Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm your host Bobby Brown. I first met Tina Craig over fifteen years ago. She was introduced to me as a blogger before I knew what a blogger was. So Tina Craig is the original influencer. She is also an entrepreneur who started her blog many years ago with twenty dollars. The idea of an influencer is someone who actually has some influence on you, whether it's what they're eating, what they're wearing, it's an influencer is someone that you could learn from. I think the word influencer has gotten a little bit of negative reviews. But having an influence, especially if it's a good influence, I think is such a great thing. And I love social media and Instagram because you really get to learn a lot and you get to be inspired, whether it's travel, food, and being an influencer. I think there also comes to responsibility. Tina Craig has one of the largest platforms today. She not only has had her own bagline, she has an amazing magazine that talks all about clothes and fashion. She now has a line of skincare. She also has an influencer agency, and who knows what else Tina is working on. But what I love most about Tina Craig is she's someone that keeps reinventing herself and she is unstoppable. How she became an entrepreneur and what everyone out there could learn from her because Tina is not afraid of anything. She is fearless. Here is my conversation with the one and only Tina Craig of the blog bag Snob. Welcome to the podcast, Tina Craig, give everyone who's listening a little bit of a background of who you are and what you've done. Hi, Bobby, and thank you for having me. Okay, so, bag snob dot com is a website I started almost fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, I know, back then, when blog was a dirty four letter word, I had to pretty much sneak my way into everything, I think, including your office. The first time we met, I'll never forget it. Our mutual PR friend Hamilton's South said, we're would you meet with this influencer Tina Craig? And I said, what is an influencer? Back then, I was called a blog or blogger. I'm like, what is a blogger? And He's like, just meet her. I'm like okay. It was like, you have twenty minutes with Bobby. Don't ask for photos, don't ask her to dear makeup. And then by the time she came in and we said hello, she was like, get somebody to get my makeup on. I know she's gonna want a photo. You're not going anywhere, and Veronica was very very nervous because f bombs are dropping. And I stayed for three hours and you were like, don't leave. I have a meeting. Can't you just hang out? Do you want to get your nails done? You want to get your makeup done? It was definitely love at first. It was was that fifteen years ago. No, that was about twelve or thirteen years ago. I had been blogging for about a year or two and I met Hamilton's and I was so excited. But before that, even though when I first started blogging, I flew myself to New York City, I bought a ticket for this AMEX forum that you were speaking at because I had been stalking you since college, and I'm like, I have to go see Bobby Brown. And I had a newborn baby, and I told my husband, I'm gonna take the baby with me. My friend's gonna watch him while I goes listen to Bobby Brown speak. This is really important to me. So I flew to New York and I remember watching you and you were just saying like, just do it. You know, it doesn't matter, You'll figure it out later. And I went back to my hotel room and I launched beauty snob dot com, my second blog, and I remember like, everyone's like, are you crazy? You're gonna do two blogs? And I just kept going until I had six blogs at one time. So, first of all, I did not see the true story, and I did not know that story. And the the amex on stage thing was me, Kate Spade and Andy You interviewed by Ellen to J. Yes, yes, it was the highlight of my life. It was a highlight for me too. It was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. That was years ago. Yeah, so all right, bag Snob beauty Snob, Now we're talking about what bag Snob is. It was a blog started out of the love of handbags in fashion, and I had just had a newborn baby, and my college friend found herself in a similar situation where I used to be an MTV VJ. And I had my own licensing company in Asia, and then I found myself sitting in suburban Texas, right outside of Dallas with a newborn, and I knew I didn't want to go back to work. I couldn't leave him. I was obsessed. And but then I wanted to do something because I was obsessed every day with when he ate, when he pooped, and I was like, Okay, I've got to do something with my life. And so I started shopping all the time. I thought, Okay, this will be fun. And I was sending a lot of bags to my college friend and calling her house constantly back when we had answering machines, and her husband is a software engineer, and he called me back one day and said, you're a psychopath. You left a twenty minute message about a handbag. Who does that? Start a blog? Leave me out of the conversation. And we're both like, what's a blog that. I'm like, I don't like that word. It's so weird. I don't want to do it. And he's like, it's just an online journal. You guys can write to each other when you have time. It's like a board, a memo board. I'm like, oh, fun, okay, but the whole world sees it. He's like if you're lucky, and we're like, okay. So he said to us, like give me twenty bucks, ten dollars, and he's like, you guys are such bags snobs. You know, back in two thousand five, people use the word snob for a passion or a hobby, and it was like, oh, he's a coffee snob, he only goes to this place, or she's a wine snob. And so we thought that was a funny name because we're the furthest from snobs. I will talk to anybody that is true, that is true, right, you can't shut me up. So it was ten dollars to buy the name bag snob, ten dollars to host it, and he threw up some Google ads. I didn't even know what google ads were, and a month later we had made like four dollars from these ads. And being you know, entrepreneurial USC Business school, we both said, on my gosh, can we make money at this this thing called a blog. It's so we were anonymous. It was just a little journal. We would just you know, right about bags. We wanted to buy bags. We had bags, we love bags. We hated, no holds barred, just we're really really you know whatever. We wanted to say. Next thing, you know, I said, maybe we should get some ads on here, and then I reached out, you know, whenever I was invited to Neem and Marcus for these fancy Lynchons, ladies who you know, shop go to, so I would ask him, do you want to buy an ad? Do you want to buy an AD? And Barney's was still in Dallas at the time, and so we were the first blog Barney's ever bought an AD on just because you know, you don't say no to Tina. You don't say no to Tina. Yes, that is correct, just like Bobby, we'd be my friend. We'll be my friend. I literally said that until she finally was worn down like okay, fine, you can have my number. But bags not predate social media? So how was social media change things for you? You know, that was a turning point because we were anonymous on our site for a long time until British folk reached out and asked us to do a feature on us, and and Twitter happened because on this side was always about bags, and if I talked about my family, it was the boy was with me and that's that was it. And through Twitter, I think my personality was able to come through and I loved it. I was like, oh my gosh, this is so fun. So social media really propelled my personality, I think, to the readers to have to be able to be because at the time people kind of were like, okay that everybody was starting a blog. And by two thousand nine, you know, four years in, you know, there were these fashion bloggers who just took photos of themselves and posted on the blogs. And I didn't do that, and we didn't want to do that because, you know, we were like Internet, it's a scary place. Let's stay anonymous and not post our faces, and don't let anyone know our baby's names and might come and steal our babies. You know, this is two thousand five. Who knew that I'd be like geo tagging, this is where I'm gonna be. Come see me at that time, you know, come kidnap me. So social media did that. It kind of brought our personalities out, allowed people to see who we were, and it did so much and then really brands wanted to work with us then because it wasn't as crazy and scary to be anonymous bloggers just bashing your bag, calling it like a giant staper or a sea monster. Yeah, and so you started with this blog and all of a sudden you started your own handbag company. You've done partnerships with some of the best you know, handbags out there as product Like, how did that all happen? Why didn't do any collaborations with product by products? So what happened was through Twitter. Aliza lickt dk YPR girl tweeted at me the first time any PR girl like confronted me in public other than sending crazy emails and leaving crazy messages on our answering machine. She said, hey, bag snob, had you never taken a bad photo before that bag you just bashed and called a ce monster? It was just a bad photo. Whien you look at it again in person? So I'm like, fine, I was so scared she sent it and I'm like, I still don't like it. And then so she showed me another bag and like, I still don't like that. Finally I said, just really balls in my head. I'm like, why don't I just come design a capsule collection for Donna Karen? And then she was like, oh, that's interesting, but do you know how to design bags? And I said yes. She's like, oh, but can you actually design a collection, not just change the color of something. I'm like, yes, you know, I just I always say yes, as you know me, I'll figure it out later. I learned that from Bobby. But you had no idea, right, I had no idea. No. I knew I liked bags. I knew I like to, you know, buy bags and study bags. But I figured, you know, I've probably been obsessing over bags since I was, you know, a very little girl. So I was like, okay, I can do this. So that d k Y collab was one of the first ever done by a blogger and a big you know brand, and she thought we'd just do it for marketing for fun, but it was so killer that we went to market with the Netaporte picked it up. Is sold out, like three of the styles sold out in I think hours, and then after that, just you know, I would just reach out to brands I liked. I'm like, hey, can I do a collaboration with you? And people are like, okay, I don't say no to her, She'll just keep bothering you. And yeah, I think persistence, And since then I've done I've designed genes, I've designed a line of jewelry. Now I've got collaboration with Nancy Gonzalez that's ongoing. How many bags do you own? You know? At one point I think I probably had about hundred hundred fifty maybe, But since then, I donate bags so much, and everyone calls me. Everyone knows to call me to donate. I donate to the Salvation Army, I donate to the American Red Heart Association. I don't need to anybody who asks, like whatever I can, and I give away to the girls in my office. I give away to friends. Usually when people come over, they leave with a bag. I mean a real handbag, not just a paper bag. So now I've whittled it down to probably under eighty. You know when PR companies used to just send me stuff and like, let me choose. Let's be really conscious about what if I If I love it, I'll use it. Don't just send me stuff unsolicited. So now there's some more they're like, what would you like to choose? You know, do you want anything from the season? And I'll use it if I love it. And then when I'm done using it, I give it away to one of the girls in my office. Do you have a go to bag or does it change all the time? Changes all the time. I'm you know, I used to be very emotionally attached to my bags until I had my child. And then when that child turned five and he was playing in my bag closet and grabbed a burke into stuff it full of power rangers. I said to him, don't do that. That's mommy's bag. It's very expensive. And he looked at me, looked at all the bags. He was like, you have so many bags and none of them can hug you back like me, gave me a hug, walked off with my burke, and I'm like, okay, that's now a storage bag for transformers and power rangers. Great, Oh my god? Do you still call him the boy in public guests? I don't allow his name to be out and drives him crazy because now he's fifteen, he wants to be insta famous or TikTok famous, and I won't. So will you just tell me about TikTok because that's oh my god, figured out? Yeah, what is it? Because everyone's like, you have to do a TikTok. I'm like, I don't even know what it is. It's literally short form video, very much how Vine was, but there's all these editing tools, so it looks like you sat in some expensive studio and made these videos of yourself. And it's mostly young kids live sinking the gen zars, Like most people on there are fifteen and seventeen years old. And you can do anything. You can lip sync, you can edit a fun video, you can just talk. You know, it's it's all video form, but it's not just images, and kids love it and it's like you can do it for fifteen seconds a minute. It comes from China. It's called doeing in China. It's the only social media form that is allowed in China because Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are banned. Can't we do it together if we're not in the same room. Yeah, we can slice it. Yeah we can. We'll do it later. Yeah, we'll do a funny video and we'll splice it. I have good all of fifty six followers. I just want you to know I'm really TikTok famous. But apparently you just need one video to go on the f y P which is for your page, which is their Explorer page, and overnight you can have a million followers. So the kids all do all these crazy stunts, like my son's friend has someone pushed him through a drive through in and out in a shopping cart and that one viral and he got a hundred thousand followers, and you know, it's crazy good I have. I have some ideas. Oh yeah, yeah, it's like Instagram in the early days, so we can amass. But it's really fun and brands are very interesting. Everyone's talking about it. I've been on it for a long time. I haven't been able to get past that fifty six marks. So maybe you can help me. You want someone famous is on with me? Yeah, totally, totally. Okay, So I think I got the bags down to uh, you know, to an understandable thing. But do you need to have a lot of money to be a bag snob? Absolutely not. I've always said money is not indicative of good taste or class. It's sometimes inverse relationship. But I think having snobby taste is just having certain, you know, a taste level that you like. So you don't have to have a lot of money to be a bag snob. Whatever I always tell people, whatever you can afford if your budget is fifty dollars a hundred dollars by the best bag you can in that range, instead of buying like ten or twenty bags by bag. Do you know what I mean? Didn't you want to create a line of more affordable bags? Oh? Yeah, sixty eight dollars a hundred dollars. It was on hs N snob Essentials, and people like Sarah Jessica Parker carried it because you know, when I sent it to them, They're like, oh, it must be great. It's from bag Snob. And then when they realized that price point was so good, they loved it even more that somebody made something accessible and called it snobbed. And are those bags still available? No, because we did it for many years actually, and it was, you know, back and forth flying to Tampa, and so we stopped doing it. Okay, So you are not someone that rests on your laurels. And now you have come into the beauty industry. You've been writing about beauty for so many years, you've been a you know, hired by beauty companies, and now you have just launched your own amazing products. So tell me about that. You beauty well for the last decade. Really, I've been suffering, along with many other women and men, from cosmetic confusion. At one point, for many years, I was using thirteen products twice a day, and traveling with me was such a pain in the butt for even myself, Like I hated myself. I hated being me everywhere I went because I thought, if I didn't have that one product, oh my god, fomo, I'm not you know, I'm not going to look good. And so I was so sick of it, and I thought we could put a man on the moon. Why can't we have a product that delivers what you want where you want. Everything's about AI and smart. This is smart that you know your stove cooks by itself, your car drives itself. Why can't we have a cream that did that? I would always ask people, and in the skincare industry might have been asked you, and every would look at me and laugh and be like, okay, whatever you know. Dream on. And then by chance I was having drinks with a longtime friend who had been the skincare industry for years and years and family like for generations too, and I told them my dream, and she and her husband were like, you know our lab in Italy's a medical grade lab, one of the best in the world. We could probably help you with that, And I thought, are you kidding me? Really? How? What? And so that started the conversation. And basically what the lab scientists had invented is a sphere we can now call it the Siren capsule, and in this capsule is filled with our proprietary blend of active ingredients. As you know, active ingredients can help you look younger by resurfacing works full leading. It's so good for the skin where it's damaged, but it could possibly damage healthy cells. And so by containing it all in the sphere called the Siren capsule, the actors are not released everywhere. It's only released get this where you have damage, how because it draws damage, causing free radicals to it. That's what we call the sirens, like the call of the siren. And because we've made it more attractives, so basically free radicals. For anyone who's listening, it's just bad cells that are damaged and they're frenetically all over you. You know, whether if you've smoked at one point in your life, if you have sent damage as you age, they multiply, and so these free radicals they're just looking to steal healthy molecules. They're eating up healthy skin cells along their way, damaging everything in their path. So we've made our compound, the molecule called Siren, even more attractive to the free radical, so it's attracted to it first, so we draw all the free radicals to us. When the free radicals start chewing through the enzyme membrane of this capsule, that's when the actives are releasing all the fund begins. We neutralize the free radical, reverse the damage it's done in that area, and that's why we literally start aging backwards. And you've used in people who are super sensitive as I am. I've never been able to use RETINALD products because I always get red. I get irritation, and that's what happens when harsh actives are touching your healthy cells. So for me, it was a game changer, and I thought, oh my gosh, so I need to test it on all my friends. I started handing out to anybody who wanted to have, you know, better skin, and it was influencers, supermodels. I would run into at shows. I'd be like, do you want to try this? Don't try this. And again people just said yes because they don't want to say no to me because I'll bother them for the next ten years of their life. And and so everyone, editors, people were trying it, and I had everyone trying it from eighteen year olds to seventy year old because I thought, you know, everyone talks about inclusivity, but when you look at inclusivity right now in the fashion and beauty industry, it's beautiful young twenty five year old model size zero, but different skin color. To me, that's not inclusivity. Inclusivity is including genders, people of different ages, people have different ethnic, cultural backgrounds, all of it. And so it's really important that when we started our clinical research, which is what I really spent all of our money on, I didn't want to. I didn't buy any ads. I've never I still haven't. When we launched, there was no ads. My friends hosted it came for free just to support me. So I've been really lucky. And all the money was spent on clinical research, on the product and on clinical trials. So we hired a bunch of people to try it, and one grandmother came with her granddaughter to the casting call, and we said, hey, do you think you want to try this? And she's like sure, and she had the most amazing result. But her granddaughter had resurfacing with her you know, teenage Actnew Wars. She had tightening. And it was crazy how everyone was able to use it regardless of your skin type, yet everyone gets something different from it. And so I just knew people were going to love this product and they have and I'm so grateful. We sold out the first three deliveries to nata Porte, which is it's exclusive there. Yeah, where could people find it? Netaporte where else? The U beauty dot Com through our own site. Na Porte is exclusive for six months, so they'll be exclusive and then after that it will be like wide open world. So Netaporte dot com. Yes. Oh, and also do you wanna check her spot in New York and Dallas both sell it as well in online. Let's talk for a second just about the world of influencers and your life is an influencer, because yes, the bloggers turned into influencers and you have been relevant for over fifteen years, which honestly, Tina is amazing. And now the people I used to blog with, they're all gone now yeah, no, I mean it's it is amazing. And you are someone that has you know, grown, you even have an agency now and influencer agency. Yes, talk about daily life as an influencer and then talk about the agency. You know. The word influencer is always so funny to me because I was reading this article how Shakespeare was an influence or anybody who was influenced. So just real quick, I made fifty thousand sample packheads when I launched you Beauty because I wanted to treat everybody as an influencer. Anybody who wanted to try free sample could and that like went out that first hour people signed up. And being an influencers just means that you're probably a little bossing, like telling people what to do and you know, share everything, and as an influencer by profession. Every day I wake up, the first thing I check is Instagram. I'll admit it. I'll even wake up twenty minutes earlier just so I can check on my Instagram, check my email, check my eye message. And I get up. I wake my son up, I make him breakfast. I make him a hot breakfast every morning when I'm in town, get him off to school, and if I have to go to the office, I'll change before if not, Like right now, I'm in my pajamas. It's a great thing about social media, and it's also a very lonely profession. You know, you don't go into a professional office with a lot of colleagues unless you hire a team and a lot of people. When you start, like I did, you can't afford a p A and you know, a team of staff to follow you around. A lot of young people who want to get into this, they have to know it's very isolating and you have to have the kind of personality that can be really disciplined. So I started. I have a home office, and if that door is closed, everyone knows not to bother me. But other than that, I'm free game all day long for anybody. When my son was small, he could run into my office run out, but if that door was closed, he would just sit by with you know, holding his toys, waiting for me to be done. And so it takes a lot of discipline to be an influencer. And I think it's such a misconception when people think, oh, all they do sit around take photos of themselves. Um that to which I always respond with while Wall Street Journal did feature me on the front page and say that this is the Picasso of selfies, you know. So it's just that people don't see what you do behind the scenes. All it takes that to get that photo just right, or to share a story. And so I really wanted to and torks just like you have done with so many people that come in your past, including myself. Oh my favorite quote from Bobby was when I told her I wanted to buy this other bag and it was really expensive. Do I need another one? She looked at me like I was really the dumbest person on earth and said, just go make more money. Oh my god, you're right. Do you remember this. I was one of the one of my visits. We're having lunch or something, and You're like, just go make more money, go buy it, and and I'm like, okay, great. Bobby said I will buy it, and I bought it, And so I wanted to mentor. I see all these people joining into the game and not not really strategizing and not treating it like a business. And I think that's the reason I've lasted so long. I treated it as a business from the beginning, even though it was a hobby and it was a passion, but I loved what I was doing. So, and what's the name of your agency? State five. It's my very brainy, smart former attorney partner thought of that name because it's a soliloquy for the government has like the first estate, the second estate is my guest journalists, traditional media, TV media. The fifth estate refers to digital creators, bloggers, and so we thought it was Stay five. Very cool. Yeah, So we launched that about two years ago and we signed diet Product and another influencers our first and it just grew. Now we're capped where we got a team of twelve. We have fifty influencers, but we're not gonna we don't want anymore beyond that because I wanted to do things differently. I was watching how agencies were starting to, you know, just sign anybody and pull anybody in, and you have hundreds and hundreds in your stable, and is anyone really getting this strategies and the attention they need. So I'd rather have fifty and grow each of them to be amazing instead of like, well, let's sign two hundred and see which one hits. I don't know how you sleep. I don't know how you you know, calm yourself down. But I would like to now ask you the speed round. Okay, first question cocktail of choice, vodka, soda, alignment a lemon. What is the last thing you ate? Bone broth? I made this morning? You made it this morning and ate it this morning? No, I made it yesterday and today was the second day, and so I had a bulk because I wasn't feeling too because I had a voice soda last night. So I had to have my bone box one or two to you know me? Well, I don't think you could have one. You know. That's why I always I think it's the serving is too. You know how they say women can only have one drink a day and seven drinks a week. I'm like, can I just do that in two days? Or if you go to my golf club, the drink is probably about five five shots, But and I only had one drink? Yeah, mine too. What new brand do you have your eye on? Really am thinking of right now? Is hunting season? I just looked at their bags. It's very clean. I like it. I think you'll like A tune is really accessible the price points considering in their exotics. Do you ever wear clogs. No, but I wear oh I do, I Gucci cloth. I wear birken stocks every day. I was wearing them and then just changed out of them to come into the office. I love birken stocks. Mine has fur inside. Oh I need to get that. Yeah, they're very cozy. What's your favorite trend right now? Style trend? My favorite style trend is probably the monochromat look that Sally la Plante has been doing so well, where you know, it's fabulous. I've been buying a lot of her stuff. Do you know about Sally laplant I don't. Oh my god. It'll make sure people look taller, and it makes tall people look even taller. Sally what's her last name? La plant l A p O I N t E. I love her clothes. She kind of started that whole, like everything's one wash of color. It's I think it's so flattering, so chic, and everything matches. You don't have to think about it. I'm barely five foot tall. I lie in sam five one though. I have one doctor that measures me and I'm five in a quarter, so I keep going back to that doctor. But I'm really five ft tall, so that's me. I used to be five in half an inch, but I think I've shrunk because they were like, you're barely five foot now, you're just right at the mark. I'm like, I would get a different doctor, but so I'm gonna get a different dog. Yeah. I I could continue this conversation for days and days, and a lot of things I want to talk about offline. So thank you so much for in your pajamas talking to me on the podcast. And tell everyone listening where they could get more of Tina Craig and bag Snob you Beauty. Where could they find you? Well, on Instagram it's at you Beauty and at bag Snob and if you want to go to our website, it's the you Beauty dot com and you'll find me everywhere. I'm very friendly, d m me. I'll talk to anybody. I literally have long conversations with strangers all the time. People are asking me for advice all the time. Someone just told me that this happened that I was like, wait, should I be giving her advice or tell her to like psychiatrists? We get paid for that influence business influencers. So you know, yes, you are, sir. We talked about signing you. You're in my closet. My you, beauty, I keep in my closet because if I forget to do it in the bathroom, I make sure when I get dressed, I put it on my skin, so I am a believer. Oh good. And make sure you're using a sunscreen after if you're using it during the day. You didn't tell me that my gosh active sunscreen every day? Okay, arting today anyways, Thanks Tina, I'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Bobby, Yes, thanks for having me by. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm your host Bobby Brown. I first met Tina Craig over fifteen years ago. She was introduced to me as a blogger before I knew what a blogger was. So Tina Craig is the original influencer. She is also an entrepreneur who started her blog many years ago with twenty dollars. The idea of an influencer is someone who actually has some influence on you, whether it's what they're eating, what they're wearing, it's an influencer is someone that you could learn from. I think the word influencer has gotten a little bit of negative reviews. But having an influence, especially if it's a good influence, I think is such a great thing. And I love social media and Instagram because you really get to learn a lot and you get to be inspired, whether it's travel, food, and being an influencer. I think there also comes to responsibility. Tina Craig has one of the largest platforms today. She not only has had her own bagline, she has an amazing magazine that talks all about clothes and fashion. She now has a line of skincare. She also has an influencer agency, and who knows what else Tina is working on. But what I love most about Tina Craig is she's someone that keeps reinventing herself and she is unstoppable. How she became an entrepreneur and what everyone out there could learn from her because Tina is not afraid of anything. She is fearless. Here is my conversation with the one and only Tina Craig of the blog bag Snob. Welcome to the podcast, Tina Craig, give everyone who's listening a little bit of a background of who you are and what you've done. Hi, Bobby, and thank you for having me. Okay, so, bag snob dot com is a website I started almost fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, I know, back then, when blog was a dirty four letter word, I had to pretty much sneak my way into everything, I think, including your office. The first time we met, I'll never forget it. Our mutual PR friend Hamilton's South said, we're would you meet with this influencer Tina Craig? And I said, what is an influencer? Back then, I was called a blog or blogger. I'm like, what is a blogger? And He's like, just meet her. I'm like okay. It was like, you have twenty minutes with Bobby. Don't ask for photos, don't ask her to dear makeup. And then by the time she came in and we said hello, she was like, get somebody to get my makeup on. I know she's gonna want a photo. You're not going anywhere, and Veronica was very very nervous because f bombs are dropping. And I stayed for three hours and you were like, don't leave. I have a meeting. Can't you just hang out? Do you want to get your nails done? You want to get your makeup done? It was definitely love at first. It was was that fifteen years ago. No, that was about twelve or thirteen years ago. I had been blogging for about a year or two and I met Hamilton's and I was so excited. But before that, even though when I first started blogging, I flew myself to New York City, I bought a ticket for this AMEX forum that you were speaking at because I had been stalking you since college, and I'm like, I have to go see Bobby Brown. And I had a newborn baby, and I told my husband, I'm gonna take the baby with me. My friend's gonna watch him while I goes listen to Bobby Brown speak. This is really important to me. So I flew to New York and I remember watching you and you were just saying like, just do it. You know, it doesn't matter, You'll figure it out later. And I went back to my hotel room and I launched beauty snob dot com, my second blog, and I remember like, everyone's like, are you crazy? You're gonna do two blogs? And I just kept going until I had six blogs at one time. So, first of all, I did not see the true story, and I did not know that story. And the the amex on stage thing was me, Kate Spade and Andy You interviewed by Ellen to J. Yes, yes, it was the highlight of my life. It was a highlight for me too. It was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. That was years ago. Yeah, so all right, bag Snob beauty Snob, Now we're talking about what bag Snob is. It was a blog started out of the love of handbags in fashion, and I had just had a newborn baby, and my college friend found herself in a similar situation where I used to be an MTV VJ. And I had my own licensing company in Asia, and then I found myself sitting in suburban Texas, right outside of Dallas with a newborn, and I knew I didn't want to go back to work. I couldn't leave him. I was obsessed. And but then I wanted to do something because I was obsessed every day with when he ate, when he pooped, and I was like, Okay, I've got to do something with my life. And so I started shopping all the time. I thought, Okay, this will be fun. And I was sending a lot of bags to my college friend and calling her house constantly back when we had answering machines, and her husband is a software engineer, and he called me back one day and said, you're a psychopath. You left a twenty minute message about a handbag. Who does that? Start a blog? Leave me out of the conversation. And we're both like, what's a blog that. I'm like, I don't like that word. It's so weird. I don't want to do it. And he's like, it's just an online journal. You guys can write to each other when you have time. It's like a board, a memo board. I'm like, oh, fun, okay, but the whole world sees it. He's like if you're lucky, and we're like, okay. So he said to us, like give me twenty bucks, ten dollars, and he's like, you guys are such bags snobs. You know, back in two thousand five, people use the word snob for a passion or a hobby, and it was like, oh, he's a coffee snob, he only goes to this place, or she's a wine snob. And so we thought that was a funny name because we're the furthest from snobs. I will talk to anybody that is true, that is true, right, you can't shut me up. So it was ten dollars to buy the name bag snob, ten dollars to host it, and he threw up some Google ads. I didn't even know what google ads were, and a month later we had made like four dollars from these ads. And being you know, entrepreneurial USC Business school, we both said, on my gosh, can we make money at this this thing called a blog. It's so we were anonymous. It was just a little journal. We would just you know, right about bags. We wanted to buy bags. We had bags, we love bags. We hated, no holds barred, just we're really really you know whatever. We wanted to say. Next thing, you know, I said, maybe we should get some ads on here, and then I reached out, you know, whenever I was invited to Neem and Marcus for these fancy Lynchons, ladies who you know, shop go to, so I would ask him, do you want to buy an ad? Do you want to buy an AD? And Barney's was still in Dallas at the time, and so we were the first blog Barney's ever bought an AD on just because you know, you don't say no to Tina. You don't say no to Tina. Yes, that is correct, just like Bobby, we'd be my friend. We'll be my friend. I literally said that until she finally was worn down like okay, fine, you can have my number. But bags not predate social media? So how was social media change things for you? You know, that was a turning point because we were anonymous on our site for a long time until British folk reached out and asked us to do a feature on us, and and Twitter happened because on this side was always about bags, and if I talked about my family, it was the boy was with me and that's that was it. And through Twitter, I think my personality was able to come through and I loved it. I was like, oh my gosh, this is so fun. So social media really propelled my personality, I think, to the readers to have to be able to be because at the time people kind of were like, okay that everybody was starting a blog. And by two thousand nine, you know, four years in, you know, there were these fashion bloggers who just took photos of themselves and posted on the blogs. And I didn't do that, and we didn't want to do that because, you know, we were like Internet, it's a scary place. Let's stay anonymous and not post our faces, and don't let anyone know our baby's names and might come and steal our babies. You know, this is two thousand five. Who knew that I'd be like geo tagging, this is where I'm gonna be. Come see me at that time, you know, come kidnap me. So social media did that. It kind of brought our personalities out, allowed people to see who we were, and it did so much and then really brands wanted to work with us then because it wasn't as crazy and scary to be anonymous bloggers just bashing your bag, calling it like a giant staper or a sea monster. Yeah, and so you started with this blog and all of a sudden you started your own handbag company. You've done partnerships with some of the best you know, handbags out there as product Like, how did that all happen? Why didn't do any collaborations with product by products? So what happened was through Twitter. Aliza lickt dk YPR girl tweeted at me the first time any PR girl like confronted me in public other than sending crazy emails and leaving crazy messages on our answering machine. She said, hey, bag snob, had you never taken a bad photo before that bag you just bashed and called a ce monster? It was just a bad photo. Whien you look at it again in person? So I'm like, fine, I was so scared she sent it and I'm like, I still don't like it. And then so she showed me another bag and like, I still don't like that. Finally I said, just really balls in my head. I'm like, why don't I just come design a capsule collection for Donna Karen? And then she was like, oh, that's interesting, but do you know how to design bags? And I said yes. She's like, oh, but can you actually design a collection, not just change the color of something. I'm like, yes, you know, I just I always say yes, as you know me, I'll figure it out later. I learned that from Bobby. But you had no idea, right, I had no idea. No. I knew I liked bags. I knew I like to, you know, buy bags and study bags. But I figured, you know, I've probably been obsessing over bags since I was, you know, a very little girl. So I was like, okay, I can do this. So that d k Y collab was one of the first ever done by a blogger and a big you know brand, and she thought we'd just do it for marketing for fun, but it was so killer that we went to market with the Netaporte picked it up. Is sold out, like three of the styles sold out in I think hours, and then after that, just you know, I would just reach out to brands I liked. I'm like, hey, can I do a collaboration with you? And people are like, okay, I don't say no to her, She'll just keep bothering you. And yeah, I think persistence, And since then I've done I've designed genes, I've designed a line of jewelry. Now I've got collaboration with Nancy Gonzalez that's ongoing. How many bags do you own? You know? At one point I think I probably had about hundred hundred fifty maybe, But since then, I donate bags so much, and everyone calls me. Everyone knows to call me to donate. I donate to the Salvation Army, I donate to the American Red Heart Association. I don't need to anybody who asks, like whatever I can, and I give away to the girls in my office. I give away to friends. Usually when people come over, they leave with a bag. I mean a real handbag, not just a paper bag. So now I've whittled it down to probably under eighty. You know when PR companies used to just send me stuff and like, let me choose. Let's be really conscious about what if I If I love it, I'll use it. Don't just send me stuff unsolicited. So now there's some more they're like, what would you like to choose? You know, do you want anything from the season? And I'll use it if I love it. And then when I'm done using it, I give it away to one of the girls in my office. Do you have a go to bag or does it change all the time? Changes all the time. I'm you know, I used to be very emotionally attached to my bags until I had my child. And then when that child turned five and he was playing in my bag closet and grabbed a burke into stuff it full of power rangers. I said to him, don't do that. That's mommy's bag. It's very expensive. And he looked at me, looked at all the bags. He was like, you have so many bags and none of them can hug you back like me, gave me a hug, walked off with my burke, and I'm like, okay, that's now a storage bag for transformers and power rangers. Great, Oh my god? Do you still call him the boy in public guests? I don't allow his name to be out and drives him crazy because now he's fifteen, he wants to be insta famous or TikTok famous, and I won't. So will you just tell me about TikTok because that's oh my god, figured out? Yeah, what is it? Because everyone's like, you have to do a TikTok. I'm like, I don't even know what it is. It's literally short form video, very much how Vine was, but there's all these editing tools, so it looks like you sat in some expensive studio and made these videos of yourself. And it's mostly young kids live sinking the gen zars, Like most people on there are fifteen and seventeen years old. And you can do anything. You can lip sync, you can edit a fun video, you can just talk. You know, it's it's all video form, but it's not just images, and kids love it and it's like you can do it for fifteen seconds a minute. It comes from China. It's called doeing in China. It's the only social media form that is allowed in China because Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are banned. Can't we do it together if we're not in the same room. Yeah, we can slice it. Yeah we can. We'll do it later. Yeah, we'll do a funny video and we'll splice it. I have good all of fifty six followers. I just want you to know I'm really TikTok famous. But apparently you just need one video to go on the f y P which is for your page, which is their Explorer page, and overnight you can have a million followers. So the kids all do all these crazy stunts, like my son's friend has someone pushed him through a drive through in and out in a shopping cart and that one viral and he got a hundred thousand followers, and you know, it's crazy good I have. I have some ideas. Oh yeah, yeah, it's like Instagram in the early days, so we can amass. But it's really fun and brands are very interesting. Everyone's talking about it. I've been on it for a long time. I haven't been able to get past that fifty six marks. So maybe you can help me. You want someone famous is on with me? Yeah, totally, totally. Okay, So I think I got the bags down to uh, you know, to an understandable thing. But do you need to have a lot of money to be a bag snob? Absolutely not. I've always said money is not indicative of good taste or class. It's sometimes inverse relationship. But I think having snobby taste is just having certain, you know, a taste level that you like. So you don't have to have a lot of money to be a bag snob. Whatever I always tell people, whatever you can afford if your budget is fifty dollars a hundred dollars by the best bag you can in that range, instead of buying like ten or twenty bags by bag. Do you know what I mean? Didn't you want to create a line of more affordable bags? Oh? Yeah, sixty eight dollars a hundred dollars. It was on hs N snob Essentials, and people like Sarah Jessica Parker carried it because you know, when I sent it to them, They're like, oh, it must be great. It's from bag Snob. And then when they realized that price point was so good, they loved it even more that somebody made something accessible and called it snobbed. And are those bags still available? No, because we did it for many years actually, and it was, you know, back and forth flying to Tampa, and so we stopped doing it. Okay, So you are not someone that rests on your laurels. And now you have come into the beauty industry. You've been writing about beauty for so many years, you've been a you know, hired by beauty companies, and now you have just launched your own amazing products. So tell me about that. You beauty well for the last decade. Really, I've been suffering, along with many other women and men, from cosmetic confusion. At one point, for many years, I was using thirteen products twice a day, and traveling with me was such a pain in the butt for even myself, Like I hated myself. I hated being me everywhere I went because I thought, if I didn't have that one product, oh my god, fomo, I'm not you know, I'm not going to look good. And so I was so sick of it, and I thought we could put a man on the moon. Why can't we have a product that delivers what you want where you want. Everything's about AI and smart. This is smart that you know your stove cooks by itself, your car drives itself. Why can't we have a cream that did that? I would always ask people, and in the skincare industry might have been asked you, and every would look at me and laugh and be like, okay, whatever you know. Dream on. And then by chance I was having drinks with a longtime friend who had been the skincare industry for years and years and family like for generations too, and I told them my dream, and she and her husband were like, you know our lab in Italy's a medical grade lab, one of the best in the world. We could probably help you with that, And I thought, are you kidding me? Really? How? What? And so that started the conversation. And basically what the lab scientists had invented is a sphere we can now call it the Siren capsule, and in this capsule is filled with our proprietary blend of active ingredients. As you know, active ingredients can help you look younger by resurfacing works full leading. It's so good for the skin where it's damaged, but it could possibly damage healthy cells. And so by containing it all in the sphere called the Siren capsule, the actors are not released everywhere. It's only released get this where you have damage, how because it draws damage, causing free radicals to it. That's what we call the sirens, like the call of the siren. And because we've made it more attractives, so basically free radicals. For anyone who's listening, it's just bad cells that are damaged and they're frenetically all over you. You know, whether if you've smoked at one point in your life, if you have sent damage as you age, they multiply, and so these free radicals they're just looking to steal healthy molecules. They're eating up healthy skin cells along their way, damaging everything in their path. So we've made our compound, the molecule called Siren, even more attractive to the free radical, so it's attracted to it first, so we draw all the free radicals to us. When the free radicals start chewing through the enzyme membrane of this capsule, that's when the actives are releasing all the fund begins. We neutralize the free radical, reverse the damage it's done in that area, and that's why we literally start aging backwards. And you've used in people who are super sensitive as I am. I've never been able to use RETINALD products because I always get red. I get irritation, and that's what happens when harsh actives are touching your healthy cells. So for me, it was a game changer, and I thought, oh my gosh, so I need to test it on all my friends. I started handing out to anybody who wanted to have, you know, better skin, and it was influencers, supermodels. I would run into at shows. I'd be like, do you want to try this? Don't try this. And again people just said yes because they don't want to say no to me because I'll bother them for the next ten years of their life. And and so everyone, editors, people were trying it, and I had everyone trying it from eighteen year olds to seventy year old because I thought, you know, everyone talks about inclusivity, but when you look at inclusivity right now in the fashion and beauty industry, it's beautiful young twenty five year old model size zero, but different skin color. To me, that's not inclusivity. Inclusivity is including genders, people of different ages, people have different ethnic, cultural backgrounds, all of it. And so it's really important that when we started our clinical research, which is what I really spent all of our money on, I didn't want to. I didn't buy any ads. I've never I still haven't. When we launched, there was no ads. My friends hosted it came for free just to support me. So I've been really lucky. And all the money was spent on clinical research, on the product and on clinical trials. So we hired a bunch of people to try it, and one grandmother came with her granddaughter to the casting call, and we said, hey, do you think you want to try this? And she's like sure, and she had the most amazing result. But her granddaughter had resurfacing with her you know, teenage Actnew Wars. She had tightening. And it was crazy how everyone was able to use it regardless of your skin type, yet everyone gets something different from it. And so I just knew people were going to love this product and they have and I'm so grateful. We sold out the first three deliveries to nata Porte, which is it's exclusive there. Yeah, where could people find it? Netaporte where else? The U beauty dot Com through our own site. Na Porte is exclusive for six months, so they'll be exclusive and then after that it will be like wide open world. So Netaporte dot com. Yes. Oh, and also do you wanna check her spot in New York and Dallas both sell it as well in online. Let's talk for a second just about the world of influencers and your life is an influencer, because yes, the bloggers turned into influencers and you have been relevant for over fifteen years, which honestly, Tina is amazing. And now the people I used to blog with, they're all gone now yeah, no, I mean it's it is amazing. And you are someone that has you know, grown, you even have an agency now and influencer agency. Yes, talk about daily life as an influencer and then talk about the agency. You know. The word influencer is always so funny to me because I was reading this article how Shakespeare was an influence or anybody who was influenced. So just real quick, I made fifty thousand sample packheads when I launched you Beauty because I wanted to treat everybody as an influencer. Anybody who wanted to try free sample could and that like went out that first hour people signed up. And being an influencers just means that you're probably a little bossing, like telling people what to do and you know, share everything, and as an influencer by profession. Every day I wake up, the first thing I check is Instagram. I'll admit it. I'll even wake up twenty minutes earlier just so I can check on my Instagram, check my email, check my eye message. And I get up. I wake my son up, I make him breakfast. I make him a hot breakfast every morning when I'm in town, get him off to school, and if I have to go to the office, I'll change before if not, Like right now, I'm in my pajamas. It's a great thing about social media, and it's also a very lonely profession. You know, you don't go into a professional office with a lot of colleagues unless you hire a team and a lot of people. When you start, like I did, you can't afford a p A and you know, a team of staff to follow you around. A lot of young people who want to get into this, they have to know it's very isolating and you have to have the kind of personality that can be really disciplined. So I started. I have a home office, and if that door is closed, everyone knows not to bother me. But other than that, I'm free game all day long for anybody. When my son was small, he could run into my office run out, but if that door was closed, he would just sit by with you know, holding his toys, waiting for me to be done. And so it takes a lot of discipline to be an influencer. And I think it's such a misconception when people think, oh, all they do sit around take photos of themselves. Um that to which I always respond with while Wall Street Journal did feature me on the front page and say that this is the Picasso of selfies, you know. So it's just that people don't see what you do behind the scenes. All it takes that to get that photo just right, or to share a story. And so I really wanted to and torks just like you have done with so many people that come in your past, including myself. Oh my favorite quote from Bobby was when I told her I wanted to buy this other bag and it was really expensive. Do I need another one? She looked at me like I was really the dumbest person on earth and said, just go make more money. Oh my god, you're right. Do you remember this. I was one of the one of my visits. We're having lunch or something, and You're like, just go make more money, go buy it, and and I'm like, okay, great. Bobby said I will buy it, and I bought it, And so I wanted to mentor. I see all these people joining into the game and not not really strategizing and not treating it like a business. And I think that's the reason I've lasted so long. I treated it as a business from the beginning, even though it was a hobby and it was a passion, but I loved what I was doing. So, and what's the name of your agency? State five. It's my very brainy, smart former attorney partner thought of that name because it's a soliloquy for the government has like the first estate, the second estate is my guest journalists, traditional media, TV media. The fifth estate refers to digital creators, bloggers, and so we thought it was Stay five. Very cool. Yeah, So we launched that about two years ago and we signed diet Product and another influencers our first and it just grew. Now we're capped where we got a team of twelve. We have fifty influencers, but we're not gonna we don't want anymore beyond that because I wanted to do things differently. I was watching how agencies were starting to, you know, just sign anybody and pull anybody in, and you have hundreds and hundreds in your stable, and is anyone really getting this strategies and the attention they need. So I'd rather have fifty and grow each of them to be amazing instead of like, well, let's sign two hundred and see which one hits. I don't know how you sleep. I don't know how you you know, calm yourself down. But I would like to now ask you the speed round. Okay, first question cocktail of choice, vodka, soda, alignment a lemon. What is the last thing you ate? Bone broth? I made this morning? You made it this morning and ate it this morning? No, I made it yesterday and today was the second day, and so I had a bulk because I wasn't feeling too because I had a voice soda last night. So I had to have my bone box one or two to you know me? Well, I don't think you could have one. You know. That's why I always I think it's the serving is too. You know how they say women can only have one drink a day and seven drinks a week. I'm like, can I just do that in two days? Or if you go to my golf club, the drink is probably about five five shots, But and I only had one drink? Yeah, mine too. What new brand do you have your eye on? Really am thinking of right now? Is hunting season? I just looked at their bags. It's very clean. I like it. I think you'll like A tune is really accessible the price points considering in their exotics. Do you ever wear clogs. No, but I wear oh I do, I Gucci cloth. I wear birken stocks every day. I was wearing them and then just changed out of them to come into the office. I love birken stocks. Mine has fur inside. Oh I need to get that. Yeah, they're very cozy. What's your favorite trend right now? Style trend? My favorite style trend is probably the monochromat look that Sally la Plante has been doing so well, where you know, it's fabulous. I've been buying a lot of her stuff. Do you know about Sally laplant I don't. Oh my god. It'll make sure people look taller, and it makes tall people look even taller. Sally what's her last name? La plant l A p O I N t E. I love her clothes. She kind of started that whole, like everything's one wash of color. It's I think it's so flattering, so chic, and everything matches. You don't have to think about it. I'm barely five foot tall. I lie in sam five one though. I have one doctor that measures me and I'm five in a quarter, so I keep going back to that doctor. But I'm really five ft tall, so that's me. I used to be five in half an inch, but I think I've shrunk because they were like, you're barely five foot now, you're just right at the mark. I'm like, I would get a different doctor, but so I'm gonna get a different dog. Yeah. I I could continue this conversation for days and days, and a lot of things I want to talk about offline. So thank you so much for in your pajamas talking to me on the podcast. And tell everyone listening where they could get more of Tina Craig and bag Snob you Beauty. Where could they find you? Well, on Instagram it's at you Beauty and at bag Snob and if you want to go to our website, it's the you Beauty dot com and you'll find me everywhere. I'm very friendly, d m me. I'll talk to anybody. I literally have long conversations with strangers all the time. People are asking me for advice all the time. Someone just told me that this happened that I was like, wait, should I be giving her advice or tell her to like psychiatrists? We get paid for that influence business influencers. So you know, yes, you are, sir. We talked about signing you. You're in my closet. My you, beauty, I keep in my closet because if I forget to do it in the bathroom, I make sure when I get dressed, I put it on my skin, so I am a believer. Oh good. And make sure you're using a sunscreen after if you're using it during the day. You didn't tell me that my gosh active sunscreen every day? Okay, arting today anyways, Thanks Tina, I'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Bobby, Yes, thanks for having me by. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.