The Aperitivo Without the Alcohol with Melanie Masarin

22:05Yeah. People don't think about the fact that like products sit on boats. Yeah. Or have to get on planes. Or have to get like driven across the country. Like America is so big, you know, like France is the size of Texas. So the freight costs are so crazy. The freight costs, you know, when there's a war, I mean, everything, it impacts everything. And like, yeah, our product is just really heavy. I had this conversation yesterday with somebody where I was like, people always want to be like, well, Italy is this and like, don't you just want it? And everything's better. And I'm like, hi, Italy is the size of California, you guys.

22:35Obviously, things can be done much differently because America is fucking huge. Like what? How can you possibly compare these two places? Yeah. It's like, it makes sense. It's also like, yes, it's a good life. I'll say this because I'm European. Italy is a third world country. Like, I love it. I want to move there. Have you tried renting a car there? It's crazy. Like, have you tried doing any sort of home renovation there? It's just like, I love Italy. When these posts go online where they're like, a dollar for a villa. And I'm like, you guys know why those are a dollar? Because the town is falling apart.

23:10It has no plumbing. Because there's nothing in it. and try to get a man to show up to like fix your toilet in Italy, which, by the way, is amazing. It's a completely different lifestyle. So the comforts that we have here and the things that we take for granted all day long, because everybody like loves to pretend that everything's the worst, like in other countries are things that are not. Listen, I'm sure there are many expats who live there and absolutely loved and are having the best time. Doesn't mean it's not a place to be, but we are we have a lot of ease and privilege living in America that there's a reason why we all day long.

23:41To America. And like, you know, even though like I disagree with a lot of things that America is doing right now, like I'm also still here, you know, so you have to be like honest with the reason why. And like, yes, I hope that the next chapter of my life will have me slaving over a palazzo in Italy, but that will, you know, you'll tune in.

24:08I'm so excited to tell you about our sponsor, Koyuchi, especially considering April's Earth Month. Koyuchi is in a league of its own when it comes to bedding and bath and home products and their organic sateen and flannel sheet sets are the key to a more comfortable, healthier, sleep year round. I found them on Goop years ago and started buying their products and have just loved them very deeply ever since. And since it's Earth Month, I've been trying to make small changes that actually matter. And one easy way to upgrade is by switching to Koyuchi bedding. They use organic cotton, fair trade certified factories, and really focus on responsible sourcing and manufacturing.

24:48It's just like one of those rare brands that feels really luxurious, but aligns with how we all are really trying to shop. So invest in your health and the best sleep of your life. All Koyuchi sheets are made of natural fibers and certified to be free of toxins, harmful chemicals that seep into your skin, which is like such a scary thing that none of us really think about that much. And also they're just so soft and gentle on your skin. You sleep well and safely with Koyuchi. It is luxury that you could feel good about. So whether it's bedding bath or towels, table linens, crib sheets, or spa robes, all of their products are the absolute highest quality made with natural fibers, low impact dyes, certified fair trade.

25:29Koyuchi looks great, feels amazing, and it's good for your health and the planet. So if you want healthy, organic luxury bedding that lasts a last time, you need Koyuchi. Get 15 % off your first order when you visit koyuchi.com slash best. So that's koyuchi.com slash best for 15 % off. That is C-O-Y-U-C-H-I.com slash best. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, who is our exclusive snack and coffee sponsor. IQ Bar protein bars, also their IQ mix hydration mixes and the IQ Joe mushroom coffees are absolutely delicious, low sugar, brain and body fuel that you need to absolutely win your day. I always say this, but the sampler pack is really going to be where you get like your most bang for your buck here because you're going to get nine IQ bars, eight IQ mix sticks, and four of the IQ Joe sticks that are all delicious.

26:26And it's an assortment of flavors. You can pick your favorite. They're all clean label certified. They're free of gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs, artificial ingredients. Carmela and I are protein girlies and we love a delicious treat. We're also not trying to spike our blood sugar. And that is why we live and die by the IQ bars, their plant and protein bars. It's just the smarter snack choice because they have plenty of plant protein, tons of fiber and no added sugar. They're so good. And by the way, IQ Joe is a mushroom coffee that is awesome. It provides mental clarity. It has 200 milligrams of natural caffeine.

27:00It has four different flavors that are absolutely delicious, but get the little sample pack and you get to try all of them. IQ Bar has become a huge part of my daily routine. And right now IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20 % off all IQ Bar products, including the ultimate sampler pack plus free shipping. So to get your 20 % off, just text BEST to 64 ,000. Text BEST to 64 ,000. That is BEST to 64 ,000. Message and data rates may apply.

27:34So where's Ghia right now? Like, where are you mentally with the brand? I mean, how many years has it been? Ghia is turning six this year. I have been working on it for eight years. I mean, I started when I was, yeah, 28. Wow. And we launched when I was 30. And we are in Whole Foods now, which is really exciting. Congratulations. But it's also, you know, like, it's the middle part is not fun. like I love creating brands and like Ghia right now needs like fuel and scale and that's the really hard part you know to get to the other side like no my drink doesn't have protein in it it doesn't have so and it's also like oh my god I just had this like funny vision of you being like protein Ghia creatine Ghia I mean you know acid Ghia we should have done this for April's full no but seriously investors asked me that last year and I was like are you guys serious right now.

28:24And I want to build a company. We were also talking about this this morning. I want to build a company like I have time on my side. I want to build a legacy brand and like good things take time. But the problem is like time is money. And once you're in retail, things are really expensive. And it's like a race to basically protect yourself space. So yeah, Whole Foods, buy it there. You know, it comes double for us. I'm trying to still, you know, have some fun with the brand and not just like optimize everything where, you know, my cookbook's coming out in three weeks, which is super crazy. And we're doing more collaborations.

28:56And, you know, I think that overall, like we are seeing that even though it became a very competitive space, there's been like, we have inspired a lot of non-alcoholic brands to launch. And like, you know, that was good. But a lot of them now are going out of business because it's really hard business. And I hope that the category sediments and the legacy brands will survive. So. Well, what I really think a lot of this comes down to, and like it came up yesterday when I had Yolanda on the podcast, we were talking about like the people's like intention around traveling. Yeah. And like people's and like, what are we all really searching for?

29:29Right. Because there's this whole trend on Instagram where it's like, I found this hidden gem. And I'm like, guys, like you didn't. Why? Why do you feel like it's OK to say you discovered something? Also, it's like super colonial. Why are you like colonizing a fucking beach in Puglia that like you think you found? but not to be little and make fun of that which is fine and it it's more so everyone is searching for this to post about this feeling that they're having in this place yeah and it's like this hidden gem culture that all these like travel bloggers do or like i found this thing it's be it's like what's what's the emphasis behind that is that somebody's trying to essentially just like feel something, right?

30:12So, you know, in the last 10 years, you've seen how many brands pop up, all these DTC brands with all this fucking funding that was like a made up concept, you know, that someone was like, I'm going to disrupt this. And there's all these tech people behind it and they could build it and they could do the thing and da, da, da. But unless it's part of a real world and people feel like they want to be a part of it. And by by the way, that doesn't mean to mean that it's for everybody. If like a good amount of people are like, I love what's happening over there. And like, I want to feel in my home, like it looks to feel on this person's Instagram.

30:51And I want to have that product because I feel like it's in your creating the lifestyle and that's branding. That's Ralph. That's everybody. That's right. Totally. But so you see when these brands kind of pop up and fall off, it's because they're missing that. And it's like when there's someone like you behind a brand where it's like, yeah, like the bottle turned in if the bottle turned into a person it's you yeah totally people meet me and they're like oh this makes sense 100 % like the apartment your life your taste your everything it's it's the and you didn't build a world this is your life and so I hate this like world building and I'm like yeah why are we building something why aren't why doesn't the world give us the thing you know what I mean you're making a product from the world are you fabricating it when you actually like I really think about Gia as like sharing but there is this feeling of like escapism and we always say like, what else are we bottling?

31:38It's not just that there's yuzu in the drink. It's like you're bottling joy in a way and you're bottling the feeling of being together. And I think that, you know, we sort of created this aesthetic that was kind of the, it was like a, the post-glossy aesthetic. It was like, everything was pastel and everything was sans-serif because everything was made for the internet to be very legible on Instagram. And I was like, yes, for the real world, like we're going to make this font that's not a font that like people think the word is from different countries. And it was, you know, the idea was that it was just to have fun in real life.

32:08And like, yeah, like I launched in 2020, not ideal for real life gatherings, but we made it through. And it's, it's just about like having fun. You live your life the same way. You're always like, there's like, you know, many people's in the garden and like the dogs are everywhere. And like, that's why I'm not, I'm not nervous about it. Yeah. Like, like the olive oil is just the it's like you need olive oil for the life that's like the fuel yeah and I saw another brand the other day and I don't that is in a similar category that has to do with it and I was like whoa I was like this is so fabricated this is like yeah like the every post for the brand was a photo shoot and sure do I need campaigns around the tons of launches I'm gonna have totally but you know I'm like every product is just in our home and it's gonna like live on our wall and you know like I've been trying to source like an antique like plate racks because I was like oh I just want to like every time we launch a new plate it just like goes in the plate rack and then we get to look at like our collection every day like in our home and it's not like a studio there's no like fake photo shoot yeah for the thing and I was like oh wouldn't it be cute if like every time we did a launch, it's like we just invite, even if it's like my mom or my siblings, like we just have a dinner and like someone's there with a film camera and it's not this set up wine being poured in a thing that's fake or whatever.

33:32Like even that's like a really hard part about us doing why it was like, we kind of why we stopped doing the cooking videos is it's really hard for Davide to wrap his head around making food that we're then not sitting down and enjoying as like a big meal as a family. And so he'd be like, why are we filming this at 1030 in the morning? I was going to say like, Like, I mean, you know, obviously, like my publisher, everyone is like, you need to be posting more cooking videos because in L.A. I was doing so much of that. I love cooking. I grew up cooking. I grew up in the south of France. Like there was like olive oil flowing everywhere.

34:01I think you and I relate to that. And then it's like suddenly I'm living in an apartment in New York. I work in an office. I get home at 7 p.m. There is no light. Like you don't want to be looking at these cooking videos, you know. And so that like I got my book deal because I was cooking all the time and like living that life. And the LA lifestyle was amazing, but it's just really difficult. And then I realized all these influencers are cooking dinner in the morning. That's so insane. Isn't that so funny? I call me like, hey, guys, I'm going to take Thursday off because I'm cooking pasta limonet.

34:31That's what people do. What? No, you can't. And I'm like, I'm always like, this is like the only time your skills are that works. And he's just like, this feels really inauthentic. I know. And so I'm like, what a gift and a curse that like, yeah, we're not cooking a limo day at fucking 9 a.m. in the morning because it like it's also just like this is so wasteful. Like unless we also have somebody over. But then like the lighting needs to be good. And then it's like a very it's like an interesting problem. But it comes down to there being so much sincerity and like what we're doing that it's not.

35:01So, yeah, it's just so I've never been so confident. And I'm sure you feel it really feel this way about Gia, where you're like that aspect of it, like the branding part, the lifestyle aspect that I think, yeah, oftentimes brands really worry about and try to like get the content. That's like the least thing that I'm worried about. That's the easy part because that just flows out of me. And even when, you know, we get copied a bunch and whatnot, I'm like, I don't want to do the same thing twice. Like I moved on. I'm like, I started this company when I was 28 and, you know, I was single. I just moved to L.A.

35:31I was consulting for Sweetgreen because I was making money while I was building Gia. I was doing all these things. I had just worked at Glossier. And now I'm like, I'm 35. I'm in a relationship. I live in New York City. I own an apartment in Paris. You know, like, I just like, I want to be closer to my family. Like, in a way, my life has changed. And yeah, like, I'm just going to cook at night. You know, you guys can look at the nighttime cooking videos. Well, when does the book come out? April 28th. Oh my God. And it's called Riviera. It's so beautiful. The name Riviera is so to die for. But by the way, in my head, I'm like, well, you'll be in Paris soon for summer.

36:05And we get to see you make all the recipes in your apartment in Paris. Yes, yes, yes. And there's great lights in my apartment in Paris. We are going to go. So my boyfriend's family is from Corbarra. And there's a tomato festival in Corbarra. He's been dying to go to. So we're going to go there mid-July. And we haven't really planned like the rest. But where does your family, does your family always go to the water? So my family is in Delivna in Provence, in Égalière. and then my so you're gonna film your recipes when you visit your mommy yeah exactly also in France in the summer it's nighttime at 10 p.m.

36:35so it works really nicely it's so nice how late the sun is and we still have my grandfather had an apartment in Cannes and was living in Cannes and so we still have the apartment in Cannes that's like on the water it's so cute it's like a little two bedroom oh my god and you open the blinds and it's like the whole window is blue it's insane that's so beautiful but that also like really speaks to like the visuals of your book you know what I mean is that like beautiful we actually shot the book in Cannes and in Nice. And, you know, my mom and my grandpa were from Nice. And I mean, we could actually talk.

37:05I'm like, I have this vision in my head when you say the plate stand of, we went last year to Puglia and there's this place called the Convento, which is this woman, Athena, she's amazing. And she bought this old convent in Puglia and her entire kitchen is plates from Puglia and these like old wooden racks. It's insane. You would freak. I'm going to find you some pictures on my phone and send to you. That's my vision for the Barranchini stores. Yeah. It's like just all the plate racks and all the different plates. But by the way, like my boyfriend, what are we going to do in Puglia? And we like looked at the kitchen and we're like, we're finding a flea.

37:35And like we drove like an hour and a half to like a random flea. I brought back like a statue of Padre Pio in my carry on suitcase. By the way, this is why we wanted to do barrancini because every time we would go to Italy, I'd want to buy ceramics or I'd want to buy like the Mori heads. There's one place in Siracusa that makes ceramics and they make these giant Mori planters, as you know, but like they're the big ones that can like sit on the ground. Yeah. And for eight years, I've been trying to buy these fucking Mori heads and have them sent to me. And every year I go in and I'm like, OK, can you ship them to California?

38:07And they go, oh, mama me, it's going to be expensive. I said, it's going to be$450. It's going to be fine. We do this every year. It's worth it. Like, I really want to spend the$450 on the, by the way, the planters are like so fucking cheap. I know. I'm like, please send them to me. And I get on the fucking WhatsApp with them and they just can't figure it out. and it overwhelms them and it goes to shit. And so I was like, I just have to be able to do this. I want to just be able to be like the annoying American person that's like making the things and like making them like easily accessible, you know?

38:38Like, but now I have to figure out the logistics of that because I'm like, okay, if I'm importing all this stuff, it needs, it shouldn't then travel from New York to California because that's going to be extra cost. Yeah. But the warehouse where this all should be, which is also have a studio in the warehouse so I can shoot out the product, should really be in New Jersey because then I'm not, you know, then all the products are not going to be$1 million. So I'm not, then I'm like, then how, so what, I have to fly out here to shoot products? You know what I mean? And you also have the sunlight and yeah, you need to speak to Kendall at Olivetoli.

39:10I feel like she figured it out. Literally, she's been one of my closest friends because we both revolved together. And she, by the way, still speaks about herself like she has not done what she's doing. I went on her site recently and I was like, oh, you have like a full blown like like restoration hardware style collection of things. Like she's amazing. Can you believe what her fucking website looks like? I know. By the way, when I place an order, I get I don't want to be overly communicated with. Yeah. I get the perfect message. Your order is on its way. I'm like, thank you for my one. And it's not also an email and also a thing.

39:44I'm not like, oh, I get away. You're not put in the flow. I can't stand this. The websites to die for the product. But by the way, every time they have a launch, they completely re-merchandise that warehouse. And she hosts events there. She hosts events there. I see the perfect amount of ads for it in the most perfect places on the internet. It's so brilliant. And the other day I was like, I never ask other people if I could like pick their, you know, I'll text you every once in a while like, what did you do for this? But I'm like, literally, Kendall, like however you set this up. And she's like, I don't know what I'm doing.

40:15And I'm like, it's so funny that she still has imposter syndrome. She has a logistics business without knowing it. She has a logistics business. Amazing. Like with the product being heavy. Talk about the product being heavy. Like I bought a mortar and pestle from her because she hosted an event at the Gear House. And on the bar, it was that marble. It's not marble. Maybe it's just like a stone mortar and pestle. That mortar and pestle is like a hundred pounds, you know? I have one in my garden that I can't move anywhere because it's so heavy. I know. And I was like, I'm moving to New York. I'm like, what the hell am I going to do with this thing?

40:43I'm going to pay extra. Like, there's no way, you know? And like a friend was bringing her car back. I literally put it in my friend's car because I love it so much. By the way, think about what an issue that was for you. She has a thousand of those fucking things. I know. I know we're going to start doing containers. Like, it's just the whole thing is like, yeah. And logistics with someone in Europe. It's like, I'm on a WhatsApp with somebody. I'm just like. I know. Well, I love importing stuff from Italy. Everyone's always like, your couch, your couch. Because I post my couch on Instagram a lot.

41:11Well, it's, you know, it's the place next to my window that has a mirror. and I'm like, yeah, I just bought that couch from like a dealer that goes to the Fiera every month. You know, I love her. Monica, she's great. I know. Davide imported his Defender that we bought for like dirt cheap and imported it from Umbria. And it's like... It's like a quarter of the price. Oh my God. I know. You just have to be willing to put in the work. And it's like, I never mind. Like when I did my apartment in Paris, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had a six or 7 a.m. call and it was like a walkthrough and then a recap with my architect.

41:43And that's how we stayed on schedule. and it's like, you know what? Like I have to show for from the past eight years of like building this. I have like a 600 square feet apartment in Paris that is like top to, like bottom to ceiling. Like just me. It's all everything. It's in a tent. Oh, like it's amazing. You have to go take Carmela. You go on a shopping trip. It's like one. I think that's like the best neighborhood. Yeah. The vibe. It's on the border of the second. So it's like near Arimétier. So you're like, you can walk in seven minutes. you're in at Grave, you know, the coffee shop or Partizan.

42:16But also it's very residential. I have a lot of friends in the tents. I like just bike around everywhere. It's amazing. It's my happy place. Wow. Good for him. So happy for you. That's so amazing. I just put my boyfriend's name on the mailbox because we redid the mailboxes. And I was like, look at me. I have a house.

42:40this episode is sponsored by the real real my favorite website in the world i mean nobody does anything like the real real listen my obsession with the real real started because i've been a manolo blonic obsessor since sex in the city came out when i was in high school maybe some of you are my age maybe some of you are older maybe a lot of you are younger and think about the impact of seeing sex in the city in high school so like my internal drive to like own a Manolo Blahnik cute little kitten heel or sandal or heel is like ingrained in my DNA and the only way that I could ever kind of afford or have access to any of that was obviously through the real rail.

43:24They drop over 10 ,000 new arrivals every day from brands like Manola Blahnik, Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, Cartier, all up to 90 % off of retail. And they have a really vigorous authentication process and a team of luxury experts. So it's all resale that you can totally trust. It is the smarter way to shop luxury. It's also the smartest way to sell. I have a lovely woman come into my house every few months. I put a pile of fabulous things that I just know I'm not going to wear anymore. And I feel really good about giving away because she takes my stuff, they upload it, they sell it, they do everything.

44:04And then I selected the option where I get credit. So I just check my credit on the real world every so often. And then I buy myself a lovely pair of Manolos with all the things in my house that I wasn't wearing. It's just genius. It's my favorite thing. The RealReal is the most trusted name and authenticated luxury resale with over 10 ,000 new arrivals daily. Nobody does resale like the RealReal. And now you're going to get$25 off your first purchase when you go to therealworld.com slash best. So if there are a pair of Manolabonics for$75 on the RealReal and you use the code best, you're going to get a pair of Manolas for 50 bucks.

44:35That is therealworld.com slash best to get your$25 off. Start shopping now at therealworld.com slash best.

44:50I'd love to talk more about what it's like for you to become like your own face of the brand. And I know you were like, every woman I've talked to the last 48 hours has been just like, fuck me yeah what a fucking gratitude gratitude gratitude this shit sucks yeah you know I'm so grateful for the way that I get to connect that that I wait that I get to make guia be personal like every email that we send from my voice is like our top performing email every email that's like sometimes we have emails that have like one guia link in there but it's like what I read this month what I blah blah and it's always the best email and I'm just like because people like to have this kind of authentic voice behind it.

45:38Of course, it's you. But the whole like requirement of like the founder led marketing, the like, you know, being put together, being like attending events, da da da. Like that's really hard for me. I don't have the headspace for it. I don't really have the time for it. I think that people love to, like America loves a rags to riches stories, but once you're successful, like you're in, you know, like you are the way we're observed and the way we're evaluating all the time. Like I find that really, really difficult. Yeah. What are you doing to like now? I mean, I don't. I mean, you know, we talk about this a lot.

46:11It's like you just you like ignore it. You stop looking and you kind of focus on the good. Like I want to believe that for every person that is very critical of the way that, you know, I show my life. There's hopefully like 10 people that were maybe wanting to not drink and, you know, felt like they got a little help from Gia or maybe wanted to. Definitely like a one to 100 thing because there's way more. nice people than there are gross people. And it's like, if I can, you know, inspire someone to like work really hard and like buy their tiny spot in Paris and do the thing. Like I was telling you, I was like, my mortgage in Paris is 1500 euros a month.

46:44Like you can do it. It took me three years to find a spot. But like, if anything, like I want to, we talk about the whole like girl boss thing and whatever, like I'm not interested. But if there's like young girls that are looking at me and are like, oh my God, she did it and I can do the thing and I can be an expander for some of them. Like I want to do that, you know? And in the same way that like you are an expanded family with like family. You're able to do so many things. Our friend Baba, like, you know, she's like, she has four girls. She has a company. She has an amazing relationship with her husband.

47:11She looks amazing. She's training for Spartan race right now. I can't believe how her output is, man. Yeah. I got a little bit of a taste of how her life like logistically functions. It's crazy. She said that she's like a quarterly with her husband. I know. No, she would have sub-stuck about it. It's insane. I want to have her on the podcast and not talk about anything other than like, okay, Monday. Yeah. What are we doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And literally just go through her calendar. She said that she doesn't, she leaves her phone in her at-home office at 5 p.m. to go downstairs and she doesn't look at her phone again until...

47:48Until they go to bed, right? Until the next morning, babe. That's insane. It's insane. Wow. Yeah, I mean... She's like, I have a family iPad, but she's like, that's, we could, you know, if I need to, but she's like, it's, I'm not looking at anything. It's incredible. I mean, the way that her and her husband are so intentional and the way that they design their life is so inspiring to me. And they have been, you know, they met in Sweden when they were super young and they're just like rock solid. Yeah. What I liked about what I learned from her the past couple of days is like, you know, because I think when you see another woman, like, and I see people just do this, all the time.

48:31Like, it was like, well, she has money or she has this or she has that baba. But it doesn't matter. Like, by the way, she didn't. No, she did not. No. But I'm not. And like, I don't know why we're success shaming people. But if they had two pennies to rub together, their life would operate exactly the fucking same. Like, you can see how their brain, like, and what I love that she brought up as an example was she was saying to her husband in one of these like quarterly meetings, she's like, I haven't been able to work out. I need it for my mental health. Like it hasn't been able to happen. And it was interesting because Amrit was, it was like a group of women.

49:06So we were all kind of like, and Amrit, you know, a couple of moms were like, we don't have enough time in the day. And Baba was like, you do. Yeah. Like you do. So if you need to go to bed an hour earlier and wake up an hour earlier, that's what you do. And it, and it's, and I started doing that recently, just like kind of on my own. Yeah. And listen, I still need to go to bed a little bit earlier. But like that little thing is life changing. Life changing. Life changing. I'm optimizing myself so much. I'm almost like a 40. So like at this point, should we talk about how much we are really enjoying AI and how we can use it to optimize?

49:38Do you want to talk about Claude, my best friend? I think we should talk about it. I know. That's like ultimate. I know this is a very polarizing topic and I think that it's really important to preface that we didn't choose for this to happen to the world. You know, America's obsession with oil is not my fault, like specifically. And I guess it's draining a lot of natural resources. But like I'm talking about like people being mad at AI and deciding to opt out as a way to have like quiet resistance. And really what's happening is that women are further falling behind. And I don't want to see that happen.

50:10No. And can I just say, it's like this weird, if you really feel that way about lots of things, no one should be drinking almond milk. Like no one should be like almond milk uses more water. Like, by the way, I have a meal. I compost. Like I'm obsessed with composting. I'm obsessed with reducing my like methane, you know, emissions. Like it's like I think that there's a level of intentionality. I don't use AI for everything, but there's definitely like hours in the day that you can take back. Like I get this amazing like daily briefing in the morning with all my thing. Tell me about the daily briefing.

50:39So we're talking about so I've used chat and Claude. I still use both a little bit. I recently had chat tell me everything about myself that I said I'm switching over. So I just uploaded it into Claude. So Claude knows everything about me. And then I did Claude. I downloaded Cowork on my computer and I synced it with my email. I mean, I'm sorry, I synced it with my calendar, but you have it synced to your email as well. I have it synced to my email. I have it synced to all my Google Drive. I, you know, you have to be essential with like privacy. And I was like, I'm getting the robot full access to everything.

51:14I have nothing to hide. I don't care. Like I basically, and by the way, probably by the time the podcast comes out, like this will be outdated because Cloud has been launching so many new features, but I also have it synced to my phone. And I have Whisperflow on my phone because I like to speak to my phone and I have an accent and Siri doesn't understand my accent. And that's like a very real reality of like, just my relationship with it. Like, yeah, like Siri has no idea. And like, she still doesn't know how to spell Gia. And, you know, Whisperflow, I inputted Gia in it. It knows. I send feedback to the team very quickly now.

51:44Like they have everything by the time they get to work in the morning. It's just like really optimized. And so one thing that happens is sometimes I get into these days where I have like 10 or 11 calls, right? And on every call, I promise people two follow-ups and I write it in my notebook. And then like, you know, I have to go to something and like the notebook doesn't get reopened until the following morning. And everybody on my team is waiting for stuff. I integrated, you can integrate it with like Granola or Circleback. And it basically sends you all of your follow-ups into one Slack. So it can either check it every two hours or have it at the end of the day.

52:13And it's like, here's everything that you owe people. But beyond that, you can also train it to like information digging. Like I don't have an assistant. We were talking about this. I have a really small team where seven people on the team at Guia three of these people on a sales team, I do everything myself. I write my sub stack. I like do my paid partnerships. I'm like figuring out to use edits. And like, it's, I'm not trying to be a hero here. I'm just saying we're operating super lean right now. And so I will take all of the automations and help that I can get for the super mindless stuff.

52:41Because at least for me, it has helped me to be more creative. And like, it means that on Saturday, I don't use my phone and I just write my sub stack and I do my collages. And like, that's my own creative moment. Like, Claude is not involved in that. But like in the morning, I get a briefing that's basically like, hey, here are all the follow-ups you need from Slack. I don't like opening Slack in the morning and looking at every channel has my name on it. Everyone, like being a founder means that everybody needs something from you. I took Slack away. I can't even look at it. I don't have a leadership team right now.

53:11Like, it's just like everything. Yeah. I mean, I can't take Slack away because it's like the backbone of my organization. No, but to not have to look at it for you to be able to just, this is incredible. Like morning and night, Claude is like, hey, here's like what's happening in Slack. and here's what you need. Here are all the follow-ups you promised. It was like, okay, like for like the flyer for your cookbook launch event, they're waiting for the fonts. Only you have them. I pulled up the email. Can you click here and send in this link? Like it pulls information from your email. So the information gathering part is absolutely incredible.

53:40Unbelievable. And, you know, I use it for, like it's colloquial. We were really trying to figure out how to get away for the weekend with Adam over the next, like, I have a book tour coming up. I have a lot of things. And I was like, hey, okay. Every appearance that's like either a podcast or something that's in person that you have to be camera ready for is now blue in my calendar. And I know that I am in New York and I'm like camera ready for these things. So if I have to shoot content with my team, it's going to be on those days. And then it basically told me like those three windows in the next three months where Adam and I can go away for four days, you know?

54:11And I was like, that would have taken me forever to figure out because by the way, you have to sit, you have to look at everything. If you do get an assistant, your assistant's going to be able to be your creative assistant. I know. I want to be your workshop. A hundred percent. Because this is what I just onboarded someone and then I got Claude right afterwards. And by the way, this is where we can say that like Claude doesn't fucking replace human beings. No, I need an assistant because I need someone to bounce something off of. But if she's only fucking doing calendar invites and I can only afford to pay her X amount of months or X amount of money a month, why am I having her fucking add you to my calendar?

54:45So when I got I was telling you today. I got a flyer text me yesterday. By the way, for years, I've been like, fuck, I have to remember to put that in my account to like take the time or I'll like retext it to my I'm like, how? Because I'm doing so many things at one time. Yeah. I took a screenshot of the text message with the flyer. I sent it to Claude. I said, add this to my calendar. It knew that I like a notification a day before and 10 minutes before and it was in. Then Ari is not doing that. Yeah. Ari and I can have a call for 10 minutes instead of going over calendar where she's like, where do you feel like you want to be more creative with your Instagram?

55:18Like, should we have you do like a get ready video before you go out to dinner tomorrow night? And I'm like, yeah, what do we think it should look like? That's what makes me money. So the investment in her makes me money, not by managing my calendar, but by having creative fucking conversations. No, I know. It's so true. It's like, I really actually believe that after this transition period, AI is going to create jobs, you know, like it's going to make the economy better. It's going to be, I don't know, it's just like, it's just an amazing tool. Like I think that I have been spending so much time doing things that do not nourish me emotionally, do not nourish me intellectually, that I'm like a huge bottleneck for my team.

55:55And it's just making, we're not removing jobs because of AI, like at least like on my team, we're not. As a female founder who has to constantly be scared that if you do one thing wrong, then an employee is going to go like write about it on fucking line, which by the way, all through my twenties, I worked for some of the craziest, meanest people. I'm not like a snitch ass fucking loser who felt like you needed to go like complain about it on the internet. Like I just like was like, this is a part of life and grit and experience. But regardless of that, I always feel like if you're bottlenecking your team, that this is something that they can complain about you optimizing yourself.

56:27This makes you a better woman. This makes you a better founder. This makes you a better partner. This makes you a healthier, more high functioning, optimized human being. It's honestly like I, I think it's just an incredible technology. Obviously, people are going to try to cut corners and just like overuse it. And like, you know, there's people that are... But that's with everything. And that's with everything. And like at the end of the day, like, I think that I feel very good about my ability to like have taste and have judgment. And like, maybe the robots someday will be able to do that. But right now they can't.

57:02And so I don't think that I'll lose my job because of it, you know? And I just want us to live better lives. Like the way that I've been working for the past 10 years is completely unsustainable, you know? And it's funny. So I did this Q &A on Instagram where I asked people how they use AI. And I have so many mothers that have told me they make custom stories, feeding schedules, sleeping schedule, and it's really reduced the mental load out of even running a house. And I think that's so interesting and so impressive. And like, yes, of course, like moms carry so much of the mental of their household.

57:32Like I want to learn more about that, you know? It's been really, I'm so happy that we got to have this mistake of having to like have these last two and a half hours together because I've known you for so long and like watching you get to this point. And I think we could have a whole other episode about like dating and being single. And we should, I feel like you should. Dating Italians too, which is like so good. I need to get approval. Thank you so much because you have been like really working your ass off, really vulnerable about what's hard. I'm so happy for you for the cookbook. It seems like you're entering this like next chapter.

58:04You seem so grounded and in love. It was like really cute. You watching us with Carla today because I was like, I know that you're like manifesting this next chapter of your life. I'm so happy for you. Where can people get the cookbook? Everywhere that sells books, Barnes and Nobles. If you want to sign copy, there's a really cute bookstore called Books Are Magic in Brooklyn. They're doing the pre-orders online. It will get in before Mother's Day on the Gia website. Anywhere you want to get the cookbook, you can get the cookbook. It's called Riviera. and you can get Gia at Gia and Whole Foods.

58:32Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you, Pia.

58:40And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this week's episode of Everything is the Best. I hope you enjoyed it. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that stuff. Maybe leave a comment. Go ahead and follow me on Instagram at Pia Barancini. And I hope you have a fabulous, fabulous rest of your day. Love you. Ciao.

59:18Thank you.