171. $100M CEO Explains How to 10x Your Brand with Storytelling ft. Heidi Somers

34:09So when there's so many voices, especially on social media, or if you're an entrepreneur who gets advice from all different types of people, it can be very overwhelming. if you have customers saying how you should do things you have employees saying how you should do things family friends um at the end of the day i think it's just like trust your trust your gut but also know your data so i'm constantly i love data so i love being like hey like what percentage of girls are short regular tall and that's how we need to base our orders off of very like data driven it's like a mixture of data but also like real life conversations if you will i think the people that lean too much into data of like oh the best-selling legging right now is a capri you're just going solely off data but not like having more in-depth conversations on what women really want and i think that those real life conversation is what has sparked so many of our best-selling products and it's usually like what do you guys want more of we asked christian this and he said that he kind of as they were growing as he was growing he felt kind of like on an island by himself because he didn't really have anyone that he felt like he could turn to to talk to about getting advice and he's also a little stubborn about asking for advice oh yep is there someone that you've been able to turn to for advice during this journey?

35:35And has there been a piece of advice that you've received along your journey that has been transformational for you? So when I very first started Buffbunny Collection, first I did some print t-shirts, but very quickly was like, I'm going to go overseas and create my own fabrics and everything. I did work for an apparel company called Liffet and I still am friends with the owner he's amazing um and there was at one point where he was like hey we could partner on this company but I'm super stubborn as well and I was like I want full control and I also wanted to go overseas create my own fabrics textiles and like their model was printing everything locally like on already like blanks um and so what i wanted to do was vastly different from their model um and i wish i would have asked more questions because he probably would have helped me but i think back then i was also very stubborn and i didn't want to like walk on people's toes step on their toes things like that i think when you're first starting as an entrepreneur it's kind of like this slippery slope of like you want to ask people certain questions but but some people get very competitive.

36:48And so I just didn't want people to like shoot me down. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go to Google. I'm just going to Google this out instead of asking questions. And so I didn't really have anyone actually until I met Christian, we started dating and I already had like my company and I was already launching products from overseas, but we did kind of bond over that. Cause it was like, we could actually ask each other questions where neither of us knew of anyone we could call that was doing overseas products. Okay. So then let me ask you this. If a founder was to come to you or a creator who wants to launch a business and they want to create a seven or eight figure business like you have, do you have a piece of advice for them that would allow them to maybe scale quicker or things that you've learned that if you were to tell them like watch out for this or whatever it may be that it would save them some frustration or uh difficulties when trying to build their business that's a great question um it kind of depends on what you what you're wanting to create so some people might give the advice of like you got to go all in go big do all these things I'm the opposite where but it's also because I don't come from Money or anything like that.

38:08So my business like I saved up money and put it into it So I didn't have loans. I didn't come from like a family with money. So I was like Whatever I put in like this has to work. I don't have a choice so For me, I if anything I started kind of small to test the waters I wanted to test out what people liked and didn't like so I did start with like screen printing teas but nowadays there's all these companies that will do like um print on demand by purchase so when i first started i was like okay i invested i think i it was like five thousand dollars into making all these t-shirts um that was a lot of money or actually i don't think it was five thousand i think it was like a few thousand but that was a lot of money to put up front now there's all these companies online i have some influencer friends who are like dabbling into it.

38:57I was like, that's a great idea where they can have their logo and their different products. They can offer a variety of things to kind of test the waters on what their customers like and don't like, instead of investing like, Oh, I'm going to invest heavily into this crew neck. No one's buying crew neck. So they're able to, um, put no money in and they're just charged working with that company of, let's say it's like a crew neck. they just split the profit 50 50. I think that's a great place to start because you can do different designs on the products and there's no investment. And it's a good way to test the waters to kind of feel out your community or feel out your customers and then grow from there.

39:40Like I would say, if you don't have a lot of money to invest, that's a great starting point. Um, or if you're like, nah, I want them with the good stuff. Then I think it's, it's doing a lot of testing and polls with like your friends for example um i and also some advice if you're getting polls and testing don't go to a group of friends and be like oh pick one because they all influence each other so i've i did this the other day with like a new 3d can that's coming out um brian was there i was like hey like signal to me one two or three on what you like and no one else look and like they all did it i was like okay great now i know that they're not influenced by each other or i'll just text it out to people like hey pick one but i've noticed if i do a group chat they all they're like oh yeah number one is the best and i'm like you didn't mean that so that's definitely very helpful and then just making sure before you make your investment into your product that you get as much feedback as you can and okay and then just one step further once you have that product and you have a winning product what is the key to building a great brand in 2025 especially in an industry like fitness where, like you said, it's very saturated and there's a lot out there.

40:54Is it storytelling? Is it solving a problem, having great product, everything in one? Like how can someone in 2025 build a great brand and what are people messing up? Like what do people get wrong about building a brand? I think it depends on what company you're building, what product, all the things. But if they're like, I want activewear, how do I build an activewear brand? is it saturated sure but i think i'm more of a believer and if you really believe in your product like what makes it stand out um you know i've seen some companies just blow up because they had one product that was innovative so if i was to give advice it would be three different pillars would be if you can nail down storytelling marketing getting influencers to help market your brand and innovative products.

41:45So what I tell my team is, Hey, if they can buy this on Amazon, why wouldn't they just buy it on Amazon? You have to find a way to stand out by your marketing one. And then if you're able to create a product that you can't buy on Amazon, you're, you're winning right there. I think that's the most powerful is creating a product that you can't buy on Amazon. No one else has, it makes you stand out would be number one. and then influencer marketing and storytelling.

42:11Heidi Somers:Tell us a little bit about the split between like influencer marketing using meta ads or Google ads and then maybe what you can track down from maybe your own socials for who's like finding the brand and like, you know, coming into the community of Buffbunny. Great question. I think the first two years that I had Buffbunny collection, I actually didn't run any ads. I solely built it off of influencers. Oh, off influencers. So yeah, I didn't know anyone that did ads. So I was like, oh, wow. And I was selling out so quickly. I was like, there's no reason to run ads. I'm selling out as it is. So I was the one that was kind of marketing the product all on my own, I believe for about a year.

42:50And then I started, you know, I had so many different influencers that were reviewing the product. And I was like, I'll give you 10 % and give you a code. They're like, cool. So I didn't even have retainers. I had so many influencers who like loved the brand. They love the product. They're like, oh my gosh, finally a pair of pink leggings that feel good and like they're supportive and like fun colors and um so yeah then i just started creating a whole this influencer program and i had so many people signing up for it and a lot like actually the first girl that signed up she's still with me today her name is kara shout out to kara if she's watching this so she was one of the first influencers we signed seven years ago and she's still doing reviews to this day which is really cool um but yeah so i just solely stood info did myself as a marketing then i added influencers and then over time added ads ads definitely are extremely helpful whether you're retargeting you're trying to find new customers um yeah i mean there's so many different ways that you can do ads different platforms uh yeah TikTok is huge right now.

43:58Heidi Somers:So that has TikTok been really pivotal in helping grow to a new group or more just helping the existing group keep finding the things that you think would be like good for them? I think a bit of both. Instagram is definitely Instagram and Facebook. We do more retargeting TikTok. We do more of new customers and TikTok is great because you have so many different creators that are willing to just create you content for commission, which is wild. Oh, like with TikTok shop. With TikTok shop. Yeah. If you can be like, oh, you know, if you sell these products, you make 20 % commission. They're like, ooh.

44:32And so they'll buy the product, do videos, link their code, go viral. It's one of the best platforms if you don't have a lot of money to invest. But even if you have money to invest, we target a lot of creators on there. So it'll be like, hey, like you, we saw that you sold like thousands of dollars or thousands of conversions with this one company. Can you do the same thing for us? and those those ones will like pay them certain amounts to do those videos but a lot of people on tiktok shop will create videos on their own has there been anything that was

45:07Heidi Somers:like lightning in a bottle that you maybe didn't think was going to have the impact that it did with maybe maybe it's tiktok shop or integrating ads into building the brand that maybe you didn't think of before like and you're like wow this was actually insane when you saw the impact it had let's see I was like there's a handful of things um I think influencers definitely I and I guess for me I brought in so many sales on my own in the beginning that I was like okay if I'm doing great other influencers are also going to do great and at the end of the day what I did back then and honestly what I still live by now which I tried to tell the team i was like don't over complicate it whatever's working do more of that whatever's not working don't do that again not rocket science it's not rocket science and so it's like hey if influencers are bringing in a ton of sales let's lean into that if ads are bringing in a lot of sales let's lean more into that and i think it's like when you try to over complicate it that you can get lost in the sauce what have you noticed when it comes to ads have this style of ads or how you approach ads?

46:19Has that changed over the last couple of years? Has maybe a style of ad or a style of content that you've ran as an ad, maybe that worked a few years ago. Maybe it's not working so much now. Maybe like overly produced versus more raw and uncut. Like what, what do you find currently working for yourself for ads? That's a good question. I think it depends on the platform that you're running ads on. So TikTok, you definitely keep it very organic. Like people don't want to feel like they're sold to because if it's like super high produced ad on TikTok I mean it's it's very awkward it's like this should not even be on here.

46:52Heidi Somers:Auto scroll. Yeah it's kind of like oh no but although we've had every once in a while because like well we kind of table all of our ads and there we might throw an oddball one of like oh this is like a nicer produced one let's throw it on TikTok and sometimes it does crush but nine out of ten times it's the organic vibe. Facebook is actually a little bit more not high high produced but a little bit less organic than tiktok um instagram is like a little bit of a a mix uh something that's like produced could be a graphic maybe it's a photo um of the back of a legging and we have text kind of selling points of it it's like hey this is going to help lift your glutes glute contour um this is going to give you an hourglass shape things like that.

47:38So there's still a place for those. But I think the organic videos right now is what is crushing for us. And it's great because our influencers are making content anyway. So it's like, great, less work for us to do. Let the creators do it. And then we can run those as ads.

47:56Heidi Somers:How much has just your overall content strategy shifted for your personal brand? Because I know you have a great personal brand team. We got to meet them downstairs. You know, YouTube obviously has been a big part of a lot of the stuff that you've built. Christian spoke very highly of YouTube. Like where does it all play into what you do? I mean, your numbers for the last 90 days are insane. Like it's crazy the amount of eyeballs that are on your stuff. Thank you. Shout out to my personal brand team.

48:27I think it takes an army. And that's why I recently uploaded some videos kind of showing like, hey guys it's like I definitely am the what my team says like you're the driver and you're the one like directing but like we're the gas like we can we can whatever you want to do we're going to amplify it and so I think that the first 10 years on social media I did all of like the filming most of the editing all of the posting all of that for like 10 years and I was finally like I need help. I can't do it all. And so a couple of years ago, I hired a content creator to help me edit, put videos together.

49:07And then I just hired a full-time social media manager like four months, five months ago. So it's been pretty recent that I've kind of been formulating my personal brand team. And sometimes people are confused or like, oh, you know, what's a personal brand team? What are they doing? I'm like, oh my God, they do so much. It's like a lot of times like I'm posting, but then they're going to be like, okay, I'm going to take your post. I'm going to go put it on LinkedIn. Just like that little thing helps me so much because I'm going to forget. We're going to take what you posted here and we're going to put it on Twitter.

49:36I'm like, thank you so much. Or it's like, we're going to shorten your caption because you wrote a whole novel over here. We're just going to like take a piece of it and put it over here. I'm like, thank you so much. So again, it's me posting, but they're helping facilitate it on all platforms. That's awesome. And it takes an army.

49:52Heidi Somers:Has there been things that, you know, maybe you've also learned from them that they've given you an idea and you're like, oh my God, like this is great we can we can immediately kind of do this i i was dying at your video that you guys did a joshua tree where they're like the cat's crushing we got it we got it we gotta get the cat in there more and then they're like animal content they're like christian needs to keep being in this the collab posts are doing well yeah they were they were so funny that was the first time we really sat down we're like okay how are we doing i just got this team this year of like formulating everyone together as a team before it was kind of like i would get help here get help there but this year is the first year it's like okay we have like official team let's crush it um and so yeah they were like all right you know scarlet came into our lives and she's like and she made me money oh my god i was like that's so funny but don't say that but uh yeah i think everything that we do on social media like me sharing the cats was just kind of like for fun and it's funny because, you know, before I had my personal brand team, I have a business partner and he was like, you need to be just showing business stuff.

51:01And I was like, but my cats. And I think that, you know, yes, I'm an entrepreneur and I love the businesses I create. I think I have a lot of tips and things that I can share with women, but also at the end of the day, a lot of women love cats. And, you know, it's like they might learn a few tips and tricks with business, but they might also laugh seeing my orange cat destroy my house. So I think there's a place for both.

51:27Heidi Somers:Has YouTube changed a lot for you over the last decade that you've been making content? Has it pivoted what you maybe originally started as and what you do now? Or has it stayed quite consistent? Yes. I think when I first started YouTube, I was just kind of trying to show women a full workout. Like, hey, this is my full workout for Lakes. Because at the time, Instagram didn't have videos. It was just photos. You can only post one photo with awful filters. And so when I started YouTube, I was like, I'm just trying to here's my whole workout. Ladies, lifting weights is not gonna make you bulky. Yes, you can eat carbs up your protein and just like little tips here and there.

52:07And then then I realized, OK, there's only so many leg workouts that you can share. I started kind of sharing a little bit more of like, you know, my family and my personal life. And I think that's where people felt a little bit more connected because I wasn't just showing the highlight reel. I was kind of like, hey, guys, I'm going to fuck around and start a business. You guys want to come with me? And so they were really a part of that whole process. And I think that even now, YouTube, all of our influencers that we work with with Buff Money Collection, all of our top performers with conversions are all YouTubers.

52:44So we might have someone with 5000 YouTube followers and they're more impactful and more connected to their community than someone on instagram has four million followers it's crazy and so i think youtube is such a powerful platform that you can connect with people and my youtube has definitely changed it's like i was kind of like here's some leg workouts and then i was like i'm gonna do share more of my personal life and then i was like i'm gonna do bikini competition so i documented three bikini competitions and i showed everything i was like i don't know what i'm doing here they're talking about like i'm backstage or like gluing my butt in place and like all this crazy stuff.

53:21So I really showed the, the learnings, the ups, the downs. And, you know, a lot of people feel like they grew up with me. If someone wanted to grow their personal brand, but they're hesitant or nervous or scared to post online, maybe they want to wait until they've fully gone through their fitness transformation to look a certain way on camera before they feel comfortable enough showing up or talking to camera. Do you have a piece of advice to maybe women specifically of how or how they should think about or maybe reframe their mindset to make them feel a little bit more comfortable showing up online and start building their personal brand oh that's a tough question I think that you're gonna feel stupid and silly when you start anything new if you start doing you know you walk into jujitsu one day you're going to feel silly like your first day doing that you walk into the gym for the first time you're going to feel really silly out of place and stupid when you're trying to figure out how to do a rdl or deadlift i think you're going to feel silly no matter what you start um but i think that the most brilliant minds who have created the most incredible companies or products it's like they probably felt stupid their first day too and so i think it's leaning into that and i'm the first person to be like i'm not the best with public speaking i do like podcasts because you're just it's conversations but if you get me on the stage in front of people I get super nervous but I think that there's power and just owning it and being like hey guys I'm super nervous right now to be here I think it just like warms everyone up and just being you know honest with yourself and I think that if you're a business owner and you want to share your personal brand I think that's one of the most genuine things you can do is show up and be like I'm scared I'm nervous to share this, but I'm excited to take you guys along with me.

55:14I'm not pretending to be an expert. If anything, they'll appreciate and know that like, oh, this person's not talking down to me. This person's not preaching to me. They're bringing me along with them. I also feel like the fastest way to lose trust with your audience is to pose as an authority figure when you're not actually there yet. And people really relate to the journey of coming up because they can see themselves in you more as opposed to maybe trying to relate to someone who's you know 10 or 20 steps ahead of where they're at at that current moment

55:50Heidi Somers:yeah and like you're saying they grew up with you that's so interesting they saw like the very beginning when you were modeling with live fit and then like starting your brand bringing the app to play like that's just super cool and i'm sure that there's been you know gals that have been with you for 10 plus years like that's crazy to think about it's it's pretty wild i definitely meet people a lot that are like oh my gosh i've been following you since you did competitions i was like that was definitely 10 years ago i was like embarrassing please don't watch but it is really cool to have a community that sticks with you for so long and you know really grateful because it's like when people join the community our retention rate is so high because like once they come aboard they stay and you know they love the products they love the community and i think that's something really special yeah going going into this next chapter after your trip to joshua tree if you feel comfortable sharing like what are you guys focusing on from like a personal brand standpoint or like what what did some of those conversations look like when you were out there what do you want to amplify more of going forward i think that trip was more so like hey this is where we're at right now where do we want to go next and actually one of the top things was be on more podcasts dude let's go you're crushing your goals wow the goals are just getting hit the goals are getting day after day it is so actually yeah this was one of my this was my goals let's go uh other things which my next youtube video we kind of share a lot quite a bit of what we're working on um i think a lot of podcasts i've gone on people have been like oh can you share your website i was like i actually don't have a website and so that was number one i was like definitely want to get a website that kind of has my personality into it it's not just like a this is heidi and i want to be kind of like a little bit of my story um the different brands that i have different brands that i'm connected with which is 3d and have a you know a journal that's put on there or a pod sorry a blog that i can share things in there and i want it to be more of like diary entries versus blogs i feel like when you read blogs, it's almost not that it's preachy, but sometimes it's kind of like that authoritative figure that's kind of talking to them.

58:04Um, I have a broadcast channel on Instagram and I treat it more of like a diary where I'm like, Hey guys, I'm just going to like lay out my thoughts. I was like the good, the bad. And I share things that are very personal, like as a business owner and women really appreciate it because it's not like, I'm like, Hey guys, I have all my shit figured out. I'm like, Hey, I'm really struggling with this right now i know there's light at the end of the tunnel but this sucks and so i think they appreciate it because i'm not preaching to them and being that authoritative figure you mentioned something that

58:33Heidi Somers:i want to back up to about uh public speaking and having like a public speaking coach i took a public speaking class in college and it was honestly my favorite class ever and public speaking is terrifying you have a coach i do that's cool yeah i got one recently what are a few things that you've learned because I remember vividly uh this guy would tell us when because we had to do it in front of the class first day you walk in puts a humongous camera like one of those old broadcast cameras and he's like okay one minute tell us about yourself oh god and I mean people would cry people would be like hyperventilating because it's it's nerve-wracking to talk in front of one random people you don't know two this huge camera is like taping you and then he shows it to you at the very end of very end of the year and like everyone was very good at the end like it was amazing and he had all these different little frameworks but i remember one of them specifically i didn't i mean i didn't do great in the class i was i was traveling a lot but one of them was to connect with an audience member right when you start so it'll like what like let's say we popped up to a stage to find like one person that you can lock eyes with and be like okay i've connected to this one person and it kind of makes the room kind of disappear i remember that was one of his pieces of advice so what have you what have you taken from your classes Oh, wow.

59:48Great question. Let's see. I'm only about eight sessions in. And I think in the beginning, it's more of different exercises. I have a lot of filler words that I use. So I say like, I say um, the typical filler words. And sometimes I speak a little faster than I should. So he's definitely helped me. He's like, you don't have to slow down. He's like, just breathe. Okay. That and then I think standing up straight. So something he told me, thank you. I try. I have like, I'm just like, these, these, these chairs are real comfortable. I feel like you got a, you got a great chair over there.

1:00:26Heidi Somers:I feel like I'm just like getting lower. Well, actually these set us up to fail. When you're short, these aren't ideal seats. So he was like, try to always have your back against the chair and your feet on the ground. But when I do this, so that's happened quite a few times. So his name's miles. I was like, Miles, I can only choose one or the other. And so he was like, well, you need to sit on the edge of a chair with your feet planted when you can. You can cross them if you want. But it just shows that you're engaged in the conversation. And I was like, okay. When you're on stage, same thing.

1:00:59It's like keeping your posture upright at all times. Because if you kind of hunt your shoulders and you put your chin up like this and you try to swallow, it's very uncomfortable. So he's like, imagine trying to speak like that. Yeah. so it's it's very important posture is one of the biggest things then we did classes where he would uh what would he do oh he'd have me do all these like weird movements with my mouth with your tongue then like say all these weird things like red leather yellow leather and these like weird sayings then he bought me this poetry book and he was like you need to read this out loud and actually i've been enjoying that that's been fun so i think we went from there and now we've graduated to where he's watching my podcast now and he's showing me moments where he's like oh you did really great here this is like such a good moment and then sandwiching with a yeah you could have done better there in a very nice way and that's it's been very helpful and I'll just kind of tell him my pain points which is I used to if someone gave me a microphone I went on stage I would just black out I don't even know what to say now I feel a lot more comfortable eight sessions in are these sessions with other people or is it just one-on-one because public like to practice public speaking you kind of got to be yes in front of people you have to be in front of people so this is a zoom call with just me and him and we do these every week or every two weeks uh i think i have one like tomorrow morning actually so i think right now we're kind of leaning into watching podcasts, seeing where I could do better, this and that.

1:02:39And then after that, we're going to be formulating speeches, like how to put together a speech. And a lot of that, he was like, you're such a great storyteller. That's all public speaking is. Like if you go and you explain like, oh, what did you do last night? It's like, oh, I went to a bar and ordered a whiskey drink. It's like, okay, I went to a bar. I was wearing a red dress. I was sitting at the bar. There was a live band. A lot of times public speaking is just putting more detail into the

1:03:04Heidi Somers:story that's interesting super interesting that's something we both want to do we've talked about that yeah we want to do it really we got about 170 episodes that the guy can rip us apart he's gonna be like ah that's too much work for me no i swear i'll go back i think i've gotten a little bit better a little bit more comfortable but i still struggle with saying like and um and i'm really trying to work on it i find when i think about it i'm a little bit more conscious I say it less, but when I start just flowing, It's tough not to say. It's a hard. Okay. Just popped into my brain. Another one that that guy told us was to replace like and um with pauses.

1:03:43Heidi Somers:And it still feels normal in conversation. I remember not thinking that that was true. And he would get us up there. As soon as you would say like or I'm like, stop. Place it with a pause. But then I know you feel like you do. You feel like you're taking forever to talk. But in reality, you are not. And you're just coming through much more confident. And you're forming your thoughts better. it still doesn't feel like that i i use like a ton i like the word like dude it's a great word it fits great i think there's power also in taking pauses and that's what my speaking coach said he's like you try to rush everything because i'm super add and so him just saying take a breather you you can take a pause and that was what the podcast he was like this area was great he was like this one instead of you taking a pause you said like you said um you were trying to quickly think of an answer when all you had to do was take a moment think about it and then answer and it feels like an eternity to you but to other people it doesn't at all they're just sitting there like this is a totally like there it is god damn it i still do it quite often and i think a lot of creatives do i get in my mind a lot when we were in joshua tree and i was like trying to describe all these things my next youtube video i noticed that i said like and um a lot it's because you get in these like creative brainstorms where you're trying to like word vomit everything out.

1:05:05And then it's like your voice can't keep up with your brain. And so you get those filler words a lot. I feel so seen right now. You are so seen. So you brought up Joshua Tree. And I want to ask you about when you started taking these team trips and what they do for you as a business, because that seems like a lot of fun going out to Joshua Tree. I'm not sure how long you went out there for, but I'm just curious to know when did you start implementing these team trips into your business and what have they done for your business? Good question. I would say for a personal brand team, cause I just formulated this team this year, this was our first time.

1:05:43And it's because after 90 days, they hit 144 million views on all my social media platforms. I was like, you guys, you guys killing it. All right. They're like the cat's killing it. It was like, all right, well, let's all go to Joshua Tree and I was meaning the weekend to be more relaxing I was like let's go for a long weekend let's rest get massages enjoy the the hikes all the things but when you get a bunch of creatives in a house what did we do we created a bunch of things we created a whole campaign campaign deck for a collab I'm doing with another brand we filmed 20 TikToks two YouTube videos I mean and it wasn't me pushing for it by the way I was like guys I'm trying to relax but they really enjoyed you know creating and i think those trips are great because you can bond with your team especially this is a new team that i'm putting together of like everyone coming together uh they all surpass their numbers so it was like this was great because you guys went above and beyond so i want to reward you guys and then it was also great because we got to plan out for the future um with buff money collection i haven't done i mean we the thing is like we shoot so much like we've shot in joshua tree for buff money collection and myself and the team was there for like a week uh shooting content and i'm like just enjoying joshua tree big fan of joshua tree if you can't tell um i've had the team go out to alaska multiple times for photo shoots we a small team of us went to hawaii one time and we always try to make it like an experience we went to miami recently to film and we're going somewhere snowy soon so the team's like all pumped up about that so we kind of turn the trips where it's like maybe like a content house slash campaign photo shoot and just try to enjoy those trips when we go out there but um a lot of times we're so busy filming those campaigns that we don't really like plan for the future of those just because a lot of the campaigns for buff money collection already

1:07:38Heidi Somers:kind of planned out you and christian both vlog quite a bit as two people who are constantly filming do you ever feel like you want to just put the camera down throughout the week and just be completely present or do you feel like you have done it for so long that it it feels very natural to just kind of be filming all the time like what are your thoughts on that i think when it comes to filming you need boundaries christian's always like that's your favorite word i'm like i love boundaries i think with your business you need boundaries with fitness you need boundaries and especially with being a YouTube vlogger, you need boundaries.

1:08:18I think that there are times where it's great to pick up the camera and document things. I think there's definitely times where you need to keep the camera in your bag and not bring it out. Maybe you're going through emotional struggles or you're going through just like a hard time in your life. There's been times where I was going to vlog and then, you know, I'm like, you know what, this is, this is not the time maybe I was like I don't like to fake how I'm feeling and I wear my for the most part like you can tell how I'm feeling um unless I'm with my team like I won't bring my emotions into my team or anything like that but if I'm trying to vlog about like a family struggle or like a emotional struggle that I'm going through um I have boundaries on like what I'm okay with sharing and then what I'm not okay with sharing.

1:09:07And I think as long as you list those out, then, and you abide by those boundaries that you're, you have a good balance. What are some ways you've been able to implement boundaries into your business? Cause that's interesting. As an entrepreneur, you feel like you can be working 24 seven. There's always something new you can be doing. How have you implemented boundaries into your business life, your career? That's a good question. I think with boundaries, I, as someone who's a people pleaser, I'm definitely a people pleaser. And I think you can see in my work, it's like, Oh, I love to make women happy.

1:09:44I love to make them feel happy and excited for products and everything I do. My love language is acts of service. So I love making people happy. Um, when I really learned how to have boundaries is when I did a bikini competition, I was documenting it for YouTube. I think I had to get really comfortable saying no to people when people were like, oh, let's go out and party. I'm like, no, I have to work out. Oh, let's go. Let's go to dinner. It's like, no, I have to meal prep. And like you got used to saying no because you were following a program and you're like, I have to give myself 12 weeks of my life is going to this.

1:10:19I'm so sorry for everything else. And I think if you can follow a program fully and being able to have a discipline to say no to other people, there's also power in that because you're learning how to say no. And it's kind of like, I love you. I appreciate you. But right now I got to put myself first. And then I think if you can implement, I learned a lot of those things during a bodybuilding show and then I implemented them into my leadership skills. So there's times where my team, they're so funny. We always joke about the big, well, I have you here. You know, it's like, I'll be, I'll be in my office and then someone comes in, someone else comes in, someone else comes in.

1:10:57And I'm like, this is why I work from home. I love you guys. But while I have you here, can I ask you a question? But if you constantly let those things happen, then all of a sudden your day's over. You got none of your own work, your higher executive level work done. And some things that I do is like, I'm like, OK, I'm going to get them in my workout. You know, whether it's at six o 'clock, seven o 'clock, eight o 'clock. But a lot of times nowadays, I've been able to be like, OK, at six o 'clock, I'm doing my workout. and there's always going to be urgent things that come up and you have to have self-awareness and boundaries to be like okay is this truly urgent or can it wait for tomorrow as an entrepreneur we are constantly like we want to get everything done right here right now there's no time to work out there's no time to meal prep there's no time to do this and I was like I get it because I've been there but if you constantly have that mindset you're going to start losing yourself, you're going to lose your energy.

1:11:57You're going to lose your mental stability. You're going to lose your, um, physical needs for exercise and things like that. So I think that if you have those boundaries of like, I'm gonna work out every day at six, like that's an appointment on your calendar with yourself. If you're not going to be late to an appointment with someone else, you shouldn't be late for yourself, but there's a fire to put out that's different and i did give that advice to my business partner who's like like we used to message each other it'd be like four o 'clock in the morning when we were building grounds it was intense like we had i think 25 developers working around the clock on it it'd be like 4 a.m and we're like shotgunning a red bull like let's go i'm not proud of that but um i still got my workouts right and so my business partner was like damn like you're so consistent and i was like well yeah like there's always gonna be urgent things i was like he was working on something I was like well is that actually urgent or can you do that tomorrow he was like I guess I could do it tomorrow it's not going to affect anything I'm like then go work out because that's also a part of taking care of yourself if you don't have a sound mind if you don't have a strong body if you don't have the energy then you're just giving your you're you're giving your team like a watered down version of you I also find that sometimes when you do shut the laptop and step away and say, I'll get to it tomorrow, you bring a better version of yourself to that work.

1:13:22So the end product actually ends up turning out better instead of forcing yourself to finish it because you have this endless to-do list that you're just trying to check off. Exactly.

1:13:32Heidi Somers:That's so interesting. Okay. I have a question about a word what does the word resilience mean to you resilience I think that word means

1:13:47that if you're going after something nothing is gonna get in your way you're gonna go over you're gonna go under you're gonna go right you're gonna go left you're gonna go right through it and the best entrepreneurs are able to do that there's I've known employees or I've known people who are wanting to start their own business and they're like oh i tried but then i had a roadblock so i couldn't do it and i'm like all right well did you try to go over under sideways sideways or just have to like bulldoze through it and a lot of times they're just scared they get told no once and they don't know how to get creative and be like how can i get a yes around that i think it's having the willpower to just keep moving forward and not letting a no drown you or paralyze you can you share a specific moment of where you had to show your own resilience and almost prove something to yourself that you could overcome a problem going on in your business yeah so many just one it wasn't smooth sailing no buddy i i like this story because it's when i very first started, I think when you first start your business, you have a lot of fears.

1:15:00And, um, if you are, again, I didn't have any loans. I didn't have investors. I didn't have any partners helping me. Um, I remember my first batch, it was like my first or second batch of t-shirts, right? I wanted to do this puff print on the product and it was like white crop shirts. And I wanted this like, a raised print that said buff bunny on it and i was like okay can your company do it it was like a local place in san antonio and they were like yes i was like great i'm gonna buy eight shirts as samples which were like premium price it was like 20 a shirt i'm like it's a lot and i was like show me that you can do the puff print so they did it i was like oh these are phenomenal let's do it Let's do the whole thousands of dollars order.

1:15:44Let's do them all like this. So they print them and they look like shit. And I was like, this is not what I ordered. And I had the samples. I was like, see, this is what I wanted. And this is what you guys produce. This is like blotchy looking. And some of it just looked, there was like lines in it. It just wasn't, it wasn't quality. And they were like, I was like, can you fix them? And they were like, well, we'd have to do all new ones. And I was like, okay, can you fix it? This is like, this isn't like my fault. Like my girls deserve like a quality product. This isn't quality product. Like your team made the error.

1:16:22And so it was like this big thing, right? Cause it's a big order. It's like thousands of dollars. And I remember my assistant at the time, I had hired a part-time assistant to help me cause I was doing, I think I was doing bodybuilding shows, full-time influencer, YouTuber coaching. and I hired a part-time assistant to kind of help me. I was like, hey, can you go pick up the order? And she sent me the picture. I was like, that's not it. That's not the order that I did or approved. So then I went in person and they put me in this room. It's like 15 different guys in there and they're just like, okay, so we think the right thing to do here is to just purchase the product and sell it to your customers because they're not going to know the difference and just was trying to convince me to buy this product.

1:17:03And I was like, because you put a deposit down and you pay the rest of it. And I was like, I'm not paying for the rest of it until you fix it and so I just remember standing there and I was like this is I don't I don't remember every single thing that I said to them but I was like I don't have anything to fall back on like this is the product that I wanted that I approved for my customers like my girls deserve the best product and if I sell them this will it sell sure but it comes with a price and that price is like customer loyalty customer trust and I stood there and it was really awkward in the room too because they're just kind of like and i remember my assistant felt so uncomfortable and um but they fixed the order so they did the right thing i was like let's go but i remember walking out of the office and my my system was like that was the most uncomfortable awkward feeling meeting i've ever been in and i was like same but i felt good afterwards i was like we did the right thing and i think for me that was my first taste of like Like, I don't want to say desperation, but it was like, this has to work.

1:18:06Like I have to have a good product because if it doesn't work, if I can't sell this, then I have nothing. I've just wasted thousands of dollars. Is that how you and Christian do? You guys were soulmates because you guys both had a messed up first fashion clothing. Bonded out on your first date.

1:18:25Heidi Somers:It's meant to be. It was. And it's funny. Did Christian tell you how he got me to go on a date with him? No. No. Yeah, he, so he had been like DMing me and like calling me and I was just very much like, no, like not interested. I'm good. But it wasn't until he started texting me about business and he was like, hey, so like, where do you manufacture out of? I was like, ah, I use a few countries, you know? He's like, are you doing like custom dye? Are you doing lab dips? Are you doing stock fabrics? And so then I start chatting with him back and forth. And all of a sudden he's like sending me good night, good morning texts.

1:19:01I'm like, no, what are you doing? That's because he, he used business.

1:19:06Heidi Somers:That's how it got to your heart. Yeah. That's so funny. That is hilarious. When, when you finally started grounds, I know we briefly touched on earlier how, you know, there wasn't an app that really did all six of those things. What were you looking for in a co-founder? to be able to help bring this vision to life? And how helpful was that in the process? Because I know you didn't have a co-founder with Buffbunny, but like, you know, when you're going on this like tech route, something, I'm not a tech person. I'd have no idea even where to start. But you have this great idea for a product. Like how important was that to have a co-founder?

1:19:45For me, it was really important because Buffbunny collection was growing so quickly. And I knew that I, could I do it on my own? Yes. but there's power in formulating a team as well. And I knew that Buff Money Collection still needed a lot of me and it wasn't fair for me to be able to like split my time 50-50 when Buff Money Collection needing so much from me. Also, I know a lot about physical product, but when it came to a digital product, that was new to me. There was a company that was, when was it, like five years ago, they offered like, Hey, we're going to pay you$30 ,000 a month. If we can put your workouts on our app.

1:20:27And I was like, damn, it's a good price. But I was like, no, my boundary was like, I don't want to do that until it's my own app. So it's like, I always had that in the back of my mind that I would do it one day. Um, but I waited until I had the right team and the right moment to do that. So as soon as buff money collection, I had built out and hired a good amount of people to help manage the company and do what we were doing. I took a baby step back and I called around to a lot of different engineers, companies, and was telling me my ideas. And a lot of them were like, holy shit, like that's a lot.

1:21:08You're basically wanting to create five apps and put it into one. This is so expensive. That was hiccup number one. So that was a struggle is finding a developer who could build me everything that I wanted. And some red flags for me was when they gave me quotes that were really low. Like they were like, oh yeah, we can do all that for like$20 ,000. I was like, you're going to build me an app for Android and Apple and a website with all these features for$20 ,000. Red flag. I was like, absolutely not. So I was kind of shopping around for engineers. And then there was one guy that reached out to me and it was about partnering on their app.

1:21:48And so I asked to talk to the CEO and I was like, can you guys help me create my own? And they were like, we don't normally do that. And I was like, well, I was like, I can either, I was like, I can either do this on my own or you can partner with me. I was like, if I do on my own, I'm competition. But if you do it with me, you get a cut from it. And so that was kind of my way into it. And he was like, all right, fine. so then he helped me find the team that I use now as well as a co-founder it's myself Jeff and James as like the three founders of Grounds and I'm so grateful for them every day because I truly think that the app would have succeeded I think no matter what but I think that if you have people who are very passionate and care just as much of about the brand as you it's really hard to find.

1:22:37And James, he's our lead on all of the tech and all of the product itself. And I saw how much time, how many hours he was putting into it, you know, shotgunning Red Bulls at 4 a.m. just because he's like, I want to make this timeline. I want to make this great. And I think with them, it was kind of like, okay, we want the company to flourish and obviously do well. But I think when it comes to partners, some people are like, okay, money first, product second. we were all like product first money second and that's that was my thing going into i was like i'm i'm doing well with all of my other brands i was like i want to create a product for women that is going to change lives and i was like i don't need to be paid from this for like years every every dollar that comes in that's like my my side of it i'll put it right back into the app because my goal was creating something for women not trying to like make bank When you are hiring or bringing on new people to your team, what do you look for in people that you're trying to bring on to a new team?

1:23:45Whether it be something on their resume, other companies, experience that they have. Maybe you just kind of get a certain feeling when you're interviewing them. What do you look for when you're thinking about or interviewing a person to potentially join your team? I think when we're interviewing, it depends on the position. I think that my COO does the first round of interviews and then the people who are the top contenders will then go to me for any managerial, director, executive level roles. And I think the first thing that I look for is making sure that they have an understanding of social media because we've seen a bit of a disconnect.

1:24:29We've hired people that worked at like massive companies. But if they don't really understand social media, there's a disconnect there and it unravels everything else. So if we weren't a social media brand, it wouldn't be a big deal. But I think it's hard for people to go from like some big retail brand to social media driven because they don't really understand social media. And if they don't understand social media, they don't know how to market to it. They don't know how to sell. They don't know how to have a good culture on with your community because it's very different. Our customers have a voice and they love to voice how they feel about products and colors and launches and things like that, where we've had other people from other brands be like, oh, it doesn't matter what they're saying.

1:25:14We're just going to like sell to them. And I'm like, no, that's not how we roll here. So I would say one is making sure that they have an understanding of social media, whether they're coming in for customer service or coming in for being. marketing director or they're coming in for a social media manager role it's like they need that understanding of social media and then also being a good culture fit you know you can hire people that have the best resumes and you know they create the most beautiful documents but if they have that dictator disrespectful like tone with peers um and they kind of lead their teams based on fear then i don't think that it's a it's good for the culture fit because i don't want my team to be led by fear i don't want them to be like scared for their job every day or scared that um to get yelled at or be disrespected by anyone on the team so there's quite a fit have you had that happen before don't

1:26:17Heidi Somers:have to name names where you can if you want you can if you want but you've seen you've seen someone that you call them out no i'm kidding you've seen someone that you've hired and you're like i just really don't appreciate the way that you're talking to the other members of the team like how do you kind of approach those really difficult conversations we definitely talk you know and then there's there's been times where like maybe someone doesn't have the best tone and i've had one conversation with them they're like cool i get it no worries and they are great after that and then we've had some people where they're that's just their personality and like you could have multiple talks and it doesn't change um and it's not fair the team like we've had team members that are in managerial roles and just very like rude disrespectful it's like okay i get this person messed up but like come on there's like an easier way to to let them know they messed up without being disrespectful um so yeah in those instances it's like you have a conversation whether it's myself my coo it kind of depends a lot i travel a lot so sometimes it has to happen for my coo who's usually the first to hear about it and then we have those conversations and if it's not corrected over time it doesn't matter how great that employee is it's not fair to the rest of the team and so we just part ways what travel fitness tips do you have because when I'm at home.

1:27:38Easy to stay dialed. You can hit the farmer's market, Whole Foods, cook. They don't have Alpha Land everywhere. Yeah. Yeah.

1:27:46Heidi Somers:Or Alpha Eats. It's no secret. It's way easier to stay dialed when you're home. As someone who travels a lot, how do you maintain some sort of routine, stay healthy on the road? I just learned that airplane food is probably one of the worst things that you could put in your body. True. of preservatives and if you eat at that elevation i guess you can't really even digest the food learned that recently um how do you kind of stay in shape and keep some sort of routine as someone who travels a ton good question um first thing that i try to do is if i am booking a hotel i try to make sure that there's always a gym in the hotel doesn't have to have anything crazy.

1:28:29Just like, Hey, dumbbells, cable, that's it. So while I am traveling, partly why I also love grounds is that we have like dumbbell only workouts in there. We have cable only workouts in there. We call it shy girl. So say if you're shy, you just want to do your whole workout in one area, you can do that. So I definitely love and appreciate that about grounds. It's like, just click start, go do a hotel workout. I will aim to work out at the gym, but it's like, Hey, it's 9 PM. Just got back to the hotel. It's been a crazy day. I'm just going to go knock out like a 30 minute workout. Uh, cause it's almost like the consistency and the routine that keeps you going.

1:29:04And I think when it comes to food, that's a hard one. I would say that's probably the harder of them. I will say personally, what I do is as soon as I get to the hotel or sometimes I'm in the car on my way to hotel, I get on Instacart and I will get a few things that are easy to keep in the hotel. So like core power, uh, protein shakes, I will get power crunch bars some things that are high protein that i can kind of keep in the hotel and then i try to eat at restaurants that i know that i can like get things to go to to bring back with me um so cheesecake factory is a great one you can get like a side of broccoli side of grilled chicken side of white rice i'm like perfect so if someone's like where should we go i'm like cheesecake factory that's a great one um that's so funny because i would love you uh yeah give me the freaking the pasta and the cheesecake.

1:29:54Give me that bread. Oh, the brown bread? Are you kidding me? That pumpernickel. See you later. Yeah. You have to have good discipline for sure. They have a Cheesecake Factory nearby. Here? Yeah. Can we have a Cheesecake Factory? Oh, absolutely. Why does that sound so viral? They also have BJ's. Have you guys been to BJ's?

1:30:14Heidi Somers:We love BJ's. You want to talk about a pizookie? You want to hear a pizookie? I literally had one yesterday. They're so good. Really? Yeah. They should never have been able to sell those at Ralph's. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm talking about? You can just get them at home now. At the grocery store? Yeah. You can just get a pizookie. What? Mm-hmm. Life-changing. Not good for me. Oh, that sounds so good. Yeah. But yeah, you can at Cheesecake Factory and BJ's get the... Dude, we might do that, I think, in the same night. Yeah, you're... Oh, you want to go for a little dessert? You want to go for a little dessert?

1:30:44Heidi Somers:And then pizookie? Are you kidding me? Well, BJ's also has... You can get the kids' meals. And that's also something I look at is because kids meals are cheaper and it's usually like a grilled chicken BJ's. I get like the grilled chicken with broccoli when I'm traveling. And sometimes I'll just order like three orders of its kids meals. It's like less than$10. And I just put those in the little mini fridge. So I used to travel all over the world with like one uplift. They were doing all these tours and I would be like, great. I'm going to find a cheesecake factory at BJ's or a place that has like a kid's meal and just order a bunch of them and put them in the fridge.

1:31:20and having high protein snacks. Hack.

1:31:22Heidi Somers:Smart. Good little hack. You've done something on your app that I think is brilliant where it's not only you. You have other trainers. You're bringing other women into the community. And you also get some of their audience too if they're bigger creators. You're pulling their group into the app. Was that a conscious decision at the very beginning to be able to eventually maybe remove yourself if it wasn't something you wanted to be doing workout videos every single day to keep the app up to date. Like talk to us through that decision because I think that's brilliant. Thank you. Actually, when I approached it, the name itself and then also I was like, hey, I don't want to launch it with just me.

1:32:00I want to launch it with myself and four women. I was advised against it because they were like, and I understand now. I understand now why they were like, it should just be you because it's so much more complicated with five trainers versus one. so right now we're actually wanting to go more into like a collaborative programs and workouts versus like every time we do a new program it's like five new programs with like all these different um like three five day splits and one one program is already hard on the team to launch but it's like one now it's like times five so i understand with five trainers you're saying with five trainers okay okay but i was advised against it but i thought for me it was important because one I was like if I want to be able to like sell grounds in the future I can because it's not just me that's behind it it's it was launched with like a group of women um so that was one and then two I called it grounds because I didn't want to call it the buff bunny collection app I wanted grounds to have its own identity again if I wanted to sell it I wanted the option I wasn't launching it to plan on selling it but I was like I want to be able to have that option and I don't want like like a twosie for Wednesday type of vibe where it's like, it'd have to be, I'd have to sell the Buffbunny app and Buffbunny collection apparel.

1:33:12So they're very, two very separate companies. So that was my reasoning for that. I also just loved the name grounds. Um, I was trying to think of actually a basics collection for Buffbunny collection. And it was like this like silly way. I was trying to think of the name, but I remember being in Europe one time and there, and there was like a tour guide he was like he was like oh and then we're walking the grounds and i was like god that's a cool word and it just felt like the grounds is the space that it's like your land your foundation and um with grounds i want it to be kind of like that your foundation that you're building from the ground up and uh yeah i love both brands are you gonna create two more and tie christian and have four companies oh gosh no no but it's funny when i launched grounds there were so many guys that were like oh my god wait are you gonna do this for men too and i was like what it was like christian's followers were like oh my god this is amazing i want this for me because there's also not a lot of apps out there that has everything grounds does but for the men side of things and which which what would those be i'm trying to think for men for men I don't really know what all men apps are out there.

1:34:30I know Seabum has a good one. Oh, he has an app.

1:34:34Heidi Somers:He has an app. Oh, interesting. I don't know if it has everything that Grounds has. Definitely does not have a period tracker. Yeah. So, yeah, Grounds is kind of like, it's a really great app. And I'm not just saying that. I think there's little things that we've done where, you know, the period feature, for example, I'm sure you guys love talking about periods. A lot of the girls. That was our next section. yeah that was the whole next rather than just scroll to it a lot of the the girls you know they would use certain apps for their period and they would track okay this is when i'm ovulating and this is when i'm getting my period but a lot of women didn't realize that there's four phases of a cycle and so what we did is we built out the calendar so women knew what cycle they were in at all times and there's like a little refresher at the bottom in case they forget what's my phase or what's my follicular phase and so other apps it was like so focused on this is when you're getting your period and this is when you get pregnant but we were like oh it's important for them to know like what cycle they're in at all times in case they're wondering why they're feeling more bloated or more moody and things like that yeah why they feel like they should be yelling at their boyfriend yeah they're like they're like why am I feeling like this y 'all really only got about a solid week yeah I feel so bad yeah it's really only like one week where we're normal yeah you got one good one good week then you feel it coming then you're in it then you're coming out of it exactly you you've said this before that a motto that you live by is do it with shaky hands has that been something that's been true since the very beginning of building both of these both of these amazing brands or is it something that you kind of found maybe when you were in the thick of it I think it's something that I've always kind of used as like a inner compass, if you will.

1:36:26And I noticed it the most. And I kind of like started saying that phrase after I did my first public speaking event, you would not catch me dead doing any sort of speaking event. But, uh, and I would say no all the time. Like I would get asked to do like speaking events. I'd be like, absolutely not. And what was holding me back is my fear of public speaking. So I was asked to do this woman's panel and it was for women in business. And at first I said no, or I was about to say no. And then I thought about it and I was like, okay, you preach, not preach, but I was like, you have this whole business that is for women by woman.

1:37:03How can you say no to an opportunity like this, where you can speak to women in business and be able to share like tips and tricks or like answer questions. Like I'd feel like a phony, not to say yes. And so I was like, yo, no, fuck it. I was like, yeah. And so as it was approaching, I was like getting more and more nervous. I'm like, okay, we're really going to be doing this. And I remember going up there and then get put, giving me the microphone. And I was like, I was actually shaking and I was like, Hey guys, I am super nervous to be here. And they started laughing. I'm like, okay, I feel more comfortable.

1:37:36But as I was talking, I felt more comfortable. And maybe it's because I was looking out and I would lock eyes with certain girls and they were just so excited just to be there and talk about business they all had their own brands and at that moment i was like okay i feel more comfortable and maybe it's because it was a room full of women and we all had similar interests so i think that definitely helped and you know my hands were shaking for the first like 30 seconds and then i was like okay i actually like being up here this is nice like everyone's so nice here hey yeah i was like how y 'all doing You know, they laughed at some of my jokes and I was like, okay, like I can hang with y 'all.

1:38:13So that's kind of when I started talking about doing it with shaking hands. And there's a lot of moments in my life where I made bold, scary moves where my hands might not have been shaking, but my anxiety was like enter stage left. You know what I mean? So I moved from Alaska to Texas, didn't know anybody. I was just like, YOLO, book a one-way ticket. I'll figure it out when I get there. And people are like, oh, you were so brave. I was like, oh no, I was scared shitless. Like I was real nervous, but I still did it. And I'm so glad I did because if I didn't do that, I wouldn't have gained weight, found fitness, found Christian and be where I'm at today.

1:38:52Like I'm sure I would have had a great life, but it would have been very different if I wouldn't have done something that scared the shit out of me and leaned into it. I love that motto. I can point to a few times in my life where I didn't feel like I was all the way ready i did it with shaky hands and shaky hands is not what you want when you're holding a camera but we did it anyways it's like not that not the camera but you're just there's opportunities will arise you're never gonna feel fully ready and you just have to do it with shaky hands like you said and we've talked about this a million times you just gotta get on base you just have to do as best as you can try not to fuck up too bad but like do good enough to where okay i did it i proved something to myself i i this is a new level for me and now i proved something to myself and we're going to continue to move forward yes yeah you feel so different afterwards right like after you do something that scares you i just remember walking off that stage and again there was probably like a hundred people there.

1:39:57Like I know people have done like tens of thousands of people, you know, and they're speaking. I'm like, Oh, that's crazy. But just those, you know, a hundred or so women, like I remember walking off the stage and I was like, I feel like a different person because I leaned into something that's, that was like one of my biggest fears to my biggest fears. Um, actually I have three. It is public speaking, swimming, and also needles, very afraid of all three of those. And then also flying. I have a lot of fears but i've i've leaned into a lot of them and i've been like i'm not gonna let them hold me back from things and i've leaned into them as much as i can but i think the public speaking i was like i was like i can't believe i did that i was so proud of myself that's awesome i do want we don't typically talk about relationships but i see the way you and christian like are able to have a beautiful relationship and operate at incredibly high level as entrepreneurs and you guys are running these insane businesses.

1:41:01Do you have advice to entrepreneurs trying to navigate work life, not necessarily balance, but find a healthy relationship in both having a thriving relationship with their partner and also finding the time to put enough time into themselves and their business to grow if they have big dreams for themselves and they want to go down the entrepreneur route and build a business for themselves and they have these big dreams for themselves. But it can be really hard to, you know, have a great relationship and also balance trying to build a business at the same time. That's a good question. I think me and Christian are in a very unique situation because we're both CEOs running big businesses and we're competitors.

1:41:46so I don't know anyone else that's in a relationship like that so I wish I could maybe even ask someone else like hey like what do you guys do I'm just curious but I think things that work for us is that we are a hundred percent supportive of each other's businesses although we're competitive I'm like hey will you be in a video for me for Buff Money Collection he's like yeah will you come model for me for Alphaleed I'm like yeah we have boundaries because we don't want to like cross over too too much but it's like make a little cameo here a little cameo here and it makes it fun but we also share intel with each other of like you know he'd be like oh my gosh don't do any capris no one's buying them you know like he might launch a product that doesn't do well or i might launch a product that doesn't do well and we let each other know or he's like scrunch leggings are killing it i'm like cool i'll do a scrunch legging so it's like we definitely help each other out and we're supportive of one another um i think that when you're both entrepreneurs when you're both just like tackling so much um christian and i every night we take a bath there's no phones for the most part like we there's no phones unless we're like oh my gosh let me show you some that's something funny um and that's kind of like there's no phones we're fully focused on each other and we're just kind of like hanging out talking about our day and we try to have moments where we don't talk about work but it's so hard when you love what you do and I'm the worst.

1:43:10Christian's actually better than I am. Like, I'll come home like, oh my gosh, like imagine this. He's like, ah, here we go. But I think when you love what you do, it makes it a little bit easier. And again, just having boundaries, I think is like the biggest thing and really communicating what those boundaries are. You know, there's been times where he's like, hey, your film crew has been coming in here a lot to film some Buffbunny videos. Let's dial back a little bit. I'm like, cool, done. And so it's just like communicating what your boundaries are or like if something's making you like feel a little overwhelmed and just making sure that you guys are respectful for one another you guys also take a few week trip every year right yes usually every year we would go to the caymans for like two to four weeks i'd say two to three weeks because so we wouldn't really like do any vacations throughout the year until like our one big trip to the caymans and that's where we would try to unplug like he unplugs like he just like throws his phone he's like i haven't turned it on in two weeks.

1:44:05I'm like, every night I'm like, hey team, you guys okay?

1:44:09Heidi Somers:He's like, are you on your phone? I'm like, no. I'm like, Cheryl, is everything okay? How's everything going? So yeah, I think we just have different ways of relaxing. That's so funny. But we love the Caymans. I got one more question for you. Yeah. If you could go back and chat with your 18 year old self before you went on the journey, before you build these two companies, what would you say? Nothing that'll change the journey but what would you say if you could give yourself a call at 18 piece of advice or just have a conversation it's so hard because people have asked me this before and and really when i think about it it's almost like i wouldn't want to talk to her because i wouldn't want to influence her to do anything different than what i did because i fucked up you know quite a few times but i think each fuck up i learned so much that made me better the next move that i made so it's so hard to have a conversation and you know tell my 18 year old self anything because I think it could have maybe made me fuck up a little bit less but then I wouldn't be as strong of a leader as I am now and I'm not a perfect leader I'm not like oh my god I'm the strongest leader in the world I tell Krishna I was like neither of us went to school no one taught you teaches you how to be a CEO I was like we're essentially learning along the way and I think we've came a hell of a long way over the last 10 plus years that we've had our brands.

1:45:31But it's hard for me to say anything. If anything,

1:45:39I'm really proud of what I've built and like the things that I've overcame along the way. I think that the entrepreneur life is really hard. As you guys know, it's something that, you know, you you are 24 7 working especially like the first 10 years of doing social media and coaching and this and that it's like there wasn't a real vacation it's like krish and i would go on vacation but there was a lot of times we were working all day every day on the beach um and it wasn't until like the last couple years that we've actually you know he was able to turn his phone off fully for two weeks um it's like you don't really take sick days you don't really take any days to yourself you really have to like dig deep and and not have that balance sometimes so looking back i'm like yeah there's some times i like we probably took it too far we're working like 18 hour days all the time but we're grateful now because we're at a point now where we have a much better healthier balance and uh now we're able to like fully like focus like still still work still run our businesses but be able to focus on our families it's awesome that was amazing

1:46:48Heidi Somers:ladies and gentlemen this has been episode 168 of the 505 podcast if you're still here please hit the subscribe button drop us a comment and we'll see you all next week peace