Just B with Bethenny FrankelWelcome to The Secret to My Success, an inspiring journey into the minds and experiences of those who’ve made it. This is where curiosity meets wisdom, brought to you by The Hartford Small Business Insurance. We dive deep with creative business owners, unlocking the stories behind their road to success. It’s about sharing, learning and inspiring. So whether you’re dreaming of launching your own venture or seeking a spark to push you further, check out these candid conversation, insights and strategies that transformed passion into profit with real life tales from the owners themselves.
Welcome to the secret of my success and inspiring journey into the minds and experiences of those who've made it. This is where curiosity meets wisdom. Brought to you by the Hartford Small Business Insurance, we died deep with creative business owners, unlocking the stories behind their road to success. It's about sharing, learning, and inspiring. So whether you're dreaming of launching your own venture or seeking a spark to push you further, check out these candid conversations, insights, and strategies that transformed passion into profit, with real life tales from the owners themselves.
Hello, everyone, Welcome back. How's your Jones on third It's my favorite place, one of the places that I always have to hit when I come back to La. Their cookies the best cookies in the entire world. So up next, we have a guest from the hottest zip code in all of America from the nine to two to one MG podcast, one of the creative forces behind the highly successful QBC home decore line of products called.
The BFF Collection. Everybody Welcome Jenny Garth.
Hello, Hi Ry, Oh my gosh, this is so fun.
I'm here.
Wait a second, you're not Tori spelling yes, I.
Am bad news is Tory couldn't make it, so Well's is gonna fill in.
We're so sorry, but I'm here, so let's have some fun.
Yeah, we are so happy. I'm saying we we wells. And I were so happy to be here with everybody and talking about small businesses and all the innovative ways that in creative ways that you guys.
Have ventured into small businesses.
And I love to hear these stories and so excited to you know, share some of my journey.
Are this is weird our journey?
Uh you guys Tory spelling and answer any questions that you have.
So just happy to be here.
Hi, listen, I'm sad that Toy is not here, but I'm so freaking excited because I grew up in the nineties.
And wait, what year were you born?
Nineteen eighty four? I watched I didn't see that.
I just look good, all right, Like you don't understand, Like I grew up on Nino two and oh on Melrose Place, say by the bell Fresh Prince.
And so I'm so excited, and I.
Know I want to talk about like your podcast and like your side projects, but I have to ask some questions. About nine to two and O is that okay?
Hi?
Wait?
Hello, Well there's people up there?
Hello?
How is it up there?
You like?
Okay?
Good?
You happy?
Okay? When did you start working on the show? Like? How old were you when you started doing nine O two and O.
I think I was seventeen.
I know I had my driver's license, so I was either sixteen or seventeen.
But that's a weird thing. So you're in high school playing a high schooler.
I was not in high school. I left high school to pursue a dream of acting, which I didn't even have. I just stumbled into it. And then working and having school at the same time wasn't as easy as.
It needed to be.
So I got my ged and started working adult hours and paying adult bills real early.
So did you ever go to prom or like Sadie Howkins dances? Like did you do like normal high school stuff?
I did on TV?
That's amazing.
Yeah, But I feel like I really experienced all that I needed to experience from those interactions, and.
They were you know.
I mean so often when you go to high school, you don't stay in touch with the people that you were in school with. But I have been given the great opportunity to stay in touch with all the people that I went to high school with and to college with. So I feel, you know, really blessed by that.
When you look back on that time. What is like, your your fondest memory of doing that show?
Gosh?
Or do you like so?
My wife is was on Modern Family and we'll be watching the show and she'll well, I have no recollection of doing this, and I wonder if you have that too.
Kinda yeah, because there was so much There's always so much going on, and there's you meet so many people, there's so much in your head at all times that it's really hard to to remember everything, all the little things.
But that is the coolest part.
Of Jump right into the nine O two one OG real quick, Yeah, Tory and I do a podcast called nine O two on OMG. That's on iHeart and we are watching the show back from the very beginning, the first episode, all the way through what will be the ten seasons of the show. And yes, that's right, I heeart.
You will be picking it up.
Are you on right now?
We're on five?
Okay, wow, But we we're watching it for the first time and it's it's enlightening. It's because I don't remember. I never watched it. I was always busy making it. We had these crazy, insane that we worked, and there was never time to sit down in front of the TV. Not to mention I had a baby at twenty three, so I had a lot of balls in there. But now going back and watching the show has given me just a new respect, a new.
Love for it.
I swear to you, I am a fan of the show now, like I'm watching it from fan eyes, and I get it, like I get why people love the show so much, and I get why it was so important to them, because when you watch it, we watch it week by week, and that's how you used to watch television, if you guys, remember, you had to be in front of the TV.
Of whatever night it was, at whatever time it was.
H Yeah, and now through we don't have to do that anymore. But that makes it more exciting and somehow more meaningful. And I'm just really loving watching it and getting to know that girl that played Kelly Taylor and getting to look at her me through such a different lens and have a deeper understanding and appreciation for even myself and all those experiences that I got to have.
I wonder if there was a character arc while you were doing it that you didn't love.
But now watching back, you're grateful for.
Well, I don't.
Well.
For years I thought that I was a bad person via Kelly because I stole Brenda's boyfriend Dylan. No, but I didn't. It didn't happen that way. They were broken up and she was awake.
They were on a break.
So I've given my I've forgiven myself slash Kelly for that.
Now are there storylines that never happened that you wish had?
Looking back?
I think that there is no storyline that we didn't do in those ten years. Specifically, my character was somehow the butt of all the drama. She was, you know, shot in the parking lot, she was in a cult, she had a lesbian stalker, almost rape, burned in a fire.
There's so many and look at you today.
I made it proof that you can do anything, you can get through anything.
Yeah, So you guys are watching the show back in real time, the listeners are watching it with you. I imagine you're having guests from the show come on as well and have their unique taken experience from it.
What's that like kind of like.
Re reconnecting with some of these friends that you had back then.
Well, we've been mostly focusing on our supporting cast members because the show really launched so many young actors' careers back in the nineties, and so we're going back and touching base with a lot of the people that were the supporting cast members. And that's really fun because they came into that experience, like you know, with just flabbergasted by getting to be on the show, and it was such a hit and we were in it, so it didn't feel that way to us. But now being able to hear their stories of their experiences of being on the show, it's it's pretty cool and getting to know them now as adults, you know.
I mean, it's just a different ballgame.
Who is the least like their character from the show in real like their character?
You know what.
Honestly, in the very beginning of the show, if you guys are fans of the show, you know that the show started out very stereotypical. The characters were kind of one dimensional, and everybody starved a purpose. My character in particular, was the bitch from.
Beverly Hills with a nose job.
In the BMW, and that's how they saw this character. But as the writers got to know each of us actors individually and we spent a lot of time together, they started to do something it was pretty ingenious, which was bringing in so much of who we were personally as humans into those characters and sort of threading those fibers into the characters.
And I think in doing that, the reason that I.
Feel it was so genius was because it made these characters so relatable to everybody out there watching it, whether they were from Beverly Hills or whether they were from you know, the Ukraine or wherever. There was fans everywhere and so and also this was the first time that people out there had the chance to see.
What living in Beverly Hills was like.
And we didn't have the Internet then, there was no let me google it, you know. They they didn't know what it looked like. So we got to take them into this exclusive, you know, glitzy, glamorous world for the very first time, and it was just it just sucked you in.
Listen.
I could talk to you about this show like all night long, but I know that there other speakers. So I think that this whole night is about talking about, you know, side hustles and small businesses, and you've taken this this career that started on this wildly successful show that was a cult phenomenon, and then you've been able to kind of like build this kind of crazy brand from it. So I wanted to talk about the BFF Collection if we could.
Yeah, I mean it's interesting because we I didn't ever think, as a young actress or even a middle aged actress, that I could build my own brand and do something else. You know, I think it hasn't. It wasn't until honestly, I was in my late forties early fifties, I'm fifty one now that my eyes kind of pivoted and my reality sort of shifted, and I saw all the things that were that I could do other than acting. And thank god, now with the strikes and you know, all the things that have happened, it's getting work is not as easy as it used to be as an actor. So pivoting has been really good for me. But I think I didn't never think at fifty one that I would be having my own small business with my best friend, starting up my own a separate small business that I'm doing right now creating a brand of my very own, and just to know that, you know, it's never too late to sort of do what you always wanted to do. Because I'm an idea person. I have these embarrassing whiteboards.
Up on my wall in my office.
I don't like people to see them because they're embarrassing because it's all my like my genius ideas like listed out, and some of them aren't so genius, but I stare at them all the time. And I've spent many years thinking what am I, how.
Am I going to what am I?
How am I going to make this happen? Or I can't do this? Or letting all those voices inside my head keep me from just trying, you know. And it was basically just fear. And there was something about turning fifty to fifty one that I just decided that I wasn't going to be afraid anymore because I don't have much time left and I just wanted to go for it, you know. Yeah, So that brought Tory and I to this sort of the same place of loving working together and creating projects that we could do together, and creating a brand that we felt would speak to a lot of our fan base, which is women our age, some younger, some older, and we partnered with QVC and we.
Brought to life this cute well.
Brand called the BFF Collection, and we've just had such a great time creating these products.
There are some of our products.
Up here, everything up here except the chairs, right yeah.
I heard as our number one fan, best customer ever, and we have a lot of our products up here because we're very proud of them. And it's been doing really well on QBC and the partnership's going really well. We had three drops in twenty twenty three. January was our debut. We came out with our home decore line, which was the Ottomans, the bar cart, the Hurricanes, the trunk, all kinds of things like that. Then in July we did a big event for QBC their Christmas in July.
They call it CIJ.
It's very popular with the QBC ladies and they buy all their Christmas stuff.
That sold out on air while.
We were on it, which was so exhilarating and exciting to be having that happen. And then we had our last drop in September, which was our Culinary Collection and those are.
Some of the pieces over there.
The cakestand those beautiful chargers you see up there, the bread basket, the pitcher, the pan. It's all here for you guys to look at, and we're kind of proud of it.
So what up there is yours and what up there is Tories? Or is it like an amalgamation of both your aesthetics?
It is that it is a combo of of everything. So we'll bring an idea to the table, and.
That's that's what.
I'm a collaborator, like, I love when other people bring me ideas on top of my ideas, ideas that are going to make my idea better.
And so that's how Tory and I kind of work.
We'll say, hey, let's do a bread bull and then we'll both bring our inspiration to the table and just kind of meet in the middle. And usually without fail, are our instincts are the same direction. We are kind of picking the same things, and and it's.
Worked out really well.
We haven't had any big fights about like.
Well I want it to be blue and you know how you no no drama, no drama.
Obviously you can get this stuff on QBC, but if people want to go find out more about it, is there a website.
Yes, it's the BFF collection dot com.
Easy enough.
Yeah, I'm supposed to. I'm playing the part of Tory spelling today. They took the books away. I have a bunch of books out. That's I put out a lot of books. You did, They're great.
You've written how many books?
Is it seven or eight?
I don't know.
There's a children's book.
I know that, really, I googled it.
There you might be, so there's that.
But you also are doing like like obviously i'm writing books seven or eight, one's a children's book, But you're also doing stuff on your own as well.
And I want to talk about your.
Clothing line, right, Yeah, that's I think by doing the BFF Collection, it sort of gave me that courage and confidence to branch out on my own. And I have to tell you that the collection, the brand that I'm starting is called Me by Jenny Garth, and it is it spawned from something a long time ago, which my character actually said a line that was written by the late Jessica Klein, who was one of my favorite.
Writers on the show.
She wrote a very profound line and I didn't really understand the depth of it when I was whatever in my early twenties. It was the moment when Kelly was deciding between Brandon and Dylan. They came up to her in the peach Pit parking lot and made her decide, and.
In that moment she said, I choose me.
And that has resonated me through the years and impacted me on such a deeper level. And now that I'm older and wiser and I have young adult women that I'm guiding in this life, I say that to them a lot. Choose you, put you first, because when you take care of yourself, you are more available to everybody in your life. And we all know that old saying on the airplane, when the oxygen drops, you put it on yourself first, and then you take care of the person next to you. And that's kind of the backbone of my brand, and it's just encouraging women, young girls, anyone really to listen to themselves and choose to listen to themselves first instead of other people.
So my brand is.
Me by Jenny Garth, and I've started just very preliminarily, just doing some merch with the slogan on it that I Choose Me. A lot of stuff like this, just reminding me and other people that this is an option you can choose you it's not selfish, and I feel really good about it.
You know.
It's something that's percolated in my mind a long time. And people always said. I remember I got my horse go bread once and they said, you're supposed to use whatever platform it is, you know those things they say, if you're in ares, you're more apt to be an entertainer or someone in the spotlight or a public figure or whatever.
That's what they said to me. I was like, oh, okay, what do I do with that?
And they also said you're supposed to help other people in doing that, And I always thought, I'm just an actress.
How am I helping people?
Yeah, okay, I get it that they relate to the show, they relate to the characters that I've played, and that moves them and touches them and makes us, you know, closer, But I didn't really understand what I was doing.
And now I.
Really do feel like this is a calling for me to teach these lessons to women that need to hear them. This is a message that women need to hear, that everybody needs to hear. So this is the merch part is just the first branch of the Me by Jennigarth line and coming out with a clothing line for QBC as well, which is also very exciting.
It'll be out next year.
Wow.
And I just I don't know where it's going to go, but I'm really excited about the options and the doors that are opening. And then they wouldn't have opened if I hadn't looked that fear right in the face.
And said no more with you.
I don't trust you anymore, your liar, and I'm going to do what I want to do.
I love that I choose me. That's good, That's great. Ashley and John are out in the audience. Do you guys have any questions for Jenny?
I know John does right now, and then if you guys do, raise your hands and we'll get to you right after him.
Awesome.
Goodbye, Tory.
Children.
So write a book real quick. Okay.
So Jenny talking about choosing you a little bit. One of the questions we get a lot on our podcast is about small business owners kind of being in their head and needing to take time. How do you choose you or what are some things that you do to kind of in your very busy schedule to make sure you're taking care of yourself and that your focus is a priority.
I am calendar girl. I write it all on my calendar. It's color coded. Everybody has a color on my phone, so I know who's where and when and what and all the addresses and everything.
So I live by.
My calendar, and I schedule in time for myself, and those blocks of an hour a day, three days a week or whatever it is, those are the times when which I've used that time recently to focus on my physical health as well as my mental health. And the impact that just setting aside that time for myself has had on my well being general well being has been incredible. And I just feel like I'm in such a different place because I've decided to choose myself sometimes.
And I'm still a mom.
I still have, you know, three my oldest is twenty six, twenty and seventeen, and they need me all the time like girls.
Always need their moms.
And it's it's a constant like skypeer zoos or phone call or texting at all times with the girls. But I still have carved out that time for myself. And the great thing is once you carve out that time for yourself, and you succeed at taking that time for yourself and you do something for yourself, the rest of your day is just like whoo, I got that check, you know.
And then one other question and more on the note of having a partner. So you and Torri are best friends, you known each other a long time. How do you find balancing being friends and being business partners? And what advice might you have for people who are trying to start something with someone that they're really close to in a different capacity in their life.
That a really good question because sometimes you hear don't start businesses with your friends because it.
Gets too muddy. I think with your family. I haven't done that, but it can be tricky waters to navigate.
That has to be an underlying, you know, unspoken trusts there. Tory and I always have each other's backs when it comes to speaking in public or being you know, best friends and protecting one another. And I've always felt that with her, and I know she feels that as well.
But I think, you know, putting us aside.
I think for me, I just started my new brand with a woman named Lisa Klein, and in our first meeting, I said, look, I am completely open.
I'm very straightforward, and I just want you to know never lie to me. I will never lie to you, and never lie to me.
Tell me even if you think it's gonna upset me, because transparency is so important and honesty.
If you don't have that.
Then you just don't have a solid footing for a business, and you need that.
All right.
I saw a question here, Hello, what's your question for Jenny?
So my question was when is the next QBC drop?
And what is it going to be? Is it going to be home? Is it going to be.
Food?
What's it going to be Hi?
By the way, the next I don't think we have another official drop in twenty twenty three, but we will. We're already developing Christmas in July for twenty twenty four and it's so beautiful I cannot take it.
You guys are gonna love it. So many sparkles involved.
And other than that, I've just been working on me by Jenny Garth for QBC, developing the clothing, which is just a whole new world for me, and it's been really fascinating and working with all the in house design team at QBC. They're so great there. And so to answer your question. I believe it might be January twenty twenty four for BFF and then July for JG. Yes, I'm doing my website right now for me by Jenny Garth and learning so much about all the little stuffs because when we started BFF, I had Tori and we had each other, and we pushed a lot of the minutia work to our teams and everybody was helping us. And with my brand, I'm just like I want to be I'm the boss, and I want to be the boss at every turn. And I not that I don't need help, because I absolutely do, and I seek the right people to help me. But I'm developing the website. I'm learning about, you know, all the things that you have to do and all the legalities and the trademarks, and you know, there's so much that goes into it that you really don't think about until you're in it. And then you just write a list and you check it off, and you check it off and you check it off and you get it all done.
So website's coming.
We have a question right here. What's your name, Mary, Mary? Mary? What's your question for Jenny Hi.
I've actually been so inspired by your fitness posts lately and your your eye choose me that you've kind of blinked in with that so much so that I actually wrote a song about it. But I was curious song wait a second, yeah, but I was curious if you want to sing it, but I was curious if you were thinking of doing it. I know you have so many side projects, but another side project that's like more fitness space, because if you had something like that, I mean I'd sign up for in a day. I don't know everyone else had.
I don't know if you remember, but in ninety yeah something, Yeah, I had a little exercise video right on the shelf there next to Jane Fonda.
It was great.
It was called Body and Progress and yeah, I've toyed.
They don't make exercise videos in yeah.
Yeah. So it's a different, different landscape now and just trying to sort of figure out how to work that in because it certainly does live in the same world as as the whole brand, you know, just being able to choose yourself and take physically care of yourself, mentally take care of yourself. But I just started, you know, I started exercising for myself and I just started having my train to film it and we'd throw it up and then people started to really respond to it, and I thought, oh, this is a great way to connect with my fans, the people out there that are like me who want better for themselves, but they don't have that motivation. They don't know what to do, they don't know how to start, they don't know what to eat. So I've just sort of been, you know, lacing that into my feed and seeing how it does and people really responding to it. And the thing about it is they they say I'm inspiring them, but there you all are inspiring.
Me when you comment and you like it or whatever.
I read those comments and I and they move me and touch me and they keep me going. So if if you're keeping me going and I'm keeping you going, then it's all working the way it's supposed to work.
Amazing, Thank you.
I have one right here. Let's do. What's your name? Hello?
Hello, my name is Michael. First of all, we love your charger plates, the gold charger plates. We actually own a luxury venue in downtown LA and we saw those and we actually carry something like this, not as amazing as that, and and we were just thinking, like, it's so amazing and great, But what was your biggest challenge creating this line and going through the process, because, like you said earlier, you have a lot of things going to your head and clouding you, but you have to stay the course, stay the you know, whiteboard.
So yeah, well, I think specifically with the BFF collection going into it, we had never done home decorps. We didn't know our customer well enough, we didn't know our price point well enough.
So our January launch.
Wasn't as successful as it could have been straight out of the gate. It's had success now living online and being available, but so there was a little bit of a deflated feeling after we debuted it because it didn't sell like hotcakes like we were hoping, you know. So I think that it's about knowing your audience, knowing your customer, and really be thinking about them when you create the products. And so for me, that has been what I try to focus on. It is definitely what I'm focusing on now with apparel line for QVC, thinking about all the different bodies that are going to be wearing these clothes and for me, just really focusing on what I want women to feel when they wear these clothes. And just keeping that as the through line of all my efforts.
You know, I saw one hand over here. I want to get to and get to a couple more questions. Hello, what's your name? I'm Rasshia, thank you, Hello.
Hi.
My question for you is, as you made your way into a small business, especially in this product line, what would you say was.
One of the biggest risks that you took.
Well, people think that celebrities whatever actors are rich, and this is not the case all the time. So for me, very frankly, the biggest fear was committing my own money to it, to starting up a business. And it took the right message from somebody in my life that said, you can't win if you don't risk. You know, you never know unless you try. So give yourself a budget of how much you're willing to let go of and then see what happens. So and also learning to crawl, walk, run, because I want to run right away, and you really do need to take the time to, you know, experience each of those stages because you learn so much in every stage when you're starting your own small business.
That was awesome advice. Really, I'm going to take that home with me any other hand. Oh, we have one right here, fantastic. Hello. What's your name?
My name is Kattie.
Hi.
Hello.
My sister launched her porcelain brand, Home to Course. She's right here, cassanoid us. I have what can you give her?
As an advice? She just started, so that's it.
Yes, I was.
I think I was a little bit too embarrassed to ask the questions.
So she went ahead and did it for me.
So as somebody who also launched their own homeware and dinnerware brand, I wanted to ask.
You what.
How do you separate what you like, for example, versus what is going to sell or what the customer base likes, because those are two very different things. And you think that everything is beautiful and everybody's going to love everything, and some people are like, no, not that one.
You're like, are you nuts?
But you know, so just you know the knowledge that everybody is in it for something different, like we all have different taste, different opinions, different lifestyles everything.
And I mean.
Knowing your customer like I was talking about before, knowing your price point, it's really important and ultimately going with your gut, like listening to yourself and putting yourself in their shoes and thinking what would you want as your customer?
You know, quality, top of top of the list.
If it's a you know, economic top of the list, like things that are important to comfort all the things, and for me also too. It's just a general like, how do I want people to feel when they're in my clothes or sitting on an autom and I want them to feel good about it and feel good about that purchase, because I know that he doesn't grow on trees and people especially. We have the most incredible fan base from nine o two one zero, and all those loyal fans support us. They spend their hard earned money on the things that we're making and selling, and we're doing it for them. But it's also you know, it's also our livelihood too, so it's so reciprocal. And just really appreciating your customer, I think on such a deep level and having respect for them, I would say, is really important.
Thank you guys are asking such good questions. We have time for one more, so I'll go over here. Hello, what's your name?
What's your question?
My name is Summer and I was your clothing line when you were talking about it. It really it made me think of my students. I'm an elementary school teacher, and I know that line thank you, the message that you're sending at. You know, I'm assuming that your audience is you know, your fans.
Like me who watched your show, But I think your.
Message reaches much further than that. And I was thinking about, you know, obviously you're just launching, but once you're established in your brand, would you ever consider bringing it down into the children to children, because I know so many kids are struggling right now with you know, emotional things and mental health and all of that. And I think that message, especially for little girls, but for boys as well, but especially the young girls, would be amazing. And like nonprofit side of your business.
And absolutely my parents are both teachers first of all. So I have such a respect for you and what you do, and I see it intertwined, you know, I see.
Me doing what I have passion for.
Like I was talking about before, I'm figuring out what that message was that I wanted to put out there, and I see how it can affect multi generations. And in fact, I've had I think we've only sold the me by Jenny Garth Merch at the nineties cons so far this year, while we've been working to get the rest of the line up and the website up, and I've had a lot of responses from women just like you who say either they want to take this home and give it to their kids and encourage their kids, or they want to use it in their classrooms. And that has opened up a whole new brain for me of what I can do with this message. And it doesn't just have to be you know, my audience, my demographic. It can be for everyone. And I think that you're it's it's so much deeper than that.
So thank you.
That's it.
I think, right, we don't have that time.
That's it. That was so amazing. Thank you so much.
That was a wealth of knowledge.
This is amazing. Thank you, Jenny.
You're welcome. I'm leaving now, Okay.
Bye season.
Our next guest is passionate about everything she takes on, whether it's how she turned her small business into truly one of the most lucrative brands in the entire world. I am so excited to introduce our final speaker.
Do you want to only Bethany Frankel?
Hello, thank you, thank you. She just gave away my secret. I was thinking backstage, what is my secret? I didn't know I was gonna have to tell the secret, and she just said that I put everything into everything I do, So that's the secret. I gotta go have fun. Okay. So I was actually thinking. The people with me here were like, what is your secret? Like, do I have a suit and it's a secret. If it's a secret, why am I gonna tell you it's a secret. I think that everyone's secret to their success is different because it's a different formula. We all you know what your skill set is and you know where you thrive, and you also have to stretch to try to be good at different things. To fail, I think to succeed, you really do have to fail. There's a woman who I don't know why, but likes to try to elevate herself by always bringing up things that I've done that have failed. And there are so many, and I really do I'm proud of my failures because I wouldn't be successful without them, and maybe that is maybe that's one of the secrets. I think that Jenny Garth's secret is that Tory spelling is in the trunk of her car and now she has one hundred percent of that business. So I think that's the secret because I can't imagine getting into business with my best friend. But that's one secret. And Tyler Florence has never used an air fryer. It's fuck of twenty twenty three. That's Tyler Florence's secret. So I'm going to tell other people's secrets while we try to figure out what mine is together. Because another secret about Amy Sugarman, who produced my podcast and as a star producer for iHeart. We were out to dinner last night. I flew on a plane on a car I flew. I have a special flying car. I forgot to mention that. Yeah, no, I flew on an airplane. You've ever heard of one? So I flew on an airplane. And I come and I get ready and we go to this dinner that we've been planning. It's twenty five people. And today I did six podcasts in one one sitting Have you done? What have you guys done?
Today?
So I did that? And where else did they take me off?
Oh?
My other partner took took me to Culver City to you know hawk my mocktails which are out in the lobby, which are phenomenal, but I've talked about them so much today that I'm full. So I had a quite full day. And last night we're just sort of all drinking and hanging out and it was late, probably like almost ten o'clock, and she was like talking to somebody else, not me, and she goes, yeah, she's tomorrow. Was talking for twenty minutes, doing a whole thing about her success or whatever. And then after I'm like, wait a second, I thought we're doing just a Q and A in a moderated This is my moderator, it's my this is my toy spelling right over here. So I was like, oh, Amy, when were you gonna tell me? She goes, no, it's just like a quick twenty, which I guess in comedy they'd like to do a quick three. It was like a quick twenty. So then I was thinking, today they're talking about the secret of their success, and I was like, I really don't know what do I have a secret? So I want to go through it with you guys, because one of the things I do do in business is crowdsource, so let's try to workshop this together. One is Ashley did say, I throw my whole body into everything that I do and didn't you say that or something? What did you say? Nice? I don't even know you. Nice to meet you. All right, So she's this is by the way, this was because today when I got in the dressing room, I was like, let me figure out my secret. I can't even read my own writing. So that's another secret on my Honda Napkin. So I do throw my entire body into everything that I do. If I do it, like people always talk about work life balance, and I'm incredibly present in what I'm doing, like I'm very happy to be here and this is my you know, unless there was an emergency, I'm not here to talk to my daughter, like I'm here to be with you. And when I'm with my daughter, I'm very present in being with her. But I did this game show last week with David Spade, and I was kind of just like, you know, sleepwalking through the idea of doing it. And I got there and it was this woman next to me, and I sort of as we started doing it realized like what we were doing, and it was she wanted to go to Dolly World or her family, and I was like, all of a sudden like part of her family and we were all going to Dolly World. And then we had to think of these business what business is snake oil and what's not? And then the money got it kept going higher, and she kept betting everything on me, and I was like, I was screaming, Like the Price of Ride in nineteen eighty eight. I was like, just oh my I got I was so excited and I won her two hundred and twenty thousand dollars and she's going to Dolly World times five. So no matter what I'm doing, I do it like if it's making a piece of chicken at home or something like, I'm obsessed with everything. Everything is a full blown investigation. So that's a working model for maybe why I'm successful. That's one. Another one could be that I know what I know and I know it. I don't know. You guys are all small business owners right here. You're all good business owners. Because I heard there was forty dollars to come here, and I heard you got a lunch from Jones on third Is that true? What the That's like the sickest group on ever. There's like a scam. You could go to Air one. You guys are definitely talking to each other. You're like, I should have brought. Should have bought four tickets and got jones On third meals for all my friends, because forty dollars. This this this girl I have with me backstage, she orders what's this do? She plays to get air one and I like it. The Hailey Bieber. I know you drink a SMOOTHI You're gonna like Haley Biber buy that bullshit. So she every day fifty four dollars because Postmates to bring the smoothie storehouse. I got an Asie bowl in Venice last week. It was twenty one dollars out the door. So this is a deal. If I were drooling up here, you got a Jones On third meal, that's already. You guys are good business people, so let's just start with that. And I'm expensive, so there's a lot of value here. So what was I saying? How did we get into that thing? What did I just say? What was the second thing that was good about me? Oh that I know what I know and I know what I don't know. Okay, that's number two. Let me think of there are any other things. I am very honest, but that doesn't work for everybody else. It's look at Charlie Sheen he's like, you know, like in a box somewhere in his house, talking to himself, like it didn't work for him, So it has to be that that works for you. And you know, you have to know the temperature of the room. Is it going well right now? Cause I don't know the temperature. It feels like seventy eight. It's not like I'm getting a hundred right now. So would you like to hear me talk? But skinner girl, I feel like you know about that. I'm excited for the Q and A because I want to hear what you want to know. And then before you ask your question, will you tell me what you think the secret is? Because I, first of all, I may not tell I may want to keep it to myself. I don't know, but I don't know the secret, so I hope we can work it out together. Yeah, No, I think that. I think that I think that the being present in the different areas of your life is critical. I also know that the whole entire business journey is a road. And I think that younger people right now are really so obsessed with knowing what they're supposed to be doing with their lives. Like, don't you feel like the pressure, which shows like Shark Tank and billionaires in their garages from tech ideas that you feel like exasperated, like you're supposed to be where you're supposed to be. And I was a late bloomer. I was thirty eight years old. I was still I I was. I had no money, I mean very I was very, very stressed, very worried I would I couldn't afford a taxi downtown in New York City when you live in New York City. And I don't know why I stayed living there when I really couldn't afford to be there, but it was very anxiety producing and I didn't have any safety net, but I always had something inside where I knew. I knew I was on a road and I felt like it was going somewhere. And you can't often know if you're swimming in the right direction. To be honest, like you fit, you know you have a hit, something happened, something in one of your business is successful. Then you get set back so far and you don't know whether a turnback or to keep going. And you have to really have a good gut instinct. You have to just have that sense and you have to know if like it's really served you. And you also have to know whether you should be a crowd sorcer, whether you should I am a crowd sorcerer. I ultimately make the decision. When you sign something on a contract, it is you signing it, and that is critical. But I like to sort of get a lot of different ingredients and then make the recipe myself. I do you know little Tyler Florence reference. I like to ultimately make the decision, but I am a crowdsourcer, and I think that you have to determine whether you're somebod who works best alone to the Tory spelling you know, Jenny example, or whether you're better in a corporate environment or on a team like And it doesn't mean either is wrong. It just means you have to kind of get a sense of where you really thrive, what environment you really thrive in. And I've always always understood that it's a road and you could hit a roadblock, and you could get run at a gas and you could have to make a U turn, but that everything you're learning is taking you further and you don't realize until later. That's why I mentioned the failures, because you don't realize until later. How all of those weird windy turns and all the discomfort and the loss in your life and the stress and the time away from your family and things like that, how you learn from it and all of those experiences and failures and things that do work and challenges. Those are like case law, like, so you try future business cases and you just get older and wiser and you just are saying, well, no, we can't do that, because remember when we do that other thing, but if we tweak that thing a little, then the next thing will be better. And you do find that as you get more successful, the stakes are higher. So while you may be doing well or fine, or you're not where you want to be, it's kind of like good to spill something on yourself the minute you get in the car, because it's going to happen, you might as well get it out of the way. It gets more expensive later, you know, and you kind of have to do plan for anything to happen. Whatever you are estimating, it's going to be way more expensive. And it's like getting married without a prenup. You kind of have to just like prepare for the worst in any situation. You have to just be have the hurricane insurance, have the prenup like you have to just you know, everybody's got a plan until you get punched in the face, and you will get punched in the face and business on it or onto housewives if you do that, you get a punch in the face earlier and get that out of the way. But it's one of those things where the road is really it's really the the ultimate educator. And while it's great to have mentors and people to look up to and to listen to, it's lonely. It's lonely because you really you have a community and you establish a community, but like if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a true entrepreneur, it's very lonely, like you're alone. And it's funny because Amy, who I was talking about earlier, says to me, like the thing about you is that you give a shit. It's what I was saying before about like that woman. I walk in like what are we doing? I don't know where I am, and then I'm like, all of a sudden, like in it. So if you do it, you have to do it like just fully all in or don't. And business is all in. It's just it's just I've interviewed too many people on my podcast that are very successful and like very like billionaires, people like Mark Cuban and people like Jeffrey Katzenberg, leaders of industry game changers. Cheryl Samberg was, you know, Mark Zuckerbird's number two. None of them were motivated by money, Like money's great and I like nice things, and money's just a scorecard. It's not if you're it won't you won't have to drive if you're motivated by money because it's not it's not like it's tangible, but it's not gonna give you that passion inside that just the idea will give you the idea, the process, the chance, the game, Like it's a game. This is a game. It's a fun game, and you're kind of like watching the board and watching other people, but you really should be running your own game because it doesn't matter what someone else is doing. And to bring back the Mark Zuckerberg, you know, the Winklevoss twins claimed that they came up with Facebook, but they didn't execute like he did. Even if they did, I don't know, I don't know that answer. It doesn't matter, Like he was the one who executed so successful entrepreneurs are passionate, like by any means necessary, and you're just always thinking about it. On some level, it's just who you are. And you have to surround yourself with people like that that are in their own lanes also thinking about it. And you got to be good to your people. You got to be really tough and fair, and you have to make them feel valued. And I think that really taking the time. Things move quickly. When you're an entrepreneur, it just moves fast. It's hard to stop down, especially now. Every day you have to be like, let's do a check in, how are you feeling, how's your emotional well being? You know, and you're running a thousand miles an hour. But people really do appreciate feeling that they're part of something and you being grateful like saying like wow, thank you. And people want to be valued and told that they're doing a good job. And you have to like that's like being a parent. You're kind of putting into your kids what you want to get out, and you do get it tenfold. Like whatever you put in you get out. The same as with your team and the same as with your business. So you have to know if you're someone who really just likes a very, very calm and predictable life, that it's not that easy to be like a maverick business person. There's so many people out there that want it. It's like anything else. It's like being, you know, an athlete or something else. Like there's so much competition, so many people want it, and only the strong survive. But there are so many different ways to be successful now, and I do the one good news that I think in the land of social media and filtering and face tune and all the bs, the one thing I will say is that, uh wait, I literally I was going to tell you the secret. I swear to God, I just forgot it. Give me a second. I literally it wasn't the secret.
But what was it?
What? Can I just ask you what? I was just saying, this happens to me because my brain moves so good. Well, oh, thank you, this.
Is the fucking secret.
This is the secret. No, this might be the secret. I swear to you, I forgot it. It's such a secret that I was like, am I gonna tell them? Or gatekeep Freud got in the way. Okay, In the land of face tune and social media and all of this stuff, The one secret is old school hard work. And it's not your famous It's not you're on a reality show. It's not you have a good Instagram account, you have a good publicist, you have a gimmick, you have a tagline, you have a website. You could have nothing. It's the hard work. It's the hard work, but not like you're at the gym, you know, standing around in leg warmers thinking you're working hard, but you're not like working smart, like real you know, when you're like you know, when you're sticking the landing, when you're like locked in. That is the secret. I did not know that was a secret. See we worked it out. Do you do you agree that's the secret? Or is there another thing I said? It's really the secret? I mean, don't you all agree that, Like the real secret is like the people around you that are I don't care if someone knows anything about what we're doing. I only care about if they're hard working and loyal. You may not even there's a woman who doesn't speak the language at all that works and work in my house. I mean we can't communicate at all, not one word. She works so hard. I don't care what she's saying. We can speak the language of work, and I love her. And I also thought, like, how hard would it be to find a job when she doesn't speak any English? But I'm like, she works hard, and like, I have such respect for anyone that works hard. You could teach your business, but you cannot teach a work ethic. You cannot teach loyalty and honesty. And you find someone, you find people around you. I had a girl that was I was at a party with me and I was working for free to cook for the owner of Hampton's magazine. Because I used to do everything for free, it didn't matter up well, I mean Housewives for season one was seven two hundred fifty dollars. Like that's free, Let's be honest. We divided out for all the arguments I had. It was like arguing for I was paying to argue with people, so I was paying to argue. So but I was at this party and this girl just was like, I'm on it, and she was on it, and she she I didn't make any money, but I said, I'm gonna You're gonna work for me one day, and I one day hired her and she was unbelievable and went on to have like a major job. Another girl was a co check girl for me when I used to produce events and MERV Griffin, who I worked for, they wouldn't let me hire her. And I said, but she works her ass off, Like what's her resume? I'm like, I don't know. She was holding like a co check like she was working, you know, for the frickin' un Like. She was very serious about checking these goddamn coats. Imagine what she's like about something that matters. And she went on to work for Paul Allen, the founder of Microsoft, and for red Bull after working for me. So hard work is something everybody could do. You could do it if you just had like an old rotary phone. And we're still watching Jenny's DVD Fitness DV day back when we used to do dial up internet and in facts. So that's my secret. Are we gonna do questions?
Yeah?
Yeah?
Do you grade to ask? You search to find a secret?
You're the first question?
What happened?
Who has the first question? Here? I just heard that there's somebody dying to ask a great question.
Oh you have a great question, A great question? Do you know spotlights on?
I've been told from people back there.
What's your name, Kristen?
My question is how do you quiet your brain at night when you have so many things going on? Because I don't have anything near what you have going on, and I can never shut it off.
It's well, do you is the phone? Do you have? Do you give yourself a discipline at the pot? I don't buy the way everything I give you advice is like, well, but let's just start with that. Do you shut you shut the phone off?
No, I'm watching you on TikTok when you and your honest reviews.
Them and I'm reviewing cottage Sheese doing the lord's work. Yeah, I mean it's very important. I'm snatching your face, picking your book glasses. Yeah. So I don't take anything when I'm traveling. I'll take something like I'll take like an edible. I don't know if that's illegal, but I take an edible to sleep. I did last night call the cops, but I don't. I'm not a person who wants to take anything. I don't believe in that unless it's like really important. I'm in another country. I have to sleep like this is a different country. It flew an airplane. I told you at home, I have this this herbal like lavender pillow that you put in the micwave not on too long and too high. You have to watch it like you're watching a pot boil, because if it goes on too high, it smells like burn herbs. And then I'm next to Paul and he's like where am I? Like we're in a freaking forest lavender fire in bed. But I don't give a fuck because I have my nightguard and it's hot, so and it literally is hot. So I take my lavender thing and I put it in the mic and I lay down and I pretend like I'm in an institution, like okay, little bird. Like I lay there and I just meditate and I breathe in through my nose and out, and I like do it in a circular emotion because you really can't breathe in and out twenty times without falling asleep, like if you really do, like a big one, and it conned me. It's like it's like I've institutionalized myself.
At the end with essential oils.
It really works, Yeah, it does, But that's when the phone has to Like you can't be like hearing the buzz of the phone, like that's you gotta that you got to turn the phone off. Phone's evil, it's the devil. It's the angel because it helps us do all these things. But it's it's an appendage. It's it's the devil. So get our app log on, listen to our podcast.
You would ask too, if we had your secret or what we thought your secret might be. Right, So, I think it's that you're very curious and unafraid to take action when you see opportunity. Yes, So can you talk a little bit kind of in the early days of your career when you would find interesting ways, like you talked about how you would find producers on TV shows or kind of pitch yourself or your business.
And yes, I well it's really I wrote a book called A Place of Yes, and I'm a yes person. I mean that doesn't mean I'm alost in a good mood by any stretch. It means like, I'm not really into hearing about the this can happen in a roadblock, and I'm not really If I think it's possible, then it's probably possible. And so I used to I wanted to be on a television show. I wanted to be on the Food Network, and the head of the Food Network told me it would never happen. Bob Tushman can call him up. Was probably in the Yellow Pages where he lives now because I think he's not fire, but he's not. Because he didn't put me on. I probably would have been canceled on the Food Network with my language. But anyway, So I used to watch television. And you've heard of television right at used to right the antenna's. So I used to watch television and I would see the producers at the end and their names, and I would just like call them because they have an office and they have an assistant. It's not like trying to call Obama. It's some schmuck who works in office then produces, you know, schmucky Television's gonna get canceled anyway. So I would go in and I would meet those schmucks and I would bring them cookies and engage them and like a lot of them actually wanted to do shows of me. It was again the guy, the head guy said, stop coming in with all these people. But the point is most people are accessible and if you're not annoying, like if you find a way in and a find to connect and transact, and it's an email, or it's on social media, or it's send them something. People are accessible and I'm gonna find your way in kind of gal, like I'm gonna figure it out, kind of person. You know, we had people, I'll I mean, I'll go to the head. I'll go Who did I go to? Who's the guy I went to the head of snap Yeah, I'm like, I'll find out. I don't know that guy the head of Snapchat. And I know, yes, I'm successful now, but I acted like this when I was couldn't afford the twenty five dollars. Yeah, like, I go, I'll figure out, give me an email the head of Snapchat, and like then, I mean, I'll talk to anyone. I went up and pitch something last week to Ted Sarandos, who runs Netflix, one hundred and seventy billion dollar company, and I'm going in to meet with them, Like you gotta grab it. It's there. I said to my daughter. I took her to a concert last week here to see Adam Sandler perform because she lives for him, and I know David Spade's manager, and they were all performing, and I said to her head, you're gonna see Adam Sandler. I can't guarantee you're gonna meet him, Like I, life moves pretty fast around here. I cannot guarantee, and there's only so much of a desperate loser I'm willing to be at a party of my peers. Like I was literally next to Sad Serano standing and be like, hey, my god, I get like I was such a loser. I'm like, this is not who I am. But you're a loser when it comes to your kids. So I said to her, listen, you have a plan. You don't be like, oh my god, I love you. I said, have a plan of what you're gonna say, Like, what do you want to say? What do you think? I'm like, here's something. What do you think about this? I love how you put your friends in your family and your movies.
She's like, I like that.
That's so true because she told me that he puts his friends in his family and his movies. So I said, a right, that's a good hook. He'll like that. It's not like when people come up to and be like I don't know who you are. My wife likes you, like, why don't you go fuck yourself and get a television? So anyway, she so we were standing waiting for Adam Sandler, and he was standing there and I was like, he's right here. We're I mean, I got her in the I got her in the door. We're in the door. Now we're in the elevator. So you got the person. But he's right there. And I was like, just you're a kid. You're so cute. You're thirteen years old. Like it's fine, kids could do anything. So walk up. And she's like no mama, no mama, no MoMA, and like in the mood. And then he vanished and I was like, listen, that was like the day we were at the beach when you saw that girl and you wanted to make a friend. And I said, just go say hello. Who cares? And if she's like I don't want to, I'm like, what if she says you're ugly and a loser, I never want to speak to you again. You never see her again anyway, But you could be her best friend. You could be in her wedding one day. So she didn't that day, and she was sad because the girl left the beach, and I'm like, you gotta grab it. So Adam Sander walks back in and then and I'm like, brient, I can't. I don't know what to do. She's like, Mama, go get I'm like, I can't, I can't. Like so he walks back and then he comes back out and she walked right up and she like and it just stuck her landing landed her line. A tear came out because he started talking to her, and I was like, wait, we got it. So it's like you got to go for it and grab it. People are accessible, even Adam.
Sandler, Bethany, you are so not shy, You're so gutsy.
What's your advice for people who are a little bit more just shy when when they're business owners?
There are people that are introverts that have to put it on when they're out, And to be honest, it's gonna be scary when you guys hear this. I don't go out much. I don't. I'm very insular. I don't like engage in that much. Like I'm here, I'm fully invested on with you guys, but like we're not all going to a cocktail party after because my brain will explode because I give it all and like I want to go get my like fuzzy socks on and my lavender pillow that I actually had the Amazon part. I forgot it and I had to bring a microwave to the room because I'm a diva like that about my neck pillow. So I think that you have to you gotta grab it. My daughter is not a complete extrovert, but like she wanted, you want it. You're gonna have to figure out a way mustard up in that moment, like you're jumping out of that plane. You want Adam Sandler and you want that tear to come down your cheek. I can't do it for you, babe. You gotta go get it. The ring is right there. You gotta grab it, though, So like you have to just find your way. And also being the loud mouth like me doesn't always work out. That's not a lot that's not really a winning model for many. A lot of people really are looking to the person that's listening. You know, you can feel someone who's really interested or someone who's interesting. It doesn't have to be that.
You know.
It was funny because that night so many people were saying, oh my god, your daughter and she's so positive and she's so smiling and she seems so happy, Like people, can you can be engaging in different ways, and I'm sure you just sort of have to find out the way that celebrities try to find their pose. I have no idea my secret, and I don't know how to pose. But people do that. They like look in the mirror and figure out their side, their good side through your friends and family. Like figure out truthfully and honestly what your skill set is. Even if you're an introvert, like what you shine at and lead with that. I would say, like, really, just figure that out and ask other people.
We have two huge fans over here.
What your names and Chanel's t shirts?
Yeah, thank you, thank you so much your artwork, it's her art.
That's beautiful. Thank you really nice.
Taking your advice and listening to your speech really motivated us. And our question is how do we access you and pitch to you.
What's your idea the art? What's your idea?
Yeah, we have a cosmetic company here in Los Angeles. I do the artwork on all of the products, and our mission is to connect art and beauty.
Nice.
Yeah, we do.
My daughters and artists. What's it called Janellica Jenelica?
What it's a whole line of makeup yes, I shadow everything.
Who put the money up?
Me?
Mom?
I thought you. I literally thought I've been cursing and there are kids here and that's your mom. Yes, I really thought there were kids here. I'm like, I'm in so much trouble because I asked if I could curse and they said, you guys would be cool with cursing, are you It's a weird time to ask five minutes before we're done, Is it okay?
You know?
Did you bring the products today? No?
We brought the fly the studium.
Okay, well you weary. They're wearing the makeup, but I know, but I can't rub it off their face onto mine. But but I would say, because it's happened on a show I was on, you can't. You have to have that. I have makeup in my car. I almost got canceled two weeks ago having makeup in my car because I was giving it away to people at TJ Max. But you have to have the makeup with you always, like in a little gift bag, Like I have literally gifts in the back of my car for anyone who's nice to me. You knew did you know you were coming to see me today?
Yes?
Okay, Well, yeah, well you got to be You're like my daughter with that we're here. You could have brought the bag up. I would have seen it, we would have posted it. So you'll have to send it to us. Yes, but being prepared if you have to have those products with you at all times, you never know who you're going to run into.
We went to Shark Tank this season.
But you're on Shark Tank this We went to the casting Oh, you tried to be on okay, but they.
I think it was too late.
It was too late. Did you have the products with you there?
Yeah?
You did? Okay, Janellica, the name is beautiful. Thank you, really congratulating you both looked so beautiful. Thank you so much.
I appreciate that.
Well, thank you, thank you, thank you.
And one follow up question kind of on the notion and I've been afraid to kind of go for it. So we get a lot of questions from small business owners about how to think about content and go on social media or they're kind of embarrassed that it's not produced. But you've really been clear on this content to the people going to.
Move what advice would you I've been clear on what.
Sorry like content to the people just being like authentic, getting live, getting in the front of people. What advice would you give to people besides just do it when it's kind of thinking about how to promote themselves or their businesses.
On well, you know, it's a very interesting, amazing time now because it really is the wild wild West of marketing. I would say, for the most part, if you have a small business, a publicist would be a waste of money. You could be your own publicist. You could be your own marketing team, if you have the bandwidth, if you have the I mean, if you have the hours in the day unless you're baking all the cookies or whatever the business is. I think it's content to the people is really the model. I mean, it's so liberating and so freeing to be able to if you have something to say, you can say it. Just find the same way as you have to find your means of connecting and conveying who you are, whatever your your your strong suit is. I would say, find a way to convey and communicate through video, through social media, through through cooking, through makeup videos. I mean, you've got it, can click, and it's usually just by not trying so hard, like just being yourself just finding a way to be your self and if you are insecure, and if you are an introvert, talking about that, if you are failing and you are struggling, talking about that, when you are winning, talking about that. I mean, I think people want to connect now. And the pandemic was a strange time because everybody really got so in, got so introverted just by nature of I mean last night we had a dinner and everyone said, like, oh my god, we're out. It's almost like we're still we haven't adjusted back. So I feel like people want to connect with each other. I'm finding that people want to connect with each other a lot. I found that last night, and I was shocked. People really want to and everyone wants to talk about their business and ideas. So you have to find a way to connect and convey. And it's very, very powerful, and no one can stop you, and no one can edit you, and no one has to do You don't have to watch television and look for those producers to call them. I don't need to do that. No matter what I want to say, I get to say it. And you could say that it's because I already have a following, but I started on YouTube with two thousand followers a couple of years ago, and that's a whole group of other people, Like, I don't Jennie's talking about QVC. That's a different group of people. Like, it's just a different audience. There's so many audiences that you could find an audience that your friend, you could have millions of followers or thousands of followers that your friend has no idea what world you're in. That's why it's so fascinating. Like, if you're living on YouTube, you're living in a different planet. If you're living on beauty Talk, you're living in a different planet, food Talk, Instagram, Like, it's just so many different choices of how to connect and communicate that I think it's really open, but you should focus. You can't try to please everybody. If you try to please everybody, you'll please nobody.
We have time for probably two more questions. Hands all right, go over here.
Hello, what is your name? My name is Laura.
Hi, Laura.
What's your question?
I wanted to know if you could touch on people who maybe want to do something so bad that they could come off desperate as opposed to confident, being assertive versus being needy.
When you want.
Things to happen with your business.
It's the same way as it is in dating. If you are people can smell the thirst, people can smell blood in the water. The person having the most fun is the most attractive. The person who's naturally confident. You have to find your natural confidence or just it's like I say about everything. If you don't know what to do, sit still so people get can be a lot And the best advice is to just take a couple of deep breaths and relax and pretend you're in a bar. And who would you be like the person who's just engaging and having fun and comfortable in their own skin. Where the person who everybody knows like wants it so badly, like you know, whoever you're trying to attract, would they'd.
Be like.
This bitch wants a ring tonight and I'm scared, you know, so I would just chill.
Right, Yeah, we have one more right over here? Hello too much? What's your name?
Mary?
Oh? Yes, we talked earlier.
Mary.
Hello there, Yes, what's your question for bethany?
Well quick, I just want to make sure that I just say your work with be strong. Doing be strong is the most inspiring thing I've probably ever seen in my life, and I wanted to make sure someone.
Said that you.
Oh, that's nice. We're working where we have a relief effort called be Strong, and we work in natural disasters and we did a lot in the Ppe crisis, and war is very different because there's no end in sight to it, so like there's a hurricane. And I know this wasn't your question, but it just I'm glad you brought it up because it's important time right now where it's great to talk about the pumpkin spice latte and TikTok dances, but there is a war and it's very divisive and it's very scary, and it would be it's like business in the same it is not for profit business, but it's it's as important. It's more important than business. It's literally life or death, and you have to make difficult decisions and you have to think about how to connect and convey and to write a post about something and stay present in it and stay passionate about something when every single celebrity is terrified to do so. I mean, no one's talking, no one will talk about it, and I know because the publicists are saying shut up, don't say a thing, and I'm like that say with thoughts and prayers. They say it to I'm like that is baby talk. But it's not that easy because you're trying to convey something, you're trying to hear every side, and you're trying to save lives. So it's important for me to talk about what we're doing, and it takes a lot of thought. That's when like it it's as hard as like your business is going under, Like you have to hold the steering wheel and not hold too tight as you were talking about appearing, but you can't let go. You are driving the car and you are just trying to like on a rainy scary road, like control of the car, but not like go. Like it's very hard, and that's what it's been like. But I'm sorry that was an interruption to your No.
No, it's not an interruption at Oh, thank you. My question though, is I know you've gone through some tougher times. You have followed your career for a long time. I'm actually just kind of coming out of one myself a couple of years of a really tough medical thing, and in that time I wrote a Christmas musical and I'm starting to do better and I'm trying to kind of re enter the world again, kind of get that moving, and it's.
Actually really hard.
Like like before I got sick, I was I kind of identified.
With you more.
I was very go get or very you know, not afraid of anything. But it's a little bit a bit harder now. I just feel more delicate, And I just don't know if you ever dealt with that kind of when you were kind of coming out of harder times, if there was things that like I don't know, like like mottos or anything like that that you had that kind of helped you get your like fireback.
Like I'm glad you asked that because it reminded me of something that's really important. Because I am an you know, intense passionate person. But the best ideas come. My best ideas come between sleep and wake and during times when I've been home, like just doing yoga or just relaxing or just hanging with my dogs or being with my daughter. The ideas come when you allow to relax. So anytime someone's going through something, whether they're sick or they had surgery, everybody wants to like control the process and like, oh, but I can't work out for this long and I always see and this is the I have a This is the real secret. That was a scam, that was fake news, that other secret. This is the real secret, the real sea. I had to work this through with you, as is that I I when I failed and got knocked down so many times when I was when I was the runner up on the Apprentice, No, and I didn't even make it onto the Apprentice after a week of being sequestered. I was always like, knock yourself down and brush yourself off. But then I always would be positive and make meaning out of the failure or the thing or the surgery or the illness, like then I'm gonna learn about this, So then this means I'm gonna rest more. Then this means my skin's gonna better because I'm not drinking or I'm home breathing and relaxing, like make meaning out of what's actually happening, which is really being present. And then and that's what the pandemic also did. People found instead of panic, like deer in headlights, they shook the snow globe up and we're like, where else are the fish? And this is why the whole content to the people and why my podcast exploded and all because I wasn't like just looking at this one thing that had to happen. You know, Stacy's Peda Chips, who I bring up all the time, was a sandwich cart, and they knew that they had to have extra bread because that's one thing you can't run out of. They could run out of other things, but to make sandwiches, arguably, you have to have bread unless you're eating in and out burgers and lettuce and then don't calm here, it's super colours. So because that's not a sandwich, burger is that's not a sandwich. But anyway, we can fight that out in the comments. So again I forgot I was gonna say it was telling you a secret. So those are the times when you really like, Oh so Stacey's. So they ended up making the make the bread, the extra bread in the winter and to Pita chips, and they ended up selling for two hundred and fifty million dollars because they were looking at the sandwiches, but the fish were where the chips are. So whatever you're going through, find the fish, Like, you don't have to be one hundred percent. You could be working smarter, not harder, Like find what this means in your life and be present in it and lean into it. And you don't need to be who you were before the world has changed since before anyway, you're who you are now, So be present in that and make meaning out of it. Like really, when it's a failure, like find the yes and the failure, because that's when I really thrive. When the shit hits the fan, when we're sending thirteen million dollars in Ppe e Cuomo and I realized that I think the people are criminals and they're scamming us and it's counterfeit PP and I need to get myself a diaper deal like Chris Jenner did. I Uh. I was like, that's when you get like real tight, and like that's when you have to solve the problems. And that's when you learn when it's like not easy. You don't learn when it's going good. You learn when it's like, okay, now's a chance to really learn.
Have they asked you to be a panelist on Shark Tank yet?
I was yeah a couple of times.
Oh my gosh, it's been there, done that.
Whoops, didn't do my research?
Now, dude, I didn't research you either.
Don't you are serious?
Amy didn't tell me I had to.
Love all right?
Well, seriously, you're a legendary boss woman and I have been honored to be in your presence for this chat. And everybody else backstage, come on out.
I love this stuff.
Thank you so much.
Everybody coming.
It's gorgeous. I love anything green. Obviously, this is so pretty.
I want this pop what it is?
My purse?
Yeah, and I want the picture.
Hi.
So I just wanted to wrap this up and say thank you to our wonderful guest Jenny Garth, Wells, Adams, Bethany Frankel, Tyler left Tyler how to get out of here. He had some cooking to do for some other people, hungry people.
Sure for cooking that giant stake in here. I'm like, if this place goes up in flames, I'll be a bed Looe.
Company from the Hartford Thank you so much for your great questions throughout the evening.
Well, thank you, thank everyone for coming.
This is great.
Thank you all of.
You and everybody watching at home, thank you so so much.
And also thank you to the Hartford Small Business Insurance.
You guys made this all happen and put out all this great and voe for all the inspiring and current business owners down here in the audience.
Thank you so much, good night, thank you.
Thanks guys here, good than you. Thank you for listening today. Check out more Secret of My Success episodes on the iheartapp or wherever you get your podcasts, and make sure to check out small Biz Ahead the Hartford Small Business Podcasts for more tips and tricks on how to start, run, and grow your business.
