Candice Bar, CEO of Luxe Enterprise | How To Build a Media Empire

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Remember gain grow retain on the HubSpot podcast network. My guest is Candice Bar. Candice is a multimedia mogul a female entrepreneur advocate. She is the founder and CEO of Lux Enterprise, which includes Lux Media, Lux Media Studios, Lux Life Magazine, Lux Life Cosmetics, Lux Wear, and the Lux Life podcast that she hosts. She is the sole owner of Lux Media Studios. This is the first the world's first luxury multimedia studio on rodeo drive, as well as the first fully female owned media station in the US. So she's built an empire around media, around her brand, around the product she sells. So we spoke about her background, how she built out this Lux Enterprise empire. We spoke about why she decided to create this media empire, some of the entrepreneur lessons that she's experienced over her career, some of the things that she loves to speak about, including media, female entrepreneurship, empowerment, things that are really great to just discuss and highlight and how she has managed to become so successful and what she's doing for other women entrepreneurs and how other women and female entrepreneurs can lift themselves up through some of the learnings and teachings that Candice has executed on. So let's jump right into it. This is Candice Barr, the founder and CEO of Lux Enterprise. Sure, so I came, I have come from a family of entrepreneurs or I guess at the time you call them small business owners, because I don't think the word entrepreneur existed at that time. So my great grandparents, my grandparents, my parents were all small business owners or entrepreneurs, whatever word you want to use. So I was pretty much conditioned to be an entrepreneur. So I never wanted to go to college. I didn't go to college. And the last two years of high school, actually, I homeschooled myself. So I could graduate earlier, move out earlier and do my own thing faster. So I got my own apartment around 17 and I had two jobs. I had a full time job and a part time job in the weekends. And I just always had that fire and passion inside of me, just I don't really know at the time I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I always wanted to do my own thing. And I always had that entrepreneurial spirit growing up, like I said, I was in my parents, you know, different businesses, ringing people up cash, you know, the cashier, like when I was around eight, seven, eight, you know, pricing things, selling things. I'm sure if my parents or my grandparents knew that that was like conditioning is kind of just helping out, you know, helping the family out and doing what you need to do to get it done. But I'm glad that that happened that way because we are where we are today because of that conditioning. Did you ever, you said you home, that's very impressive. By the way, so you actually homeschooled. Did you ever take a quote unquote job outside of working for your parents before you started your own thing or was it just like I can only ever work for myself. I did, I absolutely had jobs. I begged my father at 14, begged him, begged him for six months to let me get a job. I just could not wait to be an adult. And for six months, he would not allow me to get a job. Then he finally let me get a job. It's my first job ever outside of any of the family businesses was at a pizza place. And I was so excited to make my own money and to do my own thing. I didn't last there very long because I've never been good at being told what to do. But I did do that. And so after that, I think my next job was in sales shoe sales, which I attribute my extreme shoe issue to nowadays, but as in shoe sales. And I remember taking that job because my father told me he's like, you be great at sales. Sales was a great skill. Once you know how to sell one thing, you can sell anything. So I took a sales job. I was there for a little. Yeah, I was there for a little while. I was there for about two years. Again, I was really young at the time. I think I got that job at 17. I made pretty good money at the time, actually. And then at that's the same time I moved out and got my own apartment. And then I was in sales for a really long time, various different products, various different things. But I think having as like I do agree with him even now, even having sales as in, you know, in your kind of resume is never a bad thing. You'll never not be able to sell once you can sell something. I 100% agree. I think that's probably one of the most undervalued entrepreneurial traits. So after selling what was the point in your life when you thought I want to go build something I'm not only making money and I'm good at it, but I'm crazy enough to try and figure out how to do my own thing. So it was interesting. So my first ex husband, when we started dating, I was 21. I met him. We had owned a bunch of different, you know that remember those kiosks in the middle of the mall. Yeah. So we owned a bunch of those, a ton of those in different malls throughout New England. And so I was kind of thrown into it. I, you know, I learned managing skills. I learned, you know, of course training skill training our employees training in sales, purchasing wholesale, setting things up, tearing them down, firing, firing. I learned everything. So we did that for a couple of years. And again, very young looking back, I can't believe we did all that working for 20, 20 years old, working 14, 16 hour days for months on end, no matter what it really at the time I hated it more than I could possibly explain. But I'm glad I did that because, you know, nobody can ever outwork me. No one can ever hustle me because I did that at such a young age and it's really ingrained in you. So at the time I hated it, and I was so mad at him, but now I'm so grateful for it. So was that, was that like a JV, like a joint venture with, with the ex husband? That's, that was obviously a thing at the past. There's no, there's no spin off from that into what you're doing now. So that was just the first phase of entrepreneurship. Yes, like, you know, you know, owning it, you know, putting your own money toward it, we never got loans, we just, we put our own money in it. Just having that extreme responsibility on yourself and being responsible for other people and their livelihoods, that was really interesting. So that was kind of the first taste of that. Okay, so then after, after that, you've conditioned yourself mentally to deal with the stresses of entrepreneurship. Yeah. Where does the, where does Lux come from? So Lux came from, I still have a show, I have two shows now, but my first show was Lux Life with Candice Bar, and that was with another company for a while. And I was with them for, I think about four or five years. And then I had a show with Robert Kewisaki, actually, and that show, yeah, that show was the whole jumping off point for Lux Media Studios, which we're sitting in today. I wanted to be able to have something that, if something was my issue or fault, I wanted to be able to fix it. I wanted to have more control over content, not only for my show, but for other, we have other shows with Lux Media now. I wanted to have a really professional product because your podcast is a product. I wanted a bunch of different things that I just wasn't seeing in the entertainment studio world. I want something lovely to walk into and to work in most of our hosts that have shows with us now can come and hang out and just, you know, be around the vibes all day, even if they're not doing a show. So there was a lot of things I wanted to see in a studio with podcasts that I wasn't seeing that I needed to create. I just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's episode Athletic Greens. Now, I'm super happy that I partnered with Athletic Greens because I literally use them every single day. Now, I've known about Athletic Greens for a little bit only because I tried them about two years ago way before they decided to sponsor the show. And I noticed that in winters, when I didn't take Athletic Greens, I would get sick as a dog. I did take Athletic Greens. I wouldn't get sick at all. 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I guess you co-hosted or you were producing? No, he was on, he was on my show. So he's on your show. Yeah, we've had a lot of, we've had a lot of, we've had a lot of pretty big names over the years on looks life. And that shows about entrepreneurship as well. And he, you know, with everything, you just have to be tenacious. And you have to keep following up, following up, following up and eventually he'll get what you want. Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. You're a hundred percent on point. Just thinking how I started my show and, you know, I'd probably say some of the same things with some of the early guests that I got that I thought were really, really great guests, right? You just have to put yourself out. Sometimes, you know, you can really surprise yourself. Yeah, yeah, you can. You totally can. Okay, so you got Robert Kiyosaki on your show and you built the show obviously, built the audience. And so the first version of Lux was not the, you know, the couple products that you have now. It was podcast media studio. And also, I just want to understand, why did you want to start a podcast? Because the personal branding, content creation, going back a few years, it isn't as prevalent as it is now. Not everybody has a podcast five years ago or ten years ago compared to almost everybody having their own. Yeah, I'd say now your podcast is now the new version of your business card. Nobody has business cards anymore, but everybody has a podcast. Or a book. Your book is a business card now. So it actually went in this in this order. It went Lux life at Cannes Bar podcast. Then it went to Lux life magazine, which we still have, which we only highlight female entrepreneurs. Then it went to Lux life cosmetics. Then it went to Lux wear, which we have a jump suit lined for female entrepreneurs. Then it went to the Lux media studios. Okay, understood, understood. And how do you, how do you think of where you want to take the business next? And I want to ask that because many people could have just built a huge podcast or a huge cosmetics line or a great magazine. Each one of those is a dumb business. So I am highly creative. And so I look at businesses being just one big creation. It's just being creative and having a vision and putting action toward your vision. And so most of the time I always say, I don't think anyone knows what they're doing with anything. I don't care who they are, what level they're at. I think it's one big test run. And I'd rather try it than not try it. And then, you know, with entrepreneurship, you kind of, you know, you create something and you course correct and you shift and you, you make it work. And so that's kind of my stance on what I've, what, how I've been throughout any business or anything that my, our hands are on. That's kind of how I deal with things. And how have you made sure that some of these things that you've taken on as you've grown Lux as a brand? How have they been successful? Because I know a lot of people that also do try and they are creative and they take on new things. But then it's like the shiny objects syndrome. And they never know what to focus on. And then everything just fizzles out. Well, you have to have a business side. So it's the, it's the same kind of thing as, you know, most artists that I know, not all of them, but most artists that I know like painters and things like that. They're really great at creating art, but they're really terrible at the business side. So I've been fortunate to, again, like I said in the beginning, I was kind of conditioned to have this business side. So I am able to marry them both together. The artistic creative side and the business side. So I do have both. And that's kind of, that is why we've been successful. Okay, good. So I'm okay. So there's, there's entrepreneurial lessons that I want to unpack from this story. But first let's, let's keep going down this, this road, this path. So for Lux. So what is, what is the concept of Lux? Obviously I'm assuming Luxury. So walk me through the brand. What it stands for. How you mentioned a little bit. How you differentiate. But let's, let's dive into the brand a little bit. I'm sure there's a story there as well. So I have always been a quality person over quantity. I don't want, you know, 45 shows example with the studio. I only want about 15 or 20. And that is to be able to, I mean, we have a fabulous team. It's not just me. We have a great team. Everyone knows the role. Everyone does a great job of what they do. And so I want to keep the quality example in the podcast. Over having a bunch of shows and just kind of, you know, punching those all out. And it just, it looks like a crap show. So we have a really great team that makes sure the product, whatever the product is that Lux's name is on it, is done well. It's always been quality over quantity for me. So, you know, I wanted, I wanted things to look good. I wanted them to be of quality. It's like, it's an example of why would you buy a Birken bag and not, you know, a guest purse. Both of them are purses. Both of them carry your wallet and your sunglasses and your cell phone. You know, why would you get a Rolls Royce over a Toyota? It's like the detail of it. Details huge to me. When someone comes in the studio, for example, we already have their snacks, their water, their food, specifically that they requested for them here already. The receptionist is great. They know, we know who's coming in. It's really high touch. And I think what we've been going through in 2020 and now, I think standards have, from what I've been seeing, have lowered. And I believe it's our job to raise standards again, especially in media. Interesting. And what do you, what do you mean by, by lowered standards? I don't disagree with you, but I want to paint a picture for content creators, for people that are creating media. Even right now, we're doing virtual when, how great would it be to be sitting across from you in a studio and creating like that higher quality content. So, how do we, how do we get that quality back? I guess it's the standards of the person and what they're expecting. You know, I think that what's the saying, you know, how you do one thing is how you do everything. So if your standards aren't high or your bar is not high, no one can, no one can really convince you. It should be higher. It's, I would say it's more of an internal kind of deal. And how have you seen that, that mindset of only producing top tier quality goods impact your business? It really, you know, media, as you may or may not know, fortunately or unfortunately, I guess who depends who you're talking to, when things go awry in the world media usually does better. Especially with what we were in kind of the quarantine kind of deal, people weren't able to leave their houses or do different things that they normally would do. And so that's where media really stepped in and was a plus because if you did your broadcast or your show well, depending on what platforms you're on and how it, you know, how it's produced, then your business really wouldn't have to suffer, doesn't have to suffer. I mean, that's kind of where the business mind comes into play. Okay, so as, okay, so as you've grown, as you've grown lux focus on quality over quantity. And this is something that you've taken into all your other ventures as well. So what is, let's talk about just like currently what lux is. And then I also want to unpack maybe just a few more things that you're passionate about because I know that obviously there's some great entrepreneurial lessons. We can talk about women entrepreneurship because I know that a lot of the things that you've built out really empower women, which is incredible as well. And some of the things that I think that we could do better or the average business could do better to help empower women. And then let's, I also just want to help people that are listening to this potentially pick one venture that you've been successful at. And like outline some like very tangible takeaways if they want to, for example, because you have experiences so many things like how to build out how to build out a great podcast, how to build out a great D to see or a clothing brand. If you want to get it off the ground, what would be some of the steps they would take? We can sort of teach some people like what they would actually do based on the fact that you've launched like six or seven different businesses. But anyway, so Lux, what is it today? Can you clarify the question? Oh, so like the conglomerate of brands. So what has Lux grown into over over the years? So you said there is there's podcasts, there's cosmetics, magazine. How do these all tie in together and also list them out so that I have an understanding of everything because I think I'm just looking at the website. So it's all under the Lux enterprise name. So it's a kind of for me and my mind, it just it's different branches of Lux enterprise. So it's the studio, it's the podcast. We also were starting to do music shortly. People can come record their music and their albums here. We do events in the studio. We have the Luxware jumpsuit line. We have the cosmetic line. We have the magazine. That's just for now. We're probably going to create more stuff. And so how is it all tie in together was a question. Yeah, yeah. For me, it's all the same thing. It's just again, like I said, it's just all creative. It's just it was all created actually out of a need for me. And then I created for for other people. That's really where it came from. So I wear a lot of jumpsuits and I wear jumpsuits because it's convenient for me. I can go on a plane, get off, go to a meeting, go to a dinner, and then if I need to pass out in it, I created something that and it's like their custom made jumpsuits, everything's custom, everything's high touch, everything's made of quality. So that was came out of a need need for me. The makeup line was created because I wanted to do a less than two minute face because I'm typically doing my makeup in the car on the way here before I do the interview. So I needed something quick, easy, fast, and really great quality makeup. So that's where that came from. The studio came out of a need because I wanted better quality podcasts for people and myself. So it really came out of a need for myself and then hope, you know, thankfully, other people saw the need as well. I just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's episode express VPN. Now, I know most of you are probably thinking, why don't I just go incognito mode? Well, let me tell you something incognito mode does not hide your activity. It doesn't matter what mode you use or how many times you delete your browsing history, your internet service provider can still see every single website you've ever visited. That's why even when I'm at home, I never go online without express VPN and it doesn't matter who your internet service provider is ISPs in the US can legally sell your information to add company. 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I think that's I think that's really really smart and that's a good takeaway for people that are listening to be a successful entrepreneur. Sometimes you don't have to reinvent Facebook. You're just looking for a problem that you're experiencing in your own life and you're building a solution for that. Okay, so let's talk about some of the things that are very important to you. So one topic that comes up quite often with Lux is female entrepreneurship, women's empowerment. So what are what are some of the items that you've experienced or blockers that you've experienced in your own career that you're trying to help fix or help make people wear a good question. So yeah, female entrepreneurship is huge on my heart. It always has been I would say a lot of my success are from female other female entrepreneurs coming up in the years. I haven't had investors yet, but we've had we've been approached and the investors have been female. You know, as you may or may not know, even in the entrepreneurial space, you know, if you need the top 10 influential most influential entrepreneurs, they're all men. There's a ton of female entrepreneurs that have a lot of value that are really great equally as great and they're not showcased the way that the guys are and this is not a man hating thing. We love the men and we've no problem with men, but I do feel because I'm in the media space because we do have the platform. It is my job to help the females, you know, move forward faster because we can and that's really and that's what I want to do. Do you feel like do you feel like there are communities or or I'm trying to I'm trying to think of how to say like not incubators potentially incubators that are set up to to make women feel more comfortable into jumping into entrepreneurship. Or is that something that you don't see a lot of does that make sense like are these are these support groups or is it just that once you've already reached the pinnacle of success. That's when people start approaching you. Are there support groups people should go look to to get started from the ground up that are maybe not, you know, like tech focused incubator that is predominantly, you know, just guys coming out of west coast schools and that's maybe not an environment where somebody. Maybe women feel safe jumping into maybe some do but maybe some don't so just like almost like a like mine a community of women that are focused on tech startups entrepreneurship that you'd recommend people go check out. You know it's a good question. I always said you know I've networked a lot throughout my life, which I'm sure you have as well. And so for me because luxury and kind of having a higher brand was always the forefront of my mind, even in the beginning. I always knew I want to who I want my clientele to be even in the beginning. And I think that's important and to answer your question for males and females, my suggestion would be. If you're going to go to networking groups or incubators or whatever word you want to use, make sure you're going into groups where it's more higher end where the ticket to get in is a bit a bit more. That's where you're going to find more thought leaders that's where you're going to find people who can afford your services and maybe help you a little bit more than if it's a free event or a less expensive event. So if I always say if it's free, it's not for me. You can't pump a dry well. And when it's a bit more expensive or a bit more pricey, it's usually worth it more because of the quality of people that are in the room. Okay. Okay. So a little bit of a little bit of pay to play, not necessarily. So some people may look for communities that support them, but realistically, you're just looking for a higher caliber of community overall regardless of what the makeup is just jump right into. And for somebody who is jumping into entrepreneurship. What would be some of the recommendations women or men? What would be some of the recommendations that you've had after building this business and other businesses that they think about as they dive in is it's something where they jump in 100% day one. Is it something where they potentially started as a side hustle and then you know, hedge the risk and maybe not cut off their salary right away. How would you suggest somebody start? You know, it's a tough question to answer because someone's situation is not somebody else's situation. So I was able to jump right in because I do not have children. I do not, you know, I do have employees. I'm responsible for their livelihood now, but I didn't have, you know, the extra mouths to feed. So I can't speak on someone who does have children and that is a huge risk for not only the person, but their family now. I can speak it for myself and for myself. I did jumping because that's my personality. I've always been pretty bold. I've always been, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to make it no matter what I'm going to make it. I don't care what I have to do. I'm going to make it. That's always been my personality. So I guess it's also personality thing as well. I always tell everyone I'm like, you know, if you're going to do it faster slow, at least you're doing it. So you, but no matter how you do it, do do something because you, you can't. You got to be happy in life. And if you're miserable being an employee or a miserable way you're at, you have to go find your happiness, whatever that looks like. And little steps are rather than no steps. Very smart. Okay. So one thing that I wanted to also pull out from you because you work with a variety of different businesses. And I want to, I want to teach over a little bit to people that are listening, some best practices. And I would love to understand, for example, first in media and podcasting. You've built out a studio now. You most likely know what good looks like because you have all these incredible shows that are running out of your out of your studio. So if somebody wants to start a show, somebody wants to start a podcast. What would be the recommendation to just get their first episode out? What type of content? What, how do they brand it? Is something that people should take on or is the market saturated? All these question marks that are potentially, you know, new podcasts would have. So it's a good question. I do not think the market is saturated and I'll tell you why the huge part of Lux Media Studios is, you know, the way that we pick our host. We don't just have whoever whoever wants to come on as a host. We actually do filter a lot of people because I, again, weren't just in quality over quantity. There's so much crap out there right now. There's so many people in my opinion that shouldn't be having podcasts. There's so much information out, especially right now. That I believe if you have, if you're someone who is this expert in your field, or if you're someone who wants more exposure and has something to say, something of value, then you should have a show. And for the question about the first show, which we do with all the first first host. First host, first host that we have, because all of our hosts are brand new hosts. You know, you just got to do it. Anything new is going to be scary. And then after you do it over and over and over again, then becomes second nature. We have, we've had a host or two on with us that the first show they were, they had to have, they had to have a couple drinks before doing their first show. I'm like, do whatever you need to do to get it done. And then now, because they've been with us for a couple of years now, it's second nature. It's really nothing. They couldn't believe in the beginning. They were nervous. But again, with anything new, it is a little nerve wracking, but you just got to shut up and do it. And what is valuable content in a podcast? Someone who has different ideas, I mean, we've heard this, we were hearing the same ideas over and over again, a different idea, different perspective, whether we, some people agree with it or not, you can't be scared of people agreeing with you or not agreeing with you. You have to, there has to be some sort of boldness, even scary boldness, there has to be some sort of boldness and, you know, and it could be anything like, you know, moms to talk about mom stuff that people don't typically hear about. I mean, there's a million entrepreneurs shows, but they're all different views and different thoughts. And so I think that if it's a value, and I can't tell you what value is to me or to someone else, but what I think, yes, it's different lens. It's always a different lens, but what I find valuable is I love different ideas. Again, whether I agree with it or not, I'm someone who's able to not agree with you and respect your different ideas. I love things like that. We have a show, for example, he's a drag queen and he is a Republican. He talks about, he talks about both things. I think that's fascinating. I don't always agree with him, but I think it's fascinating. What do you look for in a host? Someone who there is a passion, even if it's again a quiet passion or scared passion, there's a passion. Usually our most of our show hosts have a brand already. They have a business already and they look at their podcast as part of their brand. It's just one more branch of the brand just like having a book. And they kind of deal with their podcast as they would any business. And so someone who's been in their business for a little while, who knows what they're talking about. I want someone not just every show has a theme. It's not all over the place. Every individual show, we know kind of the topic of what we'll be talking about that day. So someone who has a clear vision of what they like to see. It's always going to be changing and transforming as your show goes on, but the idea of the path kind of has to stay the same. And do you find that shows that resonate are more educational or entertainment or a mix of both mix of both. Okay, I'm just going to take notes now for no, that's very good. And as you build out as you build up these multiple brands that aren't just the podcast, do you leverage your individual brands to sort of cross pollinate audiences? And if so, how do you do that? Yeah, so we have, we already have built-in audience just from again, having my show Lux life for so many years. And then some of the shows, the hosts that we brought on, they already brought a following with them. So we have quite the built-in audience already. And so different shows will of course attract a different audience, different age ranges, different locations in the world, because they're international. Lux Media, we are associated with about 27 different platforms. So when someone starts to show with us, they're launched on all 27 platforms immediately. So they start out with a pretty big audience immediately. Instead of having to build their podcast and helping someone listens, their guaranteed people are listening. And for somebody, okay, so, and somebody who would potentially want to work with you, it's a brand play, is there a revenue stream for the podcasters as well that they can tap into from joining a network like Lux Media? There can be, I mean, there's a couple options if they decide to do so. So a lot of the hosts have a lot of creative control with their podcast, like their name, their intro music, we put together all the back stuff. There's a lot that we do for them, but they have a lot of creative control. And if they decide to take a hold of creating another source of income for themselves through their podcast, they're welcome to. Okay, so this is, and this would be, this would probably for an independent creative. This would probably give them access to obviously, you know, you have a large network day one. This would probably be attractive for advertisers I'm assuming. Is that something that I don't want to put words in your mouth? I'm just assuming like if you have this huge network already, then you can bring in advertisers that could do sponsor spots. So if there is a creative that wants to advertise. Absolutely, when that's one of the ways you could do it. Okay, cool. Yep. All right. And the other brands like under Lux Media outside of the podcasting, how do you leverage those to support one another? So do you, for example, cross promote in the magazine, the podcast, the TV shows, you know, magazine, so on and so forth. So in the magazine, we do advertise all of the shows. So once someone has a contract with Lux Media, they're advertised on pretty much whatever our hand is on their advertised on there as well. For example, next month, we're having our women of achievement awards. We have that every year men do attend, but we only have female speakers coming in. And all the people that have their hosts with us are able to attend actually two of the hosts are speaking at that event. So it does absolutely cross pollinate to answer your question. I just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's episode HubSpot. Now you may have heard me speak about leveling up in the past. How we can level up our careers, our businesses, our customer experience. 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Now I want to pull out a couple entrepreneurial insights and I know we spoke on those at the beginning but I've listened to a few other shows that you've been on. And you speak about a few things, you speak about how you've learned how to hire the right team, how you've learned how to sort of get out of your own way and get out of your own head. And also one thing that I thought was very interesting that you spoke on was I think it was with one of your mentors and he was stating how if you want to do if you keep doing everything yourself when you're an early stage entrepreneur, you end up getting nothing done. So let's just going through this, you mentioned that you had hired staff and that's when your business started to blow up if I'm not mistaken. And walk me through that process in your life when you're trying to build your business and why it's so important to hire versus do everything yourself and how you sort of took that next step. I think there's something that a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with. I like that you did your homework. That's nice. A little bit. It's I love talking about this because we can no matter how amazing we are, no matter how much we feel like we're super woman or Superman, we cannot do it alone, you know, the owner is typically the visionary. And that's a person who I call you know get divine downloads is what I call them. That's the creative side. You're you're able to be good at a lot of things, but you're not good at everything. That's for sure. So hiring out is essential for us. And like most things that we do, like you know, like I said, quality over quantity for me, I always envisioned having the teams, I call them small but mighty. We don't have a huge team. I think we have a team of eight or eight or nine now. Everyone's really great at what they do. Tons of experience, whatever, whatever they're doing. So our magazine person has, you know, 25 years experience. I mean, just really amazing what they do. They have a passion for the company. They have a passion for Lux Media. They're interested in being a part of Lux Media. They're it's, you know, we try to create a fun environment fun. You know, we work hard. We play hard. I give a lot of incentives there. They know I think really well that we appreciate them so much. We are actually doing a team. What was it team like weekend retreat in a couple months. Just to and it's not even team building is really just to go relax, have fun and have a good time with each other. So the team is huge and getting people on board with your vision and having them excited about what they're doing and what's coming and what's going on. That's huge. You can't teach excitement. They either are excited about what they're doing or they're not. And if they're not, they're not for you. How do you how do you get that? How do you get them excited? Because that's everybody every I think I don't think there's anybody in the world that would disagree that having an excited team. It's working for your business is not a the thing that you have to you have to have. Well, here's the minute. So here's the thing you I don't know if you can get them excited, but I think that you can absolutely make sure that they know that they are valuable to everything that they do is valuable to you in the company. Especially if the team is smaller like every action they do does you do see it and you know it's appreciated. I don't think that everyone of course everybody wants an excited team, but some people hire because the person's quote unquote good at what they do, but they could have no people skills they could have no skills meshing well with the other team members. So it's kind of I guess case by case narrow for me, it's a lot of energy like you can feel their energy when they come in like they're so happy to be here. They're happy to work that day. They're excited about the work they've done. They go above and beyond with things that didn't I didn't ask for and they take initiative to do it themselves. I don't know if you can teach excitement either or you're not. So walk me through some of the because I think I think hiring the right people is deemed one of the things that can make or break a business early on. So walk me through some of the maybe wins and maybe some misses that you've experienced when you were growing out your team because I was probably a very pivotal point when you had your business like quote unquote blow up in a really good way. It was finding the right people. I will say when I when I started hiring and even when I hired now I'd look for people with an entrepreneurial spirit because to be quite honest, you know, I love to have people forever. But that's probably not the reality. And I like people with an entrepreneurial spirit something that they can come here learn again be excited with what we're doing you know mesh well with the other team members. Just have great energy while they're here, but I don't expect to have them forever. And if we're talking about being entrepreneur and where they're always in the entrepreneurial space with us, they're going to you know little berg is going to go fly and you have to know that that's going to be happening. So you can't take things personally when people leave or decide to leave because you you know hopefully you train them well enough and you inspire them to go on their own journey and being entrepreneur. I have had I have made to go back to your question. I have made employee you know hiring quote unquote mistakes before, but I look at those learning experiences. I don't really believe in mistakes and that just kind of made me clarify more within myself what I'm looking for with the next hire. But someone with a good personality, someone with like you want to be around their energy and they want you want them to have experience and what they're doing and want and people who are open to learning and taking our responsibility for for their quote unquote mistakes. Course correcting themselves and moving forward. Have you had have you had better experience hiring somebody who's done the job before verse or somebody who's just a naturally curious person. Better experience. So it depends what area we're talking about. Someone's like doing the tech side for us. So let's say let's say not a not a hard skill that takes years to master. So something something we're not going to talk about. So like an assistant audio engineering like an assistant. Okay. We're talking about assistant. I prefer someone who is willing to learn because I rather train them how I work than how somebody else works. Okay. That makes sense. Smart. I also want to I'm trying to think what we covered. So we covered cover the story of Lux we covered some podcasting tips and building and building a good show and what type of content works. We covered some entrepreneurial tips over some of the other things that you were working on right now that would be interesting for the audience. I'm just thinking through because I I will not be smart enough to ask you questions about some of the cosmetics some of the some of the lifestyle stuff. I guess I would I would ask you were there any other any other topics that you wanted to dry out based on building Lux media or the I call it like the Lux conglomerate Lux enterprise Lux conglomerate of companies that we didn't go into it could be some entrepreneurial lessons or any other business lessons that I didn't ask you about. Well if you want to talk about like what's going on what to look forward to I mean we're still that the studio is open it's been open and you know use for business for the last couple months now. But it is it's been a labor of love let me just tell you so there is nothing in the studio and it's constant daily changes I mean our engineer left for couple days and came back and it's there's so many different things already. It's constant daily changes just always with the studio so it's got to know it's a lot of work but it's fun for me and it's fun for people the people helping me the team. There is nothing in this studio that my hand did not touch meaning myself and two of the other employees have moved all the furniture in myself. Everything has you know the curtains are you have really high ceilings we got got in this huge ladder and hammering in ourselves you're doing it yourself you're sweeping yourself so if you're not willing to do it yourself you cannot expect others to do it either I'm you know I'm on my hands and he's scrubbing the floor like I'm doing this like we're doing it so there is nothing above I'm not above doing anything for my business. Very smart that's what it takes to make it that's like that's what it takes it that's what it takes to to really really make it and you know I think that some people have a little bit more of an added advantage if they're building out maybe something that's like tech oriented and there's the the profit margins are much higher like building out a media business is not easy. Like it's not like you've built a product that's never graced the earth before it is a media business that is core so you got to put in the you know to build it from the ground up if that's not an easy thing to do and I think that you know you're an example of what passion can deliver. If if you really if you really put in the work in the grit and you have that mindset that whatever you're going to whatever you want to have happened you're going to figure out a way to get it. I think that's like what you're living right now is the end result of that over X amount of years because I'm sure that it wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination to build this out no that's not a word that I would use for that no. All right very good okay I want to do some rapid fire like career insight life lesson questions. Sure but before pivot where do people connect with you what's the best website social all that stuff. So we're all over social media heavily on Instagram so with me personally Lux life underscore CB Lux L.U.X.E. Life underscore CB then we have Lux Media Studios I think Lux Media Studio is official Lux Media official Lux Life cosmetics I mean we'll pop up we're there we're also on Facebook those the only two social media that were on I really I kind of hate Twitter. So I'm not going to be on that it's very it's very negative sometimes I can't I just can't I'm not able to do it. Of course I can stop by and visit us were on rodeo drive you can't miss us when there were day of collection you can call the studio I mean we're on Google you'll find I mean you'll definitely find us. Okay perfect so Lux Media we'll go to a day of drive I'll take a trip out west will come pick you up in the road will come pick you up in the rolls Royce and drop you off here listen I'm down that sounds like a good trip to me that's nicer than my last trip. We'll have your snacks ready for you good good all right let's do some let's do some rapid fire. Okay so you've had an incredible career obviously built this entire entire brand yourself so I want to pull out some of these lessons from you so. What was the biggest challenge out of all this of everything you've built what was the biggest challenge and it could be personal or professional challenge doesn't matter you pick one and how did you overcome it. I would say the biggest challenge was mindset and getting my mind right in the I would say in the beginning but I that's a daily practice I'd say because there's a lot of stuff that goes down you deal with a lot of things everything is definitely not glitz and glamour and you have to be able to handle things well not have an emotional response to everything is a huge thing. How do you how do you overcome that though what's your what's your strategy for not getting stuck in your own head and your own thoughts catching thoughts as they're happening and kind of looking at them from the outside in though it's inside your brain being responsible for your emotions I would say you know meditation definitely helps. And having that practice daily I don't do I don't do it every single day I try to do it and having taking moments throughout the day for calmness because it can get quite hectic. Okay good smart. If you had to choose one person I know there's probably been many but I get to choose one person that's been highly impactful influential could be a mentor could be a family member doesn't matter who was that person what did they teach you. Oh God there's so many I know everyone everyone has a million people I know I know I would say you know she is my mentor like we have hung out and I'm so grateful for her names Lynn Tilton and she's a self made I believe don't quote me I believe she's a self made multi billionaire and there's not many females like that in the world she owns over I believe 800 companies so she's a powerhouse I love her. No kidding no kidding very impressive okay your favorite source to learn or grow could be a podcast a book an audible something to eat recommend people to check out. It has to be podcast because I don't read that much I don't read that much anymore I'm more of a podcast person to be honest totally are too wordy and there's too much there's too much fluff and podcast you get to the word of it hopefully get to the point of it yeah also reading is very time consuming podcast and I would suggest any podcast on Lux media. Okay so name well I guess you can you you're gonna single one out is that I actually think I actually think Oliver podcast to be quite honest in all of our shows. What are some of the genres that people if people are listening to this what are some of the genres that that are under the Lux media brand so people know what they do. Man it's all over the place we have one couple we it really is it's eclectic I like I like variety I like interestingly so we have one couple that talks about addiction and we have another person that she is running for she's the first mayor mayor of England wouldn't she used to be a gang member for several years. We have another one like I said he's a drag queen but is you talk about Republican politics it really is all over the place but it's so fun because these people live it they're in it so they can talk about it. That's really good okay so a wide variety of shows go check go check them out to see which one resonates. Exactly okay if you could tell your 20 year old self one thing what would it be. Oh my god there's so much I think I feel like everyone says this but it's true it's like don't worry it's already it's already written for you don't worry worry less. I like that I like that I like that it's already written for you I like that a lot what a success mean to you. Doing what you want when you want with whom you want at in your time frame owning your time helping whoever you want writing your own ticket for anything.