How Playing DUMB Helped Paris Hilton Build a BILLION Dollar Empire

0:00We have all known her as a millionaire socialite or reality TV star. Tell your grandsons we're in town. We're single and we're here for five weeks. Even a DJ. She has confidence, a free spirit. That's hot. That's hot. That's hot. That's hot. Paris Hilton has added another title to her resume. Activist. Never felt prouder in my life. I'm Paris Hilton and welcome to The Burnouts. When you were 15, you first started modeling. You were 22 when you started your show. Walk us through, what was it like receiving your first paycheck? Well, I moved to New York City and that's when I started modeling. And it's something my parents did not want me to do.

0:39So I basically had to like sneak into the agency, not tell my parents anything. They just didn't really want me in that modeling world. But I loved it. So I started having runway lessons and then started booking campaigns and runway shows. And eventually they found out. You're a branding expert, right? Like you've created this entire character. I love one of your quotes about being like, I was in on the joke the entire time. And when do you decide to be like, OK, when do I do the character versus like when are you like Paris behind like closed doors? With my life, it's something new and different every day.

1:15So when I'm in D.C. doing my advocacy work, that's when I'm the more serious side of me. But then when I'm doing certain, you know, brand deals or just, I don't know, anything to do with social, it's usually with the more playful side of me. So I feel like there's two sides to me. And one is that character that I created back in the day with The Simple Life. And then there's the real me. And how did you decide to create that character? Because you were our age. And I think it's so incredible, like how strategic you were and how meticulous you were. Like, how did that come about? Well, this was the beginning of reality television.

1:51So I really had no one to, you know, look at what they had done before because this was like the first of its kind. And the producers basically just said, Nicole, you be the troublemaker and Paris, you just be the blonde airhead. So we kind of just were playing into those characters. And we had no idea what a huge success the show would be and that we would have to continue on doing the characters for five seasons straight. And why was it important for you from such an early age to want your own financial independence and to start making your own money? That was something that was really instilled in me from a young age.

2:31just the importance of work ethic and also wanting to prove myself as well. I didn't want to be known as the Hilton Hotel granddaughter. I wanted to be known as Paris. So that was something that I always thought of. How do you think about that? Like now that you have kids to like instilling that in them and making sure they have that same kind of like work ethic. Is that something that like you're cognizant of or how do you think like you're going to carry that on to them? I think it's it's it's so important. something else about that I was with my grandpa and we were having lunch one day and he said I used to be known as Baron Hilton and now I'm known as Paris Hilton's grandfather so we were laughing about that and that always made me really proud just to make him so proud and I'll always be grateful to my parents and for my grandfather for instilling that in me at a young age and that's something that I want to pass on to my children as well because when you can give your children the world.

3:27If you do and you don't instill those values, you're just you could destroy them in a way. So it's important to really make them feel that they want to do something on their own as well, because I've just seen, you know, a lot of these kids that are just handed everything and they're not really happy in their lives because they never really have worked for it themselves. So I think that that's important starting young to make them feel that they can do it as well. I feel like as women, we're always kind of like trying to get the next thing or the next thing. And like you feel like you're kind of on this like tectonic, like treadmill of just keep going.

4:01Was there ever like a moment for you where you really pause to say like, OK, wow, like I have found success, like I am doing good and now I'm going to keep going? Or do you feel like that's something you're just kind of always facing? I do so many different things, whether it's, you know, music or building products or designing or producing. So I wear so many different hats all the time and I love it I think it's the Aquarius in me also with my ADHD oh I have such bad ADHD but it's like my superpower like I feel like it's what gets me through the day to be honest because I'm able to zoom zoom and do all these different things I feel like it's that for you it's a lot of that it's like my mind never stops and I have so many different interests and I will hyper focus on things that I love and I think with ADHD like people don't really talk about that part that they're like oh there are people who they can't focus but yeah it's not true we just we can't focus on boring things i'm bored then i can't focus exactly but you drive people in your life insane with your adhd because i do all the time i'm losing like my phone all the time or other things i feel like i have superpowers in some ways and then some of like the very basic organizational things i'm like a little bit lacking in i won't lie oh my god the amount of times i lose my phone house keys everything thank god my husband is like the responsible one who doesn't lose anything.

5:20When did you get your diagnosis? As a teenager, but no one was really talking about it back then. So I didn't know all that I know about it now. Now I've done so much research and I just know so much more. Carter has talked to us and he's like, I feel like I learned so much about Paris and like how to be a good partner for her. Like, how has that been for you guys, like in your relationship? It's been amazing just that he cares so much, like to do the research and to find out and just to see the way that my brain works. And I've never been in a relationship where someone would even take the time to do that.

5:55And I have this man named Dr. Hollowell, who's my ADHD doctor, and Carter like has calls with him. And he's like, you're the first person where it's not the patient. It's like I'm talking to like the patient's like other half. And he thought that was really nice that Carter just cares so much that he takes the time to learn everything about it for me. When did you realize that he was a special person compared to other people that you had been with before? Just right away. I could just tell just the first time we met, just looking in his eyes. He's just such a sweet, kind person. And seeing him with his mom, he's just, you could tell a lot about a man by the way he treats his mother.

6:34and he is just so loving and just so he's like an angel. Like I feel so grateful that he came into my life at the perfect time because I think timing is everything. You were, was it 23 or 24 when you trademarked your first slogan, that's hot? How did you come up with that? I just noticed from The Simple Life just how people all around the world just started saying that's hot. So I just called up my attorney and said, let's trademark it. I'm curious, like as you think about like your daughter coming up, Will you encourage her to like go into the entertainment industry? If she did, like, would you help to manage her?

7:08Like, what does that kind of look like for you? And what do you think you would, yeah, like impress upon her? I would just want her to be happy and I'll support whatever she wants to do. I feel like she already at one loves fashion. She's always going in my closet, taking all of my purses. She's just loving like every time I'm having a fitting, she's just like staring at all the clothes and playing with the sparkles. So I could see her getting into fashion. I would definitely help her with creating her own brand. And the kids are always with me coming into meetings. So even though they're babies, I feel like they're definitely like soaking it all in.

7:48So they're going to have a lot of intel and info on what to do in life with building a brand for sure, with Living Through Me.

8:04When you were very young, what were like the biggest business lessons that you learned that you feel like you still think about today? The importance of working hard and having people around you, a team that you can trust. I think that's something that's so important, especially growing up in Hollywood. There's just a lot of bad people and con artists and people who lie and people who you can't trust. so I learned it really really matters who you surround yourself with and who you let in your inner circle for sure how'd you find like your first manager I just moved back from New York and I was out one night and just like all these agents would always come up to me and like probably just trying to flirt or something like you need to come in like I want to put you in a movie I want to do this so just like a lot of guys like coming up to me asking me like that But then I went with my dad.

9:00Really? He was your first manager? No. He just came in with me. He was there to vet. I was like, they were flirting with him. I was nervous to like go in by myself. I mean, how old were you? 19. Okay. Yeah, so you're young. Yeah. And so you're 19, you're with your dad, you go into these meetings. Like, what were you guys talking about? Just about what my dreams were, what I wanted to do in my life. and basically my dad helping me pick the correct team to go with because we went to a bunch of agencies. When you were 19, what were your big dreams and goals? Did you realize it would ever go like this far?

9:35I had no idea in my wildest dreams that I would be where I am today. I just had dreams of I wanted to build a brand. I wanted to do fashion. I wanted to act, model, sing. I've always been like a multi-hyphenate. So I like doing everything. I love Rebecca on your team at 11.11. I think she's brilliant and she's also the sweetest person ever. And I think like hiring is honestly probably the most difficult thing that we have to do every day. How do you find amazing people like Rebecca and how do you know like, okay, I want to work with this person? Well, Rebecca was the second hire at our company.

10:08And I met her actually through Carter because her husband works with Carter at M13. And when my documentary was coming out, Carter started telling me that she's an impact producer and that she helps with advocacy work. and we met and we clicked right away. And I love that she wants to help make the world a better place. And we've just done such incredible work together. And I'm just so grateful to have her on the team. She's like family. And again, thank you to Carter for that. Shout out to Carter. He's doing good on this. He's literally husband of the year. Oh my God, wait, who was employee number one?

10:52It was me and Bruce. He's over there. Oh, Bruce is over there. Bruce is the president of 11. And how did you guys originally meet? Through Carter. Finding good people who like really genuinely care is the hardest thing we've done. I think for us, too, like we had this trope when we first like raised money and had capital. We were like, OK, like we need to hire people who are older than us, who are smarter than us, who know more than us. And I think one of our biggest learnings was like, oh, no, actually, it doesn't matter what age the person is. We just need someone who cares enough to like stay up till 1 a.m.

11:20if the app is broken or who is willing to like talk to users. And I see that like with your team, like the level of care. How has it been for you guys navigating like your relationship and then career? Like, do you let the boundaries like in the lines blur or like does it blend together naturally? Like, how have you viewed that? You know, some men get very insecure and it's hard to be with a successful woman. And he's the opposite of any other person I've been with, which is amazing feeling just to feel so supported and so lifted up or anything is possible. What would be your dating advice? What would be like your red flags to watch out for?

11:56Like, what would you say for like finding and building a relationship like that? Oh, I couldn't even imagine dating. No. Oh, wow. That's not giving me a lot of hope. I can be worried over here. You want to find like the boys like from like a small town who are just like sweet and kind and don't have all these like dating apps and weird things. It would be so hard to trust somebody that's like one of those guys that like wants to go out all the time. And it's just kind of like, I don't know. I think nerds are where it's at. I agree with that. I agree. Watch out when I show up in small town boy outside of Wisconsin to the office.

12:35Who is this? I'm like, this is Todd. I do want to talk about 1111. Like, what was the reason why you wanted to start this media company? I am involved in so many different business verticals from everything that I do. But I really wanted to create a company where it could be all under one umbrella. How do you decide like what to work on every single day? Because like I feel like I'm losing track. The books, there's podcasts, like there's skincare and then there's DJing. Like if you were to break down like I'm Paris Hilton and these are the things I work on, like what would those things be? I have my skincare, 30 fragrances, dog clothes, kids clothes, adult clothes, bedding, homeware, jewelry, lingerie, swimwear line, makeup, jewelry, shoes, handbags.

13:31I've literally, we have counted up to 24. You're not done. Those are crazy things. You're not done. I know there's more. I just released my new phone with Motorola. Yeah, 25. It's pink, Razor.

13:46And then obviously my music. I'm doing my third album now. And producing. I'm writing my third book. My memoir is being turned into a television series with A24. Will you act in that or will someone else act in it? Someone's going to act. Or do you get to pick the actress? What is like the Paris Hilton time management trick? I'm like, I just do it. I love what I do. I love to make products. I love to make music. I love my fans so much. I love to create art and of producing. So I just feel like I'm doing so many things that I love so much. I was going to say it doesn't feel like work, but it does feel like work.

14:30Where, I don't know, I just feel like I can do anything. I just feel like women are superheroes and especially moms. We can do it all. And I've always lived my life and my career like thinking outside the box. Like I feel like you don't just have to be one thing. I was listening to one of your interviews and you were like, I invented that game. And you were talking about licensing. So when did you realize that that was a strategic business endeavor for you? I realized that just back on The Simple Life when the show aired. We were having like 15 million viewers every night it was airing and people just started dressing like me, talking like me.

15:07So I was like, I should just make my own products that people can have like a piece of Paris and make it affordable luxury. That was something that was always important to me because I wanted everyone to be able to experience that. What advice would you give to someone who's like starting a personal brand today or starting to build like their following on social media? I think that it's definitely important to pay attention to all the different platforms there are and to have a presence on all them and really showcase what you want your brand or your product to be. And just that's something that's so important, because back then we didn't have all of these tools.

15:48So I think people are so lucky nowadays that anybody with a phone and Wi-Fi could literally create their own product line or create their own persona. So I think that now just with all the technology available, there's just so many ways for people to really utilize those to make a name for themselves or build their own brand or product line. For you, was it ever hard transitioning out of like you literally played a character and then was there ever a conscious conscious choice of, OK, I no longer want to play this character. Like I want people to know the real me. I think now through my documentary and through all my advocacy work, people can see that I'm not a dumb blonde.

16:30I'm just very good at pretending to be one. When did you decide to be like, OK, this is going to become a part of my work and I'm going to share like my raw experience for the benefit and for like the common good to try and change the narrative of these schools? I was shooting my documentary and the original premise was not supposed to be about that at all. I just felt that for so long I had been judged and underestimated and misunderstood. And there was so much more to me. One night when we were in South Korea, I was just so jet lagged, so exhausted. And I kind of opened up to the director a little bit about nightmares I was having.

17:07and then she wanted to know more but I said no I don't want to talk about that that's not part of my story and then the next day she came to me with all this research and told me that it's now turned into a 28 billion dollar a year industry and that hundreds of thousands of children were being sent to these places and hundreds of children have died in these places and there was so much abuse happening. And that's when I knew that I needed to tell my story. And I was so scared because I didn't know what the world would think. Just going through that, it was something where they made me feel ashamed.

17:44I think the important message is that the shame should never be on us. It should be on the people who hurt us. And it's just been so incredible just after telling my story, just to see this whole movement and so many people coming forward and finally feeling safe to tell their story as well. And now changing laws and passing a federal bill, it's just never in my wildest dreams as a little girl did I think that that would ever have happened or been possible. How did you feel when you were testifying on Capitol Hill? First time I was so terrified and so scared because it's just very hard speaking about just things that are so painful.

18:27but then to see what a difference it was making and it was actually changing laws now I just feel so empowered and it's always hard but it gets it gets easier from just being able to do it more and just realizing that I'm going to be the voice for millions of others who don't have one

18:53do you ever feel burnt out when you're doing like work like this that's so heavy and like how do you recover from that when you're you know going a million miles a minute and talking about things that are so personal to you definitely it's it's a lot of just emotional toll and just having to like relive things or hearing from other survivors and hearing their stories And then that will make me remember something that maybe my mind had blocked out. So it's always very, very emotional. But at the end of the day, I know that I'm turning my pain into purpose. And that has so much meaning. I'm curious, like your advice for like, you know, women who've built their entire careers or their entire like, you know, persona off of like, I don't give a shit or I'm tough.

19:39Like, how do you think about like stepping back and choosing to be vulnerable and like those moments where it matters? I think there's a lot of power in being vulnerable. And it's scary to do, but it's so healing for not only yourself, but for others. And I feel that there's beauty in it as well. And people can just be real because so many people around the world are going through so many things and they might feel so alone. but by someone telling their story it could really help someone else and also that just has like a chain reaction or then more people feel comfortable to feel feel safe to be able to speak their truth do you feel like in like our current like political climate like we're moving forward on that trend where we're like moving towards like progress for like women and survivors do you feel like we've kind of like regressed a little bit i think there's definitely more work to do but just looking back from like years ago to now there's been so much change so I'm just so proud of anyone who's brave enough to speak their truth because I know how difficult it can be you said that you really credited your faith in God for helping you to overcome the abuse to become a mother like what role has like faith in God and spirituality played in your life just knowing that there's something always watching and looking over me and I always can feel like my grandma's spirit a lot as well like losing her was so heartbreaking but I just feel like her spirit is always with me so I always think of her a lot and I feel like she's up there like making so many things happen for me.

21:28What's the best piece of advice she gave you? Always made me feel my most confident self. She just would say like, you can take over the world. You can do whatever you put your mind to Paris. And she was just like such a strong like force of nature. And I wouldn't be the woman I am today if it wasn't for her. Love a good angel number. And I love that you named your company 1111 Media. What was the inspiration behind that? I love angel numbers too. And I'm obsessed with 1111 make a wish anytime day or night if I look at a clock it's like 1111 I always make a wish and they always come true the craziest like spookiest like angel number like story you have well it's not spooky but I think it's cool that my daughter was born on 1111 I remember before like the FIA launch I was like literally like losing my mind like I was balding I was like freaking out this product was gonna launch and like it was gonna fail we weren't going to get any users and then I was like listening to music and it was the night before lunch I saw 11 11 on the clock and I was like okay we're ripping an all-nighter tonight like fix the app fix the bugs but like this is going to happen it's going to go out into the world and it's going to be good when was the last time you were looking for a sign a couple days ago and I was headlining world pride in DC just I got up in the morning and it said 11 11 I said today is going to be a good day what's the thing that you're most proud of achieving in your career I'm so proud of everything but I'm most proud of just my beautiful babies and just all of my work that I've been doing in DC and just for being the OG.

23:06Something I always thought was really interesting was you were the first person I ever saw as like a celebrity DJ. Yeah. How did you decide to go into DJing? Like did you take lessons? Like how did that happen? Well, I was the first person who invented getting paid to party. Oh, yeah. Period. It was before celebrity DJs were a thing and I would be in Vegas and be like, oh, we're going to pay you a million dollars to come to this club. And like it's New Year's Eve. So I started doing that every month. I was going to Vegas and just hosting these parties. And then like around 15 years ago, I noticed it was it was more about they started putting the DJ booths like more in the center of the club.

23:46And it wasn't it was it became like, I don't know, it's like, I just want to learn everything there is to know about DJing because I'm hosting the party. It's not as much fun. You're just like sitting there with a champagne and like a microphone. I'm like, I want to be the one controlling the music and bringing the party like I'm the vibe. And then I learned everything there was. And now I've been touring around the world and performing everywhere. And it's just so much fun. I love it so much. Oh, my God, that's so smart. So were you like, I can get paid more if I'm also DJing? That too, yeah.

24:20Oh, my God, amazing. And so how did that become part of your career? It was very authentic to me because I love parties. I love clubs. I love music. I love entertaining. So it just worked out perfectly. I was already traveling a lot for my businesses, my perfume, my product lines. And so anytime I was in any country, I would be like my team would find out whatever was the best music festival or clubs. And it just became very lucrative part of my business. Out of your businesses, how would you break down which ones you feel have been the most successful? Definitely my fragrances. Well, that was the first product I ever came out with.

25:02It was a perfume. And when I was a little girl, I just always loved perfumes. My mom collected them and I told her when I was little, like, one day I'm going to have my own Paris perfume. So sitting here today and just released my 30th is just a dream come true. Isn't your perfume line the second highest grossing perfume line, like celebrity perfume line of all time? Yeah. I feel like you always have known what the big trend is going to be. Like you were like, OK, celebrity perfume. Boom. Now everyone tries to do it. DJing. Now it's like everyone wants to be a DJ. What other things are you like?

25:38Okay, I was an early OG to that. Reality television, influencing, selfies, celebrity pets. I was so interested in like people were so obsessed with your chihuahuas. Like why do you think that was? Iconic. Yeah. Iconic shit. Tinkerbell is the most iconic dog to ever walk this earth. She's a queen and she's the OG chihuahua. Was she also like a persona that you created? She was just always with me no matter what. She was always in matching outfits with Louis Vuitton bag and coming with me to all the fashion shows. If I'd be like on the late night talk shows, she was just like my sidekick. If you were giving advice to someone today who like wanted to start out, they wanted to be an influencer.

26:23Do you think they should create a persona? I think that most people do have that. Like I think that's because I've met a lot of people in real life and then the way that they are on social is completely different. So I think a lot of people do that. And I think as well, I'm very shy. So I feel like the persona helps me not be as shy as well. And I think it also just like protected me from not having to talk to people who I didn't really want to. Yeah. It's like keep people at a distance, I guess. Yeah, someone told me recently, like, playing dumb is the smartest thing that you can do. You learn a lot about people by doing that because they don't know that nothing gets past you.

27:06Okay, wait, I have to ask because you're, like, a branding icon. This is, like, actually just a personal question. So, like, our kind of, like, catchphrase, I guess, is, like, Fia, best price in one click. And our friend was, like, that's kind of Best Buy. And I was, like, oh, that's so mean. But, like, if you were to give us advice on, like, coming up with a better slogan, like, what would you say? hot prices yeah hot prices for less I have to think about it Paris thank you so much for coming on the burnouts it's been an honor to hear from you about branding building the number of businesses you've created and we can't thank you enough thank you I love seeing you girls and I'm so proud of you both and this was so much fun