Latest / We Mean Business / How Brittany Allyn Turned Her Personal Brand Into a Media Empire | We Mean Business
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- 0:00It's a huge media business. Basically, it used to be a
- 0:03three-four person business with AI. Now I'm doing it all on my
- 0:08own.
- 0:10This is We Mean Business, a field guide for builders,
- 0:13believers, and bold operators. I'm your host, Monica Richards,
- 0:17and together we go beyond the headlines to sit down with the
- 0:21leaders behind the businesses, ideas, and movements shaping our
- 0:24world. Each conversation uncovers their principles,
- 0:27hard-won lessons, and defining moments, bringing you greater
- 0:30clarity, confidence, and conviction as you build what's
- 0:34next. Pull up a seat as we explore negotiating as a
- 0:37sovereign female in business, the best AI tools for
- 0:40entrepreneurs and how to turn one idea into a cultural
- 0:43movement, all while managing social anxiety.
- 0:51We mean business is presented by the Next Rodeo, the agency with
- 0:55bold ideas for ambitious brands. Get noticed. Get remembered. Get
- 1:00results. Welcome to your next rodeo. Let's ride.
- 1:08Content creator hardly captures it. You, my friend, are a
- 1:12catalyst for cultural change, mastering human psychology,
- 1:16personal branding, and entrepreneurship. Your Me Moon
- 1:19movement, which we'll get into in a minute, inspired 1000s of
- 1:23women around the globe to book their first solo international
- 1:27trips. You helped destigmatize fertility conversations at
- 1:30scale, and with a recent feature in People magazine, you've built
- 1:3530 waves into a community of nearly 800,000 across TikTok and
- 1:41Instagram, Brittany Allen, welcome to We Mean Business.
- 1:44I'm so excited to be here. Thank you. Yeah,
- 1:46we're so happy to have you. So, how did you go from a master's
- 1:50in public policy to what should be a master's in cultural
- 1:55influence and branding?
- 1:57Yes, it has been quite the career journey. Yeah, and I
- 2:03think it goes to show that yeah, your life is always going to
- 2:06twist and turn. And I never in a million years thought I would
- 2:10be. First of all, a content creator did not exist for
- 2:12millennials in our 20s, but I didn't ever think I was going to
- 2:16be a public figure. The honest truth is, I grew up in Seattle,
- 2:23and my mom was a stay-at-home mom. All my friends' moms were
- 2:26stay-at-home moms, and that was our trajectory in life: is to go
- 2:31to university, and then be a stay-at-home mom. So I went to
- 2:34university,
- 2:35meet someone.
- 2:36Me did not meet someone, so then I was like, okay, I started
- 2:40dating, but like you know, wasn't married yet. So then I
- 2:44was like, let's go to grad school because that'll just kind
- 2:46of fill time. And I was really passionate about helping people.
- 2:50And the Gates Foundation was in Seattle, and so I was like, this
- 2:52is this is
- 2:53kind of a perfect blend. And and maybe I'll do nonprofit work
- 2:58when I'm a fabulous, rich, older lady, and it'll come in handy,
- 3:03right? Yeah. And so I started doing that, and then I had my
- 3:10breakup,
- 3:11like
- 3:11very big breakup. And I always say that your next big chapter
- 3:16is always just from one really bad breakup. And
- 3:20so true,
- 3:21so true. So it's like every pivot of my life has always been
- 3:24a really bad breakup, and then it's been the next best chapter
- 3:29of my life. And so I was in public policy. I realized that
- 3:36you just have to be someone that dedicates your whole life to
- 3:38that, and that wasn't what I was going to do. And so I got down.
- 3:41The tech boom was happening in San Francisco, and I was really
- 3:45I was always interested in what social media was and tech, and
- 3:51the startup world was exciting and sexy. And so I got in my car
- 3:55one day and I drove down there. And there were like two jobs
- 3:59that were public policy jobs at the time,
- 4:01okay,
- 4:02and I remember one was at Gap, and it was in like
- 4:04sustainability for the fashion industry. But I was competing
- 4:08against the whole city, and I didn't get the job.
- 4:11Yeah,
- 4:11so then I just kind of got into marketing, and that's kind of
- 4:16how it pivoted. And I started a blog, which we can get into, and
- 4:20then from there started social media and then making videos and
- 4:25then it just grew. But it was a process of about 12 years from
- 4:29beginning to where I am now, where I'm doing this full time.
- 4:32But
- 4:32where did you live when you started marketing and social
- 4:35media?
- 4:35I was living in San Francisco.
- 4:36San Francisco, okay. And then you moved to London, right?
- 4:39Then I so I was in tech for many years, and I got a job running
- 4:45marketing for a restaurant app in London. Okay, which is
- 4:49interesting because I didn't know a single restaurant in
- 4:52London, and the whole job was to be able to write content,
- 4:55interesting marketing content about these certain restaurants.
- 5:00But yeah, I just kind of winged it. I remember I like couldn't
- 5:03do math for the life of me, and I always say like now with AI, I
- 5:06could totally fake being like a VP of marketing. But at the
- 5:09time, it was quite tough,
- 5:11actual fake.
- 5:12Yes, fake it
- 5:13till you make it. Yeah,
- 5:14lots of fake it till you make it. And so yeah, I got that job.
- 5:18I moved there, and then randomly after three months, my visa fell
- 5:23through, and they wanted to move everyone to New York. And I
- 5:25remember I was devastated. I thought New York was dirty and
- 5:28gritty, and people hustle too much. And I just, I was nearing
- 5:3230, and I just wanted to have babies and settle down. And so I
- 5:37moved here, and within two weeks, I was like, okay, I love
- 5:41it here. I never thought I would stay 10 years. It's now been 10
- 5:43years. Yeah, but
- 5:44you're a true New Yorker at 10, right? Yeah, they say. Yeah,
- 5:47exactly.
- 5:48So fast forward, you've built this lifestyle brand called 30
- 5:51Waves. Yeah, what is
- 5:53it? So 30 Waves started. It actually started as a blog
- 5:56called 20 Waves in my 20s, but it was about being in your 20s
- 6:00and the ups and downs in life,
- 6:02that the waves, the waves, the
- 6:04things that happen to you, and then 30 came around, and I
- 6:10started 30 waves.
- 6:12So, did you change your brand name recently?
- 6:15I did. Yes.
- 6:16Why?
- 6:17So I realized 30 waves. One, I never thought that I would be
- 6:21doing it for an entire decade, and then I would even have to
- 6:24think about what 40 waves would be. But then it happened, and I
- 6:29realized my whole brand is about living life on your own
- 6:32timeline, and age should never define you or stop you. So I
- 6:36realized it was almost hypocritical to put me into a
- 6:38bucket, and I do think that we're struggling with societal
- 6:43issues where 40 still sounds old, especially to like Gen Zs,
- 6:48right? And I wanted my wisdom to still be interesting to the
- 6:52younger generations because it's like I always say: if we had
- 6:56really strong, independent female characters, I think our
- 6:59millennial generation probably would have approached things
- 7:01differently, but we had Carrie Bradshaw always running around
- 7:04after a man. We had Bridget Jones crying on a couch. Like we
- 7:08were still taught in our generation that being single was
- 7:11sad, and then at the end they meet a man, and then all their
- 7:14problems go away. Right.
- 7:16Right.
- 7:16So I want to be this figure for the younger generations that
- 7:19shows like you can be strong on your own, and if love happens,
- 7:22great. But you can also be strong on your own, and you're
- 7:25not sitting around crying and you know being sad. So,
- 7:28are you 40 waves now?
- 7:29So I turned 40 in February, and I just changed it to my name,
- 7:33Brittany Allen.
- 7:33Okay, but the blog is still 30 waves, right?
- 7:36The website is still 30 waves. I'm I'm having a hard time
- 7:40getting rid of it because it's so much of my identity, and my
- 7:42audience knows me at that as that. But I think I'll
- 7:46transition, and then maybe I'll do different revenues of revenue
- 7:50streams of being just a Waves brand or the Me Moon brand,
- 7:54which we'll get into.
- 7:55Yeah, or you just keep 30, and you know your magic. Yeah, you
- 7:59need a 40 or a 50. Yeah, you could just you know you could
- 8:01just always be 30.
- 8:02I always want to be 30. I want to look 30. I want to feel 30.
- 8:06That'd be great.
- 8:06Exactly. Yeah. So you originally identified as as you shared an
- 8:11underserved audience with 2030, and 40 waves. That is women
- 8:15navigating life beyond those conventional milestones. So at
- 8:19what point did you realize there was a business literally hiding
- 8:22within your personal story.
- 8:23It wasn't a business for eight plus years. It's like a but it
- 8:31was it was a passion. It was an emotional outlet. So I had a
- 8:34really bad breakup that I always talk about when I was 25, which
- 8:37propelled my life to go down to San Francisco. And at night, my
- 8:42mom was probably tired of me crying to her every day, and all
- 8:45my friends. And so I started just writing in like a Word doc.
- 8:48And I realized, like, oh my gosh, I have like 50 pages of
- 8:51these feelings that I think other people would relate to. So
- 8:56I just uploaded it, and it became a WordPress site, and
- 9:00then it became Squarespace, and I think what I've done well with
- 9:04my business is always evolve. Like I was always, I was one of
- 9:07the first creators to really master reels and video editing,
- 9:12and so it wasn't until COVID, I think, where, you know, in 2016,
- 9:21there were influencers and people were making money, but
- 9:24you had to be pretty rich. You had to have an Instagram
- 9:26husband, and you had to have different outfits and stand on a
- 9:28street corner and take photos. And I couldn't do any of that.
- 9:31Yeah.
- 9:32So I still didn't think that there was a way to make money
- 9:35until TikTok came about. And then I think the video game, the
- 9:39video world, just changed everything. It grew my pages. I
- 9:45started getting brands sending me PR, and then it started with
- 9:48just $100, and then it was $200, and then it just grew. So yeah.
- 9:56Well, speaking of that, like the kind of rich housewife. Of the
- 10:00prior right, content creation always looks like so effortless
- 10:04and glamorous from the outside, right? It always looks like
- 10:06you're doing these glamorous things all throughout New York
- 10:09City, but really, it's a business. Content creation is a
- 10:12business, and it has, like you said, like revenue targets,
- 10:14partnerships, major brand strategy. So, what does the
- 10:18business side of should we call it 30 waves still? Sure. Yeah.
- 10:23Okay. We could 30 waves. Yeah. Do you want 40 waves? No, we can
- 10:27waves. Waves. Wave. Yeah. So, what does the business side
- 10:30of waves really look like, like day to day? So, I always
- 10:33describe it as it's basically a TV channel, and brands are
- 10:38paying for commercial slots. That's exactly what it is. It's
- 10:43a good analogy. And then you also have to fill in creative
- 10:47programs, TV shows that are organic that you know empower
- 10:53your audience and your audience likes. So it's a it's a huge
- 10:59media business. Like with AI, I have been able to, you know,
- 11:05basically used to be a three-four person business. Now
- 11:09I'm doing it all on my own. But yeah, it's emails for six hours
- 11:15a day. It's reading
- 11:16of emails. Uh huh. Okay.
- 11:18Once you write one email, two more come back. It's like this
- 11:20never-ending email triage. I would say that's probably the
- 11:24hardest part of my role. Is you people expect you to answer
- 11:30quickly, and deals are made quickly because if you don't say
- 11:33yes or give your insights or information on your audience,
- 11:37they're just going to go to the next creator. The answer is
- 11:39faster, right? And so there's a lot of emails. There's going
- 11:43through contracts. I used to have to work with lawyers and do
- 11:46that. Thank God, I can just put it into chat and say,
- 11:49"Yeah,
- 11:49look at this contract, and it'll tell me the exact red lines that
- 11:51I need."
- 11:53What's the prompt you use? Like you copy paste into chat, and
- 11:57then are you looking for a certain thing?
- 11:59A big part of content creators' businesses are also brands are
- 12:04paying you to create a commercial,
- 12:06right? So
- 12:06you're the model,
- 12:07you're
- 12:08the scriptwriter, you're the editor, you're your own hair and
- 12:11makeup, everything, right? And so they will pay you for that
- 12:16video, but then they will also pay you for ad usage. So they
- 12:21typically get about 30 days ad usage, and then if the video is
- 12:27doing well, they'll ask for more 3060, 90 days. And so a lot of
- 12:31my revenue also comes in from the ad usage revenue. So the
- 12:34main part of a contract for influencers is protecting your
- 12:41ad usage because I've sold videos where they own
- 12:45it, yeah,
- 12:45and they can use it in perpetuity, or they can sell it
- 12:48to other brands, or they can use nowadays. Brands will use clips
- 12:53of it and sell that clip to another brand. So, and then they
- 12:56could lie and say that you're using another skincare product
- 12:59on your face when you're not right, so I think ad usage is
- 13:03really important. So I'll always say, like, please check for ad
- 13:05usage. It knows that I want 30 days. It knows that I want them
- 13:09to trigger the ad within 72 hours. Because if you give them
- 13:12ad usage and then they just trigger it like two months
- 13:14later, how Instagram works as an algorithm is you can only have a
- 13:20few ads at a time going out because they don't want you to
- 13:23saturate the market. So let's say you already have two ads
- 13:27that week with other brands, and then they just started it. It
- 13:30could kind of screw everything up.
- 13:32Yeah.
- 13:33Um. So there's there's just lots of rules around ad usage,
- 13:38payment. I still have a major brand that hasn't paid me for
- 13:43over a year, so sometimes breaking up the payment by 50%.
- 13:51Lots of you can always DM me and and ask the nitty gritty, but I
- 13:55would say always get payment sorted and then the usage.
- 13:59I ended up on a billboard once.
- 14:01Oh no way for what?
- 14:03For free because I didn't know any better and I signed a
- 14:05boilerplate. This is like a long time ago, a boilerplate contract
- 14:09and then I was everywhere, like all across the West Coast, like
- 14:12at bus stops, everything, and I didn't get paid for it.
- 14:14It's so annoying. What was the brand? Was it a good brand to
- 14:17be? It was eyelash.
- 14:18It was an eyelash company. Yeah, yeah. So to them, like it was
- 14:22all fair, you know. Yeah, they legal. Yeah, right. But for me,
- 14:25I was I had to do like a cease and desist. I was like, this
- 14:28doesn't make any sense. Yeah, isn't that crazy? It is. Yeah.
- 14:31So you live and you learn a lot with contracts. So then, yes.
- 14:34Okay, let's get back to your workflow. So you're doing four
- 14:36to six hours of emails a day.
- 14:38Yeah.
- 14:39And then when are you actually shooting content, editing,
- 14:41posting, getting back to your community side that I think no
- 14:47one really realizes.
- 14:48Right. So then there's script writing, which takes a long
- 14:50time, and even though you can put it into chat, you still have
- 14:54to make it catered towards your audience
- 14:57and have your voice.
- 14:58Have your voice, and you really have to. Think through like when
- 15:01I'm saying this, can I say this line while I'm applying? Do I
- 15:06and the brands like literally ask for detailed scripts, so
- 15:09they're like, okay, you voice over this five second part, but
- 15:13then we want you live speaking for this part, and so once you
- 15:17do that, you send it to the brand. They usually have their
- 15:19legal check it, they have their head of marketing check it. So
- 15:22that takes a few days. I usually will edit for an hour or two a
- 15:28day. I'll go through all my favorite photos of the week and
- 15:33think about like what stories I can
- 15:35put up.
- 15:36Then there's the DMs. Luckily, I usually kind of bucket filming
- 15:43for like two days a week. So like already tomorrow, like I
- 15:46know I'm filming Clarence, I'm filming Blue Lagoon for those
- 15:50four hours. So you just have to bucket times and
- 15:54yeah, block those. Yeah, that makes sense. But
- 15:57it's hard. Like if I woke up tomorrow with a huge pimple on
- 16:01my face. Yeah, that's like
- 16:03still have to do it.
- 16:04You still have to do
- 16:05it. Yeah,
- 16:06but like they're hiring me to put on a serum and talk about
- 16:10how it's you know clear
- 16:11skin,
- 16:12clear skin. So the pressure to perform and your business is
- 16:18around your looks is also something I don't think People
- 16:20understand, like it is a mind fuck if I can swear. But yeah,
- 16:25it's really hard. And as you're an aging woman too, and you
- 16:28notice things more on the camera, it's yeah.
- 16:33Are you ever at family reunions and they're like, "What do you
- 16:35do?" Or like, "How is modeling?" Or you know what I mean? I used
- 16:38to get that all the time. Like no one, because I had a brand
- 16:40too, a content creation brand, and no one ever understood what
- 16:43I was doing. Right, but meanwhile, you're like not
- 16:45sleeping, working so like 24/7, and it's like, how's modeling
- 16:50going? Which I love. Yeah, yeah, that would literally be what I
- 16:52would do if I was in a past life. Yeah, but you know what I
- 16:54mean. Like it's always so misunderstood. I think
- 16:57it's so misunderstood, and I think creators try to talk about
- 17:00their days all the time, and they still just get destroyed
- 17:05for
- 17:05it. Yeah,
- 17:06it's just I heard this phrase where it's like you leave your
- 17:10nine to five
- 17:12then
- 17:12to work 24/7. I work seven days a
- 17:17week.
- 17:17Even my best friends don't really understand. They're like,
- 17:21why don't you just hire someone for your emails, or why don't
- 17:23you? Yeah, but it's like you really have to. I think the
- 17:26creators that are really in their brand perform the best,
- 17:30right? And like, I have 400,000 on Instagram, close to that on
- 17:37TikTok, but the rates I'm able to get, it's because of my
- 17:40negotiation skills. It's because I worked in tech. Because I'm a
- 17:43businesswoman, I work really hard on the business side of
- 17:47things to get the money. I think a lot of people my size don't
- 17:50have that kind of income
- 17:52because
- 17:53they don't hustle. So it's a yeah, they don't understand. But
- 17:56they all follow me now. My grandma, even in her nursing
- 17:59home, like the herd assistants follow me, like so they kind of
- 18:04get it. They know that, like, okay, I do a beauty product.
- 18:07Brittany gets really good money from it, and and we like and we
- 18:10save. Yeah, but they don't know that it sure it takes two weeks
- 18:14and 55 emails and yeah, all of that. You know,
- 18:17sweet. So speaking of business, what what tips or tools do you
- 18:22rely on for optimizing your business day to day? And I use
- 18:25chat. Is there anything else that we should know about?
- 18:28I have been an AI fiend lately. Like even like on Thursday
- 18:31nights, I'll like instead of going out, I'll just like go and
- 18:34do AI. I'm obsessed with it.
- 18:35Yeah.
- 18:36Um.
- 18:36What do you mean do AI? Like, are you researching new tools
- 18:39or?
- 18:40I so I've been building dashboards actually.
- 18:42Oh yeah. Okay.
- 18:43So I have like a whole operating system, that's basically a chief
- 18:47of staff.
- 18:49Okay.
- 18:49That I can talk to, and they're basically my assistant. So I
- 18:55have dashboards for invoicing. I have dashboards for my financial
- 19:01projections. I have dashboards for my content,
- 19:05for
- 19:05my task list, for my the production calendar of because
- 19:12sometimes you have to make a video and then wait a week to
- 19:15post. It's never you're never making the video and then
- 19:18posting right away.
- 19:19No,
- 19:20you the approvals and stuff. That's why I think sometimes
- 19:22it's hard because brands don't feel really native in your
- 19:25content
- 19:26because
- 19:26it was a week or two ago, and it was cut up four times and asked
- 19:30for edits by 10 different people. Um. So yeah, the main
- 19:35tools that I use, I love this tool called WhisperFlow.
- 19:40Okay.
- 19:40Do you know Whisper? No.
- 19:41Oh, I'm just curious about which what platform are you using for
- 19:45the dashboards?
- 19:47So I went. I went to this AI meetup. I've been going to that.
- 19:52Okay. And I use Codex, which is part of OpenAI, and I linked it
- 19:57with this program called Open Claw. With Telegram, which is
- 20:02like WhatsApp, and it's kind of a complex system. My friend
- 20:05helped set it up, but yeah, basically, it's it's it can do
- 20:11more than Claude for work,
- 20:13okay,
- 20:14and it can be more bespoke. So it's a little bit more advanced
- 20:17there, but like simple tools that changed my life,
- 20:20WhisperFlow, it basically just, or it's like granola too, but it
- 20:25listens to you talk. So you just talk to your computer, and you
- 20:29just like talk slop, like just whatever, and then it
- 20:32automatically formulates it into a perfect email, bullet points.
- 20:35It knows exactly how it should be laid out.
- 20:38Okay,
- 20:38but I'm constantly like whisper flowing, copy and pasting. Like
- 20:42I feel like I'm like a wizard these days, where I'm like
- 20:44whisper flow, talk, text, copy paste.
- 20:48Yeah.
- 20:48Um. But it just it moves things faster, and you don't realize
- 20:51that talking, emailing is a lot faster than typing.
- 20:56Do you like that better than chat? Because I do the same,
- 20:58similar in chat. I talk to it, ask it to rewrite an elegant
- 21:02email. That those are my prompts. Do you like better?
- 21:05So you could Whisper Flow with Chat. So it's basically just the
- 21:08ability to not to type, and you can just like free flow thought
- 21:13talking, and it will go into it. So it's just a plugin that works
- 21:17with Chat with any website.
- 21:19Oh, okay.
- 21:20Yeah,
- 21:20was I? I do that with a little microphone in chat. Is that
- 21:24WhisperFlow? Am I already doing it? No, you're not
- 21:26doing it. No, but WhisperFlow, you can turn it on and like it
- 21:30would be in your Gmail too.
- 21:32Okay, got you. So
- 21:33I don't write emails in chat anymore. I think that's like the
- 21:36outdated way
- 21:37to do it,
- 21:38and then copy and paste it into Gmail. You shouldn't be doing
- 21:40that.
- 21:40Yeah,
- 21:41what you can do is like Gmail has this like AI button, and you
- 21:45push that.
- 21:46Okay,
- 21:46and then you whisper flow into the AI button.
- 21:49Okay,
- 21:49and it just will. It's it's like missing two. It gets rid of two
- 21:53steps.
- 21:54That's awesome. Yeah, I'm gonna bring that back to next rodeo. I
- 21:57think what's clear also is that
- 22:00speaking of like misunderstanding, you are such a
- 22:03techie. You're so intellectual. You're so up to date with
- 22:08technology and innovation. There is still a gender gap,
- 22:13especially in tech and AI. So, can you tell us a little bit
- 22:16about that? And do you have any tips for especially women in
- 22:20business who want to become more familiar with today's modern
- 22:24tools. Right? How I explain AI because I get a lot of just hate
- 22:29messages about how I'm ruining the environment, or you know,
- 22:33it's ruining creativity, and we hate AI. But here's the
- 22:36realistic part of AI: it is like if you are not learning AI, that
- 22:43is like in 1992 saying you don't want to learn the internet.
- 22:47Right. We're at this pivotal point in history where it's it's
- 22:51not it's not an option. You will be left behind. Every form of
- 22:57every business will have AI infrastructure in
- 23:01it. So
- 23:01how do you just get ahead of the game? And I think it's really
- 23:05scary because a lot of there's a huge gender gap right now with
- 23:09AI, and I think maybe it's because men naturally are more
- 23:13like computer video game, and you know we're just like let's
- 23:17yap with our friends on the weekends, and we're not like
- 23:20coding or doing all of that, but it's a really scary issue
- 23:23because I think if women don't empower other women to get into
- 23:28AI, the pay gap is just going to widen. And I think we were just
- 23:32finally getting there where we're, you know, getting more
- 23:35equal. But AI is going to dictate, I think, all jobs, and
- 23:39so I think it's really important to learn and empower yourself
- 23:43with AI to stand out and kind of like a like let's not let the
- 23:47men win. Let's we're we're just as capable of learning and it's
- 23:52really not as hard as it sounds. But I think women have to level
- 23:56up to to fix this because otherwise, in 20 years, you
- 24:01know, I think women will have less control too, like in our
- 24:05economies, and and that can lead to less control and social
- 24:09issues and everything. So, if you care about those things,
- 24:12it's important to care about AI.
- 24:14And if you think about how AI works, so if it's the majority
- 24:19is men, right, using AI, AI is learning men. So the more that
- 24:25we as women dive into AI and tech, we're doing it in proxy
- 24:29because we're also training these tools to be you know
- 24:34relatable and know women as well as men. So it's all in proxy.
- 24:39So it's like the world brain will be a man's brain, and yeah,
- 24:42I think that's such a good point. And it's like it it can
- 24:46level up your life and make things easier. Like I can take a
- 24:50photo of my fridge and say, "What should I cook that's
- 24:53healthy?"
- 24:53Right.
- 24:54Like I can make a health dashboard. I can, you know, I
- 24:59can. Get one hour more of free time, and less emails, and go
- 25:05read a book or go take a walk outside. Like, so it's not it's
- 25:09not as scary as I think people think it is.
- 25:12How do you dive into it? Like, how do you start learning it?
- 25:15Because there's so many tools as well. Like, where would you
- 25:17start as someone who hasn't really tapped into AI yet?
- 25:22I think people forget that you can talk to it like you're two
- 25:25years old. So you can literally say, "I need you to explain like
- 25:31a two-year-old how AI can fix my." So go on ChatGPT, get the
- 25:3820-dollar subscription, and just say what are some areas you
- 25:43think you can help with my life, and then it's going to ask you
- 25:48questions, and then you'll just start talking to it, and then
- 25:52you know maybe think of areas that you think you could improve
- 25:55in your life, like my morning routine's really off, or I'm
- 26:00spending a lot of time like planning this travel itinerary
- 26:03for the summer, and I'm really stressed out, or making
- 26:05restaurant reservations, whatever. Like, but you can talk
- 26:08to it and just say, like, I'm really lost at this. How do we
- 26:12figure it out? So, so just start push a little mic. Literally
- 26:16talk to it, and it'll say a question back, and then in two
- 26:22days, you'll you'll master ChatGPT.
- 26:25Okay. Any other tips, tools?
- 26:27I don't know if you saw. This isn't so business focused, but
- 26:31it kind of is because I think your health is so related to
- 26:34your mindset and to show up at work and who you are, right? So,
- 26:40and maybe this will be a good pivot to talk about like
- 26:42fertility and like some of the subjects that I talk about. But
- 26:45I've had a lot of fertility issues over the years, and I've
- 26:47been really open about failed egg freezings and getting
- 26:51fibroids and not having the highest AMH. And I've been to so
- 26:56many doctors, and I've had so much blood work, but it was all
- 26:59just kind of like sitting in random places, and I would get
- 27:02one AMH, and I would get one blood work that looked at my
- 27:06thyroid, but there wasn't any like dashboard or cohesiveness.
- 27:10So, to make it really easy, I just went in Claude and I said,
- 27:13"I want to create a health dashboard specifically for my
- 27:16fertility," and so I uploaded every blood work panel that I've
- 27:21done the past five years.
- 27:22Wow!
- 27:23Every letter from the doctor, information for every freezing,
- 27:27and it made it into one dashboard. And it could kind of
- 27:30see my progress. It tracked patterns.
- 27:34It tracked patterns.
- 27:35It tracked patterns. Like it was like you aren't doing this. And
- 27:39the doctor in 2022 said you need to be taking the supplement. I
- 27:43uploaded the supplements I'm taking, what amounts I'm taking,
- 27:48and so that has been really cool because now I feel like I'm
- 27:52empowered around my health, which is like first and foremost
- 27:56is everything to make money and for your business. So, yeah, I
- 28:00would encourage you to do a health dashboard.
- 28:02That's really, really. I saw that on your on your stories,
- 28:05and I was like, that is so smart to do because everything is so
- 28:07fragmented across the medical space. That makes so much. Yeah,
- 28:11and the doctors. So then you can ask for like a one sheet, bring
- 28:15it to every doctor you go to, so they just have a more clear view
- 28:18instead of being like, what supplements are you on? You're
- 28:21kind of forgetting. You're forgetting what treatment you
- 28:24did last year. You know. Yeah.
- 28:26Do you? So can you print that out and bring it to your doctor?
- 28:29That's what I did.
- 28:30Okay. So it's all unified, and you're like, here, this is
- 28:32everything. Instead of filling out the 18 forms before you go
- 28:36in, you're just like, here. They might make you do that
- 28:38too, but like, yeah, you're just more in control of your health,
- 28:41yeah. And I will even say, like, remember these questions to ask
- 28:44your doctor that I don't even think I would have known to ask,
- 28:47you know? So,
- 28:49yeah, that's really what um what inspired you to do that?
- 28:54I think I just got so tired. I felt so lost with my health, and
- 28:58I'm trying to get to these root causes of what's going on. That
- 29:04I just was like, I need to really look at this from a big
- 29:07picture. What's going on, and and where can we start fixing
- 29:10things?
- 29:11So download Claude is the first step.
- 29:13Yeah,
- 29:13yeah. Speaking of the your fertility journey, so you are
- 29:18very well known for documenting your fertility journey in
- 29:21London. Yeah. So many brands and founders are actually like
- 29:25terrified of public failure. It's another kind of social
- 29:28stigma that we kind of operate around. Yeah. And you actually
- 29:32publicize the risks and setbacks of freezing your eggs. So, what
- 29:37gave you the courage to do that? And then what happened in your
- 29:39business as a result of being so transparent,
- 29:42yeah. So this was 2022. I think Reels at the time were probably
- 29:48one or two years old.
- 29:50They were new, yeah.
- 29:51So there was not egg freezing content on TikTok. It was you
- 29:56would search egg freezing, and it was still kind of taboo to
- 29:58talk about, right? It was like how Botox was taboo to talk
- 30:02about in 2015, and so I was like, there are no searchable
- 30:06videos on TikTok about egg freezing. So that's that's a
- 30:11market, and also in general, if you are about to do something or
- 30:15you know a niche and you're not finding a lot of good videos on
- 30:19it, that's what you should do. Like the other day, I got my
- 30:21first mammogram, and I wanted to know step by step like what
- 30:24happens in mammogram. Like first five minutes, 10 minutes. Like I
- 30:28want to know how it feels. Like you know, and there there still
- 30:31weren't a lot of videos. I was shocked by it, so I'm making a
- 30:33video on that. But um,
- 30:37you're constantly like filling gaps. You see a gap and you fill
- 30:40it.
- 30:40Yeah,
- 30:40that's what you're doing. Vulnerability gap. Yeah, a
- 30:43vulnerability gap. Yeah, is the
- 30:44key. And then the first question: What was did
- 30:47it? Did you build a lot of trust with your? Because this was back
- 30:51in what 2022 when you did this.
- 30:52Yes.
- 30:53So I is that when kind of things started building for waves
- 30:58because you're building this trust by being so vulnerable.
- 31:00Yes, and I think I realize it. Yeah, I wasn't the only one out
- 31:04there, and so I went about just I was going to make a successful
- 31:08egg freezing because it only cost 5000 pounds in the UK
- 31:11versus like 18,000 US dollars in New York City. But then eight
- 31:15days in, it didn't work, and that and I had already made the
- 31:19videos, and I had already started a partnership, so that
- 31:23was a big learning. Be very careful about health, any kind
- 31:27of health partnerships, because then you're on the line for
- 31:30that.
- 31:32What did you do?
- 31:34I just had to talk to the camera and say it didn't work, and
- 31:38people were so excited. I think it had already been in the Daily
- 31:41Mail. Like this woman, she's in. She flew to London for the
- 31:45summer. She's doing egg freezing. Like all the videos
- 31:47were going viral because I was making videos each day the first
- 31:50eight days, and then I got the news that we have to cancel the
- 31:54cycle. I was like, "Well, I have to tell them because I have to
- 31:58finish a story."
- 32:00Right.
- 32:00And I was really embarrassed, and then it was one of my best
- 32:04videos because people were like, "Wow, one, you're talking about
- 32:09being a single woman doing egg freezing, and single woman
- 32:13having fertility issues because we always hear about like IVF
- 32:17issues and fertility issues with married women,
- 32:19couples, yeah,
- 32:20but like single women, like that's a double whammy to be
- 32:22like you know having fertility issues and single. That's like
- 32:26double sad, right? So there weren't a lot of people talking
- 32:29about it, and so I did that. And then 1000s of messages came in
- 32:33like, "My gosh, my cycle didn't work." And everyone talks about
- 32:35egg freezing like it's just like you go to the store, you get
- 32:38your eggs, you take them home. It's as easy as that, and I
- 32:41think we know a little bit now, four years later. But back then
- 32:45we didn't, and so a lot of people were just talking like,
- 32:47"Thank you for sharing that," telling me like, "Thank you for
- 32:49sharing this." And so I just kind of went with it. It's never
- 32:54like I'm trying to like also find these gaps and like really
- 32:57capitalize it. It's really just the truth. Like shit has
- 33:01happened, and I'm gonna tell you about it.
- 33:05Speaking of that, I feel like so with Me Moon, right? It's
- 33:08hashtag Me Moon. It's this is movement, and you actually got
- 33:13women to change their behavior. But did you know it was going to
- 33:17be a movement, or did you just start and then it started kind
- 33:20of converting after that.
- 33:22No, I don't think I knew. I mean, you like have a gut
- 33:24feeling where you're like, "This is a good idea, right?" Like
- 33:26this is like for my birthday. I was like, "I think this is going
- 33:29to be something online. Maybe I'll get one article written
- 33:32about it." But um, the Me Moon thing started. I was just I was
- 33:37living in London that summer of the egg freezing, and it was
- 33:40before I did the egg freezing, and I found a flight for 70
- 33:45pounds on like EasyJet or something. And I wanted to go to
- 33:49Venice, Italy, and I had never been. But I was like, how sad
- 33:53and embarrassing would that be to go to Venice on my own and
- 33:56take like a gondola ride by myself? By yourself.
- 33:58Then I was like, how long am I going to wait? I could be like
- 34:0180 until like the perfect person and the perfect love of my life
- 34:05takes a gondola ride with me. So I just kind of did it, and then
- 34:09I was like, "What's going to make me so happy?" Well, it's
- 34:13going to get the really cute boutique hotel, and it's going
- 34:17to plan the really picturesque dinners, and I'm going to get
- 34:19all the outfits. We take the photos, and I just did all the
- 34:23things that bring me joy. I when I got there, I went to this cute
- 34:26boutique. I bought this blue silk over the top gown that like
- 34:30I did not need to wear on the gondola, but I did. I
- 34:33wanted to. It made you happy. Yeah, I felt like
- 34:35Grace Kelly being driven down the canals, and I had my gondola
- 34:39driver like he was playing Taylor Swift, and we were, you
- 34:42know, like laughing and singing along. And then I went to the
- 34:46Amman in like the famous mirrored room and had a cocktail
- 34:50all in my gown. And like, I just have always loved romanticizing
- 34:53my life and feeling like a movie because I feel like, why not?
- 34:57You know, why wouldn't you want to do that? And so. I yeah I
- 35:01started this trip, and I think someone in the comments I was
- 35:05like, what should I call this solo travel? And I don't
- 35:09remember where it came from. Someone said me moon, or I was
- 35:13like, should it be a solo? I think I was calling it solo
- 35:15honey honeymoon. Yeah, and I was like, that's a mouthful. And
- 35:19then me moon came about, and then it just started trending.
- 35:22And years later, now it's written in the Hilton Report
- 35:26every year for travel, and it's every news publication was just
- 35:31written in Elle magazine recently. So yeah, it's it's
- 35:36been incredible to see 1000s of women now take me moons, and the
- 35:40whole concept of a memoon is stop waiting for the right
- 35:43reason or relationship, and just go where you've always wanted to
- 35:47go, because you're not going to regret it once you get there and
- 35:50you're like in your cool hotel room. You're like, you have no
- 35:53regrets. Yeah, everyone else is back at home. Who cares? You
- 35:56know. Yeah, but we can't even like quite often go to a meal by
- 35:59ourselves.
- 36:00You know, so what do you do? Like, how do you how do you take
- 36:03that first step to do the thing by yourself?
- 36:07I think eating alone is probably the hardest part of me moons,
- 36:10and I've I've actually just created an app that teaches you
- 36:14how to eat alone and how to be an awesome solo traveler, me
- 36:20mooner. That'll be coming out in a few weeks.
- 36:23Amazing,
- 36:24but I think the most the best performing video when I went to
- 36:29Venice was look at this is what it's like eating alone, and I
- 36:34scanned the room and not one person was looking up, not one
- 36:37person,
- 36:38right, not
- 36:38one person cared, and I realized that even if they did look over
- 36:41for a second, I'm assuming that they think I'm a loser. I'm
- 36:47weird. They could be like, "Who is that fabulous woman over
- 36:50there? She's all." I always dress up on me moons. One, I
- 36:53think you get the better table. You get free dessert sometimes.
- 36:58You just get better treatment. So, like, dress up when you go
- 37:01to dinner on your own. Why not? Plus, it's more fun. Um, but no
- 37:04one cared. And then I was like, I'm assuming that everyone
- 37:06thinks it's negative when they could think like that's pretty
- 37:08badass of her to be doing that. So yeah, it's it's not scary. I
- 37:13always bring a book. I bring headphones. I'll do one
- 37:16headphone in and like call my mom or my best friend. Like
- 37:19there are no rules. Like if you literally want to be scrolling
- 37:21on your phone, people like, no, you have to be so present and
- 37:24look around. Like I can't, I'm so ADD that I can't look around
- 37:27for 45 minutes and not do anything. Like my brain is not
- 37:30conditioned that way anymore. Right. So do whatever you want
- 37:33to do. Who cares? Be on your phone the whole time if you want
- 37:36to. Read your book. Do whatever you want. But you've made it
- 37:39there, and you should be proud that you've done it. You know,
- 37:42100%. How does your mom feel about all of us? She's so proud
- 37:46of you.
- 37:47She's so proud of me. It's funny because we're the exact
- 37:52opposite.
- 37:53Exact.
- 37:55She, she, you know, she was the mom. She she was a model in LA
- 38:00in the '80s, a really popular one, and but then had me and
- 38:04really just wanted to focus on motherhood and never really had
- 38:08a career. And I think even our generation of parents, there was
- 38:14there's still a lot of dependence there, and so like my
- 38:17mom's never been on a solo trip by herself, and she's not very
- 38:21dependent, so I think that she thinks it's really cool.
- 38:26Yeah, and
- 38:26it's a good mission.
- 38:28It is a great mission. So your personal brand commands major
- 38:33real estate across the attention economy. We'll call it. Do you
- 38:37think social media holds as much leverage for brands as it once
- 38:40did. Do you think it's still something that businesses should
- 38:44really focus on, like meta ads and all of that? Like, do you
- 38:47think it's something that should still be built as a forefront of
- 38:51marketing?
- 38:53Yeah, because I don't think anything has come up to replace
- 39:00it. We're online. We're chronically online every day.
- 39:03Yeah, I
- 39:04never even turn on my TV. I actually watch shows on my iPad
- 39:08in bed most of the time.
- 39:10Yeah, very
- 39:11rarely do I even read long form articles. So I think people want
- 39:17quick snippets, and they like to see products perform and how
- 39:21they work, how they feel, how they look on skin. So I also
- 39:25think people, a lot of people have been telling me like AI is
- 39:29going to replace your job, and maybe some brands will have AI
- 39:33characters, like how Disneyland has like, yeah, Mickey Mouse. I
- 39:37think, right? I think that is the future where brands will
- 39:39have these AI characters, and we we love these kind of imperfect,
- 39:44fake human characters. I think that will happen, but like for
- 39:48some verticals, like skincare, like we will always want to see
- 39:52like what does the vitamin C look like? Like it doesn't make
- 39:55sense to put a serum on a robot, right? No, it's the
- 39:58actual effect that we're looking for. Yeah,
- 40:00maybe makeup might be able to a little bit, but I I still think
- 40:05it's at the forefront. And this year is my best performing year.
- 40:08I keep thinking, oh, it's going to slow down. And if I look at
- 40:11my financials, it's like every year it's just going like this.
- 40:15Yeah,
- 40:15yeah.
- 40:16How do you? So you're clearly like a savvy businesswoman, and
- 40:22I think probably your public policy that masters in that
- 40:25maybe helped with contracts and negotiation. But do you have any
- 40:29negotiation tips? Because that's something else that, especially
- 40:31females, I feel like we women in business we don't generally
- 40:35learn that, especially in school. So, what would be your
- 40:38tips to master the art of negotiation.
- 40:42I think the first hurdle is to stop being afraid to ask for
- 40:46money. I have never been afraid to ask for a refund to
- 40:52communicate if I don't like my hair at a salon. That so that's
- 40:58always been an easy point for me. But I think that really is
- 41:02the first point: is you can't be afraid to ask for money, and
- 41:05then you need to know your value. And if I don't say the
- 41:12right amount, someone else is going to say the right amount
- 41:15and get more. It's such a dog eat dog world, especially in the
- 41:22content creation world. So, for negotiation, you have to be
- 41:25comfortable to stand your ground. Rarely do I say, "Okay,
- 41:30yep, let's take that deal," because that deal always means
- 41:33there's 234 1000 on top of that. It's, I mean, it's how you
- 41:38negotiate. You always say price, and you know it's going to go up
- 41:41or down, right? That's always how brand is. And I also get
- 41:47really creative, where let's say they've offered me $10,000 for a
- 41:52video.
- 41:52Okay,
- 41:53that means they probably have 12,000, right? And they'll say,
- 41:57okay, we want a video for $10,000, and we will get 30 days
- 42:02ad usage on Instagram.
- 42:03Okay,
- 42:04I said okay, I can do that, or I can do 12,000 for a syndicated
- 42:07video to TikTok plus ad usage there. So it's only $2,000 more
- 42:11for them, plus they get the ad usage and they get the exposure
- 42:14on TikTok. Or we can do 14k, and then they can get a story set in
- 42:18there.
- 42:19Meanwhile, you've already shot the content.
- 42:21Yeah,
- 42:22it's the same.
- 42:23Yeah,
- 42:23for you,
- 42:23it's all the same.
- 42:24Yeah.
- 42:24So why wouldn't I? Or we can do two videos, like how I did with
- 42:29Banana Republic. I was like, well, why don't we do a video a
- 42:31month, and then I'll lower it a bit, but then I get three
- 42:34videos.
- 42:35Yeah.
- 42:36So I, it's just this dance you have to play. But again, ask AI.
- 42:42Like, if a brand has offered me these deliverables and this
- 42:47pricing, what do you think I can do to upsell? Upsell is the key.
- 42:53Did you have an agent?
- 42:55I've had a few agents over the years. I think it's a pretty
- 43:00Outdated system,
- 43:01yeah,
- 43:02because all they're doing is email triage,
- 43:05right?
- 43:05They do not have time to do outbound for you. And I've I
- 43:12last year signed with the top agency. It's it's the Harvard of
- 43:17influencers, and they didn't bring me a deal for four months.
- 43:22Meanwhile,
- 43:22you could have been doing everything on your own. So all
- 43:25the deals that came in were from my email.
- 43:27Yeah,
- 43:28and then when I asked if I could see one outbound email, they've
- 43:31been working on my pitch deck. They wouldn't do it, and so I
- 43:37think the agent route. I think there are some good agents out
- 43:40there. You have to have one that really wants to fight for you.
- 43:45But I think with AI, I think you know if you're a savvy
- 43:48businesswoman and you put in the work, and you wake up every day
- 43:51at 9am. and you're in your emails, and you have a system,
- 43:55you can easily do it on your own. But agents take 20%. That's
- 43:59a lot.
- 44:00A lot. I
- 44:01mean, yeah, you can pay almost someone full time to do
- 44:05everything.
- 44:06Yeah,
- 44:06you know, agents really just do email triage. And back in the
- 44:10day, it made sense because I had a legal team that would review
- 44:13your contracts, but you don't need that anymore
- 44:15with AI.
- 44:16Yeah, and their invoicing system is shit too. It'll take an extra
- 44:1930 days to be paid because it has to go through their system,
- 44:22then to your system. So I, I'm very wary of the agency world.
- 44:28Yeah, but now you're free.
- 44:30But now I'm free.
- 44:31Sovereign, you do it all yourself with the help of AI.
- 44:34Yeah. Do you use mostly Chat or Gemini or Claude for those
- 44:39contracts going back and forth,
- 44:43I think I mostly use chat because I started with that and
- 44:47it knows my business well. But I think everyone, every platform
- 44:51excels in different areas, right? Like Nano Banana is
- 44:54better for AI videos and photos. Recently, I think. Chat is
- 45:00better for photos than Claude. This weekend, this weekend I
- 45:04made a carousel, and what I do a lot of the time is I put the
- 45:08prompt into both. It's just copy and paste into both, and then
- 45:11I'll see which one's better. And I'm finding that actually chat,
- 45:14even though everyone talks about Claude, I'm finding chat is
- 45:18better. And for the carousel, it was like night and day
- 45:21difference. Like everyone knows what Claude looks like, so I use
- 45:26Chat more. But I use I think Claude for dashboards, like my
- 45:31health dashboard. I like it for that, but I don't think there's
- 45:35a right answer.
- 45:37I'd love to talk about a little a little bit about financials
- 45:40since we already started kind of breaching the topic, okay. Did
- 45:43you ever? So you left it like a full time career, right, and
- 45:47started building your platform. Was there ever a period where
- 45:50you were like, "This may not work out financially"?
- 46:00Yeah, I think there's always waves with the market, right?
- 46:08And when there's wars or shit hits the fan, or like TikTok was
- 46:12going to shut down, people were freaking out. And TikTok, when
- 46:16it was about to shut down, was my highest social media platform
- 46:20in terms of followers, okay. Right now, it's Instagram, and I
- 46:23really like nurture that. And TikTok is kind of a second,
- 46:26third tier for me. I just kind of repost on there. But yeah, it
- 46:29goes in waves. There are some months that are really slow, and
- 46:32it's a scary business because you are working for yourself.
- 46:36And if those emails slow down, even though I complain about the
- 46:39emails, like it's an amazing thing that I'm busy in the
- 46:41emails. So yes, and people have told me though for the past four
- 46:46years, this is fleeting, Brett. Get used to it; it's fleeting.
- 46:51Even recently, my dad was like, "What are you going to do in two
- 46:53years?" I was like, "Well, what do you mean? I'm going to adapt
- 46:57because I've always adapted, and if I went from a WordPress blog
- 47:01without photos to this, I will adapt, and you just have to have
- 47:05that mindset and fight for it. So,
- 47:08what's the smartest investment you've ever made for your
- 47:10business?
- 47:11It is so simple. It is literally the right lighting. It is selfie
- 47:17lights.
- 47:18Okay.
- 47:19And recently, I got a light that I kind of like glued the suction
- 47:25cups to it, and it's a big square light. But lighting and
- 47:29crisp video quality performs better. Lighting is everything,
- 47:35and you can tell a professional content creator to not. So I
- 47:42that traveling also paid off. A lot of my travels feel like
- 47:51work. I'm going to these glamorous places, but like I
- 47:55went to Amagiri last year with a brand
- 47:59in Utah.
- 47:59In Utah, so beautiful. But we worked. I brought my friend.
- 48:04She's a photographer, and we work from 8am. to 8pm. And we're
- 48:08getting all the shots. The lighting matters so much, so we
- 48:11were like, okay, we need to get the serum in the 3pm. light, you
- 48:15know. But the travel really does. The content pays off
- 48:19because beautiful settings are always interesting for people to
- 48:22watch, and so I would say traveling a lot, but working
- 48:26when I travel has paid off for my video content.
- 48:28Can we talk a little bit about social anxiety? Yeah, of course.
- 48:31Okay, so you're in the public eye, but you've also been very
- 48:36public with having social anxiety. Yeah. So how do you,
- 48:41especially like, you know, you're you're taking the the me
- 48:44moon. How do you manage a social anxiety, and then also like, how
- 48:49do you kind of like walk into a room if it's a boardroom or or
- 48:52into dinner by yourself, or like, what's that first step?
- 48:55Like, do you have a pep talk, or how do you, how do you just like
- 48:58take that first step? I
- 49:00think the first step is reminding yourself that you know
- 49:04what you're talking about in this area. So if you're invited
- 49:08to an event or to go speak, it's because you know what you're
- 49:12talking about. So remember that, and even if you're babbling on
- 49:16like that's what you do and that's what people like, right?
- 49:20Yeah. And then also everyone's nervous. I have met the heads of
- 49:28the biggest skincare companies and beauty companies and media
- 49:34personalities and like major celebrities, and they're nervous
- 49:37at their own events. Like everyone's a little bit nervous,
- 49:40and if you're not, you're weird or on something. Yeah, you know.
- 49:45Um. So I think that's just you. Just remember, everyone's
- 49:48nervous, and I have to go to events alone a lot because
- 49:51sometimes brands will just give you a plus one. They're like,
- 49:53"We're," you know, you have to go sit at a dinner by yourself,
- 49:57but I know that other people are by themselves. They're nervous.
- 50:04Yeah,
- 50:04is there something you do kind of every day that helps you
- 50:08manage that anxiety, or does it only kind of come up with
- 50:12certain situations? Because by the way, we met at an event, and
- 50:17you came up to me and said hello.
- 50:19I know,
- 50:20so I remember that we were in line. We were in line. Yeah,
- 50:23yeah.
- 50:26I mean, I think I'm an introvert extrovert. People don't really
- 50:29understand. Like, I feel really shy internally, but even my
- 50:33therapist is like, "You are not shy." She's
- 50:35been
- 50:35my therapist for 20 years, and I'm like, "No, but I'm in. I'm
- 50:39very shy on the inside, and she's like, "No, you're not,
- 50:41because you can talk to people." So I feel like you can still be
- 50:45shy and then be able to talk to people. One thing I do every
- 50:51day, I don't know, I practice gratefulness. I'm so lucky to be
- 50:57invited to these places to have this career. So I think that
- 51:00really helps, and then also just have grace for yourself. Like
- 51:03there are some weeks where I feel like I am just on top of my
- 51:08game. I feel like hot shit. I own this world, and then other
- 51:12weeks it's the complete opposite. And I think for women,
- 51:15it's really related to our hormones because I'm like, why
- 51:19are some weeks I'm so confident, and then other weeks I feel
- 51:22weird or a little bit off. Yeah, and so I think our bodies change
- 51:25so much too. So, if you're a little off, you know, or like
- 51:29I'm jet, I'm so jet lagged right now. I just came back from the
- 51:31West Coast at midnight last night. Probably not like my best
- 51:35right now, but that's just like how life is. Yeah, you know.
- 51:39Give grace. Yeah, give grace, give grace. I love that.
- 51:42So let's get into fast field notes before we close up. Okay,
- 51:46you've lived in several big cities, including London and New
- 51:49York, which are two. I've also lived in both places, and
- 51:51they're the hardest cities. So, what's your go-to play for
- 51:55building a network in new cities? Again, another scary
- 52:00kind of entrance point, right? I think it's so important to
- 52:06live in other cities in your lifetime. I think it's like if
- 52:09our souls came onto this earth, like why would we just stay in
- 52:11one place? Why not go be adventurers and try different
- 52:15things in different cities? So, I think the biggest tip is to
- 52:20know that it starts very slowly. It's usually a friend of a
- 52:25friend that's like your first acquaintance that you go to
- 52:28dinner with, and then they have some little event, and then you
- 52:32go to that event and you meet two more friends there, and you
- 52:36do have to say yes a lot more. And it's hard if you're an
- 52:39introvert. You know, like I moved to New York when I was 30.
- 52:43If I moved to New York now, it would probably be a little bit
- 52:46harder because at 40, I like staying home a lot
- 52:48more.
- 52:49But it's just saying yes, and that it's really slow. And if
- 52:52you've made one good friend that month, like that's a win.
- 52:56Yeah. If
- 52:56you have one dinner a week, that's a win. Your wins can't be
- 53:02compared to what your life was like back home. Nothing can be
- 53:06compared. So I think that's also you can't compare your Friday
- 53:10night back at home that you've had for 10 years to a new Friday
- 53:13night in your new city. Like, okay, maybe you don't have
- 53:15anything going on, but
- 53:17yeah. So we talked a lot about your content revolving around
- 53:21like skincare and wellness and beauty and women's health and
- 53:25women's sovereignty. What's one hot beauty tip for busy
- 53:28builders? Because none of us sleep.
- 53:31Oh gosh, you know what facial I love that people don't talk
- 53:36about enough is it's called Aqua Gold.
- 53:38Okay,
- 53:39and it's basically microneedling,
- 53:42okay,
- 53:43with this cocktail of like vitamin C, but a little bit of
- 53:46Botox. But the Botox only goes like superficially, like in the
- 53:51first few layers. Like most Botox will go deep into your
- 53:54muscle, but this just smooths like your first few layers,
- 53:59okay.
- 54:00And there's no downtime, and it just gives your skin this glow.
- 54:05So a lot of people get it like before their wedding because it
- 54:07only lasts about a month. But I do that for like every special
- 54:12occasion or big trip. Like I'll go to Europe next month and the
- 54:18Aqua Gold facial. Aqua Gold facial. Okay. Yeah. Having had
- 54:21my own business as a former entrepreneur, I think it's a
- 54:24really good question for all of us. How do you keep the joy and
- 54:27magic in life? Because it is you're you're working 24/7. So
- 54:31how do you keep that joy and magic alive? I'm really bad at
- 54:36that because I'm a workaholic. Yeah, because it's so exciting
- 54:43when you find something that you're good at, and I had so
- 54:47many years where I wasn't like I didn't find my groove in my
- 54:51career till I was 35. So from 21, when I graduated college to
- 54:5635, like I was kind of a failure in my mind, you know. Um, but
- 55:01finding the joy is like you just have to like stop every once in
- 55:04a while and look around and just be like, what? Like I'm stressed
- 55:07because I'm late, but I'm all dressed up going to a cool
- 55:11podcast.
- 55:12Yeah,
- 55:12like and talk about you know with another amazing smart
- 55:15woman, and then we get to share this with the world. And um,
- 55:19it's just again, it's gratefulness and practicing
- 55:21that, and I think that's how you find the joy.
- 55:25Do we have time to talk about the wedding? We have to breach.
- 55:27Okay, the the wedding. Congratulations,
- 55:31wedding.
- 55:31You recently had a big day. Yes, tell us about that. The
- 55:36wedding birthday.
- 55:37Yes,
- 55:37I recently turned 40 in February, and about six months
- 55:41leading up to it, I was just devastated. I do think that I'm
- 55:46going through a bit of a midlife crisis, and I don't think people
- 55:48talk about that enough as women. Like we hear of like, oh, the
- 55:52dads that bought the sports cars, but like there's so much,
- 55:56almost like mourning your youth and reflection of what what did
- 56:01I do right, and how am I on this timeline now? Like, how did I
- 56:04end up here, right? And so I was kind of freaking out. And I
- 56:07think also women that are single at 40 have a very different
- 56:11experience turning 40 than married. And so I have a lot of
- 56:14married friends that have kids, and they're like, 40 is amazing.
- 56:17I loved turning 40, but I think that's coming from a place of
- 56:20privilege, because I'm like, okay, well, you have something
- 56:23sorted out, but like, I don't know about my fertility, and I
- 56:26don't know if I want to be a mother yet. And like, these are
- 56:28the years that will define my future. So I was like, what will
- 56:32I? What can I do to pressure so much pressure? And I was like,
- 56:35what can I do to like at least look forward to these next six
- 56:38months instead of dreading it? And I was like, I'm going to
- 56:40throw a huge party, and my favorite thing in life is like
- 56:45the British aristocracy. Like I love Princess Diana and like
- 56:49Downton Abbey, and I was like, I just started looking at like
- 56:53renting these houses, and it wasn't as much as I thought.
- 56:56Like originally, I think I wanted to do like a yacht for my
- 56:58birthday, and then I was like, okay, that's 200,000. We cannot
- 57:01do that, but these houses are like doable-ish, and so I found
- 57:07this dream house in the British countryside, and I turned it
- 57:11into this three-day event, and it kind of just started as a
- 57:15birthday party, and I was like, I want to make it salt burn
- 57:18themed, where it's very like black tie, and then I started
- 57:21looking at dresses, and then I was like, you know, what if I do
- 57:24something crazy and just wear a white dress?
- 57:26Yeah,
- 57:26because when else would I? When else do I get to go and wear a
- 57:30fabulous white dress? And so it started there, and then it
- 57:34turned into this whole kind of mini wedding where I was like,
- 57:38well, I want to have speeches, and I think I want to walk down
- 57:42the grand staircase, and then I guess I also want to have a
- 57:45violinist play the canon D because that's what you do when
- 57:48you're in the white dress. And so it just started building into
- 57:52this wedding birthday, and then my friends were just all in on
- 57:55it, and everyone just like loved the idea, and we're like, what
- 57:58about this? What about this? And and so yeah, it was this. I
- 58:01basically threw myself a wedding. We had themed days, the
- 58:05tablescapes, photographers, saxophonists. It was, it was
- 58:10really cool.
- 58:11And then you ended up, and People.
- 58:14That I was in People magazine. It was in the New York Times.
- 58:18Yeah,
- 58:19I was just recently interviewed on the Today Show, Australia,
- 58:23which is so exciting. Yeah, so I think it's also a new cultural
- 58:26movement where it's inspiring women that you know maybe are on
- 58:30a different timeline in their lives at 40 to celebrate
- 58:34themselves because we have spent so much money going to baby
- 58:37showers and bachelorettes. Yes,
- 58:39and it's like, well, maybe the wedding doesn't happen for us,
- 58:43so like, let's just put our own spin on it. So, if our audience
- 58:50only takes one single thing away from this whole entire
- 58:53conversation, yeah, about how to mean business, what would it be?
- 59:01Waiting is going to cost you the most amount of time, and cost
- 59:09you your business. Do not wait for things; just do
- 59:14it.
- 59:14And as a perfectionist, that's very hard. But it's okay if you
- 59:19do a piece of content, or it's v1 and it's kind of crappy
- 59:24because first of all, in like two years, people won't even
- 59:26remember what that is
- 59:27exactly.
- 59:28But just start, but like, don't wait for things in life. Don't
- 59:31wait to take the trip. Don't wait to plan the big event for
- 59:34yourself, because you don't know how long you have. And so I
- 59:40think just stop waiting and saying that you're doing it, and
- 59:44just do it. Execute. I think the biggest, the most successful
- 59:49business people I know are executors. They're not. They're
- 59:54not making the best product and have the best business, but
- 59:58they're executors. Thank you. Thank you for all your wisdom.
- 1:00:01Thank you. It was so fun.
- 1:00:05If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow and leave a
- 1:00:07review. You can also find us on social at We Mean Business Pod.
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- 1:00:14Mean Business Podcast. We're grateful you've spent this time
- 1:00:17with us, and truly hope we've unlocked new ways of building,
- 1:00:20believing, and boldly operating. This podcast is brought to you
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- 1:00:29Collective. From all of us, thank you for listening, and
- 1:00:31remember, the future belongs to those who mean business.