093: Creating an Authentic Brand with Lauryn and Michael of The Skinny Confidential

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self Podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. I am recording this live from Bali right now, where I just got proposed to and said, of course, by my boyfriend and now fiance. And I'm so, so, so excited about that. I'll do another podcast. Just diving deep into that just super serendipitous story, and I shared it on my Instagram. So if you're not following me, go on Instagram at. I am Sahara Rose. I also wrote a little blog post about it. So if you go on imsaharos.com you read my blog, you'll see it there. But it was just so magical, and I'm so excited for this next chapter in our lives together. And what a better interview to kind of bring it in than this one. So you may know Lauren Everts from the Skinny Confidential. So Skinny Confidential is this massive blog. She shares everything about wellness to fashion and everything in between. And her husband, Michael Bostick, is the CEO of IT and really helped bring her creative vision out into the world. So we talk a lot about, you know, first of all, what it's like to work together professionally as husband and wife and how you can kind of create the separation of personal life and professional life, or if that is even necessary. Because, you know, a lot of times you think, oh, you must always be talking about work, as if that's a bad thing. But in this episode, we talk about how that's actually helped them gain a lot of their success, because they are always collaborating and communicating and thinking of ideas, and it's really genuinely what they love and what they want to be talking about. So we talk a lot about that, but also the boundaries that they set in, you know, so they don't wake up and immediately start talking about work. So balancing the two, but also not feeling apologetic about over the dinner table, wanting to discuss the projects that you're working on. And I think it's important, now that I'm seeing that I'm getting married in a few months or in the next year, that your professional life as an entrepreneur is something that. It's what you're doing all the time. It's much more than just a job. It is your passion. It's who you are. So to take that out of the equation and think like, oh, my God, I'm so boring. I'm just talking, talking about work. Well, when you're an entrepreneur, your work is you. It's everything that you think and you dream about and that you want to put out into the world. So I think it's really magical and important to have a person that you can openly share that with. And Lauren and Michael are great examples of this. So besides partnership and working together, in this episode we talk a lot about branding. They are both real branding experts. Lauren is an incredible brander. You'll see it on her blog and on her Instagram. And Michael also has a podcast network called Dear Media Studios. And it's all about kind of social media, media marketing and agencies. So I talk a lot about them, about just social media strategy, whether it's worth it to make these long, elaborate Instagram stories or should you be doing that on your YouTube channel? How can you create a tribe? How can you create an aesthetic? All of these questions that we have because a lot of us are content creators or seek to be but we don't know about like the more marketing and branding side. So I wanted to bring this voice into high self podcast as well because it's so important that, you know, we take and we harness these ideas and we bring in the pit to energy and we take action and we get it done. So I'm really stoked to share this with you guys and I would love to mention our sponsor, Uveda uva. You've heard me talk about them before. They are the most amazing ayurvedic supplement company. They specialize in different issues that you will have. So they have mood, digestion, joints, immunity. I take their mood formula daily. I even shared it with Lauren as well because she blogs a lot about anxiety and mental health and it's so good for adrenal fatigue, stress, depression, anxiety, all of these things. And it doesn't mean you have to have any of these issues, but it's a more of a preventative care thing. So I'm really excited to share this with you guys. You can get your UVA monthly pack for 35% off by going on UVA Y-O-U-V-E-D A dot com. Use the coupon code Sahara and you'll get 35% off. The mood is everyone's favorite. I definitely recommend trying that because it blends in the ayurvedic herbs with the modern supplements. But their digestion formula, which I just gave to my fiance because he has Bali belly over here, has been really helpful too. So further ado, let's get into branding, partnership, social media strategy, what it means to be an influencer. Today, let's talk all about that with Lauren and Michael.

So I'm so excited to have you guys here. And the first question I'm going to ask you that I ask everyone is what makes you your highest.

Oh, that's a good question. I guess I'll go first. What makes me my highest self is when I. I guess I should say when I feel the best version of myself is when I practice a lot of self care while also doing things that make me feel independent. I feel like I'm empowered. And when I feel empowered, I feel like I can be available for those who need me around me. What makes me feel not my best self is when I'm not zoning into those things that have to do with self care and wellness. I even do things like, I'll go get cupping done. I talked to you earlier. I love cupping. And I'll be working on my phone the entire time, the whole hour while I'm getting cupped. And I feel like I'm getting something done for my business while I'm also doing some self care. I'll like mix it together. That makes me feel really good. I also think just beating to the tune of my own drum overall and doing things the way that I want to do it as opposed to. To doing what society thinks that I should do or my parents think I should do. I'm very much about doing you and doing you on your own terms, for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For me, I think it's all about constantly pushing the limits and seeing what else we can get away with. And when I say that, I mean what new ventures can we go into successfully? What can we create that hasn't been created before? And I know we're doing a podcast right now, and podcasting in itself is not unique, but what is something unique that we can bring to it or whether we're doing a new business? Basically things that let you live outside the box and kind of let you figure out your own future and define your own destiny. I know that sounds like very, I don't say cheesy maybe, but really it's just being able to get up every day and say, okay, I'm setting the schedule, I'm building my future. It's not on anyone else, it's on me. And of course you're going to have help and support hopefully along the way, but it's just basically controlling your own destiny and being and knowing that what you're contributing to your life is on your terms and not somebody else's.

I also think both for both of us, you know, we've always Been the type of people that want to design our own future. That to us, is what gets us off as a couple. We obviously have different strengths in different areas, but at the end of the day, we're very much committed to designing our own future the way we want it. And we've never really looked at someone else's formula of how to do it. We just really focus on what works for us and what we want together as a couple and how we can create that.

Yeah. Do you guys know twin flames are. Have you heard of that? Total, total twin flames. So twin flames are like, it's believed that, you know, before you came onto this earth, you were a whole, part masculine, part feminine, and that whole, that soul got split up into two bodies and part of that female. You still have masculine, you still have feminine. And when you find that person, it's like you're balanced. It's like they are feminine in the ways you are masculine, vice versa. But you come together for a mission to create something, to create a new future. And when you have that, that's when you know you found your twin flame.

Twin flames for life?

Yeah.

Sometimes when you're not annoying them.

No, but your twin flame is also the person that can like piss you.

Off the most because they do those.

That's it then. We're twin flames.

That's us.

I love it. So I want to ask you, what is it like being a couple, a married couple and in business together? And how do you guys set boundaries for personal life and work life?

It's really hard. It's definitely not easy. I would say it's probably one of the most difficult things that I've had to deal with on a day to day basis. Just because it's hard to know when to shut it off. You know, you bring everything that you do, you have a hundred percent towards everything. And when you bring that in every area, it can be exhausting. And I think it's something that you certainly have to work at. I do not think it's just something that comes naturally. I think it's practice, practice, practice.

It's definitely really difficult. But it's. I always kind of laugh at people when they say, like, how can you shut it off? Or how do you find balance? I don't necessarily believe that it's about that. Right. I believe it's about finding somebody that wants to share and talk about and do the same thing that you want to do. So for example, Lauren and I at one point we were working on a relationship, said, okay, let's Go to dinner and let's not talk business. Let's not. We're gonna go in there and just turn off. And, you know, the problem is that we both wanted to go there and talk about those things, right? And so we found ourselves, like, kind of sitting there like, okay, do we, like, talk about, like, I don't know, what's going on in the news, travel. Not that we don't talk about.

Did you clean your tongue today?

All that kind of stuff. But I think where couples are running into trouble is this. And this is where I think people really need to kind of analyze the relationship they're in. If you're in a relationship where you constantly want to talk about what you're doing for work and your spouse is like, I don't want to hear about work at all. I want to just talk about, like, this present moment, and you kind of find yourself at odds constantly about, like, what you want to talk about and what your partner wants to talk about. I think it's time to kind of look at that relationship, say, wait a minute, is this a relationship that's really serving me? Is this the type of relationship that I really want to be in? And there's nothing wrong if somebody wants to not talk about work or maybe they want to talk about something different. It's just if those are the things that you constantly find yourself wanting to discuss and things that make you happy and your partner's saying, no, I don't ever want to discuss that, then you have to kind of analyze the relationship as a whole. And I think what works for Lauren and I is we're very much on the same page. That being said, there are times when it's like, okay, time to turn it off. Time to stop talking about work. Let's be intimate or whatever it is. And that's where we both have to kind of be respectful of each other's thought process at the time is like, okay, it's time to turn that off. Slow it down. But I don't think we're ever in a situation where we're limiting ourselves from conversation.

I think there's two things that we do that really work for us. And one is probably two to three. One to two Sundays a month, we shut off. And when I say shut off, like, the blinds are down. Like, our TV show's on, our dogs are in the middle of us. Like, we are, like, out of it. And it's just time for us. We don't even have to be talking the whole time. We're just doing what we want to do. Yesterday, I was reading. He was reading. We watched a Tony Robbins documentary. We watched the Versace show. That's so good. Everyone needs to watch it. And just really just chilled. And we love to just. Him and I love to be together in silence, too. I think that's really important when you have a partner. We're completely comfortable in silence. We both love to read, so we share that common ground. Another thing is, even though we work together all the time, we're always laughing. We're very much in on the joke. You know, some people will message me and be like, oh, my God, you're mean to him. It's like, no, we totally are on each other's level. And not that it's a higher level or a lower level of banter. We have a very healthy banter. You know, if I didn't have that, I mean, if I couldn't make fun of him, I think that would be really boring.

I'm abused. I'm battered. Just kidding.

So I'd love to know, were you, Lauren, interested in branding and business development before you met Michael, or did you kind of introduce you to it? How did that happen?

Branding has been something that I think has been ingrained in me since I was born. I mean, I remember doing weird things when I was little. I was just talking the other day how before there was computers, I was making these scrap for people. And I just, like, realized this the other day. I was blogging through these scrapbooks. So when I was 12. I've known him since I was 12. We haven't been together the whole time, but I made him this huge, thick scrapbook of, like, writing. And, like, it was. I was storytelling. I was always storytelling.

Now, to clarify, we dated a little bit weird when we were 12, and then we broke up and went their separate ways.

Separate ways.

She didn't just create a creepy scrapbook out of nowhere.

It wasn't a creepy scrapbook out of nowhere, but the whole scrapbook was a story. And to even go further, everything I liked and was attracted to was a story. And I think that if you have a story like you do with your brand, it's such a healthy, good foundation to grow off of. The story is what people want. So storytelling has always been in me with branding. I think branding comes from feeling like you maybe don't have all the answers, but you feel like you have taste and you know what goes with what. It's just something I think that you either love and you're attracted to or you're not. Now, I'm obviously obsessed with branding. It's. In fact, I would say if I wasn't doing what I was doing, I would be a branding specialist. It's like my favorite thing to step back and say, what's this brand story? What are the colors that's gonna make it come to life? What are the captions on the Instagram? What's the voice of the brand? Who's behind the brand? I mean, there's so many different facets of it. It's fascinating to me. And I think Michael loves branding, but Michael's also really good at the business side, and I think together, that's worked really well for us. Obviously, it's been a dance and it's taken time to, like I said, work through, but together, I think the branding and the business, it's come together pretty nice for, like, our podcast.

Yeah. As you're talking, I was thinking, like, you know, I appreciate a really good brand. Right. And I appreciate the consistency, and I appreciate being able to look at something and say, wow, that looks really good. And that's consistent. And I consider my. Someone that has some taste, but I don't necessarily consider myself like, someone that can brand, like Lauren. Right. I like to look at brands and then help that brand grow and let other people.

He's into the distribution, the marketing.

But that being said, like, I think that comes down to, you know, kind of defining, like, I was thinking back to our relationship, like, working together, defining the roles. Right. We don't really crisscross and cross each other's paths when it comes to our roles in the businesses. Right. Like, she's much more of the creative, especially with, like, with her brand, the Skinny Confidential, she's fully creative. And I'm like, she said more maybe of the business side or the marketing side, take what she's done and help people see it. And I think that's also important with couples working together. It's like, really define the roles. If you can't. If you have two creative people in the kitchen and you're both trying to do the same job, you know, and maybe one person wants to go left and the person wants to go right, then maybe you're running into trouble. But for us, it's easy because she says, hey, we're going left, and I say, cool, I'm gonna. How fast you want me to step on the gas? Or. Or do you want me to step on the break? I think that if you're going to think about working with your significant other, which is 100% a challenge and not easy. I think one of the first steps is really defining the roles and saying, okay, what am I going to be responsible for? What's my partner going to be responsible for? What do we come together on? But let's try not to step on each other's toes because that's not fun in any business.

Well, I feel like it's like the ultimate goal of a relationship is to build something together. That's why people have children, they have dogs and building a business, building a, like a brand, building a way of life for other people to follow. Like what more could bring two people together than that? It's truly beautiful. It's like, oh, we were put together on each other's paths for a purpose that's so much greater than the two of us.

I totally agree with you. I think that I can't imagine not working with my husband in some capacity he's obviously not involved in, you know, the day to day on the Skinny Confidential. It's more, you know, we kind of utilize each other's strengths where we can. But, but I can't imagine not not working with him a lot. I think that, I mean it's.

As an entrepreneur, it's such a big part of your life.

Totally. It is such a big part of both of our lives. So I think that if we didn't work together it would feel not complete.

If you can find that balance and if you can, you know, at this point I think, and trust me, we still have our issues and we still have those big blow up fights when, you know, if we don't agree on.

Something like when you tell me all your dreams before 7 o' clock in the morning.

Yeah. Like, you know, personal things cross over. But if you can kind of master that dance or at least attempt to like Lauren, like Lauren saying it's a really beautiful thing because you're not gonna find, especially with you know, my wife, like it's not the same as a typical, like, hey, we're partners now. It's like it's the same household. It's the same goal. Like eventually if we have a family, like a same family. So it's a different partnership than starting with like you know, your best friend or whatever. It's, you know, it's very much.

You're all in.

Yeah, you're all in same roof. Like you're living in the same, you're sleeping in the same bed. Like. But yeah, it's difficult.

Yeah. So a question I have that has come up for me and I think everyone that Has a brand is, especially with a personal brand, you change. You change so much year to year. As a person, how do you keep up that brand when you are changing? Do you think, keep up that brand long enough until it's established or let it keep changing with you?

You keep telling the story, the story, the brand story. And if the personal brand, you have to keep getting your message across. So for me, I in health and fitness, it's evolved into so much more. You know, I want to bring other people up. I want to bring experts on. Like we just brought you on our podcast. I'm not going to go, you know, do all the research in something that I know that you know so much about. Like, I'd rather bring someone that's a strong, smart, beautiful woman on the podcast and showcase that. So for me, like I said, it's turned into my health and fitness journey and has expanded into beauty and wellness and podcasting and bringing other people's strengths on the blog and showcasing them. I think what I've tried to do through the seven year journey is continue to tell my story. And instead of outgrowing my audience, I want my audience and my community to grow with me. You know, it's so important not to get too big for your audience where you leave them behind. I've seen some influencers that, you know, it's all about what they're wearing or what they're eating. And as they grow and they get this huge following, they forget that the reason that they have the platform in the first place is because of the people that are following them. I think what it all goes back to for me is community. You know, community for me is that's what gets me off. I have a secret Facebook group with all these women in it, and it's been so cool to step back and see it has nothing to do with me. It's about the skinny. Confidential as a brand, connecting these women with common interests, that's been like the most fulfilling thing for me.

I think with a personal brand to touch on, what Lauren's saying is it's. It's about depth, right? You know, I'll compare it to this. You meet someone for the first time and you're like, wow, they're really interesting. But if they threw out everything in the kitchen sink about what they're about, what they like, like what they've been up to, all the different things they've done in their life, it would be overwhelming. And you'd probably be like, whoa, whoa, too much. Like too much, buddy, Right? Like Think about it as going on a date with someone for the first time. Like, no, but over time, if they continued to talk about the same thing they talked about on that first date or that first interaction, you'd get bored, right? And you'd say, okay, like, I need to leave. I need to figure something out else out. I think with a personal brand, what's really important is that you're not going off on tangents that aren't true to you, where you're just like talking about mountain climbing one day and then the other day you're like, I'm a beauty expert. But I also think the other side of that is to start to reveal more layers of your personality and like Lauren said, build a community around that and develop, you know, an audience that's interested in you as a person. And then it becomes interesting. Right, right. Where I think people make mistakes is they're running brands as personal brands, and then they're running personal brands as brands that can never evolve and have to stay in the same box all the time. Where it's like, if you're Coca Cola, we want the soda from you. Like, that's. I'm not saying that anybody here drinks soda. I'm just using them as a brand. But if you're a personality and you're like, all I offer here is this, over time, people are going to get bored and change the channel. So I think it's a really interesting distinction between personal brands and consumer brands and understanding, like, one is evolving story about your life and the other is maybe meant to live in a certain category.

And with both, I think too, it's playing off what you said. I think it's really important to zone in on your niche and ride it and ride it and ride it. But at the same time, you have to have the capacity to be able to expand that niche. So, you know, I talked about health and fitness for two years, every single day, for seven years, days a week. But eventually I had to slowly incorporate the characters in my life. So, you know, I incorporated Michael after a couple years. I incorporated my grandma, I've incorporated my sister, I've incorporated my friends, my assistant. Like, I've introduced all the characters to the story while expanding the story outwards. So I always say that it's like an upside down triangle. I zoned in on my niche. I wrote it, wrote it, wrote it. And then as it was time to expand outward, I went out with the characters. I call them characters, but they are characters in my life and went outward to create a bigger More in depth brand. And it all goes back to the story.

But to really, like, zone it down to one thing is that that story was very natural for her to tell because she was telling the authentic story of her actual life. Where I see personal brands making a mistake is they just try to, you know, like, oh, wait, look, people over here are talking about beauty. We better start talking about beauty, too. And it's like, wait a minute, do you really want to talk about that? Is that authentic to your real experience? And if it's not, I think people run into some trouble.

And something that a lot of people have asked me about, I don't know the answer to is people feel like people want to connect with a person. You know, if all I post about is food, I'm like, okay, who's that person? But then if you post a lot.

Of pictures of yourself, it's also like.

You'Re not a celebrity. Like, I don't care about your life. What is that good balance of putting your face in there versus, like, building it just based off that content?

I think it all comes down to this. What value are you giving your audience? I don't care if it's a picture of your tits. And I say tits, your boobs, your tits, your butt, your dog, your grandma, your food, your spice, your whatever. What value is the audience taking away from that picture? I've posted the weirdest things. Like, I've actually posted a picture of my boobs, actually, because I had a story about my boob job, so that was relevant to post. I think whatever you post needs to have context. So just to post a selfie, what's the context of that?

Right?

Are you talking about tongue scraping or, you know, are you. What are you talking about?

If you go from recipes and then all of a sudden you're like, well, you guys been asking to see me? Here's me. It's like, right, what's the story there? Like, why is this interesting?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's how most people actually even caption it. They're like, this is what I look like, in case you're wondering. And just kind of like, okay, just go back to the. You know, because you don't care. You're not invested in their story.

Right. I think you can post as many pictures as you want of yourself or as many pictures of your food as you want, but what can the audience take away from that picture? So anything I post, I really try to have super valuable underneath that picture. I think that the caption I always say this is 75% of it. I mean, you know that you've wrote a huge, beautiful book that has so much value. That's why people want to follow you. It's so much information.

And what do you think now with like, Instagram captions? I feel like now it's like one sentence and it's like, see more. Do you think it's worth even writing.

A long caption or just try to.

Get it in that one line?

I think, like, I don't have a large Instagram following at all and it's not my main focus as, you know, like, you know, most of my content lives on the podcast that we do together. But I think that for me, it's extremely weird for me to just post something with a short caption. Like, I always. I think if you're starting out, especially micro blogging through Instagram is one of the smartest things you can do, like, give a story. People are hungry for good content. Like, if you just do a post and say, like, here's me with a. I don't even know what these girls say anymore. It's like, just run around like, you know, it's like, what the hell does that mean?

Right?

It's very narcissistic way to present content when you're just taking a picture of yourself and just like, out and about. Like, it's like, no, give us some context. Let us know what's going on. And that shows the audience that you're putting some thought and care into the content that you're delivering. But that being said, I don't think it's absolutely necessary if that's not what you want to do. But in my opinion, it's an extremely good idea because that's how you're going to get engagement, tell a story.

I think 2018 is all about the year of the call to action and the microblogger. And the call to action is the engagement. Asking a question. So, for instance, like, you could do a selfie of yourself and you do an amazing job on Instagram. You do really long form content. I was looking at your whole Instagram. It's great. But say you posted a selfie of yourself and your call to action would say, this is all it would say. Do you tongue scrape? That's a question that you're actually wanting to know about your audience, that you can take that feedback. And if they say, no, I don't. I want to know more about it. Your next post is all about it. It enlightens them. I think it's also about the microblog. The microblogger is someone that utilizes Instagram. Even if you press have to see more and you utilize all that space to write. And then not only do you do that, I'm gonna take it a step further and you're gonna do a swipe right and you're gonna do a video. Now this is a lot of work, so a lot of people don't wanna do this. So this is where I found. There's a lot of white space. So you do swipe right and you do like this video about what the product is. And then you do another swipe right and it's another picture and then you do another swipe right. It says, head to my Instagram story to see which tongue scraper I use. And you take them to the Instagram story and you're doing a picture of the tongue scraper with a swipe up link. It's all about again, telling that story. I think with microblogging you can do that and with a call to action, you can do that. Because with the call to action, you can take the information from the audience and present the information in the next post. Again, I keep going back to the.

Story and do you think that now it's worth, like I see people put so much time and effort into their story and it's gone in 24 hours, but it seems like that's where people are hanging out. Do you think it's worth putting that time in your story or like put it up on YouTube or we'll have a longer shelf life?

Well, here's. This is kind of a multi dimension question, because now you can do highlights, so now you can save the story.

But do people really look at those?

Well, I think it depends which. I think it depends what you're trying to do it for. If you're just trying to do stories because you see everybody doing stories and it's a new feature, then maybe it's not a good idea. But if you're doing it because you think that you can either interact with your audience or you can provide some type of value and get people interested, then yes, it's worth doing. I don't believe that any type of content. And you see this in the podcast space, people say, oh, there's a lot going on in the podcast space. I better start a podcast. Any type of content that you want to produce, whether it's video, written, social, whatever it is, you have to ask yourself the question, like, one, am I passionate about doing this? Two, can I provide value to the audience on a consistent basis. And three, is this something that's gonna serve the overall purpose of my brand? Which is whatever it is. I think for Lauren it makes a lot of sense because for her it's very much lifestyle. For somebody who maybe just wants to be very editorial, fashion content, we'll take a fashion blogger, for example. Maybe they're better off not doing it if they don't want to put the time in. Right. Like, I think all of these different mediums are available to us and you have to utilize them in a way that you can that's gonna enhance your brand and enhance what you like doing.

I absolutely think it's worth it. I think it's so worth it. I think you have to continue to put yourself out there every single day. Even if it's up for 24 hours. I would tell every single person to take advantage of Instagram story. And I think it's a lot of.

Work if you have the chops to do it. Like some people maybe just shouldn't do story, right? Like, I don't think that everybody should have a podcast and I don't think everybody should have a YouTube channel and I don't think everybody should have a blog. You shouldn't feel pressured to do something if you know, fundamentally that you're not gonna like doing it and you're not good at it.

I mean, for me, I've always been a fan of, instead of trying to get more followers, get more eyes, get more people to speak to the people that I already have. So Instagram story does that on a day to day basis. And again, I hate to keep saying this, but it's telling the story of my day. Right? So that story makes up for the bigger picture. I mean, sometimes you have to post things over and over and over again for people to, you know, have it resonate. I think with stories too, there's so much power in growth hacking. So you can take from your story, you can take them to your YouTube channel from your story, you can take them to your blog, from your story, you can take them to your podcast.

If you're producing good content.

Yeah, this is if you're producing good content. I think that with YouTube, it's awesome that it stays that long, but I do think it would be a mistake to only post on YouTube. I think you can utilize your Instagram stories in a way that works for your personality to grow back to other channels.

Yeah, it's interesting because I think now YouTube has like a YouTube, like kind of story live feature. I don't know if you ever used it before, but I don't. I feel like YouTube, it's much more curated content than it would be on an Instagram story. Then it's like something you have to like, plan. And that's why it works better for like beauty bloggers or something like that than every day.

Yeah, YouTube I think, has not. Actually, this is. May surprise you. What I think maybe Michael too. I don't think YouTube has even scratched the surface. Like, I think it's still a very new thing. I think everyone should be on YouTube if they have, like Michael said, if they have, I guess they have to chop the talent. The talent to be on YouTube. I think everyone should be on YouTube.

If you have a unique point of view and you can present that point of view in an entertaining or informative way, then I think whatever channel that is, you should be on. Right. Like, I know for myself that I'm not going to be the best on an Instagram. It's just not something. So I tend not to dabble too much there. I like to do a podcast and I like to talk. So I think for that it comes very natural. So we do it. I think people just have to be really honest with themselves. You don't want to go to a platform just because everybody else is going to that platform. As a matter of fact, you can really hurt yourself by doing that. Like if you have a very curated editorial Instagram account that everybody has fallen in love with and goes to for, you know, fashion advice, per se, and then all of a sudden you go on stories and maybe, like, maybe you don't have the personality for it or you don't, like you don't feel like doing it or it can actually end up maybe detracting from your, from your curated brand. Right. So I think you have to be really honest with yourself and really like, be self aware with what you're doing. Like, does this make sense for the overall brand? And will it make sense in five to 10 years, not next month? Don't just ride trends. I think that's a huge mistake when people just say, oh, everyone's doing this, so I'm gonna do it.

I also think it's a mistake to make a commitment to your audience that you're gonna launch a podcast and it's gonna be a weekly thing and then not follow through with that. I think you either need to give them some kind of explanation of why you're not doing it or just don' at all.

Right.

Because it just, it goes back to Your brand again. Like, you want your brand to have strength and warmth, and it's not having strength to say you're gonna do something and not follow through with that.

I think if people made decisions based on five to seven to ten year windows, as opposed to six months or a year, everybody's brands would be a lot further along.

Like for Michael and I, we just were talking the other day, we're like, how cool is it gonna be when. When we're 40 years old and our podcast is. Is still out? And we really think at 40 years old, we will still be podcasting or.

Some form of an audio show, right?

Yes. So I think that if you think like that too, it's easier to commit just to do a podcast, to do 25 episodes.

It's like, right?

You know, I don't know.

Yeah, no, totally. And I see tons of podcasts and it's like you look at the last episodes, like February 2016, and you don't want to even listen because it doesn't feel current. Today's world, everything is like, oh, it's.

A month old, you know, or the audio's bad. Right?

Yeah. I think consistency is like people's biggest thing. So do you guys do anything like, like what sort of tools do you guys use to make sure you stay consistent and keep up with this?

I mean, it's definitely something that I believe is social media, for me at least, has been a seven day a week thing. I don't think that I've completely taken a break in seven years, but I love it. I'm not complaining. It's different because we're sharing our lives as opposed to being able to clog out. It's like, don't you always feel, oh, I could be Instagram storing this?

Right?

Oh, that's a good Snapchat. Or look at that Instagram. Like, I'm always thinking in those terms.

It's hard for me to stop.

Yeah, it's hard to stop. Like, you could be waking up in the morning at 6am making your tea, and right there is content. And you're like, you know, it's hard to be able to shut off. I think what works to keep me consistent is a couple things. I have this app called Snug where I plan my Instagram feed out so I can see it as a whole. Because I'm all about the brand and the story and I, I like to like move things and put it where my vision as a, as a what, what am I again?

Vata.

So I can see it that Keeps me consistent because it shows me where I need to go with Instagram. And I feel like once that.

Do you post once a day or more?

I post once a day, if not more than once a day. And I don't like to post on Saturdays unless I really, really, like, have something really cool to post Saturday. I just feel like everyone's out having fun with their friends. It's not the day to be on social media for some reason. Just what I've noticed from my community. I also am constantly engaging in, you know, my secret Facebook group, and they're telling me, like, kind of. They're kind of showing me the way to go, and I'm always listening and writing notes. As far as blogging, someone said, how do you always feel so inspired every day? I don't feel inspired every day. I feel 80% of the time, I'm not inspired. There's been so many times where I've sat down at the computer and not been inspired. But that's when that discipline comes in with that consistency, and you remind yourself how important those two things are and how they can really propel you forward. So definitely snug the app. For Instagram, I would have a secret Facebook group that you can engage in seven days a week. I would not expect to feel inspired every day. And remember that discipline and consistency go a long way. And then commitment to the audience, which is. We have a podcast that's out every Tuesday. It doesn't matter if you're sick. We've been sick. It doesn't matter if you don't feel good. We've not. You know, you just do it. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And once you kind of get into that momentum, it's like working out. I mean, I don't think about working out anymore. It's like brushing my teeth. I just do it. I wake up. That's what I do. And once it becomes like that with work, it becomes like a tumbleweed.

I think, like, in order to. We're talking about consistency and staying consistent. I think, you know, I come from the traditional business world, and I think we handle a lot of the social stuff now as a business. And I. And I always compare it to, like, imagine if I showed up to one of my companies and I just said, you know what, guys? Like, this month, we're just not gonna do anything. Like, we're just not gonna. We're just gonna take the month off because I don't really feel inspired, and I don't really feel good. And, like, no, probably not gonna pay you guys this month. And like, the customers, like, nah, probably not gonna talk to him this month. Like, you can't do that. Right? You commit to something and you see it through the whole way through. And I think that we relate that to our podcast and the content. But I think again, it comes down to are you doing something that you really are passionate about, that you want to be doing? And if you're doing something for the short term, gains probably no. And, you know, I'm working on something right now with Lauren and our partner in the podcast space, and I'm dealing with a lot of different podcast hosting companies. And it's interesting, they were giving me a stat. They're saying, yeah, you know, like, 85% of the people that started podcasts quit in the first year and like 95% of them that signed up for the platform quit in the second year. And he said, it's super interesting because the 5% that end up sticking around after that, U2, are the people that have real success most of the time.

What year are you guys on?

I think we're almost at two years.

Okay.

But like she said, I mean, we're talking about, like, what's gonna look like when we're 40, this type of thing. You know, we're about to have our hundredth episode and we're both just saying, like, the way we're gonna celebrate is like. Like, we're gonna celebrate by saying, okay, we'll celebrate when we get to 200.

You know what I mean?

It's not, I think again, we've committed to something and we enjoy doing it. So it doesn't feel like work all the time, even though it is. But the point am I making with how people quit is they quit because the short term gains aren't there right away. And I think with social media, while it's a great tool, it's also making people think that things happen quickly. And at least in my experience, and I think Lauren, and probably you as well, could say, nothing truly good happens overnight. Nothing truly good happens quickly. Like, you have to put in the time, and if you're not willing to put in that time, that's fine. Just have an honest conversation with yourself and say, okay, like, I gotta maybe move on to other things.

I love that. And where do you guys see yourself going in the future, your brands and everything?

Definitely doing a lot of different things with the community, whether that's meetups or live podcasts or, you know, it's just, it's fun for me to get out there and meet women that have common interests because they've been reading the Skinny Confidential and they have their own stories, and I like to hear about what they're doing. That's why I love the Facebook group so much. You know, eventually, product Michael and I are working on something right now, like he said, that's going to bring other people up. I think it's really important that as you grow, that you just let yourself be a tall, huge building, that you bring other people up. We're very much about contribution. Maybe, you know, getting really involved with the charity, just really trying to use the platform in a way that's positive and uplifting and making sure that at the end of the day, I'm. I mean, for me, I'm a role model for women to really, really be to the tune of their own drum and live life on their own terms and not kind of listen to what the outside society parents tell us to do.

I think it's about, like, scaling impact, Right? Whether that's a business where you're selling something, whether that's, you know, a podcast where you're reaching people, whether that's scaling a platform so that you can help other people, whether that's a charity or. I think, like, for Lauren and I, we don't have a specific like, oh, we're gonna be here and this goal is gonna be hit. But it's more about, like, how do you consistently scale the things that we're doing now to have greater impact in different areas of our life? Whether that's financial or whether that's helping people or whether that's working with charity, whatever it is, like, just basically scaling. What we're doing, I think is the end all goal.

I love that.

Constantly growing.

Yeah. I mean, we are all, like, in a constant state of expansion. Like, the universe is expanding, and if we are not expanding as, like, individuals, then we are actually getting smaller, you know, so it's like, oh, it's so important. Like, how can I make my financial game? How can I make my love, like, life? All of these things bigger and bigger and bigger, otherwise you're gonna end up behind.

Yeah, I agree. And you know what? Something that we hope to do tomorrow is to order our stainless steel.

Yeah.

Tongue cleaner. Because that's gonna be Michael's new ritual because of you.

I'm gonna scale and then oil pulling.

And then he's gonna meditate. Yeah, he's gonna oil pull, meditate, so I don't have to hear him in the morning cleaning.

We just. We just had, you on our podcast and we just went through all of my issues that I'm going to start trying to fix. I'll scale those and I'm gonna have.

My ginger turmeric collagen pepper concoction I love.

I'm gonna come back next year. You're like levitating.

Yeah. You're like a guru.

Perfect. Well, thank you guys so much for sharing your wisdom and coming on the podcast.

Thank you for having us.

That was so much fun.

Yay.

I hope you guys really enjoyed that episode. I know so many people are really confused about Instagram stories and YouTubes and all of these different social media platforms available to us and how to tell.

A story and how to get people.

To engage with you and all. So I hope this episode helped clear some of that up because it is a really important thing that we have in our day and age. We chose to reincarnate in this time with social media and technology. So we should embrace it and make the most of it and really use it as a platform to get our message out there. So I hope this episode gave you a little bit of motivation to put yourself out there on social media and tell your authentic story. And if you loved this episode and you'd like a little gift for reviewing it, I would love to send you the the first half of my unreleased book. It's called Eat right for your mind body type. It is not available for sale anywhere, never will because now it is Eat right for your mind body type 12 week guided program infusing Ayurveda with modern nutritional science. So as a free gift for reviewing this episode in the itunes store, you just head over to itunes on your phone, on your computer, click write a review, write a nice review, take a screenshot of it and email it over to me before you hit hit submit. My email is Sahara S A H A R aatfeelfresh.com and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book, Eat Right for your mind body type. I hope you loved this episode and.

I'll see you on the next one.

Namaste.

Touching.