Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 128. Olivia Perez, Entrepreneur & Host of 'Friend of a Friend'

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128. Olivia Perez, Entrepreneur & Host of 'Friend of a Friend' · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Comparing is instinctual.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: We're all going to do it, but at least try
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: and put your blinders on and be like, Okay, you
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: know what, I know what that person did. I'm going
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: to compare for a second, but I'm just going to
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: put the blinders back on and focused on me and
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: my work and doing what I need to do to
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: make it work.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Hello Hurdlers. Emily Abadi here bringing you Episode one twenty
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: eight of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast, wars it down
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from their big
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: wins to how they've gotten through some of life's toughest moments.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: On the show, what you can expect vulnerability, motivation, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: candid discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring entrepreneurs
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: on what it really takes to follow your passions. My
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: mission is simple to inspire you to be your best self,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: move with intent, and have some fun along the way.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: For today's episode, I am chatting with Olivia Perez. She's
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: the creator and host of the Friend of a Friend
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: podcast and entrepreneur and Forbes contributor. She also just blows
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: me Away. At twenty six, Olivia has done a lot
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: and she's taken on a lot of responsibility, and what
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I love about this episode as a fellow female entrepreneur
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: is that she lays it down really real. Olivia gets
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: honest about what it was like for her to land
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: her first internship at Team Vogue before even arriving here
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: in New York to go to college at NYU. She
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: talks to me about building a business at the time
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: friend of a friend, being a lifestyle blog and contributor
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: network from the ground up wall full time in college
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: and what that was like. And then we get into
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: the nitty gritty of all that of what it's been
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: like to quote unquote be big on Instagram, to show
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: up authentically as her self, to put her, as she says,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: blinders on follow her own path and stop falling into
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: the ever popular comparison trap. You know, I pride myself
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: on having a lot of different opinions and individuals here
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: on the show, and this conversation in particular for me
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: was just really rejuvenating because it felt like I was
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: auditioning it out with a friend. We were commiserating over
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: some of the same challenges and woes, and I think
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: her perspective is going to be really refreshing for all
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: of you as well. Before we get into today's episode,
• 2:33
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• 4:09
  Speaker 3: to get yours. As always, if you like what you
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: are listening to, please make sure to head on into
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: the iTunes store, rate and review the show. If you
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: have yet to join the secret I put quotes around
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: that you just can't see me doing it. Hurdlers a
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Facebook group. The link to do that is in the
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: show notes too, and also keep up with me on
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: social media. It's at Hurdle podcast at Emily a Body
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: And if you have a hurdle moment of your own
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: you just want to say him lean email away. It's
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Emily at hurdle dot us. And with that, let's get
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: to hurdling. Today, I am sitting down with Olivia Perez.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: She's an entrepreneur, host of the Friend of a Friend podcast.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: She's a Forbes contributor, co found of System of Service.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: So many things we'll get into on today's episode. How
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: you doing, I'm good, How are you.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be on. Thank you for having me.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: I have to dive into this before we get into
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: the episode today, because you recently went to one of
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: my absolute favorite places on the face of the planet,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: which was dunt In.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god, what a place, What a place?
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: So dunt in Colorado. I also went to the Hot Springs.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: It was It's phenomenal.
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  Speaker 2: I feel so lucky to have been able to go there,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: especially just in the midst of everything going on. It
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: was a kind of like, you know, spontaneous decision to
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: go on a road trip.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: About like a couple weeks before.
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  Speaker 2: But I just feel so grateful to have been able
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: to be there and be in nature like that and
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: just be able to experience it. I think being able
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: to like go and do something like that right now
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  Speaker 2: is a privilege.
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  Speaker 1: I'm super grateful.
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  Speaker 3: It was unbelievable, unbelievable and so just so we get
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: the record straight. You are currently in Los Angeles, but
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: also have a place here in New York.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, guys, the heart breaks my heart to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: answer this question.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I'm just being there. It's okay.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: I know you have to be and you know what,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I kind of have to set my record straight too,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: because I think people are really confused. So most people
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: know in the midst of COVID I left New York. Well, no,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: actually I left New York before COVID.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: The last time I was in.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: New York was for New York Fashion Week in February,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and I left after that thinking, oh, I'm gonna be
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: back in a month. My boyfriend lives in LA, my
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: family lives in LA so I'd come back to see everybody.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: And I never got to go back. So I moved.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Out of my place there about a month ago, just
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: in the just you know, in the in the spirit
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: of one but being financially friendly during this time, but
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: also just not wanting to be excessive right now, and
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you know, wanting to be close to home and close
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: to family and feel a little bit safer.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: But I miss New York dearly. If someone asks me
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: where I live.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I still say I live in New York because I
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: fully plan on coming back, but yeah, it's been a huge,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: huge shift for me in the past couple of months
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: So I'm in La.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Where in La are you?
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I'm in Weho. My family is like all kind of
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: scattered around here. So it's actually, you know, I was
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: in New York for nine years, so it's really I'm
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: grateful to be back and be surrounded by everybody again,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: and you know, be harassed by my parents every other
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: minute to come over and say hi.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: So I really can't complain.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: I love that. I love that. Okay, so you mentioned
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: a big family. How big is your family? Give me
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: the lowdowns?
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: All right, guys. I have four sisters. I got three older,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: one younger. All of us are from different parents. Besides
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: my youngest sister. We are truly a Brady Bunch family.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: My parents have been married a few different times, but
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: I'm I always admire the two of them because they
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: brought us all together under one roof my entire childhood.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: So no matter the age gap or you know, having
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: to split time with different parents, we all came together
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: often and it's definitely a modern blended family. And I'm
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: super grateful for it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: I feel that my and sandivors as well, and we
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: all get along great. And we don't have I only
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: have one sibling. I have a brother that lives down
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: in the Miami area. But it's always nice when we
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: can come together for holidays and just you know, it's
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: like Emily runs a marathon and everyone's going to come
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: in and hang out for it, and it's always I
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: love that.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that used to be me.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I used to be the black Swan that lived in
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: New York. We don't have anybody that like lives anywhere else.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: It was always me, So I feel like I kind
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: of let everybody down in this. My sister last night
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: called me and was like, you know, I really looked
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: forward to visiting you in New York like every couple
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: of months, Like I'm going to miss that, And I
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: literally hung up.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: No, you can't do this to me right now.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: I am not ready for you to tell me what
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: I already know. Yes, yes, one hundred Okay, So then
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: let's dial it back to the beginnings of you within
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: your Brady Bunch family. So born and raised in Los Angeles, right, yes, yes,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: talk to me about how you knew that you wanted
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: to slowly make your way to New York for college.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: So I had a pretty unconventional childhood.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I was a dancer and I was extremely dedicated to it.
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  Speaker 2: I thought I was going to be a professional my
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: whole life. I think I started when I was about
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: four or five and didn't stop until I was eighteen.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: And it really I can't use the word disrupt, but
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: it really dominated my complete childhood and adolescence in the
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: sense that every day after school I would go there
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: and I would be in dance practice until eight nine o'clock,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: and I would be doing my homework on the way home.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I never really had like the normal teenage weekends of
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: like going to the mall with friends, because I was
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: dancing and I was part of a team and we
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: were in rehearsal on the weekends from eight to five.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: So I was a fiercely independent child. I was very disciplined.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: I knew what it took to get what I wanted,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: and I think in thinking about that, I was also
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: really like steadfast in my desire to like do something
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: big and be independent, and I knew exactly what I wanted.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I wasn't really a lot.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: It wasn't really similar to a lot of my peers
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: who wanted to go to college and figure it out
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: and just kind of have fun. I knew I wanted
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: to go to a city. I knew I wanted to
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: go to a place where I had access to build
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: my career and kind of build whatever it was that
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I wanted to and explore and meet new people. So
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: I think that was always like very instinctual to me
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: at a young age to just want to go out
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: and see and do more.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: What kind of dance are we talking about here?
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: We're talking about ballet, like strict ballet. Yeah.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Wow, So like the whole point shoes, everything.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Whole nine yards. I used to have the ugliest feet,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you guys.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I look at my toes every day today now as
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: an adult, where I've like kind of grown out of them,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, you are a blessing that you look somewhat.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Aren't going to.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Ask do you have any legacy damage?
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: I think honestly, And Joe bags fun of me all
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: the time for this and like tries to get me
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: to like understand what's going on. I'm pretty hyper extended,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: so like I'm pretty flexible and sometimes it causes me
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: a lot of pain because I like I'm kind of
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: like a laughy taffy where like I'm overstretched and like
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: can't figure it out. So it's kind of running joke
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: between us. But that's about it. My toes bounced back.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: Thank God, thank God Live just dropped a Joe reference.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: You guys have heard from Joe on the pod before.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Joe Holder is a Nike Master trainer. He's a wellness
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: consultant and he's had a couple of stints on here
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: I think by now, and you guys also happen to
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: be pretty good friends.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's my best friend. He's also a co host
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: on my show.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: He comes on once a month and it's always really
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: funny and we tease each other and pick on each.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Other and yeah, it's great.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: You definitely definitely have to check it out. So when
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: you were eighteen, did you have the thought process that,
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: of course you wanted to move to a major city
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: and really get jumps started on your career, But did
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: you think at any point that you want to continue
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: with the dancing.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I think at eighteen, I was like, this is there's
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: a choice that has to be made here.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: It's like, uh, are you going to go professional? Or
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: are you going to go to college?
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: And kind of go that route, And honestly, I was
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: really honest with myself. I was like, do you think
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: you're good enough to make it? And I've always been
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: really intentional about the space that I take up. And
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I think I knew that I didn't like I loved it.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I was so passionate about it.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: But I think that I learned through that experience at
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: a really young age sometimes you might love something, but
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: you might not be good enough at it to take
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: up the space and take the opportunity away from somebody else.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: So would you say to someone if they like based
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: on that piece of advice, would you say to someone
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: that there's a time, however, where you should home in
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: on it more, or would you say, like, own what's
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: going on and know when to walk away.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent own what's going on and no when
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: to walk away? Like I was eighteen, and dancer's life
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: is really short. A lot of dancers are done with
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: their career by their end or early no, late thirties,
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: early forties. So if even that, so you know, I
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: was eighteen and at that point, like I had gone
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: to a lot of dance intensives around the country, Like
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: I went to ABT's intensive for a month in Detroit.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I was with the Jeoffrey in New York for three weeks.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I had like really seen what was out there, and
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I knew I loved it, but I wasn't as good
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: as my peers, and so I was just really realistic
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: about my future. I also loved fashion and I loved journalism.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I traveled a lot in college and went to different
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: countries around the world for service opportunities. So I was
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: in India and Tanzania working in different orphanages and rebuilding schools.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: I actually helped rebuild the Ninth in New Orleans after
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: the hurricane. So I was really passionate about like journalism
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: from a global perspective, and also had like a little
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: bit of like love for fashion just in my early years.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: So I also had another route that I was excited about,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: and in that like with that knowledge, I just knew
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: that it wasn't enough to take me all the way
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: for dance, and I didn't want to take up the space.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: So I decided college it was. I got in early
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: to NYU and I never looked back. Got in in
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: November and was just ready to go.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: How was that transition moving from West Coast to East
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Coast for you?
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, my goodness, it's so funny like being back
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: here now where Like I hate La and I missed
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: New York with like every fiber of my being. But
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: I remember that first year in New York was really challenging,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: and I wanted nothing but to come back here. I
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: think if you're not from the East Coast and you're
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: not used to the like transportation of it all and
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: getting around, like, you know, I'd been driving a car
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: and I didn't even walk three blocks when I lived
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: in La. That change in lifestyle hits you hard, especially
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: when you're there on your own and just kind of
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: like the sensory overload of it all and just getting
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: to know it. But I was really fortunate to get
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: an internship a week before I even started school by chance.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: My first internship was at teen Vogue, and they, you know,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: they got me on the subway right away, they got
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: me running errands up into all the different places I
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: probably would have never learned if they hadn't, And that
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: was a huge help in adjusting and learning a new
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: city because I don't think I would have ever, you know,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: pushed myself to figure it out if it wasn't for
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: the job.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Two things. First of all, do you think that it
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: was something either from one of your parents or just
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: like your influences when you were younger that made you
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: this kind of go and get it kind of human
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: or do you think that you were just born with
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: this knack to be super independent?
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: So I love that you just asked that question, because
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I asked that a law on my show, where I say, like,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: do you think an entrepreneurial or like an independent spirit
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: is born or you learn it?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: And I think it's a mix of both.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's like kind of a nature nurture discussion,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: but I think I think it had a lot to
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: do with dance and being independent. I think I'm a
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: storyteller by nature because of it. I think I was,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: you know, trained to be on stage by myself and
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: tell a story and captivate an audience and bring them
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: into my world and like be okay with that weight
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: and like carry that responsibility and as kind of like
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: far fetch that concept is. I think it's something that
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: was like deeply ingrained into my bones. And a young
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: at a young age, and I was okay with being
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: on my own.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: I love that idea of conveying a story and like
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: being okay to take on that responsibilit because that's a true,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: true responsibility. I mean, if we talk about it in
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: relevance to life now, when you have so many people
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: that are keeping up with you on social media and
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: kind of digging into what's going on in your life,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: it's like you've taken on this legitimate responsibility to show
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: up day in and day out and like be some
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: sort of a public person.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think I don't think there's anything that
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: really prepares you for that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I think everybody.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I think there are definitely people out there that like
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: it's instinctual to them and they're so good at it.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: For me, it's something I've had to like learn and
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: train myself to do a little bit more. But I
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: do think that that side of dance definitely helped me
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: out a little bit in terms of just kind of
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: showing up for myself and a lot of other people
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: every day.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: How do you embrace I'm just pivoting a little bit
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: for a moment. How do you embrace being vulnerable? Kind
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: of on that large scale when it comes to the
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: social following. I mean, for me, I kind of think
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: about like the pros outweighing the cons often and the
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: service that I'm offering or what I'm bringing to the table,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: and making sure that everything that I'm bringing to the
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: table really truly does have a purpose. But I'm curious
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: to kind of hear from you about where you fall
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: in that spectrum of showing up and being comfortable showing up.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question because it's such a weird concept,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like, let alone, being vulnerable
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: with like your family or your friends, your partner is
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: a scary thing, Like imagine doing it to thousands of
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: people you've never met before.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And I think, I actually think.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: That everything we've gone through in the past six months
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: has given me a new definition of like permission to
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: feel that way I think, and to be a little
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: bit more open. And I think it's because we were
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: collectively going through something and still are. And I have
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: to be honest, like it's something that I'm still working
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: on a lot in terms of just sharing my own
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: story and my own experiences. And I think that's honestly
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: why I started the podcast because it feels a little
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: bit more unfiltered to me. I'm not really someone that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: like can wrap my brain around like telling a story
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: and Instagram caption. So I think the podcast has been
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: a really good outlet for me and I'm sure for
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: you too, like to just be able to like talk
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: our feelings out and talk to other people and like
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: share the space.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think for anybody that's like on social and
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: we can all relate to the idea that like being
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: vulnerable on there is a challenge. But I will also
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: say that, like, if you cultivate a community of amazing
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: people in your Instagram and social community, like you will
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: be rewarded for it in the sense that, like I
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: think you'd be surprised at how many people will come
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: back to you and be like wow, I.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Feel that way too.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: And isn't that like the best part of being on
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: social media in any and every way. It's like when
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: people come back to you and say, like, wow, what
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: you just did makes me feel validated, Like I feel
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: seen by that, Like I thought I was alone in that,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the reward that you get when
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: you open up to people.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, in reference to what you were saying about,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: like everyone's going through the same thing right now. We're
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: seeing inside of everyone's homes, whether your Oprah and Gail
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: King is in like your guest house, or it's like
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: me sitting in my fourth floor walk up in the
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Upper East Side, And it's like certainly bringing a more
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: humanizing side to what we may have concepted things to
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: be for certain individuals at one point or another. I
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: also think a point to make about what you mentioned
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: was that when you're cultivating a community and you're consciously
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: thinking about the content that you're putting into the world,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: you're also like really being smart and inclusive about the
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: people that are on the other side of the swipe,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: so to speak, right, Like, yes, we have the opportunity
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: to teach people how to treat us, even if they
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: don't know us, and how to frame those conversations so
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: that the ones that are happening in your community bubble,
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: so to speak, are ones that you want to take
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: part of.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: One.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, I.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Love what you just said about, Like you're teaching people
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: how how to treat people online, and it's it's a
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: scary place sometimes and I think it's like a really
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: really important responsibility in terms of just being open on
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: social and getting it out there.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: And I also think because to an extent, we've gotten
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: used to it, right, Like we've gotten used to being
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: in a place where there's people that are kind of
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: checking in on what's going on in life and to that,
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Like the other day, someone messaged me and they were like,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: I really think it's awesome how like authentic you are
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: and vulnerable you are, and I wish that I could
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: learn how to be that way. And it's crazy because
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I can't pinpoint, and I'd be curious to know if
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: you can. Like a moment where I was like, this
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: is exactly how I'm going to show up online, and
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: this is it, Like this is just who I am
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: right right for someone to reach out for tips or
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: to gain a better understanding, it's like I want to
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: offer to you. But I also have to take a
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: step back and reflect about my personal journey and think
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: where was there a time or a point where I
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: just made the conscious decision this is how I'm going
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: to show up and that's it exactly. So you make
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: the transition and you come to New York, and it's
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: definitely different than La. But how long into your stint
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: here do you think to yourself, like, man, this is
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: this is the joint.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Oh God, I hate and love this question. I feel
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: like I had so many different waves of New York.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: I think my college years were obviously amazing but also challenging.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Like going to college in Manhattan is the craziest experience
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: of all time. You're automatically thrown into adulthood and you're
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: really just taking classes at night.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: And that's the way I treated it.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: You know, I was working, I had internships my entire
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: college career, and I would hit class every night around
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: six seven o'clock, and it was it was a really
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: crazy experience. I think I really started to hit my
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: stride once I launched a Friend of a Friend in twenty.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Fifteen, which at the time was a blog.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: We were like really in the peak of like the
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: blog personality blogger area era, and I wanted to kind
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: of like flip it on its head a little bit.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I call it a blog because I feel like it's
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: just kind of like the easiest thing to describe it
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: at this point, But really it was like a contributor network,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Like I wasn't really writing firsthand. I had friends in
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: college that were coming on and writing about like new restaurants,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: when new travel destinations they had tried, and it really
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: was just like a place where college students could find
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: something different in our community. But I think after that
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: was when I really started to plant my feet.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: In the ground a little bit more in New York.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: And I give this advice for like anybody that's moving
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: to either like a big city for the first time
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: or moving to college and like feel like they're going
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: to get lost, get involved in as much as you
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: possibly can in your school. I know that sounds lame
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: to some extent sometimes, especially when people are like you
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: think I should join a sorority or a frad n YU,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, honestly, finding community in these new places
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: is what's going to change your life. And once I
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: had like found that community through my blog and I
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: also was the creative director of like the NYU Fashion magazine,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: those two communities like really gave me a firm ground
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: to stand on, and I knew that I had a
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: community of people around me that were like minded and
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: would challenge me and support me at the same time.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: So I think that's when I really started to be like,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: oh wow, like this is the place for me. And
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: you know, with like a new site and a new
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: kind of job, there were new opportunities and I was
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: getting to experience a lot more. I was getting invited
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: to more things, I was meeting more people, and all
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: of that was really exciting for like a twenty something
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: year old in New York.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So then chat me through the evolution of friend
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: of a friend from when it was just some people
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: you know, giving pointers and stuff on this blog, as
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: you call it, to growing into something a little bit bigger.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I'm I I want.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: I can't stress this enough if you're on social media
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: or you start something at a young age, because we
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: are at a time where like everything's at our fingertips
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: and anybody could start anything at any time. It's okay
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: to evolve and it's okay to change. And I think
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: that that's something that isn't really talked about enough often.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: You know, I had started this website when I was
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: twenty and essentially, obviously I was saying earlier, it's it
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: was a blend of reviews and places and destinations to
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: go to, and then there was another side of the
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: website where I was interviewing people that I thought were
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: up in commerce, and I've always just had kind of
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: like an instinctual like eye and ear for that. I
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: was always really interested in people that I thought were
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: doing something cool, and I had a feeling we're gonna
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: continue to do something cool in time.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: So, you know, at the time, I'd.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Interviewed people like Sophia Richie and Simmy Hayes who are
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: in incredible DJs, and Giji Hadid was on there, and
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I just was interviewing people that I kind of like
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: knew through like an arms reach, and I thought we're
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: just doing something really fun and interesting at the time,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: and that ended up being the hit of the website,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: and like all those people were just kind of starting
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: their careers out at the time, so I was like, oh,
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: people are really interested in learning about other people and
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: learning about career trajectories and understanding kind of like you know,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: what goes on behind the scenes of all of these things.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: So as I got older, I I evolved, and kind
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: of so did the company, where I was, you know,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: not really passionate about the blog side of it anymore.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: And then the podcast industry started booming, and I was like,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: what if I take the best thing, the best thing
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: that kind of feeds my soul and also is like
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: feeding my audience a soul, and turn it into a
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: podcast and I'll interview people and it, you know, I'll
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: have someone on every week and we'll talk about the
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: ups and downs of building something. And that was kind
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: of that was kind of the thought process behind getting
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: to where I am now. But I like love telling
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: that story because I think it's just so important to
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: reiterate that, like it's not always what you start is
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: not always going to be like the thing that sticks forever,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: and like it's not going to be the thing that
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: that defines you or who you are. And like being
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: able to like identify what's working and what's not and
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: like evolve and grow from there is like the best
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: thing that you can possibly do when you've started something.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: This makes me think of what Jesse Israel talks about.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: And I know you recently had him on the show
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I did, and like we had such a great time
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: talking because our stories are so similar in that sense.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I love what he had to say about just.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: You know, evolving totally. I mean, he was so stressed
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: about what he was putting in his Instagram bio that
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: he was afraid to make a change because he was
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: worried that people at first would judge him. But when
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: he was able to make that change and just embrace
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: the pivot, he was able to find so much more
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: clarity and happiness and like totally save off and rid
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: so much anxiety, And how awesome and beautiful is that?
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: It's really cool?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: You know, I think I saw something the other day
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: that I see often, but it's like your life on
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: the outside is nowhere near as important as it feels
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: on the inside. And I think that that needs to
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: be thought about in every single part of your life.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: And you know, if it doesn't feel good, if it's
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: not working for you, like you're the one that has
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: to live with that decision and live with that choice.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: So make sure it's what you're really passionate about and
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: what you're excited about, so when you show up for
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: it every day, it makes you happy and you want
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: to make it better.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: And you want to make it better. So you mentioned
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: originally upon coming to New York that you had that
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: internship at teen Vogue in terms of working quote unquote
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: for someone else, did you have any other stints while
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: you were at MYU.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, and you know, I would still love to work
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: for somebody else. I would be honored to work for
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: somebody else, I think. And I'll go back to kind
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: of what I was saying earlier. We're in a time
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: where like everybody can kind of start anything. We have
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: so many resources at our hands. But if you're a
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: college student, get a couple jobs first, like get the
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: experience of like what it's like to understand processes and
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: like be in an office and be a manager or
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: be managed. Like all of that dramatically changed my career
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: and my mentality and the way that I work.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: But after I was at teen Vague, I was at
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Arimes for a little bit.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: I did PR, I worked for Ryan Seacrest and entertainment writing.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I worked for Glossier in.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Like their retail development and like influencer strategy. And then
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I was at Spring, which was the startup app, like
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: the shopping app. It was basically a marketplace where you
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: could buy from a bunch of different places in one app.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: And I was like head of their like influencer marketing too.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: That was like what I did right when I got
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: out of college. So I like really dabbled around. I
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: was like, I want to try all of these things.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: I want to see what fits. I think the most
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: important thing about interning is like you're not going in
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: there to figure out what it is that you do,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Like you're going in there to figure it out what
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: it is that you absolutely hate, so that you never
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: do it again.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: Right right? And I love like you said, like you
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: were dabbling in so many different things when it came
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: to securing these opportunities. Did you have to kind of
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: reframe the way that you were approaching each of them
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: and like pivot a little bit in terms of your
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: resume or how did that all happen?
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Ooh, that's so interesting.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I actually never thought about that particularly. I think what
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: did help me in like grounding that was what I
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: was studying in college at the same time as you know,
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: what I was trying to do as like my extracurricular
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: there was always a through line of storytelling though, so
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: I was able to kind of, you know, build my
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: resume around that. And I think that's also really important,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: like figure out what the through line is, whether it
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: was like at teen Bogan Entertainment and fashion, you know,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: PR is all about storytelling so I was doing that,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: and then for Ryan, I was writing entertainment stories based
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: off like pop culture news, kind of like E news.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: There was just always a like grounding force that I
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: think is really important. I think a lot of people
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: don't go into it being like I'm going to try
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: six thousand really really different things. You kind of have
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: to have a similar theme to make it all.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: Work, right. You mentioned getting that teen Vogue internship before
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: even showing up, and I reflect on my different internships
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: that I had because I majored in journalism at Yukon,
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: and it was like when I got my first internship,
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: it was really all about persistence. It's not that I
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: wasn't qualified, but like, how many people are qualified that
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: are reaching out to all the people that you're also
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: reaching out to, And in that effort, what are you
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: going to do to make yourself stand out? I think
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: I was just persistent, and in that persistence, I kept
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: reiterating what all of my best attributes were and why
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: they just couldn't go on without me. Yeah.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I think two things.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: One the Teen Vogue internship, I actually I will say
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I totally got lucky. I had a friend whose friend
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: was heading up entertainment there and she was desperate for
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: an intern and she asked me on the spot, she
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: was you know, I was having a conversation with her
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: about what I wanted to do and what my goals were,
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: and she was like, my friend actually just told me
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: she's looking for an internship. Do you want me to
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: pass your resume? And before even asking what department it
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: was in what it would be for, I said yes, immediately,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I said I will go to the office tomorrow and
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: take an interview. I think just that that persistence, you're right,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: but also just that like conviction in myself and knowing
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: that like, no matter what it was, getting my foot
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: in the door there would be imperative to my career.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I knew I always wanted to work in the fashion
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: closet at teen Vogue. That was a dream of mine
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: and honestly something that when I got into school there,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: I was like, your goal is to as a senior
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: work in the fashion closet at teen Vogue and then
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: be able to get a full time job there. Like
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: that was my manifestation. And so when I got the opportunity,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: I was like, just take whatever it is, show them
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: how good you are work your ass off, do everything
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: they say, and I bet you after your first term,
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: you could ask to move to the closet and fingers crossed,
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: you'd get it.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: So I was working my dream job my second semester
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: as a freshman in college, and that was just because
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: I took I took whatever came my way. And I'm
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: so grateful to Team Voue because they took a chance
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: on me. But you know, you're not always going to
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: have the internship of your dreams. You have to do
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: a couple of them to get to where you want
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: to be.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: I also think, I mean a valuable sentiment, and that
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: is just the willingness to go after what it is
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: that you want and be okay with the possibility of
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: being told no. Yes, some people are just scared to
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: be told no, and so they don't go for it
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: at all, you know, totally, totally okay. So we're at
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: NYU and we're an entrepreneur already and we haven't even
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: graduated yet, We're doing so many things.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, what was I thinking?
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Were you overwhelmed?
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: I think I was so excited about all of it
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: that I didn't ever really feel the chance to be overwhelmed.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I really looking back on it, like, yes.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: It was crazy, but I was just so grateful to
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: be doing it and so excited about all the opportunities
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: that were being thrown my way that I just don't
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: think I ever was like fully like, oh my god,
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: this is too much. I also, I'm not going to lie,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: like I was very strategic with my college courses, Like
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: I took a ton in the beginning, I did summer school,
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: so that my last year and a half, I was
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: basically part time in school because I was able to
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: do that and then also work on my company at
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: the same time and work and go and like take
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: every opportunity that was thrown at me.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: So you know, I was really diligent.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I was kind of a nerd, like not looking back
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: and talking about it now, like I just was really
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: really excited about being there, and I wanted to just
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: take every possible take advantage of it.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
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  Speaker 3: today with the code hurdle at checkout. Talk to me
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: about what happens after graduation.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I don't talk about this often.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: And I did a Q and A on my Instagram
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: a little while ago, and so many people ask me
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: that question. And I think some people think that because
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: I had friend of a friend, I just kind of
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: left school and went gung ho with it. But graduating school,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: especially now, is a really terrifying time. And I was
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: obviously comfortable in the sense that I had my company
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: and I knew that I could keep doing it on
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: my own, and I knew that could be my full
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: time job. But I also was kind of like, Olivia,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: you should get a full time job. Your company can
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: come second, Like it's important for.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: You to be in a really in a legitimate.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Working experience and see what that feels like and learn
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: as much as you can.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: So I worked at Spring.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I got offered the job right before I graduated to
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: head up their influencer and like activation marketing. So for
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: my first year out of school, I took that job
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: and I was there for a year and I did
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: a ton of events for Spring. I was doing a
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: ton of collaborations for them, a lot of like influencer
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: marketing moments.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: And honestly, I'm so glad that I did it.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: I don't regret it at all because it let me
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: see the back end of what I would do in
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: the future, and it was a really rewarding experience. And
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: you know, after school, for anybody graduating right now like
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I or that did just graduate, like, I'm sending you
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of love, because it's a really tough job
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: market out there. But I think what Emily and I
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: were talking about earlier, and like take what you can get,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: work your ass off and just get some experience like
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: it is that is the best thing that I think
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: you could do right now.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: I have a random question here, and that's how are
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: im monetizing friend of a friend.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: I was a cat of nine I'm a cat of
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: nine lives when it comes to this work I think
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: I was doing. I was doing some Instagram work for sure.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I remember my first paid ad was one for Coach
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: and they're still a big partner of mine today and
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: I love them, and same with Tory Birch. I work
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: with both of those brands very closely, and I have
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: so much gratitude for the brands that believed in me.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: And from the start, I was doing a lot of
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: like editorial shoots, whether it was like with people we
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: were feature featuring or just ones that would go on
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the site and we would do a lot of paid
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: product placement and then editorial, so like places would pay
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: us to write about them, we would have to bet
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: them first, of course, like I would personally go and
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: make sure that it was something I even liked before
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: we would take the project.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: But you know, it was.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: It was like a standard kind of editorial monetization of
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: the website. We were running like banner ads at one point,
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: but I didn't really love that. But again, I was
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: like twenty years old, just learning it all for the
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: first time, and we were also in the boom of
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: like the influencer world when it all first started, So
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: I think I tried everything. I learned, every single part
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: and every facet of it. I'm not gonna lie I
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: didn't love all of it. It's kind of a cringe
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: industry sometimes, but I think every industry has its cringe moments,
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: and we all have to you know, you kind of
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: have to learn them.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: All for sure. So when you stepped away then from
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: the spring job, where does that leave you? And where
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: are we in time?
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: We are about a year out of school. We are
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: absolutely terrified for our life.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: We are saving up enough money to know that even
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: if it wasn't enough to get me through that I
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: would have six months of cushion. I was very vocal
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: about this at the time because I was, you know,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: kind of telling the story on my Instagram about me
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: leaving and kind of going off on my own. Going
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: off on your own is a scary leap, and I
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: had a lot of friends that were doing it at
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: the same time, so I was grateful for that support system.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: But one have your support system.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Do your research, like make your make sure that you
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: are financially sound and that you are able to take
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: that leap, and that you have a little bit of
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: cushion to make sure that you're going to be okay,
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: and have a game plan no exactly your revenue streams
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: what you're going to do on a day to day basis,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: because before you know it, it's up to you to
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: schedule your day and just be ready. Just you know,
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: you're your own CEO at that point, and you know
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: you are in life, but in that at that point,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: you really are, so you have to be ready to go.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: The full nine yards.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: At that point, I was like learning how to like
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: schedule meetings with myself and kind of organize my day
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: and it really paid off.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: But it's definitely a scary it's a scary leap.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: What year is this around?
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: This is twenty seventeen because I graduated in twenty sixteen.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, So you've done like an obscene amount
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: in the past four years.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the past four years.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: I mean those that first year and a half after
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: I'm transitioning to freelance, Like you're really just finding your footing.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: And I know that that sounds like a long time,
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: but I think, you know, I was given a new slate.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: I was given like a kind of a new chance
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: to figure out what my next move was. And I'll
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: reiterate it again that it's like so important to be
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: okay with evolving and being okay with taking the time
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: to just think you don't always need to be doing something,
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: you don't always need to be executing and showing the
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: next thing that you're doing. It's okay to take time
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: and think and plot your next move and do it
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: with intent and know what your next STEP's going to be.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: And so that's what I kind of did.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: The year after I left Spring and when I started
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: going freelance, I was still my monetization method was like
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I was still doing a lot on Instagram and working
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: with a lot of fashion brands, and I I think
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: that was like a big moment for me where I
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: like solidified myself in the industry a bit more. But
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: in the background, I was really plotting and planning what
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: would now be friend of a friend.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: When you were freelancing and whatnot. I know you contribute
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: to Forbes now, but were you kind of dabbling at
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: all in other editorial No.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Because Forbes was just such a fun opportunity for me
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: that I kind of took that, took that to the
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: one hundred. The Forbes thing came about towards the end
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: of my time at Spring. I was with an agency
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: that essentially got me the opportunity to go and cover
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: backstage for the Victoria Secret fashion show in Paris for
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: Forbes's snapchat. They were looking for young contributors to kind
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: of switch up the platform a little bit and talk
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: more from like the lens of the millennials about like
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: fashion and lifestyle and beauty. So I went and did that,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: and then they offered me a contributor contract, and I've
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: been doing it ever since.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: How often are you contributing there?
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Twenty twenty, we're talking about zero. Twenty twenty has just
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: been it's just been different. You know, I'm not going
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: to shows, I'm not going to press previews, I'm not
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: eating at restaurants. I'm barely wearing fashion, and my podcast
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: has been a really big part of my life. And
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: so again it's another one of those things where it's
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: like I'm not going to take up space on that
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: platform unless I really have something to say. But like
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: last year, I was contributing like once or twice, like
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: once once a.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Week pretty much.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: But you know, again, I'm really intentional about the things
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I do. I don't want to just put them out
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: there to just kind of.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Keep it up.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: But I got to pick it up again because people
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: really loved it, and I think I just want to
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: make sure that it's the right time.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: Talk to me about what happens when the friend of
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: a friend podcast really becomes like a solidified idea. What
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: does that evolution look like?
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you know, it's funny.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: I had so many friends that were like chirping in
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: my ear about starting a podcast for a really long time.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: So it was like in my brain for while.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: I had been a big part of my career when
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: I was you know, between spring and kind of getting
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: out and freelancing, was hosting and moderating panels. And it's
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: still one of my biggest passions today. I have so
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: much fun doing it. I think I feel really natural
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: on stage obviously from my childhood, and I love interviewing
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: and I love journalism, and I love that like in
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: person aspect audience.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Like my dream one day would be to have a
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: talk show like that.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: So those like in person moments were really really fun
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: for me and I it would there was something special
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: about it that wasn't being captured in like when I
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: would write for Forbes or if I was doing something
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: on Instagram, So you know, I was trying to find
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: what that right medium was.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: It was like so deeply ingrained in me from the
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: website and all of these things. I just couldn't really
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: figure out what it was that would be the right
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: way to do it. And once I was like, Okay,
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: you know what, let's do a podcast. It took me
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: way longer than I think I thought it would to
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: get it together, but it really was just deep diving
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: into the end of and you know, really learning all
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: these things myself. I think that's a really important characteristic
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: of being an entrepreneur and wanting to be an entrepreneur,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: is like it's a lot of self learning. Like I
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: went on there and learned how to use all the
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: apps and how to edit an episode and how to record,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: and like I was literally recording out of like a
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: little room in the wing when I first started out,
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: and then editing the episodes myself and like getting them
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: up on an RSS feed. So you know, it was
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: very makeshift in the beginning. And I'm really grateful that
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: I'm now at Your Media. They signed me onto their
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: network and they helped me a lot with the production
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: of it. But I'm also really grateful for that beginning
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: experience of like learning how to get it all together,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: because now I can kind of jump in there and
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: help fix things whenever I need to, and I know
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: exactly what's going on with like every facet of my business,
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: which I think is really important for young people right
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: now that are starting businesses and might be taking on
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: extra help, like still learn what they're doing and still
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: understand everything that goes into making the finished product because
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: it's your name that's on it.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: What was the most overwhelming part at first? Aside from
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: just concepting, like even that initial intro, I feel like
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: I for sure between seasons definitely took so much time
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: to really home in on what was my mission? And
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: now that's exactly why I say it at the beginning
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: of every single episode. So what was the most difficult
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: part for you everything?
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: I'm a talker, like I could interview somebody for two hours.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: There's a saying that you're told when you're learning journalism
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: and you want to be a journalist, It's called you
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: have to learn how to kill your darlings. And I
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: know that sounds really scary and horrible, but it's really true.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: When you are a journalist and you want to be storytelling,
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: there are things that you're going to love in an
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: interview and you're going to want to ask and put
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: out there in the world. But they just might not
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: fit in your story. So learning how to kind of
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: kill my darlings and ed it down a little bit
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: and get it to a point where it's a cohesive
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: story that I know my audience will love. I think
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: that's been my biggest challenge, is really really getting the
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: audio to a point where, like I'm telling a cohesive
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: story and it's engaging. You know, you have to with
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: these things. You have to captivate an audience for forty
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: five minutes. It's a scary feat and a lot goes
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: into it mentally, audibly, and you know, and writing wise.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: So I think that's been my biggest hurdle right now
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: in this moment. Obviously you've had to You've had to
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: make a lot of pivots this year, and you mentioned
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: that it was good that you had the experience in
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: all of the different parts of podcast production. I'm sure
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: that's probably also come into the swing of things a
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: little bit this year as well. Right, Oh, yeah, why
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: don't you make from the challenges that I've come hand
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: in hand with twenty twenty for you?
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think obviously I would be remiss to say
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: if not the biggest challenge is my location that you know,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: New York became a very integral part of my being,
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: and I don't think I ever realized how much I
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: tied it to my identity. So I think that and
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: just in and of itself, not being constantly at the
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: epicenter of things and inspired by the things going on
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: around me, But I think that goes on. That goes
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: to say for so many places in the world right now,
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: like even la is not the same in terms of
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: the way that like I'm feeling inspired by things. I
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: think that the biggest pivot, obviously is recording these episodes
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: from home. Like my bread and butter is being able
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: to sit in a room with someone and like exchange energy,
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: and that's where like the gold of the interviews come out.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: I had just signed with Deer Media in January of
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: this year, and we were in a studio for like
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: the first two and a half months, and it was
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: so much fun to just have that space to be
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: able to flex my journalism muscles and really feel like
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: I was on my path. So to have that kind
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: of like flipped on its head literally like three months
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: in was pretty jarring. But you know, it's been so
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: much fun to record from home. I figured out how
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: to do it all. I have a whole setup in
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: my dining room and it's kind of this like fun
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: joke in my house that it's like my like fake
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: little glam room. But I also I in thinking about
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: the theme of my show and the goal of it,
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: which is to kind of like take entrepreneurs or people
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: that are making big moves off the pedestal and really
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: talk about what it's like to build something personally and professionally.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: There's nothing that's been more rewarding in that experience than
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: like hearing their kids in the background, or like hearing
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: their dog and seeing their husbands or significant others walk
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: in the room and seeing what their living rooms look
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: like or their office like. It's been such like a
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: humanizing thing that I think has just added this whole
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: other aspect to the show that I'm that was like
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: that felt at first like a negative, but it's really
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: been a positive, and I'm really grateful for it.
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: I can't even imagine just that swap of events. It
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: was like January kickstarted with being such a big moment
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: for you. It's like this big idea that you had
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: and now you have to your media and it's this
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: big partnership and you're in the studio and then all
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, it's like and we're out.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I kind of was like, wow, But you know what,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: two things.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: One, there are way worse things going on in the
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: past six months, So my little studio mix up and
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: all of that, Like I constantly look at the perspective
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: of it all. I'm healthy, my family's healthy, my close
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: friends are healthy, and you're healthy, and that's like what
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: my focus is. But yeah, I mean two, it's like,
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: it's just I think it's added a whole new dimension
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: for us and a whole new challenge to you know,
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: bring the show from home.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: So I'm I'm grateful for the challenge.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: What excites you right now?
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: What's exciting me is the amount of people that I
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: am seeing that are so dedicated to getting the word
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: out there to vote. That to me is just like
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: I'm so like invigorated by it and excited by it.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you how many brands or partners reach
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: out to me and be like, what can we do
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: with you to get it out there? Like what can
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: we do with our partners? What can we do within
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: our orbit to make a difference? You know, even if
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: it's like something like I posted something yesterday about being
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: able to sign up to be a poll worker, Like
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: it has just been so exciting for me to see
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: all these people be really passionate about just getting people
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: out there to vote. So I'm excited about that. I'm
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: hoping that we defy the odds in November. And if
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: you're listening right now, please register to vote.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Please do it.
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: I support it. Aside from that, I mean, you're still
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: in LA, but do you have any other road trip
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: plans or anything coming up coming into the fall?
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, that road trip was like a once
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: in a lifetime magical experience. I think I need to
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: let that sit in my soul for a little bit
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: and like fully digest it. I am really excited to
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: be on the West Coast to like re explore kind
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: of my hometown. I hope to like maybe drive up
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: to Montana and Wyoming. I love it up there. I
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: love Jackson Hole, explore maybe a little bit of like Portland.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: There's so much on the side that I haven't really
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: explored because I haven't lived here since I was seventeen.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited for the new chapter.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: And who knows I'll let you know when the next
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: road trip happens, and you guys can find the content
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: on the gram.
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: What would you say going back to kind of your
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: career journey and getting to this point where I know
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: so well just being your own boss and kind of
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: running after it day in and day out, what would
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: you say on this journey for you has been one
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: of the biggest hurdles.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Keeping your blinders on.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: It was the best piece of advice I've ever been
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: given personally and professionally. I think I had to like
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: train myself to just focus on me and myself and
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: my business. And I think that's really hard when you're
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: like a young actually at any age, like we are
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: inundated with so much content and information twenty four to
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: seven that it's so easy to get distracted or feel
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: defeated or feel like you're not doing enough because this
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: person's doing this. And compare yourself, and I know that
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: sounds really cheesy, like we don't want to compare ourselves,
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: and you know what, comparing is instinctual. We're all going
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: to do it trying and put your blinders on and
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: be like, Okay, you know what, I know what that
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: person did I'm going to compare for a second, but
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to put the blinders back on and
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: focused on me and my work and doing what I
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: need to do to make it work.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: And I think I've like faced that in so many
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: different challenges.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: Whether it was like, you know, there's a whole period
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: of time where people were like, oh, she's just an influencer,
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, I literally do a thousand other things,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: but you know what, if that makes you feel good,
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: go for it. I'm going to put my blinders back
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: on and keep doing my work. Or if it was
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: like you know, afraid of pivoting and evolving, I think
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: having your blinders on and just thinking about like and
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: just kind of working from your heart and not what
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: other people are telling you or showing you is so
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: crucial to you know, building something that you really love
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: and that you're excited about.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: I never talk about this, but I feel like you're
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: totally going to relate to it. So I'm going to
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: throw it into the inplinics right now because you just
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: said like throwing your blinders on, and then this feedback
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: of like she's only an influencer, and I think that's
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: something that I have been really defensive about when it
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: comes to dating. I never talk about this. It has
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: been has been like that initial perception of whoever might
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: be on the other side of the phone that you know,
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: I'm getting to know, and their exception might be like, oh,
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: she's so, she's all over social media, she's doing this thing,
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: she's doing whatever, And it's like, exactly for me, it's
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: always exactly what you said. It's like, I do so
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: much stuff that if that's going to be your takeaway
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: that I'm a public person, and that's the wrong effing takeaway.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're so we've been trained as a
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: society to be able to look at a first glance
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: of somebody and come to conclusions on ourself. I do
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: this all the time. And guys, if you're listening, don't
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: lie to me and tell me don't do it. Someone's like,
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: you're going to a meeting with this person, and you're
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: going on a date with this person. What's the first
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: thing we all do? Google them, Instagram, like check them out,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: like we do all these things that allow us to
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: create a preconceived notion of this person before we even
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: get to meet them. And listen, googling someone before you
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: meeting them is obviously really important, Like you don't want
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: to get into a situation that could be dangerous. I
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: really believe in checking and all that, especially if you're
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: going in for a date, Like I believe that that's important,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: But like, keep your thoughts aside and let a person
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: show you who they are before you're allowed to pass
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: judgment on them.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: What would you say in twenty twenty has been the
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: biggest lesson for you?
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: I would say that it's okay to change your mind.
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: That has been my mantra for the past couple of
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: weeks now in so many ways. One in changing location,
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: It's okay to change your mind, It's okay to have
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: a new life, it's okay to for a new setup,
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: like it's okay. But two, I think in the fact
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: that in the past two months since the murder of
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: George Floyd and everything going on on the Internet and
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: all the new knowledge that we're being given and learning,
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: and the way that we're kind of changing our mindset,
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: Like I think a lot of people are kind of
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: getting stuck in their opinions and it's okay to learn
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: something new, and it's okay to change your mind. I
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: think not something that I've been applying to kind of
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: every corner of my life. It's okay to change, It's
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: okay to evolve and pivot. And that's a really beautiful thing.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: When someone goes to your Instagram page, they see that
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: you have one hundred and sixty five thousand followers, they
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: see that you're the host of a podcast, You're a
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: Forbes contributor. We haven't even talked of system of service.
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: I need to gosh before we get out of here.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: We all have memory, and they see like, oh, look,
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: how cute you are with this bicycle. It's so good.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: She's literally talking.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: About an Instagram post that I put up five minutes
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: before this interview.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: So she's on my Instagram right now.
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: I'm looking right now, so they see all this great content.
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: When you look in the mirror, what is it that
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: you see?
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, my god, like a five year old child.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: No, what is it that I see? You know, I
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: see like I'm twenty six. In the past six years,
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: I've pivoted so many different times, Like I'm constantly thinking
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: about possibilities and changes and ways that I can further
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: be an extension for change and helping people and storytelling
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: and for me, like I always have always thought about
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: myself as like a vessel. I like to call my
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: podcast to school because everybody that comes on as a teacher,
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: and we're teaching something different every week, and I always
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: want to be that for people.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: I want to be a place where people.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: Can learn and have opportunities and realize the possibilities of
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: their own life through the fact that they're learning through
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: the through the idea that they're learning about something new
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: on the show and va me every day.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I just kind of want to be like
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: I'm a school.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: I know that sounds really weird, but like that's just
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: the way that I've I've trained myself to look at
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: my content and my podcast and the way that I
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: want to.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Give back to my community.
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: Work in progress completely.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: I'm a work in progress.
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: I dig it.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: I am a school under construction.
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: Guys. We're building it. We're building the school. Yes, Okay,
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: So before we start to wrap up here, just give
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: me the lowdown on System of Service because I think
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: it's so so important.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Guys.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: If you're in the System of Service community and you're
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: listening right now, we miss you so much. System of
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: Service was started with me and Joe Holder in twenty seventeen,
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: right after the election. We had thought a lot about,
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: you know, the power of like social media and how
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: people have been giving back and really getting invested in
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: their communities, and we kind of wanted to flip that
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: on its head and be like, well, if you can
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: donate twenty dollars on social media, like why can't you
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: get out there and do something in your own backyard.
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: So we've partnered with amazing organizations in New York, whether
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: it's for Souls for Souls, the Bowery Mission, we replanted
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: a garden in Brooklyn, and all of these things that
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: just take like an hour or two out of your
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: day to make a difference in a community. We really
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: wanted to destigmatize the idea that like service is like
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: kind of an overwhelming or intimidating thing, and we would
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: just invite our friends and our extended community out once
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: a month to physically give back and kind of see
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: what it's like in different communities in our own extended community,
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: and that was really the power of it. So obviously,
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: right now, because of COVID, we are like rethinking and
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: reimagining what that looks like. But stay tuned because we
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: have some exciting news coming soon.
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: I was going to ask you how if someone is
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: listening to this and they want to get involved, what
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: can they do to get involved?
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: Well, you can follow Joe and I.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: Joe is at Outrosystem and I'm at Liftperez with two v's,
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: and you can follow us on Instagram's at System of Service.
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: Anytime we have an event or an update. All the
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: information is there.
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: Perfect, Okay, the final question, You have an opportunity right
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: now live to offer yourself a piece of advice when
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: you are let's say, fresh out of college and scared
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: and unsure about what's exactly going to be the quote
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: unquote right path. You have an opportunity to offer yourself
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: a piece of advice during that hurdle moment right now,
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: What do you tell yourself?
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Have to answer the question right now? Like, I think
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: I felt really rushed when I got out of school
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: and I felt like I needed a game plan, and
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: I felt like people were labeling me and putting me
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: in a box, and I felt really rushed to you know,
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: get to that point where I'm like, oh, I know
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: what my job is.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, Like I'm excited.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: About my path, and like we talked about this earlier,
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: it's okay to take your time to figure it out.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: And I think that's something that a lot of people
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: go through when they get out of school. It's a
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: very indecisive time, and it's a time of a lot
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: of unknowns, and it's okay.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Embrace that.
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: Like, embrace the time of the unknown, Embrace the time
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: of silence. Like after that time is when all the
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: best things come. But when you rush through it because
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: you're like afraid of the pressure, you're not going to
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: really get to the heart of what it is that
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: you want to accomplish.
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: If someone has never listened to a friend of a
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: friend before and they want to tune in after falling
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: in love with you on this podcast, where should they start.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: Well, we're on all the platforms, so Spotify, Apple, et cetera.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: It's linked in the bio of my Instagram. We did
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: an episode in January with Maggie Rogers. She is an
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: all time favorite person of mine. I love her dearly.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: We went to NYU together and just hearing her story
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: through her lens was a really beautiful experience. And then
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: I would jump into any of the Joe episodes he's
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: my best friend, and so you get to learn a
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: little bit about us from a really unfiltered lens. He's
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: also a brilliant genius, so you're definitely going to learn
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: something new about the body in that. And yeah, i'd
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: say those two, those two are pretty good ones.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Jump in.
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: Oh. Also, we're going to keep it really in the family.
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: But Kirsty Godso is on the show, and she's also
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: a good friend of mine, and she's also one of
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: Joe's best friends. But she had a great episode two.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: I think the episodes that shine for me are the
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: ones when I get to bring my friends on and
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: really let them shine.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to plug all of them right now.
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: I did get so many mutual hurdlers in that I know.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I love it. That's
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: why I love the podcast industry.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: It's like a big archive for all of us to
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: look back on in like ten years from now.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: I love that. Okay, Well, thank you so much for today.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: This was Oh my god, this was so awesome. I
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: love your show. I'm so grateful to be on here.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me and for all the work
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: that you do for everybody who's going through a hurdle.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: at Hurdle podcasts Olivia. How do they keep up with you?
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: Give me the details.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: You can follow me on Instagram at Lyftperez with two
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: v's in there, and then all of our episodes are
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: also housed on Friend of a Friend dot us, so
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: you can follow us there too.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: You're a dot us too.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know dot COM's are overrated.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: And expensive, so expensive, so read it.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: It's so overrated. You guys can just type us. It's us.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: You know it's us. It's you and me. Thank you
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: so much for your time. I'm so grateful for you.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: I am at Emily a body at Hurdle Podcast Another
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: heard All Conquered. Catch you guys next time.