Trading Secrets - 5: The Skinny Confidential, Lauryn Bosstick: An Empire Built on Blogging

Episode Date: June 14, 2021

The Skinny Confidential, Lauryn Bosstick started it all with lifestyle blogging and did it without making a penny for 3 years straight.  That hustle and grind channeled energy is precisely what lead to the building of her massive “Skinny Confidential” platinum empire.  From her 91+ million downloaded podcast to her biggest investment, she opens the vault and shows us her secrets to the success she has had!   Purchase Lauryn’s book here!   Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we're discussing all things money and theory centered around blogging, entrepreneurship, content creation, and influencing, with the one and only, none other than the ready for this number, 91 million-plus downloaded podcaster herself, Lauren Bostic. Now, Lauren said a lot of creative things, but what's interesting is Lauren did it without this big platform, without this big trampoline, right? We've had so many guests that have appeared on TV shows or had some big coming to. Lauren is a grinder.

She did it with all that. And she started with a blog, and we get into the very specific details about the blog and how many, not even going to say the timeline, how long her timeline. was before she was able to make a dollar. And for anyone out there that's doing something in which you're not seeing the returns, how to stick through it. But she was named Top Health and Fitness Blog in the world, right? We're not talking about county, city, state, country, world.

I blog, love it. And in this episode, you're going to learn all about Lauren's business journey. And in fact, the journey's interesting because she has this podcast that's crushing it under the network of Dear Media, which is owned by your husband. So we get into all the specifics about that, and that's the company I'm with, right? So this podcast right here, you're listening on Dear Media. So obviously a power couple that have utilized their resources and channeled them appropriately, I want to really quickly talk about blogging because a lot of our listeners ask us about side hustle

and thoughts on different areas, but what do we do here? We break into the money behind it. Doesn't make sense. Is it for us? Well, blogging started. The first blog ever created was in 1994 by Justin Hall. And it was on links.

dot net. And then it was about 2002 where the mommy bloggers boom began. That's where it all was. And that website was the mommyblog.com. And then shortly thereafter, YouTube launch. So you're talking 2005, right? This isn't like, you know, hundreds of years ago.

We're talking 15 years ago. YouTube launched. And slowly, it started working. and working and then it got all the way to the one and only the White House. And in 2009, that's when the White House actually debuted its first blog. And it wasn't until 2016 that blogging became a little bit easy for us people that aren't so great with tech. And that's when WordPress actually rolled out the dot blog domain. So the blogging world is just fascinating. Essentially what you're doing is you're taking either your life or a certain skill set you have and you're putting words on paper

and people can, well, words on the internet, and people can read the words. And the way that you make money is affiliations and ads. So if you're centered around, let's say, mommying, right? So all the tips and tricks to being a parent and like how to work on your self-care, but also work on your child and what they should eat and what they shouldn't eat,

obviously there's brands that should be organically placed. And the best bloggers will only pitch the brands they truly believe in. And those brands will pay them handsomely. One affiliation, either if someone clicks and buys, or they'll just pay to be on there. So you're saying, okay, Jason, you're talking money, you're talking blogging. Maybe I'll pick it up.

I do have a specific concentration. Let's talk about the top 10 highest earners in blogging in 2020. And this information came from TargetInternet.com. But Huff Post, $500 million per year. Perez Hilton, $41.3 million per year. TechCrunch, 22.5. million per year. All three of those came in the top 10 in 2020. Those are some big dollars. Let's talk about Huff's Post, right? 500 million a year. It started with Ariana Huffington. She was the founder

of the Huffington Post. And then it was rebranded to the Huff Post in 2017. But what's funny is like literally this whole media empire, it's all happening now. It's not like, you know, again, it's not like decades and decades and decades and decades. Between 2005 and 2011, they blew it up. So that's six years. And then they were acquired by AOL. Remember that? A little sign in for $315 million damn dollars. I mean, this is a big business. Now, writers who blog full time for businesses, like on average, what they're saying from the research I've done is you'll see anywhere from like 35,000 to 75,000 per year. And they're saying like the median in that amounts around $63,000 for the writers and authors in the United States.

So, I mean, think about you pick this up as a side gig. Some people are making some serious money doing it. But the very experienced freelance bloggers who will help write bloggers, like you can hire copywriters and people who will actually write the blog for you if you have the ideas, they're getting paid anywhere between 10 cents to $1 per word. So it's honestly, it's a absolutely fascinating, fascinating. world and it's a huge side hustle. Now also blog owners with page views because that's the big thing that will dictate your advertising. How many page views you're getting. So if you're getting

page views from like the 10,000 range to a hundred thousand range a month, you'll usually earn about like what all the research I did said like two to three cents to 10 to 11 cents per page view. So if you equate that to how much do you make a month based on the views, that could be 200 to 10,000 a month. So it's just, it's a niche that we need to explore. And it's one where Lauren started her whole career. She now has a podcast that's blown up, two books, products galore. I mean, you're going to hear all about her. But this is a real business. And it's one that you could start right now. I would say, find your niche, something you're passionate about, something you really enjoy doing. And if you're into the blogging game, if one of your best forms

of communication is writing, this is it. So we're getting into the niche, we're breaking into the niche, enough from me. Let's hear it from Lauren. Let's ring in the opening bell right here, right now with Lauren Bostic, the one and only, skinny confidential. Lauren, thank you so much for joining me. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be on your new podcast.

Yes, and I know you've been on Caitlin's and you guys did a couple trades and I've only heard good things. so I'm looking forward to getting into it. So obviously, founder of Skinny Confidential, and my understanding, the whole idea with Skinny, the premise of it is it's like secrets. Like you're getting the juice. You're getting the inside scoop. So my understanding is that you have said

that you don't really have an attachment to money. But when you started blogging, that you would blog seven days, okay, for three years, 365 days a week, and you just kept going. And while part of me is like, that's wildly admirable, Another part of me is like, how the hell do you do that?

How after three years are you not like, you're not making money, you're doing other stuff to make money, are you not thinking about quitting? And so for anyone out there that might be driving some type of trade or something they want to do, what's your inspiration to keep going when you're not even getting paid? Oh my God, I have no attachment to money. I think what I meant by that is I'm not driven by money. Okay. And that might sound ignorant and stupid, but money is not.

not what gets me off. And it's never been, and my husband comments on this all the time. Of course, I want money for autonomy and freedom to do whatever the fuck I want when I wake up. That's very important to me. But as far as like materialistic things, that's not, that's not my number one priority. So when I went into this, I thought, okay, I'm going to build a brand. And I knew that it was going to take a long time to lay the bricks of it. And I watched around me and I saw everyone getting into the blogger space and there wasn't a lot of people, but their main intention was how do I monetize? Yeah. And I think when you go into any career with your main intention of monetization, it taints it. I think that you should go in with an intention of purpose or providing value or

something more and bigger than money and yourself. So I knew that I wasn't going to make money for a while. And I was okay with that because I was doing what I love. And here's the advice I give to all the girls that I mentor. I say, instead of going and working for a hundred different people to see what you like to do and then getting to five years down the road and you've just worked for a bunch of different people. Sure. I say go work a service industry job like a bartender or a cocktail server, make your money there. And then on the side, do your side hustle. So what that's doing is it's freeing up space because it's like, you know, five to eight to eight hours of a bartending or cocktail serving. And the rest of the time you can work on what's important to you and you can

build an asset that's yours. So what a lot of people do is they'll go out and they'll work, work for someone at Vogue, someone at Marie Claire, someone at Teen Vogue, whatever, to see what they like. But by the time they're done working for all these different people, they don't have anything of their own that they own. So for me, I was fine not making money because I had my bartending job, which was teaching me how to finesse different energies and how to listen and how to multitask and how to do all these things that are very valuable to me now while I was working on something that was slowly building a brand. And so, no, I did not make $1 for three years. I knew the money would come eventually, but that my intention was to provide, like you just

said, the juice, tips, tricks, a resource to a community of women. It makes such, it makes such perfect sense. And one of the things you just hit on that just resonated with me right now, right, the NFL's in this free agency. I think people that are W2 employees forget. You are a free agent, right? At any time, any place that company can get rid of you and any work you've done, any asset you created is theirs. And so the point that you just made about building your own brand outside of it, that's something that can last a lifetime. That's transferable. And most people are so focused on checking the boxes and impressing their boss and doing things like that that they forget. The second that company wants to let you go, you're gone. And if you don't have some type of transferable

skill set or brand, you're left with nothing. I 100%. And I'm sure you can relate after, after with the Bachelor franchise, like you see people that are very strategic about building their brand. They're also want to be on the show for the right reasons, whatever, but they're also very smart. Some of them. They want they're very smart with the longevity of it. Sure. You have to think, and I think Warren Buffett says this, you have to think like what is your tenure plan? You have to set those goals. But more importantly, to get to the goals you have to set the systems. And to do that, you have to work backwards.

So if I knew for three years, two years, I wasn't going to make any money, that's okay. Because in the long term, I needed that three years to just create content, go, go, go. And also, I think when I say that, people are like, oh, my God, now is a very different time than it was when I started. I started 11 years ago.

Sure. So, you know, people looked at me like I was an Aliens. Yeah. They're like, what do you mean you want to be a blogger? Yeah,

you're out of your mind. Now you say it's like, oh, it's the cool thing to do. Yeah. So I think that that's another reason that I wasn't so focused on that. Gotcha. So for all the things that you build it,

you build the brand, and it's a suggestion you have for others of all the different forums you have, right? So blogging, podcasting, endorsements, and books and white label and YouTube, all of those.

Which of those two-part question? Because I bet the answer is maybe different. One is the most, rewarding and two is the most lucrative. Out of all the platforms that I'm on, the most rewarding is the podcast and the most lucrative is the podcast. And that should not be the answer for everyone. The most rewarding is the podcast because it's the only medium in the world that saves the audience time. Every other platform out there takes their time. So Instagram, scrolling, Instagram stories, watching, YouTube, watching, Facebook, engaging, watching, podcasting, you can listen to this conversation

while you're changing the baby's diaper, while you're getting your nails done, why you're getting your hair done. And all I care about is respecting my audience's time. It's truly the future Uber, Postmates. It's all about time. So podcasting to me 100% is the most rewarding because I know my audience is able to do things while they're consuming the content. The most lucrative for me, not for everyone else, for me, I naturally am an oversharer. It's like I can't look at 500 photos of myself. I'm bored with myself. I'm bored like looking at myself. There has to be more for me. And so the podcast is the right platform for me to be myself. Someone who likes to write and doesn't like to be talking like this or creating content of pictures in the street

of what they're wearing should be a blogger. Someone that doesn't like to talk like this and maybe doesn't communicate this way and likes pictures of themselves should be an Instagram influencer. So you have to zone in on what works for you and what your own formula is. So definitely the answer to those are both podcasting, though, for me. Interesting. And so, but you're still pumping out content on all of those nonstop. So you've got the new book coming out and I see all the products and the blogs. I mean, you're your content machine. So if knowing that you enjoy podcasting the most, it's the most lucrative, what is the strategy in continuing to output different content and different platforms? Is it to continue to build your brand? What's the thought process there?

I think that people think once you create the content, you're done. To me, this podcast we're doing is 20% of the pie. You have to take this podcast. when we're done and you have to distribute it properly and then I as the guest on your show should also as like as someone who gets along with you and likes you should go distribute it as well so I think that as far as like content I think there's it's a two-pronged answer you have to distribute it but you also can repurpose it in creative ways so if I let's say I give you a skincare tip in this episode and you've already take it by the way yeah okay Use Dr. Dennis Gross, if you're a guy.

So, okay, you can pull that bit when my book launches in June and use that as a way to say, oh, like the skinny confidential talked about her skincare tips. Her book just launched, Swipe Up to Listen to Our episode, and she gave me a skin tip. So you have to constantly be repurposing the content that you have and then distributing it. And just this is a little tip for anyone who is distributing content. there's this thing called growth hacking and i think it's ryan holidays idea and concept but basically moving the audience around on different platforms in a way that doesn't waste their time so how it would work is yeah give me an example i made a pancake recipe

okay and i took a picture and posted it on instagram so there's the pancake and underneath i share the recipe for the pancakes and then i say to find out my favorite healthy skinny syrup head over to my Instagram stories. So then I'm moving the audience in a way where they're going to get value on another platform. So with stories, I would say, here's my skinny syrup recipe. I mashed berries.

I add chia seeds. I add maple syrup. I add butter. I mix it up. Swipe up to read the blog post on the kind of brand of maple syrup I like. So now I've taken you to my blog. So now you've moved three places. Then you get to my blog and it's like,

These are the five best syrups, and the reason I like grade A over grade B is because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and da-da-da-da-da. If you like these cooking posts, head over to my podcast to hear what's gobbie cooking. So then they go to the podcast, and now they're listening to What's Gobby cooking on recipes. And then at the end of that episode, I say, if you really like my cooking content, there's 20 more episodes or there's 20 more recipes in my book. check out my book on Amazon done so now what I've done is I've taken my audience on this journey to give them tons of value and tons of content in a way that's moving them so what most people do is to take a picture of the pancakes and then they say the final they'll be like oh they're also on stories and you go to stories and it's the pancakes again we already saw the fucking pancakes

you have to like know how to move the audience in a way that doesn't waste their time it's literally like building a content investment portfolio. You have eight different forums in doing it. You're hedging against each of them to provide growth opportunities within them. And then you'll get ad deals and you'll be able to sell your book in each one of those forums as they grow. It makes perfect sense. I want to go back to the podcast, though, quickly and talk about some of the guests you've had. So I saw you've had Cavalry on there, Tony Robbins, Gary V, like list goes on. And it's one of the most rewarding. So can you think of like one of the best pieces of investment, financial, and or business advice. Some of these people have given you that you've applied to your life. Yeah, I think that

overall, what I've seen across the board is most of them have strong morning routines. Most of them launch fast and adjust. So instead of being like, I'm not going to launch my podcast until it's perfect. They put themselves out there, get consumer feedback, and then adjust. Most of them, I want to say almost all of them also have strong wind downs and all of them are constantly students. So they all say they like when and I'll give you an example of like when I'm walking down the street, I'm listening to a podcast. When I'm in my car, I'm listening to Robert Green on Audible. Like they always take the little opportunities and pockets of time to better themselves with no ego attack.

And I would also say all of them seem to be very highly intelligent in the area of EQ. Emotional intelligence seems to be a big one throughout. So those are kind of the little hacks that I've seen that they do. Morning routine is big for me. I want to ask you about monetization of podcasting, right? Because I have so many friends and, you know, how does this even? Okay, what does this mean? What is this mean?

Now, you have over 90 million downloads, which is wildly incredible. someone who has studied the industry a little bit, that is the top 1% of the top 1%. So for anyone listening out there, but what does that mean? Like, and I don't need specifics about the number, but like what, you know, if someone sees 90 million, like, I think most average people would be like, yeah, it sounds like a lot, but like, what does that mean? How would you define that success and why it's something that's highlighted on your about section, your website?

It's on your profile. It's something you live and breathe every day. Yeah, I think the podcast is one of our motherships. And it's definitely, we've built a huge community there. And with that comes monetization. I don't think that's why we podcast. If we didn't make $1, we would still podcast every week. We just want it.

But as far as making money in this industry, there's multiple ways to make money. And I think if you can get creative, you can really do it right. I think partnering with brands that you, I like to partner with brands I already use. So we're going to do a partnership with cores. Michael is obsessed with sports light, like he drinks it all the time. That makes so much sense for us to partner with them. We like the beer. We think it's cool.

We know the audience will like it. But then, like on the flip side, you know, there was this other brand where they offered us a large amount of money and it wasn't a fit. Like it wouldn't have made sense if I started talking about this brand. It was full of chemicals. It was things I didn't want to eat. So we turned that down. So you do to make money.

in this industry, you have to, and you know this, and Caitlin knows this, you have to leave things on the table. And it's very uncomfortable sometimes, and it's very hard, but you do have to leave things on the table because my number one tip with podcasting is you have to put the audience first. And if you don't put the audience first, they're going to smell it, and they're going to move on to the next six million shows. I think how we've gotten 91 million downloads is just to be transparent. We've been doing this for five years. So like people, I think are being like, well, I just started a year ago and I only have, you know, this amount. I don't think that anyone should compare themselves to anyone. We've been doing this once to twice a week for five years. That was

another, another area that we didn't make money right away. There was no money right away. Again, you have to have the intention. What's the intention? But I think the reason that we are growing on the podcast is because we do always put the audience first. It's not the guest. It's not ourselves. It's the audience. And I think that's there. I mean, there's so many unbelievable business tips you just gave one. I think comparing yourself to others. We live in a world where a lot of people put bullshit out there that just isn't the reality. And I think the end of the day, doing anything in what you're comparing yourself to someone else other than yourself yesterday isn't going to do anything for your growth, who you are, where you want to go. So and then again, once you give more

context to things, someone who started a podcast a year ago who's trying to compare it to your 91 billion, And you now have more information that makes this make more sense, right? Five years of doing this and grinding and working your ass off and building the brand behind your messaging with a purpose, not with the intent to make money. The one thing I'll never forget, Dave Portnoy said, said, if you endorse everything, you endorse nothing. And there's so much meaning behind that. And I think that correlates to exactly what you said. People that are out there trying to build the platform. Now, what's not relatable is a lot of people that come on this show,

had TV experience, whether it's the pro poker player I just had. She had TV experience. She was on a reality TV show and then became a pro poker player, or it's all the reality stars or musicians or actors. They've all been on TV, even the guys from Shark Tank. They have business with a TV launch pad. What's unique about you, and it's unrelatable, because a lot of these people listening are like, well, I didn't do that. So how do I build a following from my business? You've done it, though, right? That's what's interesting I think about you is, correct me if I'm wrong. It's not like you were like, you know, Caitlin, who was the Bachelorette or myself who got dumped in the middle of Thailand before the fantasy suit and you know you get people feeling bad for

you. You did it without a TV presence. So I'm curious for anyone out there that's saying you can't do unless you go on a show like that. How did you catch the big break? What strategies did you deploy to actually doing it without this massive launch pad? First, I would say if you're saying that you can't do something because you're not on a show, you're using that as an excuse and you need to have a super honest conversation with yourself of why you're making excuses not to launch something. And I'm really blunt about that because I, the excuses that I've heard over the last 11 years of why someone can't launch a blog and pop, like, if they could channel that energy into putting it into creating content, they would have tons of followers now.

Sure. So if you're using that as an excuse, don't. What I would say of how I grew my brand was I think that what I've seen that differentiates the way it's been grown. And I am not saying that my way is the right way. I'm just saying this is what's worked in my space for me. I noticed that a lot of people that are in the space are like, how do I get more followers? How do I make more money? How do I get more people to follow me? What I did is I said, I am only going to concentrate on the people that I have. So I actually look at my audience as influencers.

So let's say I have 10 followers, Stephanie, Beth, and Pat. I am looking to them to go influence their friends. So I, you know, would concentrate so much on the people that I already had following me that what happened is by word of mouth, they went out to 10 friends at Happy Hour, to their sorority, to their 20 friends' bachelorette party. and they all told them about the skinny confidential. Another thing that I tried to do is I didn't make it about Lauren Everett.

It's more about a resource. It's interviewing tons of different people. When I first started out, no one was interviewing anyone on their blog. It was all what I ate, what I wore, you know, what I did did today. I said, okay, I want to know what Caitlin's, in Caitlin's, you know, dressing room.

I want to know what's in Kristen Cavalry's makeup bag. I want to know what's in the everyday girls closet. Like, I wanted to bring other people up. And I think it is a full circle moment because that's what Michael does with your media now, right? It's like we're building, we want to build other people up. You have to pick a really unique perspective, which is why I think it's so cool what you're doing, Jason, is because you're not just coming into the podcast space and being like, I'm going to interview people. You have a reason you know what value you want the audience to take.

you're very clear with how you're going to be tactical about it. It's very smart. I appreciate that. One of the things that we started was restart, right? And so the whole premise behind restart is getting on the path that you have always imagined your life because we are grown up and we are born into this system that leads our life. There's this blueprint, whether it's from family members, it's instilled from grandparents, that we are supposed to adhere to what success is and what the world is that is built around us. And unfortunately, you're going to have your life led your entire life unless you take control of that. And so one of the things, things I talk about at restart a lot is similar to what you're doing from a business development

perspective with Target is actually finding a new career. You almost have to like think about yourself as like a criminal investigator, a detector. We watch like CSI and all this shit. They are backing into the information that they have to find the result they need. The only difference is with I think your career, you have to do it within yourself, right? You already talked about a lot of these things. What are your skill sets? What is your superpower? What is your trade? Understanding exactly what it is. Then people say, how do I prepare for an interview? What do you mean? How do you prepare? for an interview. If you don't know how to prepare for the company that you applied for, why the fuck did you apply for that company? You're completely doing it out of, out of sync.

Also, I want to, for anyone that is listening, there are a lot of people that come on and give business advice and it's bullshit, right? It sounds all great. I got to say, one of the things that you just said resonated, and I'm going to tell a backstory here, is you said that you want your audience promoting for you. Like, they are sharing your stuff. They are the people that are endorsing and getting their friends in. And I just find that hilarious because right before we podcasted, went on your Instagram and go on your Instagram. I see your last post. This was your last post. So it was your book, right? And, you know, when people you follow comment, you can see, it's the first thing that comes. So I see that my buddy, Adrian Morgan, Surrey, he's a real estate and

insurance guy and a very successful guy in Rochester, his girlfriend, who's an attorney, also super successful. She tagged one of her friends and then wrote, My Savior, referring to you. And I literally, right before we podcast, I go, I'm just about to enter. you, apparently Taylor's savior, and he just started dying laughing. And I'm just dying because one, I just did that. Shout out to Taylor. I'm so blessed that I'm your savior. That's amazing. Taylor, email me. I'll send you some skinny confidential. There you go. And she's a badass attorney like successful girl. She's in right there. She's endorsing you by tagging her friend asking them to check it out and then saying those words about you. So it correlates.

But the one thing I saw in one of your articles was that you talked about. answering DMs. And this also is succinctly lined up with you saying that your, you know, your followers are kind of like your people that will work on your behalf. But I saw answering DMs. And you got a million followers. I'm sure you get tons of DMs. I see the DMs that come through. Do you actually like legitimately respond to majority of your DMs? I for five years every day in the morning and at night spent 30 to 45 minutes responding to every email, emails, DMs, Snapchat messages, sending videos all the time. And then I got to a place where saying yes, wasn't working for me anymore. And Tony Robbins says this. You use something that works for you

for so long and it works so well. And then you come to a point where you have to rework that. I want to challenge you because I did see in an article you talked about the Ivy Lee method, which is prioritizing tasks. So how are you making, like, how does that, with all the shit you got going on? You have to do this. You got to get your book in. You got to work with your ghost writer.

You got to get the podcast out. How do you prioritize small things like that that go a long way when you're following the Ivy League method? And maybe you could talk a little bit about what the Ivy League method is for anyone that doesn't know. First of all, and I almost wish I did. There was no ghost writer. So I'm going to blow my stuff.

Yeah. You didn't have a ghostwriter? I didn't. I'm writing a book now, and I, with a ghost writer, I'm like, what the fuck? I didn't have a ghost writer. And I want to say that because I want to tell everyone to get a ghost writer. It's worth the investment. I don't know how you do that. That's incredible. The ghost writer is actually probably way more efficient. Like actually, from a business standpoint, Michael would tell me, like, what are you doing? So the ghost writer, like, maybe for my next book, but there was no ghostwriter for this book, and I'm sweating as I'm talking about this because

it was so intense. The Ivy Lee method is the foundation of my day because it allows me to see what's important. If I was getting caught up in all the riffraff, I wouldn't be able to have clarity on the priorities. So when I wake up in the morning, I make a list of the most important thing down to the least important thing, but only seven things. Some people do six. Only seven. because if I do more than seven, I get overwhelmed. And then I go down the list and I click off the most important thing. And I am not going to do anything else until these things are done. And let me tell you, I have had so many people, my manager, my this, my that, come in and be like, I need this ASAP.

Anyone that says they need something ASAP, it's on like, I wait. Like I will wait and I will wait. I have to do my list and I have to do what's going to move the needle and what's right for the brand. And I think the Ivy WMet method allows you to put that in perspective. So when you wake up, do six to seven things, your to do list, first priority to last priority, don't move on to the next one until you've completed the first one. Earlier, you talked about immediate. Like everyone, right now, we live in this world that's ever changing.

And for whatever reason, our generation, we want results right here. And what doesn't help is things like GameStop, right? When people are making 8,000 percent in a week, that's not the reality. I mean, this is a, you know, look at Lauren's story. That is the reality, grinding, building the brand. and not being motivated by money. I'll tell you this, too. Caitlin is the exact same way.

I'm a money guy. I'm the finance guy. I know, she does, she'll do deals. She doesn't even know, like, we first met. I was like, what did you get paid in that? I don't know. Do you know when you're getting paid? No.

Do you know the agent commission? No. Why'd you do it? I just love this brand. I'm like, you got, you know, I'm probably more like Mike, you got to be shitting me. You and Caitlin, when you guys are in L.A.

You and our podcast together. Let's do a shim and her podcast together. I do notice a lot. lot of Michael's Drake's thing. Oh, my God. I'm dying. So now again, I get into the equation. We got all these Excel files.

We have a team that's managing the invoice, the AR. But it's so funny when you do stick. That's how. It sounds like you gave her a restart. I gave her a restart with finances. She doesn't need any restart with branding. She's just like you. She's got that all figured out way better than I ever will.

TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Clubhouse, which or other. Which do you think is going to be the biggest next big thing? Podcasting. So you think podcasting is going to, like in 15 years from now, you think podcasting will be around? Yep. And you think it will be a thing like everyone's got on Instagram? It's likely everyone will have a podcast. The screen is going to rise to the top, the people that are going to be, it's the new network TV.

And if you can get in there, like for instance, someone who just came into the space that's crushing it like a Bethany Frankel, right? She's going to do great. then there's people that are just launching podcasts to launch podcasts. You've got to decide what you're doing. Someone who I admire, obviously, we all admire is Joe Rogan. He's been doing this for 10 years. He probably makes a million plus a month. And the reason everyone likes him so much is because you feel like you're just listening to a conversation between him and his friends shooting the shit. I do think that podcasting is the next frontier. And Clubhouse is great to get little sound bites, I think. Okay.

Interesting. Yeah, I think I was going to look it up while we're talking about. I don't have enough time. We'll do it in the recap. I think his deal was like 500 million with Spotify for exclusivity. Freaking nuts. All right, what is the worst? So you talked a lot about making sure that your brand deals are like organic and aligned with who you are course from Michael because he drinks it. What's the worst brand? Like you don't have to say the brand, but I could think about Caitlin, the worst one she said she did was like the ab thing. And that's how she learned when her followers are like, what the fuck are you doing? Why do you have an ab thing out? Like an ab, you know, I don't know, one of those. What's the worst brand deal you ever did?

it. I did. I once did a, worked with a brand in the first five years I was blogging that was not authentic to me and not authentic to my audience. They called me right out and I never did it again. Love it. And it was like a, it was like a diet, chemical filled popsicle. Oh, God. You got to live and learn. All right, what is one thing you think you spend too much money on that you'll never stop spending that much money on? My time. All I spend money on is my time. So I'll give you some examples. Yeah, give me an example. I get a blowout once a week. I'm on my computer and a conference call. I go to the foot spa. This is the fucking hack of the lifetime. Let's hear. Bring it out. I go to a hole in the wall foot spa twice a week for two

hours. It is the most productive four hours of my week. I am uninterrupted. Nothing's touching my hands. It's just my feet. I'm able to get four hours of self-care in. I think it's 40 bucks a time. I get complete uninterrupted on my phone returning all my emails. I batch my text messages like a psycho. Like I'm returning all the text messages at once from family and friends. I'm able to engage on DM. It's honestly the best hack that's ever happened to me. It's so productive. It's brilliant. You could have a cup of coffee, getting your feet rubbed while actually working. It's genius. And you've got to find the ones that are like, it's not like bougie. Like it's full in the wall.

40 bucks, two hours. I got to figure that out. What the hell's batching text messages? So instead of returning text messages as they come in, I batch them. How? Like I just, first of all, you mentioned not looking at your phone. That is another hack. That has changed my life. Put your phone away for the first hour and a half of your day. And you will not even believe it. You will journal. You will meditate. You will make the bed. You will set the tone by the time you get to your phone. you're completely not on the defense, right? You're on the offense. So putting the phone away,

I do not respond to text messages as they come in. I wait, sit down, and respond to them all at once. And my friends and family sometimes get mad about that, but if I was responding to text messages as they came in, it would be incredibly inefficient. Okay, that's really funny. You said that. And this was one of my rapid questions.

So it correlates perfectly. But I looked the other day at my screen time. and I was blown away at the time I actually spent in my messages, like nauseated. Like, why the hell am I spending this much time wasting it on text messages? So it's a good takeaway for me. But in your screen time, and I'll share mine too, I think I'm averaging right now about eight hours. Well, it looks like my daily average right now, six hours, 31 minutes, but I'm down 20%

from last week. What do you think your average screen time is on a daily basis? Okay. So first of all, this is another hack. I have two phones. So I have one phone for work and one phone for work and for play. So this phone that's the work and play. Yep. And this is, this is probably, I would say, 90% work is nine hours. Is that a lot? No, I think that's, I think for someone that's on their phone at all. I know Evan is,

Evan's one of my managers here. He's on the line. I think he's like, I think he's got a problem. It's like 13, 14. He's on mute right now, but I'm just busted. It's literally like 14 hours. Evan, what's porn are you watching? Yeah, seriously. Evan, just dump the, are you on OnlyFans, Evan? Evan, trade your secret. No OnlyFans, but we do have a 14-hour screen time on the phone going right now, average. That's fine. Okay. That's a problem.

Just wake up without your phone an hour every morning. You'll take it down to 12 hours. No, Lord, his problem. I wake up. Phone is under the pillow. Wake up right on it. My producer wakes up and beats his meat for an hour before he does anything. Nothing like a little relaxation before you get it going.

I think the problem with Evan is he sees 14 hours and I think everyone's got their own self-care, but I think he sees 14 hours and he's like, I need to get to 16. Is that how you think, Evan? I'd like to get to 20. Let's get to 20, get to 24 maybe. You're sick. You're fucking sick. All right, two more things here.

So the first one is biggest and best. So two questions. What is the biggest? One is the best. What is your biggest financial regret? It could be something you bought, something you did or didn't invest in, your biggest financial. regret. You're going to kill me. I don't even think about that because I'm not like I don't, I don't know. It doesn't operate that. You have to ask Michael. You know, I just don't, I think,

I'll tell you this. I think that the best financial decision I have ever made is investing my money into my own business. Instead of investing into everyone else's business and we do have investments, I would say invest your money into yourself. And, That's not a regret. I'm sorry, but that's a little money tip. When you're saying, so a little money tip there, because the next question is your best purchase or investments in yourself. So we'll end with this. When you are saying that define invest in yourself, are you saying self-care? You're saying what you wear? Are you saying Botox? Are you saying actual businesses, your office space, your equipment? Like, what exactly

you're referring to? The number one thing I'm referring to is your time. You can never get back your time. So I would rather get my makeup done for $100 and work on a blog post while I'm doing that, then do my own makeup. So your time. I'm always investing in my time. I barely even drive. I get Uber's because I can work in the back. Any space that I have to do something efficient with my time, I do. And I have spent a lot of money on that. And that is investing in my business. Another thing is investing in yourself. What I mean is not necessarily like office space. I mean investing in growing your brand. So whether that's hiring a graphic designer,

hiring the right team, the right assistant, the right creative director, the right website builder, whatever that is, invest in yourself. And then this doesn't have to do with money, but it is investing in yourself. And let's just bring it back to the beginning,

which is consume as much content as you can that's going to make you smarter. And so like something I'm listening to that your audience would really like is Keith Cunningham, He wrote The Robe to Less Stupid, I think it's called. And I listen to him all the time on Audible. You know, Robert Green is amazing. Ryan Holiday, I'm Gabby Reese.

I'm constantly filling my brain and investing in learning. I think that's so important and it makes me better at everything they do. And I think the one thing you allude to the opportunity cost of time, whether you guys know it or not listening, you're doing it and you're seeing it, right? So when you see someone in your neighborhood that's having their lawn mode, that is. literally the exact definition of what Lauren's referring to. The time it would take someone to mow the lawn isn't worth the time it would cost, therefore they outsource it. But you also see at the highest levels. The biggest CEOs, the biggest companies, they all have private jets and they're moving 100 miles an hour and they have drivers. They don't have drivers because it's fancy

or private jet because it looks cool. It's because the time that'll take them to get to the next stop is minimized and the more you can maximize their time of doing their job, it's better for the company even publicly traded. So we see it on all scales. It makes so much sense. Lauren, this has been such a pleasure. But before we let you go, I mean, the whole name of this podcast is called Trading Secrets. You've given us about 8,000 secrets in hacks. But I'm wondering if there's one secret you could think about in the blogging world, podcasting, content creation, business ownership, whatever it may be utilizing your degree, not utilizing your degree, anything and everything. What's one secret you can give us? A secret about me or a secret that will bring your

audience value? Whatever you want. Whatever's like coming at you, they're like, I'm just going to say this. Okay, I'll kind of do both. I, a lot of people think I'm an extrovert and I am 100% an introvert. And I learned the difference between the two. I thought an introvert was shy and an extrovert was loud. But what I've learned is an extrovert gets energy when they go out with people and an introvert gets energy to recharge when they're alone.

And how the tip can can help everyone is I think recharging time. is so important. So find pockets in your day where you can recharge, whether that's making mint, lemon, water the night before and waking up and having that and making your coffee and sitting outside and doing emails outside. And I even like to walk and do conference calls because I'm getting in that self-care. I think we're charging and downtime. And most of all, and this is the keyword stillness is just as important as hustling. So find the pockets in your day where you can be still. Because when I'm still, I have clarity. And when I have clarity, I can build my business and my life the way I want it. And that's what it's really about is like creating your own future.

That was impressive. You need, I don't know if this, does your book incorporate a lot of these hacks? Because if not, you're going to need another book just like the queen of multitasking. It's insane. But what? I call it passive. multitasking, getting my feet rubbed while I answer DMs. Wow. Talk about a two for one. That is wildly impressive. I want to say this to your audience. I have so much shit that I have to work on on myself. And that's what I think I try to bring to the audience. I am by no means perfect. I have not gotten out of my pajamas today. Like things are not like tied in a bow. But it's just, I just think

it's about like little tiny habits that can make you better every single day. unbelievable and learning from those. Lauren, thank you so much for anyone that's interested in learning more about what you have going on, your podcast, your book. Tell us where everyone and anyone can find you. I am at Lauren Bostic on Instagram. Something interesting and fun is coming in a month and that is at the skinny confidential. And then you can find my podcast with Jason's on Dear Media. I'm just going to confidential him and her. And I'm so excited you're part of the Dear Media again. Ding, ding, ding, welcome back to the closing bell with David and Jason, where we break,

I can't even do that at the serious note, where we break down and recap our guest. And David is the voice to the viewer, the curious Canadian, who will get my take on everything we just discussed with the skinny confidential. So what do you think, David? What do you got? Well, Curious Canadian in me, 90 million downloads? Like, that is an absurd amount of downloads. What do you, like, put that in perspective.

Like, what does that mean? 90 million downloads. that's such a good question and she didn't you know what i thought it was amazing how she said it's the most lucrative and it is the most rewarding but she didn't get into exactly what the 90 million downloads means uh here's my take on it so she did say it's been in business for five years so let's just take 90,000 divide by five that's 18 million a year um in 18 million a year my guess from information i have is that she's probably making with a good sales team that's ripping some good ads off those pods I would say, again, I guess I have no basis for this, like $750,000 to a million bucks, maybe more, a year.

That's my guess. She even said, like, money doesn't motivate her. Like, she just success and interaction and she just, like, feeds off that. It's like, she's a boss. 91 million, yeah, she's a boss. $91 million downloads. Even those five years, that's a lot of downloads. She's done well for herself.

But she even said, like podcasting being the, the only medium at which it saves and respects the audience time. Like, she said that. It's so true. It shows the future. Like, do you know details of the Rogan contract or no? You know, she, by the way, she's right about that. You think about like, you know, I sometimes do interviews on YouTube and they don't do as well

because who wants to like watch an interview? You want to listen to an interview while you can, like she said, changing the baby's diapers or going for a run. Like it's such a beneficial thing. It's amazing that she thinks it's the future of the wave. And that's one of the reasons we got into this. And the other reason is for exactly. what we're doing is breaking this whole stigma of money. Let's talk about it. So the Rogan contract.

This is crazy. It was a licensing deal worth over $100 million. So they got his whole full library dating back 11 years to his first episode. And that was a deal that is well over a multi-year licensing agreement that is worth more than $100 million. And like she said, Joe Rogan, making a million dollars a month on his podcast, I would venture to say it's even more than a million dollars a month. And he is the king of podcasting. Absolutely brilliant what he's done. It'll be interesting to see if she's right about where podcasting is in the future. So she gives such good perspective, like take full one AD of Rogan who's at the top. And then you have her who started this podcast, like you said, not making a penny for three years

and grinding it out. I thought her analogy was pretty cool on like do something where you can be a cocktail waitress so you can invest more time in a bigger part of the day and yourself and something you have ownership in what's your take on that you know i thought immediately in mark cuban actually mark cuban two two people on shark thing i remember watching an episode and he said what do you guys do if you're not doing this and they said they're bartending he's like stop stop the money you make in bartending isn't going to do shit for you like if you could take the opportunity cost of that time and apply it to what you're doing you'll be in a better position so i disagreed a little bit with that but I also so respect the way she had grinded without making any money that she doesn't do it

for the money. And that is exactly her secret sauce. That is why she's so successful. She's passionate about what she does. And whether she makes $10 or she makes a million bucks doing it, it's still her message that wakes her up and connects her head and her heart. And I'm inspired by it. I'm honestly inspired by it. It's amazing. It really is. one thing that she talked about too was to be successful you can't overthink it like you got to launch fast and adjust like what's something that you can think of that like you've you've experienced that i honestly think about this pod like we we put the like i was just like let's get two of my good buddies let's put this together and let's just have fun with it and i think it goes back to her point of like i don't know if we're going to make a buck or two not off this but like it's something i think we're all passionate about and we could have fun with she batches as her text messages, which sounds insane to me, but like, what do you batch tech? I know you're not like the most like frequent texter of my friends, but in terms of like timing, but like, you batch your text? What do you do? I'm so bad with the text game. You can refer to that. But I love

this conversation in the pod when Evan came in and she was ripping on her beating his meat. I thought that was great. But I mean, one of my issues is I spend way too much time on the texting. I'm trying to look at it up as I'm talking. Yeah, it's, look at the last five days, messages is my number one issue. So I need to batch it and I need to ignore it more because it doesn't stop. And she also talked about her DMs. Like, I mean, DMs of any, you know, reality TV person, there's some wild things in there from, from people either trying to get something out of you or offer you a deal or, hey, I could hook you up at this or that. Like, she says she responds to all of them. Like, how? Like, it's how. I give her so much credit. It's really, I know you people

are probably like, of course you would respond to DMs, but it's, it's a challenge. I loved, excuse me, a little burp there. That's what Caitlin does. on her pop. A little blue light. A little blue light. The one idea I loved was the audio note. I'm going to try that. So if you're out there, you DM me,

I'm going to do a voice note. It's quicker. It's easier. You know, for DMs, I'll never, like if people say inappropriate things, I'll never respond ever. But in general,

like people, there'd be a nice, constructive-ass question, I'm going to do a much better job to responding. Dude, you're saying voice notes like nails on a chalkboard. You hate them.

Oh, you are the king. Because I use voice. I use them in text messages because it's easier. I've had, to start using them because of like our podcast group chat because we're so busy and man I have had so many horror stories like I was doing one today 40 seconds in I turned the phone sideways you turn the phone sideways it disappears I snap I do 45 seconds in Evan calls me it goes away I snap I'm just I'm and by the way for anyone not you know anyone listening out there the more

you continue to listen please subscribe and review but you will get to know David and the best part of David's comedy are his reaction. So I can imagine him doing a voice note and then it turning sideways and going away and you just chuck in your phone like, fuck, I can't. I can't. It's a snap. It's a snap. I'm dedicated for your busyness to get better at it. One last thing. This is the last question. Okay. Fire away, baby. Well, she seems so passionate about it. She's like, best thing I do, two hours, I go to a foot spa. I get my foot massage, uninterrupted, dark room, dingy, and I get, and I crush work. I just get it done. So taking that trading seek from from her, what are you going to do? What's your sanctuary? How are you going to get a lot of work done with giving you some meat time? I like that. I mean, I think I'm actually going to try the whole foot spot thing, get a little bit mosa, rip some work off. For me, honestly, you know it. I do the audio notes in. Oh, what is happening? Sorry, boys. Oh, blue light coming through. Audio notes, I rip all the time. And then the other thing is like for phone, I hate, I hate phone calls. Like, I hate phone calls more than anybody. But I know that you have to be on them.

So for me, anytime I'm on a phone call, I don't care if it's my mom. I don't care if it's my cousin or it's a work call, I'll multitask. So I'll work out on the phone call. I'll go for a run on the phone call. I'll do anything. I just have to multitask on a phone. How about you? You got anything like? You do do that. I called you out. I was like, are you running? Like, do I do. Do I do that? No, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to take phone calls at the driving range. That's what I'm going to do. So anyone out there, tweet us. Tell us what you're going to do. I'm curious to know what you're going to do to multitask to be like the successful skinny confidential Lauren because clearly she does just that. David, thank you so much for the one and only

the closing bell. That was fun. Always is another great podcast. So many takeaways that I'll be applying to my life and hopefully you'll be applying to yours. So if you like what you're hearing guys, please subscribe. Please tell your friends. Give us five stars. Give us a review and make sure when you give us a review, you tag your IG name because we're going to be doing some giveaways and we will be making sure that we reach out to you. Might be coffee, might be Buffalo Wings, or might be some old beer skis. We'll let you know. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Trading Secrets.

Wait till next week. A guest, I never thought I'd even be able to get. And here he is. So it's coming. And one week from now, tune it. Bringing that money, money. Bring in that money, money. Living that dream.

money, pay on me, making that money, living that dream. Thank you. Thank you. Someone who I admire, obviously we all admire is Joe Rogan. You know, he's been doing this for 10 years. He probably makes a million plus a month. And the reason everyone likes him so much is because you feel like you're just listening to a conversation between him and his friends shooting the shit.

I do think that podcasting is the next frontier. And Clubhouse is great to get little sound bites, I think. The most rewarding is the podcast because it's the only medium in the world that saves the audience time. Every other platform out there takes their time. So Instagram, scrolling, Instagram stories, watching, YouTube, watching, Facebook, engaging, watching, podcasting, you can listen to this conversation while you're changing the baby's diaper, while you're getting your nails done. why you're getting your hair done. And it's truly the future Uber postmates. It's all about time. So podcasting to me 100% is the most rewarding because I know my audience is able to do things while they're consuming the content.