The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - How To Invest Money, Raise Money, & Find Investors To Fund Your Idea Ft. Kira Jackson

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

#579: Today we're sitting down with Kira Jackson to talk about all things angel investing & how to build a brand that lasts. Kira is both an angel investor in and strategic advisor to emerging and growth-stage brands, and is an expert in all things brand strategy. Today Kira joins us to discuss her unique perspective of being a female powerhouse in the male dominated investing space. She gets into the importance of being observant and constantly having a learning mindset & gives tips on how to grow and scale a business for longevity. She also gives advice to the new investors & discusses the different types of investing, how to get started, and how to decide what companies you want to invest in. To connect with Kira Jackson click HERE To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE Subscribe to our YouTube channel 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 & DEUX.    Meet BUTTERCREAM SUGAR COOKIE - the (2nd ever) exclusive cookie dough collab by @theskinnyconfidential x @eatdeux. Available now at eatdeux.com This episode is brought to you by Coterie Coterie diapers are designed to minimize leaks, blowouts, and diaper rash so you and your baby can enjoy more comfortable, dry, uninterrupted sleep. Go to coterie.com/skinny to receive 20% off your first subscription + free shipping. This episode is brought to you by Cymbiotika Cymbiotika is a health supplement company, designing sophisticated organic formulations that are scientifically proven to increase vitality and longevity by filling nutritional gaps that result from our modern day diet. Use code SKINNY at checkout to receive 15% off sitewide at cymbiotika.com This episode is brought to you by LMNT LMNT is a tasty electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. Get a free sample pack with any purchase at drinkLMNT.com/SKINNY This episode is brought to you by Sundays for Dogs Sundays is air-dried dog food made from a short list of human-grade ingredients. Unlike other fresh dog food brands, Sundays is zero prep, zero mess, and zero stress. Get 35% off your first order by going to SundaysForDogs.com/SKINNY or use code SKINNY at checkout. This episode is brought to you by Dreamland Baby Use code code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off all Dreamland Baby Co items at dreamlandbabyco.com This episode is brought to you by the Clean Simple Eats Clean Simple Eats protein powder is non-GMO, gluten-free, 3rd party tested, always grass-fed and made with zero artificial ingredients. You can get 20% off your first order by using code SKINNY at checkout at cleansimpleeats.com . Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. I am obsessed with this cookie dough and it's like near and dear to my heart because I actually had Zaza be the taste tester. Her and I went through a bunch of samples and this one was it. It is so good. It's creamy. It has like notes of raw sugar and buttercream. It's decorated with crunchy flamingo pink sprinkles. It's so buttery. You guys melt in your mouth.

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and you get 10% off in free shipping if you order at least three full-size products. And I'm telling you, get as many as you can, freeze some, and put some in the fridge. You will not be sorry. The Skinny Confidential Eat Doe Buttercream Sugar Cookies. Go run. Eatdoe.com. 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. The reason why I'm in private equity just in general, and it is two things, and it's the same thing that I would like to see founders do as they raise capital. And the first is just like taking every day and being the best at whatever it is that you choose to do. Just be the best, create the best brand and the best product. Investors will seek you out. The second thing, though, is being curious. I choose how I want

my life to go based off of what strings I want to pull. And that comes back to curiosity because that's what allows me to know I'm in alignment with what I want to do. Being curious and being open to not knowing, the older we get, I feel like the less we want to be bad at something. You have probably seen Kira Jackson on TikTok. If you haven't, you have to check her out.

She gives so many good tips on angel investing, how to build a brand, tips and tricks when it comes to branding. And she also talks about how to grow and scale a business for longevity. Not only is Kira so smart and sharp, she's also gorgeous. And in this episode, it's so cool to hear all of these sort of strategies from a female powerhouse. The industry of investing is so male-dominated. So to have her come in and just be so well-versed in this subject is really fucking cool. And I learned so much in this episode. I learned about the different parts of investing. I learned how to get started, investing strategies,

why it's important to always be open to learning. And I learned about being a woman in the investing space and how to use it to your advantage. We love using stuff to our advantage. So get your notebooks out because I'm telling you, you're going to learn a lot in this episode. Kira Jackson is both an angel investor and a strategic advisor to emerging and growth stage brands. She's also an expert in all things branding strategy. Additionally, she's an investor and head of partnerships for RX3 Growth. I love this episode. I learned so

much on that note. Kira, welcome to the Him and Her Show. This is the Skinny Confidential Him and Her. I am so excited to have Kira Jackson in studio. I have been watching your TikToks and I was just telling you off air that you make investing digestible to sometimes it seems very overwhelming, right? Before we get into all that, though, I want to get context of how you grew up and if finance was a big thing in your households. The short answer is no. I grew up, and I'm going to say this knowing that I come from a place of privilege, I grew up not necessarily thinking about money. And I think that impacted my career path because I never chased money. I always chased things that fascinated me, that made me want to get up out of bed in the morning. It was never about what am I going to do that's going to make the most money short-term or long-term. So the short answer is no. But I went through two sales. So

had an agency where I was the first employee. It's called Covet PR. It was based in San Diego. You're probably very familiar. That's where we met you. Uh-huh. I think it is. You came in to speak. Oh my God, that was so long ago. I came in to speak. I think you did. Empower Digital bought Covet, right? Yeah. Empower bought Covet. Yeah. And Rob and Grayson, I went to college with a whole bunch of stories there. Oh my God. Yeah. I'm going to tell you in the honor of not asking. Tell us about your time at Covet and how this started to be the forefront of what you're doing.

So I was living in London at the time, and I was coming home for the summer. I knew my dad would want me to have a job. So I was looking for internships, paid internships in San Diego. At the time, Covet was hiring for like unpaid intern. And something about it just caught my eye. I think it was just like the way that the post was structured. It just felt like something that I would be interested in. I never wanted to do PR. That's sort of like how I launched my career

was doing PR for nearly a decade. Never wanted to do PR. I was pre-law in college. And I think that always like really fascinated me was reading and writing. So I followed that, but wound up at Covet as an intern, you know, applied in London Heathrow at the lounge, got the job, and then stayed on board. I was the first employee at the firm. So we scaled that to about, oh my gosh, 45 or so people, and then sold that to Power Digital. And that was sort of like an opportunistic sale. Power Digital was sort of in the business of doing single channel acquisitions. And it just made sense for them to acquire a PR firm, have that be sort of the in-house PR offering for the agency. So that's what we became. And at the time, Power Digital was owned by a private equity firm. It was a smaller private equity firm, but

I never really understood the private equity model until we were acquired by Power because the model is a certain amount of growth and three to five X in three to five years. So they were working towards that model with organic and earned growth in addition to acquisitions. And Covet was a part of that sort of piece. So realizing that we were like this tiny little sliver in this larger pie and understanding what that meant for the business as a whole, that was the first time that I started to see sort of big picture. So we sold the power, scaled that to, gosh, we were 150 when we joined, scaled it to about 500, and then sold that to QuartzSquare. And that was a very formal process. That was a banked process. And there were only 10 of us actually running that process.

So it was the first time that I'd had exposure to obviously sitting on the sell side rather than the buy side, which I do now. The first time that I really had exposure to what went down in terms of acquisitions and the differences between a strategic or a sponsor. And we were actually, we were between selling to a sponsor, which we did, Quartz Square, and a strategic. And the paths for the growth of the agency from there would have been so different based off of where we wound up and

who was ultimately that sponsor. This was all stuff that at the time I couldn't comprehend. But once we went through that process, I realized, okay, I could stay at agencies or be a service provider for my whole career. But what's interesting about finance and private equity and venture capital, you sort of come with inherent value in the sense that you come with capital. But in RX3's case, now we also come with talent. And I think that sort of intersection was, it was a culmination of everything I've been doing for 10 years, but it was also where I see sort of the future of like brand strategy and growth headed. When you guys sold, you left the company to do more of the venture stuff.

It sounds like the reason that you left to do that was because of the experience you had going through the sale. Yeah. I mean, that was the first time that I started to realize, okay, money is important in terms of the lifestyle that you want. You want to have a family. It matters. But it wasn't necessarily still the driving force. And I started to realize, I actually took a pay cut, by the way, to leave Power and to join RX3, which is interesting, sort of playing the longer game with regard to carry. We can get into that as well. So part of it was about, yes, there's more upside here. But the other part of it is like, there's only so much you can learn in marketing and PR and influencer strategy, which is what I was doing. I was doing all things top of funnel. And at the end of the day,

it's the same strategy as different platforms. And you have to innovate. You have to stay consistent. You have to stay on top of what's new and next. But ultimately, it's going to be new platform, new sort of storytelling mechanism, and you're still sort of accomplishing the same goal. And I wasn't learning as much in that space. I think I was vice president of brand strategy when I left power. And I was running, you know, the oversight that I had was, you know, 250 people. And it was anything from affiliate marketing to PR, influencer partnerships. But I could do all of that while also, you know, getting paid to learn on the job and

doing the finance side too. So what do you do now in layman's terms to the audience? Because I need it in layman's terms. Okay, let's do it. So RX3 is a growth equity firm, meaning we exist between sort of venture capital, the earlier stage stuff, and private equity, which is your later stage buyouts pre-IPO. The growth stage is interesting because we're investing in brands at sort of an inflection point of their opportunity to scale. And when we're investing, we're investing as a value-add co-investor, typically. I mean, 25% of the deals that we do will be majority or buyout, but the majority of them are value-add

co-investment. So we'll go alongside an Elk Hatterton or a TSG, and we'll sort of take a smaller amount of equity, but provide value in taking that equity. So high level, I sort of straddle deal and operating teams. So as a prior operator, I'm working with our portfolio after we invest, basically helping them scale, bringing in talent at the right times, making sure that their tech stacks are up to date, that they have the right partners in place, right talent internally as well. It's basically anything marketing. I restructure and optimize anything from spend to partnerships. What kind of pushback do you get as a woman? You're beautiful. What do you get when you walk in the room? I mean, I would think that you would use it to your advantage.

I mean, there's a really satisfying moment when you can surprise somebody. I love it. I was telling Michael the other day, I'm like, people are like, oh, like, people don't take me seriously because you look this way or you do this. It's like, use it to your advantage. I know. And it's hard to, I think what's been the most difficult for me is choosing to harness that, not necessarily because it feels like an unfair advantage, but more so because I'm admitting that I know what I look like. I know what I sound like.

I know how young I am, but it's a bunch of butts. And there's something I don't love about having that be a negative or. Yeah. So tell like give us a story of when you've walked in a room with a bunch of men in suits. Tell us a little tale of when you've walked in and surprised everyone. Okay. Let's think about what I can say. A lot of NDAs in place. A lot of NDAs. You could be broad. A lot of them. All right. Recently, we were looking at investing in a business. It was a little bit outside of the realm of our typical consumer products.

Looking at investing in a business that operated primarily in commodities. I'm going to be very broad here, focused on commodities, trading. And they had a monopoly on a certain commodity in the US. I remember walking into this room, we were coming in as a potential co-investor. So the private equity firm that was interested in buying that company brought us in because they knew that we would be able to provide additional value. We walk into the room and it is quintessential. I mean, walnut paneled walls, like dark vibes, cigar lounge, everything. It's just, I think my problem with this industry or what I'm most

excited about being able to have an impact on is the lack of diversity in the space. And I'm not necessarily just saying like diversity in gender or diversity in socioeconomic status or what have you. It's more so like diversity of thought. And when you're sitting in a room with 39 other that look the same and you are the other, it gets a little bit scary to think about, okay, this large business with this like, quote unquote, monopoly is going to be hugely impacted by a room of people who think the same and act the same and want the same. And when you have lack of representation amongst capital allocators, ultimately, those who receive funding and those who receive support and those who grow are not always going to look like those allocators.

And most of this shit they're trying to sell is to women. 70% of household spend. And it's insane. They have no idea what women really want. So to have someone like you there is so smart, in my opinion. I think that's, I feel very lucky. I work for a very masculine fund. But my team understands the importance and the value of having someone different,

someone unique, and a unique perspective in the room. And I think part of that is, yes, I'm a young woman. I am the target demographic for the majority of brands that we invest in. But on top of that, I also have a unique perspective as an operator working on top of funnel marketing for these brands. So going back a little bit, because we've jumped right into it, but I start to think like, okay, for the audience that we're speaking to, and from what you've seen, say somebody has an idea for a business. And I should say, Dear Media was kind of the first one that we took down a true venture private equity path. But before that, it was a lot of like bootstrapping,

self-funding, doing our own things. When do you feel it's appropriate for people that are thinking about starting their own business to seek capital? Because I think that for a long time, raising capital was glorified. It's like if you raise capital, people assumed you were successful. And I'm the first one to kind of push back against that and say, don't do it unless you absolutely need to, or there's a reason for growth. Hold as much of your business as you can for as long as you can. At least that's my experience. But I wanted to get your take on it because I think raising capital has been celebrated, but there's a lot of people that raise capital and then lose all the fucking money. And so I want people to kind of like think about this like strategically. Yeah. I mean, I love that you say that because I completely agree. I think when you're looking at venture,

I mean, even for, you know, this is still venture capital. As a venture capitalist, you're looking at a series A potentially. By that point, you want the founders to own at least 80%, maybe 75%, etc. But we really don't want to start to see. And I think shows like Shark Tank, I think it's done so much in terms of educating consumers on the behind the scenes of building a brand and what it takes. But I do think to your point, raising capital has become so sexy. And it's sort of that growth at all costs mentality that got us into the situation that we're in now. I think that the way that the macroeconomic situation is currently, it gives us a little bit more of a foundation to have those conversations of like bootstrap to the point of can't scale this without outside capital or look at it like,

okay, there's so far that I can take this company. Maybe I still have cash. Maybe I'm profitable on first order. Fucking amazing. But then from there, maybe I need a little push to help me get into retail or wholesale. Or maybe I need somebody who has the talent relationships where we do have Aaron Rodgers invest in the brand, and that does something from a press perspective or gives us that viability. So to your point, I think it's bootstrap as long as you can, where you can, until you cannot scale the business. Or look at your investors, all of them, as value-add investors. Yeah. To your perspective, so when we went in and out, we bootstrapped the business all the

way to Series A, which is not so common, right? Incredible. But myself and my co-founder, we owned 100% of the business before we brought in a single dollar of capital. And the reason I share that is because if we would have raised capital early on before you have any revenue and it's just an idea and it's just a thought, or maybe you've just done a little bit, I'm sure that venture capitalists would have wanted 50, 60 percent of the business. And then when you go out to do a series A or you raise real capital later, the founding team is... That's how you

hear all these stories about the founding teams owning no percentage of their business is because they sell too early. And so the reason I want to talk about that is a lot of people listen like, oh, I can start a business, but I can't do it until I go raise money. And I don't think that's true. It's like get a little bit of traction, get a little bit of revenue, have some more controls because investors will look at that and actually think many will be excited knowing that the founding team is still vested and has so much. It was important for my partners now, when started doing this to be like, hey, Michael needs to have a significant part of equity because we want him in the driver's seat. Invested. Yeah, invested and excited about growing the business where

if you lose that, I think it's hard to scale moving forward. Well, yeah. And the early capital that you raise, that's going to be the most expensive money that you ever raise. So yeah. Hopefully. If someone is out there, they're listening, like Michael said, and they have an idea, where would you put most of the money if they're starting out with a little bit of money? Yeah. I mean, I'm going to speak to this from a consumer brand's perspective because I think tech is a whole different beast and I'm not going to profess to be an expert within that realm. I think if you're looking at a consumer brand or media or commerce enablement or marketplaces, I mean, any sort of that realm, there is so much that you can do in proving not only the concept and the market opportunity,

but also building a community. And I think nowadays for somebody looking to build a brand, it's most important that you have an incredible product and that you have a community of potential consumers, but more so just a community that perfecting the product, throwing a shit ton of money into paid ads, especially when the content isn't up to par. I mean, that is like a whole other conversation. But I think it's really important to understand your consumer, create something that is designed for them, and be so insanely proud about the product that retention will take care of itself. Say somebody's going to pitch someone like yourself or your firm. What mistakes do you see founders or young companies making when they're trying to get their idea across to a fund? I just have to say one. It can't be 600 pages.

No, no, no. It can't be 600 pages. We got to get to the point. We got to get to the point though over text. We got to get to the point over email. If someone sends me point though over text. We got to get to the point over email. If someone sends me an 18-page email, I'm out. Like I'm out. You're wasting my time. No, I believe if you can't. Sorry, that's just if I was an investor and like someone's showing me a 60,000-page email

or a PowerPoint, I'm out. I mean, I feel awful even corroborating that, but it is so true. We review like hundreds of decks a week. And I don't want to say that it's important to have a warm intro, but it really does help because there's less pressure going into that conversation. Explain what you mean by a warm intro. If you know someone who knows an investor that would be perfect for your brand, ask for an intro instead of reaching out cold. Ooh, I like that tip.

If you feel comfortable. That's a great tip. That is a great tip. It allows you to kind of skip the line. But Michael, to your question earlier, I think the biggest mistake that I see made is brands reaching out to funds or angels that aren't a fit for the company.

Like they don't do any research on the type of things that a fund invests in. They just hear, oh, that's a fund that has money and I'm just going to reach out. Like give us a granular example. Oh my God. Well, first of all,

the amount of early stage brands that reach out to RX3 is unreal. And look. Maybe explain the stages. Because I think like, even just like if somebody's like, what the hell are they talking about stages? Like I think that's important.

Okay. So we look for, we say 10 is sort of like 10 million is sort of like the cut off the threshold in terms of what we're looking for from a check size or from a revenue side okay revenue perspective and we'll look upwards of like 50 etc depending on the amount of ownership that we're looking to take but that's sort of like growth I would say. Earlier than that is what I'm referring to as early, but I'm talking like pre-seed. Like somebody needs a $300,000 check or half a million dollar check. It's like, you guys don't write checks that small or look at businesses of that size. We literally can't. And there are opportunities I think that come out of,

yeah, the one-off, there will be a partnership opportunity. Explain why you can't because I know why you can't, but I want people, like I want to get super granular here. Let's do it. Yeah. Are you using my word? Yeah. But I want to, because I think people, I don't think people, I think when they hear you, the majority of people hear like, you just can't, meaning like, oh, you can't. But no, it's literally like you're not allowed to in that fund because of the way your fund is structured,

correct? Exactly. So actually this is perfect because we were talking off air about kind of like the economics of a fund, which I think are not very well known. So as a fund, we're not investing our own capital. We invest other people's capital. And I think that most people probably don't know that we have LPs, limited partners. So they invest in the fund. And in exchange for taking their money, we tell them sort of like the fund thesis.

And we create a mandate that is mutually agreed upon behind between all parties. That mandate is what dictates how we invest. So if I come to you, Lauren and I come to you and we say, hey, we're going to write a check into your fund. We're trusting you with our money. We have a conversation and discuss the type of kind of things you're going to be investing in, categories, industries, et cetera, the type of check size, the type of kind of things you're going to be investing in categories, industries, et cetera, the type of check size, the type of growth stage, where a business is at. So basically if I've agreed, Hey, I'm investing in late stage or not late stage, but growth stage businesses that are around that $10 million revenue, and they've already kind of proven

that they've got some traction. That's where I think my money's going as an LP. If then later, I hear that all of a sudden you're in a business that is pre-seed, writing low checks in a business that's not really like, hey, as an LP, that's not what I agreed to give you money for. And a lot of your LPs are like football players, celebrities, sports players, influencers, correct? Yes. I would say like 40% or so of our LPs are celebrities. So athletes, celebrities, entertainers, influencers, social media influencers, that's something I'm very passionate about kind of scaling. But yes,

that 40%, the other 60% are kind of institutions or high net worth individuals. And to your point, I mean, we're not necessarily the only fund that an LP would be invested in. And I think that's something else that is a little bit gatekept is an LP might invest in two growth funds and they might invest in three seed funds. And that's their way of mitigating risk with the later stage investing while being able to play early stage. So they're balancing their portfolio based off of the mandate that we've aligned with them with on. Yeah, makes sense. Well, I think the reason I wanted to clarify that is because back to your point. Okay, so if somebody comes to you and they've done no research on RX3 and they're like, hey, I need a $500,000 check.

You're like, guys, we can't. And also like you've done no research. It's lazy. It's lazy. I mean, if you're looking for a partner on your business, like any kind of partner, maybe it's a co-founder, maybe it's lazy i mean if you're if you're looking for a partner on your business like any kind of partner maybe it's a co-founder maybe it's an investor maybe it is an influencer that you want to align with the brand and in whatever way like you're looking for a partner you should do your diligence on that partner so that you're coming to them with an offer that is appealing to them and satisfies

your needs that's one thing that I really like about you. Michael doesn't even know this, but you are not lazy with your work. And I'll explain what I mean. I was on the phone with you talking about something completely different than this. And I loved what you were saying. And I was like, wow, how can we get this part of Kira on the podcast? And I text her and I was like, can you send me some talking points of what you would talk about? The talking points you sent me are so thoughtful. And I think that if you can approach every single area of your business like that, it really shows. Sending someone a copy and pasted email that we can tell, by the way, because it's dark purple font. You're not going to get

the result you want. You have to put thought into things and be purposeful. I think gatekeeping is... Sometimes I don't like that term, but I think in this world, it's appropriate because one, I think people don't feel like they have access, right? Yeah. So, okay. Acknowledging first, it's a trying time and not a lot of people right now are just throwing dollars around. It's like, right, the economy is constricted. But if you are thinking about investing, most people don't even realize that they have the ability to invest in a venture fund and become an LP. And then in addition to that, they don't understand the type of funds

that they're deploying against. And then they hear someone like me or Lauren talk about like, oh, I raised money for Dear Media or Lauren's run here. They don't understand how it happened. It feels like it's like this insider club. But really, we started as anybody else. It was like, okay, what does it mean to raise capital? Who are the types of people you can raise capital from? What does it look like to build a presentation? How do we build some traction and get something interesting to people? And then who do you talk to? That's, I think, what I'm trying to accomplish a little bit from this conversation is understanding like, yeah, it's not the easiest world to break into, but it's also not the hardest if you just get a little bit educated and start to figure out

how to kind of actually go about the process. Yeah. I mean, it comes down to, sorry, I'm going to rewind really fast because I think it's also important. The reason why I'm in private equity just in general, and it is probably a very rare sort of path to go from public relations to private equity. And I think the reason why I'm here is because of two things. And it's the same thing that I would like to see founders do as they raise capital, especially early capital. And the first is just like taking every day and being the best at whatever it is that you choose to do. Just be the best, create the best brand. Create the best product. And truthfully, if you create the best brand and the best product and you have a moat around that brand and product,

investors will seek you out. So that's one thing to be said. The second thing, though, is being curious and taking every opportunity as like, I have a visual of little strings, you know, strings are dropped down throughout my life and on a daily basis. And I choose how I want my life to go based off of what strings I want to pull. And that comes back to curiosity because that's what allows me to know I'm in alignment with what I want to do. Like as a founder, if you're raising capital and you're starting to see little strings, maybe you got a LinkedIn ad for a course on how to raise venture, or you follow someone on Twitter and they're talking about the sorts of things that you want to learn about.

Being curious and being open to not knowing, the older we get, I feel like the less we want to be bad at something. I got very serious on the wipes that I was using on my kids because I found out the brand that I had been using had stuff in it that I did not want to put on my kids' skin. So inter-coterie. I stalked them, like literally asked them. I messaged them on Instagram. I had my team email them to send me wipes and diapers. They are the only wipes and diapers that I use for my kids. I'm obsessed with their pull-ups. I love their baby diapers. Everything is absolutely, in my opinion,

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in these little individualized packets, dump in some water, and you're good to go. Right now, Element is offering our listeners a free sample pack with any purchase. That's eight single serving packets free with any Element order. This is a great way to try all eight flavors or share Element with a salty friend. Get yours at drinkelement.com slash skinny. You must go to d-r-i-n-k-l-m-n-t.com slash skinny element offers no questions asked refunds. Try it totally risk-free. If you don't like it, share it with a salty friend and they will give you your money back. No questions asked. You have nothing to lose. Check it out. I also think that what's happened with curiosity, and I'm on like a huge spiel about this,

is that there is so much distraction now that your greatest enemy is not anything other than the distraction that is in front of you. You have to have a moat, like you mentioned, around your distraction. You have to have boundaries around the distraction or else it's almost impossible to get curious because you're being fed so much distraction all day long. So whether that's monitoring your content, making sure that you're just getting quotes from Charlie Munger, monitor what's coming into your ether as opposed to just letting it all come in and taking all the distraction because then it's impossible to know what you're curious about. So say somebody, say a founder has gotten to a place where they have a business idea

and they've grown it and they've bootstrapped a little while and they put a little money behind it and they have some customers, they have some users, whatever it is, and they have some traction. And they're at the point where they're like, okay, I cannot take this any further self-funding it myself. Right? Like for Dear Media, for example, we got to a point where the scale was getting so great and there were so many shows that I was like, I couldn't keep up with it on my own without putting our own personal portfolio

at a different kind of risk. I was like, okay, so one, in order to service the business, I need a growth partner because we're scaling so fast. And two, we had been around for long enough where we kind of had all the kinks worked out, at least for an early stage business. So we're like, okay, we'll make that decision. But say someone's at that stage and they've never raised capital before. They're like, I need to now do the research to figure out who to talk to. Are there some resources or places you would start pointing them in the direction of to go and figure out at least who to start conversations with? Yeah. I mean, the first thing I'll say is do the inner work on why you're raising capital. So I love what you just mentioned, because you're raising capital to scale the team. You're raising capital to grow an already working model.

Yeah. I'll give you an example. At one point, I was signing all the talent and doing all the sales myself, talking to every agency, every brand, and working with one producer to produce 10 or 11 shows. And so I remember being in Ubers and signing IOs and then getting on with an agency and pitching not only our show, but all the other shows. There's no way that I'm going to be able to keep up with this. It was going to do the business a disservice because I personally didn't have enough hours in the day to keep up. Totally. You can't be the best at what you're doing if you're spread so thin. So that is a great reason to raise capital. I think the issue is, and we're talking early stage again,

a lot of companies want to raise capital for the wrong reasons. They want to raise capital. I think the issue is, and we're talking early stage again, a lot of companies want to raise capital for the wrong reasons. They want to raise capital for inventory. The capital you're raising is expensive capital. You're not taking debt. I would say, if you're raising for inventory, look at debt alternatives. I'm also not an expert in that space, but I would say that's a good alternative space to look. A lot of times people won't give you those until you've got a track record of being established, right? I mean, you have to have a working business. The baseline is you have to have a great product,

you have to have a consumer base, you have to have a working business, and you have to have the retention to prove that it can scale. But beyond that, I mean, if you're raising money for inventory, then you're giving away valuable equity that is going to dilute you long-term in exchange for a short-term fix. So that's sort of like the first thing I would say is do the inner work to make sure that the business is at the stage where it makes sense to raise money. Once you've done that work, resources, I mean, I'm thinking of the middle America founder that doesn't have the access to, you know, LA ecosystem, New York ecosystem, Austin ecosystem, which by the way, it's amazing here.

Oh my God. You should move here. I literally. It's yeah. I mean, it's crazy here, but. My husband's listening. He's going to murder me. No, I think. What's your husband's name? Austin. Austin. Austin. Doesn't that sound nice? nice but no i think that is the i mean listen there's people even on the coast though like i think even if you're on the coast it's still you know access is not easy we can acknowledge that lauren and i were fortunate that we built kind of a mechanism that's front facing right so like we were two public people and it was easier to kind of be like oh like get a warm introduction because because we've met so many people. And you had a network.

Yeah, exactly. The network was not the easiest thing to build, but we built it for a long time. Never. But I'm thinking of the person that's like, hey, I've got a really great business. It's going well. I've taken it as far as I can take it personally. I can't keep putting my own money into it. I'm stretched thin as an individual and I can't keep servicing it.

Similar to early days of Dear Media. Are they talking to angels? Are there places they can go to research early stage seed funds? Basically, just a place for them to get their foot in the door. Okay. So the first thing that I would do if they want to go the fund route is I would put together a list of your like-minded, non-competing, or even direct competitors, and then take a look at what their fundraising cycle has looked like. You can use something like Crunchbase to do that. It's an easy way to be able to see, okay, what are the institutions invested in this business and at what stage should they invest? That would be the first place. And then reverse engineer your list from there and then reach out to those funds. Say,

I know you invested in this business. You can kind of get a general feel for when they invested, how big the business was based off of the stage. All of that is public. Well, most of it will be on Crunchbase. But then beyond that, you're doing the outreach and saying, I know you're interested in this particular type of business, and here's why I'm a good fit for you. Warm intros really help. Leverage your network. And then the final component is don't start with institutions. Start with angels. Start with people who understand you, who trust you. And honestly, if I were a business owner, those would be the scariest dollars that I took because my family and friends are banking on my success. I like that. I like those stakes for early stage. So take friends and family, raise from angels. And I

think a lot of businesses do things like public raises on Republic or Kickstarter was a big thing. I think that there are pros and cons to those types of raises. Lots of cons. It's expensive, insanely time consuming to run. And those kind of like catch you as you go through the process. They don't advertise that. And your cap table gets a little bit messy, although it does help to go through the process. They don't advertise that. And your cap table gets

a little bit messy, although it does help to consolidate through the platform. The pros, I would say, the publicist in me, it's like you're getting your consumers to invest in your brand at the early stage. They're going to feel a sense of ownership as you continue to grow, and they will champion you harder, deeper, faster than they would have otherwise. I feel like you can also get that energy from building a community without having to do a Kickstarter because sometimes, like you said, it can have like a salesman like energy a little bit. I also think that if you are going to have your friends and family invest, it's important to like set the table. And maybe you could talk more about that because I think sometimes people don't understand what it means to invest. They think

they're going to get a return in six months. Yes. Yes. I mean, yes. When you invest as an angel, you're investing your own money. When you invest in a fund, you become an LP and they invest your money. I think that's also kind of a confusing component. So if you're investing your own money as an angel, my best recommendation for angel investing is assume you are never going to see those dollars again. Good advice. I thought that's what I do every time. I said, well, I'll never see this money again. I mean, you can be smart about it. You can run the numbers. There's a quantitative component. There's a qualitative component. You invest based off of best practices and your own experience. But if you are investing money in an early stage business, just assume that you will never see

that capital again. Yeah. I look at it as like, if this is like maybe one to 3% of our total portfolio, it's like a pop fly. And if one of them happens to go and be the next big thing, it'll pay for everything. And if not, like you not going to... If I was just giving... And this is not investment advice because I'm not that person. But if it was me, I would not take more than 5% of my portfolio and put it into that kind of stuff. I think that's a mistake people make. I feel like we've done to like the sparkly investments. Like we've done like a lot of like, I don't know, like snazzy, jazzy investments, but now I'm more interested as I grow as an investor. Like obviously it's an evolution for me. I'm interested in the

boring stuff. Lauren and I are in a bunch of boring shit now. I'm interested in the boring, like super boring. Boring's good. Have a diverse portfolio. Like Do tech, do SaaS, do consumer, do media, do all of the above and find the winners in each of those categories. I'm talking about a caliber collision center in Houston, Texas that nobody cares about, but everybody needs their car fixed. That's the kind of shit that just stuff that- I'm talking about the titty bar down the street. Oh, listen, sign me up. Yes, sign me up.

Everyone wants titties. Everyone does. Titties and wings. I think the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is for a long period of time, people hear about these astronomical numbers in raises. And I think a lot of founders, especially if they've never raised, they just think, oh, I need to raise like 10 million, 20 million. And they go out for these huge numbers. And for many that are inexperienced, I don't think they understand the cost that that comes with. And I wonder if you could speak to that a bit. Also, Mike, just really quick, we've seen a lot of big brands that

we know and love go big. I mean, there was also a time, again, when I was on the PR side where Forbes wouldn't cover a raise unless it was at least 15 million. So there's also like society and culture perpetuates that sort of model. And I do, I'm hopeful that coming out of what's happening now, that will change. So yes, I mean, ownership is one thing, but I think what's probably more important, not more important, equally important to consider is who you're getting in bed with. Not necessarily like how much you own. Yes, that's important. But also how many people are taking a piece of the pie and what are their intentions for the business? And how is that going to change the way that you wanted to build that business in the beginning versus how it's going

to ultimately end up? How can founders know if their mission is aligned with the VC's mission? Because I think that's another thing people don't talk about, right? Like you, again, going back to your obligations to your LPs, you have a commitment to that person's capital and a return and a timeline on some kind of- Where we underwrite, yeah. Yeah. For example, say that I'm raising money from you guys. I'll just pick a random pun. Yes. And I'm like, listen, my goal as a founder is to never

sell this business and to hold onto it for the eternity of time. And maybe you'll get a return in 30 years. You guys can't underwrite that business, right? I mean, no. We're underwriting a three to five X in three to five years. Yeah. But so the reason I mentioned that is I think a lot of people that raise money don't understand the expectation of the fund they're raising it from. And you hear all these stories of founders losing their businesses or quote unquote, the fund screwing them over. And I'm sure it's worked both ways, but I believe it's from a misalignment of understanding the fund's goal versus the founder's goal from the beginning. I agree a hundred percent. And ultimately the best way to go about that is like, yes, read their materials, read their website,

but ask the question when you're face-to-face with a potential investor, you're bringing them something that they could not have otherwise. You're bringing them an opportunity to grow their LP's money and their own returns. So don't walk into that room necessarily from the mindset of, oh, I need something from you, or I'll do whatever it takes. It's desperate energy. Desperate energy, and that's where you get yourself into a bind because you're agreeing to terms that you don't want to align yourself with long term. So walk into the room and look at it like we are both getting, this is symbiotic. This is mutually beneficial. And when you're in that room, ask the same sorts of questions that you would want to ask out of a potential partner that they would be asking of you. Like, yes, they'll drill you as you go through their deck, as you go through your deck. But to the same extent, you should be drilling them. Who are your LPs? What do they want? What are you underwriting to? Where do you want us to be? Where do you see the opportunity? What are some of the red flags that you see in my business? All of those types of things will give you a lot of clarity on what kind of a partner they'll be,

how collaborative they'll be, and are you aligned kind of like long-term vision for the business. Sometimes too, instead of asking for money and asking for advice, like you just coming in to trying to appeal to them and see what you can do for them and then asking them their advice instead of just for money. I think that sometimes works too. A hundred percent. You talked about on TikTok influencers who are investing. Yes. And you talked about how you think that's the next wave of another sort of facet of influencers. Can you

speak a little bit on that? Oh my gosh, yes. We saw athletes do it, maybe started eight years ago. Celebrities do it. You see Kim Kardashian's private equity fund. Rappers. Rappers. So many rappers. They've done it. Yeah. I think they're one of the original influencers that were investing, right? Look at all that Jay-Z's done. I mean, Marcy is huge. Yeah. Okay, there you go.

I mean, anybody you can think of is involved at this stage, celebrity, athlete oriented. I think what happened eight years ago is going to happen with social media influencers because they've built this, I'm talking about they, Lauren, I'm just going to happen with social media influencers because they've built this, I'm talking about they, Lauren, I'm just going to address you directly. I mean, you've built this incredible community. You have brands, you have products, you have

opportunities in terms of deal flow. But to date, influencers haven't necessarily had the teams and the structures in place to be able to vet those deals effectively and then structure the agreements. So they get deal flow. They don't know how to activate on it. And then once they're invested, they're huge value add investors. I mean, we're not talking celebrities and athletes that don't know how to create content and drive conversions. Like influencers are trained. It is their job to create content and drive sales. Ultimately, I mean are trained. It is their job to create content

and drive sales, ultimately. I mean, engagement sales depends on how you look at it. Content, engagement sales, all buckets. But that is what they do. So if you have... We look at a business, let's use... What's a good example? Hydro is a perfect example, right? So Hydro's in RX3's portfolio. Brought Khloe Kardashian into that business, Kevin Hart. What is it? Oh, it's a rower. It's a rower. A smart rower. Okay, we just did an ad. Go ahead. Okay, go ahead. Yeah. So talk Hydro, that's celebrity. What Hydro needs is content creators that can create content because celebrities can't and their in-house team is obviously creating glossy content. They need UGC, but they also need people who can drive sales on a more micro level. And

I'm talking micro. We're obviously talking macro influencers here. If you fucking get Michael Bostic rowing in my house, unless it's white and it matches my aesthetic, I don't know about that. I mean, if you start rowing in our house, Kira, I'm going to be like. Listen, Lauren, I'm a massive value add. Oh, my God. Go ahead. So go ahead. The rowing thing is just. I know.

For what it's worth, our Hydra is in the garage. We have a little gem in the garage and that makes it a little bit better. I just can see him putting it in the middle of the house and starting to row every single morning. Oh, my God. This is an aside. But my husband tried to put it in the middle of the living room when it arrived. And he tried to tell me that it was art. And I said, it is beautiful. I know exactly what you're talking about. In terms of rowers, it is probably the best rower out there. You're welcome, Hydro. You should have called me earlier, but here we go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not middle of the living room kind of vibes. But yes, my point is these brands can raise capital from celebrities and athletes. And that is so great from a press perspective. It brings them on the Today Show. It gives them coverage. It does like that top of funnel sort of buzz pop. But what it doesn't do is actually generate content for them that they can leverage across all of their performance and retention channels. And it does not drive sales. So if you're coupling celebrities and athletes with 50 influencers as well, that's when you have full funnel impact. And that's what I'm most excited about from a fund perspective. So RX3 is a great example. The first year that I joined RX3,

the first thing that I did was onboard DBA, who you guys are very familiar with, as advisors to the fund and brought Raisa Girona. Should have added Dear Media. I mean, are you guys interested? There we go. I can always be persuaded. So my point is, the first thing that we did is we brought on DBA and we brought on Raisa from Revolve as an investor and advisor. And that allowed us to gain access to influencers at

scale, which is the problem. Because if you're going influencer to influencer, it's a million, couple hundred thousand, huge impact. But if you can't do it in the 50s, 100s, then it's not going to give that sort of like real growth, especially that we need if we're looking at businesses that are post 10 million in revenue. And it gives them the opportunity to have co-investment in those types of businesses. Businesses that, I mean, as influencers, the majority of deals that I look at that are directed towards influencers are early stage deals or even like Series A maybe. It is very rare for an influencer to get later stage deal flow

and be able to invest smaller checks into that later stage. So if we're able to give them those opportunities to, again, diversify their portfolio, invest later stage, and keep their early stage stuff while also giving them sort of the education and the training wheels necessary to maximize what their current deal flow looks like, then that's also opportunity for generational wealth towards a whole set of quote-unquote investors that had never had access before. I think also too, if you are an influencer or a content creator that wants to invest, I really think it's very important that you actually love and use the product and it

can be seamlessly integrated into your day. For me, if I'm doing an investment, it has to be something I'm using all the time. I recently invested in Chroma, which I'm obsessed with. I love her. She just came on. The matcha, I have it every single day. The bone broth packets are amazing. You can travel with it. I have their cranberry hydration every day. I used it every single day for like two months. And I looked at Michael and I was like, I just, I'm passionate, not even about just making money. I'm passionate about using this, investing it and sharing it with other people, right? Because that's what you're doing essentially. You're sharing it with other people and recommending it. So that's important to just invest in something because it's like the hot new thing, but you're not actually using it as a mistake. Yeah, I think this is such a fully loaded conversation for anyone, not just for influencers.

I think for anyone that's starting to make a living and earn revenue and make money, people don't realize that, especially if you're in... So Lauren and I have been kind of in this digital influencer space for a while now, right? Not just through podcasting, but for a while. And I've seen so many people rise up and then fall off and rise up and fall off. And most of the people that fall off, it's like whether the content gets so it's one thing. But the other reason is most people don't know what to do with their money. They don't know how to invest it. They don't know how to save it. They don't know how to structure good deals. And so you hear about all these people making all this money and then

falling out. And especially in the sad thing about that is you see a lot of these people making all this money and then falling out. And the sad thing about that is you see a lot of these people go and build incredible brands for other people or be a part of building an incredible brand. And then all they have to show for it is a check that they go later and spend on a bag or a vacation or a car. And you could have taken an equity piece. And listen, full disclosure, Lauren and I do that with a lot of businesses. People know that. And the whole idea is if we're going to get a fee, maybe sometimes we want to waive that fee or diminish that fee and take a greater stake in a business that'll be worth something down the line. I think for anyone that's listening that's starting to build a brand and generate revenue, it's like protect your long-term wealth. Don't just take it and

think it's going to last forever. Oh, 100%. I heard something fascinating recently, and that's businesses obviously have ESOPs, so like employee stock option plans. There's going to be a world where there is an ESOP, where there is an influencer stock option plan, where a certain amount of equity is just earmarked for that specific purpose for investors, influencers who are obsessed with the brand because you're right. Very smart. I feel like that's something that should be happening now all the time. I mean, we're starting to see it in terms of like Poppy's program or these like innovative businesses that are allocating equity for influencers, but it's still sort of like an

ad hoc basis. If you're building a business and you're structuring your cap table and you're building out an ESOP, it just makes sense to create room for those types of talent-led alignments down the road. Yeah. For stuff that we love, and I'll just give this a personal tip for maybe the creators or anyone with a platform that's listening. Anytime a brand kind of approaches us that's early enough, that's getting started, that we like, I always say like, hey, instead of paying us X, what about doing this? And also Lauren and I are in a position

where like, not only just the equity piece, but like, we'll also write you a check, right? So like kind of structure it both ways. I think it's important for creators to think about that stuff because these brands are coming to you especially early for, you know, a value that you're providing to the company and growth that's going to help them get to the next stage. I think it's just people should be aware that they can have those conversations. If you are looking for the best air dried dog food, I have you covered. This one is made from a short list of human grade ingredients. And this is the air dried dog food that I give both of my chihuahuas. It is by Sundaes. So Sundaes contains 90% meat, 10% vegetables, and zero synthetic nutrients. So you know that you're giving your dog something that's 100% real food. You should

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a little bit extra more, definitely check this out. It's honestly one of the best tasting proteins I've ever had. And I've had all sorts of them throughout the years. And this is definitely the go-to now. Visit cleansimpleeats.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off your first order. That's cleansimpleeats.com, code SKINNY for 20% off your first order. That's cleansimpleeats.com, code skinny for 20% off your first order. We love a clean product. We love one that works. Clean Simple Eats Protein Powder definitely does that. Enjoy. Because of the world that you're in, have you become extremely savvy with your own finances at home? The short answer to that is I am an expert in private investing in the consumer realm. When we're talking like how I structure my public portfolio or run my Roth or my 401k, I have partners to help with that. It's not necessarily

something that I would say that I'm an expert in, but I am mindful of putting aside capital that I want to invest in the right businesses when they arise. Can you talk about anyone that you've invested in that you love personally? All of them that I've invested in personally? Name a couple. I mean, Doe is a perfect example. So you look at Doe or Bala. Bala is a great example as well. Like love Bala, love all the businesses that I've invested in. But those in particular, the reason why I'm so bullish on those brands is because they know the future of marketing. They know the future of brand building and that is in partnerships. It's in like-minded, non-competing brand partnerships. It's in talent partnerships. And it's in just like a more creative brand building world than how we built companies in the past. So partnerships wise,

brilliant. But beyond that, it's a great product. They have the right people seated at the table in order for the brand to grow. And again, I look for a moat. I look for a moat on the product side and on the brand side. So what differentiates, what protects that product or brand from competitors? And then I look at it from like an operations perspective. What is the moat around the team, potential IP, trademarks, et cetera? Say someone's listening and they're like, easy for you three to say, you guys have access and you have some capital to deploy and I'm sitting here and I'm trying to make ends meet and I'm not in that position and you guys are tone deaf and out of touch. I know there's a few of you out there that are saying that about me right now. They will say it about me. But if you're sitting there and you're that person, but you're like, I'm interested in this

world and I want to learn to invest and I want to get involved and I want to start putting either my capital or someone else's capital work, where would you advise them to start getting into this space? This is not financial advice, by the way. But what I would do is I would start by building a world where you can invest without being worried about the money that goes out. Okay. So- And I'm not necessarily saying like, you can angel invest with $5,000. Yes, I understand that is a lot of money. I know that. But there's also a world where you can save $5,000. And instead of spending it on a handbag, you can say, I want to spend that investing in a business that I'm obsessed with. And at the very least, you get exposure to the inner workings of that company. Honestly, the first time I

invested was so I started getting, I just wanted to see investor updates that were early stage brands, not growth stage. I wanted to see a cap table. I wanted to have exposure to how a board operated or was being created at the time. I wanted all of the business insights that you cannot get unless you are either a founder or you're an investor. And that's a good first reason to invest. And say you want to go and work with a fund like yours. Yeah. Where would you start and say, okay, they have no experience, but they want to get their- Don't reach out if you have $10 million.

I do. Do not copy and paste in your book. But I'm not talking about from investing. I'm talking about you're somebody who's like, hey, I don't understand this world. I don't have capital to invest, but I want to learn this world and get involved. I'm not talking about from investing. I'm talking about like you want it. Like you're somebody who's like, Hey, I don't understand this world. I don't have capital invest, but I want to learn this world and get involved. And I want to start working in venture. Oh my gosh. I mean, first stage is probably resources. I would say Megan Loyst has an incredible, I think it's called Gen Z VCs has an incredible platform and she just did I want to say her deck was on Maven it was like an actual class on like VC 101 look for though and it's branded

all cute and it it's just like it it speaks to me that's a great option to kind of just get a lay of the land I feel like you should do that you should do something of your own I mean it's not the I'm like you probably don't have any time but if you do one day I feel like you should do that. You should do something of your own. I mean, it's... I'm like, you probably don't have any time. But if you do one day, I feel like you could make it digestible. I would love to be able to help in some way provide education within this space. And I think it's like a mindset sort of like time thing. But I agree. I think that more resources need to exist like that, but maybe slightly more sophisticated as well. And maybe there is sort of like three courses that you take, but I would say start with something like that. It was phenomenal. I did it. Wall Street Oasis

is another incredible resource. I hate recommending things that cost money because those courses do cost money, but they're not that expensive in the scheme of things and incredibly informative. And then there are free courses. I mean, one of my girlfriends, she actually teaches at Pepperdine, a VC 101 course. You can take that for free online. You can do a Stanford course, a Yale course, whatever. So I think it comes back to be comfortable being uncomfortable and seeking out those resources, just Googling venture capital. Be curious and creative. I think the audience would kill me if I don't ask a couple of routine questions. The last thing I want to say is I think in this particular world of finance and investing,

it's one of the only worlds where people immediately say, oh, there's no way I could ever do that. That's not for me. I'll never have access. Yeah, but that's a narrative. No, no, no. What I'm trying to say is that's the point is why I'm saying it is people just hear, oh, finance money. Like I don't have that. I'm never going to be that. I'm not going to be in that world. And I'm trying to point out to people that like you can be part of that world if you put in the time. It's the same, you know, like so many people out there think like I'm trying to point out to people that you can be part of that world if you put in the time. It's the same. So many people out there think like, I'm going to get on TikTok or Instagram and I'm going to become an influencer. You can have that same attitude with finance. It's actually maybe easier in finance. I hate to say it to people because it's so competitive to

build an audience. But for whatever reason, when people talk about finance, they just get overwhelmed and think that'll never be for me. I'll never figure that out. I don't understand it. And they just shut down. Yeah. I mean, I hate to echo. It is. It's a narrative. At the end of the day, you are putting yourself in a box and you are the only person keeping you in that box. There are so many free resources that are available that you can learn, even just the baseline, and then start to reach out. I mean, I get 20 DMs a week. I mean, not that many, obviously, compared to you guys. I get 20 DMs a week for my tiny little whatever from girls or young women who say, I'm so interested by your background in private equity or in PR and how you shifted into private equity. I'm so interested by angel investing. How did you do? And I do calls. I mean-

Uh-oh. I know. Uh-oh. DM her. I need a couple more DMs. This is the point though. It's like people want to help people. So yes, free resources. If you see somebody that you look up to in the space and you understand what they're doing and you want to learn more, reach out. The worst that they can say is they say no or they ignore you. And then it's on to the next one. But why not shoot your shot? I think the larger issue here is, at least for me, and I'm going to speak

personally, but I think that this is true for a lot of young women or even people with creative brains. I always thought finance was just not for me. I always thought numbers were just not my thing and Now I recognize sitting in my algebra class my calculus class my statistics class It was a narrative time and time again that I was telling myself. Oh, i'm not good at that I'm not good at that. I'm never going to be good But you will never be good at something if you don't try a But the second is if you're not actually curious about it or you're not actually passionate about it Then you're not going to have that fire in your system to be like googling after a long day at work so follow your passions if it doesn't feel like finance and investing is really for you

then maybe it isn't and something else is but if it is you'll know i'm sorry to shift the conversation here but i gotta talk about how you structure your day. You're obviously busy. What's the morning? What's the night? I can tell that you, I'm just going to guess, are very organized with how you lay out things. Oh, now I hope I live up to that. It's less about a day to day and it's more about what my week looks like. So my Mondays are the one day I drive down to the office. So I live in LA. Our office is in Orange County.

I drive down on Mondays. It takes between three to four hours. It's not fun. I don't miss that traffic at all. Yeah. Really? LA to Orange County is that long? Is it that bad if you can listen to a podcast or a book on tape?

Now that I have two kids, I'm like, eh, it's a little private time. You get your quiet time. Yeah. It's an hour and a half each way. Okay. You're saying each day. But yeah, so that takes some time. When I'm in the office, it's usually just in-person meetings. It's my time to hang out with the team. On the off season, we do have a lot of players coming in and out of the office as well. We have a full swing golf simulator in our office. It's ridiculous and also amazing. So it's kind of like a hangout time. It's like a bond building time, bro time. It's what my husband calls it. And then Tuesday, Wednesday, I'm home. I do calls. Those are the only days that I schedule calls on. Thursday, I do in-person meetings. So I live in Sherman Oaks. I drive into the city. We do meetings during the day on Thursday. So I'll go to coffees, lunches, et cetera. I try to do dinners only on

Thursday, but it's really hard, especially in private equity. Ah, that sounds nice. Only a Thursday dinner. I drive really hard. I like to, I'm a morning person. So I like, I like my meetings early and then I like my nights to myself. And then Fridays are my admin day. So no calls, no meetings. I sit in my pajamas at my computer and do all my emails. Are you working on the weekends? Yes, I do. I would think so. I think it's just I feel better. And it's not necessarily that I have anxiety and I feel like I have to put out fires, which I think would be unhealthy. I enjoy it. I really love what I do. And if I just put two to three hours in on a Saturday and a

Sunday, it feels good. It's like cleaning out the cobwebs before Monday. My favorite day to do emails and internal work is Sunday. What a joke. The fucking kids are hanging off the chandelier. I don't know how you guys do it. He hides upstairs in his man cave and I'm getting an intercom in that house. Here's why I like it. It's a hack for everybody that gets stuck behind on their inbox. No matter how many emails you do in the week, you'll never catch up because everyone will respond. On Sunday, I like to do it. I gave you this hack.

This is trademarked by me. No, no, no. I just feel like I can get it done Sunday. Nobody's sitting around working so they're not going to answer your reply. The team's gonna hate this it's like i've given you the the list of everything now you can like through the week you can do it right it's like i'm not starting the week like on my heels like everyone

asking me 18 different things right oh yeah you're gonna think this is so crazy what i'm gonna ask you okay tell me about the tikt TikTok that you did on your lips. Oh my gosh. This is the lip liner because I want this done. This sounds incredible because I'm over like I'm over like not that I was like ever into it, but I don't like a lot of filler in the face. I don't think it looks good. It looks old. Yes. Tell this trick that you do though is youthful. I am. Sorry, Michael. Just like meditate. I don't know. Michael might want it after I say it. old yes tell this trick that you do though is youthful i am sorry michael just like really i don't know michael might want it after i say it knows maybe maybe i have non-existent lips this is my best beauty hack and it's not even mine i mean my girlfriend gave it to me and told

me the person to go to but i had my lips blushed so they're actually tattooed oh my god michael's face like you got like an actual tattoo gun on your lips? I'm getting this done. So learn it, live it, love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead. So they basically, they outline your lips so that they look bigger because they're outlined. And then she shades them so that I never have to fill them in.

How long does this tattoo last? Is it like a tattoo like my tattoos? Like three years. Oh, okay. So it like fades out. It fades a little bit. I get it redone every year oh yeah and i basically i went in with my favorite lip liner and she color matched it and now it is perpetually on my lips you know what us men we really don't

know anything it's so much better than filler i think though because filler is giving you that over inflated look and this just sounds like it's enhancing whatever your natural beauty is. Well, it's like your lips only... I mean, mine, they were looking smaller because I had patches that were just not filled in on the outside. It's like pigment just kind of like transfers. And as you get older, apparently the pigment kind of like leaves your lips. You could tattoo the freckle on your lip. I have a freckle right here. Yeah. I do too. Yeah. She had a problem with that. Maybe I'll make could tattoo the freckle on your lip. I have a freckle right here, yeah. I do too.

Yeah, she had a problem with that. Maybe I'll make it a darker freckle, Lauren. No, and what's it called? Can you shout out the girl? Oh my gosh. Yeah, her name's Connie. Her Instagram is brow jelly. She is unbelievable.

I'm gonna go. She started- Hold on, is this with a tattoo gun? No, excuse me. Hold on. She started what? The whole thing, yes. She started tattooing,

just doing like cosmetic tattoos because her husband lost his hair and she started tattooing little hair strokes on his head. It's actually like

the sweetest story ever. Does it look real? I mean, it looks good. It looks good. Okay. Yeah. I have to know

before you go some beauty and wellness things that you do. Your favorite brow powder. You have great brows. Thank you. Just give us like a bunch of little tips. Okay. Westman Atelier, the brow pencil is unreal. You're going to have to send me the link. I will. I will. It has this like spoolie on the other side too. It's dual ended, but it doesn't have like a weird gel on the other side. And it's just like a really pretty brow because you have such good brows. They're so featheryy that's what it does it just like feathers

it's got to be glued boy hair gel you know what i'm talking about that yellow stuff from target are you serious three dollars that's what i use to spike my hair back in the day okay go on he does touch-ups in the front yeah the flyaways it's too strong looks like you use that right now no no no you know you know i got my redken rough i know i can't with the rough which by the way talk about a brand that's asleep at the switch michael's trying to be involved in the beauty conversation go on kira oh my gosh i mean brows that's the only thing i think less is just more too like i focus more on skincare and on sunscreen now than i ever have in the past. What are some skincare favorites? Or vitamins. Just give us like a bunch of little things that you do on a daily basis.

Sunscreen is Dune, which I was using like L2MD before. I'm obsessed with this sunscreen called Dune. It's like a gel and it is so like non comedogenic. It is glowy. It's gorgeous. It's like a serum consistency and it's just like amazing. So I use that under my makeup. I actually sometimes mix it in to my foundation. What else do I really love? Nudestix has the best chapstick. We're going to make a list of all your favorites on the blog. Okay. Amazing. Nail polish, spray tan, anything else that we need to know? I mean, nails, it's one coat of bubble bath and then one of ballet slippers. People love this shit. That's what you got to know. I would imagine a tattoo done on the lips is painful. I mean, shockingly, yes. No, not shockingly. Yeah. She does a great job of numbing you. It's a very uncomfortable process. It's like a really sensitive.

Yeah. Because it's like, basically, she opens your sensitive yeah because it's like basically she opens your lip this is tmi she opens your lip so she takes the gun and just dry scrapes it to like open up and you're super numb but you it's just like it's like the sahara desert on your lips it's so dry and that's one thing i mean like obviously i have tattoos here on my legs and everything it's like those aren't so painful but i i think of sensitive areas yeah but it's i think that like my buddy has his whole body and he got his butt cheeks done oh my god what and michael we're trying to talk about the lips i don't want to hear about your friend's butt cheeks with the tattoo can i finish my beauty it's relevant because he said he's got the whole body and he's like no problem but he said he was shaking and crying and sweating when

his butt cheeks it's like sensitive like someone smacks you in the ass. But then I was thinking the lips is like probably same thing, right? Well, yeah, but you can numb that. Like that would be like a butt mask. Lauren, listen, I'm trying to interject myself into this conversation. I was geared up on finance and you got into lips and things. Since I like to add like five more things to the blog post, are there any like little products, like supplements, lemon water,

anything that you do that people need to know about? Lemon water? I don't know. Not lemon water, actually. I wish. I was that girl. A tea. I mean, gosh. Every A-list celebrity comes here, you ask them their beauty tips, they just say lemon water. It solves everything. Really? I learned during this show that if you want to look like an A-list actor, all you're going to drink is lemon water in the morning and you're done. I can't with the lemon water. Lemon water and sleep. Okay, go ahead. Lemon water and sleep. I don't get a lot of sleep. I have to listen to sleep sounds in order to sleep these days, which is a little bit tough. Supplements, Array. I'm obsessed with Array. That is the only bloat pill that works for me. True. Code skinny. There we go. I also love

My Girl Wellness if we're talking probiotics too um what else am i loving i'm obsessed with ollie pop i drink like four a day which is i don't know if that's helpful healthy and work out and work out less than i would like to say when i was training for my wedding just a year and a half ago or so. I was doing berries twice a day for the last like two weeks. Now, it was gnarly. I only do berries once a week. I do Pilates and I do Megan Roop Sculpt Society. I do like 20-minute classes during the day.

I just have not had time to like fully work out. We actually just moved to a house and I've been dying to do neighborhood walks because our neighborhood is so cute and my dog would love it. But we just haven't had time to like really do it. And the weather sucked in L.A. So I can't believe the weather sucks in L.A. It's been so bad. I don't know what's going on with it. But those are probably for skin. I don't know if this is helpful, but the Dior concealer is amazing. Send me the links. We'll put it on a blog post. Where can everyone find you and DM me to get on a call with you? I mean, I will say it's tough right now. I think I'm

booking out for May. That's okay. Book out. I mean, book out for next year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think being self-aware about your schedule with that is fine. Where can everyone DM you, find you, everything? Yes. At Kira McKenzie on Instagram and at Kira McKenzie, just the Z, on TikTok. I really like your TikTok. Thank you. I really, I really love it. So Kira, thank you for coming on. That was such a medley of a conversation.

I loved it. Come back anytime. Thank you so much for coming to Austin. I'm so grateful. Thank you guys for having me. Our planners are back in stock at ShopSkinnyConfidential.com. They sold out. You guys are incredible. And I'm just so excited they're back because I've used this planner prompt every single day for the last four years. So to have it out there in the

ether and no other people are using it makes me so happy because it's really a tool that I've used to build my own business. Anyway, we're going to give one away because this episode is all about investing and planning. All you have to do to win is tell us your favorite part of this episode with Kira on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostic. I hope you love this one. We will definitely be talking more about investing in the future. So stay tuned. You guys don't forget to go grab the latest drop the skinny confidential times eat dough. Oh my God, it's so good. Buttercream sugar cookies like you can't go wrong. They're so delicious. Eat them raw or bake them. You can go to eat dough.com. That's EATDEUX.com and use code pink sugar for 10% off. It gives all customers 10% off and they will get free shipping if you order at least three full-size products.

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