The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Overheard LA's Jesse Margolis - The Man Behind The Overheard Brand On How To Build A Business Using Social Commentary

Episode Date: April 30, 2019

#185: On this episode we sit down with the man behind the popular Instagram account and now brand; Overheard LA. Jesse Margolis started an Instagram account using conversations that were Overheard in LA. Since then the brand has grown to multiple accounts and works with companies like Uber, Le Labo, & Bumble to create content using social commentary. On this episode we dive into the man behind the scenes who makes it all possible.  To check out Overheard LA click HERE To learn how to take a Cartier Bracelet off 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 ROTHY'S. Rothy’s shoes are stylish, sustainable, and comfortable enough for every day wear, anywhere. Rothy's will blow your mind that they’re made from recycled plastic water bottles, because they’re the softest shoe you’ll put on your feet. You can feel good about wearing them.To try ROTHY's go to ROTHYS.COM and enter PROMO code "SKINNY" at checkout This episode is brought to you by FabFitFun Sign up for FabFitFun today! These boxes ALWAYS SELL OUT! Use our code TSC to get $10.00 off your first box! Go to fabfitfun.com to sign-up and start getting the box for a life well-lived! - that’s over $200 for only $39.99!  Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her.

Aha! But if you think about people you really like, like whether it's Humans of New York or... Him and her. Aha! But if you think about people you really like, like whether it's Humans of New York, it just very much knows what it is. And I think it's about, like, pick one thing and do that very well. You're posting into a maelstrom of content, you know, that's both original and terrible.

I think one of the cool things about Instagram is you're seeing all these artists emerge. Like, we work with a lot of illustrators and stuff. So if you're an illustrator, you do that one thing, and that's what it is, and people resonate with it, or they don't. And I think you kind of have to approach social media that way. How we doing, everybody?

How we doing, everybody out on the interwebs? What are you munching on? I just got down, I had a Hershey kiss. Hershey kiss? Is that the only thing you've eaten all day? And I'm drinking some Trump water. Is that the only thing you ate all day? People were devastated when they heard that this mountain valley scream is called, uh, the mountain valley water is called Trump water. It is the best water mountain valley mineral spring water, but they

drink it in the white house. And so now it's called Trump water, which I don't know. I don't know if I'm endorsing that or not. I'm just telling you it's damn good water. Mountain valley spring. I like it because there's minerals in it. And I've talked to a lot of experts and they said that the first thing you want to do when you wake up is drink a water with minerals in it. So I'll either do this water or I'll do like a hydro flask with mint and lemon and a little pinch of pink Himalayan salt. Welcome back, everybody. Here we are back in the studio. Another day, another podcast. Is that really the first thing you've eaten all day though? No. I had a smoothie this morning.

I'm on a big intermittent fast kick right now. I'm in peak state, hyper-focus. Listen to the Jorge Cruz episode, everybody. We talk about intermittent fasting. I learned an interesting fact. I was with our buddy John Durant the other day, and he was telling me, actually not just John, but also Tara, it happened to two conversations I've had this past week around intermittent fasting. And they told me an interesting fact,

men actually have an easier time than women. And I'm not saying, I don't know if that's true or not, but this is what they told me with intermittent fasting, because traditionally or historically through evolutionary, um, through the evolutionary process, men were the ones that were out hunting. So they had to go for longer periods without food and women were more of the gatherers. And so they could kind of like munch and feast on whatever they were gathering while they were gathering. I'm going to gather you a go macro bar. Yeah. Go macro bars. I had to, no, I did. I had three of those today. I had the mountain Valley water. I had a blueberry muffin,

but no, I haven't, I'm not really, um, it's not my first thing, but yeah. Anyways, Lauren, what's going on? We need to work on your nutrients. I feel like it's, it's really important, Michael. I don't think you've seen a vegetable in the last few days. I don't got a lot of nutrients. That's true. I don't got a lot of nutrients. Neither does Taylor though. No, I'm better on the vegetables, sauteed spinach, broccoli. Anyways, guys, we got another interesting episode for you here today. Not just interesting, exciting. And it's with Jesse Margolis, the man behind one of the most famous Instagram accounts.

You've all heard it or seen it and love it. Overheard LA. I kind of want to discuss something with you that I noticed has been a theme for you and I the last two weeks. Wait, is this if it's what I think you're going to say, it's been a theme for you for the last two weeks, but it's been a theme for me for the last 32 years. I have been really studying successful high-level people. Oh, nevermind. I was taking that in a different direction.

One of the things that they all do, and bear with me because this sounds weird at first, is they set aside time in their calendar for thinking time. Oh, nevermind. No, that's right up my alley. Okay. So I've been looking at high performers like Keith Cunningham. You guys have to listen to some of his podcasts. He's so good. He's a guest on podcasts. Keith, please come on our show. I'm begging you. And he talks about how important it is to set aside 30 minutes to 45 minutes of thinking time twice a week. And what he does is he goes into his thinking time with intention. So he goes into this thinking time with a question that he wants to ask himself. And he has a journal and a piece

of paper. He says no computer or phone, and he just spends time thinking. So he got this tip from one of his mentors and it became a huge theme in his life to do his thinking time. So now I am calendaring in pink on my schedule, 30 minutes, twice a week, thinking time. And I'm going to go into each session of thinking time with an intention. What do you think about that, Michael Bostick? Well, I think it's a deeper issue. I think a lot of people don't have the ability to sit alone with their thoughts anymore. They don't have the ability to sit alone and just be bored. You know, if you go back a few years, there was a time you're sitting in the doctor's office and what do you do? Stared on the wall, sucked on your tooth. If you're lucky enough, maybe they

had a little magazine, pick up a little reading material. So that's what we did. You know, you sit around in a line. What do you do? You sit on your, you just sit with your thoughts. So that was the way that we've evolved throughout history. Just when you're bored, when there's nothing to do, there's nothing to do now with the, with the access of the smartphone, everyone, what do they do? You're sitting alone for a second, pick it up right away. And most of the time you're on social media, probably looking at accounts like overheard LA. So I think that people have been, we've evolved into a species that is scared to be alone with our own thoughts. And so I think it's not so

much just setting time aside to think, which I think everybody should do. I do it and put it in my schedule intentionally, but it's also being okay with being by yourself in your own thoughts. I would agree with you. I think that the older I get, the more I want to be alone and go introverted and really spend time thinking. I think so many problems that have happened in my business or in my life have been because I've been reactive instead of proactive. And I feel like going into a thinking time with a question that I'm asking myself, for example, the latest thinking session was, the question for me was, what am I not seeing in my business? What am I not seeing? And I sat down and I really examined

what I'm not seeing. So I think having that question at the top of your journal and just sitting with your thoughts, like you're saying is super powerful. Well, it's important to look inward. I mean, I think where people are running into a lot of trouble in life in most cases is they're looking outward to external things. Can this person help me? What did this person do to me? What if this event happens? It's not a lot of internal reflection and saying, what can I do? What do I think? What do I actually even really want? That's the biggest thing is a lot of people are going down there working at a certain job, they're pursuing a career, they're pursuing a company, whatever they're doing,

they're pursuing a relationship and they're just going and going. And next thing you know, you're just like going down a rapid river and you don't even stop to take a second and say, wait a minute, is this what I actually want? Is this what I actually want to be doing? Is the end result actually something I'm craving? And so a lot of people, if they could just take a step back and analyze for an hour or two a day or a couple hours a week, you're going to, you're going to have a little bit more clarity as to what you're doing. Totally. It's like what Warren Buffett always says. He says, think about what you want in how long? Well, he likes to plan out for like, what does he want in seven years and back into one. But no, I mean, even people like if you're going to go down to Warren Buffett, which and those guys, which are obviously high, high level, even people

like Bill Gates at the height of Microsoft and during its biggest booming years, he would take a week off work just to go think, go off into a cabin somewhere. I'm slowing down to eventually speed up. I want to spend a lot of time just with my thoughts and not scrolling through social media and looking outward, but just really being inward. So that's been a big theme for me lately. And I like to share things that I'm experimenting with, with you guys to further optimize my life. And Michael and I have been on the same page with this one. Well, questioning your beliefs, questioning my beliefs. Why do I want to do this? Why, why do I actually think this is beneficial? Yes. Why do I crave that end result? Like actually questioning why and what value you're putting on things and actions. That's important. I agree with that, Michael, why don't you introduce the episode?

This one's a good one with at Overheard LA. If you guys have not heard of this Instagram account, it is iconic. So we're talking to Jesse Margolis today, the man behind the account that we all know and love, Overheard LA, which has turned into Overheard New York, a bunch of other properties on social. And we just wanted to dive into why this account exists, what they're doing with it, what the man behind it is doing, and just really get into it. I think it's kind of a unique interview in the sense that we're living in an interesting time where we're starting to see personalities arise behind things that we might not have seen a few years ago.

Like this random Instagram account exists, and it's all about people talking and saying absurd things in LA. And all of a sudden, there's millions of people paying attention. That's a strange career path. And so we want to dive into that with Jesse and just, you know, get his take on everything that's being overheard in LA with that guys. Welcome Jesse Margolis to the show overheard LA. Maybe there's a couple things that'll be overheard on this episode. All right, before we get into that, let me talk to you about Rothy's. So if you know me, like really know me, you know I am fanatic about white shoes. Like I wear white shoes,

I think, every single day of the week. They're my favorite things. There's something about them. I feel like they're very flattering to the feet. and they also just get me all nostalgic. Like they just remind me of a boat shoe. You know what I mean? Super nautical. Anyway, enter Rothy's. So I actually have three pairs of these shoes. There's other colors. Now I like white. Okay. This is one of my favorite partnerships because it's so easy to talk about because I wear them all the time. You've probably seen them on my Instagram at least five times a week. Okay. I know you guys are going to love these because they're really, really easy to slide on when you're running out the door and you're running late, like me this morning with iPads on. Also, they're super stylish. They're cute. They're

nostalgic looking. And even Meghan Markle wears them. This specific shoe, the one that I like, is really flattering to the foot. And in white, it's even more flattering. You guys know how specific I am, and this shoe is going to make your foot look nice. Rothy's are a deal for this. Like I said, I got the white slip-on shoe. The fit is true to size. I got a seven and a half, and there's no break-in period. All right, before I give you the deets on where to get these shoes, I have to tell you that they're made from recycled plastic water bottles, okay? So they're the softest shoes you'll ever put on your feet and you can feel good about wearing them. That makes me feel good. They've reached almost 20 million bottles recycled. All right, check out all the

amazing styles available right now at rothys.com slash skinny. All you have to do is go to rothys.com slash skinny. That's R-O-T-H-Y-S.com slash skinny to get your favorite new pair of flats. Comfort style and sustainability. These are the shoes you guys have been waiting for. Head over to rothys.com slash skinny today and make sure you pick up the white pair. Now let's get into the interview. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. I'm glad we're popping your podcast, Cherry. Oh yeah, you're like my, you're penetrating me. Oh my God, your version.

Yeah, I'm being penetrated by The Skinny Confidential. It's very, very exciting. You always remember your first, good or bad. So welcome to the show. I mean, just the double Cartier love bracelets alone? You know what? I forget that I have this thing on. I was making fun of him yesterday for this. Yeah, I know. It might be to LA.

We just moved from San Diego. So this is- I couldn't tell by the matching- I'm going to saw that off him tonight, I think. I actually think it's cool because you're looking at the love bracelet, but you also have these tattoos underneath. Just a position. It's a contrast. It's like a tough guy standing in front of the fountain at the Grove.

Yeah. That's a perfect analogy. Tough guy standing, except I don't know if I'm so tough anymore. I got like bones creaking and everything, you know? No, he's not. It's like dealing with a geriatric. Like I am changing his diaper I'm so tough anymore. I got like bones creaking and everything, you know? No, he's not. It's like dealing with a geriatric. Like I am changing his diaper by six o'clock. He's in bed, ready to go to sleep.

8 p.m. I'm done these days. It's over. It's really, he doesn't want to drink anything anymore. He just likes water with lemon. Our relationships evolved. The water from the White House? Trump water that you've let us know. Yeah, so Mountain Valley water is from the wachita mountains but it is the

official water of the white house which they also sell at air one so it's it was obama water it was millard film or water and now it's trump water michael won't drink anything less now i know well with your say what you want about the guy but he knows his water he does he does how do we get here how do we get here overheard la let's let's go back a little bit how did you get here? Overheard LA. Let's go back a little bit. How did you get here? Let's get a little bit of background. Yeah, so Overheard sort of fondly started by accident. Like my friends made me an Instagram account called The Thin Jewish. I guess this was back in the day when nobody knew that the fat Jewish existed. No, like they didn't know what memes were and they thought, you know, he was doing all his stuff. And so I guess they were really into it. They're now off Instagram and act like they're too cool for it. But yeah,

so they made me this account. I used to kind of screw around on it. I would make like, you know, take pictures of latte that my barista, you know, sort of insulting my barista and this foam work or like making emoji book screen covers and just kind of screwing around. And then, yeah, I just heard these two women like at air when I was sitting outside one day and these two women walked in and they were just like talking about Lisa and like this total bitch in their life who just like love schwag and has this pit bull. Was that me? It might've been. It might've been you. Yeah. But it was all about freezing their eggs. I mean, the conversation just went, so I just sort of compressed it into a paragraph, wrote it in notes and screenshot it on my private account. Instead of getting 16 likes, I rocketed up to like 30 likes from my friends. So after like a week or two of those, a friend of mine, a screenwriter convinced me to start the account.

What were you like? What were you doing for a career or for a job at the time? I don't think I had a career. I definitely was very dissatisfied professionally. I was doing, I had been, I had a streetwear company in my late twenties, early thirties, and that kind of went under. It was really cool, but I had no business, you know, theory behind it. And then I was bankrupt, which I can tell, but like the bracelet, you one day will be bankrupt. Or maybe have almost been multiple times, right great it's an indicator yeah but uh i was definitely like down on my luck and my you know and then um i used to spend a lot of time at air one and then i started working in doing like casting for docu-series and reality tv so i had like a freelance job which i despised and i sort of always lamented that i'd never done anything i always thought like oh if i could go back in time i would have done something in comedy job, which I despised. And I sort of always lamented that I'd never done anything. I always

thought like, oh, if I could go back in time, I would have done something in comedy or advertising. And now I've sort of luckily stumbled into both. So how do you go from that to where you are now? Because now you have multiple accounts. I mean, there's Overheard LA, there's Overheard New York, there's Overheard. Is there Overheard Miami? You're like the Real Housewives of Overheard New York. There's Overheard. Is there Overheard Miami? How many Overheards are there? You're like the Real Housewives of Overheard. Like we have, they're all over. You know what I mean? So how do we go from you at Air One? Have you ever had that analogy before?

No, I think she's just defending you because of the bracelet. Yeah, good. Defend me. How do we go from where you started at Air One to where you are today? Is this just rinse and repeat seven days a week work? How are you building the team? What's sort of the A to Z? Yeah, it's been a lot of just kind of feeling it out because I didn't understand the landscape of social media when I started it. So in my mind, when I started over, we have eight accounts now, five of our own, LA, New York,

San Francisco, London, and University. Now we have three branded accounts. Our original one, which is with Lollabo, which I smell like right now. I don't know if you want to lean in. Smells great. Nobody's doing cocaine. It's just Lollabo. And then we have an account with Bumble. And then we just launched last June an account with Uber.

It's a small, tiny company. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. A little mom and pop artisanal car startup. I've heard of Lyft. I haven't. I truly haven't. Never used a Lyft. This is going to be a weird episode. Oh, do they sponsor you? No. Well, definitely not now. Sorry, Uber. Taylor, edit that out. No, maybe not. Keep it live. Keep going. So a lot of it's been just feeling it out. Like the first year was just like maintaining Overheard LA and sort of like I had these

rules I came up with, which is like no images, no cheesy hashtags, no like chasing after following people. None of this like, these meme accounts do this like carousel posting of like, you know, wine and I'm so tired and all these memes. And they just sort of, you know, there's like a way to strategically grow. Just stuff they know that will get some viral activity going around. There's a way that you can strategically grow. And we just never did any of that.

It was just like, this is going to be about the content. This is not going to be anything else. It was before there were Instagram stories. And then with the help of my friend Mercedes, we launched Overheard New York. And once that kind of hit, because, you know, there's that line, if you make it in Miami, you can't make it anywhere. But like, you know, once the New York account took off, and I realized this was replicable in such a, you know, a city that has such high standards and stuff like that is when I sort of started to have an idea of what this could be as a business.

Was there somebody that posted or shared that like, made it just go ballistic? Or is it it did a slow build? It was a slow, it it did a slow build it was a slow it wasn't a slow build it went straight up it was basically Ireland Baldwin found it when it had like a thousand followers and that helped us and then uh Jennifer Morrison who's a really talented actor and director um she was on like Once Upon a Time and House and stuff like that she kind of boosted it and then it just kind of went. Do you guys collect all the content from other people? Do you find it? Is it a medley? How do you go about having all the content for the week? So we have editors now. Like we have an editor who does San Francisco and an editor for London. And then, I mean, basically it's mostly UGC. So people

send stuff in. They send in a lot of really terrible stuff. We just did a really fun story called DMs to the editor where we posted the biggest assholes that have ever done our stuff. It's so good. Like complaining about there's no Jones in Studio City, like yelling at us that the account's fake because there's no Jones in Studio City. And then they're like, oh, my bad. There is a Jones in Studio City.

Sorry. Fuck you or whatever. Are you allowed to curse? Yeah. Fuck yeah. Awesome. So yeah, it's mostly UGC. I mean, there's a small portion of it that comes from conversations from friends and dinner parties and things like that.

But mostly people send stuff in. So when you're vetting this now, like what is the vet? I mean, what does the vetting process look like? Just has to be funny? Or I mean, like, do you go and say, does this person actually live in LA? It's very specific. It's a very specific type of humor. It's very specific. And in some ways, like the New York account is a lot more free. You know, I feel like the New York account, those are the two sort of bigger accounts that have a million

followers and the New York account is more random. And the submissions tend to be like a little more interesting. LA is more like yoga, kale, avocados, you know, celebrities we don't mention, like, you know, all that stuff. Um, so it's trying to keep it fresh, but also kind of just, it's hard. Like sometimes I'll tweet stuff. I'll use Twitter as a little bit of a testing ground, which makes no sense, but I'll just, we have a Twitter account, so I'll just tweet a bunch of submissions. What I find funny about it is that people accept this absurdity here in L.A. Like, it's like you read something, and you're like, yeah, that's normal. That's a standard.

Even though it's so out there, like, we've all just, we've all just said, like, hey, yeah, that's acceptable because we're in L.A. Is L.A. the craziest? L.A. is the craziest. I mean, some of the things that you post and that I was reading, I'm like. It's amazing. You read it, and it's so absurd, but you're like, okay, but I accept it. Yeah, but it's amazing. You read it and you're, it's so absurd, but you're like, okay, but, but I accept it. Yeah, but it's real.

Like I got a text from a friend of mine the other day that said, cause I have like, you know, some minor health issues. Cause you have to, if you live here, it's like part of the, you know,

you're nobody. If you don't have like some kind of ailment. Yeah. And you know, she sent me this thing. She's like, I need you to see my healer. Her name is blank.

She's in Van Nuys. My friend had ovarian cancer and now it's gone. And that's just a text. Like, and it's, it, maybe that's true. I don't know if that's true. Um, but it is a particularly Los Angeles thing. I think LA has always been a little like, like you would never get away with that. If you were in the Midwest, you're like, listen, there's this guy, I know you got this cancer. You got to go here. You see him and you'll be like, people are like, what the fuck are you talking about? I just think what's fringe in other places is mainstream here. So like, you know be like people be like what the fuck are you talking about i just think what's fringe in other places is mainstream here so like you know christianity is massive it's not that big here it's like oh no but like you know whether you're a libra is going to affect

how you know which freeway you take so so you know there's always going to be in the midwest some kooky healer person who's like a little different you know like some gypsy friend like we've had some of them on the show. Yeah, they've been on. How have you built a team? Because this is a unique business because it's new. I mean, you know, social media to me is still obviously the wild, wild west. How have you built a team and how do you know sort of when to pivot and make moves? And how will you build this out into potentially a product or a podcast?

Yeah, so it's, again, it's been very much like guttural, like feeling it out, like, and it's been a lot of luck. Once I was, I realized I was able to monetize the account and stories came along and we try to do it very delicately. You know, we try to do like two to four ads a month, never treat ourselves like a billboard, always sort of like do collab, you know, sort of co-create the, the brand collaboration with whoever we're working with. Yeah. So Mercedes came on early. She's brilliant. She runs all our branded accounts and does a lot of content for us.

And then that was just sort of like a happy accident. And then Bridget, who's sitting here with her slightly overweight dog, Kathy, overheard Kathy, can't break 800 followers if anyone's interested. At overheard Kathy. Get it to 1,000. Kathy with an I-E or a Y?

Y. The only account of overheard that can't take off. Get it to a thousand. Cathy with an I-E or a Y? Y. The only account of Overheard that can't take off. Let's help Cathy out. Anyway. So Bridget came along. She was just really enthusiastic. And, you know, I had a little bit of extra money. I sort of started off as an intern.

And then we hired her full time. And now she's basically kind of runs the place. I partnered with my best friend since kindergarten. Because I don't know anything about business. And mostly just Cartier bracelets and White House water and just, you know, cocaine. And then we just hired someone to sort of do like operations. And we work a lot of freelancers. So it's been very much like stage by stage, you know, we're self funded, we haven't raised a penny. We've never bought a follower. We've never, you know, sort of cynically. You don't have to answer to anybody. It's great.

Well, it's great, but it's also, you know, it'd be fun to raise a bunch of money so you can just sort of do some cardio bracelets and yeah. Stack them up like Courtney. Let me ask you this.

You get into any of this meme drama with, you know, I heard that, you know, we mentioned Jilly, Jilly Hendricks was on this network for a while. She was talking to all this crazy stuff about all these different meme accounts that go to war with each other and they get into all this drama.

You encounter any of that? No, I've never looked at overheard as a meme account um i know that technically like that white square of text it is a meme um but i've just never looked at it that way and we intentionally like don't really follow meme accounts i mean we follow a couple from try not to engage with them and i i think memes are hilarious like there's like really funny memes are amazing there's stuff really funny memes are amazing. There's stuff on Twitter. It's a little bit different than what you do,

but we just, I've always tried to try. It sounds snobby, but I've always tried to treat overheard like it's better than the platform. It's on, you know, and we've tried to appeal to a sense of irony and satire. And it's a bit,

it's like a great bit. You study comedy when you're younger? No, but I'm Jewish. So, you know, so natural, satire and it's a bit it's like a great bit you study comedy when you're when you're younger no but i'm jewish so you know so natural the natural neuroses and all that stuff is always you know you talked about anonymity before you came on can you kind of speak on that of why you decided to stay behind the scenes i just think like i mean if i were if i were 25 and like going out to night clubs and like at one oak like you know john st I don't know, like with whoever would have been there at the time, you know, like I think it probably wouldn't have been anonymous because I would have wanted to be a part of it and wanted the benefits of whatever that sort of pseudo celebrity is when you, you know, have Instagram stuff. But I just think the platform itself is a lot more powerful without a face.

To me, it's reflective like yes there's a lot of stupid stuff on there but there's a little bit of that in me and there's a little bit of that in all of us and i think having it be about the city about dating about culture and just be this sort of like it's not a black mirror i guess it's a white it's a much less well done white mirror but i just think that's more powerful you know it's not like i'm some wannabe banksy i just think bringing my face because you bring the face to it everyone's going to just start associating with you and the way you have it set up now as it feels more like us does that make sense yeah but look at look at the difference with this bad timing but look at the difference between the fat jewish and fuck jerry like they both took off they were like the

sort of rockefellers and carnegies of. I wonder if they've ever been described like that. That's a good way. Probably. Probably flattered. But you know, everyone, there was this whole crisis moment with the fat Jewish because there was someone to go after. You know, there's this personality. He came on the show and talked all about it when that happened.

He was talking about like, what do you want? He's like, listen, how do you know where memes came from? And in his defense, like I get where people were pissed. For me, I always look at those guys. What I find funny about the accounts is the commentary they put behind the memes does that make sense like the captions like the captions like i think because in in the defense of that like a meme can get circulated all over the place like do you remember back in the day ebombs world do you ever used to fall dude that's the that was the jam back in the day like nobody

knew where that came from right what the fuck is that oh come on lord i got really, Lauren. I got really sad because I saw E-bombs World on Instagram and it had like 50,000 followers. I wasn't born yet. I was like, you invented the internet. It's the original. Yeah. It's the original. I used to just sit in college

and look at that and probably why I didn't get the best grade is just stare at that. But nobody knew where that came from. True. But I think there's a contrast there because it's like, okay, so you write funny captions.

Does that mean you get to make millions of dollars a year? And there's something to be said for capturing like, okay, so you write funny captions. Does that mean you get to make millions of dollars a year? And there's something to be said for capturing the audience. I just think Fuck Jerry, obviously there was a recent scandal, but they did a much better job of like, what is this? Who is this? Fat Jewish did amazing stuff, but I think you just pay the price for having an ego persona attached to it. You know what I think you do a really good job at? I think you do a really good job at? I think you do a really good job at making a community. Because what you do essentially is you put the bid up and then underneath it you tag the person that heard it, that they've submitted. So you start to sort of grow this community and the community becomes the hero, which I think is really, really smart to make your consumer the hero. We're going to talk more about that. But first, let me tell you about FabFitFun. Okay, so the 2019 FabFitFun post-spring editor's box is on sale now.

This, guys, is such a great gift. Mother's Day is coming up. If you need something creative, this is so fun. So basically with FabFitFun, your mom can celebrate Mother's Day four times a year. You can forget about the flowers. The flowers are going to die. You know what I mean? FabFitFun's not. FabFitFun is all you need to make holidays very special. You get over $200 of products for $49.99. So FabFitFun works with lots of great brands, brands that I'm sure a bunch of you guys have heard about. But my personal three

favorites are obviously D.P. Hugh. I talk about D.P. Hugh all the time. And they have an ACV hair mask in there that's a $42 retail value. They also have a Murad Renewing Eye Cream. I love a good eye cream. And this one's $82 for retail value. So another fun brand that they work with all the time is Tarte. Anyway, just to give you a little breakdown. So it's a seasonal subscription box. FabFitFun's delivered, like I said, four times a year with full size beauty, fashion, home, and fitness products. The key is full size. I don't want like a sampler. You know what I mean? I want the full size. So no samples at all. Every box is guaranteed to have over $200 in retail value, which is very, very fun. And you get to discover all these good brands and products. So you get to kind of taste the rainbow. Sign up for FabFitFun today because these boxes

are always selling out. You guys just go to FabFitFun.com to sign up and you start getting the box for a life well lived. Use promo code TSC to get $10 off your first box, that's over $200 for only $39.99. Go to fabfitfun.com and use my code TSC to get $10 off your first FabFitFun box. You'll love it and you'll love the full-size beauty products. I'm telling you. Yeah. I don't think it was intentional. Like when I was like, we posted our first submission after like three or four weeks. I think it was, I can't remember something about like a nine-year-old having a yoga birthday party in Brentwood or something. Something like that. But there's something about it. Like I've actually been overheard, you know? Like I've actually sat somewhere in Silver Lake with my friend, had a really cynical conversation and had someone not

know it was me and submit it to me. Yeah, right. Which was it? Can you say what it was? It's in the little intro to our book. Okay, but it was basically just me complaining about like, you know, girls dating only one of 12 guys in LA, you know, like this me too actor and this like magician and this, you know, like whatever. And then she submitted it and I was like, oh, you made my day. But yeah, there's, it's accidental. I think Instagram has made a lot of really amazing developments that have just helped us. Like Bridget and I always joke, like Instagram is just our best friend. Like the stories came, came along. So now we can like use images and use visuals without screwing up the sort of spirit of the accounts. Can you speak about your book?

Can you tell us about that? Yeah. I mean, it's just kind of, I mean, we're, we're planning on doing a bunch of different stuff, but this was fun. It's called We Only Dated for 11 Instagrams. It's about the two of you. We've got a few under our belt now. That's incredible. It's the 6,000 Snapchat street. The 80th snap. How many stories are highlight having it now?

Too many probably, right? Mine? Yeah, how many stories are in that highlight? Like hundreds. Yeah, way more than one Instagram. Did you guys meet on instagram no we were 12 did you really yeah oh you want to go into that like at burning this is not overheard la this is overheard minnesota oh so this is what happens when you come from san diego this is what happens you heard for amy klobuchar so tell us about your book. Oh, yeah.

So it's called We Only Dated for 11 Instagrams. It's a book. So who cares? It doesn't really matter anymore because nobody reads. And also it's been written with other people's words. But yeah, it's basically it's got an intro from the mayor, Eric Garcetti. And it's just kind of our best of. It's divided up into like dating and digital life and, you know, fitness and food.

It's just kind of like, you know, a coffee table, bathroom book of like our favorite quotes from the first couple of years. And how do you guys continue to scale the business? Do you think there'll be product? Like what's the next steps? Yeah. So it's interesting. Like right now we're, you know, it's basically advertising. We do, we work with brands on our platforms and we have these branded accounts, but we're launching like our first project off social next month. It's going to be like a print project, just kind of a surprise. And then we're looking to activate more at events. So like how can overheard be experienced, you know, at an event or at a place. You're building a media company. Media companies are all going out of business.

So I don't want to say we're building a media company. Don't tell me that. No, but in essence, you're building a new media company. Like I know what you're saying. A lot of media companies as they exist right now are going out of business. I think there's multiple reasons I don't want to get into right now, but you're building a media company with a new form of media and you're going into areas like what you're able to build now, books and activations and advertising platforms. Like you're able to do this with a very nimble and small team. And to be able to do this on the scale that you've done it now in the past, you're going to,

you would have, you know, a hundred employees. You couldn't, you couldn't do it. Yeah. I have a really douchey way of describing it, which is it's sort of micro media company slash creative services agency.

But I do think like what fuck Jerry's done that, you know, excusing the whole fireyre Festival thing. I mean, I saw you there. It was crazy. I was in one of the houses. No, I saw it all going down. I saw you choking someone because they tried to get near your 20 tents that you were protecting.

I grabbed like five mattresses. But, you know, I think they've done a good job of laying out how you can monetize. Like he has that game and he has tequila. He's got his media company. Yeah, exactly. Client service company. Our path is, you know, growing on Instagram, growing on social, um, you know, starting to get more into video and storytelling content events. You know, we want to do stuff as, as silly as like, you know, in a hotel elevator,

I mean, an elevator of a new hotel have quotes whispered, you know, into it, which would just be for fun to, you know, working with brands on billboards. How does our IP go into the world and then sort of get reconsumed back on social? So the print project, which I'll tell you guys about next time, you know, merchandise events, you know, that kind of stuff is what we're sort of looking to do. If there is an audience member out there listening that wants to submit to you? What is the most strategic way to submit? Is there any little tips or tricks you could give them? Well, first is like really read the submission and think to yourself, like, does this suck? Do you know what I mean?

Like, is this something that everyone's heard a thousand times? Because I think a lot of, you know, the account's two or three years old now. So it's like stuff that we would have posted two years ago. It's like, oh, that joke's done. Like we all know about, you know, the yoga teacher talking about politics, you know, as they're want to do. So I would say like, you know, make sure it's funny. And then just we read every single submission. It's just, we don't allow them. So people think we don't read them because it doesn't have the red receipt, but everything is. And then if it's good, we'll allow it and we'll send a release which we've been doing i get what you're saying so like

you see it but you don't you don't necessarily hit allow unless it's good so you because the instagram's dm functionality is so terrible you can't actually like we can't really communicate with our followers you know it's it's it's not on those first 10 or 20 dms and you're getting hit up all day on dm it's like you know where'd you get that bracelet? What's the deal? How do you go from Minnesota to San Diego to LA? I'm going to saw it off you tonight. I actually think it's dope. Well, you know, I think it's... Why'd you cover it?

Well, because I didn't want to get berated so much. Listen, I'm very delicate, man. It's silver. It's not gold. You know what's bothering me more than the bracelet? The ring. Well, no, this ring. Our friend Tara...

Well, this ring. Well, this is my wedding ring. No, I love the concept? The ring. Well, no, this ring. Our friend Tara. Well, this ring. Well, this is my wedding ring. No, I love the concept of the ring. No, this one is that one. But he keeps wearing it every single minute. It like tracks your heart rate and your sleep. Oh, my friend. Aura.

I was about to get one of those. No, it's legit. It's good. I have to hear about his sleep. I like it. If he's had a good day or a bad day. You do look like a biohacker, though. You seem like such a biohacker.

I'm not, but I never, like I just got given this and I was like, holy shit, like now I can see how poor my sleep is. And we have to talk about it every single day, like all day long. And it'll tell me like, okay, you're ready for the day or you're not. I need a new subject. I've heard about this. My friend Taryn posted about this

and it's this ring. It's like four or five hundred dollars and it tracks your sleep, but also like heart rate, stress levels. Yeah. i drank this weekend and the heart rate spikes and i'm like oh shit now we can't drink now i'm like i'm like whoa i'm like what's going on there lucky me because they're like a fucked up influencer that chases after you going like my precious it basically like tells you it's like hey man like the other day i got a message and it's like hey dude you better take it easy today today's not a good day for you to do any activity. And then some days you're like, hey, step it up.

And I'm like, oh, shit. And so it kind of. But you have to wear it, right? Yeah, it's like a game. I wish you could wear it as a toe ring, though. And then you get into competition because I have some buddies that have it and they'll send me their shitty score. And then if I did really well that day and then if I didn't do well that day, I just won't send that day. No, but apparently you can do all this stuff.

Like if you took Valerian route to go to sleep to sleep for example you can like track that and see how that affected your sleep but she said they're updating it with some like last night i hit the cbd pen before i went to sleep and then i was like oh man i got really good i'm gonna sleep i'm gonna be honest with you in my backpack i have really bad anxiety it's fat like trendy right now and so i bring i carry cbd with me not THC, but it has a trace amount and I had it for the podcast and I spilled the entire bottle in the pouch of my backpack.

So when I was in the waiting room and all these like, all these like, you know, people that look like they work at Condé Nast are like walking around. I dipped my hand

into the backpack and just sort of soaked some up with my fingers. I would have done that too. I calmed you down a little bit. I would have done that too. We got to put CBD in your water or something. You have anxiety too. Well, fuck yeah. I mean, look who I live with. For DMs, how do you guys not feel overwhelmed? You must get a thousand DMs a day. I don't think we get like that. We definitely get a couple hundred

submissions a day. We get emails as well. What do you do? You have how many people in there going through them? I go through L.A. and then we have editors. So they basically we have like for the London account, for example, like we have an editor who will, you know, go through them all, submit, you know, we'll sort of look at, you know, a month's worth of content. L.A. and New York, we turn around quicker. So, yeah, we're basically just in there every day. Where do you think the best submissions come from? Which city? You think it's still L.A. or New York, we turn around quicker. So yeah, we're basically just in there every day. Where do you think the best submissions come from? Which city? You think it's still LA or New York? I think if they're at their absolute peak, LA is the best. But I think New York is amazing.

I think the New York account has amazing- New Yorkers are really funny too, I feel like. LA may be a little delusional. But that's what makes it so funny. Yeah. New York just has a freedom to it where you're like, you can just picture anything. It's not about public transportation and bashing up against each other and being in a true city that's a little different than, you know, like the sort of sanitized.

LA has a lot of cliches and tropes. You know what I mean? Who, has there been anyone that's done like, I'm sure you guys have done, got a lot of press, but is there anybody that's like compiled a list of your top posts? Yeah. Let's read a couple. Let's go through a couple. Or have you not even gone through that?

Well, we made a book with our favorite ones. Yeah. I'm kidding. But we don't have access to the book right now. That's true. I would have brought you guys a copy, but I just wasn't... You know what would have been smart

if we timed this around the... We'll have to do it again. We'll do it when we do a cooler book. We're going to do an art book or a... And I'll have a bracelet for you. Yeah. The Nuva ring will be like a joke. Stacked with your love bracelet. And your love bracelet choker. Yeah. The Nuva ring will be like a choker. It's talked with.

You love bracelets. Yeah. You love like a choker. Elon Musk's scoliosis brace that tracks all your like. I just want to strap into like a machine, you know? I'm basically weighing out life. I'm hoping that eventually like if I get to like, if I make it to 60 that I can just turn into like part robot, you know what I'm saying?

Oh, great. Yeah. I actually recently had stem cells. Did you? Did you? We had a guy on here. Do you know Luke Story? I know the name. He got stem cells in his dick. Where'd you? We had a guy on here. Do you know Luke Story? I know the name.

He got stem cells in his dick. Where'd you get yours? Yeah, where'd you get yours? What do you mean? I got mine in my arm. They do like a thing and target your brain. Yeah. Whoa.

Yeah. So like, because I have like an autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroid issue, which we can talk about in detail right now. Yeah, tell us. No, no, no. But you know, like it's, it's a legit thing. Where did you go to get this done? You know, we, we, I keep bringing up stem cells on the show because I'm super interested in it because I mean, it solves a lot of problems. Have you heard that

story? You heard that story about Mel Gibson's dad? Yeah. Yeah. I saw the podcast. Crazy. But so you went and did it. Where did you go and and do it it's this neurologist's office in santa monica oh you're able to do it here yeah well i mean i don't know if that you know mel gibson had some sort of like you know chupacabra stem cells that he got in mexico i don't know but but um yeah so i did this thing i don't know if you know neil brennan the comedian but he talked about a show about tms which is trans i can't remember what it stands for but it's basically magnets on your brain it's really good for anxiety and depression so iMS, which is trans, I can't remember what it stands for, but it's basically magnets on your brain. It's really good for anxiety and depression.

So I did that, which is a sort of new treatment and it's incredible. And the same office, they also do stem cells and stuff like that. So did you feel the effects of it right away or is it something that takes a while to feel? It takes about a month to kick in. Okay. And you just sort of feel like increased energy and stuff like that. It's basically like going to Erewhon and getting a ginger shot. I've still never been to Ere. Okay. And you just sort of feel like increased energy and stuff like that. It's basically like going to Air One and getting a ginger shot.

I've still never been to Air One. I'm new to LA. Really? Yeah. I look like a guy that would be there. Yeah. He does?

You have more of a Whole Foods vibe. Yeah. That's not bad. Yeah. It's just more related. Trader Joe's. No, no, no. Whole Foods.

I'll work my way up. I'll work my way up. But everyone keeps talking about this. What's so great or... No, no, no. Whole Foods. Whole Foods. I'll work my way up. I'll work my way up. But I gotta... Everyone keeps talking about this. Wait, what's so great about Erewhon? I've only been there once. Isn't everything $80 million? Yeah, it's very expensive.

I think... I think... Well, Whole Foods is good. You know what I mean? Yeah. Glasses is good. I think Erewhon... You just get sort of indoctrinated into the...

I think what separates them is they have this tonic bar. So they make these like Chinese herbal tonics and herbal tonics and $18 things, ice creams that people go and eat because they don't eat real food and stuff like that. And it's like a daytime nightclub. Okay, you need an overheard air one. Well, that's where it started. I mean, that's basically overheard. But can we get an overheard air one account that's just about the $18 tonics? I don't think they'd pay.

It's too niche a lot of money and time to like promote them and i feel like they're making a lot of money yeah you're selling an 18 tonic cost you about 60 cents a minute really smart they make a lot of money what advice do you have for someone that wants to get into what's social commentary social commentary called a meme account okay what advice would you give to someone that's starting out right now today in 2019? But specifically with a meme account or just to sort of promote themselves?

An account like yours. I think it's like anybody that wants to build a career like you have using social. What do you think the criteria is for that? It's going to sound really sort of standard, you know, but like I think authenticity is key. You know, like if you think about the people that have well of standard, you know, but like, I think authenticity is key. You know, like if you think about the people that have, well, that's not true, but,

but if you think about people you really like, like whether it's humans of New York or subway creatures or whatever, like, you know, it just very much knows what it is. And I think it's about like, pick one thing and do that very well. You know, like there's no, you're, you're, you're posting into a maelstrom of content, you know, that's both original and terrible. Like, I think one of the cool things about Instagram is you're seeing all these artists emerge. Like we were, we work with a lot of illustrators and stuff. So like, if you're an illustrator, you do that one thing and that's what it is.

And people resonate with it or they don't. And I think you kind of have to approach social media that way you know like have you read the book by gary keller called the one thing no you'd like it did i just write it pretty much yeah well it's funny because i mean like if that's your natural instinct like it's spot on like doing one thing well i think where people get all over when they get all over the place they try to do a bunch of things well it causes so much confusion that nobody can jump, nobody can get behind that cause, right? You're like, what the hell does this stand for? I think with what you're doing, it is just one thing.

And so people can identify with it. They can feel like they're part of a community. They can get involved in it. And it's because you've chosen to stand on one thing. And it's fucking funny. Yeah, I mean, hopefully, you know what I mean? Like I didn't do it on purpose in the sense that like when I launched it, I was just like, this is a good idea. I'm going to, and you have to try different things.

Like I was goofing around on my private account and tried like three or four things that were like mildly funny. For whatever reason, text on the Instagram platform, you know, sort of enshrined in the filtered Instagram platform. That was, you know, user generated and reflective of the city. Like that worked. People just got it. So it might not be your first thing you know and i i see these people on social media with like a paragraph of hashtags and trying to be this or that it's like people don't want that no what's a book or a resource or a podcast that you can recommend to our audience i know you told us earlier some podcasts maybe you could tell

us those i don't know i don't think the audience is going to like my podcast. We like your podcast. Skinny Confidential is number one. Yeah. Skinny Confidential is number two, three, four. I was listening to the one about the Theranos lady. What's that? It's called like, I can't remember what it's called. It's this one.

Anyway, it's basically, I think it's from Frontline. I like Sam Harris' podcast, Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan. I don't know. I mean, we're sort of considering what our podcast would look like and what overheard would manifest in audio. I would listen. Subscribe. I would subscribe.

I'd rate and review. You would overhear it? I would overhear it. Books. One of my favorite pieces of nonfiction is by David Foster Wallace. It's a compilation of stories called A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, which Bridget, I know, has done many times. And the last story, it's about a cruise,

and it's 100 pages, so no one will read it. But for the few people that still know how to read, it's basically this neurotic Jew, brilliant guy, that goes on this carnival cruise for a week, and it's just the unrelenting tale of his experience on like a floating piece of Oklahoma. I'm going to check this out. Yeah.

It sounds good. Yeah. And it's like, you know, two page long footnotes and he's, you know, playing chess with an 11 year old girl and getting beaten. And it's just hilarious. What's your day to day like now? Your real day to day.

What's your real day to day? Not like the like inflated day to day that everyone gives like your actual real day to day. So we have an office now. We have a sort of, you know, there's Bridget and Justine are in the office along with me. And then my business partner's in there two days a week. So, you know, I try to maintain some modicum of office hours, even though I have no ability to focus and concentrate at this point in time. But basically making sure the accounts are running well, making sure we have,

you know, like compelling story content. Like we just did some, something for the Oscars where we did like the overheard Oscars and sort of turned our content into like, you know, best cinematography. And it's like someone talking about how their Instagram aesthetic is fake carefree. So there's that a lot of phone calls and meetings. Like, you know, we have a meeting with a really awesome brand at five o'clock today. Bridget's usually working on proposals and meetings. Like, you know, we have a meeting with a really awesome brand at 5 o'clock today. Bridget's usually working on proposals. So we get, you know, it's just, I'm sure you guys know about this, this whole hidden world where people hit you up, you know, to work with you. And, you know, you have to submit proposals and figure it all out.

Try to come up with, you know, semi-creative ideas where, you know, and then kind of trying to push forward these initiatives. You know, it's a lot of phone calls and meetings. The good thing is you have leverage now. Don't let those brands fool you. Get the leverage. Yeah, I think we're really lucky. Like the brands we work with, I don't want to sound, again, I don't want to sound douchey,

but like the brand we started with was Lalavo. And the next brand we worked with was Bumble. And so we've tried to avoid the mermaid blankets and the cheesy stuff. We've screwed up once or twice. The mermaid blankets? You know, like the stuff you see pitched on. Have you never worn a mermaid blanket? No, what's that?

It's like a thing that was going around Instagram for a while where it's like a mermaid thing. It's like a snuggie for your legs. Okay. Why are you buying one right now? I don't know. Can you Amazon Prime me one with that book? Well, it's sold now. It was an add to cart.

But we're lucky. We work with Parachute Home and Four Sigmatic and Uber. Four Sigmatic is the best. Yeah, they're amazing. We worked with Air One before on promoting their stuff. We worked with Alfred. We're doing a collab with them in April. That's a great collab.

How fun is that? Great brand. It's like a $10 latte. Pimp yourself out to our audience. If you guys don't follow Overheard LA, you are missing out. That's my favorite. I'm being honest. It shouldn't surprise you though. No, it's the original. It's my favorite.

Yeah, Overheard LA, Overheard New York, Overheard San Francisco. There's about a bunch of other accounts that aren't ours that I can't claim to. Overheard La Labo, Bumble, Uber. Overheard Kathyullabo, Bumble, Uber. Overheard Kathy. Fighting.

She's just fighting. She's an abandoned dog. She needs help, guys. She needs some help. Bridget found her in a park tied to a bench. Is that true? Yeah. Wow. Last year.

She looked pretty good. And she just can't break 1,000 followers. So we'll see how much you're all- If our listeners want to support a dog that was down and out, tied to a bench- Yeah. Please, guys. And if they don't, I don't even want them as listeners.

Unfollow Michael. You don't need to see his love bracelet. Go follow over her cat. Actually, can she try your bracelet off? I don't even know how to take it off. I got to get a screwdriver. So, Lauren, do you want to? I already ordered one.

You got to get a power drill. But the move nowadays is not to have one. It's like, oh, you have one? It's like, oh, you have like seven? And it's like, oh, the Russian oligarch gave that to me. Oh, you know, I've had this. I was just talking about this yesterday. I've had this on the restaurant two Septembers ago.

That's I just can't. We don't need your whole life story. Thank you so much for coming on, Jesse. Thank you for scooping CBD out of your chance for backpack and gracing us with your presence. Thank you so much. Follow Overheard LA guys and Overheard Kathy. She's got no chance. Do you want TSC cheeky pink flirty stickers?

I mean, they're so cute. I like to decorate my hydro flask with them. I put them on my phone case, maybe my AirPod case. You can get fun with it. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram, and I will send five of you TSC cheeky, pretty, Barbie-ish stickers. Make sure you've also rated, reviewed, and subscribed to the podcast. It takes five seconds, and your support is what keeps the show growing. Tell your friends.

And with that, we get to hang out with you twice this week. We have an episode going live on Friday. Taylor, who's the guest? We have the wellness mama. And I think everybody will like it because it's really informative. Yes, she is so informative. You guys are going to freak. You'll love her.

With that, we'll see you on Instagram at the Skinny Confidential and at TSC Podcast. We'll see you next week.