The bliss of saying "no," work while you're young--or else, and channeling Linda Evangelista
And being on social media more. To be honest, I'm coming from a place of no So just this morning is an example of what's been going on with me for a couple of years. When I was leaving The Housewives for the second time, I just didn't want to be there, and I had business manager saying, it's several million dollars for a couple of months, so you should just do that. Because your ten year endorsement deal with Skinny Girl, which I had, it was originally I think five and then it was taken to another five years. It was a seven figure deal. That's up and those two were big things, like so it was a seven figure deal and then it was like multiple millions of dollars, and I was walking away from The Housewives, and my business managers like, just do it another year, Like it's a couple you know, it's more than a couple million dollars, so just do it, And I said, no, I don't want to do it. And the reason I say all this is that that was when I was, I think starting to do a podcast or planning to do a podcast. And the podcast is very lucrative, but it's not to the same level of all of that combined, and I was having some anxiety thinking I have these different homes and my nut is bigger, and yes, I have made money, but you make that pile. And when you make a pile of money versus just income every year, you want to put that to the side and never touch the principle. That's what people are talking about when they say don't touch the principle. So I never wanted to touch the principle. And so I was like, I have these houses and these expenses, and I travel differently than I used to, and I spend differently, So am I going to be able to piece this puzzle together? It was almost like a game, like, of course I could have made less money and just lived off what I have in the interest, but I wanted to try to find a way to get back there. But I didn't want to do it in a way that didn't felt good to me. And I left Housewives because I felt gross about it. I hated the way I felt about it. I felt embarrassed by it. I didn't want to tell anybody I was doing it. I just think it's it's not writing the hand that fed you, or not knowing where you came from it's devolved into something different, and I didn't want to be there. So now I had to try to pull up my big girl panties and do things honestly with integrity that I love doing. So I just started saying no to anything that doesn't serve me and it doesn't have an ROI financially or from a philanthropic standpoint, And most importantly, I want to be with my daughter. I'm never getting that time back, and I just don't want to feel gross about what I do for a living, and I don't want to have her feel gross about what I do for a living. And I also just want the quality time. So that was the beginning of what I was thinking in my mind was like a semi retirement, meaning I'm going to just do things that are meaningful to me and I will likely make less money, but that's okay. And what I ended up happening was in being more honest and just doing things that I love and that I feel passionate about. I created this whole other business, and my brand business started to exponentially fly. I don't know if that was just energy or what it was, because I wasn't really doing anything different with Skinny Girl, But that started to exponentially fly, like one year was a two hundred and twenty percent growth. So those are all those products that I have that just that sell and do well when and make me money when I sleep. That's licensing. But then separately, the podcast became other podcasts and it started to do really well and be its own business. And then my social media hobby started to be really compelling and a way to really connect to an audience directly and not need to go pitch ideas to dinosaurs in suits in boardrooms in midtown Manhattan, and that's archaic. So it's hard if you're in that space to realize when you're on television that you're a dinosaur, because really young people consume content immediately on their phone and on their personal devices, and it's hard for people who are dinosaurs to understand that. And I was a dinosaur too, I just didn't realize until I got into it. Wait a second, direct to consumer shopping has become a massive thing, Like that's why retail was dead because big stores aren't what they used to be and people can buy everything online. Well, this is what that is in media. Social media is part of media and when I'm offered TV shows, which is often so. Just in the last six months, I was offered a TV show on dating. I was offered a TV show on business. I was offered a movie, which I did. I was offered another TV show on dating, a competition show to host something for in the food space, endless and I've said no to all of them because what happened is we get into Okay, how long do I have to go? Sometimes it's twelve days, some as it's sixteen days. Okay, what's the money, It's bogged down, it's twelve hours a day. It's the money that is completely inconsequential compared to what I could make doing things I love to do. You know, I love going to do personal appearances in different places, and that's really connecting to an audience. But to sit in a studio in some other state and get paid, which is a lot of money, I'm now spoiled. I feel like I'm like Linda Evangelista saying I won't get out of bed for a certain amount. But I won't get out of bed if it doesn't have a financial or emotional or a fun factor for britn ROI I just won't. So it's become the place of no. And this morning I was supposed to do a very big TV network interview, and I'm just so trained because I'm such a worker and used to saying yes for years to just go try to be something and get somewhere and be somebody. So I'm used to saying yes to these archaic TV interviews and they never do anything. They never move the needle, nothing ever happens. You just sort of do them because we're used to being dinosaurs that still think that, like, you know, we're gonna turn on channel two, four, seven, five and eleven which came later, and thirteen, which came later, and like that's the way that we're gonna watch TV. I don't have a turn on regular TV. I only turn on streaming. So and I look at social media a lot, and I look at YouTube a lot, which is social media. But I'm saying, like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, So everything's changed in the way that we consume content, and you kind of have to just realize that. So for me to get on a plane and go somewhere and work for two weeks, I don't need to do it. If I want to tell you, guys, something I want to entertain you. I want to if I want to talk about business to you, food, dating, sex, politics, other people, gossip, I could do it right here. I could do it right here. I could film it, I could say it. I could post it unedited. My hair looks like a wreck. Who cares? That's that's my television show. So it's like, what the hell am I gonna bulk it up for? So this morning it was like, okay, So I'm gonna go into the city on a Friday during the summer when it's hot, my daughter's just gotten out of school two days before. I'm We're gonna be in the Hamptons on the beach. I'm gonna come back in. I'm gonna get a sweaty outfit on, I'm gonna do hair and makeup. I'm gonna sit down in a studio. I'm gonna talk about something and they're gonna air it, and then it's gonna get pick up everywhere. Well, I could sit down and talk on my channels and I can air it and it's gonna get pick up everywhere. Because when I all I did looking like a train wreck. When I talked about Chanel and the fact that I couldn't get in. There was post a bad quality video that's gotten one hundred and fifty million plus views. One hundred and fifty million plus views. What the fuck do I need to go into New York sweat, put makeup on, break out my pores. I can look here with frizzy hair like a turning back and a T shirt, or in my pajamas and say the exact same thing, and I don't have to get asked questions. I can just tell you, guys, what I think you might want to hear, and if you want to ask me a question, you can ask me in the comments, and I'll go do another video answering your question. Because you're my people. So I don't need to go do fictitious programming for fictitious people. I've got my people, and we pick up new people along the way. I used to be really eighteen to forty nine, you know, and when I got older, it was like twenty five to thirty five, thirty five to fifty five. Certain women, yes, seventy year olds like to follow me, et cetera. But now guess what, thirteen year olds My daughter's friends follow me why cause I talk about lip gloss or makeup, or because they think of me as they're crazy, and I found my own audience. I don't need anybody else, which is why it's so funny when people are like, well, yeah, you're writing you let you know you left, and you can't stop talking about I left television twice. I left. Andy Cohen has publicly said it. Everyone publicly said it. I left, and then I was offered another show and I left that contract. So I don't want to do it. It's the place of no era because you're in your fifties, you've worked your ass off in your twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties, and you don't want to do anything you don't want to do. You just don't. So today I was talking about the fact, you know, I did a post today saying to young girls, like, work your ass off, work your ass off in high school, in college, in your twenties and your thirties and your forties, because in your fifties you're gonna be in the zero fox era and you're gonna want to say no. And not unless you've worked your ass off and paid on the back end in many ways, will you even have the possibility of saying no of picking and choosing, because at this age, you don't do plans you don't want to do. You don't talk to people you don't want to talk to. You don't wear heels you don't want to wear. You don't wear makeup you don't want to wear. You don't meet people you don't want to meet. You don't give two fucks, so you just do what you want to do. So I've teed that up. But guess what the people who are realizing that they can be to control of their own destiny of smart ones