lighter and sexier? Check out lauryn’s latest 7 day meal plan. In this simple & super effective plan you’ll find: + tsc grocery list with every ingredient you need for the 7 days. + what the f*ck to do when you love carbs guide. + quick and delicious recipes: breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and dessert. You will also find 28 weeks worth of fat burning, muscle toning, 27 minute long, effective workouts you can do at home with no equipment. USE PROMO CODE: HIMANDHER at Checkout for 20% Off

Thanks for downloading this show from PC1. Before we get rolling, here's a word from one of the folks who helped bring you this podcast. The following program is a PodcastOne.com presentation. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. 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.

Welcome back, guys. It's Tuesday. We've got a super extra special episode for you. Yeah, so a couple, I'd say a couple months back or a couple weeks back, we spoke at the collective conference in LA at the Trunk Club, and we talked a lot about personal branding and marketing and... Kind of everything. Yeah, and it was one of the first times I actually did, I don't want to call it a speech,

but publicly spoke in front of a large group of people. You were great. I was all right. I gave you an A. But we got into a lot of valuable stuff. Lauren and I both wanted to have a place to showcase that talk so that you guys could get some value out of it. Yeah, I just feel like a lot of you guys couldn't come because you're from around the world

or around the US. So it's really important for me, for those of you who wanted to come but couldn't come, to be able to access the info. And just before we get into it, I want to let you guys know that we will be doing maybe some live podcasting and some more speeches like this around L.A. and San Diego, maybe New York soon. So with that, I guess we'll hop right into it. This is our interview with The Collective at The Trunk Club. You guys, it is Kelty Knight, Jack Banik, and Becca Tobin from The Lady Gang.

And we are so excited because this week we have the one and only RuPaul as our guest. That's right. You better work. See, isn't it already so good? You're going to be inspired. You're going to laugh. You're going to cry. You're going to have a home in.

It's going to be the best. Oh, we can't wait. Download now at podcastone.com or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. So now it's the moment that basically we've all been waiting for, right? For Lauren and Michael to speak. So I'm going to give a brief intro. And then after that, I'm just going to let them talk and you guys can ask them questions. So Lauren and Michael are the power couple behind the skinny confidential, which is a blog, a book, a podcast, and also soon to be product line at the same time.

So you're going to be speaking with serial entrepreneurs who are experts in the lifestyle fields of fashion, food, travel, health, and wellness. and wellness. And I'm just going to welcome them to come up. So here we go. Lauren and Michael, please get in confidential. This is my good side. So thank you guys so much for coming. This is incredible that you're all here on a Tuesday night. There's a lot of things you could be doing. It shows me that this is a room full of hustlers, which we love.

So if you guys don't know us, I'm Lauren Everts. I'm the creator of the blog and brand Skinny Confidential. And this is my husband. So my name is So, yeah. So, my name's Michael Bostic. I'm an entrepreneur, investor, internet marketer, boring side of the

Skinny Confidential. Handle a lot of the back end. Try to keep up with this girl. And, yeah. We're finally married. It's taken about 10 years. That's a whole different story, though. So, I want to tell you guys that if you have Snapchat, there's a geo filter. So make sure that you use the geo filter. It's really cute. I'm going to make you use it too when you snap yourself in headphones after this.

Okay, so basically what we want to talk about here is personal branding. I think that's kind of the theme. So on that note, I'll just tell you a little bit about myself. So I started my blog when I was at San Diego State. I was going there and I wasn't into the sorority life, which a lot of the girls seem to be into. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It just wasn't for me. It was not stimulating. And I also was a bartender. And so I was working from like three o'clock to one in the morning, paying for my own college, paying for my own car, paying for my own shit. And, and I was teaching Pilates and teaching peer bar and just hustling, but it kind of wasn't enough. And so I would go on campus bored by myself, no friends,

because I wasn't in a sorority and I would modify the foods there. I would do like no tortilla on a taco from Rubio's and like all these just little random things. And I was like, how can I share this with all these women? There's all these sorority girls here. How can I kind of show this to all of them in one swoop? And then I thought bigger. I wasity girls here. How can I kind of show this to all of them in one swoop? And then I thought bigger. I was like, well, how can I show this with women everywhere? And how can I get their tips and tricks and secrets? Like how can we all just share and spill? And so a blog came to mind and I just thought that was the perfect platform to launch kind of a brand based off that. And for me, when I do something, I'm psycho like

that shit. So I wanted everything to just be perfect. I went and I got a poster board from Rite Aid. I think like four poster boards from Rite Aid. And I just filled them with textiles and paint swabs from Home Depot and all this stuff. And just so you guys know, I had $200 in my bank account, like dirt poor living with my godparents. That again is a whole different story. So I filled all these boards with all this inspiration. And then I kind of showed my homemade website to a web developer. And this is this web developer that I found off Craigslist that was $500, dirt cheap. One thing I'll say about myself, I'm resourceful. I kind of always figure it out. If I want something, I will find a way to get it. And so at this time, again, I had no money.

I'm working until one in the morning and I figured it out. So I got this web designer and I was like, can I pay you a hundred dollars a month to build this website? And he agreed. So over five months, I paid him. And a year later, the skinny confidential launched. And if you guys were to see what it looked like, it was horrific. It was like bright throw up projectile pink, just really ugly. My pictures were off. I didn't know what I was doing. And I have to give Michael credit here because he was finally like, pull the trigger. You're obnoxious. You're being way too much of a perfectionist. Just launch this shit. So finally I launched, um, and I was getting, I think I was getting 200 hits a day for like a year. And what I did there is I didn't look at the numbers and

what I'm noticing now, and we'll get into this is that everyone is so fixated on numbers. And for me, I went into this, not looking at numbers, not looking at money. It wasn't about money. And I can really, really say that. It was about building a community and connecting with other women to hear their tips and tricks and they could hear mine. And so what I would do is I would interview and reach out to supermodels on Twitter or actresses or everyday girls or other bloggers.

And I would just, I cultivated like this community for the first year. And it was all about health and fitness and skinny tips and little tricks you could do. or everyday girls or other bloggers. And I cultivated this community for the first year. And it was all about health and fitness and skinny tips and little tricks you could do. And what I always say is it's like an upside down triangle. So you start with your niche. And I've talked to some of you guys tonight and you've told me some of your ideas or your blogs. My recommendation out of all of this

is that you guys start with your niche. And again, we'll get into that too. So I started with health and fitness and I slowly, slowly expanded out. I've been blogging for six years, seven days a week. Um, so it's definitely something that takes time and patience. And so today I still got a long way to go. I have not even done, you know, half of the things I want to do. And I'll let Michael tell you guys a little bit about what he does and what he does on the back end of the Skinny Confidential. Okay, so if you would have asked me three years ago if I'd be sitting here doing this, I would have looked at youp in my step. And I said, you know what? This is the year that I'm going to crush the real estate market.

2008 is the one that's going to make it happen for me. So I went out, raised some money, said, I'm the guy for you. I'm the one you back. And I did my first residential remodel. Lo and behold, the market crashed. That sucked really bad. My ego went down to the floor and I was like, okay, what the hell am I going to do? So my dad had been flying planes for a while and we had an idea for a product for people to be able to sleep on corporate and private aircraft. And we decided, hey, let's start this side business

so that I could rise from the ashes like a phoenix. And that business is called Jetbed. And I've been operating that business now for 10 years. It's the largest corporate and private bedding company for aviation in the world. And from there, I said, you know what? This is a lot of fun, but I'm also interested in marketing. And I got into Facebook advertising, Google advertising.

And I started doing that for other brands. And I learned a lot. I learned how other brands worked, how they sold online. I learned that there's a bigger world than real estate and niche marketing. And I said, you know, I'm going to go help other businesses brand themselves. And so around the time, you know, finally, and this, you know, was a couple of years after I got my ass kicked. I said, okay, Lauren, you keep bothering me at dinner and you keep talking about this blog. Like my ears are bleeding, just launched the thing. And so she did. And, you know, it's funny because I've always really

believed in Lauren. I was telling Taylor earlier, who's right there filming, that, you know, when investing and when I look at people and I look at projects, I say you always want to bet on the jockey and not the horse. You can have the best idea in the world, but like my real estate idea, if you don't execute properly, you're going to run into some trouble. So I always believed in Lauren. I always thought that she had a lot of charisma. I always called her a compelling person.

She has what I call strength and warmth. Strength meaning you believe she'll get it done, and warmth meaning you believe she has the best intentions of helping other people. So I said, you know what, launch this thing. And she did. And she really focused down on a niche, which I think is important. And, you know, over time I watched and I watched her develop this community of women that was really amazing. And she was, she was, you know, really developing trust and providing value. And I'll go back to value on branding a lot. It's important to

provide people with value and not just say, hey, give me something. And so she was doing that and she was doing it really well, but this was really early on in the blogging atmosphere in maybe 2010, 11?

So it was still a little early on and she wasn't monetizing and it was just a little early on, and she wasn't monetizing, and it was just, you know, a labor of love. But I could see, like, okay, there's a very strong community of women. She developed a lot of trust. Her content's good. She's really passionate about it. And so I said, yeah, I'll buy this.

And, you know, having the background of marketing and running my own businesses, I've just kind of been there every step of the way, either encouraging her or helping her with analytics or helping her get her site up or just whatever it is. I try to be, I don't want to say an advisor because that kind of makes me sound like I'm here when I'm not, three equals, but just somebody that she could confide in and somebody that could kind of help her along the way. So in terms of personal branding for me, I don't know if I have done, and I'll be the first to admit this, the best job of branding myself

because I never set out to do that. I kind of just set out to help her do that and kind of be the background. But a couple, about a year and a half ago, she had jaw surgery and it was really aggressive, really aggressive. I mean, for a while there there it was like a big pumpkin. And I was sitting there and I was newly engaged and I looked around and I said,

hmm, this is interesting. But at this point she had developed a community of women and the telescope was on me to not blow it and be the guy that bails. So I stuck around. And so she turned her Snapchat on me and started filming me a lot in really compromising positions. Maybe didn't look the best at times, maybe still don't. But I realized, I was like, whoa, I, whoa, I kind of like this, I like it, it's fun. And around that time, I started my own Snapchat, and I started getting a lot of messages from a lot of different people from all walks of life saying, you know, how do you market this,

or how do you brand this, how do you set up this type of business, how do you set up that type of business, and I realized the things that I'd been doing privately and kind of without the social media and behind the camera, some of the information was really starting to have an impact on some people. And so I said, you know, I really like this. I like helping people. It gives me a better feeling than any kind of dollar I've ever made, any kind of business I ever started. And I said, you know, I want to, you know, if I can help more than just one person, which is like, you know, Snapchat, you only get to interact one-on-one. I said, hey, let's start a podcast. And I had no idea how to start a podcast, much like I had no idea how to be in real estate or to sell beds

for aircraft or market online. And I said, let's just do it. I'm going to tailor buy some really bad equipment. We have some terrible reviews from the beginning, and Lauren wanted to kill me. But we did it, and since then, we have been doing it on a weekly basis, and we've been communicating with a lot of people.

We've had some interesting guests, and yeah, it's interesting what social media and personal branding it's interesting where it can take you because like i said i never thought that i'd be sitting here talking about any of this ever okay so let's get into personal branding and we're going to open it up so you guys can have a conversation with us we do not want this to be formal think of questions you guys came out here on a Tuesday, like I said. Like, let's talk. It can be anything.

And definitely, we're recording this, by the way, for our podcast because we want to put this on our podcast. Before you ask your question, say your name, say your blog, push yourself, and then ask your question, and we can totally have a conversation. But before we get into that, we just want to go over what personal branding is. So I'll let you start, honey. Well, personal branding to me is basically building a brand around yourself and what you're about. And we talk a lot about authenticity. And I think sometimes context is lost in authenticity. It doesn't mean like, oh, you've got to be honest and you can't be fake.

It means when I think of authenticity and building a personal brand, I mean this. I can get up here and I can see what other speakers do or I can see what other bloggers or influencers do, and I can try to mimic or copy or kind of, I don't want to say pretend, but try to act the way, kind of emulate, yeah, that's the right word, what they do. And that to you, to everyone listening,

is going to come off as inauthentic. It's going to come off as like, eh, what's this guy about? And so when I say building an authentic brand, I mean, really, like, if you're a guy that likes wearing, you know, long black cloaks and collecting absurd amounts of vinyl that don't mean shit to anyone, Taylor, but that's your truth, then do that.

Because there's a demographic on the internet that's going to identify with that, and they're going to say that's true, and that's what this person's about. And the beauty of the internet that I learned a long time ago is that you can really really niche down. You don't have to go and reach everybody. While I hope

everybody in here really likes what I'm saying and identifies with me, I also understand that there's going to be some people that it doesn't, and that's okay. I'm living my truth. I'm being exactly who I am, and that's going to speak to a certain demographic. When you do that, and you do it well, it's much easier to capture an audience, and

it's much easier to build trust. And when you do that, when you have that trust, then you can drive conversions. And I don't just mean conversions in the sense like, oh, I'm going to wear a shirt, and I'm going to sell it to you. I mean in the sense that when you produce content, people are really going to care. Maybe not everybody, but the people that do, they're going to really care. And that is much more important

than the macro number that everyone's so concerned with these days, which is like we have hundreds of thousands or millions or however many. It's more important for me personally, and I think it should be more important for more brands and more individuals, to really hone in on your audience.

And the way you do that is by branding yourself and being authentic to what your brand is. Okay, so I totally agree with you. I think it's much more important to really take care of your audience as opposed to go out and get more people. I actually set an hour aside in the morning and an hour aside at night to go through all my Snapchat messages and respond to everyone. The reason being with Snapchat is that I feel like it's extremely one-on-one. It's like I'm texting the person that's writing me right away. It feels very immediate and I think that that's kind of where we're headed. So if you've cultivated an audience, don't leave them to go over here to another, another audience to capture more. I'm noticing nowadays that everything is about numbers. I really choose not to look at numbers. And what I mean by that is I don't look at my Google

analytics. He does, but I don't, um, it's, it's not, It's kind of counterproductive for me to look at it. I just really let my audience lead the way. And that means that if my audience is constantly asking me about skin or hair or Instagram captions, whatever that is, I will do a blog post on it. So instead of me saying, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that, I'm constantly taking note on what the audience wants. And for me personally, what the audience has really wanted is real topics. You know, I'm going to do a post on shaving your face. Guys, cover your ears. I'm going to talk about, like, that's a thing that actresses in Hollywood do all the time and no one talks about it because it's weird.

I mean, I do it. It's this twinkle razor. I'll do a blog post on it on Amazon it because it's weird. I mean, I do it. It's this twinkle razor. I'll do a blog post on it on Amazon. And it's amazing for exfoliation. Like I'm talking about these things that a lot of other bloggers aren't talking about, which is, I think what has made the skinny confidential stand out in any way. It's like, I feel like a lot of these bloggers on Instagram, you're like scrolling through and it's, you know, their perfect cup of latte and their perfect shoe and not that there's anything wrong with that. And I totally do that stuff too.

It's just, I personally need more like of a raw side. And I think that the audience appreciates that. And I'm not saying that, that being, um, taboo is talking about boob jobs and camel toes and vagina steaming is for you, but that's kind of the way that my audience responds. It's what they like. I also think that if you, say, decide to be a fashion blogger, you really have to stand out. It's so saturated right now. What makes you different?

I mean, how many times can one see the same person in an outfit? I'm so bored of posting myself on Instagram. I tell Michael, I'm like, I mean, it's boring. So I think that if you, if you are in a fashion blogger, a beauty blogger, like what makes you different? What makes you stand out? What's your niche? And get really deep. Whenever I ask someone what they do and if they're a blogger or a brand, if you can't explain it to someone in 30 seconds, you, you got to practice it. And it is practice. It's not something that you just wake up with one day and you're like, you got to practice it. And it is practice. It's not something that you just wake up with one day and you're like, Oh, I'm perfect. And I have the

perfect Instagram feed. It's something that's constant practice every single day. That's what I believe. And that's the experience it's been for me. Maybe some people it's different. No, I agree with that. It kind of touches on the same thing. You know, I kind of want to touch on why a personal brand as opposed to, let's take for example, like a jet bed or a truck club or, you know, some of the things we've talked about. A personal brand, I think the biggest mistake people make when they're building it is they don't deploy patience. And you are going to be you for the rest of your life,

forever long. That is forever short. That is, that's your brand. That's you. I'm not changing into somebody else. So I think the beauty of a personal brand, if I,

if I decided, Hey, I'm going to be the salad guy. And I'm just using this because I saw a salad over there. If I'm going to be the salad guy and all I'm going to talk about forever is salads. My blog is called the salad guy. Well, all of a sudden I'm going to come the salad guy and all I'm going to talk about forever is salads, my blog's called The Salad Guy, well all of a sudden I'm going to come in and say, hey guys, have you heard about this marketing

campaign? And you're going to look at me and be like what the fuck is this guy talking about? Sorry, can I curse? Anyways, and so the beauty with a personal brand is if I build Michael Bostic and one day I like talking about marketing and blogging it's okay, as

my audience comes with me on whatever journey I'm on, to transition into other things. And that's going to happen. I mean, when Lauren started, she started in health and wellness, and she still touches on that a lot, but it's evolved. It's evolved into her life. It's evolved into her travel. It's evolved into fashion. It's evolved into all sorts of different things.

And I think what she's done with the Skinny Confidential is she's made the Skinny Confidential Lauren Everett. So when you're thinking about a personal brand, it's okay to niche yourself down and it's okay to focus on that niche to start to capture people. But as you go on, you want to think, okay, how am I going to carry my name and my brand into the other areas of my life?

As we get older, as we have kids, as we have families, as we get married, as we get older, you're able to deploy strategies against that timeline that can really enhance your brand. Where you get in trouble is when you say, listen, I need to do this today, or this person over here did it in six months. And when you're doing that, it really, really does a disservice to your personal brand, to your message, to if it's a blog, if it's a product line. But if you can deploy patience and say, listen,

I'm going to ride this thing throughout life, not through the year or the quarter, but life, you can really deploy some strong strategies. I think speaking on strategy, I think that it's really important to create a strategic future. And I've talked a little bit about this, but one of my best friends coaches CEOs around the world, and he's taught me the importance of creating a strategic future. And so what that means, so say you guys are in the audience and you want to have a huge block, maybe you already have one. Instead of thinking of goals that you

want to hit, think of, think backwards. So what I did with the skinny confidential is I know where I wanted to be in five years and 10 years and 20 years, and opposed to like working there, I've thought backwards. So everything that's happened to me hasn't really happened to me because I've created my own future, if that makes sense. And if that doesn't make sense, like we can talk about it more because it's kind of confusing. But basically you lay out the backwards plan on how to get to where you want to be. So I like to create systems as opposed to goals on how you're going to get there. I find that calendar calendaring is like incredibly important to me because I'm horrific at time management. Um, so a calendar really keeps me focused. And I mean, if you guys follow along on Snapchat, you know, that time blocking has

really changed my life. It's this stupid cube that you can get on Amazon for like $10. And just time walking my day really helps because when I'm all over the place, there's too much chaos and I'm going away from my goal. So another, like if you go home tonight, like work backwards to where you want to be. And I always say this, but I have to say it. Stay in your own lane. Stop looking at the way Sally did it and the way Bobby did it. Like stay in your own lane. Like people are going to say negative comments. That's part of putting yourself out there. I can, the things that I've heard about myself online blow my mind. It doesn't even bother me anymore because I just stay in my own lane and unless it deserves a response, I don't respond to

it. And with that, I think we'll open it up deserves a response, I don't respond to it. And with that, I think we'll open it up to you guys because we don't want to talk too long. We want to hear what you guys want to talk about. You guys can say your name, your blog question. You can ask us anything, by the way. We're pretty open. You want me to start with an easy one?

It's not too hard. I'm Jen. I have a site called Toast Meets Jam I do brand building for bloggers and business babes so this is my jam my question always for people who have built really big brands is

what are the few key things that you did that were really pivotal so I know a lot of it's just incremental but were there moments where like you did something that just like step changed your business? I mean, for me, there really, there really has not been no, there's no epiphany. Like it's just tiny little steps. I like, I guess an epiphany would be like when I had a book launch party, but there was all these little steps I took to get there. I think the pivotal steps, like sure there's moments, but what's better to look back on is all of the tiny little pieces of work I've done. Like the Friday night

that I decided to stay home instead of go out, the trip that everyone thought I was traveling on. And it looks like I'm traveling on Snapchat, but I'm working until two in the morning. Like there's so many nights like that, that have contributed to the growth of the Skinny Confidential that there's not like one epiphany where I'm like, wow, like that was so great that I did that. It's just really, for me, chipping away. Like it hasn't, and I'm sure there's a lot of other bloggers out there that would say different, but for me it's really just been hard work, patience, consistency, being authentic, being real, and sharing my life. I think, you know, it's, and Gary Vee, who's one of my huge idols, always says, like, it's about documenting, not creating. Like, people are over the overly curated all the time, 24-7 shit.

I mean, I am all about curated shit, like, throwing it in sometimes, but I think it's really important to show the behind the scenes and show the audience who you are and your husband or your boyfriend or your friends. I think that people want to see that. And people are voyeurs and they smell bullshit. Everyone smells bullshit. So if you're bullshitting, I mean, they're going to smell it. It's true. I think every business I've ever been involved with, I think maybe if I stepped back and looked at it from outside of myself,

maybe you could find something where there was kind of an epiphany or an aha. But when you're in something and you're working and you're going day after day after day it never really feels like that it's kind of like you know uh i think the first five i think the fifth year with jetbed we did more in the first quarter than we did in the first four years and you'd think at that time that everybody jumping up and down and celebrating but it really wasn't like that. It kind of felt like, okay, it's just normal because you're so in it and you're working so hard. I don't think there's really in any kind of business there's like that, oh, aha, epiphany.

Like, sure, you're going to get the big sale. Maybe you close a deal. But when you're in something and you're working day after day after day and you're struggling and struggling and struggling, it just doesn't feel like that. So to answer that honestly, I haven't felt that, but there's probably been some things that have happened that have maybe changed the business direction. Yeah, that was the moment I was like

or I'm just kidding. Yeah, it was. Who's next? Oh, okay. The pink. You. Cute bow. When you said that your website, the first one, was, like, awful pink explosion, all I could think of was, like, I think I'm the only one. No, you look so cute.

I love your outfit. Thank you. You've been, like, casual, what, like, what is that, like, the, um. Casual chic. Casual chic. Yeah. Apleasure, right? That's the trend. Okay. Hi, guys. that? Casual chic. Casual chic. Yeah. Apleasure, right? That's the trend.

Okay. Hi, guys. I'm Ashley Streff. I'm a photographer. You can find me, Ashley Streff. That's my Instagram handle. But I had a question for you guys, because as a photographer,

I've been working on my craft. I went to school for it. It's been like 13 years now that I've been working on it. I've been represented by Vogue. And I, yeah, that was pretty cool. A little milestone. And I built Lululemon LA when social media started. And now I do a lot of social media branding content for people.

And even though that we do a lot of behind the scenes, a lot of authentic posts, how do you feel professional photography is still like, is it a key point in someone's brand? I think it depends on the medium. And I think that if anyone can leave here with anything, it depends on the medium. You have to look at the medium that you're writing.

All of you guys are different. Some of you are in e-com, some of you are bloggers, some of you are just primarily on Instagram. anything. It depends on the medium. You have to look at the medium that you're writing. Um, all of you guys are different. Some of you are in e-com, some of you are bloggers, some of you are just primarily on Instagram. I think that on Instagram, people are sick of the professional photography unless it's mixed in, if it's done right. Like I think a whole Instagram of professional photography, um, it doesn't work, but if you sprinkle it in, it's fine. The best Instagram I've seen right now, and it just is, and sorry, it's the Kylie shop.

She is so ahead of it, and she gets it, and if I were to look at anyone as the queen of influencers, it's Kylie Jenner. And some people don't like that. It's true. The team she has behind her,

she is fucking slaying it. So if you want to look how to like pepper in professional photography, I would look at Kylie cosmetics, the Kylie shop. She does it in a way where it's not overwhelming, but she also peppers in the behind the scenes. A good Instagram account to me is something that mixes it up. It's a couple of graphics of quotes that I love when people do, this is just like off the bean path, but I love when people do like their quotes branded. So your quotes are branded. You have a couple of professional pictures. You have behind the scenes. You have what you're eating. The worst is when you go to someone's Instagram and every single picture is of them for me, because I need more. I want to see what you're eating. I want to see where you're going. I want to see what you're doing. I want to see what you're bringing to the table.

I want to see other people. So professional photography, I definitely don't think it's dead. I think there's many ways you can utilize it. I think podcasting, like people want to see a beautiful photo. They don't want to see, you know, something behind the scenes. I think podcasting, like people want to see a beautiful photo. They don't want to see, you know, something behind the scenes. I think on the blog, definitely I use a professional photographer because people want clear, crisp images and quality is so important. Facebook, I still feel like responds well to professional photography. But if I were you, I would definitely be practicing video because everything is going to video. And I believe that 2017 is the year of live stream. Everyone wants it live.

The filters, like everyone's over it. They want a live, real connection. She's pretty much answered that. I don't have a lot. I don't have as much to say about it as her. But I think mistakes that people make when they're running a brand is that they think on the macro level and they think what everyone wants. And I think what you really need to focus on is what the audience wants, what the consumer wants.

So to answer that, yeah, of course, certain pictures and certain type of photography works on different mediums. But to niche down even farther, it depends what the audience responds to. You might have an audience that doesn't respond to professional photography at all maybe they want that kind of behind the scenes raw real look

or maybe you have a feed that's what the audience expects so I think where brands run into trouble is they don't niche down and they don't focus on what the end consumer wants they kind of look at what everybody else is doing and say this works for this person so it must work for me

I think for me. I think for me, if you saw me posing outside in my leather jacket with professional photography my friends would probably beat the hell out of me and people would be like, what the hell is this guy doing? So I don't use it. It doesn't work as well for me. For someone like Lauren, maybe when she's doing fashion stuff, it might work.

So I think to shorten that up, focus on the end user and who your audience really is and not so much on which medium it is. Does that make sense? The guy in the blazer. Hello. Hello. Hello.

Hi, Kayvon. Nice to meet you in person. Thank you for coming. You're so fun. Hello. I'm Kayvon. My company and brand is called Girl Meets Strong. You want to ask your question?

You told me. I will. Yes. So our whole mission is to inspire a culture of strength. And we do that by sharing stories of girls and women in different sports. I have a very specific question. And I want each of your answers. Right now we're looking for a social media manager part time. If you were to give them one exercise or one or two exercise to see like, oh, this person really does know social media or doesn't, what would that be? When I hire an intern, there's two things.

The email's got to be short. 400 pages. Like, everyone is so busy nowadays. Everyone's attention span is zero. The girl that got hired as an intern, she now works for me. Two sentences. So simple. She attached a resume. That's the kind of person I want working for me. I don't need a 400 page email. Like what's the point? Let's get on a call. Let's get to it. The other thing I look at, and a lot of people aren't going to want to hear it, but this is the resume of 2017 is your social media. So you can attach your resume, by the way,

one page. It doesn't need to be more than one page. This is what I think. Now this, I'm not saying this is the end all be all for me. For social media, I look at their Instagram. I, they've got to have, personally, if I'm hiring someone for my social media, I'm going to immediately look at their Instagram because I want to see'm hiring someone for my social media, I'm going to immediately look at their Instagram because I want to see the aesthetic. I want to see the captions. I think that Instagram says a lot about a social media strategist because you can see the captions to me.

For people to waste the captions is such wasted space. The captions are gold. I spend more time thinking about the captions than I do the photo. You're going to intrigue the audience with your caption. You do a beautiful photo. It fits with your feed. There's an app, by the way, if you guys don't have it, you should download it. It's called Snug.

And basically you can see your entire Instagram layout. So you can move photos and decide, like, if you've done too many selfies in a row, you put, like, a picture of food in between. You can kind of plan your layout. I definitely think if you're going to apply for a job in social media, that your Instagram should be beautiful. And then again, a short email. So that's what I would look for. Thank you.

For me, for pretty much any of this stuff, I look for practitioners. When I say practitioners, I mean people that actually use the channels and the mediums on a regular basis, whether it be for their own brand, whether they're just intrigued and want to do it for fun. I don't want somebody that comes to me from an agency or that's worked with somebody at one time and says, oh, well, this person taught me this way. Because with social media and the landscape, and this goes for Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and all these things, the landscape and the algorithms change on a regular basis.

So I want a practitioner. I want someone with taste, obviously, but I want somebody that's using these mediums on a regular basis and is not scared to evolve. They're not scared to make mistakes. They're not scared to ask questions. So in a nutshell, look for practitioners. If they come up to you and say, I can do this, and you look at their channels and they've never done it,

you can't expect them to do it for you. So practitioners. Awesome. Thank you. Just come up. You don't have to raise your hand. My name is Tantra Richter, and I have a costume company called Jake Jipters. Basically, everybody's called ShapeShifters. We make really crazy costumes for sports. So you can run, bike, and every costume.

And what my question is, is I get a little confused right now, because the company is basically me. I'm the geek side, the tech side, the computer side. I make the designs, I do everything like that part. So I want to do the social media things, but it takes a lot of time. As you guys know, it'd be full-time, plus doing all of the things.

But I'm wondering, for shapeshifters, should I, as far as the personality of the brand that comes forward, because everyone's always talking about being authentic, I'm not sure if my personality is the brand. How do you distinguish those two? Because I'm fun and creative, I'm a creator, but my customers may not be. They're more athletic and comedians, which I'm funny and goofy stuff. How do you know

the difference between your personal identity and your brand identity in social media? That is a great idea because it's so niche. Incredible. I love it. That is such a niche idea. If you want to answer this first, you're so niche. Like, incredible. So these are the active work? I love it.

That is such a niche idea. If you want to answer this first, you're so excited. So the reason I wanted to answer this is because I run into this a lot. I consult with brands and I help them market. And when you're really, really close to the brand like you are, and it's your baby and you're the one working on it, sometimes there's a difference. A lot of this talk has been about personal branding but then there's the brand that you're trying to create which maybe you don't want to incorporate so much of your

personality into but you want to build a brand and the biggest mistake when i see a lot of the time with this is the brand has its own identity and then you have your own personality. And you either need to make the decision of we're connecting the two and it's going to be my personal brand or this is something separate. And so I get frustrated a lot of the time when some of the clients I consult with, when I go on their social media, and it's like, okay, I'm down here.

I consult for a motorcycle company. I'm down here on the track, and we're riding on these trails, I'm like, listen, is that you, or is that the brand? So if I'm hearing you right, and you're building a brand outside of you, I think you need to come up with what that brand message is, what that's about, and you need to run that completely separate from yourself. Luckily, the brand does kind of match me and then it's edgy and funny and strong um but i don't know like as far as the social media do i put my dog no i mean oh you don't do that okay that's what

i need to learn i don't know how personal it is i'm gonna be blunt but I do this out of a place of love. If it's your brand and it's a product-based business or a service that has nothing to do with your dog, then don't use your dog. But if it is something that has to do with your blog, if it's something where someone's coming to see you and you're building a brand around you, then yes, do that. For example, we'll just use JetBbed as an example because we talked about it. If we're talking about betting for aircraft and I have a customer base that really has no idea of my involvement with it, they're just looking at it from the product alone, and then all of a sudden they see me and my golden

retriever smiling, they're going to be very confused. And so what you don't want to do with a brand is cause consumer confusion. You want to have a really clear, concise message, and you want that brand to be separate, unless you want to do a personal brand. See, that's where I feel the same way,

but everyone keeps telling me I need to tell my side of my personality. Because I used to be a pro wrestler, and I goofed around all the time, but I still feel like it's not an athletic company. This is what happens whenever we speak you guys he steals the mic from me and I have to physically remove it for your brand what I see and I've never like seen the whole scope of it but just from what you're telling me what I would do is I would make it bigger than you yeah I, that's what I'm trying to say. I would make it way bigger than you. And I try to do this as well with the Skinny Confidential. The Skinny Confidential is not just me,

and I think you do have to look at a personal brand. You have to make it bigger than you and about providing value and adding value to people's lives. So what I would do if I were you is on your Instagram and on your social channels, I would create movement. And how I would do that is I would have different people in your costumes every single day doing some different

sport. Now you said, can I put my dog on it? You can put your dog on it. If someone's wearing a costume with your dog, you can put your dog on. If your dog's wearing the costume, everything that you do and everything that I do on social media has to come back to the brand. So whenever I'm doing anything, I don't care if it's a five second Snapchat, how does it come back to the brand? So I think you can do anything you want, but it has to come back to the brand. And I, I wouldn't just make it about you and your personality. Not that you're not amazing. I'm sure you are. I would make it about other people, other sports, different sports every day, something funny, but I would also make sure that pictures are

aesthetically pleasing. Like don't post something that's like in the dark with all these people in the background. Make it pretty. It doesn't need to be professional, but pretty. Did you want to say something else? So I understand how it can be challenging at times. What is a tip or a few tips you can give to surviving working with your significant other or just a team in general? It is hard working with people in general. If you steal my tip, you're going to steal my tip. You were going to steal it. He was going to steal it.

Yeah, you were. You stole it before. My tip is recovery. You were going to steal it. I can tell. So, recovery. It's so important. Michael and I fight all the time. All the time.

For anyone, like these perfect relationships, if anyone thinks, like, no, it's not perfect, we fight all the time. He drives me nuts. He is so anal and so da-da, da-da, da-da. And I take a while to wrap my head around things. I have to think about it and let it sit in and think how I'm going to weave it into certain things. I can't just make a decision.

So my tip would be recovery. You have to forgive the other person and move on. And if you're not going to recover quick, then what's the point of being in a relationship? Relationships and working to intertwine them is very tough. In fact, it's definitely one of the toughest things I've experienced in the last two years. It's very hard to shut it off. When you go in the bedroom, sometimes I'm like,

shut the fuck up. I don't want to talk about business right now. You've got to set boundaries. You have to say, okay, it's 10.30 at night. It's over. Read a book. What I do say, okay, like it's 1030 at night, like it's over. Read a book. What I do lately, which is a great tip, is I just put earphones in or earplugs and like put on music. And I'm like, no, it's over.

So I think shutting down and recovery, and when I say recovery, I'll just like reiterate this. It means like getting over shit fast. Like there's no reason to hold a grudge. Like let's get over it. Let's move on. Unless it's some monumental thing, then just get over it. Because it's just toxic, and what I notice it does

is it wastes my energy. And when I wake up in the morning, my energy thermometer is like this. And to fight with him makes it go like this, and I need this energy to grow my brand. So, back off. Okay, so my tip is about recovery.

No, I'm just kidding. Um, yeah, that's true. Lauren, one of my wedding vows was, um, I promised to try and wake you up like a cat every morning. Cause she told me that that's what I need to do. The only problem is I still don't really understand what that means. So each day my approach kind of changes depending on the mood I think she's in. But no, I mean, Taylor over there could probably write, you know, a book longer than Game of Thrones about the arguments. It's difficult for sure. You get two personalities that are, you know, have their own ideas and their own vision and want to do things their own way and you're in a relationship

and you're sharing a bed and you're waking up in the morning and you're you know living in the same place so it's difficult Lauren and I have really had to work at it and I think a lot of the time the problem is people even if you're not working together

let's say you get in a relationship and you say, I can't wait to have kids in two years. Well, maybe the other person, that's not their idea, right? And so you're in this relationship and you've kind of set this perfect world for yourself, but you haven't really communicated with your partner and said, okay, is this your goal as well? So what I think has helped Lauren and I is creating a strategic future. We talk about this. Luckily, we have some people in our life that we look at as kind of like mentors. And we sat down literally one day for 12

hours, I think. It was really miserable, honestly. And we really, like, when I came on board with Skinny Confidential, we said, okay, what is our common goal? Where do we both see this going? And, you know, Lauren took the lead on that primarily because Skinny Confidential is her baby and her business. But we both kind of said, okay, we're going to do this, and we're both committed to this, and this is the common goal.

And when you do that with a partner, whether it's, you know, in your personal life or in your business, and you kind of both are on the same page of this is where we want to take it, this is the direction and the destination we both want to end up at it makes it a little easier but then I think the second thing which may be equal to importance is defining the roles

I don't get into Lauren's creative sphere at all I don't write her content, I don't take her pictures I don't tell her how to do shoots. I don't do any of that stuff. If I did, I probably wouldn't have a head on my shoulders right now. I'd be

laying somewhere dead. So, you know, and at the same time, she doesn't go, she doesn't deal with a lot of the business end of it, and she knows how, but we kind of define the roles, and we say, okay, this is what I'm going to be doing on a day-to-day. This is what you're going to be doing, and this is our common goal. And I think that's really helped.

But there's still fights. Also, don't throw it away. And why I want to say this is, like, if you're a blogger right now, and you've been blogging for two years, and you want to throw it away, don't throw it away. It's the same with a relationship. Every single thing that has ever happened, I keep saying happened because I don't believe things just happen to you. Every single thing that is good in my life that has ever happened to me comes with struggle and it comes with pain and you can't get comfortable, I believe, without getting uncomfortable. So a relationship, a blog, a brand,

you gotta get uncomfortable. And I could literally stand up here and name six million moments where I've been so uncomfortable to get comfortable. So in a relationship, just don't throw it away over something stupid. You have to work at it. Okay, next question.

Tori. Tori, you have to move your watch. Are you wearing one? Thank you for the intro. I'm actually wearing a watch that we're about to release in March if you guys want to come look later. So yeah, as she said, I do influencer marketing for movement watches. My question was, the presenter mentioned that you guys have a product coming out.

Are you allowed to give any details on what that is? Not quite. But I can talk about it. I can talk about it. We have a product coming out, and I hate to be like, I can't tell you what it is. The reason that I don't want to jump the gun and just say what it is is because, like the blog, it needs to be the right way before I present it to the audience. I would never want to present the audience with something that's not a hundred

percent so that's why I'm not saying what it is yet product is a very different beast than blogging I found blogging is my specialty I like to write I like to engage with the audience I like to take pictures I like to create like to edit so product has been really kind of a different thing for us. If you are in product, I don't feel like I'm the best person to give like 100% advice on. It's definitely a learning game. And just like anything, like I said, it's going to require practice and struggle and getting uncomfortable. And that's kind of where we're at right now. Because like like I said it's got to be right for the audience I can say that it's something that I will use every day and I think it's

something my audience will use every day and I'm listening to my audience as opposed to doing what I want and it totally intertwines with the skinny confidential lifestyle anyone else Anyone else? I would imagine after doing a lot of national shows, I've been coached, like, why didn't I have a product to sell? It's kind of like a wasted hit, so I put my energy in a different direction. So now I'm really starting. I want to build a community. I built a successful business, sort of one-on-one training. And now I just actually sold a book, which I'm so excited, The Perfect Diet Solution. Thank you so much.

I'm thrilled excited, The Perfect Diet Solution. Thank you so much. I'm thrilled beyond words. And so now I'm trying to figure out, how did you target your audience? Because I don't know how to figure out who wants to hear from me. And so I'm wondering, you know, you're coming from that space. Like, how did you know what people, how did you know where to target? I mean, I know in my heart what's there, and I'm all about helping people find their true, authentic self. Because I believe there's no right or wrong workouts, there's no right or wrong diets, it's just what works for you. But how did you target someone?

Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. I literally talk to my audience every single day. Every single day for the last six years I am in contact with them, whether it's over email. And sometimes it's so overwhelming I want to cry just because I want to respond to everyone and I do the best I can. But the audience, to me, and I notice a lot of bloggers will, okay, will put up like a picture of a dress and choose the hat. They're a fashion blogger. And someone in the comments will say, where'd you get that hat?

And you can see the blogger responding to other comments, but they don't respond where they got the hat. It is your due diligence as a blogger, in my opinion, to respond to your audience. You are not a celebrity. Like, you're not. You're a blogger. You've signed up for this. You've signed up to share your life. You've signed up as a fashion blogger to show your clothing. So for me, like the audience is number one and it's, it's, it's to

the point where it's caused fights. It's obnoxious with how much I listened to my audience. So that would be my number one. Number two, I think it's great. You did it backwards. I think concentrating not on a product, but on your, on your audience and doing your book is awesome. I think going into blogging just to sell a product is very short game. I think you got to go into it. Like this is your lifestyle. This is what you're going to do. And the product comes naturally. Like I am in no rush to push this product. When it comes, it will come. And if that's in two years, it's in two years. I'm not like sitting there, like, I can't wait to push this on my audience. It's going to be a very natural thing. The main thing though, that's

helped me target demo. My audience is not Google analytics. It's not numbers. It's Snapchat. And how that is, is I snap things. For instance, like this morning I snapped like bath salts. They were all natural bath salts, not the drug. Bath salts. That's in Taylor's pocket. Bath salts. I Snapchatted them and I can look to see how many people screenshotted it. So what that tells me is that if they're really interested more in the smoothie I make than in the bath salts, I need to pay attention. And again, it's not something that I'm like doing right away.

I'm just paying attention to the screenshots. I'm looking every day what they're screenshotting. That's why I love Snapchat so much, just because I can really see what they like. And I'm, again, letting them lead the direction. So I don't know if you have a Snapchat. Definitely get on and here's why. Let your personality shine through. See what they're screenshotting.

See if you can move your community from Instagram to Snapchat. If you can do that as a blogger and a brand, you've cultivated a community. And that is how you convert. You know, I haven't built the audience that Lauren's talking about, but I think watching and being familiar with this industry and seeing some people, you know, that we know in this space, I think on a macro level, it's gratitude. When I say gratitude, I see so many

people, they start out and they capture five, 10, 15, 100 people that are really interested in what they're doing. But because everybody's so concerned with numbers and because everybody wants to have it right now, they are not grateful for that small community that's come to them and said, we're interested in what you're saying. We're listening to what you're saying. And what they do is they jump ship and they neglect that audience. And they don't deploy gratitude or deploy gratitude. And the way you're going to figure out how to speak to your community and how

to build your audience is you're going to get those first 10 people and you're going to be so grateful that you have those first 10 people. You're going to listen to what they want. They are going to go tell a bunch of other people that are like them, how great you are, how great your content is, how it's helped them, how it's, how they're enthusiastic about it. Where I think people run into trouble is they don't deploy gratitude and they jump ship when they've captured. I mean, you, me,

anybody, it's lucky if even one person's paying attention to what you're saying. And I think on a macro, gratitude. Okay. Awesome advice. Thank you so much. Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Bianca Bonas, and my Instagram is Bianca underscore Bonas. I'm a yoga instructor, and I own a lifestyle brand called Girl Get Outside. My question's twofold. What would you say is the landscape for influencers in 2017?

And then the second part of my question is, do you have any guidelines for when brands reach out to you to work together? So collaborations and sponsorships and things like that. The landscape, I think, is different for everyone. You have to find what medium you're good at. If you're really funny, like get on Snapchat. If you're really inspiring, get on Snapchat. If you're better with photos and curating beautiful outfit, get on Instagram. If you're really good at live streaming, get on Facebook live. I think you need to really get real with yourself and have a real conversation. And also ask your family and friends. I ask my family and friends all the time. They're like, you're obnoxious or whatever, whatever it is. Like,

maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't go on Facebook live for, and you cuss a lot, like ask your friends and family where they see you to be fit and utilize that to the best of your abilities. Um, so the landscape is anything you want it to be. For me, I'm going to say this again. I definitely think like live streaming is going to be huge because people want to see kind of the raw, real BTS. I'll let you answer this question, and then we can go ahead and answer the next one. For me, again, on the macro,

it's where consumer attention is, right? If, you know, there's people that have amassed huge Twitter followings, but Twitter's, you know, there's no attention there right now. So to sit there and just pound Twitter and just hope that one day it's going to turn around, you know, you might be sitting there for a while.

So for me, as a marketer, there's more marketing side, not so much brand side, you've got to go to where consumer attention is. Right now, there's a big debate between Snapchat and Instagram stories. There's, marketing side, not so much brand side, you've got to go to where consumer attention is. Right now, there's a big debate between Snapchat and Instagram stories. There's the Facebook Live, there's Instagram Live. I think you test all of it, and wherever you have the most attention,

where you have the most consumers, you focus on that. I think a mistake people make is they try to do everything, and when you do that, you spread yourself thin so for me for example I only I really only focus primarily on snapchat I like the rapid fire of it I have a small community there I can I can do it quickly I don't focus as much on Facebook or Instagram it's not for me but yeah like I said it's where the attention is, and that's where you want to focus your time.

As far as collaborations, and I feel like this is a question that a lot of people have, I really, really think that it's got to be worth it. You've got to use it, or you've got to love it. I made the mistake, like, three years ago of promoting a company that I absolutely don't like. And my audience immediately knew and I never did it again. Flat tummy tea, sugar bear hair, protein world. Everyone knows it's sponsored. It feels too selly. I personally won't go there even if it was the most amazing company just because I feel like it categorizes you and it devalues your brand. I think that again, you need to have an honest conversation

with yourself with where you see collaborations going. So you can start really small. I remember the first collaboration I did was $200. This is like, I think the second year I started blogging, it was like $200. And it was like a footpad company that I used. It went in my heel. But it was something that I used and I liked, and I put it on my blog, and people liked it. I think you have to start really, really small and not kind of look at what everyone else is doing

and just kind of zone in on the collaborations. I will say, though, I see a lot of bloggers putting all their eggs in the collaboration basket. The reason that I am doing product is because I want to build the skinny confidential brand. I don't want to build everyone else's brand. So I'm very, um, picky with who I choose to put on my blog. I don't have any advertising on the blog. Um, I personally, I think advertising is very like 2014 to have it all over like penny clicks, banner ads. Like I honestly, to be really real with you guys,

I would get it off. It looks like projectile throw up. Everyone knows that it's, that it's an ad. I would get it off. And again, if it's not something that you really use or you'll really wear, don't do it. I mean, I was approached by Crocs. Remember that? And it was a very great partnership, and it was really hard to turn down, but, like, I don't wear Crocs. So sometimes you have to say no to, like, the short-term money to kind of go towards the long-term goal.

I think that pretty much nails it. And there's everything really specific. Also, I guess the topic of compensation, like negotiating. So I'm an aggressive negotiator in the sense that if I have something in my head and that's my number and I know it's right for me, I don't compromise on it. And a lot of the time it's really, really difficult to do that. If I would have taken a deal initially when we started Jeopardy, now we provide debts for a lot of the larger OEMs. If I would have taken the first deal in the first, I think it was year two or three that they offered me, the business would have gone out of business that same year and it would be dead in the water.

So at the time when you're really struggling and you're like, man, this money looks good and this could really help me out right now, you have to, like I said, three, five, ten years down the line, is this going to protect your brand? You have to protect the brand above all else. And you know if something doesn't sit right. Everybody knows. You can feel it. It's just difficult.

It's discipline. It's deploying patience. It's saying, you know, that's not right for my brand. And I think a big mistake people make is they they take short-term money at long-term consequences yes i had these two on our podcast the billion dollar body nicholas bailey i'm the ceo of the billion dollar body.com for the number of TheBillionDollarBody.com. We're the number one health and fitness platform for male entrepreneurs and influencers to look and feel like a billion bucks.

And my question is we got the company started four and a half years ago based on health and fitness and now we're trying to communicate the other facets of the community and brand after you get fit what comes next. And so we're throwing our first live event in May.

And so that's in downtown San Diego to really communicate that message. We're going to have 100 high-level entrepreneurs, influencers there. So the question is, how do we communicate more of those facets besides just health and success, fashion forward? Our community is around 21 to 35. It's our main guys. And they usually have 7, 8, 9 figure businesses. Okay, first of all, these two

are so young, the Billion Dollar Body. They're 23 and 25. When I was 23, I told you guys earlier I was like naked on the bar. So, let's just give it up. So first of all, I don't think personally, if I were you, that I would go anywhere, but where like you are, I would stick with fitness and entrepreneurship. I love the two mixed together. I think the name says it all. I think adding in fashion is just

extra fluff that you both don't need. And that's after being on your podcast and listening to a couple of your episodes, I would stick with your niche. I think you guys are onto something. You're young, you're a hot couple. I would really stick with it and ride it out. And in two years, I think you'll be shocked with what that does. That's what I would do personally. I'm not saying that's the end all be all, but that's what I would do. I guess my question is, why is there, is there, why does this need to occur right now? Do you feel like you've kind of hit the ceiling of growth for the current business or is it

just you getting bored? because where i agree with what lauren said if you're like hey you know we're just we want to expand we're bored we want to do something different then that's a whole nother conversation because at the end of the day you got to do what you want to do but if you're having success in this niche right now like i said deploying patients and waiting i i don't think it's ever a bad strategy. Not that they haven't deployed patients for years. It's a long time. Yeah, so I can say just like in here, but right now with where we're at, the guys aren't, they're calling themselves a brotherhood, that they're moving all together as successful men that are humbling themselves

and their health because they're successful, but they're failing at a certain area. And I don't feel like they're feeling the freedom to be able to talk about anything else inside the community besides what they're doing in their health. So I just want to have it more free where they can connect a little bit outside of just that subject, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think. They feel, and I might be a little confused here, they feel that they're kind of niched down and locked into a space where the only topic of discussion is health and wellness. And so your community is saying, hey, we want to branch outside of that and talk about other things? Yeah, they want to build more community and relationship inside of it. Talk about business, success, and what they're doing because they're getting healthy and what result that's accomplishing

to. But a lot of the guys haven't felt like they have the freedom. They're going, oh, I just feel like I can only post my transformations, my progress, things like that. I would do a webinar. Cool. I would do a webinar, face-to-face. I think, too, when they see you guys, you guys are a young, like, hot couple.

I would do a face-to-face webinar about expanding, I would actually call it, beyond fitness and money. Or people, you know, use better words than that. But you know what I'm saying? Like, I would do beyond the surface and maybe open the conversation. But I would let them lead it. I would not lead it yourself because as I said, let the audience tell you where they want to go. It sounds like your audience is telling you they want more and they want to learn how to be more. So open the webinar. It was really cool because I did a webinar a couple of months ago and everyone kind of asked

me questions and told me where the and, and told me where the webinar was going. And the reason I say webinar as opposed to a podcast is because you can, you can instantly talk to them. Also Instagram live. Um, that's a great one. But personally for you guys, for some reason, I really see a million dollar body webinar and then you pull it through to Instagram live and Snapchat.

Um, I think a webinar would do really, really good with what you're doing. One more. Maybe two more. Can we do two more really quick? We'll make them quick. My name is Jen. My blog is called Lattes and Lust Haves. I first want to give a little accolade to Lauren

because she's totally right with her getting back on Snapchat. I might write to her at 8 p.m. one night, and then the next morning she writes back at, I don't know, 10 a.m. So I just want to say thank you with that. My question kind of piggybacks to the point of picking and choosing you know when to say yes or no what is your best advice to pitching brands or is your advice not to pitch brands and wait for them to come to you um is it to collab with other more successful bloggers and brand that way? Like, what's that process look like for you?

Okay, so this is a two-way question. Okay, so say you love Mighty Leaf green tea. Put it on your Instagram. Put it on your Snapchat. Screenshot it. And approach Mighty Leaf Tea. But do it very, don't do like a 500-page email. Just be like, hi, I'm born from the skinny confidential.

I absolutely love your tea. I drink it on a daily basis. I would love to work with you in some capacity. Attached is my press kit. That simple. That's one way to work with brands. The other way to work with brands is to do what I just said, but let them court you. So that they're courting you, and the terms are more kind of in your power to negotiate.

I think as you grow, that's probably the way I would recommend. But the other day, I Snapchatted this bone broth company, and one of my employees, without me even knowing, went to the bone broth company and was like, she loves your bone broth. And we decided to collaborate because I really eat their bone broth every day. So that's a way. Another way is they'll reach out to you. And I can't say this enough. Just because a company reaches out to you, you want to have the power. You don't want to just give it up. Think of it like a guy. Okay. You don't want to just give it up on the first night. Like I like to wait a couple months. I made you wait a couple months. Yeah, I did.

Don't look at me like that. I made you wait a couple months. Okay. Well I did you guys, I can get into that later. That's another seminar., let them wait. Like, you don't need to just give it up right away. So there's three ways. First way, you put it out there first. The second way, you put it out there, you don't say a thing. And the third way is you just let them come to you. And that takes a lot of patience. So you just kind of got to pick which one you are.

And always tag on Instagram. So you're wearing this whole outfit tag every single brand because that'll get you out there. Collaborate with other bloggers is great. That's probably, I mean, that's definitely collaborating, not competing is like a huge mantra I live by, but to get to brands, definitely just show what you like. I'll do this quick because I know we're going to go. I want to play devil's advocate a little bit and go both ways because, you know, some of the things we do on the brand side,

you have influencers reach out and say, hey, if you pay me this, I'll do this. And you go look at their following and you're like, no. Why? You know, why? And then on the brand side when you're starting out

and you're starting a new brand and you go to a big influencer and you say hey put this on your blog or I'm sending you a gift so that you can put this on your blog no

again why so I think the the problem is on both sides whether you're the brand or the larger influencer whether you're starting out as an influencer

or you're established I think when you're starting out as an influencer or you're established. I think when you're starting out as an influencer, there's nothing wrong with what Lawrence said. Do a post. If you really like the product, do it. Then go to them and say, hey, I just want to show you, look what I did for your brand. I really like it. Here's the traffic that went to it.

Here's what my community said about it. Here's how my audience is reacting to it. And that brand will probably come back to you and say okay and on the brand side don't just think that because you're a brand that you're going to offer any push or something that they're going to do it for free it's got to be valued both ways hello my name is nika adams and i am the co-founder of an active undergarment wear line um i'm not going to say the name yet because it's not trademarked. We're in the infancy stages. And my question was actually what she just asked. It was more so if you guys can dig a little deeper on, I'm on the product side.

So blogging and Instagram is a whole new game for me. So if I'm starting a company and I say I'm targeting Lauren, what do you want to see from a company? If you can kind of dig into that more, what would be appealing to you as a startup company? To get a feature? To get a feature, yeah. This is so specific because influencers are getting,

so first of all, it can't be some generic copy and paste email that everyone's done. Everyone smells through it. Everyone sees it. It's some PR email that you hired a PR agent. It looks lazy. The way to stand out for me personally, and I don't know if this is across the board,

is to just be like, hey, Lauren, my name is Sue. I just read your post on blah, blah, blah. I really liked it. Long time reader. Um, I would love to send you, you know, my new, um, hairband company. I'm not expecting anything. Just send over your address. Immediately that makes me, oh, she's read my blog.

Like so cool. Um, I'm immediately going to Snapchat that a hundred percent. Um, the worst is when someone wants to give you something and they send it to you. And two days later they say, where's the feature? And it happens all the time. So now I've actually had to be a bitch for, for four years. I was so sure. Thank you. You can't do that because you get walked all over. So what I just say now is I just say, you know, thank you for reaching out. I appreciate it. Like, I'd love to, to check out your product. And like, if I like it, I'll Snapchat it. Um, if I don't, then in nice words. Um, but my, what I would do if I were you is I would say their name,

say something personal, don't do a copy and paste, make it short, attach like the lookbook or the website. People love to click an Instagram. I want to go straight to your Instagram to see what it is. And what I'll do is I'll screenshot something I like and just send it back. It makes it easy. And I keep saying this, but it's really important to just get to the point because you get so many emails as an influencer that the quicker you can kind of get to the point, the better. It's 15 seconds. It's a value proposition. It's, I'm going to bring you value. Not what can you do for me, but what can I do for you? That's literally whether you're on the brand side or you're on the influencer side, it's value. Bring some, bring somebody value and it'll pay dividends. If you don't, if you're all about yourself side, it's value. Bring somebody value, and it'll pay dividends.

If you don't, if you're all about yourself and what somebody else can do for you, you're probably going to be there for a little while. I think that's the most important thing we can leave everyone with, is value. Yeah. Like, if anybody got anything out of this, I hope that people got value out of this.

You know, it's not, this is not for me. You know, I know maybe Lauren and I all have an indirect, you know, benefit of just, you know, to point gratitude and having your ears for the last hour and a half, which is awesome. I hope that we are bringing value. That's the most important thing. And like I said, 10, 15, 20 years down the line, when you guys are all crushing it, you sit back and be like, hey, remember that one time?

Like, maybe we'll do something with those people. You know what I mean? It's important. Thank you, guys. Thank you, you sit back and be like, hey, remember that one time? Like, maybe we'll do something with those people. You know what I mean? It's important. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Thank you for having us. Thank you, guys, so much for listening to our speech with The Collective. We hope you enjoyed it.

Make sure you are subscribed to our podcast on iTunes, The Skinny Confidential Him and Her. And make sure to rate and review us. Thanks for listening to The Skinny Confidential Him and Her with Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic. Download new episodes every Tuesday at podcastone.com or subscribe now on the Podcast One app. Hey, everybody. I'm Heather Dubrow. And I'm Dr. Terry Dubrow. Every Friday, check out my podcast, Heather Dubrow's World.

We also have a brand new show, The Dr. and Mrs. Guinea Pig Show, every Tuesday. So don't forget iTunes and Podcast One. Tune in to Dr. and Mrs. Guinea Pig on Tuesdays and Heather Dubrow's World every Friday.