The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - How To Bootstrap A Business, Raise Capital, & Find The Right People To Work With Ft. Sophia Hutchins Founder Of Lumasol
Episode Date: February 18, 2021#332: On this episode we are joined by Sophia Hutchins, founder of Lumasol to discuss how to bootstrap a business and grow your business the right way. We also discuss how to raise capital when the ti...me is right and the best way to find the right people to work with. We also discuss how Sophia started managing Caitlyn Jenner at such a young age and how building different sets of skills in business can help to discover new opportunities. To connect with Sophia Hutchins 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 Olipop It tastes just like the sodas I grew up with, but unlike other sodas that are full of sugar, corn syrup, and artificial ingredients like aspartame, OLIPOP is made with natural ingredients that are actually good for you. Receive 20% off PLUS Free Shipping on their best selling variety pack. This is a great way to try all of their delicious flavors. Go to www.DRINKOLIPOP.com/skinny This episode is brought to you by Joovv. Experience the benefits of red light therapy by one of the best in the business; JOOVV! To experience the Joovv and receive a free gift with purchase go to joovv.com/skinny This episode is brought to you by Nutrafol THIRTY MILLION women experience hair loss. But it’s not openly talked about, so going through it yourself can feel lonely and frustrating. It’s time to change the conversation and join the thousands of women standing up for their strands. Nutrafol is formulated with potent botanicals to help you grow hair as strong as you are and it’s physician-formulated to be one hundred percent drug-free. Visit Nutrafol.com and use promo code SKINNY for 20% your order and free shipping. Produced by Dear MediaÂ
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The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire.
Fantastic.
And he's a serial entrepreneur.
A very smart cookie.
And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride.
Get ready for some major realness.
Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her.
Aha! For every no that you get, and you're going to get more no's than yeses probably,
there is someone out there that will say yes. And you've got to find that person. It's like
getting married. Do you want to get married? Yes or no. If you want to get married, you will find
someone to marry. Just don't let
no stop you just because that wasn't the right fit. Don't give up on your dream.
Hello, we are back. We are live and we have Sophia Hutchins in studio. As you know,
we recently had Caitlyn Jenner on a Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show episode, and we had to bring on Sophia.
Sophia is Caitlin's manager,
and she's a total badass hustler when it comes to business.
Like, she was blowing our mind.
I could not believe how young she is.
I mean, that was the craziest thing.
She's managing so much, doing so much,
and I think this is a real inspiring story for young people who think that they need
all these accolades and credentials to
go and do big things. This is somebody who's doing a lot of big things at a very young age,
very accomplished. And I think it should serve as an inspiring story for other young people
that want to do the same. Background on Sophia. She is a 24-year-old business owner and former
Pepperdine University student. She graduated with a degree in economics and finance in 2018.
She is the CEO of Lumisol. It's an odorless SPF sunscreen mist that can be applied after makeup.
I love this because I feel like every single time I put sunscreen on, I don't want to apply it over my makeup. So now that I have this mist that I can just spray on top of my makeup, it makes
everything so much easier when it comes to sunscreen application and reapplication. You should also know that Sophia
lives with Caitlyn Jenner and works with Caitlyn Jenner. She worked as the CEO of the Caitlyn
Jenner Foundation, and she is currently Caitlyn's manager. As you can see, she does a lot. She is
very, very open in this episode. She brings us in. I want to have margaritas with her.
With that, let's welcome Sophia to the Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show.
This is the Skinny Confidential Him and Her.
So excited because we have Sophia in studio. We are going to go all over the place with this
episode. We're going to talk about hustle, entrepreneurship, how you grew up, how you met Caitlin, everything.
So first, why don't you give us some background on you?
Yeah.
Well, thank you guys for having me.
Of course.
Nice sunny day view.
It's gorgeous.
When I grew up, I actually was born and raised in Seattle.
And I lived with predominantly my grandparents growing up.
And they came from nothing. They came from a
small town in Vermont and my grandfather grew up wanting to aspire to be more than just living in
a small town or going into the military. Those were like the two options. And so he was the
first person in my family to go to college, and he became a rocket scientist.
He's a really smart guy.
And, you know, my parents divorced when I was young, so I was really impacted by my grandparents.
Now they're both dead, deceased.
But I think that is why I am the way I am, is because I was influenced by people that meant a lot to me, that never said no, that never made me think in a box.
And they really supported everything I've ever wanted to do. And seeing them build their lives from nothing to something was really inspiring to me and really inspiring to be around. And it
pushes me every day. That's very instilled in me. You went to Pepperdine too. That's not an easy
school to get into. I went to Pepperdine. I went to Pepperdine too. That's not an easy school to get into.
I went to Pepperdine.
I went to Pepperdine for four years.
I studied economics and finance.
And I was the class president for three years too.
So I was like, I was one of those.
Overachiever.
Annoying kids.
Yeah.
But no, I love to party and all that stuff.
Pepperdine is not a good party school.
Don't go there if you want a drink.
You'll get in trouble.
You will?
They will punish you. Like, what do i i mean they can suspend you they can expel you if you have sex oh my god god forbid oh i would have gotten kicked the fuck out well no
wonder pepperdine didn't let us in i mean that's why i got an apartment so yeah i got an apartment
very early on i got an exemption to live away from there. And I was like, I cannot deal with these stupid ass rules.
So in Pepperdine, you were a hustler, like from the beginning. you know so I just wanted to do student government to get to know like students and it was fun but I
always like to do stuff because I get bored really easily what do you mean you always like to do
stuff you mean with like work or I love to do work like work is my most enjoyable time but I love to
like I don't know I don't like to sleep a lot I like to go. I like to be with people. I'm a very social person. So whatever I can do
to be social or work, I love. Finance. You studied finance. That's Michael's favorite subject. You
guys should have a chat about that because I feel like he's- No, no. It's my least-
No, no, no. You're obsessed. I am decently competent in the subject,
but Lauren hates the subject so much that she just tells everybody that I love it so that I'll do it.
It's important to know. It's just not my favorite subject, but I feel like with
what you're doing in your brand, like you have to know finance. Yeah. I think that was the most
helpful part. Honestly, I think college is so overrated. I'm glad I went to college, but I
think it's so overrated. Definitely does not teach you about real life, but as far as finance goes,
yeah, I studied accounting for not just
accounting, but like finance and accounting. I've always been interested in investing. I've always
been investing my own money. And then when I started my sunscreen brand, I got investors to
back the company, venture capitalists. And that process to me was really fun because it was like
I was pitching this idea and I already knew what they were thinking because of some of the work in
finance that I was doing in college as an intern at different firms. So I had insight to what they
were thinking, but it was interesting. Blended my passions of beauty, sunscreen, and finance
was starting that. I know this is not Lauren's favorite subject, but we've been touching on
finance a little bit lately. And I've done some venture financing rounds. Obviously you've done it.
I think there's a lot of young people listening. They're like, how the hell do you even go about
that? Especially if you don't understand finance. And for you being so young, I also think a lot of
young people think, well, I'm too young to even have those conversations. Like what approach did
you take? And what would you tell young people that are thinking like, Hey, I have an idea and
I want to go and raise some actual funds. So what I did was definitely the exception and not the rule. And I think that's because
I had a really strong network. At the time, I was managing Caitlin, which I still do. And that's
another career, which I absolutely love. But I think in general, it's such a long process and people get so discouraged by no,
no, no, no, no. Yes. I've gotten a ton of no's. Same. Like way more no's than yeses. But the key
is like, don't let no stop you. Because if you let no stop you, you're not going to move forward.
But luckily I got a lot of people around me that believed in me and supported me and
supported my vision for the brand and growing it.
And so I found the investors that matched with me.
Yeah, no, I think that's really sounded.
I mean, even for this, like, I don't think a lot of people know, like, I probably went
through 30 no's before I found the right person.
And I think like you hear the no, you think, oh, my idea must not be good.
And I always tell people, like, you got to find the people that align with your vision or
excited about it instead of just trying to convince the people that don't necessarily
get it.
Exactly.
It's like every investor comes into a conversation knowing so much more than you do about the
category, about the space, but nobody knows more about the brand or your ability to lead
a brand because I'm also the CEO of the company.
And I was 20,
I think I was 22 when I raised this venture round. And I did it really quickly. But since then,
it's been a lot harder just because of the economy to raise capital. I also haven't had to,
luckily, I haven't needed to raise additional capital. But it's a weird thing to get all those no's and you start
to doubt yourself. And I get it, but you've got to just really put that aside and have a thick skin.
And I think maybe young people, they haven't had enough life experience professionally to maybe get
that thick skin, or maybe they haven't just, whatever they've done in their life, maybe just
didn't prepare them for all those no's.
And I think my life, I was already managing Caitlin, negotiating deals that were very nice,
high paycheck deals. And I was used to getting no's. I was used to negotiating. I was used to
going back and forth. So for me, this was the same but a little different.
What are some tools and tactics that you think people who want to raise money should use?
For instance, like obviously a deck.
Should the deck look a certain way?
Is there like little tips that you can give us when you're walking into a meeting?
I mean, just selfishly, I'm curious.
One meeting I walked into that was interest.
I had a really good deck.
I had some really top consultants prepare my deck with me that was interest. I had a really good deck. I had some really top consultants prepare my deck
with me that were friends. I had great people reviewing the deck and it came down to your
business plan and your financial models and financial models for a pre-launch product are
just so arbitrary. But I think the deck needs to be concise. I really don't think it's compelling when someone's reading off
of a deck. I hate that. I want to know exactly all the words on the deck and what that slide says,
and hopefully it's not too many words, but it gets the point across. But I walked into one meeting
with an investor in Silicon Valley, and he said, I get the idea. I kind of like it. I love consumer,
but I just don't think you're an executor. I just don't think you have a track record to actually run a venture backed company. Like, sure, you have these things on your resume, but that's not enough for me. deal with that in venture capital. You see men drop out and start Facebook. You see men drop
out and start these huge tech companies or whatever. It's a very different world. Venture
backed companies, only female founded and female CEO run venture backed companies only get less
than 2% of all of the funding venture puts out. that's insane to me and that's by the way
the highest percentage it's ever been and by the way the consumers are the women right so the so
that's what blows my mind when you see all these guys in suits telling us how to wear a tampon on
a commercial and it's like bitch you don't know how to wear a tampon you don't shove a tampon up your penis hole and you're telling me look at me all i am well it's like it's like how they need more women
energy they need more feminine energy in that space it's so important i hope that we're turning
a corner with that maybe it's getting better i hope so but just being in the trenches of it
i'm not seeing it like i, I think it's better.
I don't think it could have gotten much worse.
Everyone wants to talk about how it's better.
But to me, less than 2% and that being the most is just like so depressing.
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Whole Foods, Sprouts, Kroger's, Wegmans, and Air One. Cheers. How is it managing Caitlin?
Because you mentioned the deals are huge. I'm sure it's astronomical. And I'm sure that you,
like, it seems like, it seems to me that she loves the creative,
the talent part, but it seems like you bring like a more of a structured entrepreneurial
money management sort of energy. Yeah. So that was interesting. When I was in college,
I met Caitlin and just we really became friends. And I was in Malibu, Caitlin was in Malibu, and started hanging out
a lot. And I realized no one was managing the operation. There were assistants, there were
publicists, there were accountants, there were attorneys. There was no one running it. And
Caitlin is entirely incapable of running a business. but that's not her strength. Caitlin's
strength is telling a story that resonates and that people want to hear and need to hear. Caitlin
has so many other strengths, but business is not that. And Caitlin would be the first to tell you.
She was pretty forthcoming with that when she came on the show. And to your point, an amazing storyteller.
Yeah.
Very good storyteller is an amazing people person.
You give Caitlin a job.
Caitlin is going to do that job and more.
And I've never had a client ever say anything.
But oh, my God, Caitlin killed it.
She gave us more than we asked for.
She's so generous with her time.
And I'm like, Caitlin, we don't need to do this.
We're done. Contract's over. Let's leave. Caitlin's like, no, let's take care of the people. Let's do a longer photo line. I'm like, oh, but it's been 90 minutes. We can go.
I think that's why she's achieved what she's achieved in her life. I mean,
you don't get to that scale unless you're somebody that is an overachiever and just
does more than the job requires. Yeah. She cares about every person that she talks to.
Yeah.
We definitely got that feeling when she came in for sure.
So what's your day to day?
You're managing Caitlin and you have your line.
What is, what is, if, can you walk us through, like when you wake up, like, do you have a
morning routine?
Then when do you get to work?
Are you structured?
You seem very organized.
I am pretty type A and the way I really like to run my business is I like to have
people around me that are similar minded. They really enjoy building something from the ground
up. So generally speaking, I'll get up at five ish and management stuff takes my morning. So I'll look at whatever is pending on the
management side of things, whether it's press, whether it's a deal or whether it's dealing with
finances for any of the businesses that Caitlin holds or has interests in. And then after that,
usually about eight, nine o'clock, my team shows up. And then I'm pretty focused on the brand.
So it's an interesting divide, but no job ever stops. But I like to spend my mornings on the
management stuff because a lot of the work we do is abroad. So that also helps with the time
difference between here and Europe. When you started working with Caitlin,
were you met by resistance for anybody that was previously on the team or even family members because you're so young right and like this
sounds like it was one of your first management you also it's not just that she's so young you
also have a presence like you're not like in the corner meek yeah you know i come in with a lot of
energy no so when i first joined family family, totally fine. Family, cool, chill, whatever. Everyone else was getting fired by me. So I'm firing publicists. I'm firing assistants. I could not operate in the way things were set up. I wanted it to be people that were better,
people that were cheaper.
And I totally redid her entire business, businesses,
and started making her way more money because she was just coasting through life, enjoying life.
And I'm like, no, we've got to make more money.
You've got this stupid fucking airplane
that you won't get rid of.
You've got these cars, you've got this house.
Like, you've got to make a lot of money. And I've got to go out and find it
because nobody else is finding it. They're just sitting back waiting for the phone to ring.
But luckily I've gotten her back into the groove of working very regularly.
And just when I arrived, it was into her life. It was very important because Chris
had managed Bruce for years, for years.
Caitlin had no idea what was really going on other than show up.
This is what you're getting paid and that's it.
But there's so much work that goes into all of those deals that she did.
And Caitlin was missing that in her life.
So I tried to fill that management role.
God, I need someone like you to come in and help me.
Oh, hey, like 10%.
Jesus. I mean, God, that's like so nice how you just come in and like structure and fire and get
rid of. I mean, I mean, it was tough because these were people that were around and they
were questioning my motives. They were like, what,
what are you doing? You're so young. You don't know what you're doing. I'm like, believe me, I,
I don't need to know what I'm doing in entertainment per se. I have a huge network.
I'm a hustler. I'm not going to say no to anything, but what I'm not going to do is let business and business get fucked over. And I'm certainly not going to let Caitlin get
fucked over in business. And that's what was happening because there was no one overseeing
everything. So yeah, that's how the management thing has started. But it's been amazing booking
endorsement deals, booking appearances, TV shows, book deal, makeup deal. I mean, it's just been
a whirlwind. And she also does a lot of public speaking. And so those gigs are just like easy cookie cutter deal ones.
Yeah. I think people forget that she's an extremely accomplished public speaker, very motivational. And even when she was in here, like you get fired up listening to her. high fees and has spoken to audiences ranging from young, homeless youth to college commencements
or university commencement addresses, corporate America. I mean, the list goes on. She can speak
to any audience and make sure that that audience goes away leaving or goes away, leaves the speech
feeling like they really got something out of it
wow that's an og influencer that's an og influencer because it's like
how much value can i pack into this speech what was it like filming a reality show
like i want to know specifics are there 20 cameras around you? Like what's the behind the scenes? What's it like?
With Keeping Up, honestly, Caitlin hasn't been too involved in Keeping Up in day-to-day production.
There are occasions where we are in production.
And Caitlin definitely has way longer history with the show.
But since I've been around, it's really just very normal.
But didn't you guys do I Am Kate?
I didn't do I Am Kate.
I wasn't in the show, but I was on the back end of it.
Okay.
So were you working behind the scenes on it?
Yeah.
So I was involved with E when that deal was happening.
So what is...
Michael and I were watching Housewives the other day.
Anna.
You watched Housewives?
Yeah, he's obsessed.
Listen to this. Don't even like anything i
get drawn into all of it i'll be laying there and everything no you love it you love it i know all
the characters so so we're watching real housewives of utah which by the way is one of the best
seasons because it's so and like dynamic and out of control so weird and they're in a bathtub all
of them and they're like at the spa in this bathtub talking
and the girl takes the water and like splashes it at one of the housewives and it hits the producer
and in the background you can hear the producer say why did you splash the camera and she says
don't fucking stand there if you don't want me to splash the camera or something that's what
happens when you're in the bathroom as they're're filming, they pan over to the people and there's like 15 people there.
Yeah.
And it's like, I thought there was just one cameraman is what I picture.
So what is the background of dealing with a reality show?
Like give us like the behind the scenes.
Well, it depends what the shoot is.
Like I've been around where it's a one camera shoot.
So it's just like really not B-roll,
but it could be easily used as B-roll.
Like if it's full production,
like a dinner or something like that.
Well, honestly, the last time that I shot,
I was involved with the show, like keeping up.
The last time we shot an episode for the last season,
it was one camera and it was for all of us.
And it was fine.
You know, it was a dinner,
one camera. And so I don't really know. I haven't been featured on the show beyond that one dinner
or beyond like a phone call or FaceTime type of thing. But the latest shoot that we did was just
one camera. So it feels like they're not even there. Yeah, no. And also the crew has been with Beunah Murray. They become part of the family. So for Naz, one of the executive producers,
she's been great. Like the crew, they've been around Caitlin and all of the kids and Chris
for years. To me, I'm the new person, obviously, and I'm not like in the show. But when I have been,
everyone's, you know, on the crew has been amazing. And I've worked with them
when it came to negotiating Caitlin's part of the show in future seasons.
Who out there wants to have better skin, stronger libido, balanced hormones,
better sleep, pretty much better everything?
Better sex. balanced hormones, better sleep, pretty much better everything.
Better sex?
Better sex. Pretty much, like I said, better everything. We have the answer for you right here on this show, the fountain of youth, the best thing to ever come in terms of technology,
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How I use my Juve every single day is i'll do one of two things so i have
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me it's a little handheld device so what i'll do is i'll just use that around the house and then i
also am lucky enough to have michael who has big, huge standing up one. It's so-
It's called the quad, Lauren, but yes.
It's called the quad. Okay. And so what I do is I go in his man cave and I'll stand or sit in front
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As her business manager, when that Vogue cover came out,
that was so crazy.
Were you like crazed behind the scenes?
Like what was the behind the scenes like for you?
Not even from her perspective. I want to know from your perspective.
That was a little bit before I was managing Caitlyn.
So that was about a year before I started managing Caitlyn.
But I know like I was around as a friend,
that was a little bit insane. And life is so much different today because it's a lot more normal,
right? At that point, it was so hyped up. And if I was around then, I would have handled things
so differently. I mean, I can't even go there. But it's like, I just think the way that Caitlin and I worked together,
I could have had so much more control over the narrative that she put out,
which I think harmed a lot of her relationships.
Obviously, that's years ago.
That's on the past.
But looking back on it, I was like, gosh, I wish I was there at this pivotal time in your life
because I really think I could have helped you a lot more than the people
around you were helping you do. That cover was really like, I mean, from someone who's just
scrolling through Instagram was an amazing change. I feel like that started the change going.
Right. I mean, like, I feel like the world needed that.
Yeah. Amazingly brave.
Yeah. So were you around when
all the writing of the book happened or is this? Yep. And did you help manage that?
So that was primarily done through, I think it was grand publishing and an attorney and myself
and Caitlin. We had a ghost writer, but as far as structuring the deal went, that was with the
publisher and the attorney primarily.
I didn't source the publisher.
So when during all of this do you decide I want to launch my own sunscreen brand?
You said you were 22.
So how long does it take for the idea to come to now?
So when I was 22, I decided I wanted to launch a sunscreen brand.
I started doing a lot of consumer and market research with some consultants and that I was paying because I was making good money from managing Caitlin.
So I could seed the company a little bit. And so I worked with really good consultants to prepare
me for the pitch and to also really get a very clear understanding on how we're going to attack
this market. What's the business plan? What's the business model? And who is our customer? Like, how are we going to make it different
enough? And who do we sell to? So I did that. And I raised the capital in February 2019 when I was
22 still. And then all of 2019 was building a staff, building a team, building the supply chain, getting the inventory,
everything that goes with building a startup. And that capital went to very good use, I would say.
You know, you learn a lot when you start a company. Tell us, tell us, tell us.
How you can really bootstrap a lot more than you think you can.
I agree with you. I think you should talk about this more because I talk about it a lot. And I think people don't realize, especially when they get capital,
some people don't have it. But if you do get it, I think there's a tendency to go and just spend
all that capital and hire 50 people. And before it's like, you don't really need all those people
to do. Maybe one person can handle what five people could be doing. And I think people get
a little bit overeager when they get that capital. They just start burning. And it's like, no,
you don't really need to do that.
You can still start small, even with capital.
Yeah.
So if I could go back in time, that's exactly what I would have told myself.
Hire less people or.
Hire less people.
Oh, I won't even go there.
But hire less people.
I would.
Yeah.
Headcount.
You don't need to hire a ton of people and be very careful who you're hiring and bringing
into your life and into your business. Because at that point, when it's so small, it's really important that you have
people that are very much aligned with you and very much have your interests at heart as well
as the brands. So people are so eager to go out and spend the capital, get the top PR, get the
top consultants, get the top engineers. And it's like, I didn't need to do any of that some of it yeah but not as much as i did
and so i wish i had more insight into that but you get a lot of different opinions from these
institutional vc investors because they want you to burn a lot of the cash you do another round
yeah they're like oh you should be spending x on payroll every month and i'm like
why that's interesting that's really good advice. Yeah. Don't burn it
just because you have it. Don't burn through it. Well, I think it's worth a study for people to go
and understand, like, are you building a venture scale business with a potential venture exit? Or
are you building a business that you're going to hold on to for a long period? There are two
different things. And a lot of people don't understand that because you read about these
massive exits. You're like, oh, I'd love that. But for every one of those exits you read about,
you don't read about the 45 that didn't make it. Right. And so it's like, I always tell
people like build a profitable, scalable business that you can hold onto regardless of an exit if
you can. Yeah. I think that's like absolutely the bottom line is you want, like there's two types of
ways this can go. You can hold onto it or your goal is to exit. Whatever that is, that's up to the person. But for me, it was like, hey, I just want to launch this company and
build a brand and see where it goes. And yeah, don't overspend your capital because I think
everyone has that tendency to do it. How do you deal with people that are trying to get into your
life for the wrong reasons or employees that are getting too close and blabbing their mouth? I mean, are they signing NDAs? Like, how do you structure all that? This is
obviously new territory and you have to be careful who you bring in. I'm I've learned a lot of
lessons about employees. I've had a lot of employees. And, you know, I think in general,
definitely have a good legal team and I have a really, really good legal team.
That is something I would put my money behind to protect yourself, especially when you're
in the public eye and there's all these perceptions that you have so much wealth and you just
become a target.
So protect yourself with nondisclosure agreements, protect yourself with confidentiality agreements,
make sure that you're compliant in the state of California when you have employees.
That's always really important. So investing on that side of things is really important because
that could bite you in the ass down the road. And it wasn't easy. But unfortunately, with my
company, we launched in the middle of the pandemic. We launched May 1st of this year year. And I had a full staff. I cut my salary day one to zero, zero. And I have a full staff of
people that are making way too much money. And I said, we've got to reduce operating expenses
because I don't know what's going to happen with this COVID economy. None of us did. And so I laid
off like six, six people on my team. And now I'm down to three and it's way cheaper and way more efficient.
And that's what I mean by bootstrap it. You don't need to bring on all those people just
because you have the capital available. That is some damn good advice.
Yeah. I think people read like, okay, I need this marketing person and the logistics person.
You think you need, and it's like maybe one person can wear multiple hats, especially in the beginning when it's smaller scale and you don't
have a million things going on. Exactly. And you need to find people that are down to do that.
You know what I mean? Like my executive assistant is a guy named Tim and he's been with me for
like two years. He's down for anything, like whatever it is. And that's who you need in
entertainment because there's a million things going on with Caitlyn,
like for contracts and that kind of stuff
that has to be handled or coordinated.
And then there's a million stuff going on for this brand.
And it's just crazy.
One thing we're really excited about with Lumisol
is we're going on to QVC.
I know.
Okay, first of all, we need to back up. How did you even think QVC was like in the
ether? Did you approach them? Did did you build the brand for QVC? Like I want to know the details
about how one even goes about that, because that's a big fucking deal. It is a big deal,
which I'm very happy about. Maybe I can unpause my salary someday soon.
But no, so that's the thing. Like I have this amazing executive assistant.
I don't know about how to sell product to QVC. Like I can talk to people that have done it.
And that's certainly how I got interested in doing it. But I wanted my brand to be bigger
than just the website, bigger than just the social media following. Like it needs to be bigger and it needs to hit a lot of eyeballs. And QVC is my
market. So this was not designed for QVC. The opportunity came to me. I took it. And like my
assistant, his day-to-day is my schedule, making sure that everything's being signed on time,
like keeping my life in order. But I say, hey,
we're going on QVC. I laid off our operations and marketing team. What can we do to make this
happen? Because this is happening. This is so much, so much in sales for the company. And that's
just the type of person you need with you. But QVC is something I'm really excited about. We start
on air. I'll be the guest host on air in March, April, May through the summer.
And what's the schedule like?
It's gnarly.
It's a gnarly schedule.
I don't have the final schedule yet, but it's gnarly.
And they did a rather big PO.
So we have to sell out.
You're going to sell out.
I'm going to sell out.
Absolutely.
When you go live on QVC, you got to tell me. I want to post it. I'll go live. Oh my God. I'll
tell you. You got to tell me when you're going, like, I'll just like go on stories and say,
everyone goes support. Go to QVC. I don't know if that's going to help, but like,
honestly, we got to support you when you're on QVC. I'll take any help I can get.
So other than QVC, what are you doing in the entrepreneurial world with your product?
So right now, so it is a subscription product because it's refillable.
So I have a great amount of subscribers, which is amazing.
And then right now, other than QVC and another deal that I cannot talk about at this point,
my website's been performing really well.
And so that's where all of our sales have been coming from.
Thinning hair. It's something that a lot of people don't talk about, but nearly half of all women experience it as early as the age of 40. I know a lot of women have experienced it postpartum. I
talk to you guys on DMs all the time. And if you're one of these people, you know that it can feel very stressful, which adds to the problem. So I was very excited
to sit down with the founder of Nutrafol. And this is a formulated product with potent botanicals
that helps your hair grow strong as you are. So it's physician formulated and it's 100% drug free,
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For hair as strong as you are.
And just so the audience can know,
I know this is audio, so it's going to be hard.
Maybe you can do an Instagram story after this.
How do you exactly use this?
Because I've been, I know how to use it because I've been using it under my makeup. But tell us if someone doesn't know how. So basically, it is this refillable device that you can put
vials of SPF into. And this SPF is SPF 50. It's vegan. It's cruelty free and reef safe. And it's
designed to go over your makeup, which is great. I've been wearing
it under. Can I wear it over too? You can do both. Or should you do it after? Is that better?
I would recommend for this one, do it after. Oh, okay. Because it won't even smudge your makeup,
which is great. That's amazing. That's my customer. My customer is female. She wears makeup.
She's beauty conscious and she needed an SPF that could go over makeup multiple times a day because it's all about reapplication.
That's genius because there's been so many times where I've been out in the sun having makeup on and I'm like, shit, I don't want to fuck up my makeup.
Right.
That's a genius. Genius.
Right. Like that is my favorite product. We have other products and, you know, I'm excited about them that are in the pipeline.
I launched a moisturizer that goes under the makeup, which is great.
But this fine mist, these actually come in fragrance bottles.
So they spray out like a fragrance.
People say, how can you describe the consistency?
Because everyone's used to those big banana boat cans of spray.
This is like an ultra fine mist for your face after makeup.
It's like spraying perfume or cologne. It the same consistency which is really cool no it's so cool and he doesn't understand
because he's a guy but when you have a full face of makeup on and you don't want to fuck it up
yeah and you want it to last till 11 p.m but you're in the sun it's it's like it reminds me
of that meme with the math equation above it like they have like
all different math problems and you're like do you spray tan first or do you get a manicure or
do you get a pedicure first or do you apply your fake eyelashes or get a brow tint like
working out as a woman like how you should do your beauty treatments is a whole fucking multiple
math equation it's a whole thing so to have this to know okay i don't have to worry
about being in the sun with makeup on it's very helpful it is you solved a problem because we
just go and just spray whatever you don't do you know and i like it because it is refillable so
a lot of our customers are subscribers it actually changes color when it's time to reapply cool to purple which is exciting and
then it clips on to your beach bag your purse whatever because or your golf bag or what whatever
outdoor activity you're doing so i just love that it's portable small and goes over makeup but guys
love it too because it goes over bare skin you don't have to rub it in at all that's so nice
if you don't mind before you leave i think we should do an Instagram story where you apply it. I'm and then I'll add
it so you guys can see on TSC podcast highlight on my Instagram so you can see her apply it.
I want to talk about something that I feel like is in your day to day that's
different than a lot of people. OK, paparazzi. Oh, do you get followed by paparazzi? And if you
do, how do you deal with it? And is it annoying? It's weird during the virus, the COVID, not so
much. A couple of times. Yes. And I didn't have a mask or something. And it's like, oh, God, you
you're an anti-masker, that kind of thing. It's like, no, it's died down a lot during COVID. But in normal times,
it's a little bit strange, but I got used to it and I just ignore it. Sometimes they've really irritated me, but I just ignore it. So when they irritate you, do you say like, fuck you,
like get away from me? You're annoying. Or do you just try to like. One time this never got out. I
actually broke his camera and i'm like
honestly you can sue me like here's my attorney's number call him we'll buy you a new camera but
he really pissed me off and i'm like just stop like i was going into the store to get ice cream
like 10 o'clock at night in sweats my hair's up like i had moisturized like gross like do I really want that and I'm like
hey knocking on his window can you just fuck off and I grabbed his camera and I threw it on the
ground what did he say oh he was just going off saying really mean insulting things it's got to
be annoying though like getting followed everywhere I mean sometimes you just want to like
let everything hang out not wear makeup and like
wear crocs i do i do but i i'm at the point now it's just like i don't care and also luckily with
the virus paparazzis have kind of died down everyone wants to know are and we asked caitlin
this too yes are you guys dating it's a question, I understand why everyone wants to know. We are not dating.
I've said it so many times. Caitlin has said it so many times. We're not dating. They're not dating.
I am dating someone else. I'm always dating, but I date men. I don't date. Hey, if Caitlin was still
Bruce, okay. I could entertain that notion. Actually, I probably couldn't just knowing how well I know
Caitlin. I don't know. We might kill each other. But no, I think our relationship is way better as
business. And I always say it's like a family type of relationship, which is great.
You guys seem like you're companions too.
We're very close. We're confidants. We share a house. I bring these guys that I'm dating to the
house or I'll go to their house. And it's not like there's this weird... I don't know what
people think. It's like we're literally living together. Well, I think that's probably why
people think they're like, what's going on? Because as soon as people move into the same
household, they're like, what's going on? No, but people just want a sensation. They
want to write the headline. Yeah. I get it it's like okay this
little 20 however old I was like I think I was 19 or 20 when I moved in there and it was like
I don't need to live there I can afford to live elsewhere I enjoy living there like that's now
my home like I've done the house and so I don't mind sharing it. There's plenty of space.
What's the decor like?
What's your taste?
Well, I've had to make some compromises because.
I can, I trust me.
I feel you.
I understand.
I'm very much into very clean, modern, white and gold and like very minimalist.
And Caitlin is not at all.
Caitlin is very messy not messy but caitlin caitlin's like outside in the dirt and walks inside with shoes oh i'm like get shoe covers
do you have pink shoe covers i have shoe covers for everyone that walks in the house like i i
don't know like let's just let's just talk about this for a second. Shoe covers? Let's do a public service announcement.
I don't want anyone to walk in my house with the same shoes that they've been walking on
the semen, heroin needle, projectile, vomit, dog shit ground.
I don't think that's that weird of a thing to ask.
What kind of ground are you walking on?
In Japan, everyone takes their shoes off.
I feel like, what do you mean what kind of ground I'm walking on west hollywood is yeah what are you talking about i i
just feel like we should just make it a blanket rule that like just take your shoes off before
you enter someone's house it's i ask every time i go into someone's house that can i take my shoes
off maybe they don't care but here's my thing my daughter's crawling around on the ground that
everyone's walking he walks in with his boots. You don't listen to me.
In fact, I'm done with this.
You're not allowed to walk.
I take one step in.
I can't even.
No, you want me to say one leg.
I don't care.
You're going to do couples therapy right now.
Buy a Target cheap chair to sit outside and take your shoes off.
Zaza's crawling around on the ground.
She's licking the ground.
My dog's walking around on it.
Then he gets in bed with me and with his paws.
I mean, like, let's really think about this. Then Michael's pounding around with his feet and he gets in bed next to me and it's
like what kind of like i don't wear the shoes in the bed i don't even get downstairs you do
essentially wear the shoes in the bed because you walk around without shoes that are touching the
floor that's been outside now we're talking we are talking about i get it a thousand percent like
i'm with you i don't i don't want that like
the dogs are all over the floor the dogs are like eating bunnies i don't know what they're doing like
i don't want well our dog is he's a he's a seven pound chihuahua so he's not getting he can't even
go outdoors touch the ground that the shoes have walked the area your shoes have contaminated the
ground yeah i get it so that's the problem the shoes aren't allowed in the house. Just no more shoes in the house.
It's literally,
if you keep doing it,
I'm going to do something
that annoys you so bad
every single day.
Honestly, I'll send...
You're going to add another thing
you mean to the house?
I'll send him slippers.
Maybe I could send him
some slippers or something.
The motherfucker wears the slippers
to take the trash out
and comes back in the house.
Okay, well...
Oh my God.
Taylor, end the show.
We're dealing with a similar problem here. i'm glad i'm not the only one we could switch roommates so you want you want you want minimalism gold
simple yeah i like that okay gold and she's opposite kaylin like doesn't have a sense of
decor or style pretty much like yeah no and i'm like i want to use this interior decorator
and i want to redo the floors and i want to do this and i want to do that and i'll pay for it
like the house is both of ours legally contrary to popular belief and i hold up my own end but
she's very anti me touching anything inside you know what the tip is
cover your ears i have a giant headphones you you gotta you gotta go slow and give things
slowly away so here's something you don't even know this oh girl there was a whole entire bar
cart that is like huge it's like as big as this table in our bathroom.
It's been gone for six months.
He hasn't noticed that. He did not notice.
Zaza's nanny came over.
I said, just take this.
What the hell was on there?
You should see how many people
sneak stuff out of our house.
We have people.
No, no, listen.
I know because I had these shirts
that I love and I can't.
And I bought like six of them.
I didn't love them then.
I can't find any of them.
Just slowly little things go missing. Oh, that's what i've done and like i've had junk
removal people there like i know caitlin's gonna be at the golf course so i'm like all right get
the junk guys here get this shit out like take this off the wall and then replace it and literally
caitlin wouldn't even caitlin had like airplanes i catch her little brother like i'm like that
shirt's like really rad i'm'm like, that's my shirt.
I'm like, how the fuck did you get it, guy?
We can't do it.
Oh, you can't do airplanes as your minimalism goal.
No, like Caitlin has airplanes and maps on the wall.
And I'm like, what the fuck?
Like who would want-
Miles, if you're listening to this,
I'm coming down and getting all my shit back.
I know he's got it.
Just let the person that has the better taste
design the house.
Clearly.
And it's like, we're shooting in the house.
It needs to look good.
I don't even care about the shooting.
It's like, I care just for my own sanity that it looks good.
And I like got all new carpets and they're all super white.
I knew because I wanted to do wood floors in all the bedrooms.
I knew Caitlin would ruin the carpets.
Well, of course, the carpets are ruined on Caitlin's side of the house.
On my side of the house, they're perfect.
Okay, here's the plan.
When QVC comes into your house and sets up the whole set with the lighting,
they're going to move a bunch of shit.
Yep.
So here's what you do.
You concoct the plan to get everything you want in there when QVC is there.
So it's like a distraction.
So when they leave, if the house looks different, you can just be like,
Caitlin, they moved around the house.
That's the plan.
Just blame QVC.
You know what?
I think she would be OK with me blaming QVC.
I think she would, too.
Yeah.
OK, so what is.
I'm going to find all my shit that you've gotten rid of.
No.
I'll send QVC over to you next.
Please.
Send QVC.
I'll sell his shoes.
I need to get rid of them.
I got to avoid those like West Hollywood semen puddles, apparently.
Well, I mean, come on, Michael.
Are there semen puddles?
That's what's in her mind.
No.
One time, okay, one time I was walking down the street with my friends Betsy and Faith,
and we looked over to our right, and there was this guy who had his dick out
masturbating aggressively and semen went down his leg and dripped on the floor okay so that's what
i have in my head when he walks in the house with his boots that he's been at the airport with
too what's on the airport ground and i think you just got shocked by like a rare hopefully that's
a rare occurrence
that's happening.
You don't see that every day.
I mean, I saw it
with my own two eyes.
He was beating his meat
so aggressively.
I mean,
maybe you two see that more.
No guys are stopping me
in the street
and beating their meat.
I feel like Taylor,
our producer,
might have done it outside
before too.
What?
Taylor can relate.
The guy that just walked me up?
Yeah.
Sophia,
is this what you thought we'd
be talking about yeah that's who she's talking about he was in the street doing that I'm just
kidding oh my god Taylor back there about to run out of the studio I would like to know just like
from a business perspective changing the subject okay moving on from semen in the street how do
you plan on scaling this like what's the move to grow and grow and grow and grow and keep the momentum? Yeah, definitely. QVC is a huge part of that. Building out more products is a huge part of
that. All sunscreen products. And then beyond QVC, other partnerships with distribution partners that
aren't just my website. But with the site, that's the best way to control your customer's experience.
And so I've used and have been blessed to have people with large followings support
the brand on social.
And that's great because it puts eyeballs on it.
It drives traffic to the site.
You know, I was so, so honored.
Kim did a lovely ad for the brand the month that I launched.
And for me, it was really important to have a beauty guru,
like known for beauty, putting this over her makeup
and showing, hey, this works over my full KKW glam.
And so for me, it's how do you have
those really authentic connections with people
that wanna support you for social to grow the brand,
to get eyeballs on it,
but also looking at other distribution partners beyond QVC. And then of course, expanding the product
portfolio. Who's your favorite Kardashian Jenner? Oh God, that's not a fair question.
Who's the coolest? The coolest? Chris. I would not expect you to say that. Yeah, Chris. Chris
is the coolest. Okay.
Yeah, Chris.
By the way, Chris is my favorite,
but I just wouldn't expect you say that.
I love Chris.
Okay, who's the favorite kid?
Well, they're not my kids.
You mean Caitlyn's kids?
I mean, just the favorite Kardashian-Jenner kid.
Oh, I can't say that.
Okay, what's one thing that we need to know?
Like you just said that thing about Kim.
She sounds like a really nice person.
You know what?
I know so many people that have worked with Kim on various things.
And we have mutual friends as well.
Kim, every time anyone has spoken to me about Kim in a professional way,
it is, whoa, she does the job. She does it right. And just like what I was saying about
Caitlyn, she gives more. Kim is so giving, so generous. And when she's committed to something,
she's going to do it. So I think that's really cool about Kim. Like she's going to do it and
do it right and do it really quality, no matter what the gig is that she's committed to doing.
It sounds like that's one of the reasons that
everyone has been so successful. Yeah. Caitlin, you, all of you, is that when you guys say you're
going to do something, it gets done and it gets done 100%. It sounds like that's a theme across
the board. I think so. I think that their mom instilled a really good business sense in all
of them and keeps them like, obviously they're also passionate about their businesses
themselves, but really keeps them on the hustle. Okay. What's next? What's next? What's next?
And I think when you grow up with parents like Chris and Bruce, you are motivated to work. You
see your parents working very hard. You see your parents exercising, living a healthy lifestyle.
I think that wears off on kids. And obviously their dad, Robert, wore off on them as
well with an amazing law practice. So I just think that every one of Caitlin's kids has worked so
hard and really took so much to heart when it comes to life lessons of being nice to everyone.
Caitlin says that all the time to me, because I can be a little
bit of a bitch. I'll be honest. Like I'll be like at three in the morning, getting into the hotel.
Here's my bag. I'll be in my room, you know, to some guy. And I'm like, oh, that's not fucking
nice. And that's like bitchy and snobby of me, but I'm not thinking of it like that. I'm just like,
but with Caitlin and getting instilled, getting some of these values instilled in me,
I would never do that. I would never do that again. And so I think I've learned a lot from
Caitlin that her kids have learned. And so maybe that's helped me too, because I think she's full
of life lessons, has lived so many lives, and it's pretty cool. I have to tell you,
out of every celebrity we've ever interviewed, the way she came in here was so cool and warm and just amazing.
We honestly like were like blown away.
Because you never know.
No ego, like just came in open arms.
So open.
And you're right.
Generous with time.
We were like floor.
And listen, there's some maybe I'll get like some shit for this, but some celebrities will come in here and it's like the entourage is going around
the corner in terms and i'm like listen it's a small studio we had someone bring in their stylist
we don't we don't need 18 people in the room but i just think like you see someone at her scale and
the accomplishment she's had and it's like just just her just showing up cool down to earth and
it was like we had a really really great conversation and i think like it kind of shocked
i can i can see why you guys both enjoy each other's company you're a hustler if you
could leave our audience millennial audience a lot of them with a tip for hustling what would it be
like your one thing of advice
the number one thing is going back to what we were talking about with raising money.
For every no that you get, and you're going to get more no's than yeses probably,
there is someone out there that will say yes. And you've got to find that person.
It's like getting married. Do you want to get married? Yes or no. If you want to get married, you will find someone to marry. And that's a weird similarity, but just don't let no stop you just because that
wasn't the right fit. Don't give up on your dream and believe in yourself the most because when you
believe in yourself, it's going to radiate to everyone else in the room. If you don't believe
in yourself and your ability or your idea, no one's going to buy it if you haven't even sold yourself on it.
So don't let no bog you down.
My advice is don't wear shoes in the house.
That's good.
And step in semen.
My advice is don't jerk off in the streets.
Oh, yeah.
Taylor, don't jerk off in the streets.
Okay.
So pimp yourself out.
Tell us what product you would start with.
The Instagram handle, everything.
What does that mean?
Pimp myself out to a product?
No, tell us your Instagram handle.
Where can everyone find you?
Where can everyone find you?
Social security, home address.
I was like, pimp myself out.
Like, I don't know what you're saying.
No, so everything's mylumasol, mylumasol.com.
And then I'm Sophia Hutchins.
And would you recommend that they start with the sunscreen mist first?
Because that's what I would recommend.
I would recommend you start with the Lumasol SPF 50 starter kit,
which has the sunscreen mist, three vials of it.
And you can spray it over your makeup.
What's better than that?
Absolutely.
Thank you for taking the time.
Come back anytime.
Thank you so much.
Do you want to win some Lumasol sunscreen sunscreen mist you can spray it over your makeup you guys it doesn't even touch your makeup it doesn't make a crease i'm telling you and you're getting that
sun protection all you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest
instagram and follow my lumisol on instagram so Instagram. So easy. I'm telling you, this is one
of those products that you tell everyone about because it's so on the pulse. And with that,
we'll see you next time.