0:00

So I'm afraid of being poor. We

0:02

were poor, but you kind of don't

0:04

know how poor you are until you compare yourself to

0:06

other kids. Everything that I

0:08

went through in the past kind of

0:10

crept me for this journey. So I

0:12

think one of my first dips, I

0:15

was like stressed out. Karthik's celebrities were

0:17

babes like Kim Kardashian. Lizzo

0:19

had reached out to babes. That was crazy

0:21

too. When I started the business

0:23

book, I didn't think it was anything's gonna come

0:25

of it. Sometimes the editor will want to change

0:27

things. And I'm like, you know what? I can

0:29

put my personal things aside. I want it

0:32

to be more digestible. Welcome

0:35

to Inspired By, the show that brings you

0:37

inspiring stories from inspiring entrepreneurs with a twist.

0:41

Now I believe that every successful entrepreneur

0:43

and celebrity on this planet has an

0:45

inspiring story. And they have stories that

0:47

they haven't yet told. Not

0:49

because they don't want to tell the story, but

0:51

because they haven't been asked the right questions. So my

0:53

job on the show is to ask the real

0:55

questions so that you get the real answers. Now with

0:57

that in mind, let's get started. ["S Hi,

1:06

thank you for having

1:09

me. I'm really excited

1:11

to chat with you today. It's

1:13

good to have you here. So one of

1:15

the things I want to talk about, Sierra, we're

1:17

gonna jump straight in. Obviously you're here because you

1:19

are now an author and your book, by the

1:22

time this episode is released, your book will be

1:24

out in the hands of the public, which I'm

1:26

super excited about. And

1:28

part of your book, a big part of it

1:31

is about being an outsider. So I'd love to

1:33

start there. Where has this

1:35

label for you as an outsider

1:37

come from? I

1:42

feel like I've

1:44

just always felt like I was either

1:47

different or just didn't have all the

1:49

answers. I felt like everyone had the

1:51

answers but me. Or

1:53

I felt like my path was

1:55

never, I meant to go on a traditional path,

1:58

but I just kept getting like. thrown

2:00

off of it. So I think that's just how

2:02

it came about like, and then there's so many

2:04

people that felt like that. And

2:07

then it just kind of created

2:09

this whole outsider mindset. Like yeah,

2:11

there's just so many of us.

2:13

That's what I love

2:15

that. Yeah, I think that's one of the

2:17

things that I really resonated with your book

2:20

is because there's so many experiences of feeling

2:22

like an outsider, almost like so many people

2:24

feel like outsiders that we're all outsiders together,

2:26

right? Right, we're all

2:29

outsiders together in certain situations, because it's like

2:31

you can be an insider in certain

2:33

situations, you have it going on, and you know all

2:35

the answers, but then you step into something new, like

2:37

even like in school, like the first day you're an

2:39

outsider, or if you feel like you

2:42

don't have enough money for something, you feel

2:44

like an outsider. So like anybody can feel

2:46

like an outsider anytime, I feel. Yeah,

2:49

definitely. Do you think it's something that

2:51

people become at the beginning, or

2:54

do you think you can feel like an outsider

2:56

at any point in your kind of journey? I

3:00

think for me when I'm embarking on something new,

3:02

I feel like an outsider because I'm just

3:04

not as confident as I, you know, as

3:06

most people are when they're doing things new.

3:08

That's just for me personally. So I

3:11

feel like yeah, it can be at the

3:13

beginning, it could be in the middle when

3:15

things shift. I'm just talking

3:17

about like business, like as far as how

3:20

my business goes, things are up and down, right? So

3:23

I can be up and down, like the market can

3:25

change all the time. So yeah, at any point

3:27

you can feel like an outsider for sure.

3:29

Yeah, I definitely want to talk

3:31

about babes as well, obviously a business as we

3:33

go through this chat, because I think it's so

3:36

interesting to hear what you've done and how different

3:38

you've done it. So but before we go into

3:40

that, when was that the first time you really

3:42

felt like an outsider? Like can you remember a

3:44

time in your childhood or a time early on

3:47

where you were like the first experience of feeling

3:49

like an outsider? Honestly, when I got to school, because

3:51

I didn't know, like we were poor, but

3:54

you kind of don't know how poor you are until

3:56

you compare yourself to other kids. So when I got

3:58

to the school, I was like, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to do this. school

4:00

and I was like, oh, like, the

4:02

clothes are ironed and everything looks new

4:05

and they'd have like rooms. They

4:08

have like gifts for

4:10

Christmas and two parents in the household

4:12

and you know, just like that comparison.

4:14

I think that's when I first started

4:16

to feel like a little like,

4:18

oh, I'm different. Like, I'm

4:20

not the same. Like, I'm on the outside. Yeah,

4:23

yeah. Unfortunately, I can kind

4:25

of relate from my childhood as well. Like, I didn't

4:28

realize how different my family was until I got to

4:30

school and suddenly saw all these parents together. My parents

4:32

divorced when I was like 10 years old and it

4:34

was, and I was an only child, it was such

4:37

a different experience. And then you suddenly see all these

4:39

like happy families and you're like, why can't I have

4:41

that? I know, right?

4:43

Yeah, it's definitely like relatable.

4:46

You don't really know because children adapt,

4:48

right? Like, they're fine until

4:51

they start to see and compare themselves,

4:54

I think. And yeah, exactly

4:56

what you said. Yeah, yeah. So

4:58

true. And so, what did

5:00

you do at that age to adapt and

5:02

you know, did you back then feel

5:05

like it's okay to not fit in because it's a huge

5:07

part of your message now, right? Or is that something you

5:09

can learn on the way? Oh, no,

5:11

I did not feel like it was okay to fit. I

5:14

wanted to fit in when I, I

5:16

didn't learn that until later. I think I, I really

5:21

wanted to fit in. So I would like

5:23

copy, I would pretend. I never

5:25

told anybody that we were homeless. I

5:28

would pretend like I had my own room. I

5:31

would pretend like we had it together. No, I, that

5:35

was a journey. Like it was a

5:37

very tough, long, hard journey to

5:40

try to like get to that, to this point now.

5:43

Yeah, it's interesting, I think,

5:45

because you can kind of see then how it's

5:48

like paved the path. I always find I

5:50

get to interview some really inspiring people like

5:52

yourself on the show. And I find that

5:54

most people that have come from nothing or

5:56

like a challenging background end up having so

5:58

much determination to. not

6:00

have that continue. Is that what happened to

6:02

you on your journey? Oh

6:05

yeah, we talked about that in the book. It's using

6:07

your trauma as a motivator. Like, you're

6:09

so, I'm so scared

6:11

of going back to the way that I was. I'm

6:14

extremely motivated and I'm a hard

6:16

worker and I'm just like, no,

6:19

never again. I got

6:22

out of that and I'm not going

6:24

back. So it's not surprising that people

6:26

that have come from backgrounds

6:28

like that are so successful

6:30

and inspiring now. Yeah, 100%. Yeah.

6:34

Do you think trauma is a big part of

6:36

that then? Do you think we

6:38

all need to face trauma to

6:40

really find that determination? Oh

6:43

yeah, it's just looking at it differently.

6:45

I think it's easy to say, oh

6:47

yeah, just look at

6:50

your trauma on the positive side. No, that's

6:52

hard. It's definitely a hard thing. It's just

6:58

using it, using it in a good way.

7:00

So with my trauma, there's two ways. So

7:02

I'm afraid of being poor, which

7:04

is, which can, I

7:06

could use my trauma in a good and

7:09

bad way. So there are, obviously,

7:11

I'm really determined and motivated. So those are the

7:13

good things that would come out of my trauma.

7:15

The bad things that are coming out of my

7:17

trauma is, I'm cheap. I

7:20

don't spend my money. When

7:24

I have a bad self-day, I get stressed. I

7:26

literally, I feel like

7:28

I'm back to poor Sierra. So

7:31

those, it's a balance. I think

7:33

it's about balancing your trauma because it's easy to

7:35

say, just like, flip it and look at the

7:37

positive side, but that's hard.

7:40

Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what, Sierra? I

7:42

can really relate in business. I feel

7:45

like you can sometimes heal from trauma and go through

7:47

it and feel better, but then old

7:50

patterns can creep back up, right? Like you say,

7:52

if you have a bad self-day. It

7:55

doesn't go anywhere. When people

7:57

are like, oh, I've killed my trauma. I don't know. still

8:00

there. It's just over here

8:02

somewhere. You know what I mean?

8:04

You just got to push it back

8:07

and just say, hey, stay over there. Like

8:09

we know you're here. It's just about using

8:11

it differently. It's not going to go anywhere.

8:13

So you have to just learn how to

8:15

deal with it and use it. Yeah,

8:18

exactly. And one question I've got for you Sarah,

8:20

is where do you think that fear of being

8:23

poor on that trauma came from? Because for me,

8:25

I have a similar fear of stability, like I

8:27

crave stability. Like it's not just like I want

8:30

an influx of cash. I want to have like

8:32

the regular stable that like me, right? But I

8:34

know that's come from my childhood and the issues

8:36

I had with my parents and so on. Where

8:39

would you say your trauma like stems from? Was

8:41

there ever a moment in your life and as

8:43

a child that you had that

8:45

trauma triggered? I

8:47

think moving a lot. So I didn't go

8:50

to a school for more than two years.

8:52

And so I got to middle school. So

8:54

I was at a different school like

8:57

every year. Also,

8:59

our living situation changed a lot. So

9:01

I never, we never had

9:04

a I never had a technically a room or

9:06

a stable home until I got to yeah, high

9:10

school. It's just that's

9:13

where mine comes from. It's like

9:15

constantly so having somewhere like I'm

9:17

going to be here. This is

9:19

my room. I can close my door. Like I'm

9:21

going to be here for more than like six

9:23

months and seven months and you know, and I

9:25

have a savings account. And if

9:27

I do have a bad self, I'm going to be

9:29

okay. So that I mean, that's where mine comes from.

9:32

For sure. Yeah, definitely my best. Wow.

9:35

And what changed then from

9:38

that sort of instability to then having your

9:40

own room? And was there something in your

9:42

life for your childhood actually changed to help

9:44

you have that? My

9:47

mom, my mom eventually just

9:49

got a break like whenever I got to

9:51

high school, she had got she started taking

9:53

advantage of free resources, which is something that

9:55

we talked about in the book. But because

9:57

before that, my mom wasn't she

9:59

wasn't taking resources. A lot of

10:01

people didn't know our situation. So I think when

10:03

she started talking about it, then

10:06

we started to create a village around us

10:08

to help us. So that's what changed for

10:10

her, which it changed for me, for sure.

10:13

Like that. Yeah. Yeah. I love

10:15

that part in the book. And I think I'm going

10:17

to try really hard not to talk too much about

10:19

what we're going to talk about what's in the book,

10:21

but without assuming everyone's read it, right? Because guys, you

10:24

need to read this book. That's the answer. I'm

10:27

curious as well. So I

10:30

often find that a lot of us learn from

10:32

our parents as well, right? So like we either

10:34

learn good things from our parents or we're like,

10:36

I never want to be like that. I want

10:38

to be the opposite. Right. Yeah. Those are the

10:40

things that stick more

10:43

like the things I do not want to

10:45

do that. Those are the things that stick

10:47

harder. So yeah, yeah. And I'm sorry. Don't

10:50

worry. Don't worry. It's exactly what I was going to

10:52

say. How did you find your parents

10:55

in your childhood? I know there was stuff in the

10:57

book where you talked about, you know, your father and

10:59

so on. So tell me a little bit about that.

11:03

My mom, I learned, I learned

11:06

what to do from her resilience and

11:08

just being a single mom and taking

11:11

care of me and my sister and just always

11:13

making it work. And it was always pleasant.

11:15

You know, my mom was never

11:18

like, oh, like, obviously she was

11:20

stressed, but we as the kids, we were

11:22

just like, oh, we're in the car for the night. Like

11:24

she made it fun. So I learned just

11:26

like that positive mindset, but I

11:28

also learned what not to do, which

11:32

is like depend on

11:34

people, depend on men throughout,

11:38

which is fine if you're married. Sorry. If

11:40

you're married or in a family. But

11:45

in the book I talk about like our

11:47

living situations depended on like who my mom was

11:49

dating at the time, or like if this person

11:51

was going to pay the rent, or if we

11:54

were able to sleep on this

11:56

person's couch. So I learned not

11:58

to depend always have your safety. I think

12:00

that's what I learned not

12:02

to do. Now

12:05

I just wanted to quickly interrupt this episode to share a

12:07

quick message with you. Now I've been hosting these

12:09

interviews with Inspired by Show for a while now

12:11

and I've been loving all of the great feedback

12:14

from our listeners. And it really means a lot

12:16

when you will share from listening to these episodes,

12:18

watching this episode, share your incredible feedback. And

12:21

I love that you love it as much

12:23

as we do. Now my mission for the

12:25

Inspired by Show is to inspire others to

12:27

challenge the norm, share their story, knowing that

12:29

it's okay to be vulnerable and shock horror,

12:32

take the mask off and be raw and

12:34

real. So I have a favor to ask. Can

12:36

you help me on this mission by sharing this

12:39

episode with someone who you think needs to hear

12:41

this message? Maybe there's a friend, a loved one,

12:43

a colleague or someone that you know that would

12:45

really benefit from hearing this inspiring story. If

12:48

you could do that to help us, help even more

12:50

people to challenge the norm and push themselves out of

12:52

their own comfort zone, then I'd really appreciate it. So

12:54

if you haven't already, share this episode with a friend,

12:56

a loved one, a colleague or someone that you know

12:59

would benefit. Now back to the

13:01

episode. Yeah, I completely relate.

13:03

I was exactly the same. And

13:05

I think sometimes it's a shame when you

13:07

look back and you think that you have to learn

13:09

that way, but also partly you might not be where

13:11

you are now if you didn't learn those lessons, right?

13:15

Oh yeah, a hundred percent. Cause if I, I

13:17

mean, maybe it's tricky, like

13:20

depending on people, it's cause they can take it

13:22

away and that's my trauma. So

13:24

my trauma, that's a good and bad trauma because

13:26

sometimes you can depend on someone and they want

13:28

to help you. But for me, my dealing with

13:30

my trauma, I'm like, no, you're going to take

13:33

it away. So I don't want the help. And

13:35

that's something that people that have

13:37

backgrounds like mine struggle with. So

13:39

it's just a balance of like taking the help

13:41

as you need it, but don't depend completely on

13:44

it. Always have your safety net. Yeah,

13:47

totally. And I'm curious for you,

13:49

Sierra, obviously reading the book, one

13:52

of the things I loved in the book was the

13:54

roadmap for success. Yeah,

13:56

we worked with a lot of books and I saw it and I

13:59

just thought it was so awesome. So I'm

14:01

curious from your perspective, how

14:05

did you go from that life

14:07

to suddenly founder of babes

14:09

like incredible success story with

14:11

babes? What was the journey? Um,

14:14

it felt like everything, it sounds corny. I

14:16

was literally talking to my friend about this

14:19

the other day in an elevator. I

14:23

was like, this sounds corny, but I do feel like

14:26

all the everything that

14:28

I went through in the past kind

14:30

of crept in for this journey. Doors

14:33

were just like when I went whenever

14:35

I was in Houston, because I moved from Houston to LA, Houston

14:39

just wasn't working out. After

14:41

I graduated college, I couldn't find a

14:43

job. Maybe I'm just a terrible interviewer,

14:45

interviewee. No one would

14:47

hire me. I thought like, oh, I

14:50

have a degree, like, I'm going to leave college

14:52

and all the jobs are just going to follow

14:54

my lap and I'm going to get married and

14:56

like have the two kids. And none of that

14:59

was working for me. But when

15:01

I moved here and I kind of stepped

15:03

into like my

15:06

passion, the doors just started

15:08

opening. Like everything just started

15:10

working out. Like my first post on Instagram

15:12

where I was like, you know what? I

15:16

want to go against, because remember back in

15:18

2012 on Instagram, if you remember back in

15:20

the day when it started, everyone

15:23

was smoothing out their skin to

15:25

look like freaking

15:27

crazy people. We were overly editing.

15:30

Everyone was just like, it looked a little

15:32

insane. And my first post was

15:34

of my cellulite. I was like, I'm going to

15:36

show my cellulite. I want to

15:38

show my cellulite and I want to embrace

15:40

like who I am. And that just kind

15:42

of, it blew me up.

15:44

Like it blew me up. I had like

15:46

my Instagram following went

15:49

up really quickly. I was

15:51

able to start my brand and everything just kind

15:53

of moved in the right direction. So I think

15:55

that once I stepped into like being

15:58

different and embrace. facing

16:00

that the doors just started

16:02

opening. It's corny as that sounds. It

16:04

is. It is for me. It's

16:07

true, though, right? I always say to people like

16:09

the more honest you can be, the more raw

16:11

and real you can be. I think if we

16:13

all just try and fit in and we all

16:15

just look the same and sound the same, like

16:17

no one's going to resonate, right? Whereas you're probably

16:20

the only one doing that, you know, and most

16:22

people would go, what? You chose yourself. You're like,

16:24

that's crazy. But actually, you know, it's led you

16:26

on to creating your own massive brand. Yeah,

16:29

definitely. I mean, for sure.

16:31

Like, that's exactly what is

16:34

the book. That's exactly what the book is about.

16:36

And that's exactly what life is about. It's just

16:38

like being yourself. Once you

16:40

start comparing and copying other people, you're just

16:43

like this watered down version of the thing

16:45

that you copied and everything just looks you

16:48

might as well just step into who you are

16:50

because there's only one person like you that thinks

16:52

the way you do as your perspective. So you

16:54

might as well like it's the smartest thing to

16:56

do. And everything will stop

16:58

here. Yes, totally. And

17:00

so where did Babes come from your fashion brand?

17:03

Did you always want to do your own fashion

17:05

brand or is that just kind of like something

17:07

you thought of on there? No, I fell into

17:09

it. I wanted to work in PR. That's what

17:12

I went to college for PR marketing. So

17:14

I wanted to find a job when I got out here. But

17:17

when I got out here, I didn't have any money. So

17:20

I was staying on one of my

17:22

friends' college and she gave me an

17:25

ultimatum and she told me like I had until

17:27

the end of the month to come up with half the

17:29

rent. So I started thrifting

17:31

again, which is something that has always been

17:33

a part of my childhood because obviously we didn't

17:35

have a lot of money. My

17:37

mom used to flip. She

17:40

would go to vintage stores and sell like

17:42

the vintage or upcycle them and let them

17:44

sell them for money. So I

17:46

kind of fell back into that, something I learned from my

17:48

mother. And then gradually I

17:52

started selling more and more and then I'm like,

17:54

OK, this is a business here. And

17:57

that's what Bayes began. Bayes began from thrift. And

18:00

then we went into cut and sew and I

18:03

started channeling, just embracing

18:05

like my body and all body

18:07

types and it just kind of grew from there.

18:10

Amazing. And I saw when

18:12

I was doing the research and speaking to your

18:14

publisher that you've had some quite

18:17

big names, quite big celebrities where babes like

18:19

Kim Kardashian, a few others. What

18:21

was that like? It was

18:23

crazy. When

18:26

she wore it, I saw it because

18:28

I felt basics, which is always, I'm

18:30

not like, babes is

18:33

what I always want to basically be is just effortless

18:35

basics that are affordable. So I can't tell when

18:37

someone wears my stuff sometimes because it'll be just

18:40

like a white dress or a black dress because

18:42

those are my favorite things in my closet. So

18:44

those are the things that I felt. So when

18:46

she wore it, I'm like, wait a minute, that

18:51

looks like my dress. I'm

18:53

not crazy. Isn't that my dress? I'm a

18:55

little confused. So I reached out to someone

18:58

that I knew that knew one of her stylists

19:00

and they confirmed that she bought it herself

19:02

on my site and she wore

19:05

it. So that was, I mean, that was

19:07

insane. I'm completely thankful for that.

19:09

Yeah, for sure. That was crazy. Insane

19:12

with Lizzo. Lizzo had

19:14

reached out to babes actually and

19:16

was like, hey, like I want so

19:18

many items. So yeah, that

19:20

was crazy too. I was

19:23

super blessed to have this

19:25

thing happen. And before that point, did you ever

19:27

feel like you'd made it or was it, did

19:29

it feel different after that point? I

19:33

did feel like I made it before that point. I

19:35

did. This was a different

19:37

level because it was new eyes, but

19:40

I did feel like I made it just because I

19:42

had made it, I was stable. I

19:44

had a savings account. Like these are the things that

19:46

mattered to me. I, you know,

19:48

I would take care of myself. I was able to

19:50

take care of my mother and my family. And

19:52

I, you know, babes was at its

19:55

peak at that moment and that just kind of took

19:57

it off to a different audience. So

20:01

for sure, I definitely thought I made it before then, but

20:03

it was extra hill. Yes,

20:05

Kim. They're

20:07

like, I'm not going to say no. Thank

20:11

you. I appreciate it. But yeah, and

20:13

she'd actually, you know, it was interesting. She bought

20:15

a dress that wasn't selling. So I

20:17

had this, um, it was

20:19

like a mock neck dress, which is a

20:21

lesson that I tell to a lot of

20:24

people that have stores. Like if you're like,

20:26

I created something and I, I,

20:28

my confidence fell when it didn't sell. Cause

20:30

I was like, okay, this

20:33

is like, obviously not

20:35

cute cause no one's buying it. But

20:38

that's the dress that she bought. And

20:40

then it was crazy. Now

20:42

the dress is sold out. Now it's like everybody

20:44

wants it. So it's just being confident in what

20:46

you have in the beginning. So that was, that's

20:49

always interesting to me that she bought a dress that like

20:51

no one else wanted and then everybody wanted it. Yeah.

20:55

Do you know, one of the things that I really drives

20:57

me mad a little bit about being an entrepreneur is

20:59

that a lot of the time our emotions or self-esteem

21:01

are driven by the results in our business, right? Like

21:04

you were just saying, it's like one minute you thought

21:06

that you're doing great. And the next minute it's not

21:08

selling. And it's like, it can knock us. Have

21:11

you ever felt that that's gotten better or easier or

21:13

is it still the same for you? Um,

21:16

it's a, it's a journey. It

21:19

depends on the day. I think that's

21:22

particularly just cause we are, are like,

21:24

we already have so much going on

21:27

just in our bodies for one. And

21:29

it's just, it's a constant struggle because

21:31

I am so tied into brands like

21:34

it took not brands into babes. Like

21:36

I feel like babes is me. So sometimes it

21:38

can feel like if you,

21:40

if something doesn't sell, I feel like

21:42

I, like I felt like I'm not, you

21:45

know, I'm not enough or I'm not good enough. So

21:47

it can feel, it's a very

21:50

emotional process selling because you're trying to

21:52

get someone to spend their hard earned

21:54

money on you. And when they

21:56

don't do it, it can hurt your feelings. You know

21:59

what I mean? So after a

22:01

while it does get better, but it doesn't

22:03

go away like not for me at least It's

22:07

a like if I had a release today and it did

22:09

well But if it wouldn't have done well that would have

22:11

hurt my feelings a little bit it would have but I

22:13

would have pushed harder Like after this call

22:15

is in like alright. Let me reshoot the skirt

22:17

like what can I do to make them buy it? But

22:19

it definitely would have like Hurt

22:22

my feelings a little bit You're

22:25

like let's just pick that pick that up for the big

22:27

win and then it doesn't have enough to worry about it

22:29

Yeah, yeah, you know, I really value that

22:31

what you just said Sarah is really important because I

22:33

don't think you realize that But you were just there

22:36

like if it didn't work I would

22:38

have done something else to make it work like I think

22:40

that's the level of like Adaptability and

22:42

flexibility that makes a good Entrepreneurial

22:44

business owner or high achiever right? It's because

22:46

it doesn't work. We don't sit there and

22:48

go. Oh that could have been

22:51

better It's like no. No, but time is still

22:53

ticking. What are you gonna do? Right,

22:56

exactly, you know what not to do so like

22:58

if something doesn't work I'm like, okay,

23:00

they don't like this Let me

23:03

I'm it's sometimes it's not that sometimes it is

23:05

the product. Sometimes they don't like the product. Sometimes

23:07

the way you shot it Sometimes

23:09

it's when you're releasing it. Sometimes it's how

23:12

you're releasing it Sometimes it's the damn algorithm

23:14

and they just don't see it. You know

23:16

what I mean? Sometimes little time

23:18

sometimes it's too expensive and people need to

23:20

like figure out how they're gonna budget So

23:22

there's a lot of different factors that you've

23:24

been dive into if something doesn't work and

23:27

that's exciting to me obviously the failure isn't

23:29

exciting to me but Trying to

23:31

get over it like once you felt it something

23:33

and then you know what not to do and

23:36

then you fix it It's so powerful. You're

23:38

like, yeah Like I figured

23:40

that that ish out. I'm trying not to

23:42

curse. Yeah, they're not ish out. You know, I mean it Yeah

23:48

Yeah, cool. Don't worry if he curse it comes out. I

23:50

do all the time. I'm trying my heart Yeah Yeah,

23:56

I'm glad you mentioned no failure though because

23:58

Sarah I'm curious see your

24:00

family were a huge part of

24:02

your childhood and the trauma and

24:04

your beliefs probably quite similar to

24:06

theirs, how were they when you

24:08

started babes at the beginning and

24:10

then going on to the success

24:13

you've got now? Oh, supportive. My

24:15

mom is like, I

24:17

mean, my mom is everything. Like she's the

24:20

reason why I like, I think I have

24:22

skills, but really they came from her. You

24:25

know what I mean? Like she's probably looking at me like, darling,

24:27

I've taught you this. And I'm like, yeah, this

24:29

is coming naturally to me. No, no, no, it

24:31

comes from her. Most of the things that come

24:33

natural to me are coming from her. I know

24:36

that. So she's just

24:38

like, she's completely been a part of the

24:40

process. My sister has been completely a part

24:42

of, she used to bottle for babes.

24:45

She was working for babes. She's like,

24:47

it's a definitely like a completely supportive

24:51

family. I love

24:53

that. I love it because a lot of people don't

24:55

always get that right. A lot of people will get the whole like

24:58

someone in their friendship group or family will

25:00

say, you know, Oh, you know, why don't

25:02

you get a real job? Yeah. We said

25:04

it the exact same time. Literally,

25:07

but it only comes, you

25:09

know what, I started looking at it differently

25:12

because my boyfriend's parents, well, he was raised

25:14

by his grandparents. So of course, and

25:16

he's an entrepreneur too. So they're like, what

25:18

are you doing? Go get a good government

25:20

job with some benefits. You know what I

25:22

mean? Like, what are you doing? So

25:25

sometimes it's not, I look at the,

25:27

I look at the other generation and

25:30

they don't mean it in like

25:32

a negative way. They're just trying to protect

25:34

you. Like that's all they know. This is

25:36

like confusing to them. So sometimes you just

25:38

have to show them because they're just not

25:40

like, just do your thing, show

25:43

them, show them that it's making actual

25:45

money and then they'll start to respect it later.

25:47

But it's coming from a good place. They

25:49

only want the best for you. So it's just like, I

25:51

hear you, like you, I'm going to go get a job

25:54

and get some benefits, but let me show you the new

25:56

way of doing things. Yeah. And then hopefully those side. Yeah,

25:59

exactly. Exactly. It's like, let me show

26:01

you rather than tell you, cause then you'll actually believe

26:03

it. So don't tell

26:05

them, they're gonna be like, shit, I don't know which

26:07

term out. The proof is in the

26:09

pudding. I think whenever, it

26:12

was interesting, cause whenever we started dating,

26:15

so he's an entrepreneur, he does the same

26:17

thing that I do. So whenever I came

26:19

and was introduced, they didn't take me seriously

26:21

either, until I started sharing my numbers. I

26:24

was like, oh, no, no, no. This isn't

26:26

just like a little online store. Like we're

26:28

making actual money. I have employees,

26:31

like, so the proof is in the

26:33

pudding, like showing better than selling for

26:35

sure. Yeah.

26:37

And what you mentioned there about obviously, like

26:39

having the real numbers and the business. One

26:42

of the things that I've learned from interviewing lots of

26:44

people and also being my own business owner is, sometimes

26:47

the highs are high, but the lows can

26:49

be equally as low. What

26:51

would you say has been like one of the

26:53

biggest challenges Sierra has on your journey and how

26:55

did it feel? When

27:00

I started, when I first made $0 on the day. So

27:04

I was, so Baze was constantly

27:06

growing every single year. So we

27:08

were our profits for like, we

27:11

would go from yearly 500 and then we would

27:13

go to a million and then we would go

27:15

to 2 million. And then one year

27:17

it started to dip. And

27:20

that's when the challenge, but I think that's when

27:23

my personal challenges came because

27:25

I was emotionally

27:28

tied to everything. And obviously we talked about

27:30

my trauma. So I was like, oh, the

27:32

jig is up. Like everything's done.

27:35

Like now we're going downhill, but not really

27:37

realizing that entrepreneurship is kind of like this,

27:39

you're gonna go down and you're gonna go

27:41

up here. So I think one of my

27:43

first discs, I was like stressed

27:46

out, but now that I'm on the journey,

27:48

I'm kind of used to it. Like one,

27:50

one bad feel today is fine. I mean,

27:52

like a million aren't okay. You need to

27:54

figure some stuff out, but it's like, it's

27:57

gonna happen. It's just about just getting

27:59

back in there. and figuring out like how to make

28:01

that money again. Yeah,

28:04

definitely. And you went on to do that, right? Like

28:06

babes is growing and doing

28:08

so well. Yeah, I

28:10

definitely went on to do that. But there are I mean,

28:12

we still have those days he wouldn't talk about them. And

28:15

that's what I do. I get my

28:17

group because I have a most of

28:19

my friends are entrepreneurs, aren't are entrepreneurs,

28:21

and they do have businesses. And I

28:23

talk money, I have those uncomfortable, uncomfortable

28:25

conversations that people don't want to have.

28:27

So no matter how successful

28:29

you are, unless you're Apple or Amazon or

28:31

whatever, or any of those people

28:34

you you may come up on a like a

28:36

bad sales day, like not everybody has it all

28:38

together all the time, despite what you think. So

28:41

it's going to happen. It's about like pivoting

28:43

and shifting when it does. Yeah,

28:46

definitely. Speaking of pivoting.

28:48

Obviously, we're here today because you've written a

28:50

book. And I'm kind of curious, like how did you go

28:52

from founding babes

28:54

and doing really well and having the celebrities

28:56

wearing it to now suddenly writing a book?

28:58

What was what happened? Well,

29:01

um, so so my

29:04

mom got really sick in 2018. So she was

29:08

I was technically working. Now I stopped

29:11

from like working in slash living in

29:13

a hospital. At that time, one

29:15

of my friends, she's an author and she was like,

29:17

you should write a business book, obviously, because I had

29:20

a lot of time and just because that was something

29:22

that I've always wanted to do. So

29:24

it initially started as a business

29:26

book, just a plain business book. And

29:29

my idea of a book is just like there's a

29:31

business book that I like it's literally called the business

29:33

book. I don't know if you've heard it most people

29:35

it just says the business book

29:37

and it has facts like there's no story that's

29:39

just like these are the facts. This is what

29:41

you do to get to this point. And that's

29:44

what I wanted to make. I

29:46

did. And then as I started slowly

29:48

sharing my story within like pieces of

29:50

the business book, then it became a

29:53

business memoir, which initially I was kicking

29:55

and screaming about because I I do

29:59

have I'm

30:01

the type of person that although I've been

30:03

through something, I'm never the type to be

30:05

like, I was homeless. Like let me

30:07

talk about it and share all of my. It's

30:11

a very uncomfortable. It still is a

30:13

very uncomfortable like

30:16

space to be in. Although it's necessary, I

30:18

think to help other people

30:20

like me. I

30:22

don't even, I feel like I'm babbling right

30:24

now, but it eventually changed into a business

30:27

memoir, which it is now. I forgot

30:30

the question girl. Yeah. If you

30:32

let me, Ramblom is going to start rambling.

30:34

No, it's great. It's exactly what I asked.

30:36

The key is about where the book came

30:38

from. And I love that you mentioned there

30:40

because there's a lot of like people that

30:42

think you either have a business book, which

30:44

is like facts and figures and how to,

30:46

or you have a memoir, but there can

30:48

be both, right? You can actually add value

30:50

and advice and tell stories. Yeah,

30:52

I didn't know that honestly. I just, I

30:54

was one of the people that was that

30:56

I was like, okay, memoir or business book.

30:59

Cause I didn't want to write a memoir

31:01

cause I don't even really like reading like

31:03

that. And I don't really, I don't share

31:05

my business like that. And

31:08

it's very uncomfortable. Like, so whenever I went

31:10

into the memoir, I remember this woman told

31:12

me in the beginning, she said, you're going to hate it.

31:15

You're going to hate it. Like everyone hates

31:17

it. It's like therapy on paper and you

31:19

have to get that out because, and

31:22

it's very uncomfortable and it's very emotional and

31:24

you're going to feel like naked, but at

31:26

the end of it, you're going to make

31:29

something beautiful, which I did, but it's definitely

31:31

been a journey. Like anyone

31:33

writing a memoir, you're about

31:35

to like put your life on paper.

31:37

You yeah, it's going to be good

31:40

luck. I love

31:42

that. I was exactly the same

31:45

Sierra cause my first book we've published

31:48

with our services, like 46

31:50

best-selling books at the time of recording this,

31:52

right? But my first book was like a by accident book. It

31:54

was kind of the same sort of thing. And

31:57

I remember writing it thinking I'd healed everything.

32:00

I was like, oh, good, I got this now. And

32:02

then I was writing and I was like, what's this

32:04

emotion? This is, I thought I was over this. What

32:08

is this coming up? Why did I do that again

32:10

and again? And why am I

32:12

still doing that now? I thought I learned from that.

32:14

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so

32:17

I think it's one of those things. When

32:19

you were writing it, you mentioned there that

32:21

the advice you were given, what other advice

32:23

were you given from other authors or other

32:25

people that you valued on the writing journey?

32:30

I think not being so selfish. So there

32:32

were things I didn't want to share, obviously,

32:35

because I'm very private. But

32:38

it's like, at the end of the day,

32:40

what is your goal? Like keeping your goal.

32:42

Like my beginning goal was to help people

32:44

like me or help

32:46

people that have backgrounds like me. So sharing,

32:49

you know, not

32:51

being selfish, basically, like not trying, thinking about

32:53

the goal and always thinking about like, does

32:55

this help someone? If so, do it. If

32:58

it doesn't, then leave it out. You know

33:00

what I mean? So just keeping your goal

33:02

in mind around what's helpful to

33:04

me. Yeah, yeah, I

33:06

completely agree. And was

33:08

there any advice you wish you'd been given?

33:14

Hmm. I

33:18

think I was given, I wish I hadn't answered that.

33:20

I think I was given pretty good advice. I

33:23

don't have, I'm like, yeah, I'm

33:26

trying to think of something. And if I come up with something,

33:28

I'll shout it out later. Yeah, I do. And

33:30

what about if you were giving advice to someone else

33:32

writing a book now? Because a lot of our readers

33:34

are writing books. Is there anything you would be like,

33:37

oh my gosh, do this or don't do this? Like

33:41

writing just a book in general. Yeah. Use

33:46

the help around you. Because me, I

33:49

felt like, like if

33:51

you're published, if

33:53

you're fortunate enough to be like, and you're

33:55

not self-published, you're fortunate enough to be published.

33:57

Because I'm very fortunate to be published with

33:59

portfolio. penguin. I'm like wow thank you

34:01

guys. If you're

34:04

forced enough use them and use all of their

34:06

efforts to help you because I'm

34:08

like a little bit of a control freak and

34:10

I feel like I can do everything at all

34:12

times so there's a lot of

34:14

different, I mean they're experts for a reason.

34:16

Like use them, use their resources, what

34:19

they've done, like they they

34:21

solidify themselves as penguins for a reason. So

34:23

like yeah definitely like use them and try

34:25

to get, I mean yeah, try

34:28

to get published. Yeah yeah yeah. Do it

34:30

the best way. I always say to people

34:32

like make sure you've got a team around

34:34

you because writing a book can be so

34:36

lonely right? It's like climbing a mountain and

34:38

if you're on your own and there'll be

34:40

times where we're like not motivated or we're

34:42

questioning it over and over and over. It's

34:44

like whoever you can surround yourself whether that's

34:46

publishers, team, editors, like just leverage

34:49

people right? And keep

34:51

those relationships, like now they're becoming my

34:53

friends, like my editor I text all

34:55

the time, my marketing team I text

34:57

all the time. I

34:59

mean throughout this journey obviously because I'm writing a

35:01

memoir and they know all of my business, it's

35:03

a very personal thing so it does feel like

35:06

a little family you know? So yeah definitely

35:08

use your family to help you because

35:10

it can be lonely because you feel

35:12

like it's just you especially if you're

35:14

writing a memoir like it's you like

35:16

I'm the one. If you're

35:18

anything like me you may

35:21

have had doubts like if this doesn't work it's because

35:23

of me. I

35:25

felt it because it's my story, my

35:27

face is on the cover, I wrote it you

35:30

know so it doesn't do well but there also

35:32

is a whole team around you and it's their

35:34

responsibility to help make it work too. So

35:37

it's just it's a group effort it's not just you.

35:41

Yeah yeah exactly and also like you say ask

35:43

for their advice to help because I

35:45

find that as the author we're

35:47

so emotionally intertwined with the words that we're

35:50

writing that sometimes it's good to have someone

35:52

that's not as emotionally connected to go no

35:54

no no like we need to change that

35:56

or take that out. The opens

35:58

are changing. You know,

36:01

I'm open to changing because I just

36:03

wanted to be digestible for everyone. So

36:05

coming from like, it

36:07

was interesting because obviously I'm a, I'm a black

36:09

woman, as you can see, but

36:12

you, but I want, I'm not

36:14

speaking to only black women. I'm not, and I'm

36:16

also not only speaking to women. So the way

36:18

that I talk, like

36:20

sometimes the editor will want to change things

36:22

and I would feel like I would have

36:24

a pushback for that. And they're like, well,

36:26

this isn't easily digestible for everyone. And, and

36:29

I'm like, you know what? I can put my personal things aside.

36:31

I want, I want it to

36:33

be more digestible for everybody. So just being open

36:35

to changing in areas that you

36:37

can, not too much. So it's not, it's not

36:39

you anymore, but you ultimately want to get your

36:42

book in the hands of

36:44

as many people as possible and change as

36:46

many lines as possible. So taking those

36:49

things into consideration. Yeah,

36:51

definitely. And speaking of editors and

36:54

publishers, did you start writing the

36:56

outsider advantage before you were working

36:58

with Penguin or how did you

37:00

actually get on Penguin's Raider? So

37:03

I started the business book. I thought, you

37:05

know, when I started the business book, I

37:07

didn't think it was anything's going to come

37:09

out of it. I was just writing it.

37:11

I was writing for therapy. I was writing

37:13

it for something to do. And just cause

37:15

I was enjoying it. And

37:18

then, um, I was lucky enough that

37:20

one of my friends, she's an author,

37:22

she's a bestselling author, she's been doing

37:24

this for a while. She introduced me

37:26

to her agent and my, the agent

37:28

shopped around my scribble scratch business book

37:30

and I'm like, no one's going to

37:32

care about this. Like, why

37:34

would anybody want this? And they did like,

37:37

what the heck? And that's when it

37:39

started. Um, yeah,

37:41

I forgot the question, but yeah, that's a, that's

37:44

how things started for me. And

37:46

then, so when the agent was like, actually I'm interested,

37:48

what was going through your mind? I

37:51

was like, okay. I

37:53

guess I was, I didn't

37:55

think anything was going to happen. So I didn't take it

37:57

seriously at first. until

38:00

the big names started coming through.

38:02

Because when you start, when

38:04

your book go, and then it went to auction,

38:07

and I'm like, wait, so

38:09

multiple people want this? Like this is, are

38:11

you guys sure you guys want this scribbles, Ashley? I'm

38:14

so confused. Cause at the

38:16

time that's what I felt like it was.

38:18

But they saw something bigger than what I

38:21

had written at first, and then we started,

38:23

after Penguin bought the book, that's

38:25

when we started officially writing the whole thing. But it's

38:27

changed since then too. Like I told you it was

38:29

a business book, strictly a business book. We've

38:32

changed it and there's been many edits. So it's been

38:34

a long journey to get to where it's at now.

38:37

Yeah, wow. And when you

38:39

were finished writing, or even now, cause obviously it's

38:42

almost out, by the time we're releasing this episode,

38:44

it will be out. And I'd highly recommend you

38:46

guys have a read of it and grab a

38:48

copy. Did it make you want

38:50

to write another book? Were there any ideas that came

38:52

up where you're like, oh, I want to do

38:54

that next? I kind

38:57

of know, yes or no. Yes,

39:01

because I feel like the second time around,

39:03

I know what I'm doing. Like it's

39:06

not new to me anymore. Like I'm

39:09

an author now. Like I'm not

39:11

this person no one hasn't heard of. Like

39:13

I've actually written books. So my second book

39:15

is going to be so in

39:18

that regard. But as far as the process, I need

39:20

a break. I

39:23

do need a break before writing like

39:25

something else, because I feel like I

39:27

put everything into this. I

39:29

feel like I'm naked and everyone's just going

39:31

to buy the book and feed everything. So

39:33

I think, yeah,

39:36

a little break is due before

39:38

I come up with something else. Yeah,

39:40

definitely. And also, like you said earlier, it

39:42

depends on the reaction, right? If it

39:45

can be really motivating, or you could actually be like,

39:47

you know what? I'm quite happy with that. I'm

39:50

glad I did it. Like milestone tick, you

39:52

know, but now on to the next

39:54

thing. Yeah, exactly. Because there

39:56

are other things. So it's just, I think

39:58

I want to wait until... seeing

40:00

the reaction is insane and then going

40:02

from there. Yeah, yeah. And obviously

40:04

I've got a copy of the book here, right? So

40:07

for anyone who hasn't got it, you're missing out on

40:09

what I'm about to share. But one of the things

40:11

I really liked, Sierra, as I mentioned, we mental people

40:13

and writing books, we've published loads of books. And

40:16

I love how different your books laid out. So

40:18

it's really quite cool where you've got the affirmations

40:20

on every, every chapter,

40:22

you've got the roadmap for success at the beginning,

40:24

yours, and then you've got a blank one at

40:27

the back for other people. How

40:29

much did you get to say on that design

40:31

side? Was that your idea? Like tell me about

40:33

that. All

40:35

of it, every single part of it, just because I'm

40:38

very particular with what goes out.

40:40

So the actual roadmap, what's written

40:42

on there, the shading of the

40:44

gray, because I want it colored,

40:46

but I didn't know how expensive

40:48

color is to put in books. Yeah,

40:51

something I didn't know. Okay,

40:54

they were like, Oh, no, no, we're doing this black and white. So

40:56

at first it was just black and white, but then

40:59

I wanted to like shade every little part of it

41:01

I had, they allowed me to

41:03

have say so in it, which I'm

41:05

lucky about, I think because I'm in

41:07

a creative industry. So they trusted me

41:10

with that. But visually, yeah, like every

41:12

even a little emojis, like I asked

41:14

a little emojis for the roadmap. So

41:16

everything. Yeah. And how important was

41:18

it to you to have your own creative control? Because

41:21

I know with a lot of publishers, people don't get

41:23

quite that. Um,

41:25

it was really important because you ultimately want because my

41:27

face is on air, you know, like whatever happens in

41:29

the book, people are going to think that it was

41:32

my idea. So I need to have like some

41:35

sort of like say so. Obviously, I took

41:37

a lot of their advice. But at the

41:39

end of the day, the decision was mine,

41:42

which I was appreciative of. So yeah, it

41:44

was very important because it's like, you're it's

41:46

my first presentation to the world. Like it's

41:48

some it's really important to have Yeah.

41:53

Yeah, totally. And you

41:55

mentioned obviously, we in the book, every chapter has

41:57

an affirmation at

42:00

the end you've got the summary of them. Where

42:03

did the affirmations come from? I

42:06

think throughout this

42:08

very uncomfortable process of writing a memoir,

42:10

I had to use them. Writing

42:16

each chapter was so, by

42:19

the end of it, I felt so drained.

42:21

There were questions of like, there

42:25

was a lady that was hired

42:27

to literally bring out my story

42:29

and to help me with therapy

42:31

throughout each chapter. The affirmations

42:33

were just reminders of things that

42:36

I could still use today

42:38

that could help me emotionally deal. A

42:40

lot of these things I'm still dealing

42:42

with, like my mother is still sick,

42:45

so that's still a constant journey. Entrepreneurship

42:47

is still something that is up and

42:49

down. These things are still helping

42:51

me today. When I read it, I'm like, okay,

42:53

this is a reminder. I am not alone.

42:56

I can do this and I can do

42:58

that. Those are amazing

43:01

that I was able to put those in because I can still

43:03

use them currently. I

43:07

think affirmations never get old today. Usually the

43:09

ones that you need are always there. I'm

43:12

not alone. I can't really resonate with that. You

43:16

can use them at any time. Some days you may not

43:18

need them, but then other days you will. It

43:21

depends. When

43:24

it came to getting your book finished, did

43:27

at any point you give the book to any of

43:30

your friends or family or who knew you, like your

43:32

partner, to get them to read it and share their

43:34

thoughts? I did, but I

43:36

was so nervous. For some

43:38

reason, it was easier giving it

43:40

to strangers than people close to

43:43

me. I don't know what's wrong

43:45

with it. It's something about

43:48

it because I felt like

43:50

if they didn't like it or

43:52

didn't feel like it was true to me, it

43:58

would affect me more. No,

44:00

like, that took me a while

44:02

to get to. And those are the last people I

44:04

gave to. I first came as a stranger to

44:07

get their opinions, because I wanted to get, like,

44:09

just like an off opinion of, like, how do

44:11

I come off? Do I come off bitchy? Do

44:14

I come off? Like, tell me, like, exactly how

44:16

I come off. The, my close

44:18

people, that was, like, definitely a struggle for

44:20

me. I think because their opinions mean so

44:22

much to me, that it just, it was

44:24

nerve-wracking at first. Luckily, my sister's like, oh,

44:27

this book is actually good, and I'm like,

44:29

oh, thank you. She's like, I

44:31

already know you. I want to read it. I'm

44:33

like, OK, great. Because

44:36

my sister's very much, she's very, very

44:38

honest. And she's going to tell you how

44:40

it is. So I was afraid of her

44:42

opinion the most. So her

44:44

telling me that meant the world to me, that she

44:46

would care about the book if she

44:49

wasn't my sister. So, and of course she

44:51

was there throughout all of it. So it

44:53

resonated, like, as true to her. So that

44:55

meant a lot. Yeah,

44:57

definitely. Did you get any negative feedback or

44:59

people sharing? I think you should do this

45:01

differently. Yeah, there

45:03

was one. Yeah. And I changed

45:06

the chapter because of it. I

45:08

got negative feedback for a

45:10

chapter that we mentioned. BLM,

45:13

we mentioned George Floyd, and just, like,

45:15

how, like, how

45:18

I struggled with that, how

45:21

all black people, all, like, all

45:23

types of people, how comfortable it

45:25

was, how difficult it

45:27

was running a business, and just,

45:29

like, mentally not going

45:32

crazy during that time. But that chapter

45:34

was extremely triggering to everyone that I

45:36

read it to. And everyone had, like,

45:38

different opinions. So I, and

45:40

I shifted it because of that. Because I didn't

45:42

want to be insulting. I wanted to,

45:44

like, stay true to how we all felt. And

45:47

at the end of it came something beautiful. But I'm

45:50

glad I read it and got that feedback and got

45:52

that honest feedback before I put it out to the

45:54

world. It's

45:56

so important, isn't it? Because I think I see so

45:58

many people get feedback on their books. and they're like,

46:00

I'm not going to listen to that feedback. But

46:02

this is really important, especially if it's not just

46:04

one person, right? Oh,

46:06

yeah, give me the feedback. I love the feedback. I mean,

46:09

I think the feedback is great. As long as it's coming

46:11

from a good place, and you it's about who you ask,

46:13

you don't want to ask the police hater, you want to

46:15

ask the one that you respect. And I

46:17

asked all different types of people, not just people that

46:19

like love you, and it's going to be like everything

46:21

you do is great. You need to ask people that

46:23

are kind of going to be honest and real with

46:26

you. And I did, and I'm so glad. And I

46:28

did it in time to be able to change

46:30

a lot of things

46:32

in that chapter. Brilliant. And

46:34

it's, I think the book's written so well. And it's

46:36

so like, even though I'm not based in the US

46:38

and like, similar journey, actually is

46:41

quite interesting to read. But I

46:43

think it's one of those things that it works for anyone,

46:45

which is why I love the irony of it, because it's

46:48

like out the outsider advantage, but

46:50

actually, it helps everyone just it's like quite

46:52

a cool. I love that. I'm

46:54

gonna use that. Yeah,

46:58

I think it's easily digestible, which is great. Like,

47:00

because we all like know, I mean, you may

47:02

want to read a dictionary now and again, but

47:04

sometimes you just need like, it's

47:06

an easy read. I think it's like, it

47:09

moves. I'm like, yeah, I think

47:11

it's easy read. But

47:14

yeah, I agree. And I'm happy that it resonated

47:16

with you not being here. And, and

47:19

honestly, like everyone I talked to has said,

47:21

like, I can relate to this. I can

47:24

relate to that. And that means so much to

47:26

me. I'm like, okay, this is bigger

47:29

than me. This is all of us. And we all

47:31

can relate. And that makes me so happy to hear

47:33

you say that that you can relate to a lot

47:35

of the situations and the things that I'm saying in

47:37

a book. Yeah, definitely. Even

47:39

like, obviously not having a

47:42

fashion brand, but having a business having there's

47:44

so many hurdles that we face and

47:46

we go through. And I'm curious for

47:48

you, Sierra, who's inspired you on your journey,

47:50

whether it's the writing journey or the

47:52

business journey? Is there anyone that you've

47:54

looked up to or admired that's helped you?

47:59

Definitely my mom. Just

48:01

because, not

48:03

in a mom way, but just in a like, as

48:06

I became an adult and when I

48:08

started to be like out on my

48:10

own, I realized like, how could

48:12

I have done this while having two kids? No

48:16

way. I can barely do anything. How do you have a

48:18

dog? Like, I'm like, the dog is too

48:20

bad. So

48:22

just like her, like

48:24

in how she was able to

48:26

raise us and we're not completely

48:28

crazy and we're both like

48:31

intelligent women and not in

48:33

jail. She

48:36

did a good job. I definitely like, I

48:39

admire like everything that she's done and being

48:42

able to raise us in such like, in

48:44

worse circumstances than I have with two

48:46

kids or any single mom. I'm like,

48:48

how do you guys do it? I

48:50

don't get it. I went to this

48:52

event last night where they're honoring moms

48:56

and entertainment and it was so sweet. And

48:58

it really made me like, wow,

49:01

like I'm not a mom, but

49:03

just like being able to maneuver

49:05

the world and be a single mom

49:07

and do it all on your own and

49:09

work and still not go crazy the other

49:11

day. That's something I like truly admire.

49:15

Yeah, I totally agree. As a woman,

49:17

it's like how, how will

49:19

things change and if you know, future

49:21

families, partners. Yeah. I'm very

49:23

fortunate. My partner works in our business as well. So

49:25

similar to yours being on. I think they just like

49:27

get it right. It's so much easier having someone that

49:30

just gets there. Then you feel like you're not choosing

49:32

between your partner and your baby business, you know, like

49:34

it's kind of like that. Isn't

49:36

that the thing now? Like I feel like partners,

49:38

I don't know, like being in

49:40

the same space helps, right? Cause

49:42

then they, yeah, they do get it. They get your long

49:44

hours. We're both like hustling. We're both out here. No one's

49:46

like, where are you? Why aren't you home cooking my dinner?

49:49

Or maybe he still may be because sometimes

49:52

my boyfriend does that, but it's more interesting

49:55

because they're, they're going through the same thing.

49:58

So yeah, it's definitely helpful. Yeah,

50:00

totally. And I think when they've

50:03

not actually seen you from the beginning, but

50:05

they know where you started I think that's

50:07

so important and Sarah you've obviously come so

50:09

far since you started on Instagram in 2012,

50:11

right? Are

50:13

you still as active online? Do you still are you

50:16

still with your roots on Instagram? Is it still a

50:18

big part of you? Um,

50:20

I try it can be Instagram

50:22

has changed so much since the beginning. It's

50:24

kind of I was talking to my friend

50:27

about this It can really you need breaks

50:29

sometimes It's like in

50:31

the beginning. It felt it was more fun And

50:34

now since triggering sometimes it

50:36

could be it could affect your mental

50:38

health a lot So I try I

50:41

am active on there as much as I

50:43

can be but sometimes I do need those

50:45

breaks I do need to mute certain accounts

50:47

that trigger me. I do need to like

50:49

just step back So it's

50:51

a balance. It's changed a lot from the

50:54

beginning. So It's

50:56

not the same relationship. I still have a relationship

50:58

with it, but sometimes I need a break. Mmm

51:01

Yeah, I'm exactly the same sometimes. I love it. Sometimes

51:03

I hate it. Sometimes I'm just wanted to eat it.

51:06

Oh My

51:08

god, all the time if I if I didn't have

51:10

a business that depended on social media, I would delete

51:12

it I wouldn't have it because it's just Yeah,

51:15

depending on the day it could be it

51:18

could really affect your mental health And if

51:20

if you're not feeling if you're feeling like

51:22

you're being affected negatively by the app

51:24

Just at least delete it for the day or

51:26

mute it for the day or get

51:29

off of it for the day Yeah,

51:32

yeah Sometimes I say to my friends

51:34

who aren't like in business I'm like, I wish I

51:36

could go back to just using it just for one

51:38

day before it was business related You know just to

51:41

just remember how fun that was Yeah,

51:43

just posting like oh I'm having

51:46

water and I'm not trying to sell it, you

51:48

know, like I'm just here and

51:51

I'm not like thinking about what people are gonna

51:53

think about it or if like

51:55

yeah I miss those days of

51:57

just like easy Instagram

51:59

not trying to sell and just

52:01

enjoying just sharing your life

52:04

for sure. Yeah,

52:06

exactly. It's definitely changed. I think

52:08

there's still more community styles, but I think there's a

52:10

lot of community that we can have outside of Instagram

52:13

as well, right? And like you say, you start to

52:15

know other authors, you start to know other entrepreneurs. How

52:18

much has that changed for you since writing your

52:20

book? Have you managed to get more connected with

52:22

other authors? Have you gone into those sort circles

52:24

now as well? Yes,

52:27

I started now. Yes, yes.

52:29

The answer is yes. I'm slowly getting to, I

52:31

still need more authors in my circle. So if

52:33

you know any of them, I'm willing to just

52:35

like follow and stock other pages because I do

52:38

stock Instagram pages for a living. I don't know.

52:42

But yeah, my circle does include more authors,

52:44

more business people,

52:46

but I do like, I have

52:48

space for more. Like I bring

52:51

them on. Nice. Yeah,

52:53

I love that. So,

52:55

Sierra, we're almost running out of time. I

52:58

can't believe how fast this has gone. I

53:00

feel like we haven't even jumped into the

53:02

detail of the book. But what's next for

53:04

you? Obviously, you've got pages doing so well.

53:07

Book is out now. What's next for Sierra

53:09

Rogers? I

53:12

want to make a movie. I'm like,

53:15

I'm a film buff. Like

53:17

that is my, that's one of my biggest

53:19

passions. Like I have a Tarantino poster like

53:21

right behind me all throughout my office. I'm

53:24

literally like, I, if I can make a

53:26

movie next, that would just

53:28

be my dream come true. So hopefully that's

53:31

next to me. Oh,

53:33

I love that. That's amazing. I didn't even

53:35

recognize that poster. But yeah, you're right. I

53:37

love that. It's like, it's probably too gory

53:39

because you know, it's Kill Bill. This is

53:41

her fight scene in the middle. But yeah,

53:44

this is all throughout my office. Different

53:47

things. Yeah, why not though?

53:49

That's the whole point, right? It's like, be the business

53:51

owner, run your own business and then you can have

53:53

whatever office you like. Oh,

53:56

yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, definitely. But if that would

53:58

be next to me, that would be a dream. dream

54:00

come true. So hopefully it's crossed that

54:02

would be my next move. I'd love

54:04

to make it happen. I love it. Well Sarah, it's

54:06

been awesome having you and we've been truly inspired by

54:08

you today. So thank you so much. We have a

54:10

tradition on the show with

54:12

our final question. So last question is for

54:14

you. Obviously today we've

54:17

been inspired by you. Who do

54:19

you know that has an inspiring story or a book

54:21

that you think we should have on the show next?

54:25

Oh hey, I'm not, I didn't prepare for

54:27

this one. A story or book? Hmm.

54:38

Oh damn, we're gonna have to edit this because I'm not thinking

54:40

about it. Yeah, don't worry. You can, it

54:42

can be anyone you know or it can be like

54:44

someone you think that would be good for the show

54:47

or would openly talk about their book. Whatever.

54:51

Okay, as far as book goes, I

54:53

think people, I don't know

54:55

anyone that's writing a book that should be

54:57

here. Oh it could be entrepreneurs then, could be

54:59

people who are friends if that's better. Damn,

55:06

why am I being stumped on the last question?

55:08

I'm gonna get this out. Okay.

55:19

I don't know why I'm gonna say my boyfriend, it's so corny.

55:24

Because I do feel like his story is

55:26

so unique. So he was,

55:30

I think he should write a book, honestly. I

55:33

do. So he was a social worker for

55:35

like a lot of his life, but so

55:38

he used to go into like houses and

55:43

either, what was it called, like you take the

55:45

kid away or you don't take the kid away? What was it?

55:47

It's like a certain type of social work. But

55:50

the stories that he has told

55:52

me about that experience and how

55:54

it's like shifted the way that he like

55:56

handles things today, I think, I really do

55:58

think that that's like a part of

56:01

the world that we don't really talk about.

56:03

Like, I think

56:05

that he should write a book about that. And just

56:07

like how many of the families he's helped because

56:10

he's told me like situation. Because you know, there's

56:12

a lot of situations where the kids should be

56:14

taken away, obviously, because the parents

56:16

up. But there are some

56:18

things that are just based off of culture. So

56:22

like, if someone would have came into my mom's house when

56:25

I was younger, they probably would have taken me away because

56:27

we didn't have a fridge, we didn't have a room. But

56:31

culturally, we were fine. Like we were, that's

56:33

how a lot of black and poor families

56:35

live. So he would go in those situations

56:37

and not take the kids away. But another

56:39

social worker, if they would have came in

56:41

there, they would have taken the kids away.

56:44

So I think that he

56:46

should write a book about just that process

56:48

and hiring the right social workers to be

56:50

in the right area so that kids can

56:52

stay with their families depending on the situation.

56:55

I don't know if that was a good

56:57

answer. But that's just like what came up to mind. Yeah,

57:00

I love that. It's so interesting, isn't it?

57:02

Because it's so subjective. There's no like a

57:04

right or wrong. There's not like a checklist

57:06

that you can be like, if these books

57:09

aren't ticked, then you know, take the child

57:11

away. So you have that. It really depends.

57:13

Sometimes people in the

57:15

government who work these

57:17

jobs can be very like list

57:19

driven. But it's like, this kid

57:21

is happy. The mom doesn't have

57:24

like everything, but the kid is safe because

57:26

you never want the kid to go into

57:28

the system. Like that's, that's like the last

57:30

case scenario. But he's told me stories that

57:33

kids have gone into the system for like BS.

57:36

Like, you know, like one kid had on

57:38

like a dirty shirt to school, but that's

57:41

because his mom like didn't have time to

57:43

clean it or whatever. Like it could be

57:45

like a certain situation. So yeah, it's not

57:47

it shouldn't be like a, it

57:49

should be based off the situation.

57:52

Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, I'd love

57:54

to make that happen. What's his name? His

57:57

name is Dante Johnson. Let's

58:00

hope he says

58:02

yes, you'll go back and be like, so I

58:04

did this. Awkward. I

58:07

told him about your social worker background and all of

58:09

that, but it was all it, cause we started dating

58:11

when he was a social worker. So he would come

58:13

a lot, he would come home with a lot of

58:16

these stories. Um, so I just

58:18

felt like it was so interesting. And

58:20

it's just a part of the world that we don't

58:22

really hear about a lot. Um, yeah.

58:25

Wow. Oh, well let's make it happen. Well, thank you

58:27

so much, Sarah. It's been so much fun having you

58:29

on the show. And obviously for anyone who hasn't already

58:31

got a copy, grab your copy of The Outside Advantage

58:33

now so that we make sure that you

58:36

guys get the value that Sarah has put her heart

58:38

into this. Um, I'll make sure there's

58:40

a link as well in the description and all the

58:42

show notes and so on. So, uh, yeah, thank you,

58:44

Sarah. Thank you so much. Have

58:46

a fun.