Why Your Uniqueness Is The Key To Your Success With Made by Mitchell (+ His Million Dollar TikTok Shop Playbook)

0:00Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title? See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend$250 on your first campaign and get a free$250 credit for the next one. Get started at linkedin.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key.

0:35And that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust. From paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

1:02Hi, friends. Grace from the Working Hard podcast here. When you're stretching every dollar, Alilla goes a long way, and Walmart Business is here to help. They make it easy to order what you need from tech and cleaning supplies to everyday essentials, all at low prices and with helpful tools like spend tracking and tax-exempt purchasing for eligible organizations. Because when your operations are smooth, your impact can be bigger. Visit business.warmart.com to get started.

1:34what is up i'm grace beverly and welcome back to working hard the podcast shape guidebook on how to improve your own life and achieve what you actually dreamed of doing because life's too short for boring podcasts and bad advice what is up and welcome back to working hard today's guest is someone who has quite literally redefined creativity and color in the beauty industry and has done it all with an energy and authenticity that's actually impossible not to love. Made by Mitchell founder, Mitchell Halliday. Starting out as a self-taught makeup artist sharing his looks from his bedroom in Manchester, he's grown into one of the most exciting names in beauty today, all before the age of 25.

2:12Not only has he built a global following of millions, but he's also achieved something so difficult, creating a brand that is a true cult favorite in a sea of legacy brands. His products sell out in minutes and he was the first person to make$1 million in a day on TikTok shop. We're obviously going to get right into the strategy that's got him here, how to blow up your own business, but also we really get into how to be unafraid and to be truly and authentically yourself and why being told you're too much can actually be your superpower.

2:45this episode is sponsored by loop which i am absolutely thrilled about because i genuinely have a pair on me at all times i'm someone who loves to work in a busy cafe but i'm also cursed with a brain that loves to latch onto the conversations of absolutely everyone around me and start listening to them like a podcast and that is where these lifesavers come in these are the Loop Engage earplugs that I always have in my handbag for when I'm working on the go or even on busy days in the office. They basically filter background noise using an acoustic channel, which means that you can lock into your work while staying present.

3:16They do this without any sort of electronics either, so I think they might actually be magic. They also come with eight different size options to make sure they fit your ear perfectly, because I don't usually fit earplugs, but these ones work perfectly. They don't give you that weird kind of blocked ear sensation that I from other earplugs that I've tried before as well. I'm genuinely such a fan of the brand. I could go on about them for hours and hours, but we have a podcast to get into. So I will just tell you instead that you can get 20 % off with the code loopxgrace.

3:54Mitchell, are you currently more working hard or hardly working? Working hard, but then I try and kid myself to being hardly working because it's this is my dream, you know, like that. I'm so blessed to be able to do what I do every single day. So, yeah, I don't like to always see it as a job. It is obviously a job and it's a very hard job, a very tasking job. But I really do try and just remember the days when I first started doing makeup and how much I loved it then, you know, how much of a hobby it was then. And I try and just remind myself of that. Yeah, I really like that. And I think that a lot of people can probably do that a bit more.

4:30I think there's, what is it on TikTok at the moment where it's like, I saw one the other day that it was basically saying like, I'm so stressed about my current issues that I forget how much past me would absolutely kill to be where I am now. And I think that's so normal. That's like, you know, we live in such a fast paced world. And I think the world of social as well is so fast paced, which is obviously where my brand is based, like yours as well. So it is tricky and it is hard to remind yourself of that, but it is so important to remind yourself of that because again I look back and I'm like how the hell did I get here you know that's like truly like only coming from gratitude so it's just reminding yourself of that gratitude which isn't always easy.

5:08No it's not always easy and I find myself having to do it a lot like having to constantly be like yes this is stressful but also this is the type of stress you wished for so let's like try and enjoy it somehow like Like, obviously you're not going to enjoy all the shit and you don't need like toxic positivity. But I do think it's important also to just be like, this is a great problem to have. You would have killed for this problem years ago. So I like the idea of like working that, hardly working into that mindset. I'm going to take that forward because I very much need that. It's something that I think everyone, whether you have a business or whether it's something that you, you have a job and it's more of a nine to five, but you love that job.

5:43It's something that we can all implement into our normal lives every day. Yeah, love that. and I'd like to go back to the very beginning and your kind of origin story of where you are now do you remember the first makeup product you ever owned yes I do um one that I actually owned and one that I didn't steal from my mum's makeup bag so the one that I stole from my mum's makeup bag was the Max Factor Facefinity duo like powder it had a powder and a sponge that was the first thing I don't know what I was setting because I was probably 13 years old I had dry skin so I don't know why I needed powder but hey ho I just felt I wanted to feel my fantasy I guess um the first brow the first product I bought was the Illamasqua brow cake if you ever remember that and I had basically shaved all my eyebrows off I'm not joking the full thing this is while I was in school and every day I'd paint my eyebrows back on don't understand the logic why did I want to make my my mornings longer um but yeah every morning I'd paint them back on and get to the school and be told to wipe them off so yeah that was my first ever makeup product oh and then you'd have to go around with no eyebrows?

6:46I'd find a way to keep them on. I'd find a way. That's so funny. That's such a funny thing for them to have an issue. Oh no. Like these are actually my eyebrows. I'm like, please. Are you saying they don't know about this? Well, the funny thing is as well, I was actually a head boy at the time as well. So I was like, listen, do you want your head boy really walking around with no eyebrows? And my head of year, Mr. Costin, he was called, great man. He had like a soft spot for me. So yeah, it was good. Oh, I love that. And before we get further into your makeup journey. Am I right in thinking that you were on X Factor?

7:15Oh God, yes, you are. You're correct. Go on, tell us the story. So I, way before I was even interested in makeup, I've always had such a love for music, loved singing, loved performing. So before I even started doing makeup, I actually used to sing all the time, but I used to go to like old men's pubs, clubs, social clubs, all those kinds of things. And I'd sing there every Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I sang pretty much in so many different environments. I can't promise that everyone was listening to me but I still loved it um so that was what I was doing at the time and then I went to music college so through music college we got scouted and there was a girl group and a boy group that got scouted to basically go on to X Factor and audition get fast-tracked through a few of the different levels before you actually see them on TV and I was put into a boy band with three lads that I'd literally never met before in my life we had to pretend that we went to like dance club together or something.

8:08It was hilarious. That was my X Factor journey. And then it was the year that Matt Terry won, if you remember. Yeah. And it was the first year that they brought in Six Chair Challenge, which was absolutely ruthless. We got a chair. It was taken away from us. We were brought back to then sit on a chair. It was then taken away from us. So after that, I was just, it was so traumatic. Because again, I think back then, I thought a show like X Factor was a talent show. And yes, it has elements of that, but it's an entertainment show. So I was vexed that I wasn't being seen for my talent and I was just being used for entertainment.

8:40But that is just the harsh reality of it. You know, I was like, woe is me. I was about 17 years old. And then, yeah, I got kicked off X Factor. And that's when, around that same time, one of my friends had just opened a salon and I basically started working there on a weekend. And the rest is history. I didn't really, I had interest in makeup because I loved the whole, the extraness of it, the transformation of it. I was fascinated by that. um but yeah then I started picking up some brushes and the rest is history and yeah thank god I'm an X Factor reject because I won't be here today without it so you know perspective a big part of the growth story I can't imagine how like that experience must have been at 17 especially when you're like trying to work out what you're doing with your life and you're like oh this is the big wide world like I hate it and I think as well I was trying to really figure out who I was as well at that time so I remember I've always been I've always been me I've always been a big gay boy like that's just how I am I love I love that about myself I do now anyway um but I remember when I was put into the um the boy band obviously we had to have a boy band look which was so far away from what I wanted to look like so then I'd come into that I was trying so hard to be this straight looking lad and after that I was just kind of like whoa that doesn't even work for me and that's something that is so accepted more more so accepted than being the gay guy you know so then after that I was just kind of lost into this whole idea of well if I can't be accepted as the straight boy how am I ever going to be accepted as the gay boy um so and again so young at the time but I look back and I'm like wow I didn't even know the half of it because I'd never in a million years in that moment could have thought that I would be so accepted for who I am now and so celebrated for who I am now but yeah just takes time takes time yeah no I love that and I always think that when we look back at our kind of formative experiences and what really showed us who we are I always think it's so interesting how those specific things like you can just see in hindsight who knows you could have had an experience a few years later where you were like do you know what I'm just gonna try and present as more straight or I'm gonna try and present as more this and actually you had like a very quick like lockdown like we're not okay this isn't for me then first of all I should not be in a boy band second of all stop wearing like backward snapbacks and thinking that you look cool stop doing that but yeah love that um so can you talk to me a little bit about the moment that it all blew up I know that Jeffree Star and nikki tutorials had a role to play yeah so at the time i i'd been working in the salon for about two years at this point become really really busy and this is in the time pre-covid where everyone if you went out if you went to the pub on a weekend you had your makeup done if you went to a funeral you had your makeup done everyone was getting the makeup done it was this whole it was a different time it was the best time to work in a salon no literally i'm not i used to do people's makeup for you know and i'd be like oh i don't really know what to talk about right now but hey ho at at least they came to me and wanted to look the best.

11:29So, you know, that's just a different time that the makeup world was in. And I became so busy and that really took up my weekend. So then I kind of wanted to flip it a little bit and I had a real interest on social media from other makeup artists wanting to learn what I was doing. So then through the week, I started to teach one-to-one classes. And then through that, I actually had time because I was doing a little bit of eyeshadow and then my student would do another little bit of eyeshadow. So as they were doing it, I would film it and then I'd compile it all. And some days I'd do like four students in a day.

12:01So I'd be posting maybe five, six videos a day of different looks. And it just gained a lot of traction because the looks that I was doing back then were very, very out there. It was very different to the editorial kind of glams that were kind of popular at that time and respected as well. So I'd start doing all these crazy looks. It was almost like putting like a drag makeup look onto a feminine face. so looked a little bit softer but still looked very heavy which was my kind of thing back then still love it to this day um and from there i gained so much traction on social and ended up being reached out to by nikki tutorials and then she actually was she asked me to fly out to amsterdam because that's where she lives and she flew me and my best friend out honestly i think again must have been 17 18 at this time just imagining what that must be a big life for a 17 years old.

12:48Oh my god, I've lived many different lives. Honestly, it was truly like a time, and I'm just, I was from this little council estate in Bolton, never really, I don't think I'd even grow up going on holiday, we'd go to a caravan, that's what we'd do on the weekends, or if we went away on the six weeks holidays. So all of this was so new, being flown somewhere was incredibly exciting, and went there we did a video and we'd just done we'd filmed a video with the kkw and the mario palette do you remember when that came out i remember that i had the kkw stick yes exactly it was iconic and again another time completely where the makeup sphere was at the time and mario had basically done like this this video really just taking the mick out of kim and basically she had this towel on her head and he basically swiped for four eyeshadows onto her cheek of a beautiful finished glam and she didn't know that was going to happen it went really viral so I basically then recreated that on Nikki with the same palette and all that kind of stuff anyway it went from there Kim's reposted it Mario's reposted it and the video went huge my following obviously started to grow massively and then a few weeks later I got invited to Mario's master class so at this point I'm just kind of like trying to network my way through the industry and kind of I was so naive at this point to even what I was doing you know I was just like oh my god I just want to meet all these people I've looked up to since I started doing makeup and yeah it was it kind of just evolved and then I ended up filming with Jeffree Star which honestly changed my life in so many ways that opened up doors that I don't think would have ever been opened up I can't I can't lie about that situation and me and Jeffree became really close we worked together many many times We went on tours, teaching masterclasses all over Europe and all over the UK.

14:35And yeah, that was just a time that I look back on and I'm like, what the hell? Again, how did I end up there? How did I end up? What kind of year was that? Because I'm thinking of like the heyday of makeup YouTubers. I used to watch makeup YouTubers like I watch people vlog now. Like as a very like comfort watch based thing. I was not doing like a full face beat. and I'd be sat there like, yeah, like watching like makeup reviews. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, okay, yeah, I'll go buy these 17 things. So I'd say that was like 2018, 2019. For me, my peak in that world was 2018, 2019. That's fully when I was watching it.

15:12I was like sat, like every time they had a new video coming out, I was like, me too. And then it was so weird because I'd gone from watching all these videos to being in these videos. And that was where it was just so wild. It was just a different time of social media as a whole. but I think I was a part of that time and that's really made me the human that I want to be today. It's made me realise the kind of platform that I want and it's kind of made me realise to not always think that being problematic is the best because it's going to get you views. Sometimes I'd rather have less views and be less problematic.

15:46So yeah, I think it's taught me a lot over the years. Yeah, that's really interesting, I think, because as you say, like so many people who get onto social media might truly think that whatever you can do to get the most views is good. But it's interesting to have that lesson so early that actually like it's not at any cost. Oh, absolutely. And again, I was probably loving the tabloid covers and all that at the time. It was like exciting to me. I was a young kid. And again, it's, you know, sometimes when we grow up, we all, I'm sure we've all said at some point, I want to be famous. I want to be famous.

16:19I want to be this. I want to be that. So then when you start getting those little bits of being known, you think, oh my God, this is what it feels like this is what it feels like and then it was just there was so much that happened in social media as a whole that I just kind of thought right this isn't actually me I'm actually a very peaceful person I like to just get on with my own stuff I like to do my job and then go to bed and you know like kind of switch off from that and so yeah it was it was a great lesson that I got taught very early on and I think that has now really allowed me to build what I'm building now with Made by Mitchell, something that is just based around community and just about making people feel good rather than, you know, always getting clicks and views and all that kind of stuff.

17:00Even though they are good and they really help as a business, sometimes it's what are you sacrificing for those clicks and those views and those sales? And I just think sometimes not everything should be sacrificed. Yeah, no, I totally, totally agree with that. And so when did it go from, I guess, you sharing your content to really evolving into you deciding that you wanted to start your own brand with your own makeup? Yeah so 2019 was a big year for me in the sense of it was where I really started to turn my love for makeup into a business. I didn't really realize I was doing that at the time, I was just kind of accepting jobs, doing things that I'd never done before.

17:36I traveled all around the world, I did a something like a 42 country tour in over six months from Latin America to Europe to Asia. It was a wild time and I did it all by myself, negotiated it all by myself, traveled all by myself. It was a wild time to be alive. So I'd done all that. And during those same times, I'd started to get traction from a lot of brands that wanted to work with me because, you know, I was working with the biggest names in my industry at the time. So started to collaborate on products with certain brands. And, you know, I had many, many great experiences with those brands, but there was some things that I just didn't really enjoy and some things that I didn't feel very fulfilled with so then at that point that's when I just decided okay I need to step back here I did like five product collabs within the space of four months which was actually crazy like normally someone would space them out over a year or two me personally I was just like oh my god let's run like the clappers yeah I didn't have a clue I didn't know a routine to it um again because I negotiated every last deal at that point myself so at that point I thought okay I have done all this but I'm not really having too much to show for it at this point because I didn't know how to invest didn't know all of that stuff um so at that point I then thought okay maybe this is the time to actually do something for myself um and actually create my own legacy in a way which again I didn't really know that that was gonna happen at that point I just wanted to create something that was solely me and was solely my idea and was all under my control um and through one of my um collabs that I'd done I had met my my business partner and manufacturer so through that I ended up being opened up to a whole other world of how to actually create cosmetics and that is where the journey of Made by Mitchell originally started and that's why I'm very thankful to every single one of my my collabs even when it wasn't necessarily the best experience because it shaped me into being the businessman that I am today but also into understanding what I want out of something and I wouldn't have really understood that without the things that didn't necessarily go to plan you know right of course and was there any part of you that kind of was aware of how much volume you were selling for these brands when it wasn't necessarily going into your pocket for a lot of them yeah because a lot of them were very straight up and a lot of them were very you know just as as brands do and then they've got like an obligation to show you what they're selling but there was the odd one where i i didn't always feel like i was being told very honestly what was going on and that was where I decided to step away from it because rather than me sit there and bash someone I'd rather just kind of remove myself yeah and just take it as a lesson that is truly what those days those days were and I've learned so much of about my self-worth as well and about what I bring to the table and I think that I really credit that to all of those collabs and that's how I've been able to build such a incredible team but also an incredible partnership not just with me and my team but also with me and my consumer now as well so yeah I'm very grateful for all of it even the bad bits that weren't so enjoyable you know yeah yeah no a hundred percent and I think it also gives you this insight when you are really paying attention to the brands you're working with and the products you're promoting and all of this and what actually sells well for your audience that would have been such valuable information for you actually starting your business just in terms of like oh okay actually when we do lip glosses it does 10 times better or it has more of a propensity to go viral than when we do something where you can't see the direct or the immediate change or whatever it might be but then at the same time i i would more so wanting to know okay how many have we sold of everything how like how how much money did we make because that was kind of at that time all i was really that's all i could really measure the success of it from because that's all i was being told you know so going into actually starting my own brand that was kind of how I started in my first place as well because it was just like how much money did we make in 30 minutes that kind of thing whereas now it's a completely different thing because money that you can make in 30 minutes sometimes doesn't necessarily measure the success of a product sure it just kind of can be a viral product in that moment and then everyone might receive that product and hate it and then everyone hates the product so it's it's it's a real um spin around that you've got to do so yeah now it's a very different situation of how I look at how to build a successful product um but that's only been I've only really taught myself that through actually having made by Mitchell not necessarily in the clubs beforehand and so what was the first product you ever created so we started off with a really big product line um obviously cosmetics like the moq on cosmetics is pretty high um we can't just create like 50 eyeshadow palettes like we were working on like thousands and thousands of products um and we'd started off with two eyeshadow palettes six blushes which everyone was like what the hell is a blush um but we started off like just you wait just you wait just you wait um a brush set a mirror and then some makeup artist luggage as well and so it was a really it was a very very big launch um for an indie brand that didn't really have much gauge on how big it was actually going to be um and then i remember we'd launched our brand on the I think it was the 25th of October 25th of October and at this point it was October 2020 so we was all on our dining tables launching this huge brand that was gonna go to become a multi-million pound brand which we never really realized and we're launching on our table and I remember my team that were in their kitchens rang me and they they said you've just made your first hundred thousand pounds in 30 minutes and yeah that was just uh I'll always remember that because it was a time of complete naivety where I didn't really think it was going to go that well and I didn't think it would go that fast but also I look back at it as well because it even though it was so successful on initial launch I thought that that was going to be the trajectory of it from there on out but I didn't realize there would be peaks and troughs and bumps in the road along the way you know when you get like a good day like that you think oh my god I'm set this is it I can put my feet up now but that was the furthest thing from the truth yeah no I mean real I understand that well and um is it true that the iconic lime that you're now known for was actually a mistake yes so it was meant to be banana yellow which I look back and I'm like what why was I thinking that um but when when the color was printed onto one of my makeup brushes it was banana yellow on the bottom part of the brush so the wooden the handle and then the ferrule which actually holds all the bristles in was made out of metal so it translated differently so I'd got my sample back two different colors and I was like oh my god that is made by Mitchell and now everyone thinks it's made by Mitchell Green even though we don't own the color we just kind of brought it to life oh I absolutely love that yeah so it was a complete accident but sometimes accidents are the best things that can happen and what's your approach now to creating a viral product I guess because you've created lots of viral products and I can imagine you now have a pretty consolidated view of what actually it takes to be a viral product.

24:47So I think for me, I, for example, like my Curve Case, it's an insane product. There's nothing like it on the market. We've sold millions all over the world. It's insane. But when I created that, I truly created it for myself. I created it for my kit and I created it to make something easier for me. to create a solution for me. And when it first came out, it had a really, really great response. It was really great. But for me, I was thinking it was going to be makeup artists that would be buying this product over the everyday makeup wearer. And I got a real shock because at the time, makeup artists weren't really buying it because they thought, you know, it's in this green packaging.

25:28Makeup artist products are normally in black packaging, silver, you know, a bit more minimal in a way. Dumb year. Dumb year, which is just not me. I will never be demure and I'm cool with that. This trend is not for me. No, it's just not for me. I'm not really into a trend. I like what makes me feel good, you know? So anyway, all of the makeup, everyday makeup wearers started to buy the product. And then what I really noticed was it was those people that were influencing the makeup artists to buy my product, which I just found really weird because they weren't being influenced by a makeup artist.

25:57They were being influenced by the TikTokers that do makeup on themselves. So yeah, I think at the time when I created that product, I wasn't really in the know that it was going to become viral or I do think the Curve Case now is very iconic you know some people hate seeing it on the timelines but I'm like sorry I can't stop them from making videos um so yeah it's become a really iconic product and I think from the Curve Case it's really taught me that with a product for it to become viral and for it to become known amongst the masses it has to solve a problem and I think that is how I will always approach any of my cosmetics creations from now on from that point on to be fair because before that I was kind of just creating products that oh yeah this works for me I love this but now it's about creating a bit of a system to a product and I launched a complexion line and most people will be like I love this foundation but I don't know what concealer to use with it so I created a 48 shade foundation range, a 36 shade concealer range and a 18 shade primer range that were all designed to be used together.

27:05So that is how I will always approach my creation of a product now rather than it just being like, okay, this foundation works really well with a concealer that isn't out yet. I would always rather wait and bring it all out together. So then the solution is all there, you know? So I think it's about creating a solution, especially when it comes to cosmetics as well, because cosmetics are attached to so many more things other than just vanity. It's about confidence it's about you know skin texture sometimes and we want to cover that skin texture sometimes whether some people want to admit that or not so I think for me it's just always about creating something that can be a solution to someone else's dislike into something that they have you know yeah no I totally agree and I've always I've always been such a big proponent for product as marketing so when your product is good enough it becomes its own marketing and also if you this is like a test I always do for our products if there was a way that you would like describe over the dinner table like this one product you really love then it can become something viral like it can just be as you say it can be the texture of it or it can be like for our stuff with parlor it might be the built-in bra aspect or the fact that it doesn't dig in in one place or whatever if you could describe that and feel genuinely like fanatical about it then it can be a viral product it's not about it just looking a certain way and i i always so believe in that because I think now we are very much in the era of people being able to like your product yes you could make it viral but actually for it to be viral viral it needs to be supported by lots of other people so it needs to genuinely do something that is aside from just being like aesthetically known for whatever reason and yeah I really stand by that and I also think that with cosmetics as you said MOQs are so high that you're going to have to have people be repeat purchases if you want a good business at all.

28:50So it's like, yes, you might have a big platform. And I think people often look at celebrity or influencer makeup brands or brands in general and think, okay, but of course you were going to make that viral because you're an influencer. It's like, cool, we wouldn't get through a fraction of our stock if people weren't rebuying it. Like we physically couldn't. And so I always think that's quite interesting when it comes to building an actual robust, replicable, scalable business. That has time on it as well. And it isn't just going to be, oh, a one buy. And again, I've created a product that most people probably wouldn't need for bronzers and for blushes.

29:22But somehow people keep buying it because they love the product and they love how much easier it makes their day to day tasks in the morning or even just playing around with makeup, which so many people do because that's their therapy. So, yeah, I think it's a real standout, the curve case, because it's kind of meant to go against them. Odds of being like, oh, yeah, you would rebuy this and rebuy this because there's four bronzers in it. So if you run out of one, you go on to the next one. you know but obviously some people love that specific shade um and again for me it's also about understanding that I am a makeup artist I have been a makeup artist for nearly a decade now which makes me feel physically ill to say that um but I do create the products for me so you know not all of my products are best-selling products there is products that are only bought by certain people like that are more pro products and I'm okay with that I can sometimes take the hit on that when one of my other products is doing so well because to me it's not just about everything selling out all the time I actually don't always think that is a great business model either for everything to sell out because what are you then going to do and there's been so many times where we've we thought we ordered enough but then we've not and then there's been two three months where we've not had that stock and then you know the TikTok especially moves so fast someone else has found their their favorite cream bronzer so unless you're fulfilling that it's actually not good and And I think also the other thing about TikTok, especially TikTok Shop, because they are the two different entities, you actually never know when your product will go viral.

30:43Someone might buy your product and it might be a lip gloss. It might be an eyebrow product. And it might have sold 60 units. And then within those six units, it might be one of the biggest influencers in the country that then does a video with it and tags it. So it is, you just never know. And I think now we're at a point we've got such a huge product line, hundreds of products at this point. and our I'd say our top five products are really the the driver of of the company because they're in such high demand a lot of them I kind of create just because I love to create and that is sometimes the beauty of kind of keeping your business integrity in a sense of not just doing everything so it sells out like sometimes I know I've created a green lipstick I know not everyone wants to wear a green lipstick but that just does something to me and I will use the hell out of that green lipstick and it's just a great feeling knowing that you're using your own product that you've developed and you formulated which you will completely know as well so yeah it's it's I think there's different ways of looking at business as a whole and for me the main part of my business it's it's about making myself feel good and also about making other people feel good so whether that's for example I created lip kits last year I think it was and one of them was a black lip kit It's one of our best-selling lip kits of all time.

32:03Sells better than the nudes, sells better than the reds, a black lip kit. It sold like, I think we sold 20 ,000 units in about two days of a black lip kit. Insane, absolutely insane. But again, the demand is there for all those funky products and we've created products for those people that don't usually have products made for them. Right, so that's such a lesson in truly knowing your customer as well because I can imagine if you'd had like a huge investor in the company who has built all of these other cosmetics companies or someone who comes in to help you on your product range when actually they're in a much more traditional thing.

32:36It's like, yeah, this wouldn't work for other businesses, but yes, it does work for us. And truly trusting your gut and knowing that you built this for all of those yous out there and they do exist and there is a market for you. And that's what I always say. It's like, don't feel like you're the only one that wants to be noticed because like that is just complete proof that I've never heard anything like that. 20 ,000. black lip kits in like two days. I actually remember I didn't, I mustn't have been looking at the app that day or those two days. And I remember seeing loads of comments being like, please restock the black lip kit.

33:10And I was like, so I rang one of the team and I said, can we put the stock back in please? And she was like, oh no, there's no stock left. I was like, okay, maybe we need more black lip kits then. So yeah, it's just your brand identity is so important because it's your company identity at the end of the day. and it's the people that will be identifying with your brand. So yeah, it's a real circle. If you're a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility and your machinery isn't working right, Grainger knows you need to understand what's wrong as soon as possible. So when a conveyor motor falters, Grainger offers diagnostic tools like calibration kits and multimeters to help you identify and fix the problem.

33:50With Grainger, you can be confident you have everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. The market's uncertain. Revenue's tied and hiring on hold. That's why results-driven companies are using Upwork to keep work moving. Go to upwork.com today and start hiring proven freelance talent fast. No bulky overhead. No rigid long-term contracts. Just the right expert right when you need them. Work smarter and faster with Upwork. Go to Upwork.com now and find your freelance expert. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com.

34:31Post a job for free and get started today. At Capella University, learning online doesn't mean learning alone. You'll get support from people who care about your success. Like your enrollment specialist, who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve. You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program. Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu. You've spoken before about how, despite the last few years of kind of huge success for the business, you had what you call your kind of flop era, which I think, A, is really important to talk about because I think people love to speak about success at the point that, you know, that success has happened and not kind of, it's hard to really own when it wasn't necessarily doing what it needed to do or business was slow or whatever it might be.

35:30Could you talk to us a little bit about what that was like and what was kind of happening in that time? Yeah, so October, 2020, we launched the brand. And then around six months later, we had an incredible first six months, insane. And then we launched on a retailer that I'd worked with since the start of my career, beauty bay um and beauty bay had a real infrastructure that we didn't have at the time we still don't have an infrastructure like that we're still very small compared to beauty bay so we launched on there and obviously the customer would rather shop on beauty bay they get cheaper ship cheaper shipping and if you're an international customer you'd sometimes get free shipping and they also had a point system so you're paying for a made by mitchell product but it's adding up to your beauty bay points so we basically did wholesale with beauty bay and then i'd say around three months after that our website was just stale and i was like what the hell has happened we'd gone from having a really successful first six months we was also still in the in the midst of lockdown as well and you remember the start of lockdown everyone was online shopping and then i'd probably say 2021 mid 2021 people stopped online shopping it was kind of like okay now you know we've been buying candles for I don't know a year and a half there's only so many you can buy um so which was in it I was very guilty of that myself um and three months after we'd launched on beauty bay it just really went it went really silent our website was doing just terribly um and we still had a hell of a lot of stock as I said the moq when it comes to cosmetics especially when you're doing all these custom features are very very high and nothing was going nothing was moving and that probably went on for around six months and I remember me and the team we had a chat and we were but we actually had the conversation about selling up and just giving up and being like okay where are we even going from here and I was so adamant that this was my dream this is my final final journey when it comes to cosmetics this is my last thing that I want to do I want to keep at this for as long as I can remember and for as long as I can imagine so really put my foot down and I said I'm gonna make this work I'm gonna do this we're gonna get back to what we were and didn't just happen the day after it was we still had a really bad really bad for a few months after that but then we actually hired Gab who basically heads up all of our TikTok channel now and Gab basically told us we need to get on TikTok at the time TikTok was kind of a bit about kids dancing and all that kind of stuff I wasn't even on TikTok at the time and it just wasn't for me.

38:05I was this Instagram guy. That's how I'd built my career. I was scared of becoming a small fish in a big pond again, to be honest. I'd built this huge audience on Instagram and then when it came to the TikTok, I was starting from zero again and I was so scared about that. Anyway, I didn't have a choice, cut a long story short. We started on TikTok, started giving it a go and TikTok shop, maybe nearly three years ago now, approached us to start doing live streams with them. This was right at the start of TikTok Shop. No one was really doing it. And it was just one of those kind of opportunities where we was like, okay, this could be a lifeline.

38:40This could be where we can change it all. I kind of doubted it. I can't lie because it was so new. I was like, how is this going to become big? How is TikTok Shop going to become something that everybody uses like they do today? So from there, we did our first ever TikTok Shop live stream. And at the time, I think we were doing around 20 orders a month, which is scary. Really scary. For a small business, that might be a win, you know? And I really highly advise people that are doing 20 orders a month, really celebrate every single order you're getting at that time because you never know when it's going to just explode.

39:13Please don't feel like you're failing at that time. Just don't feel like that. But also you bought inventory for a business that wasn't doing 20 orders a month. And our business size wasn't, that wasn't feasible for that. It wasn't long lasting and there was no longevity in that. But again, I do think at that time, you never know when your switch up is going to come because my switch up was about to come. so we did our first ever live 20 orders a month at the time and on our first two hour live we did 20 orders on that two hour live I came off the live and I was like oh my god we've just done what I would normally do in a month in two hours and that's where we really started to see okay this could be something even if it's not going to be huge it's bigger than what we're doing now it's about perspective isn't it because again I look back now and if I did 20 orders on a live now I would be scared.

39:58But then I was so excited by it. And from that point on, it was just me and the team then that did creative work. So we didn't have anyone representing socials, no one creating content. It was just me, no one on the lives. And from that point on, I think I was probably live for about two years after that straight, just every single day. Just morning and night. And we built a community that is just next to none. And we gained traction from retailers all over the world because of the virality that we were getting from going live and because of the accolades that we'd received from being live. And, you know, the$1 million in 12 hours, it woke people up because at the start, when we started TikTok or started TikTok shop, a lot of people were saying, oh, this is really cringy.

40:42This is really tacky. This is going to do no good for your brand legacy. And I'll be honest, I owe it all to TikTok shop when it comes to my brand legacy, because now we're in a point we just launched, we did Bootsy's biggest ever rollout last year, which was just insane, being a TikTok brand, which we are, and I wear that crown now. But now this year, we're going into over 700 spots in America. We're launching in Australia, and that has really only come from TikTok shop, making the world known of what Made by Mitchell is. So yeah, it's been a real journey, and you'd never, when you're going through the worst parts of your journey, you never think that they're going to turn into the best parts or help you turn into the best parts.

41:24Because if we weren't doing those 20 orders a month at that time, I would have never had even thought about going on TikTok. And imagine that never happened. Imagine where the brand would be now. Would it even still be here? You know, would it be mine? Would it be elsewhere? You know, it would be a very different scenario. Yeah, it's such a good lesson in taking opportunities, but also not necessarily like sniffing at where that next opportunity might come from and just being able to try things because that might not have worked. Oh, yeah. It might not have worked. Or, you know, you might have judged that as, yeah, that worked, but not well enough to throw everything into it.

41:58Absolutely. And I actually think that, you know, the times where I felt most rock bottom in my kind of business have been the times that have warranted then the most change that have led to the biggest kind of uptick from that point onwards, or the biggest kind of redefinition of what we actually are as a business. And I think that is so incredibly important. And also, like you've just said, redefinition, like to be able to adapt as a business in this society and in this time of where we're at in the world, you have to be easily adaptable and you have to be down to sometimes switching things up.

42:33And I think because we've not necessarily had many suits telling us that we have to do this or have to do that, I think that's given us the freedom to be able to just kind of ignore opinions and just go based off feeling. And, you know, not everything's worked out, of course, not even everything on TikTok shop has worked out. We've had some times where things haven't gone down so well. But the magic of just freely doing something that you think feels good at that time and in that moment has really brought Made by Mitchell out into the world in a way that I don't think would have ever have happened in the short time span that it's been.

43:05It's been across like a two and a half year time span and we've gone from a brand that sells 20 products a month to doing millions of orders millions and millions it's insane and it's a worldwide brand and that's a real accolade to just taking the risk sometimes and ignoring where people might doubt those risks you know and what would your advice be to someone whose business now is currently in their quote-unquote flop era in the flop era embrace the flop era don't be too scared by the flop era even if it is really scary Don't let it back you away from the success that is waiting to come to you.

43:41I think you've got to really deep delve into your why. Like, why are you there? Not what are you there for? Why are you there for? And for me, my why was because this is my dream. You know, this is something I've always wanted to do. This is something that I've always built up for other people. I owed it to myself to follow it through. And I think that is a lot of people's whys. You're doing this. We're doing it for ourselves, aren't we? I'm doing this to make my life better. I'm doing it for my family. I'm doing it to make my little Mitchell when he was a little kid, make his dreams come true.

44:13And in turn, that's making other people's dreams come true because it's opening up things to so many other people. But yeah, I think finding your why is a really important thing to do. And I think sometimes when you are in your flop era, that's the best time to find it. And once you've found it, you just have to constantly remind yourself of that why rather than your what, you know? I think it's very important. Yeah. Yeah. And what about anyone who's listening to this with a business who doesn't necessarily know how TikTok shop works and is listening like, huh, this might be the next thing for me.

44:42How does it work as a business? Well, it's really funny as well, because if I was to look back about a year and a half ago, none of the big, you know, the household name brands would have been on TikTok shop. No way. No way. The L 'Oreal's, Estee Lauder, none of them would be on it because they'd think, oh, God, TikTok shop, you know, it had that kind of connotation to it. but now everyone's on it everyone and it's really funny because I must get like an email every week from one of the big brands asking me to go and help them on the live streams and I'm like this is hilarious because once upon a time we were like the laughing stock of the makeup world because we were on live 24 7 and all this kind of stuff now everyone else is doing it um so I think with TikTok shop it's an ever-changing platform so it's very different now to what it was when I first started because there was nobody really on it then you know we kind of pioneered a certain level for our own self but that has then turned out for other people and other brands but a tiktok shop cut a long story short it's basically aiming to be an amazon so imagine amazon you you can go on there it's a marketplace of many many products so the amount of people that that go onto the shop tab not necessarily that will click on to your tag a product and not necessarily that click on that but the actual shop tab, it's like the second icon on the bottom of the screen.

45:56It's millions and millions of people a day, which just shows you how many people are actually tapping on that shop tab and actually going through with a sale on that shop tab. So I think when it comes to TikTok shop, it's about really honing in on what kind of content you want to create for that platform. It's a very different platform to Instagram. It's very different to ads, all of those things that we use to generate sales. TikTok shop to me is like one of the most authentic ways to shop sometimes because it's in the moment it's based on how you feel about that video or about that listing so anyone that's coming on to it now I think you've just got to really understand what you want to be seen as on TikTok do you want to be the affordable brand do you want to be more of a high-end brand there's so many high-end brands on there now and I think it's just shown people that that can happen it doesn't just have to be people selling things for one pound which is I think the beautiful thing about what's gone on over the last few months because everyone should really embrace this incredible platform that's been built because it's not just built for a consumer it's also built for a business whether it's tiny or whether it's small it really does for me help you as a business and it helps you be seen and it gives you the visibility that I truly believe not many other platforms can offer and how did you go from I guess launching on the platform and doing your first ever live stream to actually getting to say the million dollars in 12 hours I think I mean I assume there was quite a lot of testing and learning and strategy that was put behind that because you didn't you didn't just list your products on it and go on and do a million dollars in your first one so what would you say were the big things you implemented to actually effectively get to those higher numbers I think for me it was the realization that I am my ads I am my marketing I am made by Mitchell.

47:47You know, I think using the founder as a face, I think has become such a big thing on TikTok. And I think if you are someone that is willing to show your face on TikTok and really explain the story of what you are building, I think truly it's only going to go one way because people will somehow become attached to what you are building. So that was what I realized very early on. people wanted to see me and that was sometimes a bit of a curse rather than a blessing because it meant that I could never come off live and I'd be on live every day of my life but you know I had a mission and I also had a lot to lose from the first time that we was in our flop era I didn't want to go back there I was adamant that that wasn't going to happen and I basically would be live every single day it's really about understanding you become you almost script your own live you you script your own kind of it's a bit like QVC you script it um but in a very natural way so I started to learn how to script and how to communicate without it being too much of a hard sell and rather than saying like buy my product it was kind of an even more in-depth way of me to be able to say to someone this is why you should buy my product because this is what it's going to do for you so that was really what I had to teach myself over the years of you know many, many, many live streams.

49:12And then basically TikTok shop eventually came to us. We were like TikTok shop's number one brand month after month after month. And they basically came to us and said, we'd love you to do a big live and do$500 ,000 in 12 hours. I was like, what the hell? We'd never done anything like that. The most we'd done before that, I think we did$2 million in a week. So I was like$500 ,000 in 12 hours. That's not even a day. So I went back and forth with my team And I was just kind of like, what if we don't, what if it doesn't happen? You know, what if we get knocked off that number one step, number one spot, which is just, you know, I think sometimes ego is something that you just need to let go of.

49:51So I let go of it. And I thought, if we don't hit that$500 ,000, it's okay. We give it a go. And I'm sure we'll somehow shock ourselves, whether it's$500 ,000 or$200 ,000, that's still a hell of a lot of money. so we basically did the live it was a 12-hour live and I remember about it was probably about five hours in we'd got to five hundred thousand dollars I was just like looking at my team who were all behind the cameras and they were like shall we go for a million shall we go for a million um and I basically was like what really you got a greedy I'm like stop because it's me that has to do this but then as soon as we hit five hundred thousand dollars it was just like every time i'd look it had gone up by like fifty thousand dollars fifty thousand dollars and that's really where we ended up hitting the um a million dollars and it was just it was something that i look back on now and i just think thank god i took that risk back in the day and thank god i didn't listen to the people that thought that tiktok shop was just a joke you know because that doesn't sound a lot of jobs.

51:00If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done

51:55not right for them or because that is right for them doesn't make it right for you yeah and i think that that's such a big lesson because i think it's so easy especially when we have like such visibility of our competition what they're doing well do you know what i i was thinking about this the other day because obviously refi jess hunt yeah jenna jenna they are incredible and their success is so inspiring but i see so many people try and emulate what they do as an aesthetic so many people not necessarily people but brands and that works because that's jess that is Jess Hunt through and through and it's been Jess for years and I see smaller brands trying to do it and I get it it's like something to look up to and you might enjoy that aesthetic yourself but if your brand or your product doesn't really reflect that aesthetic how are you going to try and emulate it as a as like the personality of the brand so you can't ever really try and replicate what someone else is already doing because it's doing well for them because it's them so it's about finding what will do well for you because it's you and I think that's something that I see so often and something that I'm very proud of myself when it comes to made by Mitchell because there's we don't do it like anyone else you know we don't we don't try and follow a trend of like this is what people are doing right now let's let's do this as well we've kind of actually opposed trends in so many ways and I think that is really what's allowed us to stay afloat in such a saturated industry because it really is when it comes to cosmetics yeah no you're totally right And I think that it's really easy, especially when you're starting out in an industry, to think that certain brands are successful because they look a certain way.

53:24And don't get me wrong, aesthetics are important and brand is important. But brand is true to that brand. And it is for exactly that reason. It's like, yes, that might work. And that might be hugely trending right now. But it's also particularly working for them because, as you say, it's authentic to them. It's authentic to that business. And, yes, it might get you some, especially if you can undercut, like that might get you some cash. like if you're able to do like some great jupes or whatever it might get you some cash it probably won't build you into a brand of like tomorrow yes absolutely and i think when i started i was so obsessed with the fact that like i'd stepped away from brand work to make my own brand that i'd been like because i think it's different with makeup you can you can wear lots of different makeup brands and no one's going to be like oh that's weird if i wore loads of different active wear brands people would be like yeah oh yeah no because it's not you know like it's different You're using so many products on your face.

54:13So I would be so obsessed with this kind of idea of like, well, this brand's really successful and they're doing this and this brand's really successful and they're doing this. And I think at the beginning, then even though we had like our really clear parameters that I was very proud of and why I kind of started the business, I think there were definitely a few years when I was like, okay, actually what we are currently is like an amalgamation of all of these different brands rather than our own brand. and I really needed to strip it back from that to be able to get back on like a successful path.

54:44So that's such a skill to even be able to notice that though because some people don't notice it and I think that can be so detrimental to the final destination of where a brand is going. But I think it takes a lot to be able to actually realise that for yourself and to tell yourself and to act on that and make a change on it because I think, you know, it's so easy to compare and I do it most days, you know, but it's about reminding yourself. I don't know why I'm comparing. Yes, we were in the same industry, but we're not the same. Yeah, and I think there's definitely a valuable aspect of comparison in that comp shopping has always been something huge in every industry.

55:22You see what all the other brands are doing so that you can work out what consumers are liking and all of this. That's helpful. Comparison to the detriment of like, now I need to follow means you're always going to be following. You're never going to be the one setting the trends if you're always doing that. And I think that's something that I've, I had to learn for sure, because I was like social media is so trend led that we've always got to be at the forefront of the trends. And that means we're always actually slightly behind fast fashion. Then I'm like, well, that doesn't work because we're more expensive than fast fashion.

55:51So I'm like, But it's so true though. And again, growing into, and I think it's maybe a little bit different in fashion as well, because it's, there is the element of fast fashion, which is just a whole other world in itself, isn't it? And I think a lot of, I have a lot of friends that have fashion brands our fashion lines and I think they probably all have very similar feelings to what you've just expressed because again it's it's just a different world of how quick things can be can be turned around exactly in the fashion world isn't it this is this is why I always say I'm like if I ever see a design on one of our design decks that I'm like I think I'm like there's no world in which we're going to be able to compete with fast fashion at that time because that is the exact type of design that's going to be they're going to be rolling that out in two weeks yeah so of course actually that's not even worth it for us because we know we can't sell cheap because we're like we're well priced but we can't sell you think there was ever a time where you would you would have that the same observation and think but we're still gonna do it yeah 100 and i think there were so many things where i was like that's so on trend we're doing that then and actually no it was on trend for fast fashion which meant that it moved immediately and actually i then we were too slow and we were too expensive because obviously we're very different in terms of production and materials and all of those things and i think that i you know we were constantly playing this catch-up game and i'm like why am i trying to compete with fast fashion because i'm slower more expensive like all of the good things as well but like that's not yeah we're not trying to compete on getting there first that's not the metric here and i think that was really important as a learning as a founder very important but again i think that's something that i i even find that interesting here in that because i probably don't look i don't really look at it as a trend in a sense because yeah I think cosmetics is different it is we don't really create a product based on a trend in a sense there's definitely trending looks and things like that but I think when it comes to formulations it's not as much so that way skincare is different Korean skincare is like all the thing at the minute and then it's going to go into sea beauty and all this kind of stuff but I think when it it's more so just based around colour cosmetics it's kind of whatever you want it to be and whatever makes you feel good so it's really interesting to to hear that um that process what you've been through yeah i would even say then on top of that it's just then knowing your industry because if i'd known my industry better i would have been able to know what i should and shouldn't be competing in whereas like you could probably spend more time investing in like understanding why something's a trend because actually it's not a trend it's just a really good product and then being able to learn from that whereas like i was constantly chasing my tail for a good few years and i was like oh that's okay though that's i think I think every business founder or anyone that is even just creating something that is something different you know I think we've all probably been there and if not you everyone's going to be there at some point exactly and you've said before that when you were younger you were put down a lot for being quote-unquote too much but obviously you've also like it's kind of quite clear that that exactly who you are and exactly that has led to all the success that you've had now how do you kind of think about that?

58:50Like, how do you reconcile that when you look back at what you went through? Do you know what? I look back at it and I think this is a story that needs to be told because I am certainly not the only person that has ever been told that you are too much, whether it's because you're too flamboyant and you're gay and you love rainbow eyeshadow or whether you're just loud. Like there's so many people on this planet that are - We're just two people yelling at each other right now. Yeah, literally, let me speak. But that is something that I know, no matter who you are as a person and no matter why you are too much I think it's it's so important for people to hear that story because I was told I was too much for so so many years and there probably was times where I decided to turn it down and turn it down but that's just not me I'm not too much to be getting attention I'm too much because I can't bloody help it I probably would like to turn it down sometimes um but I'm exhausted too yeah no literally I don't give me a break but i think now i as i've matured and as i've got older and i do think i'm definitely mellowing as i'm becoming more in tune with myself and maybe more in more in involved with myself to the point i don't always have to be trying to get someone's attention because i was ignored for so many years so maybe that is sometimes why i was being too much quote unquote because if not nobody would listen to me you know so no literally do you know what i mean though But I think now that I feel like I've gained my own respect for myself.

1:00:14I don't always have to be too much. But I think now my brand embodies too much. You know, it's expressive. It's out there. And I completely celebrate that now. So I hope people take that. And whether it's because you're too much or whether it's because you're too quiet, like that doesn't mean that it's something wrong with you. It's just who you are. And the moment that you accept who you are, that's when the world starts to accept it as well. And even if they don't want to tolerate it, they can accept it and they just maybe don't be your friend or sit across from you at a table. But I think that's a real powerful thing in life to just accept who you are and start to love who you are.

1:00:52And I think that is something I've done over the last four years. And my approach to anything I do in life is completely different now because of it. And what do you think has played a big role in you becoming so confident, I guess, in spite of the fact that people have called you too much for a long time? I think it is, you know, not to make it all about accomplishments, but I think my accomplishments that I've worked my ass off to achieve, I think it is them. Because, you know, whether it's about being the cringe band on TikTok to now what we're doing now over the next year, it's going to be an insane year.

1:01:26And that to me is, it's my feeling like, OK, I'm glad I trusted myself. I'm glad that I didn't change it up because nobody else was doing that at the time. I'm glad that I really stayed on live for 12 hours a day. I'm glad that I did that. Because at the time I felt, I'm not gonna lie, there was times where I felt stupid because I was being told, oh no, this is never gonna last. This is this, this is that. So yeah, I think it is an accomplishment sometimes. And that's what makes me then look at it and think, thank God I did not change. And thank God that I didn't take someone else's advice. Thank God I did what felt most natural to me in that moment.

1:02:00Yeah, it's so funny. I'm glad you say that because we've spoken on this podcast before about how doing good things and proving to yourself that you are not only a good person, but also like a hardworking person, like a generous person, whatever it might be, that is so effective for building self-worth and self-confidence. And we've had the rebuttal before of like, yes, but you should have unwavering like self-worth. And it's like, yeah, absolutely you should. But a lot of people don't. And like I, for one, definitely don't and haven't always had like, you know, unwavering self-worth. I think that I've built that over time by building who I am and knowing who I am because I say I'm going to do something and I do it.

1:02:37And you do it. And I think that we underestimate how important it is not to be telling ourselves we're going to do one thing and not following through. Because if that was a friend who did that to you, you wouldn't trust them. You wouldn't be confident in them. So why do you think that the other way around? Yeah, I actually watched a podcast before, actually. Someone was reacting to a podcast and they said, if you want to achieve something, when you wake up, do it then. Don't wait, do it then. And I think that was like, I was like, oh my God, because I'm sure you wake up some days and you think, oh my God, I can't do this today.

1:03:08This is just not what I want to face today. But I listened to it and there's been a few things just over the last few years where I've probably have turned it away for a little bit longer than probably what I should have. And imagine just facing it there and then. That's when life becomes easier. And it also becomes more authentic as well because it's true and it's exactly what you are. Yeah, and I don't know whether this is just like kind of like old generation really getting into my head, But I do think there is like more and more of a self-confidence crisis kind of coming through in generations.

1:03:41And I wonder how much of that as well. Like, I think there are lots of different parts of it. And I think social media plays a role. And I think that there's so many different things play a role. But I do wonder how much of that is because we've increased convenience and the ability to not need to do a lot in lots of scenarios. Like a lot of the time you don't need to get up to entertain yourself. You don't need to move and do that thing. You don't need, like everything can be so convenient. Everything is at the tip of our fingers, isn't it? Exactly. And so we don't prove ourselves that like, we don't give ourselves these little dopamine hits in the day to prove that we are a capable person.

1:04:16And that might sound so stupid because like, yeah, you don't need to do the dishes to prove you're a capable person. But actually, if that's something you put off again and again and again, you hate the fact that your kitchen always looks like shit. But you're not doing anything about it. Yeah. Like we do have our own roles to play in building our own confidence. and I worry about the amount of increased convenience of what that does to the ability to prove ourselves. I think there's a lot of, in today's society as well, especially with our generation as well. And even sometimes when I speak to my friends, there's a lack of self-blame sometimes.

1:04:45And I think that sometimes is where things do become very just in like a real lapse of never wanting to help yourself. And I think if you can never admit that something might be our fault, that's when it just spirals and spirals and spirals. and not everything is everyone's fault, of course. Not everything is your fault and everything is my fault. It is really just trying to, instead of blaming other people and other situations, that where is that going to get you at the end of the day? Sometimes it's about taking ownership and saying, I put myself in a situation and now I'm going to take myself out of it, whether I created it or not.

1:05:22And I think that self-power on yourself is, and also self-accountability is so important. And I think through having a business, that is something that has become so apparent that is so important because if I don't get up and and get to work things don't work you know you're forced to be a self-starter yes no literally but sometimes being forced to do something is in my opinion that's always been like my best way to do something because I didn't have a choice in that time you know whether it was you know starting singing in pubs and clubs where nobody was listening like that would have never have led to me doing x-factor which would have never have led to me starting makeup so you know being forced to be out of your comfort zone is a beautiful beautiful thing it really is yeah i love that and before we finish i'd love to know what the best piece of advice is that you've ever been given best piece of advice it's very simple but just be yourself and even when you don't know who yourself is just keep striving to find yourself but truly that is i think something that anyone can take in their own way and i don't think advice always has to be super complex and i don't think it always has to be riveted in about complexities and big words I don't think it has to be like that but being yourself is truly it's a superpower that only you can have yeah and I think if we were all super men super women that would be the human way of being a superhuman you know just being yourself and it's I hope one day that we can see everyone just being themselves because we do live in a world of people not striving for themselves you know but yeah that's my greatest piece of advice that I I will always tell myself even on the days where I aren't so being myself you know because that does happen yeah oh I'm big on that well thank you so much you've been incredible thank you so much for coming no such an honor thank you for having me

1:07:41We'll be right back. to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. At Capella University, learning online doesn't mean learning alone. You'll get support from people who care about your success, like your enrollment specialist, who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve. you'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program plus career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals a different future is closer than you think with capella university learn more at capella.edu summer's heating up and so is the action with chumba casino and 2311 racing whether you're trackside with bubba riley and tyler or cooling off at home the fun never stops at chumba casino the online social casino packed with free-to-play games like slots, blackjack, and more.

1:08:43Jump into summer at chumbacasino.com and score your free welcome bonus. Two million free gold coins and two free sweeps coins. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Voidware prohibited by law. CT &C is 21 plus sponsored by Chumba Casino.