The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Half Baked Harvest AKA Tieghan Gerard As You've Never Heard Her Before, Lifestyle, Food, & A Balanced Diet

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

#542: On today's episode we are joined by Tieghan Gerard, also known as Half Baked Harvest. Tieghan is a food photographer, stylist, recipe developer, and author of the Half Baked Harvest Cookbook and Half Baked Harvest Super Simple, a New York Times bestseller. Her blog, Half Baked Harvest, features a hearty mix of savory, sweet, healthy, and indulgent recipes. She believes every diet should include a little bit of chocolate because balance is the key to life! Today we discuss Tieghan journey as a food blogger turned author, we also discuss her lifestyle, and how food plays a role in her creative visions, & we also discuss a balanced diet.  To connect with Tieghan Gerard click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential This episode is brought to you by Just Thrive These days, stress seems to hit us from every possible angle in any environment at any time, day after day. Enter Just Calm - the breakthrough new stress and mood support formula from Just Thrive. Yes, the same Just Thrive that produces our favorite probiotic! Get 15% off Just Thrive probiotic + Just Calm supplement dynamic duo bundle or any of their other scientifically proven products at justthrivehealth.com/Skinny or use code SKINNY at checkout. This episode is brought to you by Branch Basics The Branch Basics Premium Starter Kit will provide you with everything you need to replace all of your toxic cleaning products in your home. It’s really a no-brainer. Go to branchbasics.com and use code SKINNY for 15% off their starter kit. This episode is brought to you by Nutrafol Nutrafol is the #1 dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement, clinically shown to improve your hair growth, thickness, and visible scalp coverage. Go to nutrafol.com and use code SKINNYHAIR to save $15 off your first month's subscription, plus free shipping on every order. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat-only therapy sessions. So you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy & you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/skinny . This episode is brought to you by nez nez is a new clean, aluminum free, dermatologist tested deodorant brand. Customized for different ""sweat moments,"" nez gives you the right sweat protection and fragrance at the right time. Go to nezcare.com and use code SKINNY for 10% off your entire order. Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. everywhere. They were ugly. They were an eyesore. I would rip them off if I was going into a store. And a lot of them had fingers, so I couldn't use my phone or eat or use the radio and the stereo. So I took matters into my own hands and I designed a UPF glove. This is going to help protect your hands and arms from harmful rays. The ones that we launched are soft. They're buttery. They're breathable. They're stretchy. You can wear them by the pool. You can wear them walking a stroller. You can wear them golfing, driving, even getting a gel manicure to protect your hands. I kept talking to all these experts and gurus and doctors, and they all said that the number one place that you show aging is your

hands. And I'm like, why are we not talking about this? I don't want to slop a bunch of chalky white sunscreen onto my hands every day. So now, ta-da, our bougie driving gloves in candy pink are available on the site at shopskinnyconfidential.com. And right now for a limited time, if you order the driving gloves, you get free shipping. So this discount ends on $2.10. So go shop them now so you can get free shipping. I think you're going $2.10. So go shop them now so you can get free shipping. I think you're going to be obsessed with these driving gloves. 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. I hated being at school. I hated someone telling me what to do and like feeling like they had an authority over me. I hated it. I had so much anxiety around school. And it was a big part of like why I started Pathway to Harvest, why I kind of am the way that I am now. Because I like to people please. You know, I like to do things and I like to get things like done. Like,

I like to always be doing something. I'm never sitting around and never watching TV. And I was that way as a kid. Today is fun. So we're sitting down with the face, the woman behind Half-Baked Harvest, Tegan Girard. I have heard about Tegan in this industry for years. She's kind of a huge deal when it comes to cooking. She literally has set out to educate the world on healthy, delicious meals. And her Instagram account has grown to over 5 million followers. She's published two books. She did a co-brand with Simon and Pip's company, Sniff, for a followers. She's published 2 books. She did a co-brand with Simon & Pip's company, Sniff, for a candle. It's a gorgeous candle. And she just is very strategic with her business. I admire how she's built her community. I admire how she stands out among the crowd. And she's really perfected the art of social media. She gets thousands and thousands of comments

on her food content. And once you go check this out, if you haven't already, you will be drooling. I go on her page and screenshot a bunch of recipes and I'll send them to Michael and I'll just be like, make this for me on Saturday, bitch. Anyway, Tegan Girard, she's been featured on HGTV, The Cooking Channel, The Food Network, and so much more. She's a social media star. She grew up in a family of 10. We're going to discuss that. She also talks how to deal with anxiety, how to stand out, what happens when you have a big platform, not following the crowd, the culture of sharing and documenting everything, added value in relationships, and how to cultivate a loyal community. We also talk about her recipes,

so don't you worry. Michael, if you're listening, please make me something, like something, anything, off her Instagram page. On that note, let's welcome Tegan, the face behind Half-Baked Harvest, to the Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show. This is the Skinny Confidential Him and Her. Family of 10. 10 siblings or 10 total 10 total i have eight siblings still that's a shitload oh my gosh and which number are you so i'm smack in the middle i'm number four what was that like well for a while i was the only girl so i was one of five for a while and i was the only girl. So I was one of five for a while and I was the only girl. And then my mom, my mom is a, my mom is just a baby loving freak and loves her children, loves her children, loves to be around her children, loves to, you know, all of that

shebang. She had my little sister when I was 15 or 16. And then they recently adopted about a year and a half ago and added Oslo on. So we're still a family of two girls. And then what is that? Two girls, six boys. Wow. So when you look back on your childhood, was there a strategy that your mom had? And I'll give you an example. My mom did nothing by strategy. Okay. So like Katie from the wellness mama came on here and I think she has like six kids or something. And she said that one does the laundry and one makes the bed and one collects the milk. No, no, no. Our house was chaos. And my parents are amazing.

Nothing like I could not say one negative thing about my parents or my childhood. Like very lucky in that way. But no, my household was chaos, which is like i'm like i thrive on like structure and i'm like i'm a virgo and like you know i'm just a very typical whatever but uh she's not she just loves a little chaos and just flew by the seat of her pants so when she woke up it's like let's go oh yeah basically and i mean no yes absolutely like she didn't have like no no we were not doing like chore we were doing chores don't get me wrong like we helped out and everything but like it wasn't there was no set schedule she wasn't the soccer mom either like running around to everything

like you know she did a lot of how the hell could she should be running around to eight different things right but she just like didn't care about that stuff like it wasn't important to her and she very much i mean my dad too my dad's a part of this all they just so i mean my mom got pregnant when she was i always say it younger than it is but she was like 17 going on 18 and then she got married 18 going on 19 wow they so no that can't be right so she was 18 when she must have gotten pregnant because she got pregnant they got engaged and then they got married so she she had my brother after them after they got married and so you know young parents didn't know what they were doing and just like had to make ends meet had to make things work like my dad was in college my mom

was also in college she decided to like finish and stick it out and go take night classes. And I mean, yeah, she just, and then after school, she just was a stay-at-home mom, you know, the whole time up until, you know, I started the site and she just kind of flew by. She did, she had no rules, like didn't abide to any parenting rules or anything like that. She just kind of did what worked for her. We're not all perfect. I'll say that. What are some challenges that you had during your childhood with all those brothers and sisters or in general?

When I was growing up, I had crazy anxiety. I mean, school anxiety. I think part of it was like separation from my mom. But like mostly like I hated being at school. I hated someone telling me what to do and like have feeling like they had an authority over me in the classroom situation. Like it was a very, very uncomfortable for me to be there. And I, I just, I hated, I had so much anxiety around school and it was a big part of like

my, why, why I started the, you know, half--baked harvest why I kind of am the way that I am now because I would never felt like you know I was always very as a kid like what do I want to do you know kind of confused and always striving for I wanted my mom's attention so bad and like you know with five brothers and then she we also lived in Cleveland Ohio at the time and she had we had all of our family there friends like it was busy it was what life more of a normal life is being like you know you have your family parties you have you know kids running around in and out that you know we did they played hockey my brothers played hockey and there was always there was always things going on that kept things really really busy and like with so many I, you never got a one-on-one with, with any parent. It was busy, you know? And I strived

for that with my mom, especially like all I wanted, it was like my mom's attention, you know? How would you try to get that? I think I did a lot of it through school and probably having anxiety and having problems, you know, and like, like just being like almost the issue child in a way like I gave my parents a lot of like headache about school when I was growing up like it was really really hard for me and I was like well you know I want to be homeschool but her parents my grandparents were she was always into letting me try homeschool but they were like a big part of like they kind of if they said no to something like they didn't have like they didn't like that big part of like, they kind of, if they said no to something, like they didn't

have like, they didn't like that idea. It was like, you really shouldn't do that. You can't do that. And this was at a time when like, they, this is my mom's parents and they kind of had, they didn't have control over what my parents did by any means, but like the kids kind of listened to what, you know, they got, what what they what they said to do in a way. So my mom always felt really torn between whether to homeschool me or not homeschool me. Looking back with who you are now and, you know, your childhood, what would you have told your parents and your grandparents? Well, they all wish that like my mom wishes she would have homeschooled me while we were in Cleveland. Because I'm also like I've always been someone who's super creative.

Always been able to like have so much fun. Feel really fulfilled by just using my hands. Doing something with my hands. So I always said I was going to go into styling. I wanted to be a stylist. I wanted to, you know, do the whole LA thing. Do that all. And like.

You kind of are a stylist though. Because I'm looking through your cookbook and you style the food. Well, so I switched. I did literally like a switch. I love to make things look visually pretty to my eye. It is how I – that's my – I love it. That's how I create recipes is I really do it more for the visual piece. And how can I make this look aesthetically pleasing, still taste taste delicious that's like how that garnishes get added and stuff like it's it's a

big part of how I create is is styling things I love to make things look really pretty were you cooking for your brothers and sisters so I so yes so in middle school, because I think I hated school so much and like I'm just someone that works with my hands and also like I always strived to help out. I wanted to help the family out. Like I wanted to I'm a very much a people pleaser. I very much like I can be of a motherly motherly role sometimes, you know, like I can be, it's like that typical middle child. Actually, I feel like that, you know, they, I like to people please, you know, I like to do things and I like to get things like done. Like I like to always be doing something. I'm never sitting around.

I'm never watching TV. And I was that way as a kid. You can tell from your Instagram that you are constantly seven days a week going. Like it's, I mean, your Instagram is unique in the sense that you can

see that it's a like you are not like getting comfortable let's put it that way yeah well i always have you in the back to be completely honest i always have you in the back of my head like if you're comfortable like what are you doing like you're not you know i have that same thing in the back of my head with her what if i'm ever comfortable what the hell am i doing yeah no don't finally got settled down yesterday i got got this game I was going to play on the couch and nope. No, it's like if you're not stepping outside of your box and outside of your comfort zone, which is odd for me because stepping outside of my comfort zone actually makes me really uncomfortable, like really anxious and all of the things. But I also love what I'm doing so much.

And I love providing for people in the way that I'm providing. And I also love momentum. I love like seeing things move. I love building a brand. Like it's exciting. So what would you, what would you consider your comfort zone compared to, to outside of your comfort zone? I mean, my comfort, I'm a homebody. Like I am a homebody could be home all the time, like in my own little world by myself 24 seven7 if like I wasn't pushing myself to do other things. At what point do you decide to launch Half-Baked Harvest and did you launch it as a business with a strategy behind it or was it something that you just decided to post on Instagram? Instagram actually wasn't. So we had just had our 10-year anniversary, which is so… You're an OG. It was like 2012.

I hate when people say that, though, because I'm like, I don't feel like an OG. But yes, yes, 2012. I was 18 going on 19, right? And I had spent about four months in LA. I was going to go to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. I was going to go to school at FITM. I was going to study to be a stylist. I got a job out there. That's the type of person, get a job, get moving, get going. And I was working the phones at Farbizon Acting, Modeling, and Talent. And they

loved me because I got people in and all. I worked really hard, but I hated LA. I basically got homesick and was like, no, this is way too like, this is too much for me. What did you not like about LA? Just out of curiosity. Well, one, the school's incredibly expensive. So I knew that if I started, and my parents were paying or whatever, they'd be eating that money.

And I was always very cautious of money and things I was spending and the way that I was living life. Because we were never, I mean, we didn't have money. We had money. We got by, but we didn't have money. Like we had money, like we got by, but like we didn't have money, you know, growing up. My mom was clipping coupons. So I think I really just got homesick. And LA is a huge, fast paced town. I'd never been somewhere like that before. Like I had been to New York city literally once when I was, you know, 13 or 14

with my family, like my grandparents or whatever whatever la is a harder city to break into too like i think if you go to new york you can run around and completely honest i'm not an la person to this day i love new york it's i'm you know go be there in a couple weeks i'm so excited but like i'm not an la person and you know i love to travel there it's nice it's nice that the weather's so nice and everything but yeah i feel a lot a lot of it can feel really fake. Yeah. To be completely honest and just like a little superficial. And it's not my place.

That's all. I think that's fine. I think the self-awareness is key, right? You don't have to like it because everyone likes it. You know what I mean? It's like. Oh, I'm so all about that. I'm like, why are we jumping on the train here?

It's like it's like this Instagram gravy train. I'm like, why am I doing that? Everybody else is doing that. Why would I do that? Like, even with the TikTok trends, people are always like, why aren't you doing the food? Because I'm like, because they're being done a million times over. I don't need to do it, even if it means like a million hits or whatever. It's like someone else already did it and it wasn't my idea. Why would I why would I do it I do it? It seems like there's a lot of strategy with your business. The way that you post, as a viewer, as someone who watches it, you've obviously got your books. It just seems like there's a lot of thought behind. I always call it like the Wizard of Oz. There's a lot happening.

So how do you manage all that? And what is a day in the life like? Well, if I'm home and I'm like in Colorado like cooking and stuff like that like my day I mean I like you said I'm putting out new recipes you know five days a week right now it's six because we I do like a cocktail set holidays cocktails like so popular so it's a lot of work I'm not in there I mean like I'm not just like posting these photos and like not taking them not testing these recipes and not like I'm physically doing the work, you know. So I'm in the kitchen literally sunup sundown because I will only shoot with natural light. I think that it makes it highlights food in the best, realest way possible. And it doesn't look

like a Bon Appetit photo photo which is fine for bon appetit everybody does their own thing but like i'm not about that i want the food to look just when you look at it like delicious i want to fucking eat that you know like that's how i want it to look i want it to look completely real so i use only natural light which i mean right now the sun's going behind the mountain at 4 10 and i'm, that cuts my day off like two, three hours. Yeah, it's so gnarly. The daylight saving situation. Why do we do it?

I don't understand. That's a whole rabbit hole. People get real pissed about doing it. No, because it cuts into the whole day. It cuts into the whole day. You put yourself out there so much. You have thousands of comments on each post. How do you deal with the trolls that come at you?

How do you deal with the negative energy? Oh my, I totally are mad about food. Yeah, we have a lot of, yeah, they're mad about everything. Lauren,

there's corners of the internet that I don't, I couldn't, I can't imagine people are mad about. Like this is one of them. I've asked every, I mean, every creator, this is what you have a big platform.

I will say, I will say that we do not get as much hate as a lot of people. I think I really do and that's i i don't touch on topics that are i don't talk about politics i don't jump on the gravy train of what everybody's talking about on instagram i didn't do that all throughout the pandemic like i was very cautious about what i was resharing reposting you know people were throwing out this and that and i'm like wait why wait, why am I doing that? One, you've seen it 5 million times. So like, what do I need to put that up for? You don't, you don't want to see it from me. You just want me to be like everybody

else and do it. So I never did that. And people have gotten over the last three years, I've gotten so many comments saying, thank you for not sharing this. Thank you for being a bright light in all of this negativity. Thank you for just like posting you and doing what you want to do. Because it's like I come here and it's a happy place, right? Like it's a happy place. There's good energy. And yeah, I've stuck to that.

You know, I've just stuck to it. And that's me. People got wacky. Aunt Sally was posting the black square. Uncle Bill was posting the blue square. Everyone's like, you need to that. You know, I've just, I've stuck to it. And that's me. People got wacky. Aunt Sally was posting the black square. Uncle Bill's posting the blue square. Everyone's like, you need to hashtag like stay home. No, I don't. I'm not going to tell people that they have to stay home.

That's not my. We're big people. Responsibility. Like if you want to stay home, stay home. I'm not going to get on this propaganda of what everyone else wants you to do as a creator. Go to another platform for that. Thank you. Right?

Someone needs to say it. I'm sorry. I'm not about following what everybody is doing. And also, it can bite you in the ass a whole lot of times too because then they'll look back and be like, oh, I actually shouldn't have said that. And it's like stop and think before you put something up because when you… If it's up there for a second, it's on the internet even if you take it down it's on. Well the first thing you said there is the is the most important part of just stop and think people don't stop and think about anything anymore they just do.

Yeah they react and they look around what everyone else is doing and they should say shit I better do this if I don't I'm going to be left out or I'm going to get in trouble for not. And then they jump on and it's like, nobody really cares what they're doing anyway. It's just a, it's just a performative action that just gets lost in the wind. And that's like, I struggled with it for a while because it was really, really hard. The pressure you were feeling to post things that everybody else were posting. There's so much pressure. People were hating on you for not doing it. People were loving you for doing it. Like you get, you see both sides of it. So it's really for doing it. Like you get, you see both sides of it. So it's really, really hard. And then when people you kind of look up to within the industry are also sharing this content and things like that, and you're like, well, so-and-so is doing

it. Like I should maybe do it. It's really, really hard to look the other way. And I will say my parents, my dad, especially because my mom can be a little bit more reactive but my dad especially was like no it like you don't that is not your place in this space like you don't need to do that and you don't need to feel that you need to do that and the bottom line is is that like the haters are the like 0.1 of your community nobody else gives a shit it's it's virtue signaling unless you're actually out there doing something about it meaning like thank you if you post something performative if there's no action behind it it's like you're trying to like be like i look at me i'm i'm a good person and like i'm sorry for me like i just don't think a color of a square is actually moving the needle towards

something that's positive change because i'm not out on the ground actually taking action. So for me, it was like, OK, where am I involved in this action wise that I can actually make a difference? Like, what do I need to examine of myself? Not posting a color square. Exactly. It's they're just they're completely empty words. It's like you do it to make yourself feel good. It's like you did it at the end of the day. I feel like in my in my mind, like that's just me personally and my values and the way that I look at it. And it's like if you want to go help the world out, like go find a charity, go do it. Go go make that action.

Stop talking about it. You also don't have to post the charity if you don't want to. That's another thing. People are like if just because I don't post something doesn't mean that there's not things that people don't see. I don't this thing where we have to like post every single thing we think or every single thing we're doing. Sometimes I'm not posting what I'm doing. It's off. I think I also I also sort of think it's a key to success. Look at these huge, huge people that people are like they want to know more and more about.

They're not posting every single day. They're not sharing every single thing they're doing. They're leaving a little bit to be desired. Like if you put everything out there on the internet, it's like, cool. I know everything about, you know, what's next. I completely agree. I think the art of absence in every single area is so underrated. And I am talking about dating. I'm talking about friendships. I'm talking about the internet. There is an art to absence. Absence is completely that people are just like, they think it's like present, present presence. It's absence too. I also think it's important to not let everybody know what you're thinking all the time. Right. And we do a podcast where we share our thoughts a lot, but I like to think that half the time people are kind of uncertain what I'm

actually thinking about something. And that's intentional because I don't think this is a platform for me to share every single thought that comes into my head or every single action that somebody partakes in. Well, you share quite a lot. But even on these things,

I want people to actually sit back. Sometimes they're like, oh, I wonder and critically think for themselves. I don't need to come out and be like, this is how I stand on every single issue that's going on on this planet because it's not everybody's business all the time. Yeah, I think that it's like,

leave a little to be desired. Leave room for yourself to grow. It's why are we sharing? Why are we sharing everything right away? It's like going on a date with a girl back in the day and in the first 40 seconds of the date, you know every single thing that's ever happened. Well, it's just and it's too much information overload.

Also, have you ever run into someone like from high school and you literally run into them and in the first in the first minute, like Michael says, they tell you every single thing that's going on in their life. And you're like, wait, like, feel me, feel me up first. If you follow me on Instagram, you know the other day I did a full story and I reached out to Dr. Daryl. And so he gave me this like protocol and you can go see it on my stories, but basically it's like silver and it's this like GI resolve and then aloe vera juice, and then it's a probiotic. And he likes, and I like, the same probiotic, which is Just Thrive. So Just Thrive is by far, in my opinion, the best probiotic on the market because it's one of the only ones that actually

is alive in your gut. It arrives 100% alive. A lot of them don't arrive alive in your gut. So you're taking them and they don't even go to your gut. When you guys were asking me a lot about kids too, what I'll do with this is I'll open one up and I'll sprinkle a probiotic, like the powder of it, into Zaza's acai bowl or smoothie. I just do like half of it and it's perfect. So we have a promo code for you. You can use promo code skinny90 and you get 20% off a 90-day bottle of Just Thrive probiotic and Just Calm, which is their psychobiotic, at justthrivehealth.com. So it's code skinny90 for 20% off of a 90-day bottle. And as always, code skinny is always active for 15% off site-wide. So you can use those codes, you can shop, and you can get your

probiotic. Justthrivehealth.com. So it's code SKINNY90 for 20% off. Enjoy. Recently, we had this company called Test My Home come into our house and test our entire home. And so they test for like EMF and molds. And they like go in your attic, in your basement and like see exactly what's going on in your home. And one of the things that they test is your cleaning supplies. And they were like, what cleaning supplies do you use? And they go around your house and they can like literally tell if you're using toxic cleaning supplies. And they came to me and they were like, what cleaning supplies do you use? And they go around your house and they can literally tell if you're using toxic cleaning supplies. And they came to me and they're like, okay, here's some things to change. For instance, we have to change a couple air conditioner vents, some EMF things. But they were like, whatever you're doing for your cleaning supplies is so

amazing. And I was like, well, I use Branch Basics. Branch Basics, you guys, it is non-toxic, hypoallergenic, free of fragrance, hormone disruptors, and harmful preservatives. It's also baby and pet safe, which just for me is huge. Especially I have like little dogs that are close to the floor. I like their premium starter kit. This will provide you with everything you need to replace all your toxic cleaning supplies in your home. I mean, this is a no brainer. And they have like a refill model. So once you run out, the only thing you need to replace all your toxic cleaning supplies in your home, I mean, this is a no-brainer. And they have like a refill model. So once you run out, the only thing you need to repurchase is the concentrate and the oxygen boost. It's honestly amazing. So you're going to save 15% off when you use code skinny at branchbasics.com. Their premium starter kit replaces all your

cleaning and lasts forever. Code skinny for 15% off all starter kits. Their premium starter kit replaces all your cleaning and lasts forever. Again, that's code skinny for 15% off all starter kits. Their premium starter kit replaces all your cleaning and lasts forever. Again, that's code skinny for 15% off all starter kits. What is the question that you get asked the most that doesn't have to do with food? Like what are DMs and people coming at you about that something's nothing to do with cooking and food? I mean, good or bad. I mean, good.

They want to know who I'm dating, how many kids I have, any kind of clothing piece. You know what I'm doing next. You know how cool it was to was it cool to meet Drew Barrymore? Do you know that Gigi Hadid is foul? I mean, like such stupid things like that. And it's like the biggest one that I get is, you know, like, are you married? Do you have a boyfriend? And yeah, they're very curious about that. What is the answer?

I am a single, very single. Always been single? I mean, like for the most part of this site, yeah. I'm of the belief that someone needs to come into my life and be like an addition to it that's really, really helpful and nice and that like mellows me out and slows me down a little bit because I won't slow down. Wait, let's unpack that a bit. I don't think for a person.

Let's unpack that for a bit. I won't stop. Like you said dating. I'm like, this sounds like a waste of time like so like so if it's someone needs to like really just come into my life and someone needs to add value or like thank you okay okay but that could mean a lot of things so like what could what's what could they not have going on for that like what would what's what's like a no-no for you i haven't even like i just want them to be a hard worker like not someone that sits on their ass or whatever,

but also has a good balance because I don't have a balance as you guys can probably. I'm just like, go, go, go all the time. What's next? So you want someone to come in that has their own thing going on, but can also kind of take you out of your thing a bit. Exactly.

And make me see another side of things. That's a crazy criteria. That is of that is like of interest like isn't boring isn't like just you know dilly-dallying around like exciting you know what's crazy i was talking to my friend about this other day and like his one of his criteria is like his main criteria is like you have to have something going on and i'm like yeah why is this such a like it's a novel thought that like you would want somebody to have something going on right like that's like a i hear a lot of people saying like this is a criteria they

have for dating is they have their people do people just not have shit going on, right? Like that's like, I hear a lot of people saying like, this is a criteria they have for dating. Do people just not have shit going on anymore? Here's my advice. And everyone's like, oh, you can't say this because you've been married for so long. This is what I would do. I would write a list of every single thing

that I want in a person down to, you know, I want them to have a lot of charisma, whatever it is, would write it all down. And then I would go out and I would be the list. Meaning I would,

I would. Are you supposed to attract opposites? I don't know. I would be the list. I would, I would be charismatic. I would be caring. I would be fun.

I would be funny. All the things that I want. Terrible dating advice, Lauren. Terrible. Absolutely horrendous. I would go be that. I would just go out and be it because that's what you're going to attract.

No, but it's, Lauren, we've been together too long. This is one of the worst advice i've ever i don't agree with this i think that i honestly think the strategy is to be what you want and it will attract you i don't like a magnet i don't think so i think the opposite is trapped i don't my this is not opposite of me this is not you guys you guys are not the same no we're not the same but there's definitely a lot of parallels. I'm going to speak as a man. Let's assume it's a heterosexual relationship here.

And man, we don't need a giant list of all the things that we need to be when we first meet you. That's not going to work. All right. If I met a girl and she showed up with a list of all the shit I had to be, I'd be like, well, this is over tonight. I'm not showing you the list. That's not going to be me.

I'm just being the list. If anyone agrees with me. If you came in with your tap dance and she was swinging your hips around, I'd be like, that's enough for me too. Listen, a lot of girls are stressed about getting married and doing the whole thing and stuff like that. I'm so focused on my career right now. And I do truly believe that it will happen when the time is right.

And I'm trying. I'm not like, there's some pressure for sure. And there's pressure from the community. And like, you know, my cousin who's just, you know, a year and a half older than me or whatever, you know, she's like, I gotta like, you know, I gotta, I gotta get going. I gotta get married, like all of the things. And I'm just like, I don't know. I'm loving what I'm doing right now. I like can't, you know, can't really imagine any other way. And someone needs to enter my life and just make it better, add more to it make it better make it happier make it you know just like i think your strategy is good strategy i also have another thought though and which i agree with tegan

i think she's a strategy girl the second that someone who you're trying to date let's say it's a heterosexual relationship a man feels desperate energy they run the other way that's what i'm saying i think her strategy is legit because you said a lot of women well the dms are full i just haven't quite taken them up with their dms are full to date you oh yeah really yeah you know what it is they love a home-cooked meal oh my god that's for sure bad and but are you not are you you don't get those Really? Yeah. You know what it is? They love a home cooked meal. Oh my God. That's for sure. Bad and fucked. Are you not?

You don't get those DMs? You have to get those DMs. I get a lot of pulsing veiny wieners. Like I'll get like one time I got a guy having sex with a dildo on the edge. Because you talk about that stuff. Well, the guy showed me he was butt naked and he's having sex up his butthole with a dildo off the bathtub. And I wrote him back and I said, if you send me one more of these, I'm going to screenshot it and do a blog post on it. Because it was creative. Let's put it that way.

But going back to what you said, it's when you're feeling stressed and when you're worried. That's what I think deters people from maybe wanting to take the next step because they feel that energy of stress and worry and it's off-putting. So I'm like a big, I didn't used to be this way either, but like a big kind of believer in like what you give off is like what you get. You know, the energy like really is a real thing and creating good energy around everything that you're doing and just, you know, like mindset too. I am the type of person that it's like runs on negativity,

runs on a negative side. And in the last, you know, honestly, within the last six months, really, to be completely honest, I've been trying to make that shift of really like fixing my mindset because it can be when I have so many good things around me going on, it can be so negative. And it's like, why? Why? Why am I? Why am I that way? And I've actually seen even

just like in myself be so much happier and even have more energy and things like that. And I think it really makes a difference. So yeah, I think that what you, the energy that you give off is going to definitely be the energy that you attract because nobody wants to be around bad energy. Who is in your DMs and who's sliding in? Like, what do you mean? You mean there's like-

Guys, actual guys. They're looking for dates. I'm in Denver. I'm, you know, all over the place. Yeah. Oh yeah. Let me ask you this. It's a little creepy though, isn't it well well well i'm wondering if like do they like see is it a specific food that

you post that gets the dms going or is it you or like what like what what makes them slide in or is it random it's random i don't know i think it's they see your food and they're like oh my god she's hot she can cook she lives in denver i'm here it's like the your food and they're like, oh my God, she's hot. She can cook. She lives in Denver. I'm here. It's like the perfect. My team would be like so excited if one day I took someone up because they'd just be like, finally, it's about time.

I don't know. This one might get me to slide in. Let me see. Look at this pie. I mean. No, her Instagram. You guys are off the sweets. Her Instagram. I know, but that pie looks pretty damn good.

And the alcohol. No, I'm not off the alcohol right now. I was off the alcohol for 10 months being pregnant, but I'm not off the alcohol anymore. You can see why they would slide in. This is going to make me hungry right now. What do you mean? Her food is so incredible. Thank you. You guys aren't big foodies.

I'm a big foodie. I just need help when it comes to cooking. I would be a big foodie if the food looked like this that Lauren cooked. You know what? You eat with your eyes. He wants me to be an octopus. And that, unfortunately, isn't going to happen.

What is something that she can make very easily for me? An octopus? What? Meaning he wants... It's a fetish I have. No, I'm just kidding. You can't have me taking care of children, cleaning the house, cooking a five-star meal on the table, running a business, bringing in income.

No, no. What do you want? I don't ask you to do half of those things, by the way, but let's be careful when you tread here. It's really hard. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and sugarcoat it. Like, yeah, it definitely adds to your day,

especially if you are a working mom. You're busy. Not only are you a working mom, it's your own brand. People don't understand that when it is your own it's your own brand people don't understand that when like it is your own company in your own brand like it's awesome yeah you get to work for yourself but you're still working 24 7 and even when it's something you enjoy it's still work at the end of the day and you gotta get it done you know i would say try to utilize the crockpot and instant pot a

lot skillet recipes are really really great and honestly like find people and i'm not i'm not always the best at this but find people that use minimal ingredients and use things like spice blends and sauces from the store okay what's a recipe that you can just tell us that's in the crock pot that is so easy a kindergartner could do it it doesn't have to be in the crock pot just a quick recipe i think that you guys would like an olive vodka and you could definitely make olive vodka I think that you guys would like an olive vodka and you could definitely make olive vodka.

It's so easy. It's like one skillet and you just make the sauce and you toss, everything's like pantry ingredients and like you just toss it in and then you toss the pasta in

and it's so easy. For crock pot, you could do a really, I have like a, you could do a really easy short rib. You could do, and like you literally

just put everything in. You put it all and all of the sauce ingredients, everything in and you let it slow cook all day long you could start it the night before because short ribs take so long the longer they cook the better they'll just like shred they'll just fall apart be delicious and you can literally just boil some pasta or rice or whatever you guys want to do and like serve it on the side it's so like i just i just put up a Sunday sauce recipe. Like that would be there's a lot of ingredients but once you get everything in

you're good. Michael makes a really mean stew. Yeah. Yeah. Stews are great. Yeah. He brags about the stew up tonight. Well also you guys are in Texas now

so just throw some meat on the grill. Like it doesn't have to be fancy. Just throw some meat on the grill with like a store-bought seasoning that's good from one of these like you know from a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods or something like that that has good ingredients I have like a salsa verde that I get at Whole Foods that literally is five ingredients and it's so good this is like a personal like issue that I have that I have a hard time engaging

with any content until I meet the person oh meaning like like how do you get curious about I don't but you do no but i don't you don't you ask these guests on no i have the guests on it but that's why i'm saying that's my that's my industry now so now that you're talking to me that's what's pretty blunt but now just tell me i'm gonna like deep dive on here and i'm gonna figure out the recipe i'm gonna go to your site i'm gonna yeah i mean he needs context he's saying behind all the images first of all we need to do like a dinner or something together i feel so let me clarify this sounds strange but meaning like if i have somebody from a tv show on here i don't really watch the show or get that and i'll be like you know but if they

come on then i gotta watch everything it's like i i i will you guys all have people on a lot i don't watch shit i don't do like i don't engage in media really i don't but a lot of times you guys will have people on and i'll be like oh i should then you have to right i need to go follow this person like i want to know more i want to know how they built their business i want to know like you know the ins and outs or what whatever and you know but i have an opposite strategy i watch and read everything before the person comes on no because here's the thing no i mean i read and i watch well the only reason i know about housewives is because of you oh i love housewives but you ask't watch. Because I'm busy doing like this and our own thing. But when someone comes on, then I'm like, okay, now I got it.

Like now I'm going to go deep into your recipes. I'm going to be on that. I'm going to be. Well, that's why you guys work well. You are definitely opposites. That's why you guys work well together. I don't. Okay.

Yeah. She's like in season nine before the guest comes. I'm like, I need to meet the person and see if I'm going to invest the time. I would be more like you. Is it worth my time? Yeah. Yeah. What celebrity, you mentioned Gigig hadid has shocked you that

follows you i know a lot of celebrities follow you i bet you a lot of them are messaging you who is someone that you're just like oh my god i can't believe that they follow me well i can't say her name so i'm gonna not say that one but it's the biggest one i cannot pronounce and it's so embarrassing but blake lively and she's the kindest soul. I love Blake Lively. I've also just like Gossip Girl, grew up with Gossip Girl. So that was pretty cool. How do you know she's following you

or she's making your recipes? Both. Because she was making recipes and she tagged me. She made, a couple years ago, she made my Santa Claus cookies and totally fucked them up, right? Like, totally.

But she's, she's, that's who she is. And she shared it. And she's like, it wasn't her fault, you know, cause she's like store-bought cookie dough or something.

It was so cute the way that she did it. And honestly, the cookies, they were flat, but they were still cute. And she's like, but this is the recipe. And that like,

and that was also during the pandemic. So they're like, you know, the heart of it. And people were just like baking and all of this stuff. So that was pretty cool. And then she continued. She's just continued to cook from it ever since.

So the only reason I know a celebrity is following me is if they've tagged. I don't like sit there and go research because I don't care. Like it's just another person. And I find no, like I don't hold them of a higher statue or whatever the word is. Okay, so crazy. I was going through like old photos the other day. And I was looking at how my hair looked before taking a hair supplement. And I've noticed now that after taking a hair supplement

and doing insane scalp massage and using like a hair oil, that my hair is just so much better. I also do things like eat a lot of aminos. I eat a ton of meat and I just feel like all those things mixed together has just grown my hair so much more. And the hair supplement that I take, you already know what it is. It's Nutrafol. It's the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement. So this one is actually clinically shown to improve your hair growth, thickness, and visible scalp coverage. A lot of hair supplements on the market don't have these clinical studies. So I like that about Nutrafol, but also I like how it's all natural. That's important to me because it's something I'm taking every single day. So everything is physician formulated and

they use natural drug-free medical grade ingredients. I heard about Nutrafol initially from a bunch of celebrity hairstylists. They all rave about it behind the scenes. And when I started it, I'm never looking back. Anyway, you can grow thicker, healthier hair and support our show by going to Nutrafol.com and entering promo code skinny hair. You're going to save $15 off your first month subscription. This is their best offer anywhere, and it's only available to US customers for a limited time. Plus you get free shipping on every order. Get $15 off at Nutrafol.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com, promo code skinny hair. The Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show is sponsored by BetterHelp. When you are at your best, you do your best. And sometimes life can be very overwhelming and you feel overwhelmed or burnt out and you're not showing up the way

that you envision yourself showing up. And a tool in my toolbox is to work with a really great therapist. This helps you get closer to the best version of yourself. And I just feel like talking things out can make a big difference when you're planning out your life. I'm a big fan of creating your own future and designing your life. So here's what I would say. If you want a therapist and you want one that's convenient, flexible, affordable, and entirely online, BetterHelp is for you. So what you do is you go online and you fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. You, and this is important, can switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. So if you're not vibing with the therapist, you can go ahead and switch. And also, I just think this is amazing because you can do it from the comfort of your

home. You can literally habit stack it after a meeting on Wednesday and just do it from your couch. If you want to be on video, great, but you also can just do a call. So it's basically like a person to bounce ideas off of, someone to listen to you. It's just a nice way to feel less overwhelmed. If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com slash skinny today. You get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com slash skinny. I have to be real with you. I stopped wearing deodorant for a long time. I just felt like all of the aluminum and the chemicals and all the things that are in it were messing up my lymphatic system. And then I was introduced to Nez. I am so excited to tell you guys about this

deodorant because number one, it's like not so big and lumbering. So you can travel with it very easily in your handbag, in your workout bag. But also finally, it's a new clean aluminum free dermatologist tested deodorant brand. So everything smells really good. It works. But most importantly, there's no aluminum in it. So with Nez, you know it's aluminum free, which is amazing. So if you want to use Nez to customize for different occasions, you can totally go over to their site. We have a code for you. I actually used my own code, which is like, you know, I really, really like it if I'm using my own code. So you're going to visit Nezcare, that's N-E-Z-C-A-R-E.com and use promo code skinny

at checkout. You get 10% off your entire order. Very much about that. So that's N-E-Z-C-A-R-E.com and use promo code skinny for 10% off your entire order. Promo code valid through June 30th, 2023. Also, my favorite is Board Meeting Bright Blend. It's like this calming scent of pear and jasmine. It's delicious. That's the one I would start with. Your community is so engaged. My community is everything to me. Okay. Talk about that. Talk about how you have cultivated such an incredible community. Is there like events? What are your certain tactics that you use to really better something is going to better the business if it's not going to if it doesn't add value to my community and it's not making the people that are there following reading every single day happy or making you know the content that I'm sharing with them easier to view or anything like that I'm not doing it because these people are giving me their time and time is everything there's just zero time and if someone's giving you even like 0.5 seconds of their time, that's massive. And I want to make

sure they're coming and getting exactly what they want. So I've always held the community at the highest value of everything. It's not. And then everything else fell into place underneath the community because without them, you have absolutely nothing, right? Your brand is not important if they're not interested in what you're doing and they're not happy. So I've always held the community way up there. And the key for me has been letting them feel heard, responding to them, interacting with them, asking them questions. From day one on the website, you know, 10 years ago, websites were much more popular. You know, Instagram was barely a thing. Twitter was much more the hot thing then. But

websites were very popular. And so your your commentary on your website, I'm sure you've seen this like your commentary was a lot. People were people were leaving you comments. You know, there's a lot of there was a lot of like traffic and things like that. So I would always respond to those messages. People asking me recipe questions, people just commenting and saying, this looks delicious. Every single person has always gotten a response. And I've held, stuck to that to this day. It's not me personally now.

If it's a question or something that, you know, my team doesn't know how to answer, I'm 100% the person answering it. And I'm still so interactive. And my text messages are full of messages. So it's so interactive. I think it's just key to building a strong community. You answer every single one of your Instagram comments or someone does. Yes. It's not me personally. Every single one of her Instagram. But I will say with Instagram, I'm very, very interactive. And a lot of times it is me. comments or someone does yes i it's not me personally every single one of her but i will say with instagram i'm very very interactive and a lot of times it is me like if you are if you are engaging with instagram like a lot of times it's me it's not every i mean there's 4. some million

people so like i gotta be realistic but yeah but that's also a recent addition it's not that new i always say this too with the skinnyny Confidential, the product line. I'm always going on there and DMing and mentioning and like, you never know who it is. People really like to feel connected to the person that they're following. And it's also with social media. And if you have a higher account or something like that, or you, you know, you've built your name, people don't respond. They don't give you the time of day. They're like, I don't need to do that anymore. They don't give you the time of day. And I just think that it's so important to keep your community engaged, especially because nobody knows what Instagram is doing.

They're constantly changing that algorithm. It's like you, you can't win with Instagram. You can't win with TikTok. Everything is, it's all really, really hard. They're censoring your content. They're not putting things up. They're doing this. They're doing, they're making you pay for content. Like it's really hard. So you have to keep your community really engaged

and do what you can to, you know, keep things moving. What's something you wish that your community knew about you that they maybe don't or they don't understand because you can't get it across in food? That I'm not just food. There's so many more things that I'm so excited to be working on and doing that are not just food. Food is always my core and it's what I love and I love to be able to give people recipes and I love to be able to provide for them in that way. And it's fun for me and it's like it's a great creative thing for me.

But there's so many more things that I would love to be branching out and doing that I'm starting to do that's really exciting. And like they always ask like, would you do TV? Of course, I would do a cooking show. Like, yeah, that would be amazing. You know, just being giving those opportunities because I'm able to create so much for my own home and my own kitchen. People tend to want to keep me pigeonholed there. And no, you do your thing. You stay there.

You cook. You create all the content. You do the photos. You do it all, which is great. When you say people, do you mean the community or just people that you've hired on? Not the community. The community is ready for more. Definitely people that I've hired on, for sure. They don't want you to go outside your niche yeah but like not the

community the community i can see is open to it and it's like people but even when i do q a's i tried and i do them every sunday like i get so many like food questions and i try to like avoid that and like share other parts of my life like what give us example family friends work what I'm doing like I love talking about building the business like all of those fashion like you know all of that stuff skincare like I love that all so much and I still to this day love styling things whether it is your home or your clothes or whatever so I like to like I'm just a very creative person and food isn't all that I am, you know, whereas I felt as though I've, whether I've done it myself or not, like it's

all, it's all people really know about me. Right. So what's next? How are you going to evolve the brand? So we're working a lot behind the scenes on product development, which is really, really exciting because I am, you know, everything that I'm using within my photos, people are asking about, where did you get that? Where did you get that cocktail glass? Where did you get that table? Very smart. You know, where did you get this and that? And like, I, I mean, I go and I find things that are unique that other people aren't using so that I can have content that doesn't look like what other people are doing. Because at the end of the day, I can create as many recipes and call them my own and like do that at the end of the day every single recipe has been created before to a point like nobody's like coming up with something

completely like out of the box original like this is you know i i you know invented all of vodka sauce like no we're not this isn't is food. Like it's all to a point. Like it's not necessarily your own always. Right. You know what I'm saying? But like with the styling piece of it, nobody can create anything with, because of my eye. Right. And nobody can like, so I like to make that look really different and really pleasing and pretty because then we eat with our eyes. We do everything with our eyes. So if I'm making it look really good, that's just always from day one, for whatever reason,

I've always said to myself, like, I want to make that food, like, you know, jump off the page and say, yum. And if it doesn't, I'm not sharing it. It's not worth it. So I've always really, really put in that effort. And it's fun for me then to go and find unique pieces and style those. And like, you know, the pieces that I'm using,

you're not necessarily going to find in a Target, you know, like I probably got them at like a junk store or something like that. I think that's a really smart facet of your brand. If you can leave our audience, if someone is listening and they're just starting out in social media right now, what advice would you give them? Leave our audience with a big like takeaway tip. I think like my best advice is like, even if you only have 100,000 followers, like engage with your community, make them feel heard, you know, like you care about them, give them the time of day and also focus on creating really good content. Like put,

it doesn't need to go out every single day, but like just give, make sure you're adding a value because like you can share what everybody else is sharing but it's like at the end of the day everybody else is sharing it and if they've already shared it they're probably going to do it better than you did because it's why i think so many people are having trouble on tiktok new people to build long-lasting brands tiktok is i think tiktok is hard and i haven't maybe i haven't said this so much on the show but i see it on like you see a bunch of people that are new creators that are natively creating to TikTok and what TikTok, you know, like there's a lot of phenomenal creators on TikTok, but

a lot of it is also repetition of something, a different spin on what somebody else has already done. Right. And it's so fast. Yes. And the problem with those trends is like, it's so fast. It's hard to keep attention for long periods of time there because it's like, go, go, go, go, go.

And it's just like a trend, trend, trend, trend, trend. And it's hard to like really kind of like stand out and establish yourself attention for long periods of time there because it's like go go go go go and it's just like a trend trend trend trend trend and it's hard to like really kind of like stand out and establish yourself for a long period of time i think i think there's a lot i think that with a lot of tiktok creators too like they're struggling because it's like well where's the longevity in my brand like what am i doing after this like next trend kind of thing it's it's you know i think it's really hard i think I think it's really hard. I think TikTok is really hard as the bottom line. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people, especially since it's so new and so fast, you can't see it because there's a lot of attention, a lot of money flowing into the space. But like, I always try to think about things like, what does this look like in five

years and 10 years? And if you don't figure out how to like build that community you're talking about or drive that engagement or keep someone caring for long periods of time, it's like, it's the foundation of that business is not strong enough to sustain. Whereas like I've had 10 years, I've built a foundation. People think it like happened overnight. I'm like, no guys, I've been doing this for 10 years. Like it's not been an overnight thing. Yeah. I think if you look at like most of the people that have longevity and you look, it's like, there's probably like eight of those years, you never knew they even existed. Right. It's just like, you know, we've interviewed to your point with like 500 something people here and you see, it's like, it's a lot, people take a lot longer to

build meaningful things than people give credit for. Cause all of a sudden you see something and it comes out of nowhere. Like, Oh my God, like this thing happened so fast, but it's like, you fail to see maybe the 10 years of what it took to actually like build the foundation. Right. You're're amazing which recipe should i start with from your book oh man from that book there it's very simple or recipes you could really pick out anyone but the i would say i'm trying to think off the top of my head i i feel you like need a protein i think you should do like a slow braise crock pot dish from there i'm gonna try it i'm gonna try it can I'm going to try it.

If not, I'll just come and make it for you. Yeah, I feel like you need to just come over to my house and just cook it. Keep it on the speed dial, Lauren, just in case. Can we give away a copy of your book that's signed by you? Of course, we can give away all three. Okay, amazing. So guys, all you have to do is follow at Half-Baked Harvest if you're not already following it.

You have 4.4 million followers. I'm sure a lot of people are already following. And then tell us your favorite takeaway from this episode on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostic. Where can everyone stalk you, find you, get your recipes, your books, all the things? Yeah, pretty much all around. I'm halfbakeharvest. Halfbakeharvest is the website. Halfbakeharvest is the Instagram account. And I want to say it's tiktok too so pretty much half day tarvis all around those dms are gonna be on fire yeah and if you are single and you're gonna add value lots of value you have to like i don't like to waste time

guys do you know what this is no bullshit this would not be the first time that this show has led to long marriage we've we've had someone tarot from four sigmatic put it out there that he was looking for someone he is now married with a baby two babies now two babies wow and he credits matchmakers he credits this show hey so if you're listening match me kind of moonlight on the side as you know all right i mean it would be very fun to be married to you that's for sure i'm a basket case it would not be fun no i feel like it would be. You'd get a fresh home. I mean, you think you're bad. No, no, no. Or you don't think you're bad. It's just like a high maintenance. I just expect a lot. Good. Don't settle. Tegan, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you guys for having me. Wait, don't go. Do you want to win

this giveaway with Tegan? All you have to do is tell us your favorite takeaway from this episode on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostic. We do giveaways every single episode. So make sure you've rated and reviewed the podcast. Make sure that you go check out the driving gloves. We're doing free shipping until 2.10. They are buttery. They are soft and they are going to protect your hands and arms from the sun. They're also so cute. I'm obsessed like poolside gardening, like pushing a stroller, wherever you're in the sun, they are major. And thank you guys so much for listening. We really appreciate your support as always. And I hope you have the best, most productive week ever. Shop skinnyconfidential.com.